Opening Your Detox Pathways
“Your lymphatics are the landfill system of your body.”
The lymphatic system is made up of a network of nodes, organs (including the liver and spleen), and vessels all over the body which carry lymph fluid throughout the body to aid in detoxification. The lymph system is in charge of protecting the body from infection and disease, and it's also responsible for proper function of the immune system. Think of them as the mini-landfills where our bodies are dumping toxins to be eliminated from the body.
Imagine you have 3 chimneys. In an ideal world, someone would detox through the bladder and bowels first. We call this chimney one.
If the bladder and bowels are not at optimum the detox burden will fall on chimney two, the liver and kidneys. Lastly if chimney one and two are not detoxing properly and efficiently the body will start to burden the third chimney, the lymphatic system and skin.
Some indicators of the three chimneys needing support would be skin rashes, itching, swollen glands, puffiness, bloating, constipation, allergies/food sensitivities, and feeling of stiffness to name a few. Or you might say you feel like you do not handle detoxing well.
Along with detoxification, the lymph system is also in charge of absorbing fat and fat soluble vitamins from the food you eat. It also helps circulate the essential hormone progesterone through the body; which is crucial because progesterone balances estrogen levels.
How to Keep your Chimneys Clean:
1) First and foremost we would like to make sure your bowels are moving. You should be having bowel movements at minimum once a day. Ideally 2-3 times a day. Hydration is crucial to a healthy bladder and to help prevent constipation aiding in healthy bowel movements. If you are not having a bowel movement daily, please talk to your practitioner.
2) Eliminate all alcohol and recreational drugs for a 90 day period to allow the liver to go through phase one and phase two liver detox. Your body cannot focus on detoxing if you are continually adding to your toxic load.
3) Doing a liver cleanse like the Standard Process 21 Day Purification Cleanse is a good structured program that brings healthy lifestyle habits into focus. This cleanse allows the body to make it into phase 2 liver detox giving it a break from the burden of toxins and meat protein. Some people also do well with intermittent fasting getting into phase 2 liver detox.
4) A few other tools you could use to help detox the liver would be coffee enemas (ask for more information), ionic foot baths, Gua Sha, and castor oil packs.
5) Dry brushing, rebounding, exercise, detox baths, and lymphatic massages are all things you can do to help your body in the detoxification process as well. Our lymph nodes operate with trap doors that open and close with movement. Exercises that cause an up and down movement are excellent for opening and closing those trap doors.