Foundations for Good Health: 7 Often Overlooked Keys to Healing

When you’re struggling with chronic health issues, it’s easy to want to jump headfirst into detox techniques. You want relief – and you want it now!

However, I’ve learned personally and from working with clients that it’s best to start with basics. Many of the most powerful tools for healing are quite simple. But they’re often the things you aren’t doing.

That’s why I suggest building a solid foundation for good health before you become a detox superstar. Doing this will get your detox pathways primed for when it’s go-time, lighten your toxic load, and shift you into a parasympathetic state – which is crucial for healing anything!

This article lays out seven of my top foundations for health. Check-in with yourself and see which ones you’ve mastered and which use some more love.

1 - Nature Time

You may be surprised to find this one on the list, but it’s valuable on so many levels, and often ignored in modern culture.

Are you getting outside every day? Even if it’s cold, rainy, snowy, or hot, you can dress for the weather and get out during milder times of the day. 

Nature time comes in many forms:

• Surfing, swimming, or walking on the beach

• Trimming and watering your houseplants

• Spending time with horses, dogs, and other pets

• Taking a walk in a forest

• Taking a walk around the neighborhood

• Backpacking overnight

• Long-term camping in the wilderness

• Gardening

• Playing team sports outside

• Biking

• Doing tai chi in the park

Time in nature provides these benefits:

1. Stimulates a parasympathetic healing state and a good mood

2. Reduces exposure to chemicals and EMF

3. Provides oxygen to cells

4. Provides negative ions, vitamin D, and calming scents (in some cases)

Make a point of getting outside every day, whether it’s sunbathing for 10 minutes, walking your dogs, or biking with your kids. You’ll be rewarded with greater calm and energy.

2 - Toxin Avoidance

Toxin avoidance is so important in this day and age, especially if you’ve been exposed to mold. You’ll need to avoid mold, dust, chemicals, and possibly pollen.

Mold exposure may make you chemically sensitive (reacting to things like artificial scents with headaches or a rapid pulse) and increasingly allergenic or asthmatic.

You can dial down your toxin exposure by:

• Drinking filtered water

• Choosing organic foods

• Using non-toxic personal care and cleaning products

• Running an air purifier

• Swapping plastics for glass containers

Everyone in modern society needs to reduce their toxic load and practice daily detox. However, if you’re struggling with chronic health issues such as mold illness, these practices may reduce your symptoms.

3 - Movement

Movement is incredibly important, and just like nature, is often neglected. Many of us have desk jobs and conveniences that make movement ‘non-essential’ in our lives. But it is essential for your health.

Exercise supports detoxification in several ways:

• Circulates blood and lymph

• Supports mitochondrial function 

• Increases oxygen intake

• Improves mood

• Improves insulin response

• Boosts immunity

• Gets vitamin D (sometimes)

• Reduces chronic pain due to poor posture, etc. (pain stresses the body)

Types of Exercise 

There are lots of ways to move the body, and everyone has a different movement Rx. Most exercise experts promote a combination of strength training, cardiovascular training, and stretching. 

Find the combination of activities you enjoy to include strength training, cardio, and stretching each week. 

Challenge yourself a bit beyond your limits. Not way beyond your limits, but slowly challenge your body to do more and do new things. The same goes for your brain - it stays youthfully adaptable when you teach it new skills and visit new places.

Ideas include:

• Yoga

• Stretching

• Pilates

• Walking

• Jogging

• Kayaking or paddleboarding

• Tai Qi

• Qi Gong

• Dancing

• Gardening

• Yardwork

• Weight lifting

• Calisthenics 

• Playing with kids 

• Golfing

• Tennis

• Pickleball

• Cycling 

• Aerobics

• Softball

• Soccer

• House cleaning

• Rebounding (this is using a mini-trampoline)

• Stair climbing

Exercise is better done frequently than intensely in most cases. 

If you are quite out of shape, fatigued, or struggling with weight or balance, start where you can and increase very slowly. You may be surprised how steadily your ability increases, along with your energy levels and optimism. 

4 - Rest & Self-Care

Rest is an underappreciated thing these days. Often we ‘check out’ in unhealthy ways and call it rest (aka binge-watching TV or drinking nightly wine).

Rest can be:

• Taking a nap

• Laying down to close your eyes for 10 minutes

• Taking a leisurely stroll for 10 minutes

• Meditating

• Yin yoga

• Legs up the wall pose

• Listening to music

• Reading 

• Taking to a friend

• Listening to a podcast

• Taking a bath 

• Doing a hobby

• Sunbathing

Rest is not just sleeping. Sleeping is super important, but it’s its own thing. Be sure you are resting every day. We are meant to sleep about 8 hours, be active about 8 hours, and rest about 8 hours. That’s a lot of rest – and you need it!

5 - Sleep Well

Getting a good night's sleep is achievable. It may take hormone balancing, nutrient addition, detoxification, and more, and it may change with your menstrual cycle and other factors. But it’s a worthy goal, always.

When you sleep you:

• Detoxify your brain

• Repair and eliminate damaged cells

• Produce growth hormone

• Produce the antioxidant melatonin

• Reduce chances of sugar cravings

• Restore energy for the next day

We all need different amounts of sleep. You may need more as you are healing. You may need more just because it’s how you are wired.

Don’t stay up late reading, watching TV, or on Facebook. Those things are ok, but get them done earlier! 

6 - Hydration

Aim for a minimum of 8 glasses of filtered water a day, or 64 ounces. Getting in 8 glasses of water seems to sound like some kind of radical health goal, but it’s actually just required.

Nowadays people are more sedentary, eat more often, and consume all kinds of sweet drinks, which disconnects us from our own thirst and need for water.

Good times to drink are first thing in the morning and between meals. Drink minimally or not at all at meal times as it dilutes your stomach acid.

Other forms of hydration: 

• Fruit

• Fresh vegetables

• Electrolyte drinks

• Soups

• Smoothies

• Berry-infused waters

• Herbal tea

Since fluid intake supports detoxification, it’s essential for mold recovery or any detox protocol. 

7 - Essential Supplementation 

Before you get fancy with specialized detox supplements, get consistent with basic nutritional supplementation. 

Your body needs adequate nutrient levels to function optimally. Modern soil quality and food travel times mean less nutrition in your food.

Nutrients are needed for the thousands of enzymatic processes in your body. They can be used to build hormones and energize cells, or they can be used to clear toxins. 

The bigger your detox job, the more nutrients you need to keep all systems running smoothly.

The essential supplements I recommend are:

• High-quality multivitamin (with methylated B vitamins) 

• Fish oil (triglyceride form and tested for contaminants)

• Magnesium (300 mg magnesium bisglycinate chelate)

• Vitamin D3 with K2  (5,000 IU a day unless getting lots of sun, test yearly) 

Extra credit:

• MegaPre prebiotic (feeds friendly bacteria, start with lowest dose)

• Megaspore probiotic (take with protein meal, start with lowest dose) 

Unfortunately, many supplements in stores are low-quality. They may be affordable, but if they’re not absorbable, it’s a waste of money. Part of my job as a practitioner is to understand which supplement forms absorb best and provide the best forms to my clients.

Since these essential vitamins are so important to me, I carry the first four in our own Function Detox Products line, and the last two are from our trusted partner. You can find them in our shop here.

Need More Support with Your Health Journey?  

My new book, The Ultimate Toxic Mold Recovery Guide: Take Back Your Home, Health, & Life, is coming out on April 8th! It delves deeply into the seven foundations of health covered above and includes three additional pillars to healing.

If you’re struggling with mold illness, this book will be your bible. It walks you step-by-step through every piece of the recovery process – no matter where you are on your journey. 

You can get a sneak peek at it here:

Check out the Ultimate Toxic Mold Recovery Guide >>>

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Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP, is trained in functional health coaching and has worked with thousands of women over her career since 2004. She is the founder of Women’s Wellness Collaborative llc and HormoneDetoxShop.com.

Check our her easy 5-Day DIY Detox Guide here!

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