This month, I’m going to be discussing detox methods for getting toxins out of the body. As you might have read in the papers recently, I’ve been ill for the last few years, essentially having been poisoned by my silicone breast implants. The most effective way to tackle symptoms was to try to be in  a constant detox to remove the toxins coming from the silicone, a losing battle I’d later find out, but it taught me a few things in the process!

So, I’m going to discuss a few of  the most effective ways I encountered on my way…  

1. Drinking enough water. I know it sounds pretty obvious, but your body needs water to flush out all the toxins you’ve brought into the bloodstream.

2. Hot/cold therapy. Find a steam room, which I prefer personally, or a sauna, and repeat periods in the heat followed by ice cold showers. If you can stay in the heat long enough to get your heart rate up to a decent level it is far more effective, as more blood is pumped around the body to remove toxins. Needless to say, drink a lot of water for this to work well!

3. Fasting. As long as the body is processing food/drink/calories it cannot remove toxins efficiently at the same time, so enduring periods of fasting gives the systems of the body a rest and allows detoxification to occur. I only go maybe a day occasionally or a bit longer but my partner who introduced me to it regularly does seven days on just water for an aggressive cleanse. Not for me, but I have come across quite a few advocates of it. Some people even do 14 days! I think it’s important to view it as a tool to detoxify the body when you feel bogged down or bloated, not part of a regular diet/routine. It does work very effectively, though.

4. Diets that detox you in the short term. The only thing I have found harder than fasting is the anti-fungal diet, as you must eat vegetables and herbs that kill bad bacteria in the body. The removal of so many toxins over a short period can trigger many different symptoms/reactions, as bad bacteria releases toxins into the blood stream when it dies. On top of that, we’re talking about eating raw onion and garlic, which is not pleasant I assure you!

5. Exercise! An obvious one, but it’s all about the type of exercise you do. High-intensity exercise forces more oxygen into the body than steady-state exercise and oxygen is one of the most powerful detoxifiers for the body. On top of that, it stimulates a desirable hormonal response in the body, in particular growth hormone. Even keeping workouts as short as 15-20 minutes of high intensity intervals would make you feel far better than an hour going through the motions, jogging etc.

6. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Now this is the holy grail of detox. The chamber you sit in for the treatment drops you down to mimic 15-20 metres under sea level or whatever depth is desired, and then you breath through an oxygen mask. The external pressure forces the oxygen into all the tissues/cells of the body and the raised oxygen lasts for 48 hours, during which you feel quite amazing.

7. Supplement with MSM, the best detox supplement out there. The best dietary sources of MSM are garlic, onions and pine nuts. The only problem is, once you cook them you kill all the sulphur content. And how often do you eat bags of pine nuts? The majority of people, almost everyone, is deficient in sulphur, and MSM is the best way to remedy it. The reason is that soil quality is just no good anymore and the foods we grow lack the minerals they used to have. Interestingly, there are studies to support that MSM is more effective for arthritic pain than taking painkillers.
   It increases the flexibility of the bonds between muscle fibres, which in turn eases the pressure across the joints from tight muscles and therefore decreases joint pain. It really is a wonder supplement and it’s made from 100% organic food.