A Simple Guide to Sweating Out Your Toxins
Thinking for a moment about sweating out your toxins, what do Turkish baths, Aboriginal sweat lodges, Scandinavian saunas, and hot yoga all have in common? That’s right — they all make you hot and sweaty. But after you shower, you feel refreshed, calm, alert, and energized all at the same time. Why? Maybe because sweating is one way your body detoxifies.
It’s fact that your liver, kidneys, colon, and lymphatic system dedicate their entire existence to filtering and eliminating toxins from your system, but your skin plays an important role in your body’s internal clean-up operations, too.
For thousands of years, people from cultures around the world have been sweating for good health and fitness — most of them not even understanding why they felt so much better after a good sweat. Now, with our Spring ’21 Detox starting in just a few short weeks (specifically on June 1st), you have the opportunity to join in this healthy tradition and reap the benefits of sweating out your toxins. And, thanks to this post, you’ll have a better understanding and appreciation of the role that sweating plays in your health.
Note that sweating is an option for Spring ’21 Detox participants. Our medically supervised detox program targets the health and function of all your body’s detox pathways. But you may want to work up a sweat a few times during your 14-day detox to eliminate toxins that sneak past your primary detox pathways.
Getting Your Skin in the Game
Skin has been described as the body’s single largest organ, and it is truly amazing. It helps to regulate our body temperature, defends us from dangerous bacteria and other pathogens, keeps our internal organs and bodily fluids from spilling out and causing a huge mess, cushions any blunt force, and, with the help of our sweat glands, plays a supporting role in eliminating toxins.
Unfortunately, and unjustifiably, sweat has gotten a bad rap — so bad that many of us use air conditioners and antiperspirants to sweat less. But the fact is, we were built to sweat. Sweating prevents us from getting overheated and, as a side benefit, enables us to shed some toxins.
Getting Hot and Sweaty
In the not-so-good old days, BAC (Before Air Conditioning), people in tropical and temperate regions of the world would sweat a lot more than they do today. They’d sweat at home, at work, in their cars, and while out to dinner. They’d even sweat in their sleep. And this was before global warming heated things up! Now, here we are, making a conscious effort to engage in activities that make us sweat.
If you’re interested in reaping the health benefits of working up a sweat, here are a few suggestions for how to do just that:
- Engage in some moderate exercise. You don’t need full cardio to work up a sweat. A brisk walk several times a week is all it takes.
- Take a hot bath.
- Spend some time in a hot tub or sauna.
- On warm days, turn off the A/C and clean your house.
Whatever you choose to work up a sweat, wipe or wash it off right away to prevent the toxins you just sweat out from being reabsorbed through your skin.
The long-term objective is to develop and maintain a robust nervous system capable of handling temperature variations. This concept is called Hormesis — healthy stress that makes us strong.
Rehydrating
As we sweat, we need to replenish the fluids we lose in the process. Insufficient fluid intake can result in dehydration, which is characterized by the following symptoms:
- Confusion
- Dark-colored urine
- Dizziness
- Extreme thirst
- Fatigue
- Less frequent urination
Staying hydrated requires sufficient intake of fluids — typically a half ounce per pound of body weight. So, if you weigh 135 pounds, you should be drinking about 67.5 ounces of fluids (preferably filtered water) per day; that’s about a two-liter bottle.
We recommend obtaining your drinking water from a spring or a water purification system that removes toxins and other impurities like chlorine.
Be Careful with Alkaline Water
A word of caution about alkaline water, which is heavily marketed as a cure-all. The case for drinking alkaline water is based partly on fact, but it’s mostly a gimmick. Yes, acidity can cause disease, but so can alkalinity. Our bodies work tirelessly to maintain a healthy balance. And while the standard American diet (SAD) pushes us too far into an acidic inner ecosystem, the opposite direction is also problematic.
For instance, our stomach acid should be at a pH so low that our hand would quickly dissolve if we could put it in there. Drinking alkaline water (high pH) neutralizes stomach acid, which is responsible for breaking down our food, killing off food-borne pathogens, absorbing nutrients, and cleaving proteins for muscle synthesis.
When we ingest substances that make the stomach a less acidic environment, we become vulnerable to possible GI infections, such as small-intestinal-bacteria overgrowth (SIBO), and nutrient deficiencies due to impaired digestion and absorption. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), a popular class of medications used to treat indigestion, also alter this delicate pH balance when used for extended periods. However it’s done, reducing stomach acid is rarely necessary and almost always does more harm than good.
Ideally, water should be at a neutral pH (neither acidic nor alkaline) and not stored in plastic, which can release petrochemicals. Alkaline water can be helpful during a detox but drink it only between meals and on a very empty stomach.
Restoring Electrolytes
When we sweat, we lose more than water; we lose electrolytes, as well. Electrolytes are substances that produce an electrically conducting solution when dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. Lose too many electrolytes, and your nervous system can start to malfunction, which can negatively impact your heartbeat, breathing, and thinking.
Proper hydration enables the body to maintain a healthy orthostatic pressure — blood pressure when the body is standing erect. Orthostatic hypotension (a sudden drop in blood pressure upon standing) can make you feel dizzy or faint.
So, while we recommend sweating as part of your detox protocol, we also recommend restoring lost minerals through electrolyte solutions such as Body Balance E-Lyte. Electrolyte solutions are typically formulated with sodium, potassium, and magnesium — the three minerals depleted by sweating. Restoring healthy levels of these three important minerals delivers several health benefits:
- Reduction in muscle cramps
- Improved stamina (less fatigue)
- Enhanced ability to maintain body temperature
- Improved neurological function and signaling
Here at Restoration Healthcare, we’re getting excited about the 14-day Spring ’21 Detox Program and hope that you are, too. To find out more about the program, see our previous post, “Join Us for Our Spring Detox 2021,” or call our Irvine clinic at (949) 535-2322 for further details about the program and to reserve your 14-day detox kit. Sign up soon, so you won’t miss out on getting a kit and so you have it well in advance of the June 1 start date (and the May 27 at 5 p.m. online kickoff event / orientation).
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Disclaimer: The information in this blog post about how the human body detoxifies itself is provided for general informational purposes only and may not reflect current medical thinking or practices. No information contained in this post should be construed as medical advice from the medical staff at Restoration Healthcare, Inc., nor is this post intended to be a substitute for medical counsel on any subject matter. No reader of this post should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information included in, or accessible through, this post without seeking the appropriate medical advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a licensed medical professional in the recipient’s state, country or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.
