I have just talked about kidney cleanse so its logical to think about skin detox next as the skin is often referred to as the third kidney. Believe it or not the skin is one of the organs of detox. We don’t tend to think of the skin as an organ but it is considered to be the largest organ of the body. It consists of the nails, glands and nerve endings as well as the skin itself. It is more exposed to infection, disease, pollutants and injury than any other organ so it pays to take great care of it.
Many things affect the appearance and health of your skin including diet and nutrition, hygiene, circulation, age, genetic traits, psychological state and drugs. The skin is usually important to one’s image and it has many functions:
- It regulates the body temperature through the regulation of sweating in response to heat or cold.
- It provides a protective barrier and contains cells that are important components of the immune system that help to fend off invaders.
- Vitamin D is made in the skin when exposed to sunlight
- and last but not least is its excretory function.
There are 2 routes of excretion through the skin. One is through the sweat glands and the other is through the sebum, the oily substance secreted by the sebaceous glands. Sweating is a major route for the excretion of toxins. Sweat consists of water and salts, urea, uric acid, amino acids, ammonia, sugar, lactic acid and ascorbic acid. It is also a vehicle for the elimination of wastes such as toxic chemicals and metals that have lodged near the surface.
Heavy metals such as mercury and lead can be released through the skins pores and many detox programs include saunas and steam baths. A study done in 1982 by the Foundation of Advancement of Science showed that we excrete as many toxins through the skin as through the kidneys.
The skin is very absorptive and chemicals from personal care products may be absorbed into your circulation providing more toxins for our detox pathways to deal with. It pays to look after your skin and only use non toxic natural skin care products.
As I have mentioned before a toxic colon can affect any other parts of the body and will be reflected in the condition of the skin so cleansing the colon will improve many skin conditions. For diseased kidneys, improving skin elimination can help take some of the load off them. I will cover how to improve skin detox next time.
