As the owner of a company named Gut Brain Body, I feel it very important to rant a little about the meaning behind the name. Throughout my practice I have always had such a fascination for the body’s ability to heal itself. It’s always impressive how with the right amount of time, the right amount of diet and lifestyle change, the body really does have the capacity to fix many of it’s own maladies without prescription medications. As I’ve been able to work with hundreds of clients nationwide, I have seen that through optimizing gut health, mental health, and detoxification the body has the best fighting chance at getting back to good health. Thus, these systems became the foundation of my healing protocols and Gut Brain Body was born.
With the combination of gut healing, mental health, and full body detoxification as the foundation of my practice, I have been able to see people shift from completely dead and miserable to something greater than they had ever dreamed. However, it has never quite been as simple as handing out a diet, a list of foods to avoid, and watching miracles unfold. My work has been an ever-building reminder that people are all very different and can have a myriad of underlying factors fueling their disease. One person’s strength could be another’s weakness, and oftentimes this is the reason generalized diets and detox programs often fail.
Personalized gut healing, brain exercises, and detoxification protocols are necessary to get the best results with every client.
So what does personalized nutrition really mean?
Well the complexity of a personalized approach to healing varies and is indeed a dynamic and ever changing course of action. It’s never completely set in stone as one way or another, and in many cases involves a little trial and error. In the beginning testing and evaluation are far more intensive and aim to reduce the amount of error as much as possible. Using functional nutrition as a very helpful tool, it capitalizes on using individualized data to drive decisions, rather than recommendations based on statistics of the general population.
So what is a personalized detox?
Detoxification is a complex process that involves a massive amount of variables coming together magically and working as an orchestra of many moving pieces. Detoxification is indeed the removal of unwanted material substances from your body, but can also be looked at as a process of emotional unloading as well. Thus, detoxification protocols can be personalized to help the individual both rid their body of built up toxins and also limiting belief patterns and emotional toxicity. As the body begins to find a sense of harmony with both it’s physical and emotional bodies, it will begin to manifest the highest form of quality living that it is capable of.
How does detoxification begin?
Detoxification begins with an emotional reset. And of course, this is in reference to the process of deciding to do a detox in the first place. To even make this decision you must be aware of some form of toxicity in your body or mind and possess a desire to be free of it. However, in order to do this, you have to be ready to self-reflect, and ultimately change. This requires an authoritative mentality, which in my experience can take some work to develop. In order to your address your toxic attachments and let go you have to be in right place emotionally, and this can take time. Thus, learning to reset, and to detach and let go of the burdening physical and emotional toxins of your life are the very first steps of any detox protocol.
How does detoxification work?
The first step of any detoxification protocol is to identify exogenous (fancy word for from outside the body) toxins that are present and avoid them as much as possible. The second part is identifying the toxic load of the body and the safest method of getting the toxins out. To get them out, you have to understand what type of toxins they are and how they are moved out of the body. These process have to be optimized first before any toxins are mobilized. Thus a personalized protocol will take these factors into consideration and can be created using the individuals’ resources, goals, and preferences. Check out my article on how to identify toxins in your environment and choose healthier alternatives.
Safety is key. In regards to body detoxing, you need to have a health digestion and excretory systems. If you struggle to digest and absorb your food you may be unable to fully support your detoxification pathways. Likewise, if your excretory systems such as breath, sweat, stool, and urine are in anyway inhibited, toxins that are ready for excretion will build up and may never exit the body. In regards to the mind, if you have barriers in place that will either encourage or enable toxic thinking you will have a harder time making the shift. Likewise, if you have limited outlets for releasing anger or frustration you might see the toxic cycles ensue and possible self-destruct.
Another major step of detoxification is mobilizing the toxins out of the body and supporting the lymphatic system in order to do so. Toxins that have chronic implications are often fat soluble and are stored in the adipose tissue or the brain which are the fattiest parts of the body. Thus, these toxins must be mobilized and transported from these areas to the liver where they can be turned into a chemical form that is transportable out of the body via breath, urine, sweat, or feces. For this to work properly, both the circulatory system and lymphatic system must be functioning. Thus, lymphatic support is a very necessary step in detoxification that is often overlooked.
Can detoxing be dangerous?
Sometimes detoxing can be really intense for some people. As people are getting rid of toxins from their body, at least in the beginning, they can have what’s called a herxheimer reaction. This is when the body is inundated with more toxins that the liver can handle and they build up to the point of causing inflammation and symptoms that feel like flu like symptoms. This is expected and normal and can be mitigated by going slow and using the appropriate tools to decrease the burden of these toxins on the body.
A lot of herxheimer reactions happen as a result of poor gut health, which is where a lot of toxins can be re-absorbed and also produced by the more toxic microbes living in your gut. If you have leaky gut, or a chronic gut infection that has disrupted your body’s ability to maintain a healthy balance of non-toxic microbes in your gut or has thrown your immune system into disarray then your detoxification pathways will be disrupted, even if you have regular bowel movements. This is why healing the gut first can be a huge part of preparing the body to rid itself of toxins.
When is detoxing not a good idea?
Detoxification is always an important part of healing, at least in the sense of the bodies need to get rid of inhibitory or inflammatory compounds in order to heal. However, the most aggressive method of detoxing (ie. Fasting and chelating toxins) is not always safe for people with certain conditions. If individuals have low body weight, adrenal fatigue or hypoglycemia they may be poor candidates for fasting long term. These people just need to focus on avoiding toxins and slowly supporting the detoxification pathways. In addition, for those with autoimmune conditions or other inflammatory diseases, detoxing can be very complicated. The immune system can be easily triggered in these people and thus reducing inflammation as much as possible first and then slowly reducing the toxic load might be the best approach. Moreover, children and pregnant women should avoid doing any kind of detoxification without medical supervision.
How can you get started?
You can get started by simply signing up for a free evaluation which I’ll use to gather the details I need to ensure you are a good candidate for a detox protocol and inform you of the approach I recommend taking. This way I can also get your input on the type of detox you are looking for and help you make an educated decision. Each journey is an ongoing learning process, so I can help you get started with the best foot forward and we can work together from that point on to ensure optimal safety and efficacy.
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