“Detox” is a general term used in holistic health that refers to removing toxic products from the individual’s environment and/or utilizing methods and therapies to up-regulate the body’s inbuilt detox systems.
This can be done for all of our emunctories: the liver, kidneys, lymphatics, colon, skin and lungs.
Ever heard someone say “detoxing” is not necessary because “the body already does it?”
Or ever heard someone say it’s “pseudoscience?”
This is the equivalent of saying there’s no benefit to working out because the body already knows how to burn fat on its own. Or there’s no benefit to breath-work techniques because the body already breathes on its own. Silly, isn’t it?
Not only is that ignorant, but multiple therapies and compounds have been shown repeatedly in the literature to be helpful for improving the outcomes of biotransformation in these systems.
CONTRAST HYDROTHERAPY
One thing I’ve personally been experimenting with recently is Contrast Hydrotherapy. This method is a very cheap way to achieve similar results to cryotherapy, a detox method that consists of standing in a small chamber while super cold nitrogen gas is released, making the body ice cold in a couple of minutes.
Contrast Hydrotherapy exercises and stimulates the body’s tissues by simply immersing the body in hot and cold water. And it can be done from the comfort of your own home!
This is something many athletes do as well as people like Tony Robbins talks about doing regularly, he has an entire blog post emphasizing the benefits of cold water therapy.
The point of Contrast Hydrotherapy is to force your tissues into sudden changes, which jump-starts metabolic activity and improves movement. Stagnation sets the stage for impaired function. We must move the blood, the lymphatics, the excretion pathways. We must maintain proper electrical charge. All of which is helped with doing these types of therapies.
HOW TO DO IT
For a proper contrasting session, ideally you can do 3 – 6 alternations between heating and cooling. You can do this with just a shower or you can do it with a shower and a tub full of cold water. I personally like the shower/tub combo.
— 2 minutes of comfortable heat
— 1 minute of comfortable cold
— 2 minutes of hotter heat
— 1 minute of colder cold
— 2 minutes of hot as you can handle
— 1 minute of cold as you can handle.
it’s best to work up like this, but you’ll find once you practice with you, your body will become more and more resilient and be able to adjust to temperatures much more quickly and for longer. This is brilliant for your autonomic nervous system.
Full-body contrasting, such as switching back and forth between hot tub and pool at your local gym, can be done as well and is also beneficial physiologically.
I’ve been doing this myself by going between a hot shower, to a tub filled with cool water (around 58 degrees) then back to a hot shower and finally another dip in the cold tub. This is a very inexpensive way to achieve great results at home. Personally, I fill my tub up about once per week and leave it to dip into every time I take a shower. This makes it easy to add to my daily routine.
As always, take this process slow and easy to work your way up to warmer and cooler water. You can start with room temperature bath water and a warmer shower, then go up from there.
Remember, when considering any detoxing method, it’s equally important to make sure your environment is as clean as possible. Meaning, you’re cleaning supplies, hygiene products, the things you cook with, are all created with limited toxins to create the least toxic environment possible.
Let me know if you give Contrast Hydrotherapy a try!
