Detox Program

As a Naturopath, people often ask me about the best way to detoxify their body. Liver cleansing, liver detox and colon cleanse programs have become vey popular and for good reason, we need them!

When’s a good time to detox? I generally recommend once or twice yearly or when you are:

Detox Program
  • Feeling bloated.
  • Feeling tired & sluggish.
  • Overindulged in food & alcohol.
  • Have gained weight.
  • Getting skin breakouts.
  • Before trying for a baby.
  • High cholesterol or Fatty Liver
  • Poor immune system
  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

I’ve recommended detox programs to my clients as a Brisbane Naturopath for the past 12 years and you’ll be surprised how good you can feel once you try a detox program.

The detox program that I’ve found that gets the best results for my clients involves a few basic principles:

  • Detox Diet 2 – 4 weeks duration
Eating super clean for 2-4 weeks is like a holiday for your insides. Think of how long you spend drinking, eating and overindulging, do you think you could commit a little time to cleansing your body?
Removing : gluten, dairy, processed sugar, alcohol and caffeine.
Including :  lean organic protein, lots of vegies, fruits and gluten free wholegrains.

  • Weed, Feed and Seed
Think of your intestines as belonging to either 1 of 2 groups.
The fertile garden : a lovingly tended garden with fertile soil and thriving plants OR The neglected field of weeds : no mulch, bad soil and loads of weed and pests.
If good probiotic levels drop via certain medications like antibiotics, the contraceptive pill, eating lots of sugar, alcohol and refined carbs, bad flora can take over and cause tiredness, bloating, wind and poor immunity.
The Weed, Feed and Seed process aids detoxification and gets the delicate balance of good and bad bacteria right in your intestines. It involves taking herbs to kill overgrowth of bad gut flora and taking probiotics and powders to ensure the good bacteria live and grow and get the balance right in your intestines.

  • Liver Detoxification
The liver is the biggest organ of detoxification in your body. It’s your body’s filter and protects you from all the toxins you ingest willingly (alcohol, bad foods) and unwillingly (pesticides, heavy metals, environmental chemicals.)

You can’t do a “liver detox” so to speak, as they liver is always detoxifying every minute of every day, but you can help your liver improve its functional detoxification capacity and reduce the load you put on your liver’s detox pathways.

As a herbalist, I find herbal medicine a wonderful and clinically proven way to improve the livers detox capacity.  Amino acids and vitamins can also be used to up speed up or slow down certain detox pathways in the liver. If you would like to check the function of your liver detox pathways, consider a functional liver detoxification test.

  • Roles of the liver:
  • *Detoxification of hormones, medications, alcohol, chemicals in our food and the by products of metabolism – cellular wastes.
  • *Secretion of bile for fat digestion, cholesterol binding and healthy stools.
  • *Storage of vitamins A, D, Iron, B12 and Copper.
  • *Metabolism of  protein and carbohydrates – the liver is vital for the storage and burning of sugars : glucose to glycogen and the reverse.


    • Reducing the toxins in your environment
    Eating pesticide free or organic food is one of the quickest ways to reduce your toxic load. Getting a water filter to remove fluoride, chlorine and heavy metals, breathing clean air and using eco friendly cleaning chemicals.

    • Colon Cleansing
    Colon cleansing simply means making sure you poo well every single day. This may involve eating more vegetables, more fibre in the form of fruit, veggies, legumes and gluten free grains and drinking more water. If you don’t poo every day, your body re-absorbs toxic waste products via water reabsorption in the colon. This can lead to headaches, feeling sluggish, tired and toxic.
    I find the best way to detox your body is to commit to a detox program that uses the above detox principles. So many times we say to ourselves “I’ve gotta start eating less sugar, drinking less coffee, less alcohol” but it never happens, life and good times get in the way. If you make the commitment to do a detox program – you will reduce these unhealthy behaviours  because you’re committed and have made the conscious decision to do it.

    Benefits of Detoxing

    • More energy
    • Weight loss
    • Happier digestion : bowels move daily, bloating reduces
    • Skin clearer
    • You feel like your body is working properly and isn’t sluggish anymore

    I’ll share with  you how I felt after my last detox.

    The main difference I noticed was that I didn’t have the swings in energy that I can have on a super busy day. My clarity of thinking was incredible. Sometimes on a busy hectic day I can have times when I get a bit brain fried, this didn’t happen at all which really surprised me. I lost a few kilos and generally felt lighter. I found the best thing was the domino effect. All my family asked my husband and I what we’d been doing to look so good. Ten members of my family ended up doing the detox – I didn’t promote it to them at all, they just kept seeing how energised and awesome each person felt after they’d done it and eventually they all did it! It made me realise how such a simple program can be so effective at helping people – detoxification is really powerful.  

    Would you like to do our Detox Program?

    The Naturopaths at Vibe Natural Health offer appointments at our clinic at 210 Days Rd, Grange in Brisbane, or via skype or phone to those who can’t make it into our clinic.
    Visit our appointment diary on the top right of screen to book now.
    If you have questions, please email us rather than commenting on the blog at info@vibenaturalhealth.com.au

    Or phone us on (07) 3366 7970. We would love to help you!



    Detox Testimonials

    Hello Vibe Natual Health,

    Finished my two week detox. Interesting experience. Felt yucky on day 3 and a bit tired in the first week. 2nd week felt much better. I lost 3 kg , which is really amazing. Week 3 , slowly introduced caffeine, dairy and carbs, I have noticed that milk doesnt agree with me, which is interesting so will stay on soy and rice milk for a while. I also realised that I dont eat enough vegies, so will ensure I maintain a healthy balance. Overall, really pleased with Vibes detox and additional herbs. What a great way to start 2012.! My insides must be jumping for joy too. Many thanks to Vibe for all your encouragement and fabulous menus. PS my husband also joined in and he too lost 3 kg. Yvonne.

    Day #2 of the detox and both me and my fiance are doing ok. We now cook together, pack our lunches together and keep motivated together but mostly due to scrumptious recipes and great support from the Vibe team. Reading everyone’s comments keeps us working hard to better health. Cheers Natural Health! My insides will be thanking you.

    X Angie

    So, it’s the start of the 5th day of my DETOX & ELIMINATION DIET. Last night was hard. I watched while my friends drank vino, gin & tonic, & beers…I drank sparkling water with a wedge of lime. My friends ate the good stuff on the menu whilst I was limited to 1 dish.

    But it’s going great: I feel good. I wake up feeling good straight away. I perform better at the gym & I sleep better. My clothes are fitting me better & so far I’ve lost 3 kgs!!!!! I guess all the preparation, strong will-power & 3-4 L of water per day have been good for something….I’m getting my mojo back ;)).

    Thanks Elysia!!!