Taking time to prepare for conception is important and allows you to play an active role in creating a healthy body in order to have a healthy pregnancy. Helping the body to regularly and gently detoxify daily will help give your new baby a better chance at a healthy start at life.
A body that is functioning at its best is one that is able to handle daily exposure to toxins. What many people don’t know is that the body can become easily overwhelmed by toxins and many of these toxins have been shown to be passed on to a developing baby in its mother’s womb. Giving your body a little daily detox support is always a good idea. Not only will this help you reach your end goal, it will help your body fully utilize any herbs, nutritional supplements or natural therapies you might use to prepare for pregnancy.
Detoxifying the body doesn’t require eating a restricted diet, fasting, juice-only cleansing, or intense gastrointestinal cleanses that may keep you stuck at home and close to a bathroom all day long. The human body is equipped to detoxify itself, but due to conventional modern day society, the quantitative exposure to toxins can add up over time. Because of this, we urge you to try to implement the following 10 easy ways to support the body’s ability to detoxify daily:
1. Drink Lemon Water Daily
Probably the easiest, most cost effective way to stimulate gentle liver cleansing is to add the juice of ½ of a lemon to one quart of water and drink this first thing in the morning. The liver is afterall, the “master detoxifier” of the body and it plays a critical role in hormonal balance. According to animal studies at the University of Minnesota, limonene, an active molecule found in lemons (and other citrus fruits), may activate liver detoxification enzymes.
Lemons also provide a good amount of vitamin C and antioxidants; nutrients shown to play a key role in reproductive health. The scent of lemon is believed to lift the mood. Be sure to also drink another quart of water throughout the day. Staying hydrated is key for whole body health, but also for liver health, healthy cervical mucous production, boosting metabolism, and even for healthy, blemish-free skin.
2. Clean Up Your Diet
The human body was designed to digest and process fresh, whole foods. By feeding the body foods it naturally knows how to utilize, the natural detoxification process happens with ease. Implement the Fertility Diet as a foundational step on your fertility journey – it focuses on eating fresh fruits and vegetables, fiber, grains, nuts and seeds, healthy fats, and moderate amounts of organic grass-fed meat, poultry, wild-caught fish, eggs and raw or organic dairy products.
3. Move Your Body
Exercise supports whole body health. Regular, moderate exercise promotes regular detoxification of excess hormones and toxins from the body by increasing circulation and the amount of fresh oxygen we breath in, strengthening the muscles, reducing stress and tension, and stimulating digestion. Movement can be relaxing and actually should not be strenuous when trying to conceive – try a brisk walk, a leisurely jog, hiking in nature, fertility yoga, or a dance class.
4. Try Dry Brushing
Dry brushing parallels drinking lemon water daily in the “easy” and “cheap” department. The website MindBodyGreen shares, “Your skin, the largest organ in the human body, is an organ of elimination. One third of your body’s toxins are excreted through the skin and dry brushing helps to unclog pores and excrete toxins that become trapped in the skin.” Dry brushing is also one of the only ways to stimulate the lymphatic system. One thing the lymphatic system does is remove toxins and waste from the body.
Dry brushing is easy! Here’s how:
- Undress, yes, you need to be naked, and stand in the shower. With your natural bristled body brush, start at your toes and brush up your legs with long, light sweeping motions. Brush up to your knees and then from knees to hips, up the hips, up over the abdomen toward your heart.
- Do the same from your fingertips toward your elbows, then from your elbows to shoulders toward your heart, and from the top of the head in short sweeping motions over the face toward the heart. Be sure to be gentle and apply only light pressure when sweeping over your face.
- Cover as much of the surface of your body as you can, brushing toward your heart and making sure to be kind to sensitive areas like the face, breasts and undersides of the arms. The skin should become less sensitive as you continue this practice.
One of the most basic reasons to begin dry brushing your skin is to stimulate your lymphatic system, which is essentially a network of tissues and organs that help transport metabolic waste out of your body. ~ Dr. Joseph Mercola
5. Fertility Cleansing
The Fertility Cleanse Kit was designed with one thing in mind – the importance of cleansing the body of excess hormones and toxins, while improving uterine health prior to conception. Since your baby will be housed in your body for the first months of its life, we want to be sure that house is clean and ready for its new guest. Fertility cleansing aids the body’s natural ability to rid itself of toxins and metabolize hormones. Every day we are exposed to a variety of harmful substances that can affect our cellular health, hormonal balance and overall health. The herbs that are utilized in Fertility Cleansing support healthy function of the liver and uterus in order to help you achieve optimal reproductive wellness.
Download The Fertility Cleanse Guide
- Learn how to cleanse to prepare for pregnancy
- Get all the details on fertility cleansing and how to use it for fertility health
- Tips for supporting yourself while cleansing
- Common questions answered about the Fertility Cleanse
6. Boost Regular, Daily Detoxification with Specific Herbs
Continued daily support for the body’s natural detoxification processes with the following gentle cleansing and restoring herbs is something everyone should keep in mind:
- Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) seed has the proven ability to repair, regenerate and gently detoxify the liver. We like to utilize this herb as a liquid extract.
- Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) leaf, root and rhizome, all have a well-established affinity for the liver and kidneys and are known to stimulate digestion. Dandelion is great as a daily infusion or liquid extract.
- Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum) being fiber rich, helps to eliminate toxins via the intestines by promoting healthy bowel movements. Grind up two tablespoons of fresh flaxseeds and add them to your food, daily.
7. Utilize Castor Oil Therapy
Castor oil (Ricinus communis) therapy is another easy, great way to help the body heal fertility issues and prepare for pregnancy. Castor oil packs not only promote detoxification, but also improve reproductive health by increasing circulation to the reproductive organs which supports egg, ovarian, fallopian tube and uterine health. They also boost immune system function, reduce inflammation and pain, and promote stress reduction.
“The leading theory of how castor oil positively affects the immune system is via an increase of T-cells [Lymphocytes] in the skin and augmentation of prostaglandins. The T-11 cell increase represents a general boost in the body’s specific defense status… T-11 cells are responsible for producing specific antibodies for our immune system. The skin T-cell theory postulates that castor oil triggers T-lymphocytes in the skin, causing them to activate a local and/or systemic immune reaction…,” shares Bastyr University educated Naturopathic Doctor Todd A. Born in the Journal of Natural Medicines.
8. Fertility Massage
Self Fertility Massage™ is a series of massage techniques used to increase circulation to the uterus and ovaries, realign a tilted uterus, break-up adhesions, and relax the hip muscles and reproductive organs. Proper alignment/positioning of our internal organs can release physical and energetic blockages in the reproductive organs, increase circulation, and in doing so help them to function at their best.
Click here to learn more about Self Fertility Massage…
9. Take a Detoxifying Bath
Detox baths with Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate) provide incredible benefits ranging from regulating the activity of hundreds of enzymes in the body, and reducing inflammation, to supporting muscle and nerve function, improving the absorption of nutrients within the body and supporting the body’s natural ability to remove toxins. Including Epsom salt to a medicinal herb bath recipe can help to melt away stress, clear energy and impart a wide range of fertility health benefits depending on the herbs and essential oils added to them. Hot baths also induce sweat, another way the body naturally removes toxins.
Here are some great articles with tips for making detoxifying baths:
How to Make a Medicinal Bath
The Use of Hydrotherapy to Improve Fertility
DIY Therapeutic Bath for PMS
10. Declutter Your Mind & Attract The Positive
The thoughts running through your mind might at times run like the credits at the end of a movie. They can be overwhelming to say the least and may be largely focused on what has gone or is going wrong… the negative. If you feel this way, it’s time to detoxify your mind!
It is extremely important to learn quiet contemplation and how to train your mind to focus your thoughts on what is positive in your life. Doing this will help you through times of intense emotion and stress while on your fertility journey. In order to be mentally and emotionally open to receiving a new life, invite new life in by focusing on what you want to have come into your life – a healthy pregnancy and baby. Learn to meditate, and to create and use positive affirmations in order to reduce stress and create a positive fertility mindset. Here are some resources to help you get started:
Positive Daily Fertility Meditation
Top 10 Mind and Body Therapies to Help With Fertility Stress
Affirmations for Fertility, Changing Your Thoughts to Help Change Your Fertility
Your Most Fertile Self: Interview with Elisabeth Manning of Fertile Living
Closing Thoughts
Your body is healthy and amazing! It is able to thrive even with a fairly constant influx of potentially harmful toxins. Offer it help in doing so, because it’s not invincible. Through daily gentle detoxification, I hope you experience increased energy, better sleep, and changes in reproductive system health, mood and stress levels.
Too learn more about related subjects covered in this article, please visit the following links:
Environmental Toxins to Avoid for Healthy Fertility
Why Liver Health is Important to Your Fertility
Castor Oil Therapy for Reproductive Health
Magnesium – This Overlooked Mineral Delivers Incredible Fertility Benefits
- Harvard Health Publications. Harvard Commentaries on Health. Keep Your Digestive System in Shape(n.d.). Belvoir Media Group, LLC. [Registration required to view this resource]
- Reicks M.M. and Crankshaw D. (1991). Effects of D-limonene on hepatic microsomal monooxygenase activity and paracetamol-induced glutathione depletion in mouse . Xenobiotica. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8237062
- Mercola, J. (Sept. 11, 2017). Can Dry Brushing Help Your Lymphatic System? Journal of Natural Medicines. Retrieved from https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/09/11/dry-brushing-skin.aspx
- Born, T.A. (May 5, 2015). Topical Use of Castor Oil. Naturopathic Doctor News And Review (NDNR). Retrieved from https://ndnr.com/dermatology/topical-use-of-castor-oil/
- Jenkins, O. (2014, February 19). A Step-By-Step Guide To Dry Skin Brushing. Retrieved from: https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12675/a-stepbystep-guide-to-dry-skin-brushing.html
