Health Education

Within a few weeks of our second child being born I was very low and rundown and feeling lethargic and numb pretty much all the time. I’d spent a lot of time with doctors and consultants, but the answer was always the same – nothing medically wrong.

Fortunately a friend of mine is a dietician and she recommended I needed to detox my body, and put some effort into learning how to detox and see how toxins accumulate in my body and impact my wellbeing and energy levels. From what people were telling me it was clear that detoxing had a lot to offer, so I spent a few weeks doing some research to learn all about it, and get to grips with what is really involved and why the natural health industry advocate learning how to detox and suggest getting started with the 7 day detox diet so avidly.

Something else she recommended I try was a foot detox. I now use a foot spa about twice a week, if you don’t want to invest in a foot spa, those foot detox pads can do just as good a job – but with the patches you don’t get a relaxing foot massage at the same time

There are some very simple things you can do to help detox your body.

Herbal teas are just as good as water

Making sure you take in plenty of fluids is very important while you are following a detox diet as it helps to eliminate water-soluble toxins from your body. Drinking plenty of water also has other health benefits like promoting regular bowel movements, improves concentration, and improves your complexion. Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water each day (about 2 liters), and a good bit more in hot weather or on your exercise days.

A general pointer is to increase your water intake by about half a liter for each hour of exercise. Tap water which has been filtered to remove the chlorine and impurities is the best option. Ideally drink water that is at room temperature. Feel free to substitute herbal teas if you can’t face all that water – loose leaf tea is the better option if it’s available. Peppermint, camomile, dandelion root, horsetail and yarrow in particular are great choices as their hidden ingredients naturally support the detox process. Roibosch (Redbush) tea is also beneficial as it is very high in OPC antioxidants.

That Seems Like A Lot of Water

Drinking this much water will soon be second nature to you. You can have your first glass with a little freshly squeezed lemon juice or root ginger instead of (or as well as) your morning coffee – it’s the perfect way to start up your digestive system and bowel then have more water whenever you take a coffee break.

Aim to have a glass whenever you eat, try a glass of water and a herbal tea at elevensies, another glass when you get home from work and perhaps a final glass of water last thing at night. Feel free to substitute some water with herbal teas.

Eat Foods As Close To Their Natural State As Possible

You should be looking to buy your food in as fresh a condition as possible and either juice them or eat them raw, in salads or as snacks or appetizers. Raw fruits and veg are still full of all their natural enzymes, vitamins and minerals. If the food stays in the fridge or on the shelf for long periods, or when it is cooked or preserved, its nutritional value plummets.

Buy locally grown produce if you can, preferably at farms and markets in your area Food imported internationally tends to be picked underripe (so it will be short of it’s full vitamin and mineral supply) and a lot of nutrition is lost during the journey to the stores.

Is Organic Better

Buying organic produce where possible is better for your health but not totally necessary, especially as the cost can be very high, but if you can afford to stretch to buying a few organic products it will be a great help.

It’s not a major problem if you can’t get hold of any organic produce. All you need to worry about is eating enough fresh foods – even if they are non-organic – rather than not get enough of them. Nonetheless, there’s a lot of health benefits to having as much as possible of organic produce on a healthy detox diet.

Artificial fertilizers and pesticides are banned from production of organic foods, so they have very little or no potentially toxic man made chemicals. The practice of organic farming is very contentious due to the fact that there is growing evidence that the build up of toxins from man made chemicals and bug sprays may be related to a lot of the serious health issues we face today.

There is a lot less processing of organic produce on its journey to your kitchen. The end result being that organic foods are free from artificial additives and hydrogenated fats. Certain organic foods taste better and have more flavor.

Exercise is very good for you, as as you no doubt already understand, but it’s particularly powerful for back pain treatment, providing you adopt some simple instructions, and practice the safe exercises. Here’s some easygoing and effective examples that will probably help relieve back pain and offer some appreciated chronic back pain relief:

Shift and lift: The “shift and lift” is a very simple exercise that helps to strengthen the muscles of your lower back and buttocks (in particular) while sitting down. Even though this is something that you can do while sat at your desk, because of the process of the ‘lifting’ element of the exercise, I would suggest that you don’t do this if your peers are watching you, for example. It might make them think there is something wrong with you!

All The Same, this is a great exercise for preventing stiff or aching muscles that might arise from sitting in the same position for long periods of time, and it will help strengthen those muscles too!

Start off by sitting down in a comfortable but upright chair, relax and then clench the muscle in one buttock and hold for a couple of seconds, lifting your glute slightly as you do so. Relax and rest for 1 or 2 seconds and then do it again. Do this 15-20 repetitions on each buttock.

Hip sway: This is useful exercise to do if you have to stand up for any length of time, as it relieves the tautness in your legs and lower back and stimulates the circulation within your legs, hips and back. It also helps to avoid getting the lower back pain that some people suffer with if they are required to stand up for any length of time.

Start from a standing position, completely relax your right knee, and at the same time pushing your left hip out to the side. Pull the hip back in again, and repeat the same action 15-20 times. After that, let you left knee completely relax, and force your right hip out in the same fashion.

Lifting: This exercise needs a bag – a supermarket carrier bag, or anything else with extended handles for lifting will be fine. Hold something heavy in the bag – again, it is fairly irrelevant exactly what it is, providing it is at least a 3 or 4 kilos (drinks bottles are perfect for this, because a liter bottle of water weighs almost exactly a kilo).

Keeping your arm straight down the side of your body, bend your knees until the weight in the bag reaches the floor and then lift the bag by straightening you legs. When you get back up straight, hold the upright position for a few seconds, and then bend your knees to touch the bag down again.

Repeat this for at least 15 times for one side of your body, and then repeat on the other side. By doing it properly, keeping your back straight and bending at your knees – this is a very good way for strengthening the lower back, glutes and hips, and an added bonus is that it will help tone your arms and legs, and offer some degree of chronic back pain relief.

Give us a shrug: This is an exercise that as well as keeping your lower back in great shape, it is also a great way of releasing the stress that builds across the back of your shoulders. It’s also very good for toning your arms and shoulder muscles. It can also be done in either a standing or a sitting position.

For the starting postiion, simply shrug your shoulders as close to your ears as you can, then extend your arms sideways from your body until they are parallel to the ground and turn your palms so they face outward. Finally, lean your head to one side then hold that final position for a few seconds. Return to the starting position and do it all over again, but this time, tilt your head to the opposite side.