Detoxing & Boosting Collagen

As always with my blog, these are my personal beliefs and experiences. I am in no way diagnosing, prescribing, or treating. Please refer to my disclaimer and I recommend getting medical advice before doing anything new, especially if you're ill or have underlying medical issues.

This will be a living blog post and I will update it as I detox and get new results. I will be posting about my hair analysis results soon--I just wanted to post this because a few people have requested it :)

We are surrounded by environmental toxins. We are born with them-passed onto us via our mother. They are in pharmaceuticals. They're in our foods, water, air, and in our homes. As with germs, we can't fully escape them, but we can limit exposure and prevent. Even if we eat organically, drink purified water, and use non-toxic products, we are still exposed to toxins and heavy metals, even in the air we breathe. Detoxing is not a one and done, it's something we have to strive for, for the rest of our lives.

Below I'll discuss the best way to test for heavy metal and how I am detoxing. This is only a detox for various toxins, not for parasites. I created a parasite cleanse in 2014 that I will blog about soon.

We hear about the ill effects of lead (old paint, water), arsenic (water, rice), aluminum (vaccines, cookware), and mercury (flu shot, amalgam filings). What I wasn't aware of until I started biohacking, is thallium and cadmium are two metals that are even more detrimental to our health and are everywhere (study).

Thallium can be up to 10x more toxic than mercury and is found in many things-I'll list a few common ones: car exhaust, cruciferous vegetables, soil, rodenticides and ant killers (you may not use them at home, but they spray them at work), and some fluoridated waters (study).

Cadmium is even more toxic than thallium. Cadmium is said to be high on the list for causing cancer (study) and aging. Cadmium is found in the air we breath and in large amounts. It's also found in exhaust, cigarette smoke, fossil fuels, and batteries.

Beauty-So not only am I focusing on detoxing from my breast implants and other environmental toxins, I want the fountain of youth lol. But really, we all want to remain wrinkle free, and after a long battle with myself, I decided to never get botox or filler. I just can't trust the FDA in what they are actually putting in the syringes. They used to swear silicone implants were safe and now we find out they are laden with chemicals, heavy metals, and can cause cancer--no thanks. During my research, I found that silica not only removes toxins, it naturally boosts collagen production, allowing you to have less wrinkles and beautiful hair and nails. Heavy metal causes a lot of havoc on our bodies, including aging.

Around the age of 21, our collagen really begins to decrease. If you have brittle hair and nails, wrinkles, stiff joints and ligaments, or osteoporosis, you are likely deficient in silica (study, article, article, study, study). And no, there is no similarity between silica (silicon) and silicone. One reason we no longer get satisfactory amounts of silica is due to current farming practices. A few ways to increase collagen are drinking real bone broth, eating egg whites, and collagen rich meats. Wendy Myer has so much more information on her website regarding this! Below I have listed two of her amazing supplements and you can receive 25% off your purchase by using this link or the links below!

Excerpt from her website, discussing a study and silica:

With this form of silica, in a 20-week double-blind study, 50 women ages 40-65 with clear sun-damaged/wrinkled skin took 10mg of OSA (the same amount in Ageless AF).

The women who took the OSA had 30% improved micro-wrinkles, 55% better skin elasticity, and significantly less brittle hair and nails.

Below are signs you may have toxin overload:

The Best Way to Check Your Heavy Metal Levels

I ordered a hair mineral analysis test from Myer Detox. It was only $99 and tests 37 minerals and heavy metals. PSA, you have to cut your hair from the scalp--I was not aware of that when I ordered the test! My hair is down to my elbows, so it was a little scary knowing I was cutting an inch of hair from the scalp. Good thing is, they send you a video on exactly how to do it. I was able to do it on my own with no issue. You cut your hair a few inches above the nape of the neck, so no one will ever notice you're missing a small chunk of hair. And then, when you retest, after detox, a few months later, you can use that same place to re-cut the hair. It really isn't as bad as it sounds. They email everything, and in the same day, you can send off your hair sample to them, so it makes for a quick turn around. I wanted to make sure my hair was sent out prior to my breast explant. I want to see how toxic I was before the explant and before I do my detox. I will then do another analysis once my implants are removed and I've done a detox protocol. I'll be sure to keep you all posted. You can do a detox without a hair analysis, but I think it's important so you can do a follow up analysis to see if the detox helped.

My Detox Protocol

Instead of paying for a consultation and personalized coaching, I did extensive research and intuitively chose what I felt will best help in detoxing myself. Now, I encourage you all to intuitively choose what's best for you, however, I will share what I'm doing to detox. I can't wait to retest and see my new results. I have two supplement options, one being a cheaper option for those on a tighter budget, or are unsure they want to spend the money, or hesitant that it will really work. I ordered supplements through the Myer Detox website, but then wanted to research for similar products that won't break the bank.

I did research on many of the binders like pectin, charcoal, zeolite, and bentonite clay. Bentonite clay is great for calming the gut and assisting with a hangover. It is a great binder as well and I use it in my parasite cleanse. Chlorella like in spirulina is great because it is not only a chelator but also binds the heavy metals. I think this and my Berkey water system is why my heavy metals are way lower than I thought they would be. Charcoal isn't good to be used long-term, but is great when someone has food poisoning. Zeolite is an amazing chelator and binder, BUT many of them on the market are not as advertised and won't effectively work. Now the ones that are proven to work like TRS are very very expensive. I decided to use silica due to its beauty benefits and ability to remove heavy metals and pectin because it's a good overall binder that won't break the bank.

I also want to remind you that detoxing isn't a one time thing. It needs to be done throughout the year.

To assist in detoxing: 1. You want something to mobilize the toxins from the tissues. 3. Something to bind to the toxins, so they can safely be removed. 4. You want to assist the toxins in being removed from the body.

Read Carefully

Step 1

Preparation:

I began doing this at least four days prior to beginning step two-then continue through rest of protocol:

Do what you can and what fits in your lifestyle

• Eating healthy, limiting caffeine

• Drinking at least 3-32 oz bottles of water per day

• Fresh lemon and ginger in hot water each morning to flush our system

• Getting 7+ hours of sleep per night

• Milk thistle daily to assist in opening your detox pathways and support the liver. It also has anti-aging properties. More info here.

• Probiotics daily to promote good gut bacteria.

• Dry brushing each day to jump start the lymphatic system

• Detox bath as many times a week as possible or Magnesium spray. to increase magnesium absorption which will assist in detoxification.

Step 2

The Supplements:

Option 1 ($75 for 1 month supply with my coupon):

Necessary:

• Take Ageless AF- As directed and try to take prior to food. Pulls toxins from the cells that cause long term free radical damage. It has great properties like selenium and garlic to detoxify and oxidative stress reduction. The form of silica in this product is Ortho Silicic Acid (OSA), which is a chelator, and is not only the best absorbed form of silica, it also has the highest excretion rate. Therefore, it doesn't hang around in the body for long periods of time. OSA removes Aluminum, arsenic, thallium, tin, antimony, bismuth, and iron with great success. assists in rebuilding our own collagen!! Boosting your collagen naturally beats taking powdered collagen ten-fold. Powdered collagen we see on the market isn't properly absorbed and utilized in our body. It's seriously a waste of money.

• Take Citricleanse one hour later to mop up the toxins- As directed. Mineralizes, mobilizes, and binds the toxins. Fulvic humic acid to mineralize and help better push out the metals trapped in our tissues. Cilantro is a chelator and helps pull toxins like mercury, lead, arsenic, copper, and aluminum. Citrus pectin has been known to be a great binder as well and even known to kill cancer cells. Boron found in the grapefruit skin binds to almost every heavy metal. Citricleanse, like many other binders, helps in reducing your detox symptoms also called a herxheimer reaction.

She has so much more information on her website. Remember 25% off with this link!

Option 2 ($30 for ~2 months supply)- my cheaper option:

Necessary:

• Take Biosil- 5 drops twice per day as directed on label for beauty. It's cheaper than Ageless AF. Its still Ortho Silicic Acid (OSA) and has the detox capabilities (chelator) and increases natural collagen production, but it doesn't have the additions of selenium or the garlic. You can eat brazil nuts for selenium and eat crushed garlic (info on garlic below). Boosting your collagen naturally with silica beats taking powdered collagen ten-fold. Powdered collagen we see on the market isn't properly absorbed and utilized in our body. It's seriously a waste of money.

• Take Apple Pectin one hour later to mop up the toxins- 3 capsules a day and see how bowels do. This will be used as your binder, but it won't have the added benefits of fulvic humic acid and cilantro. You could buy this cilantro tincture and take as directed on label. This binder also helps in reducing your detox symptoms also called a herxheimer reaction.

Optional, but I choose to do for best results:

• Magnesium assist the liver in detoxification, binding to them to be removed through the urinary tract. Spray or epsom salt baths are great options.

• Remineralization is important. Most purified water is depleted of minerals. The Berkey system doesn't deplete the minerals from the water when it removes heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, bacteria, etc. You can cheaply add minerals by adding a pinch of sea salt into your water but this doesn't add a ton of minerals. To more effectively add larger amounts of minerals you can buy a product like this.

• Garlic- to assist with anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, reduce oxidative stress, and boosts immunity. Crush 3 cloves, allow to sit on counter for 10 min to allow allicin to be released, then swallow pieces, once per day.

• NAC as directed on label. It's the precursor in creating our own glutathione). It's our most amazing antioxidant created in our body and helps neutralize free radicals which cause things like signs of aging and cancer. Also NAC is great for assisting in removing mercury. It's also one of best and most important antioxidants produced in our cells. More info on glutathione.

• Vitamin C (my favorite supplement) helps neutralize free radicals which cause things like signs of aging and cancer. Vitamins C also supports the absorption of silica. More info on vitamin C high doses here.

• Probiotics daily. Beneficial for the gut while ridding the body of toxins. This one is my favorite and is unflavored.

• Spirulina An easy to swallow tabs or powder if you make smoothies. They are a great chelator and binder, much like cilantro.

• CBD oil has antioxidant properties that can help with detoxing and anti-aging. CBD also works with the endocannabinoid system, creating homeostasis throughout the other body systems will in return help during detoxification. You get 10% off with this link. (study and article)

Step 3

The Assisters:

Choose which ones will fit your lifestyle the best. I personally like to do a mix of all of them, intuitively choosing what my body is needing at the time. These assist the body in moving lymph, detoxing, and keeping pathways open.

• Infrared sauna- Assists in removing toxins from fat cells and is vital during a detox. It's great for killing mold, parasites, and yeast. Make sure you have taken your binder within the last 8-12 hours so the binder is able to effectively mop up toxins released during sauna. If you don't own one or have one near you, then sweating with exercise or hot detox bath is second best.

• Dry brushing- Stimulates the lymphatic system to function properly and assist in removing toxins and increases circulation.

• Lymphatic massage- Moves lymphatic fluid in the body, helping removes toxins, reduce fluid retention, and increases ability to heal. Even a 20 min walk will get the lymph flowing.

• Coffee enemas naturally increases your glutathione levels and allow the liver to dump toxins, removing them through the colon. I've done these periodically since 2014, and love them. I wish I did them more often.

How to prevent heavy metals and toxins.

Although toxins are inevitable in this day and age, we can do our best to minimize our intake. I'll list some that come to mind.

• Clean water. I've use my Berkey water filtration system for 10 years now and will never use another system. I truly believe this is one of the reasons why my heavy metals are so low.You can read more about it here. In the link, you can see how many toxins and metal and pharmaceuticals are removed from the water. There's also a discount link!

• Baths/showers. This leads me to water in our baths and showers. We absorb high amounts of chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals through bathing, as our body is the largest organ in our body. I have a detox bath blog post that discusses my favorite way to take a bath-removing chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals-all while getting the much needed magnesium most of us are deficient in. In our shower we use this filter to remove heavy metals and chlorine.

• Clean air. It's been proven that due to off-gassing of carpet, furniture, and construction, the air in our homes are more toxic than the air outside, which is scary, because the air outside (especially in the city) is not healthy. I am home almost 100% of the time, so I am constantly breathing the off-gassing in our new home. I finally broke down and bought an Air Doctor and I am so glad I did. It's super sensitive, notifying when it's detecting issues in the air--like when I'm cooking. It captures particles, viruses, VOCs and more, and is 100x better at capturing these than a traditional HEPA filter.

• Food. I do my best to eat as organically as possible, but even organic foods contain toxins and heavy metals from the soil and the eco-friendly products they use. I found that rice has massive levels of arsenic in it, even organic. I found that Lundberg's Organic Rice is grown in California and has lower levels of arsenic than many other brands.

• Products. Conventional cleaning products, cosmetics, and toiletries a ton of chemicals in them that is a bonus if we can eliminate them. I love EWG, as you can search for products to see what is safer for us and our kids. My favorite sunscreen that is mineral based, but doesn't go on white AND approved by EWG is ThinkSport Sunscreen. It took me forever to find one I like, and I'm confident you'll love this!

I hope my experiences help you in intuitively choosing what's best for you.

Check back--I'll be posting the parasite cleanse I created back in 2014.