Your body is being constantly inundated by a flood of toxins from your environment. These toxins include pesticides, industrial waste, preservatives, heavy metals, artificial ingredients in food, and many others. Coming from the containers they’re stored in, chemicals leach into your food and drinks. To avoid these toxins, you can change your diet to avoid artificial ingredients and change your lifestyle to use fewer chemicals.
However, some toxins are unavoidable, such as those found in the air. Minimizing your exposure is not enough to clear out the toxins already accumulated in your body. This is where the detoxification process comes in.
A proper detox doesn’t just remove accumulated toxins from the body. It can also improve the immune system, boost metabolism, promote healthy adrenal function, lower the toxic burden on the liver, reduce free radicals, and restore balance. There are lots of ways to detoxify your body, but the most effective methods involve a good diet and proper nutrition. Good nutrition can help remove toxins in a gentle way that does not aggravate adrenal fatigue symptoms or trigger an adrenal crash.
The more advanced your adrenal fatigue, and the more severe your symptoms, the more careful you must be when considering detoxification. When the body has been subjected to stress long enough to cause adrenal fatigue, the body’s entire NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) stress response is often dysregulated and misfiring.
Severe detoxification measures draw on the body’s already low energy reserve and unleash a miasma of toxins into the bloodstream, called retoxification, for the liver to clean out. This retoxification naturally creates stress on the body and triggers the body’s natural stress response. But when the NEM is already overtaxed, the double whammy of toxins and demand on the fragile NEM systems is often enough to send the body back into an adrenal crash. This is why it’s important to make sure the detox is gentle.
It is important to understand that detoxification is a two-step process. First, the toxins are released from the cells and tissues. Second, the liver converts them into a form that can be excreted from the body. In between release and excretion, the body is flooded with the newly freed toxins and free radicals. The more advanced the adrenal fatigue, the more toxins stored in your body, and the more it will take to get rid of them. During this time, you may experience headache, fever, dizziness, insomnia, joint pain, nausea, and other unpleasant, albeit temporary, symptoms.
An important aspect of detoxification is to make sure all your ingredients are organic. If you’re trying to get rid of toxins, it doesn’t make sense to continue ingesting pesticides, herbicides, and antibiotics.
Start with a one-day juice fast and see how you react. A one-day juice fast is gentle enough for most people and should not cause serious symptoms. If you are in the earlier stages of adrenal fatigue, with mild to moderate symptoms, you may then be able to try a four-day juice fast. If you are in the more advanced stages of adrenal fatigue, with more severe symptoms, you should consult with an expert. In this case, it may be advisable to forego the juice fast for now and go with nutrient-dense soups instead.
When you do a juice fast, it is vital that you get plenty of rest. For this reason, you should not undergo a fast during times of increased stress, such as when starting a new job, or if you are a student heading into finals week. The best time for most people to try a juice fast is over the weekend, allowing you to start the following week with renewed energy.
Use ALL organic produce.
For best results, use a juicer and only drink the clear juice. Drink immediately.
If you don’t have a juicer, use a blender to blend the vegetables. This method provides the benefit of added fiber. You may need to add some water and ice to make a smoothie.
