Keeping the body clear of harmful toxins and heavy metals is absolutely crucial for maintaining optimal health. The body is remarkably well-equipped to heal itself, but it can only do so if it doesn’t have to direct all its energy toward dealing with toxins. By supporting your body’s own detoxification systems, you can jump right to the root causes beneath disease and imbalance, rather than applying solutions as band-aids for every new problem that arises.
There’s two primary ways to give your body’s detoxification systems a leg up: either don’t toxify the body to begin with, or use natural substances that supercharge the body’s ability to neutralize toxins and remove heavy metals.
It’s always wise to minimize your toxin load by eating a nutrient-dense diet rich in organic, whole foods, by engaging in vigorous exercise as often as possible (sweating helps remove toxins from the body), and by developing practices for dealing with stress (which increases inflammation and oxidative stress). These practices alone will give your body’s detox systems a huge head-start.
Because we live in such a toxic world, though, keeping toxins out in the first place isn’t very easy. The air we breathe, the water we drink and in which we bathe, our self-care products and cosmetics, our cleaning products, our clothing, furniture, and bedding—more often than not, it’s contaminated in some way by industrial toxins.
Heavy metals are particularly worrisome—and once they’re in the body, they can be tricky to flush out. Heavy metals are found in alarmingly high levels in most fish, in the materials used by most dentists (besides “biological” dentists), in vaccines, and in seemingly innocuous home items like aluminum foil.
For this reason, integrating nature’s most powerful detox tools into your life is an essential complement to the practices described above.
Heavy Metals don’t stand a chance against these plants and minerals
While eating a diet filled with lots of veggies, fruits, healthy fats, and clean protein sources is a great start, you’ll want to work with acutely detoxifying plants and minerals for best results.
Turmeric has proven to the natural health and research communities that there’s almost nothing it can’t help—and detoxification is no exception. It works on every level to remove heavy metals from the body.
Research has shown that turmeric boosts the body’s ability to clear heavy metals by encouraging the production of powerful endogenous antioxidants, like superoxide dismutase, glutathione, glutathione reductase, and glutathione-S-transferase.
Turmeric also works as an unparalleled anti-inflammatory—and when inflammation is controlled, the body can direct its much-needed energy to the task of heavy metal chelation (the process by which heavy metals are removed from the body).
Turmeric even has been shown to offer profound protection for the liver, one of the most important organs for metal chelation and overall detoxification.[1]
Turmeric even has directly antioxidant and metal-chelating properties of its own, so it’s able to give your body’s already impressive mechanisms a huge boost. Its chelating effect can be so profound that researchers have begun to use curcumin as a part of metal chelation therapy for Alzheimer’s patients (experts believe that heavy metal toxicity plays a prominent role in the development of dementia).[2]
PuraTHRIVE Organic Turmeric Extract is an outstanding full-spectrum extract that’s “liposomalized”—protected as it travels through your digestive system and delivered straight into your cells… unharmed. The turmeric is also bound to phosphlipids (fats) that increase its bioavailability 10 to 20 times!
This formulation takes all that raw turmeric has to offer and presents it in a format that your body LOVES to consume.
Cilantro, spirulina, and chlorella are among the most powerfully detoxifying greens in the world (spirulina and chlorella are forms of blue-green algae). Their chlorophyll-rich profile of nutrients help increase the body’s oxygen-carrying capacity (thus improving circulation, detoxification, and elimination), and have been shown to dramatically facilitate heavy metal chelation.[3]
Combining these greens with some lemon juice and an apple makes an excellent, detoxifying smoothie (add turmeric for even more chelating power).
Garlic and onions are two aromatics that should feature heavily in your diet, especially if you’re concerned about heavy metal toxicity. In addition to offering a wealth of other benefits, garlic increases endogenous levels of glutathione and supports the enzymatic processes necessary for metal chelation. One study even showed that garlic protects red blood cells from rupturing because of heavy metal toxicity.[4]
Onions offer similar aid, and are also incredibly high in sulfur and quercetin, two nutrients that balance and boost natural immune and detox processes.
Healing clays like bentonite and zeolite are exceptionally effective for removing heavy metals and other toxins from the body. They’re natural forms of volcanic ash with rigid and complex structures, which increase chelation through a process called adsorption.
Healing clays are taken mixed with water—their unique structure allows them to “scrub” toxins and metals, trap them, and remove them from the body once the clay is excreted. Some research suggests that clays can leech beneficial nutrients from the body, as well, so it’s best to use them only a couple times per week (unless you’re suffering from severe heavy metal toxicity and need fast results).
Healing teas are perhaps the world’s oldest and most spiritually steeped detoxification tools. Besides providing the opportunity for a wonderful, stress-relieving morning ritual, drinking tea stimulates chelation and detoxification on many levels.
Studies have shown that green tea protects the liver, acts as a powerful antioxidant and full-spectrum disease fighter, and accelerates the elimination of metals.[5]
A specialized, aged form of green tea called pu-erh undergoes microbial fermentation during preparation, and thus offers even more benefits by supporting the microbiome and boosting the immune system.
References
[1] http://sciencedomain.org/abstract/283
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2781139/
[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3654245/
[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3268178
