Article By: Dr. Nadia Kumentas NDWhat is Detoxification?Although you may be familiar with the term “detoxification” do you really know what it entails? Most people link doing a detox with weight loss, and while this isn’t necessarily false, there is a lot more to consider when we want to partake in a full-body detox. To start off, is doing a “detox” even necessary? The short answer is YES. In today’s world, we encounter around 2.5 billion pounds of toxic chemicals (including 6 million pounds of mercury alone) each year. Did you know that the average newborn baby has 287 known toxins in his or her umbilical cord blood? You can only imagine how many toxins you have been exposed to by this point in your life if we started with that level of toxic load!Here are some, but not all, of the factors that can contribute to your total toxic load (i.e., total amount of accumulated toxins in the body):Heavy metal exposure, ex. Mercury, lead, petrochemicals, residues, pesticides, and fertilizersAllergies ex. Food allergies, environmental allergies, moldsPoor diet ex. Eating a standard American diet that includes processed, high fat, high sugar, high salt foodsMedications ex. Remember that what goes into the body has to get processed; most pharmaceuticals have a toxic load on the bodyInternal toxins ex. bacteria, fungus, and yeast inside our own systems and intestines, as well as hormonal and metabolic toxins that we need to eliminateMental, emotional, and spiritual toxins, ex. Stress, anger, loneliness, irritability, hostility, etc., all have a profound effect on our body chemistry and all of which translate into toxins in our systemA little scary, right? The good news is that our bodies are well equipped to eliminate toxins on a day-to-day [...]