We typically trust scientific evidence regarding our outer physical health, but what about how we “feel?” What is our subjectivity telling us? Western medicine isn’t always able to capture that so well, though creating a better sense of overall well-being is often the goal of many alternative wellness therapies.

With proper mind/body balance in view, here are a few facts and myths about some detox programs.

Far infrared sauna

A popular way to enjoy heat therapy while still being able to breathe, far infrared saunas use infrared light, which heats the body first, not the sauna room itself.

Fact: Far infrared saunas are reliable in treating congestive heart failure, normalizing blood pressure, and helping easy chronic pain.

A 2009 article published in Can Fam Physician, reported evidence gathered from 5 different studies which found moderate evidence supporting the use of FIRS for certain conditions.

Fiction:  Far infrared saunas aid in reducing cholesterol.

The same paper reported a fair amount of evidence going against this claim. Don’t worry, though, it’s nothing a healthy, organic diet can’t remedy.

Lymphatic Massage

An orthodox massage method, lymphatic massage uses a very small amount of pressure – stimulating the lymphatic system, which is responsible for cleansing your body of toxins.

Fact: Lymphatic massage is helpful in treating conditions like edema.

That’s right. The article, published in the Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapies found that the therapy produced a, “statistically significant decrease in pain and edema.”

Fiction: Lymphatic massage works after only one session.

Although there might be some truth to this, usually it takes multiple sessions to see dramatic long-lasting results.

Detox foot-bath

Your feet have a difficult job, and they’re not often treated with the attention they deserve.

Fact:  Besides feeling great, detox foot baths helps eliminate free radicals from the body.

Yep. Detox foot-baths make the body’s PH levels more alkaline, which helps do away with various toxins.

Fiction: The change in the color of the water is the actual toxins leaving the body.

Unfortunately, the color change in the water is just rust from the metal probe at the bottom of the machine.

Colonic Irrigation 

A popular hydrotherapy that leaves people feeling completely revitalized.

Fact: Colonic irrigation removes bacteria from the walls of the colon.

Indeed.  When the colon is flushed with warm water, millions of bacteria are removed.

Fiction: The refreshing feeling so many people report, post-colonic, will last indefinitely.

Again, like lymphatic massage, multiple appointments are probably necessary, if you’re looking for that lighter-than-air feeling.

If you’re interested in learning more about detoxification, don’t hesitate to visit our detox spa at our Palos Verdes location.

Have you ever taken a deep breath and felt completely at peace – pure wellness?

That’s your sense of well-being at work. It’s a positive emotional or physical state in which you hope to find yourself, ideally at all times.

But when people aren’t feeling emotionally or physically at their best, all too often, they seek refuge in prescription medication, which sometimes only masks issues and can lead to dependency.

So here are a few simple and effective natural methods for creating a better feeling you.

Meditation

Meditation isn’t what a lot of folks think it is. Sure, it can be talked about in terms of religion and mysticism, but it certainly isn’t a necessary component of the practice. Meditation is simply a method of sitting in silence and focusing ones attention, so as to create a more balanced psyche.

Those who’ve practiced medication for years have report that their thoughts are no longer overrun with negative emotions, and that their levels of concentration have increased dramatically.

Eating Organic Foods

Your body and your mind are powered by the very foods you ingest. That may seem obvious, but people don’t very often make the connection that they might be feeling sluggish or thinking gloomily because they’re consuming foods that contain elements created in a lab.

All-natural organic fruits, vegetables, and grains are a surefire way to kick start your well-being into high-gear.

Colonic Hydrotherapy

Even if you’re eating super healthy foods, your colon can still easily get blocked up and overrun with toxins. To alleviate the stress on your abdomen, why not try colonic irrigation?

Although the procedure sounds somewhat complicated, colon cleansing actually only involves a tube and some warm water. Basically, warm, distilled water is flushed through your colon, eliminating buildup and leaving you feeling renewed.

If you’re interested in learning more about what you can do to increase your wellness, contact us at our Palos Verdes location today.

We’re sure it’s not news to you that a good massage not only relaxes your muscles, it relieves stress and feels great as well.

Yet there’s another type of massage that’s used as somewhat of a detox remedy. Also, unlike a standard massage, there’s not much physical pressure involved.

Intriguing, right? It’s called a lymphatic massage.

The massage is used to activate the flow of lymph, a fluid carried around by the lymphatic system, which is partially responsible for cleansing the body of toxins.

In order to properly move lymph around, the therapy (to the surprise of many) doesn’t require a whole lot of physical force from the therapist — just gentle touching.

Let’s take a look at a few of the benefits that this type of massage offers.

It cleanses the body of toxins

The main job of the lymphatic system is to do away with the impurities hanging around in the body – these are picked up by pollution, the food we eat, as well as more general environmental factors.

Keep in mind that the lymphatic system is the largest circulatory system in the body, responsible for helping to keep your tissues and organs healthy.

When you receive a lymphatic drainage massage, it allows any blocked-up lymph to flow freely again through the lymph vessels.

In turn, the lymphatic system is able to do its job more effectively, and it cleanses the body of waste and metabolic toxins.

Curious? Check out our lymphatic information page to learn more.

It restores nutrients

Or rather, it restores the lymphatic system’s ability to properly deliver nutrients to cells. The system not only clears away cellular waste and toxins, it brings vital nutrients to the cells in the body.

So when the lymphatic system is stimulated, vital nutrients are restored to cells. Without these nutrients, and other crucial functions of the lymph system, excess fluid can accumulate and result in edema – a painful bloating of the limbs.

It helps with weight-loss  

This unique type of massage also has weight management properties, because it helps regulate metabolism. This is both due to its toxin cleansing abilities, as well as its ability to be purely stress-relieving – countless studies have shown that stress increases fat tissue.

If you’re interested in learning more about lymph massage, don’t hesitate to pay us a visit in Palos Verdes location, today.

After a long weekend of consuming BBQ, sweets, and perhaps a few alcoholic drinks, you may be left feeling kind of sluggish.

Just as you might be likely to take your car in for a tune-up post-road trip, your body too needs tune-ups of its own from time to time.

Detoxification is necessary for maintaining the mechanics of your body, and luckily, there are plenty of detox programs other there.

There are many ways of pressing your body’s “reset button,” so to speak. Services like colonic irrigation and lymphatic massage are fantastic, but for those who don’t like to get so up-close and personal with a wellness therapist, there are other great ways of cleansing, too.

Drink water

This may seem obvious, but all too often, the reason people become subject to toxin build-up is that they’re simply dehydrated.

Your body is mostly made of water, but through daily physical activity, hydration levels decline.

In order to maintain your wellness, carry a water bottle around and sip throughout the day – restoring your body to its natural state.

Detox foot bath

Why not soak your feet in small tub of warm water?

A common misconception is that detox foot baths are not effective. This is mostly due to a fundamental misunderstanding of how they work.

Foot baths are beneficial because they change the body’s pH levels, which is essential for your health.

“The main point of these detoxes is to make the body’s pH more alkaline,” says Oriental medical physician Christine Adamo in an article by the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. “Diseases thrive in an acidic environment. So basically, the less acidic your body is and the more alkaline, the less prone you are to contracting a disease, such as osteoporosis or cancer.”

Adamo also adds that the procedure is gentle and safe, as it doesn’t upset the gastrointestinal system.

Far infrared sauna

Unlike a standard sauna, which heats the air in a particular space, infrared saunas use infrared light, which is quickly absorbed by the surface of the skin.

For this reason, far infrared has been shown to be more effective than traditional saunas, and it’s also more comfortable of those who can’t tolerate sitting in very high, humid environments.

Likewise, many studies have found that 15 percent more toxins were expelled from the body using infrared saunas than in normal perspiration through physical activity.

Interested in learning more? Visit us at our detox spa in Palos Verdes or Santa Monica, today.

Your lymphatic system is responsible for cleansing impurities from your body, but unfortunately, it’s not always full proof.

This system doesn’t actually have its own pump by which lymph is able to circulate and do its work. Rather, it relies on other body parts to get the job done – muscles, blood vessels, etc.

We all know that lymphatic massage can help, but here are a few other quick ways you can stimulate your lymph system.

Exercise

Perhaps the most obvious but most effortful way to regulate proper lymph flow is through regular exercise.

Since lymph flow counts heavily on muscle movement, it only make sense that to cleanse your body of toxins and the like, you’d need to exercise from time to time.

A 2005 study notes, “lymph flow increases by approximately 2-to 3-fold higher while exercising than at rest.”

Any exercise will do the trick, but exercises particularly focused on working out large muscle groups will likely work best.

Yoga is particularly good for promoting lymph flow, especially poses where the legs are above the heart – allowing gravity to work on the lymph passageways.

Hot / cold showers

Believe it or not, alternating between hot and cold showers has been known to be effective in promoting healthy lymph flow.

Going back and forth between hot and cold causes lymphatic peristalsis. That is, the hot showers cause lymph vessels to relax, and the cold cause them to contract.

Stand under hot water for 2 minutes, then switch to cold for another 2. Do this for several rotations, and overtime, you may start feeling a whole lot better.

Deep breathing

Along with other large muscles, your diaphragm (that large muscle that helps you breathe) is essential for regulating healthy lymph flow.

Whether you take some time out of the day to meditate, or you regularly do yoga, deep in-through-nose-out-through-mouth breathing is very beneficial for your lymphatic system.

Get a lymphatic massage

Unlike standard massages, it’s the goal of a lymphatic massage to stimulate the flow of lymph in order to rid your body of toxins.

Also unlike a standard massage, this technique only employs very light pressure to the skin – too much pressure can actually have negative effects on the lymphatic system.

Need some more lymphatic information? Don’t hesitate to visit us at our detox spa in Palos Verdes or Santa Monica, today.

Flushing the colon with water is a practice that dates back as early as 1500 B.C.

The effectiveness of colon hydrotherapy for colon health has been seen throughout the ages, and across cultures. So its popularity should really come as no surprise.

The Egyptians

A document from the 14th Century B.C. called the Ebers Papyrus, talks of enemas being used as a remedy for more than 20 bowl complaints, according to the Global Professional Association for Colon Hydrotherapy. The writings specifically mention their use in order to “drive out excrement.”

In the 5th century B.C., the historian Herodotus wrote about the Egyptian use of enemas, saying, “The Egyptians clear themselves on three consecutive days, every month, seeking after health by emetics and enemas for they think that all disease comes to man from his food.”

While we now know that all disease does not come to us from our food, we certainly know that what we eat (and how much) does have a profound effect on our health as well as our personal sense of well-being.

Ancient Greeks and Romans

The ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, implemented colonic irrigation to treat fevers. Similarly, his close predecessors often found the practice more effective than laxatives, and they also used it to treat intestinal worms.

It wasn’t until about 30 A.D. that the next detailed account of colon hydrotherapy is found. In one of the first medical books, the physician Celus mentioned that flushing the colon shouldn’t be repeated too often, and that the water shouldn’t be too hot or too cold.

Galen, another Greek physician, went on to comment on the need to cleanse the body from within, saying, “The uncleanness within is greater than the uncleanness without. And he who cleanses himself without, but within remains unclean, is like a tomb that outward is painted fair, but is within full of all manner of horrible uncleanness and abominations.”

Middle ages and renaissance

The English surgeon John Ardene was the first to notice that mixing various concoctions with the water, often left the recipient more “blocked-up” than before the procedure. He also mentioned that each person, constipated or not, ought be “purged” 3 to 4 times a year.

Contemporary colonic practice has certainly taken Dr. Ardene’s advice. Most colonic technicians agree that warm water alone will do the trick. Similarly, most technicians would agree that 3-4 times a year is worthwhile – many would certainly recommend more.

20th century and today

The term “colonic irrigation” emerged in 1932, from Dr. W. Kerr Russell’s book with the same name. In it, he talks about the differences between the modern procedure and the enemas of the past. “The term irrigation describes more accurately than the words clyster or enema, the treatment which is administered with the modern apparatus. These methods lavage and thoroughly cleanse the walls, remove abnormal mucus, and also empty the bowel. The tone of the colonic muscle is improved and the blood supply augmented.”

Many colonic hyrotherapists today would agree that Dr. Russell hit the nail right on the head. But if we may add – no only is the treatment effective in removing excess waste, it also creates an incredible sense of personal well-being.

To learn more about colonics, don’t hesitate to visit us at our detox day spa in Palos Verdes.

It’s no secret; saunas can be great for your health and can play a major part in personalized detox programs.

They fight harmful viruses in the body, help rid the body of toxins and they simply feel great on the skin.

In civilizations throughout history people have sat in saunas to elicit these benefits, but there are some people who just can’t handle the intense heat.

For them, a different type of sauna has been developed.

What is a far infrared sauna?

A far infrared sauna (FIS) is a heating device or room that warms the body directly, instead of warming the air around the body, like in a standard sauna.

Because infrared light is used to warm the body, heat can be created more efficiently, making lower temperatures more effective.

Regular sauna vs. far infrared

Since the early 80s, mainstream medicine has advocated the responsible use of saunas as a means to burn calories and maintain a healthy cardiovascular system.

In fact, saunas may act similar to exercise in that it conditions the cardiovascular system and burns calories, notes an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Indeed, there’s support in the medical community for the use of far infrared sauna for those with congestive heart failure and for those with coronary risk factors.

Other health benefits

WellnessHour.com’s wellness expert, Randy Alvarez stands by FIS for a whole host of preventative and treatment issues.

One of the major benefits of FIS, claims Alvarez, is detox.

“Far-Infrared Sauna is great for the traditional uses of meditation and detoxification,” he says.” FIS heats the body from the core, therefore, it allows you to sweat up to 7 times more toxins than traditional saunas.”

In addition, this detox method can purify the skin, helping with acne and cleansing pores.

Both mainstream and alternative medicine agree that, with regard to different health concerns, the far-infrared sauna is good for you — making it the perfect service to take advantage of at your next detox spa visit. Give us a call.

When it comes to wellness and detox programs, people are often quick to adopt trends.

While some fasting and juicing detox regiments are fine, and even helpful, others can do more harm than good.

When practiced poorly, they are examples of the risky lengths people will go to in hopes of creating a better mind and body.

The truth is, the road to a healthier you requires much simpler routines. Here are a few natural methods that can optimize your current detoxification program:

Stay hydrated

Your body is mostly water, and if you’re really looking to maintain your health and detox your body, it’s vital that you consume about 8 glasses a day — even if you don’t feel thirsty.

It does seem like a lot, but your body will certainly thank you for it.

Check out our organic food diet for suggestions on hydration and diet.

Sleep well

It’s widely known that sleep improves and restores memory, as well as an assortment of other cognitive abilities.

When you’re low on sleep, toxins build up in your brain, making it difficult to process information and remain productive in your waking life.

Your brain needs somewhere around seven to eight hours of solid sleep to operate at full capacity.

Meditate

Meditation is a great way to balance your mind.

Meditation is the focusing of your attention in order to create a more relaxed state of mind.

Simply sitting quietly and concentrating on your own breath for 10 minutes at a time has been shown to balance chemical reactions in the body — particularly the over-production of cortisol in times of heavy stress.

This is one detoxification practice that might not come with instant gratification, but with some practice, you’re sure to see some results.

Visit a wellness spa

Whether it’s sitting in a far infrared sauna or soaking your feet in a detox foot spa, a few hours at a wellness clinic with the guidance of a trained practitioner, is one of the best ways to rid your body of toxins.

For more detox information, contact us at one of detox spa locations today.

Massage therapy, including lymphatic massage, dates back thousands of years.

And whether it’s targeting a particular area of the body with a lot of force, or taking the ever-so-gentle approach, different types of massage therapies are used to treat varying ailments.

Here are a few time-honored massage therapies you might expect to get at your local detox spa.

Stone massage

Your muscles are feeling like they’re in knots. It might be your neck, your lower back or your thighs.

Whatever area is ailing you, you can treat it with rocks. In stone massage therapy, lava rocks are smoothed, heated or cooled (depending on the ailment), and placed on particular body part.

These stones retain temperature, and are able to transfer that temperature deep into tissue, relieving tension.

Foot massage

Many massage experts believe it’s possible to relieve tension throughout the entire body, simply by targeting the feet.

The theory is that there are particular reflex areas in the feet that correspond to all the organs in the body. When these “sen” are properly read and appropriate pressure is applied to them, experts claim the effects can be quite dramatic.

Asiatsu massage

The feet aren’t targeted with this type of massage. Rather, the feet are used to actually give the massage.

Dating back to the 12th century, Asiatsu involves the therapist literally standing on top of the recipient, while holding onto something to keep their balance.

They then pour oils on the recipient’s back, and quickly, but firmly, slide their feet across it. Many people seek out this type of massage for more severe aches and pains, as it’s one of the deepest tissue massages out there.

Lymphatic massage

Also called lymphatic drainage massage, this type of massage uses a very tiny amount of pressure to stimulate “lymph flow.” Lymph is a fluid that circulates throughout the lymphatic system (part of the circulatory system) that helps the body rid itself of toxins and impurities.

This particular therapy has been clinically proven time and time again to help treat conditions like lymphedema and even certain types of cancers.

For more massage or lymphatic information, contact us at our detox spa locations today.

Throughout the year, especially during the winter, your body carries around all sorts of toxins and impurities that can lead to fatigue and sickness.

You’re being exposed to plastics, pesticides, fire retardants and mercury all too often, and it’s taking a toll on your body.

But with Spring comes vitality, and it’s the perfect time to give your body a fresh start with a detox program.

Whether it be the skin, the liver or the lungs, each of your organs performs a specific function, so it would only make sense that there would be a particular detoxification method to give it the clean slate it needs.

Here are a few detox methods you can use to breathe new life into your organs.

Detox for the liver

The liver is the most vital detox organ in your body. To help along its already potent cleansing process, why not give a far infrared sauna a try?

Using infrared waves, the sauna is able to boost your immune system and increase blood circulation, aiding your liver to do its job in the best way possible.

The sauna isn’t just good for your liver, though; your entire body will feel its benefits. It’s a detox spa.

Cleansing the colon

It has long been known that there are microorganisms in your gut, essential to breaking down your food — called the microbiome. However, these friendly creatures don’t always do their job so well.

Old waste can build up on the walls of the colon, hardening overtime, which can cause constipation.

Using warm water, colonic irrigation allows the colon to be flushed clean, keeping it free of toxin buildup.

Helping the heart 

The lymphatic system is a vital part of the circulatory system, whose main hub is obviously the heart. The lymphatic systems transports a fluid called ‘lymph’ around the body, which fights against toxins.

Using an extremely light touch, a trained lymphatic massage technician can aid lymph flow in your body, and with regular appointments, your heart will certainly thank you for it.

Protecting the skin

Your skin is a main barricade for toxins to enter the body — either it’ll let them through, or it won’t. All too often though, your skin loses the battle.

A detox foot bath gives your skin the opportunity to kick those unwanted toxins out.

For more information, contact us at our detox spa locations today.