The Beauty Detox Solution (25 page)
Read The Beauty Detox Solution Online
Authors: Kimberly Snyder
“Okay, I get that it is important!” you are probably saying. “But how do I actually do it?” Let us get into more specifics. These cleansing methods are crucial to incorporate along with dietary changes to ensure we are eliminating as much toxicity as possible.
Cleansing out toxicity is as important as what we are putting into our bodies
.
BEAUTY DETOX SECRET #1: PROBIOTICS
I wholeheartedly recommend taking a good probiotic every single day. Probiotics help preserve a healthy digestive environment and play a critical role in our immune system, 80 percent of which resides in our gut. As adults we have around four hundred different species and strains of friendly bacteria in our digestive tract. When we are healthy we should have 80 to 85 percent friendly bacteria. When there is an overbalance of
unfriendly
bacteria in our system, and the percentage of friendly bacteria diminishes, it creates a condition known as dysbiosis.
We talked at length throughout Part 1 about how putrifying, rotting proteins in our intestine create a breeding ground for harmful bacteria and contribute to intestinal toxemia. We can now see that this can be a huge contributing factor to dysbiosis. This imbalance can also be caused by excessive antibiotic consumption (both directly and from consuming meat and dairy products containing antibiotics), consuming too many artificial chemicals and sugar, taking medications, drinking chlorinated and fluorinated water, poor digestion and constipation, and living in our stressful and pollution-filled world in general!
Probiotics can help restore our internal balance and will increase our vibrancy and overall health in the following ways:
Improve digestive functions, helping to eliminate constipation and diarrhea
Improve liver function
Improve resistance to allergies
Improve vitamin synthesis, and specifically the manufacturing of B vitamins
Increase energy
Improve the absorption of nutrients
Help eliminate bloating and heartburn
BEAUTY TIP
How Our Face Reveals Inner Health
For over five thousand years in Chinese medicine, practitioners have understood that uneven color and texture, patchiness, lines, breakouts, and other issues with our face are really indicative of deeper issues going on within our bodies and in our organs.
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Here are some commonly held ancient Chinese beliefs about what we might learn from examining our face:
Breakouts around the chin/jaw area
could indicate a hormonal imbalance and congestion in the colon.
Lines above the upper lip
might indicate stagnation or blockages in the digestive tract, specifically relating to the organs of the stomach and small intestines. This can be attributed to the accumulation of acidic waste and toxicity, which is not adequately leaving the body.
Deep laugh lines (and the nasolabial line)
relate to our lung line and liver. These lines could be due to smoking or shallow chest breathing, so that not enough oxygen is getting into the lungs (yoga definitely helps with this!), or a colon that is so backed up that our lung meridian is being impeded. It can also indicate an overloaded liver.
A lined forehead
might point to congestion, and specifically a blocked, toxin-filled colon and gallbladder. Big contributors to this can be consuming a lot of dairy, cooked oils or processed foods. On the other hand, one might have a good diet but is not cleansing properly or adequately to keep up with the toxicity the good diet is kicking up.
Dark under-eye circles or puffiness
can indicate adrenal exhaustion. Too much caffeine, a lack of sleep and too much stress can cause this.
Crow's-feet around the eyes
can also indicate that our adrenals are being overtaxed and that our bodies are acidic and imbalanced.
Patchy skin or lines high up around the cheekbone area
may be associated with heart issues. Eating too much clogging animal protein, too many animal products, or cooked oil could be a major contributor.
The good news is that our cells regenerate. If we take positive steps now to improve our diet and cleanse our bodies, we can reverse issues and make major improvements in our overall heath and beauty!
When it comes to choosing a probiotic supplement, keep in mind that there are numerous probiotics available in the marketplace. However, many of them aren't as effective as they could or should be. Probiotics are living organisms, and like other living organisms they are susceptible to death. The benefits of probiotics are realized only when the
live
probiotic cells make their way to the intestine. The harsh environment of the human stomach kills a good portion of the live cells before they can reach the intestine and benefit our health. When shopping for a probiotic, be sure to look for one that has a specialized delivery system designed to support the safe transport of live cells into the intestine. Also, it is important that there is not just a high culture count overall, but that there is a high culture count of a variety of highly beneficial strains.
Lactobacillus acidophilus
is a common strain and is particularly useful to get candida under control.
Bifidobacterium bifidum
assists with promoting general immunity.
BEAUTY DETOX SECRET #2: PLANT-BASED DIGESTIVE ENZYMES
We've already discussed how important enzymes are to our health and beauty. Over the years, our enzyme reserve becomes diminished. Therefore, our body may not be digesting foods, even properly combined foods, as well as it once did when we were children. We know now that any amount of poorly digested food ferments and putrefies in the digestive tract, stimulating the growth of unfriendly bacteria and the creation of their toxic, acidic by-products and waste, which then become absorbed into the blood and deposited in tissues all around the body, especially soft-tissue areas, such as the joints.
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Toxins in the blood also negatively affect our skin and our physical appearance!
Digestive enzymes are therefore a critical aid to us. They can be taken daily and right before meals and should be ingested before any meal that contains cooked food. They give our bodies an extra boost of lipase, amylase and protease, to help efficiently digest fats, starches and proteins. We could
all
use the boost!