detox

When was the last time you enjoyed a bath (or shower) by yourself? TODAY? What! You are KILLING IT at this mum lark. I honestly struggle to get any bath or shower alone time – if I want to fit in washing my hair, I bundle all the kids into the shower with me. True story.

So, if you’re like me and you have not had a bath ALONE recently, then this blog post is especially for you. And your challenge is to have a relaxing bath by yourself this evening.

Maybe you’re a mum who really makes time for an alone bath, and you’re already reaping the benefits of that. If so – huge kudos to you! But for BONUS points, why not make it a detox bath?!

We come into contact now with more toxins than ever – in our food, our hygiene and body products (from body wash to make-up), our water, and in the air we breathe. A detox bath is a simple and gentle healing therapy we can do to support our body’s natural detoxification system.

5 Top Tips for Taking a Detox Bath

Add your detox bath ingredient to a tub-full of warm-hot water. The hotter the water, the more you’ll sweat and detox. Then immerse yourself in the water as much as possible – relax for at least 20 minutes.
When you finish, get out of the bath carefully as it’s common to feel a bit light-headed. You can always rinse off with cool water to help cool back down.
Don’t use products after your bath that contain artificial fragrances, perfume, dyes, or toxic chemicals as your pores are more open and can more easily absorb the chemicals in those products.
Hydrate! Drink plenty of water before and after to help support the detox process and avoid dehydration.
Have your bath before bedtime – they can leave you feeling drowsy, and a good sleep after a detox bath is a great way to support the process.

*Detox baths can be useful for children too – particularly Epsom/magnesium salts and oats.*

Some other things to note:

If the detox bath is making you feel uncomfortably nauseous or lightheaded (common side effects of intense detox) then try reducing the amount of detox ingredient, trying a different ingredient, using cooler water, or bathing for a shorter length of time.

These detox baths are generally safe for children but you should reduce the amount of detox ingredient used, and not make it too hot. Epsom salts are probably the best option for children.

The 7 Best DIY Detox Baths

1. Epsom Salts

The most popular of the detox bath ingredients, Epsom salts are made of magnesium and sulphate. Both are important nutrients for your body but can be poorly absorbed from food. However, soaking in Epsom salts helps as these minerals both absorb readily via the skin. They are commonly used to stimulate detoxification, reduce inflammation in sore muscles, lower blood pressure, promote healthy circulation, and help with relaxation and normalizing sleep patterns.

How: start out by adding one cup of Epsom Salts to your bathtub and gradually increase to two or three cups.

2. Baking Soda

This is soothing for your skin, naturally alkalising, and helps to detoxify by boosting liver function. It’s a simple ingredient most households have, and is great after a workout. It’s also a natural exfoliant and can help with acne.

How: dissolve two cups of aluminum-free baking soda in your bathtub and soak for 20 minutes.

3. Bentonite Clay

This is a great way to remove heavy metals from the body. Bentonite clay is a naturally-forming clay that magnetically pulls toxins and heavy metals from the body through the skin.

How: use between one-quarter of a cup and a cup of clay in a bath of hot water, breaking up the clumps. It is usually recommended to start by having a clay bath once a week, then reduce to once a month for maintenance.

4. Apple Cider Vinegar

This bath is great for inflammatory issues like arthritis, for candida overgrowth issues, and can help with body odour. It is the type of bath that will make you sweat, which aids your body’s detox process, and you may even continue sweating for a bit afterwards.

How: add one to two cups of pure unfiltered apple cider vinegar and soak in the tub for up to 30 minutes.

5. Ginger

This is another sweat-inducing bath, helpful to fight off sickness at the first sign of any cold symptoms, clearing congestion, or for headaches. If you don’t have access to a sauna or steam room, the ginger bath is a simple and sure way to induce a sweat, clearing out all those nasty toxins out of your body and leaving you feeling energised and cleansed.

How: add half a cup of grated ginger to a hot bath and soak for 15-20 minutes. The ginger bath will make you sweat profusely for at least an hour afterwards, so be sure to wear something you don’t mind getting sweaty. Note: test on your skin first, as it can cause sensitive skin to react.

6. Coconut Oil

Not so much for detoxing, but great for soft skin and for it’s anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-parasitic and anti-fungal properties.

How: add to warm running water to help moisturise the skin.

7. Oats

Again, not for detoxing, but great for itchy, irritated skin or for treating eczema and psoriasis. It’s even great for sunburn, nappy rash, chickenpox or shingles. Oatmeal is anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant, and contains compounds that reduce itching. It was too good an ingredient not to mention here!

How: using rolled oats, grind them into a fine powder using a blender, coffee grinder or food processor. Start by adding half a cup of ground oats to a lukewarm bath (not hot) and soak for no more than 15 minutes. You can work up to one and a half cups. You can also add the oats to a cloth or tights and tie the top so they don’t spill out – this makes the bath less messy afterwards.

*Images by various photographers, sourced from Unsplash.com*

So, with all that in mind, what will you add in your bath today?

And if you are feeling like your body needs a good cleanse from the inside out, get in touch to find out when my next mum-boosting “Bounce & Bloom Detox” is happening!

Do you really need to detox? And when you hear the word ‘detox’, what does it make you think? Does it make you think of juice or tea diets, deprivation and hunger? Or perhaps it makes you roll your eyes and think “What a crock of … Our bodies already know how to detox!”?

There’s certainly some truth here. Our bodies do know how to detox (more on that in a moment). And if you’re unfortunate enough to do a juice or tea-based ‘detox’, you probably will be hungry and feel deprived!

Do you need to detox?

But it’s not all bad!

The term ‘detox’ has had a bad rap. It has become an umbrella term encompassing all manner of ‘diets’ and fads. Most of which hold little long-term benefit (if any). They will help you to lose some weight in the form of water. But they may also cause you to break down muscle, as your body looks for fuel – so, yep, guaranteed weight-loss there! But not in a good way…

So, it’s no wonder they’ve gained a bad reputation. But a true detox really shouldn’t fall in the same camp as these kinds of ‘diets’. If done correctly, and in the right circumstances, detoxing can be a much-needed boost for your body. It all depends why and how you are doing it.

Understanding detoxing

True detoxification is the process whereby your body removes toxic chemicals via the gut, liver and kidneys. There is also a thing called detoxication, which is the way your body prevents damaging compounds to enter. One example of this is via the gastrointestinal lining – the cells are tightly knitted to prevent anything getting through, unless the substance is allowed to via the cells themselves (like vitamins). They’re like teeny-tiny, miniature bodyguards: if your name’s not on the list, you’re not coming in!

We all know how we ‘should’ be eating. Nutritious (ideally organic) vegetables and fruits, along with some lean protein and healthy fats, and some wholegrains (depending on whether you can tolerate them). And we would all totally eat like that all the time, if it weren’t for our pesky modern-day way of life, and all its deliciousness! So yes, if you ate like this, even 80 per cent of the time, your body would undoubtedly have no trouble in detoxing the few toxins it came across.

Modern-day eating

Unfortunately, life is not like this. We don’t eat the way we did merely two or three generations ago. We encounter more toxins in our food, like pesticides. And we encounter more toxins in our environment, like xenoestrogens – chemicals found in plastics and toiletries, that act like the hormone oestrogen in our bodies, ultimately causing hormone imbalance.

In addition, we encounter fewer bacterium than we once did (thanks to our need to sanitise and sterilise) and therefore are experiencing an imbalance of good bacteria in the gut – ‘dysbiosis’. This leads to a compromised detoxification system, due to the impact gut bacteria has on your liver metabolism. Good bacteria are actually needed by the body to detox, as they help your liver process certain drugs and chemicals.

The role your gut plays in the need to detox

Your gastrointestinal tract (small intestine and large intestine or colon, aka your ‘gut’) plays a key role in helping detoxicate and detoxify. When it’s all working as it should (and your body is successfully removing toxins), then we don’t notice how busy the gut is working on this. But when toxins start to build up, we actually begin to notice that the gut is struggling to function optimally.

If we can just go back to the teeny-tiny bodyguards’ analogy for a moment… Some of us have the misfortune of not tolerating certain foods. Those foods can damage our intestinal lining. This causes the miniature bodyguards to stand further apart (aka intestinal hyperpermeability, or “leaky gut”). When this happens, uninvited guests (like food compounds and toxins) pass through rather than being removed from the party, adding to your body’s ‘toxicity’.

Another issue that can hinder successful detoxification is constipation. After toxins have been processed by the liver, they get packaged up to be removed (yes, in the poo). They sit in the lower intestine for a while until you’re ready to drop the kids off at the pool (can I say that here?!). However, if you have lacklustre teeny-tiny bodyguards, insufficient fibre and fluid intake, perhaps as well as dysbiosis, then you’re looking at constipation too. The problem with this is that the poo sits there longer than it should, giving those packaged toxins a chance to get out and be reabsorbed into the system! *facepalm*

The ‘Why’

Why do you need to detox? Needless to say, our bodies have not yet evolved to cope with the additional toxins they are exposed to, and the gut issues being faced. What’s more, it’s not just chemical toxins you need to think about. Your body must also control hormone levels, including ‘detoxing’ and excreting them. Hormonal issues are becoming more prevalent in today’s women. But men can suffer too, and are prone to oestrogen excess (think ‘moobs’).

So, a helping hand in healing the gut and supporting the detoxification process is a no-brainer, surely? But you can also see that just drinking juices or teas is probably not going to fix the problems. It requires a multi-faceted approach, tackling food intake, gut healing, intestinal function, and liver function. From a general perspective, detoxing falls in to two categories: the once-in-a-while gentle detox or ‘cleanse’; and the full heal-the-gut, liver-supported detoxification.

The gentle cleanse or the full detox?

The gentle cleanse is great if you’re feeling a bit ‘blah’, a bit bloated, a bit like you overindulged at Christmas. It helps your body to process all the stuff it had recently, by not overburdening it with heavy foods and booze. It gives your natural detox system a chance to recover and get back on track. And you will feel better for it! You may or may not need some additional gut help, depending on your own personal symptoms.

The ‘full detox’ is for those with a build-up of hormones, toxins, heavy metals, or who have issues in the detoxification process. It helps your body get rid of the build-up by gently encouraging the detoxification process in the liver (which can be sluggish in some people). However, healing the gut, correcting the microbiota balance and removing health obstacles like constipation, are all key components of the process too.

Time to detox?

So, do you need to detox?

It’s a case of changing how we look at detoxes. Be aware that they are not all the same. Be mindful of what you want to achieve. Drinking tea for three days before you walk the red-carpet at the Oscars probably will achieve a flat stomach. Oh, and hunger, and very little nutrition, and possibly bowel issues, but not much else.

The “need to detox” is forever debatable. However, a proper, supported detox may help you if you:

are feeling ‘blah’, sluggish or tired;
have overindulged recently;
are suffering with constipation or ‘slow bowels’;
have other gut-health issues;
are struggling to lose weight;
have a poor immune system;
are noticing some hormone-related issues;
have been exposed to toxins/heavy metals;
have issues with your liver; or
have compromised detoxification function.

I can help you with tailoring a detox to suit you and your requirements. Get in touch to enquire about a personalised detox, or book in for a ‘Cleanse & Reset’ programme.

7 Best DIY Detox Baths for Tired Mums