Movement is life! This was my original claim made in the original blog post on the importance of movement for health. This chapter on movement has been the longest and most encompassing topic of the Innate Essentials.
This is chapter 4.7, 3 ways movement is vital to a full-body detox. I am combining the lymphatic system, urinary system, and integumentary system when discussing the effect of movement on detoxification. All of our systems work well together but these three are major components of the waste excretory system.
Early on in chapter 4.2, I related to you that every cell in the body must take in nutrients and excrete wastes. In that chapter, I was referring to cartilage cells and how the lack of movement within the musculoskeletal system is devastating to proper cellular function. The result is an increased rate of joint degeneration (arthritis) resulting in pain and movement dysfunction. Proper movement of the joints depends on proper postures and has been shown to be crucial for fluid exchange which results in keeping cartilage cells fresh and alive.
“If you don’t make time for your wellness, you will be forced to take time for your illness.”
3 ways movement is essential for full-body detoxification
Much like cartilage cells depend on joint movement for fluid exchange, the body’s detoxification systems rely on movement for fluid exchange. The lymphatic system, integumentary system, and excretory systems have many roles but collectively they all share a common role in helping the body detoxify from cellular waste and inorganic properties. In a previous blog post, 20 common sources of toxic chemicals, I relate that a body inundated with toxins has no chance to fight for its health.
This leaves you with two ways to help encourage a less toxic lifestyle. First, reduce your toxic load and second, optimize your detoxification systems.
Movement encourages the optimization of the detoxification through these 3 systems and more.
1. The Lymphatic System
The lymphatic system’s primary role is to collect toxic fluid throughout your body and usher it back to the blood to be filtered and excreted. One of its secondary roles is to provide an immunity defense of white blood cells into these areas of toxicity.
The function of the lymphatic system depends largely on movement and hydration. The movements performed by the musculoskeletal system is the pump that allows for the transfer of lymph fluids.
Think of the heart. The heart is a muscular pump that forces blood to move throughout the body through vascular pathways. The lymphatic system is similar but without a designated pump. The pump instead is global movement or exercise of the entire musculoskeletal system. Without muscle acting as a pump, the lymphatic fluid would sit stagnant and be unable to perform its functions. The lymph, along with blood, gathers wastes and herds it towards filtering systems in the body, namely the liver and kidneys, and pushes it out of the body through excretory points.
Two of these excretory points for our focus are the integumentary system (skin) and the urinary system. Other excretory points for detoxification may include the digestive system and respiratory system.
Just as the lymphatic system has more functions other than gathering wastes and eliminating them from the body, so do all other systems. Read more here with 12 critical reasons your entire body needs exercise.
2. The Integumentary System
It is common knowledge that movement plays a role in the health of the cardiovascular system. The acceleration of the heart causes the body temperature to rise and triggers the sweat response. This phenomenon happens under other conditions such as a fever or warmer climates. The primary role of sweat is to cool down the body.
However, one of the lesser-known and highly debated roles of sweating is to release toxins, inorganic materials and to balance out the body’s chemistry. Evidence has shown that sweating may be highly effective in detoxifying certain chemicals such as BPA. If you haven’t seen my post on Xenoestrogens then you are in for a shocker.
Protocols for detoxification such as “kill, bind, sweat”, developed by dr. Jess Peatross, have proven to be very effective in helping the immune system respond to mold, Lyme and hormone imbalances that mainstream medicine fails to understand. One of the major components of this protocol is sweat detoxification. Assuming all other detoxification excretory points are working symbiotically, then the act of movement can help you achieve elite detoxification success. Get moving!
3. The Excretory System
So what is the largest piece to this detoxification puzzle?
It is the excretory system or systems. Which is better going number 1 or number 2?
Number 2 – We have already discussed the role of movement on your digestive system, so you know that movement helps provide motility of the intestinal tract, which in turn helps to increase the output and regularity of detoxification with bowel movements. This is crucial to remove insoluble wastes from the digestive exchange. This, however, is only one small piece of the detoxifying excretory process.
Number 1 – The larger piece of the detoxification puzzle is the filtration of blood and lymph through the liver, kidneys, and spleen that will be eventually expelled via the urinary tract. These organs function in unison to help filter out all of the unnecessary or even harmful chemicals in your body. The urinary tract provides a crucial excretory point for the constant internal cellular waste and turnover created by living.
The skin creates and discards 30,000 to 40,000 new cells every minute. Your skin is completely turned over every 27 days. Obviously these cells just die and fall off into existence making more dust in the wind. These cells never having to be filtered out through blood or lymph.
Most organic structures need to be filtered out such as cellular waste from the liver (new in 150 days), the Stomach (new in five days), and the bones (new every 10 years). Here is a great graph with some other cellular turnover data.
Move or die
As you know, the Innate Essential of hydration is needed to help the kidneys process this constant changeover of human cells. Without proper hydration, the detoxification of urine slows due to the increase in urinary viscosity.
Movement aides in the process of excretion by increasing the body’s ability to exchange fluids from the deepest darkest spaces that exist internally. It allows for the oldest of cobwebs to be brushed away and all the dustiest surfaces to be wiped clean. This ultimately will change the composition of the urine as it detoxifies all different types of cellular tissue. If you don’t move regularly and with a great routine, you don’t detoxify maximally and then you die earlier and with more suffering. Just MOVE!
“The nervous system holds the key to the body’s incredible potential to heal itself.”
-Dr. Jay Holder M.D.
Chiropractic Soapbox
It has been my experience that a minority of patients will feel sick after an adjustment. This usually only happens with the first adjustment or the first adjustment after a long break from receiving chiropractic care. In fact, many believe that this is a negative thing. The body showing signs of sickness or soreness after an adjustment is the result of the detoxification pathways working at a deeper level than most will ever get with their everyday activities of life.
This is to relate that movement as described above is helpful in the detoxification process but often not enough to get some of the more stubborn areas to release their pinned up toxins. This, however, doesn’t shed light on the fact that when a vertebra is misaligned, causing a subluxation, the central nervous system is not working optimally. The body adjusted and back in alignment sends a message to rid itself of toxins with 100% physiological effectiveness resulting in a feeling of being sick as it handles the new detoxification load.
It is much more common to have a feeling of soreness after an adjustment and I explain this further in a detailed post here. Soreness is a result of healthy inflammation, fluid exchange, and proteoglycan cartilage production. A Chiropractic specific adjustment cannot be substituted by any exercise and cannot be performed by anyone other than a Chiropractor. The best prevention of a subluxation, aka movement deficiency syndrome, is healthy routines of physical, chemical and emotional well-being practices that are the Innate Essentials.
“Routines build Dreams”
-Nick The DC
Movement is Essential to Life
Exercise’s role in detoxification is the ending of this chapter on the Innate Essential of Movement. Here is an archive of each post.
The Introductory Post – Movement is life
Chapter 4.0 – 12 Critical Reasons Your Entire Body Needs Exercise
Chapter 4.1 – 7 Scientific Ways Exercise Improves Your Brain
Chapter 4.2 – Arthritis Reversal – 5 Ways Movement Impacts Arthritis
Chapter 4.3 – 5 Ways Exercise Increases your Immune System Response
Chapter 4.4 – 3 Essential Movements to Improve Lung Health
Chapter 4.5 – 4 Incredible Benefits of Movement for Your Digestive System
Chapter 4.6 – 4 Amazing Benefits Exercise has on Sex & Hormones
Chapter 4.7 – 3 ways movement is vital to a full-body detox
It is done! …for now
One Adjustment Action Step
- Movement is life. So, move! Move throughout your day. Get up regularly. I suggest about every 20 minutes.
- Keep a good exercise plan to help balance out your daily sedentary plans. 30 minutes is the minimum as you will see here in 12 Reasons Your Entire Body Needs Exercise. I started an Instagram with exercises during this time when so many are at home.
- Fix your Posture for optimal movement and maximum longevity of your musculoskeletal system.
- Boost your immune system by Eating Real Food, here’s a list of foods that are high in vitamins and minerals to boost the Immune system.
- Avoid or decrease unnecessary stress that contributes to a state of Dis-ease. Read 3 Ways Chronic Stress Kills You Faster.
- Reduce toxins and foreign pathogens by practicing good hygiene and eliminating environmental hazards.
- Give your system time to reset and re-energize. Sleep, along with movement, is the most underestimated and underutilized heroes of a well functioning immune system and the best way to allow your body the energy to properly clear the system from toxins.
When I look at the Innate Essentials, I try to think of true health resources that are absolutely necessary, not just in modern times but for the millennia that human beings have existed.
Physically, we need good form and posture, the ability to have movement, sleep to rest our weary bones and basic hygiene for maintenance.
Chemically, we need proper hydration for our systems to function, the real food God intended us to have, balance in our stress and a way to manage the harmful toxins in our environment.
Emotionally, we need to face our true reality, take responsibility and resolve to improve upon what we have now. Self-awareness of the chaos and order that comprises our existence. A mindset that can overcome any chaos that we meet and take advantage of the short time we have here on earth. This is how we navigate all of the relationships that may be blessed with.
Health comes from within not without.
Nick the DC
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