Basic Human Needs - Detoxification part I

One of the classical tools to aid detoxification - Organic juices

The second part of our basic needs according to the Naturopathic perspective is the removal of toxins and waste. 

Remember how you felt when you were young? You were more  vibrant, your skin unblemished, your breath sweet etc... One of the reasons we loose all of this as we age is because we accumulate toxins.

Can it be reversed? To a great degree - yes !

It's spring time and the body feels as vibrant as it can for all the amazing spring energy in the air. This is the best time for a good clean up program ! I am not going to give you specific instructions in this blog and for a very good reason - detoxification is a challenging thing even when tailored by a pro. Alone, without a personally tailored program you may well come out of such an effort feeling worst then you came in. Do yourself a favor and go see a Naturopath.

What do I want to share with you in this blog post? Perspectives. On how to know if you need a detox, on the rules of detox and tips that may improve the process.

So... Do I need a detox?

If you do you may be suffering from one or more of the following:

1. Bad mouth odor or body odors
2. Lots of gas in your digestive tract
3. Skin eruptions
4. Allergies
5. Difficulty digesting fats
6. Foul smelling urine (Even when you drink enough)
7. Excessive weight (Whether you are stuck or more so if you are in the process of loosing it fast)
8. Recurrent headaches
9. Bad habits such as smoking or excessive alcohol consumption
10. Strange reactions to mild alcohol consumption (Falling asleep / pain in joins etc.)

And when in doubt - detox :)

How about the rules of safe Detoxification?

When going through a cleanse it is imperative that you do it right. The toxins that are cleared during this kind of a process may have accumulated throughout your life and on the way out, when in the blood, they can make you feel quite bad. If the organs of elimination are not functioning well or your vitality is low you might suffer quite a bit during the detoxification with less then optimal results.

1. Make sure you rest well during the detox
2. Make sure a health professional (Naturopath or Chinese Medicine practitioner) checks that your elimination organs are functioning well enough for the detox (Live & Kidneys mainly) and that your vitality is up to par.
3. Find the Detox most suited to your needs - there are many.
4. Do not undergo a water based fast for more then 3 days in a row without professional supervision.
5. When in doubt stop the program. Some symptoms are a sign that the detox is happening but some mean that your body is not up for the task.

Remember - a safe detox is a good detox !

Tips for a really good detoxification process:

• Combine several tools of different orientation (Nutrition / massage / Sauna when appropriate / Classical Hydrotherapy / Trampoline / Physical exercise / Herbology / Aromatherapy etc.) - not all at once of course.
• Cleanse the mind not just the body (More about this in a future post).
• A professional enema can upgrade the detox when relevant.
• Keep yourself  warm - especially during fasting if applied.
• Brush your skin regularly (e.g. With a natural loofah during the shower).
• Breathing exercises raise your vitality and improve the detox.
• Physical exercises are usually a must - but find your dose and don't over do it.
• Make sure you are not deficient in vitamins and minerals.

Have a colourful and radiant spring !

Gall stones and diet

gall stones

So gall stones and diet, how are they linked ?

The simple facts: When we diet (As in lose weight), we break down fatty tissues and remove the excess fat from the body via our bilious system (Liver and gallbladder). This concentrated fatty excess will often not be met with enough acids and bile salts in the gallbladder to keep it in solution and the result? Your gallstones have a reason to grow... Or regrow in case you have already cleared your liver and gallbladder using our safe and effective liver flush.

"Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" - this old dictum has long since been replaced with the more modern version: "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we diet" . This hedonistic phrase coupled with the Jewish holidays causes a large number of people to ping pong between over eating and dieting which in turn raises the risk for gallstones and more so - recurrent gallstones.

It is wiser to choose the healthy lifestyle and avoid over eating during holidays or other days and thus avoid the need to lose weight on a recurring base. If only all would act wisely... But since most don't - here are a few pointers:

1. If you have suffered from gallstones in the past and have either used our system in the past to flush them out or are planning to do so soon - don't go on a diet without first consulting with us. We will teach you how to lose weight without growing stones.
2. Spontaneous weight loss is still a weight loss - same as above.
3. If you are on a diet and are losing more than 3 kilograms of weight a month you are in even a greater risk of gallstone formation. Not only that, you are not just releasing fat from the fatty tissue, the body uses this tissue to store toxins that it had a hard time disposing of... Losing weight releases these toxins into the blood and this requires professional attention to prevent damage.
4. Don't wait till this goes wrong mid-diet. Come to us before hand and we will lend a hand to make the weight loss process more effective and less dangerous.

The other side of the gallstone-diet aspect:

One of the beneficial "side effects" of our gallstone liver cleanse is a cleaner and healthier liver. The benefit of this is that a clean liver makes for easier weight loss.

It doesn't mean we would suggest our cleanse to someone obese without gallstones... For them we need a different personally tailored program.

Dealing with emotions - Holistic therapy during crisis - on the mind plane

Melancholy

What does natural medicine have to offer when dealing with emotions during and after a crisis on the mind plane?

Emotions are a means for communication between different levels of our conscious mind. They are a tool we use in order to cope with loss or something missing in our lives (Sadness), when life doesn't flow the way we want (Frustration / Anger), when we find ourselves outside our safe zone (Fear), when we try to control what cannot be controlled (Anxiety), when our reality is in a complex place with no instant solutions (Worry / Over thinking), when the light is out at the end of our tunnel and life feels bad (Depression), when we won the lottery and can't handle it… (Too much happiness – and yes, there is such a thing ;) ). All these examples are just short insights and not an attempt to go deep but do make it clear how emotions are a tool that can help us cope or at least understand where we are in life when consciously we may not be aware of our inner voice.

During times of crisis emotions tend to rise and even flood and so working with emotions is crucial for better coping during and after a crisis. Wisely managing emotions during crisis can help us with damage control and may even prevent damage and at time may even prevent a hard situation from becoming a crisis altogether.

After a crisis is over emotional flooding is common, and very often mental and physical therapy need to wait for the ebbs of emotion to subside.

Emotional intelligence is the basis for healthy living as well as for coping with crisis in general and especially with emotionally loaded ones. The knowledge of how to read our emotions, recognizing the present emotions, releasing them, preventing emotional flooding and dealing with floods when already present. EQ has proven to be a reliable prediction tool for success in life, more so then IQ. Success in dealing with emotional crisis is logically crucial for succeeding in a life during quiet times and more so when dealing with the ups and downs that life often throws at us. Some need it more than others but we all have those moments.

Natural medicine has varied tools for dealing with emotions in different ways. There is always at least one tool that will meet the needs and often more than one.

Bach flowers: These remedies are meant to focus our consciousness on specific emotions and help us to balances them. There is a remedy for anger and frustrations, two for fears, several for depression etc. Choosing the most accurate is a form of art. The common practice allows and encourages the use of several remedies at once. My experience shows, that choosing one most accurate remedy is more challenging but also more rewarding since it means we are required to be more accurate on the one hand but on the other hand the healing focus is on a single emotion. The result of this system is often a faster resolution and can lead to very accurate processes. "Peeling off" such an emotional layer often reveals another one underneath and thus leads to a second single remedy therapy and then maybe a third. This is a swift and accurate process that rarely needs a month for each remedy as is commonly the case – more likely several days. This usually results in a quick and successful process. This type of Bach flower therapy is especially effective during crisis managements since emotions during crisis have a natural cycle to them and rarely remain stable or fixed on one emotion for long.

Herbal therapy: I wouldn't count on herbs for working with specific emotions as a rule; rather I use them as a general stress reduction tool and for better adaptation in order to help out with coping during the process. I find that formulas based on four qualities of herbs can go along way here: Thymoleptic herbs (Mood raising), Adaptogens (Assist in adaptation during stress), Anti anxiety (When relevant) and general stress reducers.

Jin Shin Do: manual therapies are a wonderful choice during most emotional crisis situations since emotions tend to collect in the muscles. This specific therapy has a rather unique ability to release and/or help digest specific emotion very well. This goes beyond the general emotional release that every other type of massage can offer.

The use of de-stressors techniques as a stress management system: The habit and ability of releasing pent up emotions on a regular basis while keeping a close watch on stress levels (As taught in my book: "Learn peace in an hour") can greatly improve our ability to cope with emotional crisis. Knowing how to gauge the emotional volume stored within at any given moment is crucial for managing emotional loads. Making a daily habit of de-stressing is also very valuable for healthy living in general. In a post-crisis situation, taking the time to unload can prevent flooding.

Remember – so long as emotions come, flow and go they are healthy and will not endanger our health. It is only when emotions get stuck or are suppressed that they can lead to ill health and unbearable emotional levels.