What Is The Herxheimer Reaction?

My job as an integrative health practitioner is to help my clients remove the toxicities in the body and replace nutrient deficiencies.

Not everyone is equal so every person suffers from different issues, whether it is skin, digestive, hormonal or immune-related. This means that toxicities and nutrient deficiencies in the body are not the same in each of those individuals and this is when working with an experienced integrative health practitioner comes into play!

Healing in natural health is not a “quick fix” and so it is very different to the conventional medicine approach of just taking a pill. Throughout the healing journey, especially at the start, you can experience unpleasant side effects from the detox process. This is called “Herxheimer reaction”.

WHY SHOULD WE “DETOX” IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Every minute of the day, we’re exposed to some type of toxin that you pick up from food (pesticides), drink (chlorine in tap water), the air you breathe and the products that touch your skin for example.

Every person that runs a functional lab test that looks at toxins, comes back showing some level of toxicity. The problem is that these toxins can cause a host of issues, from inflammation to cancer!

The way of doing a full-body detoxification will always be slightly tailored to each individual’s needs but this is something that I include in all of my clients’ healing protocols. Everyone should be doing a full-body detoxification and I always recommend doing it every three months.

Seasonal detoxes is well-known in Ayurveda in order to remove toxins from the body (or Ama in “Ayurvedic Language”) that may have accumulated during the previous season from food, stress, and other factors

WHAT IS A HERXHEIMER REACTION?

Even though a detox is necessary for your body, you may not feel at your best and so there might be a temporary increase in discomfort during that process. 

As internal toxins and waste are being released, the body might get overwhelmed if it cannot eliminate them at the same speed as they are being released.

The more toxic you are, the worse you usually feel when doing a full-body detoxification because you may not have the immune support to help you through that detox.

However, this doesn’t apply to everyone because sometimes the body can handle it very well and this is why bio-individuality is vital. I don’t see it that often in practice and very few clients actually experience this!

HOW TO EASE A HERXHEIMER REACTION

Drink plenty of fluids

Drinking a lot of water and even herbal tea will help flush out the toxins from the body and speed up the detoxification process.

Get the rest that you need

The majority of the detoxification and cleansing process takes place during sleep so try to go to bed a little earlier.

Don’t overexercise

It’s best to give your body a break and the rest it needs for detoxification to take place optimally.

Sweat the toxins out

Using a sauna during this period is one of the best things you can do because it will speed up the detoxification process, as the heat causes the toxins to be eliminated through sweat!

I prefer the infrared-sauna vs the traditional sauna but both work great.

An issue that I have with steam rooms is that health clubs typically don’t have a water filter so the water that they use turns into a vapour and now you’re breathing in chlorine, fluoride and heavy metals into the body.

BUT REMEMBER…

The benefits of having a clean and detoxified body far outweigh any discomfort that you might experience during the process!