It’s time for some Spring Cleaning, and not just around the house. A cleanse isn’t about dieting or deprivation… it’s purpose is to allow the body to reset. Just like powering off your phone and turning it back on helps it to function better when it gets overloaded or bogged down with activity, your body can also benefit from a quick reset in a similar manner. What are some of the benefits of allowing the body to reset? Check them out here!
Advantages of a cleanse/detox
Weight Management
The most common reason I typically see people try a cleanse or detox is to lose weight. This is where the type of detox that you do matters. To be effective in losing the weight and keeping it off, a good cleanse will work to reset 2 aspects of the body:
Detoxifying Organs
The ideal cleanse works to support your body’s natural detox mechanisms. This means doing a cleanse that focuses on purifying the organs responsible for detoxification such as the Liver and the Kidneys. When these organs function optimally, the body is able to naturally flush out excess inflammation and toxicity.
The Brain
In order to keep the weight off, we have to break our bad habits. Sugar and inflammatory foods can be highly addictive because they create a short term surge of Dopamine (a neurotransmitter that makes you feel good). That surge quickly crashes and the body craves more, which is how addiction to sugary foods begin. In contrast, nutrient-dense whole foods like organic produce and quality meats release molecules to improve mood and mental stability over longer periods of time. A cleanse works to reset the “reward circuit” in the brain and improve impulse control. This is where a 10-day detox may be more beneficial than a 3 day juice cleanse… you want to give the brain time to recalibrate. Once the brain recognizes how it feels from nutritious, healthy food it is able to discern the difference, and our cravings shift.
2. Increase Energy Levels
A cleanse is a great way to reestablish your energy levels. It’s easy especially in the winter to get caught consuming more carbs and sugar than maybe you usually would. But this offsets our metabolism and makes us burn sugar as our primary source of fuel. When sugar is the main fuel source our blood sugar spikes and crashes, and our energy levels follow suit. A cleanse allows the body to reset and learn how to burn more fats than sugars, which gives more sustainable energy for longer periods of time. About 60% of brain composition comes from fat, which means once we start utilizing fats as our primary fuel source, it’s already readily available for our brain to use. Instant brain power? Yes please! Additionally, a cleanse removes toxins that are interfering with our metabolic pathways. The cleaner our system is, the more energy we are able to produce.
3. Mental Clarity
Food plays a major role in regulation of the Hippocampus. The Hippocampus is the part of the brain that contributes to functions including mood, attention, memory, learning, and emotional health. A poor diet creates inflammation in the brain which can interfere with Hippocampus function- this is part of the reason that more healthcare professionals are attributing ADHD and Anxiety to blood sugar issues. A cleanse allows that inflammation to leave the system, and make way for nutrient-dense food to produce new neurons in the brain to improve Hippocampus function. Good-bye Brain Fog!
4. Hormone Regulation
Again, a good cleanse works to optimize the function of our detoxifying organs like the Liver and Kidneys. The Liver specifically plays a huge role in hormonal regulation, so balancing the Liver means balancing our hormones. When the Liver is congested, common hormonal symptoms to arise include:
Headaches
Low Libido
Infertility
Inability to lose weight
Menstrual Cramps
Hair Loss
Fatigue
Insomnia
5. Immune Health
If nothing else, doing a cleanse is a great way to optimize your immune health. Not only does a good cleanse rid the body of excess inflammation, it reestablishes a balanced internal ecosystem of the body. Microbes feed and thrive on sick ecosystems. When our internal environment is in a healthy state, it increases our ability to fight off pathogens rather than host them.
If this blog sparked our interest in trying a detox, join the Be Optimal Team as we start the Standard Process 21-day cleanse later this month! Dr. Abby will be going in depth of the benefits of this cleanse specifically during our free health class on April 11th. Click here to register for the class!
Keep in mind that while there are lots of benefits to a cleanse, the right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing. Be sure to talk with your healthcare provider before starting a cleanse to make sure it is the right thing and the right time for you. As always, we are here to support you on your health journey!
Dr. Naomi Smith, DC