Spring cleaning: 3 types of toxins to consider before you detox.

Ayurveda recommends internal cleansing at every change of seasons. Detox is considered especially beneficial in the spring, because that is the time all of nature is rejuvenating itself.

There are three different types of toxins that can impact the physiology: ama, amavisha and garvisha.

1.- Ama is the most common type of toxin, and is the waste product of incomplete digestion. Sticky, white and foul-smelling, it forms in the digestive tract when the food you eat is not digested properly. Ama is usually caused by eating foods unsuitable for your body type or the season, by eating too much or too little, by eating before the previous meal is digested, by going to sleep on a full stomach, or by eating foods that are left over, processed, old or fermented. If ama continues to be produced over a long period of time, it can leave the digestive tract, travel to a weak area elsewhere in the body and settle there. Usually it blocks the shrotas (micro-circulatory channels) and disrupts the flow of nutrients to the area as well as the body's natural waste removal systems.

First, eliminate certain foods 1 week in advance of the detox.

Usually ama develops when agni, the digestive fire, is either weak or irregular. By enhancing agni through dietary changes or by taking ayurvedic herbal supplements, the digestive system itself can burn off simple ama and clear it from the body.

2.-The second type of toxin is call Amavisha is a more reactive form of ama that forms when ama settles in one part of the body for a long time and mixes with the tissues.

This more toxic, reactive type of ama is more dangerous than the simple ama and must be dealt with differently during detoxification.

3.- Garvisha is the third type of toxin, and unlike the other two, garvisha comes from outside the body. Included are environmental toxins such as chemicals, preservatives, poisons, air and water pollution, genetically engineered foods, synthetics and chemicals in clothing, synthetic drugs, chemicals in household cleansers, and heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and asbestos. Garvisha also includes toxins from spoiled foods.