Detoxification is a cleansing, healing, and regenerative
experience.

A detox specialist is a caring guide on your path to health recovery, helping you safely cleanse your body from obstructions, acids, chemicals, and toxins so that its self-healing mechanisms can be ignited. Although all detox coaches can help you on your healing journey, not all detox specialists are certified. What distinguishes certified from uncertified detox specialists is their level and intensity of training and coursework designed by skilled naturopaths. Overall, a certified detox specialist has training in designing effective detox protocols and can tailor them to meet clients' unique needs.

Detoxification uses alkaline chemistry from fruits, vegetables, and herbs to cool inflammation, help the body’s sewage system (the lymphatic system) circulate from cells to the kidneys, and provide cells with the chemistry they need to function properly and regenerate tissues. Unless the body is clean from acids and toxins, which create chronic inflammation over time, like a domino effect, all of the systems and processes will take a hit. As a consequence, the body will try to preserve itself by leaching vital electrolytes and nutrients from the bones and connective tissue, placing even more strain on one’s health. While the body is highly intelligent, it can only work with the net chemistry and energy it has at any one time. If we don’t feed it vital, alkaline fuel, it will deteriorate over time - a process we call premature aging. Ultimately, chronic decay and lack of cellular energy cause disease and death. Detoxification helps correct imbalances and provides the body with essential chemistry to clean, re-balance, heal, and regenerate. Inevitably, it is not a fad but a lifestyle. Just as we clean our outer body, our inner body creates daily metabolic waste that needs to be expelled efficiently. An alkaline diet is the most effective way to clean and regenerate the body.

If done properly, natural detoxes are very safe! However, there are many “detox” fad products sold out there that may be too concentrated, laden with harsh ingredients, or simply don’t do what they promise. As a general rule, if nature didn’t make it, don’t take it! The main criteria to follow with any detoxification protocol is that it is a slow process that should introduce the body to more alkaline food over time, so that the body is not shocked into acid elimination and healing. When the body is not prepared properly for detox, it can start purging acids without being able to properly eliminate all the acids from the body. If the elimination organs are not strengthened slowly through a clean, raw diet over some time, they will not be able to process all the waste the body is looking to eliminate. What happens then is that the acids have to be recycled back to fats and tissues for storage. All of this causes physical and emotional symptoms called “detox symptoms” (such as headaches, cold/flu symptoms, weakness and tiredness, anxiety and trembling, tension, crying, and other emotional imbalances) which is part of the healing crisis that mirrors the effects of acid circulation throughout the body. To ease these symptoms and ensure the proper elimination of all waste, a safe detox protocol always looks to clean the body slowly with certain foods and methods so that it is in shape to deal with such a change in its energetic state, its chemical input/output, and the metabolic activity necessary to eliminate, clean, and regenerate. This is why learning about proper body cleansing is paramount. Using raw foods, herbs, and superfood supplementation (as opposed to synthetic pills or supplements) is ultimately the most effective detox strategy with tangible long-term healing results.

Detoxification is not a short-term cleanse that is often advertised in the mainstream. It is a process of preparing the body for healing, providing it with the chemistry it needs to heal, and ensuring that it has enough energy to properly self-heal. While short-term cleanses help by providing the body with the nutrients it needs to function more optimally, they cannot achieve the state of health necessary for optimal healing. Think about the years of physical, emotional, and mental habits it took to create certain health conditions. That is why, depending on the level of cleansing and healing you'd like to see, detox can last anywhere from a week to many years! The law of cause and effect (which governs our reality and nature) acknowledges that our efforts - both in causing health issues and healing them - breed a culminating effect on how we exist in the world. To change our health, we must reverse all the body damage that has been accumulating over time. Ideally, a proper detoxification cleanse will have tangible long-term results that should last anywhere from 3 months to a year, depending on the severity of one’s condition. However, the habit of detoxification should last a lifetime. It is a natural process of internal cleansing akin to taking a shower or a bath. Just as we eat and eliminate, so do our cells, so the system has to be healthy enough to manage all the impositions of our modern lifestyle. Detoxification is simply the process of removing all the obstructions to optimal energy and lymphatic flow and helping the body do what it does best.