11 Steps to Reverse Toxic Body Symptoms and Stay Healthy

Toxic body symptoms arise due to repeated exposure to environmental toxins that linger in the body, causing chronic inflammation and disease formation over time. Since chemical and toxin accumulation in the body is aggregate, it takes time to see and feel the effects of exposure to everyday personal products that are deemed as "safe."

Let's explore more about toxic body symptoms and how you can reverse them naturally!

What is Body Toxicity?

It’s not uncommon to hear people talk about their bodies being toxic, but what does it really mean? In this article, we will explore toxic body symptoms and how you can reverse them through simple lifestyle changes and regular body detox protocol.

But first, let’s define what “body toxicity” means. Body toxicity is a condition in which our bodies are overloaded with toxins from food or water contaminated by man-made chemicals or other substances that don’t belong there – like heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, and plastics.

These toxic substances can cause damage to your health because they acidify the pH of your body and disrupt normal bodily functions, including the immune system. The longer these excess toxins stay in your body, the more damage they do and the lousier you end up feeling.

By utilizing the integrative approach to health as outlined by naturopathy and functional medicine, this article will discuss reasons why it is common for the modern individual to experience high levels of body toxicity and offer 11 steps you can take today to eliminate toxins from your body so that you feel more healthy, vital, and energetic – as well as more highly connected to yourself and the world around you!

Is Your Body Toxic?

If you feel physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually imbalanced in any way, chances are that your body is experiencing a toxic overload of environmental toxins that are disrupting the natural body systems designed to keep us well and vital for life.

Whether you are experiencing gut problems, aching joints, allergies, unexplained headaches, muscle pains, upset stomach, and skin problems, know that limiting your toxin exposure is key to experiencing better health.

When it comes to a healthy lifestyle, oftentimes it is not what we consume or add to our lives, but rather, what we eliminate and let go of that improves our condition significantly. Since the modern lifestyle is highly toxic by default, it is important to take personal accountability and make concrete and holistic lifestyle changes that will help the body do what it does best – heal and regenerate!

From heavy metals, to electromagnetic (EMF) exposure, to potentially harmful chemicals in our foods and products, it seems almost impossible to escape the effects of harmful substances. But, with the right attitude, goal setting and concrete action to detox your body and life, you will feel better, healthier, and more connected to yourself and the world around you in no time!

Toxic overload can clog our vital energy pathways, acidify and degenerate our tissues and organs and act as obstructions from experiencing life to the fullest in our highest personal capacity. Literally, our bodies are clogged by obstructions that prevent us from flowing with the energy and essence of life.

Eventually, the overload is so high that chronic inflammation develops into many modern diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, autoimmune conditions, organ failure, and cancer.

By committing to the toxic free lifestyle with healthier lifestyle choices and viewing your body’s experiences in life holistically (through a physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual lens), you will better understand which lifestyle choices no longer serve you in your quest for a better quality of life.

The Most Common Toxic Body Symptoms

Here are the many signs of a toxic body you could be experiencing. The more symptoms you have, the greater the toxicity levels in the body. However, with the right dedication and approach, all of this can be reversed!

Recurrent headaches
Skin rashes/ irritation – eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis
Muscles ache, fibromyalgia, arthritis
Recurrent infections or cold and flu/ decreased immune function
Poor short-term memory and brain fog
Fatigue, malaise, persisting exhaustion
Fear, worry, anxiety, insomnia, mood swings, a dull mind
Irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, sluggish digestion, bad breath
Worsening inflammatory problems like arthritis and asthma
Development of ulcers or hemorrhoids
Loss of mental clarity and motivation
Muscle and joint pain
Vomiting and diarrhea
Frequent sneezing and coughing
Excessive urination
Runny nose and/or lung congestion, which are your mucous membrane secretions
Flatulence or gas and frequent intestinal disorders
Allergies
Sensitivity to artificial smells and fumes
Intolerance to fatty and heavy foods
Lower back pain
Lowered resistance to infections
Needing to rest/ sleep a long time
Pain in your liver or gallbladder
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS), breast soreness, and vaginal infections

11 Tips To Help You Live a Toxic Free Lifestyle

Hydrate Your Body

First, understand that your body is designed to eliminate toxins naturally. Your lymphatic system, kidneys, spleen, gut, and skin are the key organs responsible for detoxification and elimination. While the liver does eliminate toxins from the blood, it acts more like a transformer of chemistry rather than an eliminator.

Essentially, if these vital elimination organs aren’t functioning properly, it’s time to do a tune-up!

An important tip is to drink plenty of purified water and eat many watery organic fruits such as citrus, watermelon, and berries so that you can hydrate with electrolytes and astringent chemistry that will help your body deal with and eliminate toxic build-up.

Next, it’s important to avoid toxic substances that your body cannot eliminate on its own. Common sources of these are petrochemical additives in processed food and cosmetics; plastics, heavy metals, and pesticides in the environment; chemicals in cigarette smoke (including second-hand smoke) as well as environmental pollution derived from cars and toxic environmental chemical fumes.

Eat Organic Foods

One sure way to reduce your exposure to these toxic substances is by eating organic food and produce. Non-organic foods are often sprayed with pesticides, which can accumulate in the body, damage the gut lining, and disrupt the healthy gut microbiome, so it’s important to eat as organically and as close to nature as possible to limit one’s pesticide exposure.

Shopping at farmers’ markets and getting produce from local sources will ensure that we know exactly where our food comes from and that we get all the nutrients we need so that we can thrive in our local environment (organic produce that grows in the same environment we live will provide us with the nutrients that we are missing and which our environmental conditions demand we have for optimal wellness).

Avoid Plastics

In addition, you should avoid plastic containers whenever possible, especially when in contact with heat, since they release toxins into the food and drinks we consume and can easily disrupt hormones and cause estrogen dominance in the body (which is highly toxic to the liver in high quantities).

Endocrine system disruptors alter the messages our cells and organs receive, so that their function becomes distorted and eventually fully compromised. Plastic is the most common material that causes endocrine disruption, which damages our glands and their hormone production.

Switch to All Natural Products

The skin is our largest organ, so it’s important to take care of it by using only natural products that are free from harmful chemicals like parabens and other preservatives or fragrances, which can be toxic to us in small doses and become health issues over time (the body accumulates toxins it can’t properly eliminate, which inevitably causes cellular degeneration and disease).

This means eliminating toxic exposure from detergents and soaps you use to wash dishes, laundry, and your home.

In addition, you should eliminate toxic products in your home (and alternatively make your own healthy versions with vinegar, essential oils, and baking soda) and try to avoid using products with ingredients that you cannot pronounce. In short, if you wouldn’t eat it, you shouldn’t put it on your skin!

Avoid Toxic Food

Harmful foods also contribute to a high toxic load, especially sugary cereals, as well as refined grains such as white bread, pasta, and rice. All of these products create acidic ash in the body (post-metabolic acidity), upset the digestive system, and can cause a leaky gut.

Meat also causes high acidity, gut fermentation, and kidney failure, so reduce or eliminate your intake altogether. Alcohol, sodas, and excessive coffee intake also impact and impair the function and health of the liver, the brain, and other organs.

Likewise, stay away from preservatives such as MSG, additives, and artificial flavoring and coloring, which act as neurotoxins. Commercially-processed foods also contain a toxic milieu of processed sugar, salt, hydrogenated oils, and man-made chemicals.

Detoxify With Foods and Natural Products

We can also include some natural detox supplements to help us remove metabolic toxins from the body faster, such as activated charcoal, which binds to positive ions (toxins) and removes them from the body before they do more damage.

For example, lemon and lime juice have high astringent content that helps eliminate accumulated, stagnant waste and treat constipation; likewise, detoxifying herbs, such as parsley and cilantro, to name a few, help expel toxins and heal damaged tissue.

And if you want to take our detox to another level altogether, a high quantity intake of organic fruits will help alkalize, nourish, and energize our cells so that they can function, protect and help us heal.

Introduce Healthier Lifestyle Habits

The goal of detox is not only removing toxins but also healing tissues, organs, and glands that had been damaged by long-term toxin and acid exposure.

When we stop eating processed foods and start consuming more fresh fruits and vegetables, our body will have the alkaline chemistry it needs to cleanse itself of accumulated toxic chemicals.

But if we go a step further and introduce even better lifestyle habits, such as an alkaline diet, more rest and sleep, daily walks and movement (especially in nature), and greater self-care, then we will be able to release physical, emotional and mental burdens that had been weighing us down for so long and allow the body to reverse any long-term damage we may have caused through our lifestyle choices.

Eliminate Dairy From Your Diet

Eliminating dairy products will also help you purge mucus and inflammation from the body as well as heal your skin and gut. Dairy includes foreign animal protein not designed to be digested by our body, and the body works hard to deal with its compounds – often leading to chronic inflammation and digestive problems.

In fact, a high intake of dairy products often leads to frequent colds and flu and contributes to the leaky gut syndrome, chronic skin issues, tumor growth, and overall congestion of the waste system in the body.

Stay Away From Heavy Metals

Heavy metals such as mercury, lead, aluminum, fluoride, and cadmium also lead to toxicity and can accumulate in the body over time, which is why it’s important for anyone who works with these substances regularly (i.e., welders) or consumes them through their diet (mercury found in fish) to be monitoring how much they are absorbing into their system.

Cooking with aluminum pans and baking food in aluminum foil, for example, can cause the heavy metal to leach into our food and be absorbed through our digestive system and into all tissues and organs.

Likewise, drinking unfiltered tap water can expose us to high levels of fluoride and chlorine, both of which are highly toxic to the body. All heavy metals are especially highly toxic to the brain and the neurological system, and are known to cause the onset of degenerative diseases like dementia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and even autism spectrum disorder.

Eliminate Pharmaceutical Drugs

Pharmaceutical drugs and Western medicine are some of the most common and the least understood sources of toxicity. Chemical medication is the most accepted and even promoted source of toxicity in our modern world.

Although we seem to think that pharma drugs work, they are only designed to target the alleviation of symptoms, but because of their chemical nature, they do more damage to the body long-term by adding to their toxic load.

In actuality, studies show that the majority of the reported benefits of chemical drugs come from the placebo effect – or from one’s belief that the drugs will work and help (basically, mind over matter).

Given that medical malpractice is the 3rd biggest cause of death in the U.S., it is clear that the symptom-based medical approach has nothing to do with health and everything with short-term patient “comfort” and “customer satisfaction.”

Prioritize Emotional and Mental Health

Aches and pains, headaches, sinus problems, mood swings (especially anger), and emotional issues are also side effects of a toxic lifestyle and inflammation.

In particular, extreme anger is a form of toxicity that manifests in the body as an inflammatory response (it is a sign of an overloaded liver) – and the more we allow these emotions to go unchecked and get out of control regularly, the greater their effect will be on our well-being.

Inevitably, there is a correlation between body toxicity and emotional and mental health; and the same is true the other way around – our emotions can acidify our bodies and cause more of those issues to occur.

Chronic pain can likewise signal the presence of repressed emotions that are stuck in the body and need to be released. How we handle negative emotions (becoming upset, angry, sad, or depressed) can cause more acids to be produced in the body (mind over matter).

Why Detoxification is Key to Healing and Wellness

Ultimately, if we don’t focus on addressing our toxic body symptoms from the source of the problem and keep approaching wellness from the treatment mindset, we will never get too far with our health goals.

Although natural treatments are a wonderful supplement to a healthy lifestyle, they cannot replace a holistic commitment to eating, thinking, and feeling on a higher vibrational level.

Therefore, if we don’t take accountability and invest in our personal wellness as a life-long commitment, looking for quick fixes may make us feel better but will not improve our health.

The human body is a remarkable biological ecosystem that is both adaptive, self-regulating, and self-healing. It is quite incredible that it can withstand so much toxic bombardment to keep us alive and functional! Its intelligence is profound and innate, and we truly owe it to ourselves to keep our temple clean and help it do what it is designed to do – carry us through life.

Just as we clean our homes, our cars, and our personal items, our bodies require regular cleaning – not only on the outside but likewise on the inside.

The body’s lymphatic system is its sewage and immune system that requires our help to function optimally. To flow through all the cells, tissues, and organs and flush out acids, the lymph fluid needs to be moved through movement and exercise and purged by the elimination organs with the help of highly astringent, alkaline chemistry.

Get Rid of Your Toxic Body Symptoms For Good!

Eliminating harmful toxic exposure from our lives by starting with the tips listed above as well as engaging in regular body detoxes is the best way to reclaim our health, improve the quality of our lives, and ensure we have enough vitality to realize our goals.

If we invest in ourselves long-term through commitment and accountability, we can ensure physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual benefits that last a lifetime. What better return on investment is there?

And if you need any guidance on your detoxification journey, I am here for you. I offer personal wellness consultations, health guides, and educational tools that will help you understand your body, heal illness naturally, and live the life you’ve always envisioned.