The word “detox” gets thrown around a lot in the breast implant world. While detoxing your body from the toxins and heavy metals is imperative in restoring health after explant, what about before explant? One of the lovely ladies in our private Facebook support group asked me: “Is there anything we can do to support our bodies until we get explanted”? So, today I’m going to give you the low down on why it’s important to prepare your body for explant surgery and ways you can accomplish this safely.
If you’re suffering from breast implant illness, you may have symptoms like:
Essentially, what we want to be doing prior to explant is properly preparing our bodies for detoxification post-explant and supporting our natural function as best we can. So, first you need to decrease the overall burden on your body and second you need to open up the channels of detoxification. This is the prep work.
You can actually begin your prep for detoxification before you explant. Learn more about how to do a proper heavy metal detox and what not to do HERE.
To start, the best way to prep for a detox is to lighten the load on your liver by decreasing the number of toxins you’re exposed to on a daily basis. This includes things like water, diet, personal care products, and household products.
Stay hydrated: Drinking at least half your body weight in ounces per day of filtered water will keep your detox pathways working more efficiently. This will assist the kidneys in their important job of filtering the blood when your detox program increases the amount of toxins to be removed. Make sure you are not drinking tap or bottled water as they both increase the overall burden on the body. Bottled water contains endocrine disrupting chemicals like BPA. Don’t let those labels “BPA free” fool you; there are many other forms of bisphenol used in the making of plastics and cans. Tap water of course contains a multitude of chemicals and halides that I won’t get into here. My recommendation is to use a whole house water filtration system, but at least a table top water filter such as theBig Berkey. This is by far the best table top water filter I have seen and is affordable.
Sole Water: In order to detoxify, your body needs energy and to produce energy, your body needs minerals. Minerals nourish your adrenals and thyroid, your main organs of energy production. We deplete our mineral levels due to internal and external stress, including toxic exposures like those found in breast implants. I love to use sole water for restoring minerals. Learn how to make this cheap and easy water HERE. You can worry about mineral rebalancing and addressing your specific mineral deficiencies due to heavy metal toxicity after explant, but for now this will suffice.
Clean up your diet: The things that we put in our bodies food-wise are some of the biggest things that drive cellular inflammation, so detox can start here with cleaning up the diet to reduce inflammation. Starting a detox program without addressing diet first will not give you the results you are looking for. Cleaning up the diet means eliminating gluten containing foods and possibly grains altogether, replacing vegetable oils with healthy fats like coconut oil and ghee, and removing refined sugar from the diet. It also means buying non-GMO, organic produce, pasture-raised meats and wild-caught fish to minimize the pesticides, herbicides, round-up, heavy metals, antibiotics, and hormones in the diet. I also recommend eating a variety of fruits and veggies; eat the rainbow! This allows you to get the most micronutrients and antioxidants in your diet. Additionally, with leaky gut you are more likely to develop intolerances to those foods you regularly eat so having lots of variety decreases the potential for developing new food intolerances.
Eliminate environmental stressors: Environmental stressors are things found in your home, work, and outside environment that have negative health impacts. Such things as household cleaning products, antiperspirants, air fresheners, scented candles, perfumes, makeup, hair care, electronics, furniture, carpets, etc. can all be a source of toxic exposure. Gradually swapping these conventional products for healthier non-toxic alternatives helps decrease the toxic burden on the body. The best resource for cleaning up your home environment with healthier products is Environmental Working Group: ewg.org
Sleep hygiene: Quality sleep is incredibly important for proper detoxification and healing. It is while you are sleeping that your body is actually doing the detoxification work. Getting at least 8 hours of quality sleep is recommended any time, but especially when preparing to undergo the stress of surgery and recovery. You can find my guide to better sleep in my private Facebook support group HERE.
Do some testing: Functional lab work can really help you determine where you’re starting on the spectrum of toxicity and function and help monitor your progress. Remember, toxins cause inflammation and the point of removing toxins is to decrease inflammation so that the cells in your body can function properly again. Gut testing, hormone testing, are a couple of the things I frequently look at when working with my clients. I recommend working with a health practitioner and having testing done prior to explant so you know exactly what needs to be addressed post-explant and can get straight to work on healing and detoxing. Once you’re a few months away from your explant date, this is a good time to reach out to us for help getting started with this lab work.
Once you have taken these steps to prepare your body, you can begin the deeper work in preparation for detoxing after explant:
Colon
A large portion of the toxins processed by the liver are excreted into the bile which is also made in the liver. The bile is concentrated in the gallbladder and eventually makes its way through the intestines to be eliminated in the stool. It is essential to have the bowels moving frequently before you start any detox program or the toxins can be reabsorbed into the body if the transit time through the bowel is slow. My golden rule for guiding my clients through a detox program is they need to be having 2-4 bowel movements a day. While that may seem like a lot to someone who only goes once a week, it’s actually quite healthy. Remember, what’s “normal for you” may not actually be normal or healthy.
Kidneys
Some toxins that are made water soluble so they can be eliminated by the kidneys through the urine. If the kidneys are not working well then the other organs become overloaded with these toxins.
Drinking sufficient amounts of filtered water is the best and most natural way to ensure consistent kidney detoxification. In order to accomplish this you should be drinking at least half your body weight in ounces of water daily. Odorless and colorless urine is an indication of the kidneys functioning well.
Some of the fruits and vegetables specially recommended for supporting the kidneys include grapes, cranberries, lemons, spirulina, spinach, blueberries, nettles, dandelion, parsley, ginger, string beans, and asparagus. A nice way to start off the morning when focusing on the kidneys is to have a glass of warm water with fresh squeezed lemon juice. And lastly, avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can dehydrate you as well as place unnecessary strain on the kidneys.
Liver and gallbladder
The best way to help your liver out is to decrease the amounts of toxins you put in and on your body, while at the same time supporting your body’s detoxification and elimination systems. As I have already mentioned, it is very important to stay well hydrated. Lemon water is a great way to support you liver. Eat plenty of fiber as well as foods that specifically support the liver, such as beets cruciferous veggies and Jerusalem artichokes. Avoid all gluten and gluten containing grains (wheat, rye, oats, and barley), processed foods, conventional meats, hydrogenated oils, caffeine, any refined sugar, alcohol, and any foods of which you are intolerant to.
Castor Oil Packs: Known for improving circulation, lymphatic drainage, decreasing i
inflammation, and improving liver detoxification, castor oil packs are a safe, gentle, and natural way to boost your liver function. This method of detox is done by soaking an organic wool cloth in castor oil, applying it to the skin over the liver, and applying heat to it with a hot water bottle. This is not going to chelate heavy metals out of your body or do anything close to that, making it a safe and gentle option for preparing for surgery.
Blood and lymph
The lymph and blood are the transport systems of the body. They carry nutrients to every cell as well as remove the metabolic waste products and circulate them out to the elimination channels – the colon, lungs, liver, kidneys, and skin for expulsion from the body, which is why it is important to make sure those channels are all detoxed and functioning properly first. If these systems get clogged up, you are going to get sick, implants or no implants. Supporting lymph flow and thorough blood detoxification can help. My recommendations include the following:
Rebounding: My #1 suggestion for improving the lymphatic system? Get on a trampoline for 5-10 minutes each day. The bouncing helps pump and decongest the lymphatic fluid in the entire body. It’s simple but profound way to support the lymphatic system.
Dry Brushing: This can help with increasing the circulation of blood and lymph. HEREis a link to a step by step guide.
Some additional recommendations for improving lymph flow include lymphatic massage, yoga, stretching, general exercise, and avoid tight fitting clothes:
Skin and lungs
The skin will try to get rid of toxins that other organs fail to eliminate. If you have skin problems look at the detox function of other organs and supporting them.
Detox Baths: Sometimes detoxification can be simple and relaxing. Treat yourself to a relaxing soak in the tub. Detox baths are an excellent way to promote cleansing and can be done on a regular basis. You can assist detoxification through the skin gently by adding 1c of Epsom salts for a standard sized tub.
Sweating: Working up a sweat is a great way to support your body’s natural ability to detox. You can do this through exercise pre-explant, but post-explant I generally recommend sitting in an infrared sauna as tolerated. It is not only incredibly relaxing, but has amazing detoxification and healing benefits. If you have HPA-axis dysfunction (seen on a DUTCH test), I would recommend only doing this with the guidance of a qualified health practitioner.
Deep Breathing: Deep breathing, not only helps eliminate waste in the form of CO2 and brings oxygen to the tissues, but it stimulates your lymphatic system as well. To get the most benefit, breathe from the diaphragm, not shallowly from the chest. Also, focus on breathing through your nose rather than your mouth. In addition to helping your body get rid of toxins, deep breathing is a wonderful way to reduce stress.
Targeted Supplements and True Binders Post Explant
Finally, I always recommend going through a detox program post explant with a qualified and experienced practitioner. A proper detox program is going to include targeted practitioner grade supplements to help support and open up all of these detox pathways we discussed. It is also crucial to incorporate true binders into any detox program. Why? Because without them, you’ll never pull toxins out of the cells; you’ll never decrease inflammation caused by toxins; you’ll never fix the cell. And if you don’t fix the actual cells, you won’t be able to restore your health. This boils down to cellular function as the result of chronic toxin exposures and a good detox program will focus on addressing this. The detox program I created does just that. The supplements included in my detox program focus on the 5R’s of detoxing at the cellular level and Healing: Remove the source; Regenerate the cell membrane; Restore Cellular Energy; Reduce inflammation; and Reestablish methylation. Click HEREfor more information about the detox program.
Apply for your BII Discovery Call with Sarah HERE.
Professional Bio
Founder of Reversing Breast Implant Illness.Sarah has a passion for restoring health that has taken her along a path from a practicing RN, to walking away from her conventional nursing career to become a certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner, and Breast Implant Illness and Detox Expert. She believes the solution to Reversing Breast Implant illness is about more than just the explant and that we all need to take personal responsibility for restoring our health by addressing the root causes that contribute to chronic illness: toxicity, infections, trauma, and shame. Sarah’s “pain to purpose” is using her personal experience along with her understanding about the body to guide women through the sea of mis-information about Breast Implant Illness in hopes of finding their path to true and lasting healing.
Sarah was once quite happy and comfortable living the conventional life, but she began to look at things very differently when her body started failing her after getting breast implants. Within about six months of getting breast implants, Sarah began to see her once perfect health steadily decline. She began experiencing a myriad of symptoms which no doctor could explain. No one understood what Sarah was going through. She felt completely alone in this invisible illness because on the outside she looked fine. On the inside, the discomfort of living inside her own body was maddening.
Sarah soon realized she was looking in the wrong places, for the wrong things. If she wanted to fix her broken body, she had to stop looking to treat the symptoms; she had to start looking for a cause. It was time to take her health into her own hands and find real answers. She discovered that the root cause was literally inside of her.
Sarah believes there is always a greater purpose within our struggles, and she believes that purpose for her was to learn how to heal her own body so she could then help other women like her do the same. It is Sarah’s believe that the body has an innate desire to heal if given what it needs and she focuses on teaching natural healing principles. Sarah will teach you how to Reverse Breast Implant Illness, take back your health, and live vibrantly!
I have been very sick for over 5 years all autoimmune and am making my first appointment with doctor about an explant. I am very scared, I am single and fear what I am going to look like after. I am 60 so my body will not replenish like younger women. What are things I need to do pre surgery to help with recovery and nix complications
reversingbreastimplantillness
Hi Alison, I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been struggling with your health. I hear you…I’ve been there too. When you lose your health, nothing else matters. I think we take our health for granted and just assume we’ll always feel well…until we don’t. We are working on a pre-explant preparation program right now, but it won’t be ready until January. I would suggest reducing stress wherever possible, being kind to yourself and giving yourself some grace, eating real foods, avoiding inflammatory foods, resting as much as you need to, gentle exercise or simply walking outside, getting enough clean water and minerals. We’re happy to talk with you if you’d like. You can complete the form below to reach out to me directly. Good luck in your search for an explant surgeon! I have a good list in the “resources” section as well 🙂 Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.
I have been very sick for over 5 years all autoimmune and am making my first appointment with doctor about an explant. I am very scared, I am single and fear what I am going to look like after. I am 60 so my body will not replenish like younger women. What are things I need to do pre surgery to help with recovery and nix complications
Hi Alison, I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been struggling with your health. I hear you…I’ve been there too. When you lose your health, nothing else matters. I think we take our health for granted and just assume we’ll always feel well…until we don’t. We are working on a pre-explant preparation program right now, but it won’t be ready until January. I would suggest reducing stress wherever possible, being kind to yourself and giving yourself some grace, eating real foods, avoiding inflammatory foods, resting as much as you need to, gentle exercise or simply walking outside, getting enough clean water and minerals. We’re happy to talk with you if you’d like. You can complete the form below to reach out to me directly. Good luck in your search for an explant surgeon! I have a good list in the “resources” section as well 🙂 Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.