Ailments : A-Z

There are two important steps to every sound nutritional program: (1) Detoxifying. (2) Rebuilding. To bypass the first is to undermine the second.

Stop Polluting
We overload our bodies with substances that have little or no food value. Coffee, tea, tobacco smoke, drugs, artificial colorings, preservatives, artificial flavorings, agricultural chemicals, and airborne pollutants contribute to toxic overload without providing any nourishment whatever. Alcohol, refined flours, refined sugars, soft drinks, and adulterated fats also contribute to toxic overload. These are the "empty calorie" foods that contribute no essential nutrients but require the body to work just to deal with them.

Even healthy foods can create a toxic burden if we eat too much of them, if we consume more than our bodies can digest, absorb, assimilate and excrete. Foods to which a person is allergic or intolerant add even more toxicity, since the body cannot metabolize them properly.

Let me state the obvious: The first and most important step to detoxification is to stop putting toxins into the body. Consume only healthy food (preferably organic) and only in amounts to satisfy genuine hunger.

Water
Water provides the medium in which all biochemical reactions take place in the body. Most of our bodyweight is water. Water is needed to eliminate wastes through the kidneys and colon.

Most of us do not drink enough water. It is a very healthy habit to consume from two to three liters (quarts) of purified water – preferably reverse osmosis. Make it a habit. Thirst is not a reliable indicator since by the time you feel thirsty, your body is already in the beginning stages of dehydration.

Lymphatic Drainage
Lymph vessels are the "sewage system" of the body. Lymph fluid is the intermediary between blood and bodily cells, in which nutrients are exchanged and waste carried off. There is more lymph in the body than blood, but it must circulate without benefit of a heart or pump. Aerobic exercise is what the lymph nodes and vessels need to massage them and keep them working efficiently.

Which kind of exercise is best? Any one that causes the body to sweat for at least 22 minutes at a time, three times a week. Lymph nodes are heavily concentrated in the neck, armpit and groin – so these are the areas that need to be worked regularly. Tennis, swimming, cycling, handball, martial arts, aerobics, tai chi, walking, rebounding on a mini-trampoline – all will do nicely. Do what you enjoy, so that it will be a pleasure to continue. If your body is out of shape, move into exercise very gradually. Your body thrives on activity and challenge, but keep that challenge reasonable. Don’t overdo.

Saunas once or twice per week are another valuable aid to detoxification. The skin has sometimes been called the "third kidney" because of its eliminative function.

Liver Cleansing
The liver is the master chemical factory of the body. It is the largest gland and has many important tasks to perform. The liver:

• Filters virtually everything that arrives in the bloodstream from the small intestine.
• Manufactures thousands of compounds to help detoxify the body.
• Converts environmental and metabolic poisons into a form that bowels and kidneys can excrete.
• Helps to metabolize glucose, glycogen, amino acids, fatty acids, ATP, and urea.
• Stores glycogen, iron, the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K), and vitamin B-12.
• Produces cholesterol, triglycerides and bile.
• Breaks down worn-out red blood cells
• Acts as a blood reservoir.

The liver has to detoxify alcohol, environmental pollutants, toxic chemicals in food, and toxic byproducts of internal metabolism. If these burdens become too great, the liver can easily become overwhelmed. When this happens, it stores toxins in fat cells, hoping to be able to deal with them later. If, however, the liver is kept constantly busy processing what is coming in, it never gets a chance to catch up with its "housecleaning." As these toxins accumulate, they become a continual source of inflammation and deterioration.

The liver (among its many other functions) is the major organ of detoxification. Anything we can do to ease our toxic burden makes the liver’s job easier – including eating less, drinking more water, reducing our intake of toxins, exercising more, eating more fiber, and so on. There are also a number of herbs that help the liver with its detoxification tasks. These include dandelion root, yellow dock, burdock, chickweed and barberry – which are more effective when taken in combination than singly.

Colon Cleansing
It takes a lot of fiber and moisture to fill out the human colon (which is convoluted in shape) so that it can pass wastes efficiently. Fiber is the indigestible outer covering of plant cells. It provides no nutrients but acts as a "broom" to clean out the intestines.

If the colon is stagnant, toxins are reabsorbed into the bloodstream and spread throughout the body. Unfortunately, many people are constipated and don’t know it. They assume that because they have bowel movements every day that everything is normal. Not necessarily. Transit time is critical. Today’s movement could be from a meal eaten several days ago. Eat some beets. Time how long it take for the characteristic red stain to show up in the stools. Ideally, it should be less than 24 hours.

Oddly enough, diarrhea can be a symptom of constipation. Sometimes a colon can be so badly blocked that only liquid waste can pass through it.

The best way to keep the colon full of fiber – whether following an omnivorous or vegetarian diet – is to consume at least 60 per cent of your food from plant sources (e.g., vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits). Animal products contain zero fiber.

As a fiber supplement, finely powdered psyllium hulls work incredibly well to normalize bowel function – provided they are consumed with a very generous intake of water (3 liters daily). Psyllium helps both to speed up transit time that is too slow (i.e., constipation) and to slow down transit time that is too fast (i.e., diarrhea). Both constipation and diarrhea disturb intestinal bacteria, so it is a also a good idea to help normalize these micro-flora by taking supplementary Lactobaccillus acidophilus.

For long-standing or stubborn cases of constipation, or for periodic colon cleansing for health purposes, there is a very effective Colon Cleanser that combines three kinds of fiber, acidophilus, and 14 cleansing herbs. Four capsules may betaken with a large glass of water, once or twice daily, as needed. Adjust intake to maintain bowel regularity. May be taken for 30 to 90 days and then phased out by gradually diminishing both the quantity and frequency of use.

Mini-Fasting
Fasting means not eating for brief periods. In order for the liver to catch up with its "housecleaning" it sometimes needs to take a short vacation from eating.

One can, on a weekly or monthly basis, take a complete rest from food. Choose a 24-hour period in which you do not have to be very active. For this one day consume only two to three liters (quarts) of purified water. During this mini-fast, if you feel tired, rest. If you feel lightheaded, weak or hungry, then drink more water. You are completely in charge. If at any time you wish to end the fast, do so.

The first meal upon breaking the fast should consist of fresh, raw vegetables or fruit – preferably organic. Gradually re-introduce heavier foods as genuine hunger indicates.

Insulin-dependent diabetics should not fast. To do so might cause their blood sugar levels to drop too dramatically. Passive hypoglycemics may have difficulty fasting because of the blood sugar crash they characteristically experience from three to five hours after eating. Just about everyone else can safely fast for short periods, including reactive hypoglycemics, for whom blood sugar drops only in response to the ingestion of sweets, sugary foods, caffeine or alcohol.

Longer periods of fasting can be benefit, up to a maximum of 10 days, provided that such fasts are supervised by practitioners skilled in therapeutic fasting and that selective foods are gradually re-introduced from the fourth day of the fast to the tenth. Prolonged fasting is potentially dangerous as it causes the body to consume vital tissues and to shift the body into a low thyroid mode.