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 !

Holistic therapy during crisis – on the mind plane

What tools does the holistic school of medicine have for treating mind based crisis?

As a society we are used to thinking of mind based crisis as a job for psychologists and psychiatrists. The familiar arsenal of tools are talks and drugs. What does Natural Medicine have to offer for these situations? What tools can compete with the familiar models? This will be the subject of this article.

Let’s begin with the common ground:

• Psychologists are not the only ones that can use Talks as a therapeutic tool. As a Naturopath part of my daily routine is to have long talks with some of my patients. Many of the “body-mind” practices within the Holistic school scope of therapy are talk based or start with a talk and then use the information for therapies of various kinds. We use talks to train patients in tools that can help them such as stress management (Always useful and twice so in periods of crsis), positive thinking, talks as a destressor and much more. I still find that many patients are surprised when we start talking and they realize this is part of holistic medicine too… It is high time the general public got to know the larger holistic perspective and scope of naturopathy and the other holistic modalities..
• Using drugs is a way to force the brain to “function better” on the mental and emotional planes of the mind. Suppression of anger, the blurring of sadness and depression and the nullification of our awareness to our anxieties. The equivalent tools of Natural Medicine chooses a very different approach. The closest holistic tool is Herbology. There are uplifting herbs, relaxers, stimulators etc. All allow the patient to function better without mind games and illusions (Such as feeling relaxed but underneath the surface bubbling with suppressed stress). One of the greatest advantages of herbs is a unique quality I have yet to find in other tools: Adaptogenic. Adaptogenic herbs help us to better adapt to stressful situations – especially such as one encounters during crisis. The holistic perspective makes use of herbs during crisis in a plethora of other ways: Healing anemia, blood sugar imbalances, general stress reduction, sleep disturbances etc. All these other aspects make coping with a crisis much harder and once healed allow for an easier coping with the crisis itself. This is an example of how important the holistic perspective that approaches the patient as a whole is in crisis management.

Other tools that Natural Medicine has to offer in this case:

• Manual therapies: Holistic massage, Reflexology, Chinese massage, Shiatsu, Thai massage – all these and more in professional hands have the ability to change a lot on the physical and mental planes. You can adapt to the needs of the patient (Fully clothed / oil based / feet only and dry or with cream for the last. Combining Aromatic oils can amplify the effects of the Massage or Reflexology and add the qualities of the oils we choose – relaxing / uplifting / stimulating etc.
• Aromatic oils: Even without the Manual therapies, using oils in a bath or burner or a drop on ones shirt will add a wonderfully scented effect.
• Bach Flowers: This fascinating tool in known for its ability to help alter patterns of human behavior. Most of its focus is on the emotional plane and it allows the patient better emotional coping with the crisis.
• Jin Shin Do: This is a gentle Manual tool that allows emotional and mental work through subtle physical manipulations of 30 of the 365 basic Chinese Acupuncture points. The release this tool enables is a treasure for the person in crisis.
• Chinese Acupuncture: It is common knowledge by now that Needling can assist in anemia, tonification, breaking stagnations and sedation etc. It is less known that Acupuncture can work directly on the emotional plane! There are points that assist in fear, anger and the other emotions directly.
• Meditation: Whether Zen (For the sake of quieting the mind) or Mindfulness (For expanding self-awareness) meditation is an important tool in the understanding of and better coping with a crisis.
• Healing: Balancing the appropriate chakras can do a lot for balancing out mind based crisis situations. Cleaning the aura can remove some of the mental and emotional baggage in a very gentle and effective way. Crystal healing can also be very effective and useful here and can be carried around at all times.
• Art therapy: Using arts / music / dance as therapy can be a wonderful bridge between the mind and the emotions. It has been around and in use since the beginning of human culture. Very important in times of crisis.

This wide array of tools is just the tip of the iceberg and is meant to stress the fact that “yes there are good tools out there in the Holistic field quite useful in times of crisis.

The challenges still facing us in this field are:

1. Raising social awareness to these tools and their value.
2. Integrating the various tools of Natural Medicine.
3. Integrating Natural and Conventional Medicine – or at least to stop the silent battle…
4. Developing protocols for situations yet untested or resolved.

My intention in this series of articles is to address the above challenges and widen public awareness comes first.