Feeling tired? Does your skin look gray? Here are ten tips and treatments to rid your body of the toxins that accumulate and thus replenish your energy… Gently!
Summary
- Lemon to stimulate the liver
- Dandelion to relieve the kidneys
- Rice to expel toxins
- Magnesium salt baths for perspiration
- Scrubs to illuminate the skin
- A cream to protect against pollution
- Lymphatic drainage to eliminate
- Colonic irrigation for regeneration
- Herbal tea to purify
- Purify yourself, why?
- Movement to activate circulation
Is your body looking gray? Do you feel tired, listless, sometimes have trouble sleeping? Do you have pimples, bags under your eyes or cellulite? These are all signs that your body is overwhelmed. Which is hardly surprising, as we are caught between a diet that is too rich, a sedentary lifestyle and constantly increasing air pollution?
As sophisticated as the liver and lymphatic system are, they are nowadays confronted with an overabundance of toxins that they are often unable to cope with. The solution? Take advantage of spring to undergo a “detoxification program”. Concretely, this involves ridding the blood and lymph of all accumulated toxic sediments.
You have the choice between grouping the treatments that will follow over ten days for an express cure or spreading them out gently over a month. The express cure is recommended if you have already undergone a detoxification program the previous year (one treatment per year is more than enough) or if you have an excellent daily lifestyle. Whatever the case, remember that the first few days will not necessarily be a pleasure, and don’t worry: fatigue, mood swings, headaches and minor skin problems will sometimes occur. They are a sign that toxins are being eliminated. Be careful, however, this type of program is for people who are in good general health. Do not hesitate to consult your doctor if you have the slightest doubt about your ability to undertake it.
Lemon to stimulate the liver
The liver is a priority organ in the detoxification process. For if its functions are multiple, it is mainly responsible for eliminating waste and neutralizing toxins circulating in the body. To stimulate it, start your day by drinking fresh lemon juice mixed with hot water. If we know the stimulating and antiseptic virtues of lemon, we know less that it is remarkably effective in energizing congested livers.
Dandelion to relieve the kidneys
The kidneys filter the blood at a rate of seven litres (1.5 Gallon) per hour, eliminating unnecessary or harmful substances via the urine. The dandelion, nicknamed the “great cleanser”, facilitates their elimination function. You can, of course, eat it as a salad. Maurice Messegué, herbalist, advises to prepare it as an herbal tea, combined with fumitory, rosemary and nettle (four pinches of each in half a litre of water), to be drunk during the day. Dandelion also exists in the form of capsules of “cryo-crushed” powder (in pharmacies).
Rice to expel toxins
If it is necessary to “cleanse” the liver and kidneys, it is also important to give them a break by avoiding the absorption of new toxins. During the treatment, will you be willing to eliminate meat, cheese, eggs, coffee, chocolate, alcohol, not forgetting bread and milk? These foods require the body to make more effort to digest them. To compensate for this, put the small dishes in the big ones and have fun preparing fruit and vegetables, raw or cooked, combined with fish, cereals, nuts…
Another food to be preferred: rice. Thanks to its high potassium content, it stimulates the expulsion of toxins.
Magnesium salt baths for perspiration
Rediscover the virtues of Epsom salt, formerly known as “doctor’s salt”. This magnesium salt (in pharmacies and health food stores) is reputed to activate the body’s perspiration and detoxification process. Dilute one pound of salt in a hot bath; relax for about fifteen minutes in the water, then massage yourself with a washcloth.
When you come out of the bath, wrap yourself in a sponge bathrobe. Heavy sweating and a feeling of tiredness may follow, so it is best to take this bath at the end of the day, twice a week (except during menstruation period).
Scrubs to illuminate the skin
When the liver and kidneys are overtaxed, the skin ends up acting as a dumping ground for waste products accumulated in the bloodstream. Not only do these toxins produce free radicals that accelerate the aging process, but they also impede blood circulation, which ensures soft, firm and luminous skin.
The right way: on dry skin, before washing, rub yourself for a few minutes with a firm bristle brush or a loofah glove (vegetable sponge). Always start at the feet and work your way up to the top of your body. Each gesture is done towards the heart, without moving back and forth. Finally, every three days, exfoliate with a suitable cream.
A cream to protect against pollution
Exposed to pollution, our skin eventually runs out of breath. A cascade of tightness, redness, tight lines, etc. arrives…
Two solutions: offer your skin the means to defend itself thanks to the contribution of antioxidant substances that will help it fight against free radicals (green tea or vitamin E creams); or favour active ingredients capable of capturing and neutralising polluting molecules at the skin’s surface. A promise that is difficult to keep, as there are many pollutants. While waiting to have a pollution protection index on your products, turn to laboratories that justify concrete studies such as Biotherm (Hydra-Detox cream), Helena Rubinstein (Urban active) or Clarins (Multi-Active Day).
Lymphatic drainage to eliminate
Lymph nodes secrete what the Greeks called “white blood”. The lymph contains white blood cells, which are responsible for absorbing dead cells and toxins and eliminating them. Lymphatic drainage is a form of massage designed to give a boost to a lazy lymphatic system by stimulating the lymph nodes in the neck, armpits, groin, knees and arms. It is usually performed by a physiotherapist. Count about ten for a “visible” result.
Colonic irrigation to regenerate
It is a kind of intestinal enema, made with filtered water injected through a tube via the rectum and intended to eliminate all waste present in the colon. This colonic irrigation (or hydrotherapy) provides a pleasant feeling of well-being, while eliminating problems of constipation and aerophagia.
It is not a miracle solution and it must be accompanied by a complete overhaul of your lifestyle. Do not perform if you are tired, suffer from colitis, or when the abdominal muscles are too weak to cope with the internal pressure of the water. »
Colon hydrotherapy is performed by a doctor, physiotherapist or naturopath.
Herbal tea to purify
If your body is thirsty for purity, drink water first (not less than one and a half litres or 50 Ounces a day). Also try infusions (one cup a day) with birch or orthosiphon, two plants that are queens of elimination. The first one, diuretic and “disinfiltrating”, is recommended against water retention. The second, a formidable drainer for the body, helps to lower cholesterol levels.
Purify yourself, why?
Can a better life be attained through a purification of body and soul? Or can we counteract the violence of the world through a form of inner purity? These are questions that we ask ourselves in the face of the multitude of books and products advocating the virtues of detoxification. Americans and Englishmen go further, extolling “mind detox” and “home detox” (detoxification of the mind and the home) in numerous books and websites dedicated to the subject .
“There is currently a growing awareness of the risks related to our environment and our food,” says ethnopsychologist Claude Degrese. “Everyone is trying to compensate and reassure themselves by their weak means, action being a valve for anxiety. This is why we can see the emergence of detoxification programmes, thermal therapies, the importance of the theme of water, the explosion of the market for essential oil diffusers or air ionisers. So many gestures in order to resist.”
Movement to activate circulation
No wellness program without physical activity. Because movement is the best way to activate blood circulation, helps eliminate toxins through the lungs (breathing) and perspiration, and benefits the lymphatic system. Unlike blood, lymph does not have a pump that propels it through the body, so its circulation is based solely on the movements of the body. You have no choice: move… thirty minutes a day.
In the end, a luminous complexion, gently sloping cellulite, tenfold increase in energy and a return to sleep will reward you for your efforts.
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