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Spring Cleaning on the Inside

by Dr. Marcus Laux

Published 02/04/09

Detoxification is an essential theme in naturopathic medicine. Your body can use all the help it can get as it adjusts to changes in temperature, daylight, and activity level.

Waste is a natural product of living. Every cell in your body takes in nutrients, transforms them, uses what it needs, and expels the rest. That “rest” can clog up every one of your body systems unless it is moved out. Ideally, your organs of detoxification—liver, kidneys, lungs, and skin—do their jobs efficiently. But modern life intrudes, filling your body with unfamiliar substances and overloading its waste-disposal ability.

Simple daily choices can keep you naturally cleaner, without undergoing a full regimen change. A detox helps unburden excess waste that can increase your waist. It helps jettison junk that can cause metabolic mayhem. It can soothe skin, decrease inflammation, speed healing, and clear the mind and senses. It can even help you avoid a cold or heal from chronic illness.

Simple Steps Put a Spring in Yours

You don’t have to follow a rigid detox program to add some of its benefits to your health equation. Every little bit helps, and whatever you try is a plus. Here are some of my simple detox ideas to use at the spur of the moment.

Stretching

Take two minutes to stretch sometime during the start of your day, even if you don’t exercise much. Motion is paramount for detox, and flexibility frees the flow of fluids (lymph, blood, and wastes) and energy, spirit, or chi. It is also a key element of youth. Loosen up any staleness in your joints, especially your back and legs. Your spinal joints have nerves that help regulate and bring balance to your glands, muscles, and organs.

Find a couple of stretches that your body likes, and adapt them for your body type and preference. As you stretch, challenge yourself with a little more, or perhaps hold the stretch longer, or perform some minor variation. I have found nothing wakes up the entire nervous system like performing a stretch and getting in touch with yourself by holding it. Controlling your breathing—either shallow and fast, or deep and slow—helps you breathe into and through your stretch.

I do a few spinal twists and a lunge move, then end with a downward dog (a yoga pose that looks like an inverted “V”). That’s a way to start the day and awaken your body to put detox operations at the ready. Stretching is underutilized and under-rated by many, but start with one that is easy for you and watch yourself blossom.

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