Detox Pathways Series

Step One - Support Your Kidneys

Your amazing kidneys are responsible for maintaining normal electrolyte balance and excreting toxins through urination. Damage to your kidneys is difficult to reverse, although not impossible according to many natural health practitioners. If you are fortunate enough to have healthy kidneys the onus should be on protecting them so that they can continue to protect you by filtering out toxins and waste.

Kidney damage is caused by

• inadequate blood supply
• poor water intake 
• excessive toxic load

Your kidneys are very sensitive to heavy metals like mercury, cadmium, lead, aluminium and mercury. Smoking, use of medication like ibruprophen, high blood sugar and an inflammatory diet will all damage the kidneys. Exposure to all of this is pretty much part an every day occurrence for many of us. So how to protect your kidneys from damage and ensure they are working efficiently so they can filter out all the bad stuff? Here are three steps;

1. Replace an inflammatory diet with a healing diet

In the pre cleanse week on our seasonal detox we suggest our Cleansers remove refined sugar, processed food, lactose, gluten and cut down on meat and alcohol. Removing or at least reducing these inflammatory foods just in itself will often start to resolve many health issues and is a great help to the kidneys.

In terms of what you should be eating instead include kidney protective foods like ginger, blueberries, beetroot juice, and chlorophyll which can be found in lots of green vegetables. Wine contains a substance called resveratrol which has been shown to benefit the kidneys but only in moderation so just one small glass!

Happily you can also add dark chocolate to the list as this, like beetroot juice, increases blood flow to the kidneys. Improving the microcirculation of the kidneys is vital as 25% of the body’s blood supply passes through the kidneys. You still need to be moderate of course but dark chocolate should definitely be included in your uplevelled diet. We stock beautiful, naturally keto friendly, raw, dark chocolate handmade in Cornwall as part of our Magic Packs if you’d like make sure you’re getting the very best

2. Try these herbs

Gotu Kola is a powerful herb used in Traditional Chinese Medicine that works in the same way as dark chocolate and beetroot juice to increase blood flow to the kidneys. Turmeric (curcumin) works in a similar improve the microcirculation of the kidneys and protect from oxidative stress as do ginger, and ginkgo biloba. All of these herbs can be made as tea and sipped through the day.

3. Heavy Metal Detox

Nothing to do with AC DC, toxic heavy metals are one of the main toxic loads on our kidneys. Happily there are lots of compounds found in nature that will seek out these toxins in the body, bind to them and draw them all of the way your system, rather than just moving them around which is what some herbs do. I really like the suggestions from Anthony Williams the Medical Medium on this. Williams is an intuitive healer. I like intuition but I also like science so I have checked out these ingredients to ensure they stack up from a scientific perspective and work in the intended way to bind and remove toxins. I incorporate most of these ingredients in our Cleanse and will also be putting together a heavy metal herbal detox formula for our Cleansers to use a few weeks before the detox.

The ingredients you want to be including in your diet on a daily basis are;

• Wild blueberry (bilberry) not the same as cultivated blueberries. 
• Coriander 
• Dulse Seaweed
• Barley Grass
• Spirulina 

You can throw all these ingredients into a smoothie but I personally don't like the taste and would rather have the wild blueberry in a smoothie or juice and the rest of the ingredients with a savoury dish. Do make sure you're having them raw though and get organic too, to avoid ingesting even more toxins! For my pre Cleanse week I'll be making up a heavy metal detox formula that you'll be able to take as a shot each morning so you can just wait a few weeks for our Cleanse and you'll be able to order this

Bonus Tip - Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone that protects the kidneys against oxidative stress. You may also know of melatonin in relation to sleep. A low dose of melatonin will not only help your kidneys but it’ll help you sleep and improve sleep quality. Sleep in itself is essential to supporting your body to detox you and keep you healthy as sleep is when your body is able to regenerate. Look into whether a low dose of melatonin would benefit you.

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Start incorporating these tips to support your kidneys so that your kidneys can continue to support you. Look out for step 2 of our detox series in a fortnight which will address the skin and fascia. If you aren’t already on the wait list for our next Cleanse email me at emma-lou@eatlive.co.uk and ill add you so you don’t miss out when it’s available in September as we always sell out quickly. We will be drafting an even more detailed detox pathways support plan with done for you products for our Cleansers to use pre Cleanse so if you’d like more support with this then be sure to get on our wait list.