I hope you survived the full moon and the lunar eclipse energy. It’s also Mercury Retrograde so if life’s been a little crazy, communication is going astray or technology has let you down this week then there’s a reason.  

Apparently this full moon is all about letting go of the old and welcoming in the new.  Purging and releasing things from our lives that no longer serve us. These things might be the clutter in our house, old habits we no longer want, relationships that are not working for us, jobs, emotional baggage, your overflowing email inbox or the out of date stuff in your pantry, fridge or bathroom cabinet.

Lots of people at this time of the year are working on shedding those excess kilos for the summer. Whatever it is that you no longer want in your life, now is the time to clear them.  Of course it’s not just the eclipse energy that inspires letting go. After all it is Spring so you may already have begun spring cleaning your house, but today I want to talk to you about spring cleaning your body. I know this is an annual theme and you may have heard me talk about it already but it never hurts to be reminded.

Now, our body has a number of detox pathways.  Our liver and kidneys do the bulk of the work clearing toxins from our system. Our lungs and our skin also play a role. When the liver and the kidneys are on overload our skin will do its best to help out.

One thing many people don’t know is that skin conditions like at acne, eczema and psoriasis can occur when the body has a toxic overload and the liver and kidneys can’t keep up.  So what causes toxic overload?

Well, you guessed it:

• Chemical additives and preservatives in our food
• Herbicides
• Pesticide
• Hormones and heavy metals in our food
• Alcohol (if you drink)
• Cigarettes (if you smoke)
• Environmental pollution (if you breathe)
• Chemicals absorbed from skincare or cleaning products
• Plastics from food packaging etc.
• Unfiltered water
• Medication and antibiotics
• Certain foods that we are sensitive to
• The biochemicals of stress

Even if you live a very pure, healthy life one of the things that can put a huge toxic overload onto your system is a condition that has only just begun to be understood and acknowledged by conventional medicine.  For many years Naturopaths have called it Leaky Gut Syndrome. Recently doctors have named it Intestinal Permeability.

So what does it mean?  Well, normally the lining of the gut only allows fully digested nutrients from our food to pass through into the bloodstream and it filters out the rest.

When your gut wall is leaky (or too permeable) undigested food particles can pass through into the bloodstream. This is toxic to the system and the liver has to work hard to clear it. The other problem is that the immune system sees undigested food particles as foreign and it learns to attack them. This can lead to food intolerances and allergies. It can also trigger auto-immune disease since these undigested particles sometimes look very much like the molecules of our own organs and tissues but our immune system has learned to destroy them. Oops!

So, getting back to the liver..   what does the liver do with toxins?  Well, it excretes them back into the intestines. If you have Leaky Gut or Intestinal Permeability do you see the problem?

A leaky gut wall allows those toxins to be reabsorbed into the blood stream, back to liver and back to the gut. Round and round they go. The liver simply can’t cope if the gut is not doing its job.

As I said earlier when the liver is on overload the skin and other systems begin to struggle. According to MindBodyGreen.com here are 10 symptoms that could be caused by Leaky Gut Syndrome and 10 reasons to detox your body:

1. Psoriasis
2. Digestive problems
3. Allergies and asthma
4. Hormonal imbalance, PMS and PCOS
5. Autoimmune disease,  rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis, lupus, psoriasis
6. Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia
7. Mood and mind issues like depression and anxiety ADD and ADHD
8. Skin issues like acne, rosacea, eczema
9. Diagnosis of candida overgrowth
10. Food allergies and food intolerances

So how do you heal? A Naturopath will typically use 3 steps to help your gut heal…

1. WEED– First you need to remove or treat all the things that are damaging to your system including the inflammatory foods, yeast overgrowth, pathogens or parasites.
2. SEED –  Then you need to restock with healthy gut bacteria and rebalance missing acids and enzymes.
3. FEED – Next you need to nourish the good bugs with clean whole, healthy foods that suit your particular system and provide all the nutrients needed to heal the gut wall.

There are certainly steps you can take yourself but if you’d like support with a health issue I highly recommend making an appointment with one of our Naturopaths or booking a Free 60 Minute Health Assessment so we can point you in the right direction.

By the way, here are some photos of a client with Psoriasis before and during his treated with our Naturopath, Anna Talaj.

If you would like a FREE HEALTH ASSESSMENT please call us on 9842 7033 or….

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