Choosing when to detox is a very personal decision and depends on many factors in your life. Have you been sick lately? Did you recently take medication, or have you been vaccinated? Are you looking to reset your eating habits? Are you just about to launch your healing journey?
All are great motives to detox your body and reboot your system spontaneously. But in this post, we are focusing on the rewards of a seasonal detox. We love the practice of a spring and fall cleanse because it helps remind us to keep our health goals at the top of our minds.
When you’re making a conscious effort to do something good for yourself, other healthy habits will follow. Find out more about seasonal detoxing, the rhythm of the seasons, the Five Element Framework and how it relates to rejuvenating your body, and which natural remedies and supplements are the best to help you on your detox and wellness journey.
Why We Need to Detox and Cleanse Our Body
There are many reasons why we should habitually detox and cleanse our body. Our body is an incredible organism and naturally equipped to process waste and heal itself. But, as we know only too well, poor eating habits, physical and emotional overexertion, environmental pollutants, illnesses, and many other events in life can exhaust our body's innate detoxification system.
The biggest reason to detox your body is to feel in sync with yourself again. Many of us – and all looking for increased wellness who have come to read this post – can tell when our well-being is off balance. This could be demonstrated by discomforts and pains, digestive issues, acne, allergic reactions, weight gain, sleep issues, the list goes on.
Detoxing your body has a myriad of benefits including but not limited to:
- Starting and maintaining your wellness journey
- Purging an illness
- Clearing the aftereffects of medications, antibiotics, and vaccinations
- Improving your digestion (Using probiotics? Detox first to address waste and toxins.)
- Reducing allergic reactions
- Easier breathing
- Healthy looking skin, scalp, and hair
- Better weight management (Detox to start and repeat during your weight loss program.)
- Decreasing stiffness, soreness, and pain
- Improving your sleep
- Supporting healthy aging and increased longevity
- Preparing for and enhancing all your future holistic wellness goals
Detoxing with Nature’s Rhythm
Many traditional and integrative healing modalities embrace the transformational power of a biannual detox.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and its Five Element Theory dating back to 300 B.C., each season is associated with one element and one major organ system. Note that TCM recognizes five seasons including winter, spring, summer, late summer, and fall.
The beginnings of two seasons lend themselves particularly well to detoxification, resetting habits, and boosting your vitality and health. These seasons are spring and autumn.
At AnnaKare, we follow this age-old principal and draw attention to the benefits of detoxing around the spring and fall equinox.
Spring Detox – Your Rejuvenating and Age-Defying Cleanse
Spring is the season of the wood element and is most closely associated with the liver, followed by the gallbladder. The liver is our body’s main detoxification organ. It filters the blood and removes harmful substances, bacteria, and other microorganisms. It produces bile, stored by the gallbladder, which helps digest fats and carry off waste.
A healthy liver is linked to stronger muscles and tendons, better eyesight, and reduced hypersensitivities. It even helps decrease anger and irritabilities resulting in a calmer mood and increased focus.
Most importantly in TCM, the liver is responsible for the robust flow of blood and Qi, the life-supporting energy which stimulates and sustains all body functions.
Fall Detox – Your Restorative and Immunity-Building Cleanse
Autumn is the season of metal and linked to the lungs, followed by the colon. Healthy lungs create a strong defense against intruders like viruses and help fortify the immune system. A fall detox regimen can reduce runny noses, congested sinuses, and the loss of taste or smell as the cooler temperatures move in.
Even the skin is linked to the lungs and large intestine. If you are looking for clear, smooth skin, it is important to maintain an easy exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lungs and a healthy gut flora. Consider supporting your fall cleanse with easy-to-digest foods like soups and with deep breathing exercises.
Like the liver, the lungs help circulate fluids and Qi energy. With autumn being the season of “letting go”, this is an important time to move energy and remove stagnation by taking care of your lungs and the colon which can be harmed by physical and emotional burdens.
Detox Products
How to Do a Seasonal Detox
We believe the best detox is uncomplicated, easy to fit into your schedule, and requires only small adjustments to your daily activities. It’s a biannual event that you want to look forward to, that reminds you of how good it feels to take care of yourself and reintroduces healthful choices that will become the norm rather than the exception.
Consider these 8 easy kick-off ideas for your seasonal detox = a really good time for your body and spirit:
- Eat your favorite healthy foods.
- Drink half a gallon+ of fresh water or light tea every day.
- Prepare at least one daily meal yourself. You don’t have to cook the meal from scratch but arrange the food on your plate and eat your meal sitting down and with minimal distraction.
- Avoid or limit caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and other stimulating substances.
- Practice a fun, 30-minute exercise routine 5 days per week, preferably outdoors.
- Choose one activity you love but you have neglected recently.
- Sleep more.
- Buy your Klean Detox spray.
Natural Remedies and Organic Supplements to Support Your Detox Cleanse
Klean Detox – Homeopathic Full Body Detox Formula
Klean Detox blends homeopathic ingredients made from plants and minerals that support and stimulate your body’s elimination centers, also called emunctory organs. These include the liver, colon, kidneys, gallbladder, lungs, skin, sinuses, and more. The well-balanced formula supports the emunctories to work at their best and optimally process and remove waste.
Working gently but thoroughly, it is an excellent companion during your weeks of cleansing. Six weeks are optimal, but a three-week detox is an excellent start!
Squirt four sprays of Klean Detox directly underneath your tongue in the morning and evening or mix them with two to four ounces of water and sip.
Ideally combined with a fair share of fresh food and a daily intake of 8 regular glasses or cups of water, you will start to experience an uptake in energy, a reduction in mucus production and better breathing, clearer skin and scalp, improved digestion, decreased aches and pains, and a variety of more benefits many expected and some as a pleasant surprise easing an array of everyday health challenges.
Organic Herbal Extracts with Detox Benefits
Organic Olive Leaf Extract
The sturdy, slow-growing olive tree is an ancient tree that has only recently been studied and discovered for its wide range of medicinal benefits targeting modern lifestyle conditions. Its active ingredient oleuropein, which has been protecting the tree from insects and other natural enemies for 19,000 years, is celebrated as a powerful anti-inflammatory.
Olive leaf extract is known to help support and cleanse the liver and intestines as well as other elimination organs such as the skin, bladder, and urinary tract. It contains powerful antioxidants that protect our cells from oxidative stress, a process linked to aging.
This is why we have included our organic OLE in our Whole Body Detox Kit together with two bottles of Klean Detox for a rejuvenating 6-week body cleanse. Add OLE from week three to 6 and take it once a day with cold or warm water or weak tea.
Organic Turmeric Liquid Extract from Fresh Turmeric Root
Turmeric, another prehistoric plant, with its healing compound called curcumin, has numerous benefits known to many and is also recommended for its protective functions of liver, intestines, and the immune system.
In fact, turmeric’s anti-inflammatory power is especially helpful when inflammation is caused by a stressed liver. Turmeric is called a “liver cooler” in traditional Ayurvedic medicine which means it has healing properties that decrease inflammation, “heat”, or oxidative stress that can potentially damage the liver.
Plus, turmeric helps increase bile, contributes to fat digestion, and is most praised for its help with relieving joint pain and digestive upset.
Consider switching from regular latte to turmeric latte during your detox. We have a delicious recipe for so-called Golden Milk in our blog, The Benefits of Turmeric for the Immune System.
Schuessler Cell Salts for Detoxification
Last, but certainly not least, three of Dr. Schuessler cell salts, are ideal to flush toxins and waste products out of your body. These are blood and skin cleanser Calc Sulph #3, fluid thinner and lymphatic drainage specialist Kali Mur #5, and liver and bladder saver Nat Sulph #11.
We recommend them whenever you feel some form of stagnation, digestive trouble, a nasal congestion coming on, acne outbreak, you name it. Use two squirts of each directly in the mouth or mixed them with two to four ounces of water. Take the trio three times a day as long as needed.
For your seasonal detox, consider phasing in and/or out of your cleanse with a week or more of taking the detox cell salts. Cell salts, also called tissue salts, are the 12 most essential minerals our body needs prepared in the form of homeopathic remedies. Ours come as easy-to-use lactose-free and sugar-free oral sprays. Read more about the Different Types of Dr. Schuessler's 12 Tissues Salts.
Seasonal Detox Summary
A seasonal detox keeps your health goals at the top of your mind and helps you return to, prioritize, and consciously practice healthy lifestyle choices two times per year for a period of three to six weeks.
It rejuvenates and strengthens your body at the beginning of every spring and fall – the seasons that revitalize the flow of life-giving Qi (vital force), contributes to more energy, a stronger immune system, increased overall well-being, and promotes a longer and healthier life.
Use homeopathic Klean Detox, herbal remedies such as Olive Leaf and Fresh Turmeric Extracts, and Schuessler cell salts to support your detox program in an agreeable, uncomplicated way for better health at the change of seasons and year-round.
Further reading:
Detoxing for Allergy Relief
Detoxing for Weight Loss and Weight Control
All statements in this article are grounded in natural wellness practices. They have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
