Why Is It Important to Detoxify Your Body?

Why is it important to detoxify your body on a consistent basis?

Detoxification is a word that you often hear from wellness or nutrition experts, but do you know why it is so important for the body? In a new below video, integrative oncology and metabolic medicine expert Dr. Thomas Lodi explains why.

But first: What is detoxification?

Detoxification is a “metabolic process” wherein toxins are changed into “less toxic or more easily excretable substances” to cleanse the body. This process is crucial because these toxins if left alone, can create an environment where disease can thrive. Proper detoxification is beneficial in restoring the body’s physical and emotional energy, improving mental aptitude as well as digestive processes, supporting weight loss and promoting overall health and wellness.

Is it time to detoxify your body? Here are some tell-tale signs:

• Constant feeling of fatigue and stress
• Frequent headaches and difficulty in focusing
• Skin breakout or blemishes and overall “lackluster complexion”
• Susceptibility to sickness like flu and colds
• Irregular digestion
• Preference for fried foods, processed meat, dairy, refined sugar or fast food
• Feeling overweight
• Bad breath and body odor despite regular hygiene practices
• Feeling depressed, unmotivated, and lacking energy and enthusiasm

According to Dr. Lodi, consistent draining, cleansing and detoxifying are important because we live in a time and environment where we are regularly exposed to more toxins. “This makes it incredibly important to make detoxification a priority in your life. We have one system that carries blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the tissues. However, we have two systems that drain it; veins and lymph,” he said.

The lymphatic and venous system transport body fluids. Veins take deoxygenated blood from capillaries in tissues to veins, the heart and the lungs. Here, blood is resupplied with oxygen and moved to arteries, arterioles and capillaries. Lymph vessels collect fluid from peripheral tissues and transfer it to the venous system.

In the video, he cited the work done by Nobel Peace Prize for Physiology or Medicine awardee Alexis Carrel who won in 1912 for his development of surgical techniques to repair blood vessels. Carrel was known for his “immortal chick heart tissue culture.” The experiment was part of an effort to develop tissue culture techniques that will aid in long-term tissue cultivation. His study was influential in “convincing” many biologists that immortality is an intrinsic property of all cells and that cell aging can be attributed to “external factors” including the “accumulation of waste products within the cell.”

Dr. Lodi explained, “Alexis’s experiment was to see how long he could keep chicken hearts alive through constant detoxification

His experiment ran from 1912 to 1946, and the chicken hearts stayed alive the whole time in a nutrient medium. He kept them clean and free of toxic build up. Chickens don’t even live this long. The point is if you keep waste from accumulating, you can live a longer life filled with more vitality and experience true health.”

How should you detoxify?

Detoxification goes beyond a diet juice fast. It should be a sustainable and conscious decision to make healthier lifestyle choices—from what you eat and drink to how you sleep and take care of your body.

You can start by moving more often because sweating promotes detoxification by boosting circulation. Sufficient and good quality sleep is also vital to reducing stress and inflammation, allowing the body to function at its best.

Dr. Lodi added, “Learn to eat a proper diet, a whole food plant-based diet in raw form which will help in keeping toxins from accumulating. We teach this at our healing center, An Oasis of Healing as part of our comprehensive cancer care program.”