5 Ways to Support Detox of Your Body with Type 2 Diabetes

Early in the year, we think about New Year's resolutions. One thing often on peoples' minds is a detox. There are many ways to detox, including of course, your body. Learn some important ways to support your body before and during a detox.

It's January, and this is a time when people are ready to release the old and embrace the new. And one way to do that is through a detox.

Now, why do we want to detox?

There's many reasons to do it. And there's many types of detoxes. Like detoxing your self talk or your environment, or all the papers and clutter in your house. Things of that nature, but a lot of people want to detox their body.

And why do we need to do that?

Well, we have a lot of toxins in our environment, right? It's in the air, it's in the water, it's in the soil. So it's in our food. It's in what we drink. It's everywhere. Now a lot of those are chemicals and heavy metals. Heavy metals are like mercury in the fillings in your teeth. And chemicals like pesticides and bisphenols, things that are endocrine disruptors, plastics, home care products, skin products. Many things have toxins in them.

So why do we care about how to detox?

When your body takes in substances that are not natural, it doesn't quite know what to do with them. Our systems aren't set up for sophisticated detoxification of some of these chemicals, because they were not part of our 'way back' history. What the body does is if it, if it's not sure if it can't get rid of it, it stores it away, gets it out of  circulation. A lot of that stuff gets stored in our fat.

Now, if you have diabetes, you most likely are carrying some extra body weight. And you've been told or encouraged to lose weight. Perfectly reasonable, perfectly normal. However, you have to be very careful about how quickly you lose weight and how you're feeling as you lose weight, because as you lose fat, all of those chemicals are going to be released back out into your system and not just a little at a time. There's probably going to be a lot of it. So if you start feeling sick or any kind of headache or nausea, definitely talk to your physician.  I'm going to give you some tips about how to manage some of that.

So what can you do?

I suggest that you do things that will support your body through detox.

How do we release toxins from our system? Well, there are several routes. One is through the GI tract through bowel movements and that sort of thing, bowel movements. The second one is through the skin, through sweating. The third one is through the urinary tract. Another one is through the liver and the lungs.

What are some ways to support the body in a detox that's going to really help you?

First, you must have a bowel movement every day. Remember the colon is a major organ of elimination in your body. So bowel movements are super important. If you are not having a bowel movement every day, I suggest that you hold off on any kind of a detox until you are having at least one bowel movement every day. If you're constipated, all of those toxins that are going to be released into your system are going to keep recycling and it's just not going to be good. So at least one, more is better.

Second, exercise. Now, the great thing about exercise is there's a lot of breathing, so that's another way to get out toxins, and there's a lot of sweating. Sweating to soak your shirt is really great. It is pushing toxins out. Another way to do it is through steam and sauna. So that heat is going to help get those toxins out.

Third, make sure that you are drinking plenty of water, especially during exercise because you want to number one, stay hydrated. And as you know, if you get dehydrated as a person with diabetes, your blood sugar goes up, so you don't want that. You must stay hydrated, but that also helps to flush out the toxins in your body.

Four, eat cruciferous vegetables include those in your diet. Those are things like broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, that sort of thing. They really support the liver and the whole detoxification system that exists inside you.

Try dry skin brushing. Now this means you're dry, you're not in the shower with a with a brush. I use a loofah, and what I do is, and I'll just give you an example - here is here's my arm and I just barely, barely move it like that. So you're just barely moving. And what you're doing is you're getting rid of some dead skin cells, of course, but you're also moving lymph, and lymph is another route of elimination. It's another way to get rid of toxins.

So you're going to start at your, at your feet and you're going to work your way up and from the neck down. So what you're headed for is this area where your heart is, there's a thoracic duct there, and that is one of the places where lymph is emptied into, in order to be released from the body. So by gently rubbing your skin with a dry brush you're moving that lymph along. If you go too heavy, you're going to put pressure, and collapse the lymph system so it won't be open to be able to move things.

I hope that helps. Please feel free to download my free 30 day guide to Managing or Reversing your Type Two Diabetes, and I hope it helps.

Thank you so much for listening.

 Dr Elaine

Download my free 30 Day Guide to Manage or Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.

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