Are you trying to ward off the flu, prevent catching a cold, and avoid other infections? You may not have considered it yet, but a detox is one of the best ways to support your immune system.
Perhaps you have seen celebrities raving about their weight loss success from doing a trendy detox and wondered if it was worth trying it out yourself. However, a detox can bring you perks that go beyond your waistline or skin.
While you may appreciate the effects on your physical appearance, a detox also has benefits like improved mood, energy, digestive health, and, yes, immune function. So doing a detox can be a wise choice if you’re looking for an immunity boost during cold and flu season.
Toxins can be lurking all around you. They may be in the food you eat, the air you breathe, the products you put on your skin, and the items you store in your kitchen cabinets. BPA, parabens, pesticides, air pollution – you’ve probably been warned about these toxic chemicals before. But if everyone is exposed to so many toxins, then why isn’t everybody sick?
The human body actually has its own systems to identify and eliminate toxins that you may be absorbing, ingesting, or inhaling. Your skin, lungs, liver, kidney, and lymphatic system all contribute to your body’s natural detoxification process. However, if you give the body too much of a toxic load, it is possible to overwhelm this process.
Think about it like this. Imagine that you’re working on a computer and using several programs at the same time. You are typing up a spreadsheet, you have a video player running, and you’re doing internet research with several browser windows open, too. As you open up more software programs, you may notice that your computer is responding to you more slowly.
Just as your computer gets sluggish as you make it do more work, your body also gets sluggish as you make it do more detoxifying. Along those same lines, even if it has anti-virus software installed, your computer still needs maintenance to keep it performing well. So yes, even if it has its own detox system, your body can use a tune-up to function at peak performance levels.
Your body can handle exposure to many of the toxins that may come your way. Over time, however, as your body’s detox system feels the stress of managing repeated exposure, it can become too much of a burden. That’s when you may begin to notice some mild signs of toxicity. It may be a headache, sneezing, or general fatigue.
Your symptoms may come and go, or they may be more persistent. Some may start to become very noticeable and even disruptive to your life. You might experience hives, joint pain, digestive problems, or even mental health issues like anxiety or depression. Because toxins can impair your immune function, you could also find that you’re catching colds more often.
A detox supports every organ system in your body in functioning at an optimal level. It rids your body of the excess toxins that may be slowing down your metabolism. While you may notice this effect as extra inches around your waist, your metabolism is responsible for a lot more than that. Your metabolism is the way you manage and regulate the energy for your body to function. Your immune system can’t work correctly when it doesn’t have that energy.
A key part of any detox is to support the proper function of the digestive system. You do not want to completely clean out the gastrointestinal tract because it’s important to maintain the presence of healthy bacteria in the gut. However, you do not want toxins hindering the digestion and absorption of the nutrients you consume. Your immune system needs these nutrients to operate and protect your body.
Your hormones also play a role in the regulation of your immune system. The balance of thyroid, cortisol, estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone affects immune function. If these hormones become imbalanced, they can disrupt immune system activity. That’s why chemicals that can throw off hormone balance are often called endocrine disruptors (because the hormonal system is also known as the endocrine system). So detoxing your body to eliminate such chemicals greatly benefits the immune system.