October 2020 - Living Beauty Cancer Foundation

Basic Tips to Improve Your 5 Detox Organs

By Jovanka Ciares

Your amazing body has natural built-in mechanisms for eliminating detoxing and self-healing. While your body is capable of eliminating the toxic substances that get in through or are generated through food, water, and other sources, that process can become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of pathogens and eventually work less efficiently. When that happens, your body starts to store these potentially dangerous substances, eventually damaging connective tissues, hormonal production, and vital organs.

In the past 2 decades, the practice of detoxing has become more and more popular as people look for natural alternatives to reduce their toxic load. We started incorporating ancient detoxing practices like Ayurvedic Panchakarma, oil pulling, sweat lodges, and herbal wraps/baths in combination with elimination diets in an effort to support. These practices may also require an added investment of time and resources to complete them. However, there are other ways in which you can support your natural detox organs without making significant changes in your lifestyle and keeping your monthly food budget almost intact.

There are five primary organs in your body responsible for processing most of the toxins in your body: the gut, liver, lungs, kidney, and skin. In my experience making these basic changes listed below can help each of these organs process toxins and work optimally for you:

The Gut: We know the gut covers multiple organs, from mouth to anus, and as the 2^nd largest elimination organ, it is critical that it works efficiently.

Eating more fiber is one of the easiest mechanisms to “brush” toxins out of your gut.

More than botanicals, probiotics can help absorb heavy metals and remove carcinogens from the gut.

The Liver: The liver is often seen as the primary detoxing organ, and for a good reason. It is responsible for filtering out toxins from your blood and eliminating toxins that may arise during the digestion process.

The best way to support the liver is with herbal remedies and supplements like gentle dandelion, milk thistle, and turmeric, this last one added to your meals.

The Kidneys: Your kidneys help to maintain the delicate pH balance in your body and are responsible for filtering out toxins from the blood and eliminating them in the form of urine.

Eating water-based veggies like cucumber, summer squash, leafy greens, and bell peppers can help reduce acid load and help the kidneys properly detoxify.

Stinging nettles is the quintessential herbal

The Lungs: Put simply, the lungs are in charge of filtering out all the pollutants that you inhale every time you take a breath and bring cleaner oxygen to your heart and body

Using essential oils that protect and clean the soft tissues around your respiratory system is a great alternative. Embrace rosemary essential oil as a stimulant, eucalyptus as protectant or astragalus to cleanse, protect and calm.

The Skin: Your largest detox organ, every inch of it helps push toxins out of the body. Because it’s also so large, it is also responsible for a lot of what gets inside your body.

Sweating is a great way to help push out toxins through the skin. Veggies like carrots, and other yellow and orange fruits and vegetables are a great place to start. Tomatoes and berries are great to protect and keep your skin healthy and beautiful.

Botanical oils used in the skin can have an amazing effect on your ability to push toxins. Include calendula and jojoba oil in your skin beauty regimen.

As we continue our October program theme of “Releasing, Cleansing and Detoxing Naturally”, we want to remind you that detoxing does not need to be intimidating and depleting. Instead, we want you to remember that our bodies are built for detoxing and we have the natural resources available in a variety of foods and herbs that help our organs and body systems do so in healthy ways!

The Foundation for Living Beauty is thankful for the wealth of information that integrative herbalist and wellness expert, Jovanka Ciares shares with us! For access to more information and to learn more about Jovanka’s practice, visit https://www.jovankaciares.com/.

To watch the full recording of Jovanka’s “Natural Detoxing with Herbal Medicine” workshop, click here!

The Foundation for Living Beauty provides wellness support to women with any type of cancer and at any stage in their journey. October is breast cancer awareness month and as we work to support our “Living Beauties”, we would like to remind you that early detection and self-checking is an important part of preventing breast cancer. Living Beauty Board Member and Breast Wellness Expert, Brenda Smith shares 3 tips on how to take time and be mindful of being proactive in prevention.

Three important things to empower yourself:

1 – Take your Vit. D. Not only is it crucial for maintaining a healthy immune system but studies have shown that breast cancer cells do not thrive in a Vit. D rich environment. Take your blood levels as close to 50ng/ml as possible. D3 with K2 is the best combination for breast tissue as well as bone health.

2 – Do your self-breast exams regularly. Many women find their cancers even after clean mammograms. You know your body better than anyone. Becoming familiar with your normal density can make you more aware of changes. Keep in mind that cancer does not come and go so there’s no need to worry about lumps caused by hormonal fluctuations. While the majority of breast cancer diagnoses in the United States are in women over 50, eleven percent of new breast cancer diagnoses are in women under the age of 45. Women of all ages should incorporate checking their own breasts into their self-care routine! As you wind down for the evening and take some much-needed time for yourself, take a few seconds to perform a self-check to put your mind even more at ease knowing you are connecting with your body

3 – Especially in this time of Covid-19, release negativity and receive gratitude. We know there is a correlation between our emotions and our health. Breast tissue is susceptible to stuck emotions. As we are challenged in this moment in history, find ways to release your frustrations and anger. Get out in nature, if possible. Spend time with safe friends who are good listeners, journal, scream into a pillow! Get all the anxiety out of your body so you can relax and reduce stress hormones. Then find movement that you enjoy. Dance, walk, exercise doing something you like, and most of all, laugh. In spite of it all, we have so much to be grateful for.

For more information about The Foundation for Living Beauty, visit our website at livingbeauty.org.