Detox and cleanse are very popular words nowadays, especially in spring. Many of us are into detox: we want to try it, we all have opinions how to do it, we like it or we hate it. It might be a recipe for a drink, or a several day procedure, or maybe even fasting, juicing or profound cleansing program with professional help.

First, what is a toxin, anyway? It is basically any substance that creates irritating or harmful effects in the body, which can sometimes even damage our tissues and organs. A lot of people are not aware of the fact that everything we breathe, eat, drink, and even touch, contain toxins; in other words, we can acquire toxins from our environment by breathing them, by ingesting them, or through physical contact with them.

Toxins can be poisons, heavy metals, pesticides, fungicides, cleaning solvents, smog, and many substances that we don't even know are leeching into our bodies via our clothing our furniture, and even out carpets. Did you know that the worst toxins we can ingest are put into our foods as additives and preservatives?

Our body itself produces toxins through its normal every day functions. Fats, free radicals, different irritating substances act as toxins on the internal level. Our body is very intelligent, it is functioning non-stop 24/7 and obviously there are toxins that need to be eliminated. When these substances are not eliminated, they can cause irritation or inflammation of the cells and tissues, blocking normal functions on a cellular, organ and whole body level.

We have to listen to our bodies because they always try to tell us if something is wrong. An overloaded body will alert you that it is in a toxic state by sending out messages in the form of fatigue, gas, headaches, food cravings, constipation, food allergies, chronic pain, blood sugar imbalances, attention problems, premenstrual syndrome, poor sleep, acne and other skin problems, poor digestion, bad breath, etc.

We do need to cleanse our bodies not to become a toxic dump. The question is how far we should go, what type of cleansing will work for us. Well, it depends on our current diet, our physical state and energy level, in other words, it depends on our individual lifestyle and needs.