Detox

In one of my recent blog articles “It Can Be So Simple to Start your Detox Journey” I had explained some background of the acid-base balance of our body. I had also mentioned that the skin is one of your natural detox channels via we can excrete acids. But that it is very often blocked caused by our modern lifestyle. The good news is that we can easily reactivate our skin as one of our natural detox channels.

The face creams and body lotions, which we usually use, are acidic. This does not motivate the acids in our body to leave our body through our skin, at all, as there is no concentration gradient. A ball will also go nowhere on a flat plain. By using basic skin care you create the needed gradient and the acids leave our body happily through our skin till the concentration level on both sides is in balance.

As basic skin care you can use natural oils and fats as for example organic coconut or olive oil or shea butter. Coconut oil is a bit lighter compared to olive oil and shea butter. Most of the time I use coconut oil for my face and my body. When it is cold and my skin of my face is very demanding I like to use shea butter. Olive oil mixed with basic bath salt is a great peeling that I like to apply, when I want to give my body a special treat.

Using natural oils and fats has another advantage. They do not contain glycerin as a lot of the face creams and body lotions do. Glycerin drags the moisture out of our skin. Our skin looks and feels smooth from the outside. But the inside of our skin dries out and it loses the ability for self-regulation. As consequence we need to apply the creams and lotions more and more. It is like a vicious cycle. If we just stop to use the creams and lotions our skin gets terribly dry and itchy. I had used face creams and body lotions for decades. I was literally addicted to them. Several months ago, I switched to natural fats and oils. My skin feels already much better. It is not itchy anymore. And I do not need to apply oil after every shower to my body anymore as I had needed to do during the decades using body lotion.

In addition, I take care to provide my body from the inside with enough organic vegetable oil.

If you want to try it out pay also attention to the shower gel or soap you are using. It also should not contain any glycerin. Usually, you can find this kind of soap in organic grocery stores.

Photo by Dana Tentis

Our performance and well-being depend greatly on our physical health. As very simple example when you overeat for lunch most likely during the afternoon you will not be as productive as you could have been and do not feel so well as you would have, if you would not have eaten too much.

One way to improve your physical health and thus your performance is to detox. You want to start to detox but you are not sure how to do it or you have no time or you do not like to change your lifestyle? To begin your Detox Journey can be very simple by starting to use basic bath salt with little effort and generating already a positive impact on your acid-base balance.

Why does the acid-base balance of our body is getting out of balance?

We take up too many acidifiers with our food with for example sugar, white flour and white rice and with animal protein. In addition, our body produces acids itself when having mental or physical stress. With our modern lifestyle our body is not able to excrete all the acids naturally via for example our breathing and skin. And very often we do not drink enough water.

Why is it important to have the right acid-base balance?

The body is capable to buffer a too high acidity in your blood and to maintain the required basic pH value. This is true. But it comes with a catch. Out of the acids and out of minerals our body forms salts. If these salts cannot be excreted, our body stores them in our connective tissue. Our connective tissue has great storage capacity. But its genuine role is not to be the waste bin of our system. It is to supply our organ cells with nutrients. If your storing threshold is exceeded this can lead to health issues, overweight or reduced vitality.

What is basic salt and how does it work?

Usually, it consists out of salts as Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Chloride or Magnesium Carbonate. You solve it in water and get a basic solution with a pH of around 8.5. By applying it to your body it removes excess acidic components from your body as the different concentration levels – acidic in your body and basic in the water solution – strive to get balanced. The greater the concentration gradient, the easier the balancing will take place. You can compare it with a ball that rolls down a hill. The steeper the hill the faster the ball will roll down.

How do you use the basic bath salt?

You can use it for example to bath your whole body in it or only your feet, as mouthwash or as basic wrap.

Basic footbath: Detoxing via the sole of your feet is very effective. For a basic footbath you use a bowl with water and add about 1 tablespoon of basic bath salt. You should bath your feet for at least 20 min. After about 60 to 90 min you need to renew the water with the basic bath salt as the water is saturated with the acidic components. I love the footbath as it takes almost no effort. You can do it, while you are sitting somewhere and for example watching TV, reading, working with your laptop or even being in a virtual meeting. While I am writing this article, I am enjoying a basic footbath.

Basic body bath: For a basic body bath you add about 3 to 4 tablespoons of the salt to the water in your bathtub. It is important that the water temperature is below 38 ° Celsius as otherwise the balancing of the different concentration levels will not work properly (The temperature for your footbath is not so important. As not so much water fits into a bowl, the temperature will decrease very quickly to below 38 degree Celsius). The cooler the water the more you are able to detox. But the water should not be so cold that you start to freeze as this is counterproductive. You should take the bath at least for 40 min. Starting from 2 hours your organs might even start to detox. This bath takes for sure more effort. But I like to combine it with reading, listening to a podcast or audio book, talking with someone on the phone. You even can bring your laptop with you and put it on a chair beside your bathtub and watch a series on Netflix or an online course.

Basic mouthwash: For a basic mouthwash you add about ¼ teaspoon of the bath salt to about 2 finger width of water in a glass. Just play a bit around how much water you need to rinse your mouth properly and how much salt you need for this amount of water that the salt is solved totally in the water. If you add too much salt, the excess salt will not be solved. This is not a problem. It is just a pity as you would throw the excess salt away. You can rinse your mouth with the salt water for several minutes every morning and evening after you brushed your teeth. Just start with about 30 seconds and increase the time of rinsing little by little if you are sensitive. As I rinsed my mouth right away for several minutes my mouth felt a little sore, which I could eliminate by reducing the time and raising it again step by step. When I rinse my mouth, I use the time to do already something else as washing my face, brushing my hair or getting dressed. Thus, it almost takes no extra time. At the end of the rinsing I like to gurgle for a moment with the basic salt water before I spit it out.

Basic wrap: For a basic wrap you soak for example a small towel or a cloth with a saturated basic bath salt solution and use it for the specific area of your body that you want to detox. Choose a water temperature that feels comfortable to you. For inflammations you should use colder and for chronic diseases warmer water. Renew the wrap every 30 min. You can use it for example when you have problems with your joints or a sore throat. Recently, the joint of my right middle finger felt sore. So, I used a basic wrap for it and after a few days and wraps the soreness was gone.

I take daily either a basic salt foot or body bath and rinse my mouth with the basic bath salt water after I brushed my teeth. I use the wrap, when I feel the need for it for a special area of my body. I can feel that it helps me to detox as it frees up my nose. Usually I have a bit of a stuffy nose. So far, it only freed up when I did a complete Detox treatment.

Got curious? Try it out. Basic salt baths are a great gateway to your Detox Journey.

Photo by Castorly Stock