When it comes to detox, people may think that it is a treatment phase during residential rehab. But do you know that the body continues to detox even after completing residential rehab? This happens through healthy eating, regular exercise, and quality sleep. Health professionals at Laguna Shores Recovery Center try very hard to help you establish these healthy routines. 

Intensive Detox During Residential Treatment

Many people know that the first step of addiction treatment is a detox procedure. The purpose is to ensure no intake of substances into the body. While physically removing drugs or alcohol from a person’s use is not hard, maintaining his or her physical functioning during this phase is more challenging. 

Whether through medically-assisted detox or intensive detox, gradually removing substances from a person’s system may kick off the brain’s maladjustment. Sometimes, the sudden drop in these chemicals may cause the brain to react intensively, leading to mild or severe withdrawal symptoms. Without medical assistance, these reactions can even become life-threatening. Medically-assisted detox helps minimize the negative impact of these withdrawal symptoms.

Apart from medications that lessen withdrawal symptoms, a residential detox rehab also has support staff to monitor around the clock. This is why going through professionally-assisted detox can greatly reduce the likelihood of overdose. Residential detox usually lasts between 7 and 10 days, which is a healthy timeframe for the body to recover from withdrawal symptoms. 

Detoxing in Outpatient Treatment

People who receive outpatient detox may commute to a treatment facility on a regular basis without staying there overnight. The average duration of outpatient detox includes seven sessions, with every treatment session being 30 minutes to 2 hours long. Health professionals may prescribe the same medications used in residential detox to alleviate withdrawal symptoms. 

Outpatient detox works best for people with mild-to-moderate substance dependence, including alcoholism. It can also be used as a maintenance or post-relapse treatment after a person completes residential rehab and detox. But it is not an appropriate level of care for people with severe withdrawal symptoms. 

Detoxing the Body Post-Rehab

Detox is not unique to addiction treatment. Because the body constantly intakes a wide range of toxins from food, water, and air pollution, it has a system to remove these elements. One way is through eating naturally detoxing foods. If you work with a nutrition therapist, you will learn more about foods that have naturally detoxing qualities. For example, broccoli is known to contain sulforaphane which works to fight off infectious cells. Foods that are rich in antioxidants and amino acids also help the body expel harmful toxins.

The second way to detox naturally is by ensuring quality sleep every day. This is the main process by which the human brain detoxes itself. During deep sleep, the brain’s glymphatic system carries fresh fluid and flushes the waste out of the brain into the blood. Since addiction is a chronic brain disease, brain detox is particularly important for healing.

Lastly, regular physical exercise, such as low-intensity aerobic exercises, may increase the heart rate, leading to a natural detox process. As your breathing falls within the fat-burning zone, that is when bodily detox happens. The body’s lymphatic system gets strengthened in defending against toxins from the environment. 

A Healthy Lifestyle Ensures Natural Detox

How to ensure ongoing and persistent detox after you complete residential rehab? The secret lies in rebuilding a healthy lifestyle including good diets, regular exercise, and quality sleep. With these cornerstones, your body and mind can rebuild healthy feedback loops with each other. A healthy lifestyle is also the key to breaking the cycle of addiction and mental health problems. 

On top of these, learning stress management techniques is also important. Stress alone can be toxic to your health. This is because stress results in elevated blood levels and the stress hormone cortisol. Over time, this may result in inflammation in the body and loss of immunity. The cycle between mental and physical health problems can be broken with effective stress management techniques. 

Ongoing Detox Boosts Mood and Emotional Wellbeing

You may hear people referring to healthy habits (such as exercise) as mood-boosting pills. It is actually true. These healthy activities naturally detox the body and release feel-good chemicals in the brain, including dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. These are essentially the same chemicals in many anti-depressant medications.

A healthy lifestyle with the above-mentioned vital components can reduce anxiety, depression, and cravings. Nothing is more effective than healthy habits in preventing relapses. This is why health experts at Laguna Shores Recovery Center strive to help you establish a healthy routine during and after residential treatment. You deserve a fresh start. We are here to support you with the best services.

Do you know the distinction between residential detox and outpatient detox? What about medically-assisted detox? Do you know that detox continues after you complete treatment? Your body and brain can benefit from naturally detoxing activities, such as healthy foods, regular exercise, and quality sleep. If you are looking for a team of experts who can support you in continuous detox, you do not need to look beyond Laguna Shores Recovery Center. Here we offer a wide range of detox services. Our recovery experts also help design a personalized treatment plan to integrate other treatment methods. It is time to act. Early treatment is key to long-term recovery. Call us today at 954-688-5806. Help is just a phone call away.