Ten Common Detoxification Pitfalls : Continuing to eat harmful foods , Failing to change your eating habits , Depriving your body of exercise and sweat and Ignoring your body’s supplement and water needs .

Ten Common Detoxification Pitfalls

In This Chapter

▶ Continuing to eat harmful foods

▶ Failing to change your eating habits

▶ Depriving your body of exercise and sweat

▶ Ignoring your body’s supplement and water needs 

 

You know what they say about the best-laid plans, don’t you?

Unfortunately, that old chestnut extends to the best-laid detoxification plans. Even if you’re completely sold on the idea that you need to correct your current dietary blunders with a healthy detox diet and take additional steps to detoxify your body, you have plenty of chances to slip up on the road to your new, improved, detoxified life.

I’ve been helping patients with their detoxification efforts for decades, and by now I know where many of them go wrong. From these many, many years of hindsight, I offer the material in this chapter, which clues you in on ten of the most common ways that your detox endeavors can go astray. These pitfalls pertain to both detox dieting and general detoxification.

I want you to succeed in your quest to rid your body of toxins and keep them out, so I don’t pull any punches here. My hope is that if you can see potential pitfalls coming, you’ll be more likely to sail smoothly past them on your way to a longer, healthier, detoxified life.

Keeping Unhealthy Food in the House

When you start out on any detoxification endeavor, particularly a detox diet, one of the very first steps you should take is to clear out all the toxin-laden, processed, and generally unhealthy food from your kitchen. You can read all about the kinds of food you should avoid in Chapters 3 and 6 of this book.

Don’t hang on to any of it — clear out the cabinets, the pantry, the fridge, and the freezer. (And don’t forget your secret stash of cookies or snack cakes!)

If you have unhealthy food in your home, it will continually tempt you. Eventually, you’ll probably end up caving to that temptation, so it’s always best to clear out the bad foods from the get-go.

When the unhealthy and toxic foods are out of your home, restock your kitchen with wholesome, healthy foods like the ones I describe in Chapter 7. The change may seem like a bit of a shock at first, but before long you won’t miss all the nasty and unhealthy foods you used to eat because you’ll feel so good from eating nutritious, toxin-free foods.

Not Reading Labels

Want to avoid eating and drinking toxins? If so, you have to abide by this extremely important (yet wonderfully simple) rule: Always read labels. You can’t really know what’s in the food you eat and the beverages you drink unless you read the labels, particularly the ingredients lists. If you take the time to examine a label, you’ll know right away if a food or drink contains toxic or otherwise questionable ingredients, and you’ll know to steer clear of it and opt for a toxin-free alternative.

If you’ve tried to really examine and analyze food labels in the past but you’ve been caught up in all the jargon and confusing information, check out Chapter 3. In that chapter, I give you the full rundown on how you can be smart about labels in order to keep toxin-filled foods away from you and your family. For now, let me quickly clue you in on the three things you should always do when you’re evaluating a label:

✓ Don’t buy a food that has ingredients you’ve never heard of or can’t pronounce.

✓ Pay special attention to the order in which ingredients are listed on the label. They’re supposed to be listed in decreasing order of amounts included.

✓ Keep an eye out for different variations of the same toxin.

What’s not included on a label can be just as important as what is clearly listed. For example, if you’re shopping for organic food and you don’t see “100% organic” on the label, you know there’s always a chance that the food contains or was produced using some sort of toxic materials.

Eating Out

If I told you that every restaurant or eatery out there served food that contained toxins, I’d be lying. A handful of restaurants pride themselves on pro- viding natural, organic, wholesome food, and if you’re lucky enough to live in an area where one of these establishments is located, I fully support you going there to eat.

That said, the vast majority of restaurants don’t have much of a commitment to serving up toxin-free food. If you make a plan to eat out, you’re likely making a plan to have a side of toxins with your meal. The people running these restaurants aren’t bad; they usually are just not focused on what foods and additives are toxic.

You can have nearly total control of the quality and toxicity of the food you eat in only one place, and that’s at home. Prepare your own food whenever you can. If you find yourself in a situation where you know you won’t be able to make your food and eat at home, either pack some food from your kitchen or do plenty of research ahead of time to discover nearby restaurants that can accommodate your desire to eat healthy and toxin-free.

Eating Too Fast and Not Chewing Enough

So many people act like they’re in a competitive eating match when they have a meal. Don’t be one of them! If you shovel down your food and don’t take the time to chew it properly, you’re putting your digestive system at a huge disadvantage. Leisurely eating, with lots and lots of chewing, is an extremely important first step in any healthy digestive process (see Chapter 9).

When you eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly, you break everything down into a nice food slurpy, which is just perfect for your stomach. Doing so allows your stomach to carry out its critical functions and prepare your food for the intestines, which is really where the digestive magic happens.

If you swallow your food before you’ve chewed it into a semi-liquid and soaked it thoroughly with your saliva, you get the delicate digestive dance off on the wrong foot. The results can range from poor nutrient absorption to increased toxicity.

Washing Food Down with Drinks

This one always surprises my patients, so don’t feel like you’re alone if my advice catches you off guard. Ready? Don’t drink liquids when you eat a meal. Sound crazy? It’s actually the healthiest way to eat. Let me explain why.

When you drink beverages while eating a meal, you dilute two important digestive liquids: your saliva and your stomach acid. Watering down your saliva compromises its ability to start breaking down your food, and it makes the food you swallow less slick and more likely to irritate your esophagus. Diluting your stomach acid is even worse. Your stomach acid is a marvel of nature; it’s so powerful that it can destroy many toxins — especially biologic toxins like bacteria, viruses, and parasites. When you drink a lot of liquids with your food, your stomach acid is diluted, which makes it a lot more difficult for the acid to penetrate your food and get to all the toxins that may be lurking in it. You need your stomach acid to be robust in terms of quantity and acidity, and having a beverage with your meal is a real hindrance to both.

Want to make sure your saliva and stomach acid are able to work at the highest possible level? Don’t drink liquids when you’re eating. Wait at least one hour after a meal, and then feel free to have a big, refreshing glass of clean, purified water.

Not Doing an Annual Bowel Cleanse

In Chapter 4 I write extensively about all the amazing things your bowels do to absorb what your body needs and keep out the toxins and other materials that can be a serious drag on your body’s many complex systems. The last time I checked, bowels weren’t included on any list of the world’s natural wonders, but I think it’s time we reevaluate that omission.

Your bowels are wonderfully effective, but in the toxic environment in which we live today, you need to do everything you can to keep your bowels in healthy working order. That includes getting a bowel cleanse once each year. The bowel cleanse process helps to ensure that your bowels aren’t being negatively affected by a range of toxins. It also helps to make sure that your bowels are able to operate as they should, which in turn helps many aspects of your health from your weight to your immune function.

A bowel cleanse is really a relatively simple process, and it’s one that people used to go through all the time just a few decades ago. To get a rounded view of the available bowel cleansing techniques, check out Chapter 5.

Not Exercising 30 Minutes per Day

Our bodies are built for activity, and it’s always a shame to me when people don’t realize and embrace that fact. No matter your age or physical condition, regular exercise is a key way that you can keep your body functioning as it’s supposed to. If you don’t exercise, you’re simply asking for trouble.

I’m not talking about running a marathon or bench-pressing 300 pounds here. For most adults, just 30 minutes per day of vigorous exercise — enough to get you up near your target heart rate — can make a tremendously positive impact on your overall health. Yet many people don’t do it, and as a result we’re more overweight and prone to diseases than ever before.

Besides the well-known and well-documented reasons to exercise, here are two other important benefits that you stand to enjoy if you can commit to engaging in physical activity for just a half hour every day:

✓ Better sleep: Study after study has proven that exercising during the day — particularly in the morning — helps to regulate your sleep cycle and make your body ready to shut down for sleep when bedtime rolls around. With so many people living extremely busy lives these days, who can afford not to get quality sleep?

✓ Detoxification through sweating: A good 30-minute exercise session will get you sweating, and sweating is one of the most effective ways to detoxify your body. You can excrete all manner of toxins with your sweat, from chemicals to heavy metals. Just be sure you take a good shower when you’re done exercising so those toxins don’t sit around on and irritate your skin.

Not Sweating Enough

Working up a good sweat is a fantastic way to get toxins out of your system. Your sweat glands are great at removing toxic materials from your body, and you should take advantage of their talents.

Not long ago — back before air conditioning and before people started settling into sedentary lifestyles — just about everyone on earth spent a good portion of the year sweating quite a bit every day. Unless you live in a very cold area, you can imagine what it would be like in the heat of summer if air conditioning weren’t widely available. In those days, people were detoxifying their bodies all the time. But fast forward to the present day, when people don’t sweat nearly as much and the toxic load in our environment has been greatly increased. We need to sweat more than ever before.

You should strive to sweat often in the interest of aiding your body’s natural detoxification processes. Here are three ways you can do just that:

✓ Exercise regularly. I cover this topic in the previous section.

✓ Spend time in a sauna. This is a great way to work up a sweat, and I recommend it for anyone who is in good physical condition. Three types of sauna are available: wet, dry, and infrared. For details, have a look at Chapter 18.

Consult your doctor before beginning to use a sauna. People who suffer from blood pressure problems, cardiovascular disease, or epilepsy should not use saunas. Pregnant women should also avoid saunas.

✓ Drink plenty of water. Your body can sweat effectively only if you’re very well hydrated. To make sure you’re getting the most out of your sweat, drink plenty of purified water. (Have a look at Chapter 3 for information on how to ensure your water is clean and toxin free.)

Not Supplementing

Unless you eat a completely healthy, 100 percent organic diet that is made up of huge amounts of fresh vegetables, you’re more than likely not getting all the critical nutrients and other materials your body needs to perform at its very best. I encourage you to strive for the best diet you can achieve, but if your diet isn’t perfect, you can always add to the vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, essential amino acids, and other key substances you need through supplementing.

I talk a lot about supplementing in this book, and I really do recommend it for just about everyone. Some people question the effectiveness of supplements, but I’ve always found them to be an extremely useful way to augment a healthy diet for both me and my patients.

Some people choose not to supplement because they think doing so will be too much of a hassle, or they think it’ll be expensive, or they don’t really know which supplement choices to make when they’re faced with an intimidating (and enormous) wall of options at their health food or vitamin store. But supplementing can be easy, cost-effective, and confusion free if you know how to go about it, and I’m happy to help you figure out the ins and outs. Start with my explanation on how to pick out supplements in Chapter 5, and then consider my list of recommended supplements in Chapter 21.

Drinking Inadequate Amounts of Water

As far as we know, there’s one substance that all life requires: liquid water. Your body needs it, in the truest sense of the word “need.” Therefore, you should drink plenty of water every day — not just when it’s hot out, or when you’re exercising, or when you’ve recently eaten a lot of salty food. (You shouldn’t be doing that last one anyway, of course.) Drink water steadily throughout the day, and you’ll not only keep your body healthy on a general level, but you’ll assist your body in its quest to rid itself of toxins.

When you’re well hydrated, your lymph system — a sort of secondary circulatory system that excels at flushing toxins out of your cells and tissues — is at its best. Your digestive system is also on top of its game when there’s plenty of water to go around, and you don’t have to read too many pages of this book to realize how important your digestive system is in getting the right materials in your body and keeping the wrong materials (toxins) out.

A good general rule is to drink enough water to keep your urine clear. At the same time, beware of toxin-emitting plastic water bottles. Flip back to Chapter 3 for ways to make sure the water you drink is pure and toxin-free.

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Ten Supplements to Take Daily: Getting sufficient vitamins, Making sure minerals are on your list and Adding other supplements to your regimen.

Ten Supplements to Take Daily

In This Chapter

▶ Getting sufficient vitamins

▶ Making sure minerals are on your list

▶ Adding other supplements to your regimen

The best way to get the important substances you need (vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, antioxidants — the list goes on and on) is through a balanced, wholesome, nutritional diet (one that is 100 percent organic whenever possible). But the fact is that many people have a very hard time eating enough of the right kinds of foods to get the substances they need in the correct quantities. That’s why I recommend that you strongly consider using supplements to increase the amounts of critical materials your body must have to perform at its very best.

This chapter gives you ten suggestions for supplements that you can take every day to improve your health. I know it may seem overwhelming to think about taking ten (or more) different supplements each day, but keep in mind that doing so can be a real benefit to both your body and mind. Plus, it may help you to live longer and healthier. That said, if you know that you’re getting a good amount of some of these substances in your diet and you’re interested in keeping the amount of supplements you’re taking relatively low, you can adjust your supplement regimen accordingly. For example, if you eat plenty of oily, cold-water fish, you may not need to supplement with omega-3 fatty acids. Think about your diet, and supplement in an appropriate way to make certain you’re giving your body what it needs.

Here’s one very important note to keep in mind when you’re thinking about supplements: The daily recommended allowances for vitamins, minerals, and other substances that you see on food labels don’t mean a whole lot. These guidelines show you the minimum amounts necessary for your body to keep on keepin’ on, but they don’t tell you what amounts you need for your body to go above and beyond that base level.

One more thing: If you want advice on how to select supplements, flip back to Chapter 5.

Multivitamin

A good, comprehensive multivitamin should be the foundation for your supplement regimen. Your body absolutely must have 14 vitamins in order to function properly, and chances are you don’t get all 14 in the amounts you need from your diet. It is possible to get all your vitamins from food, but you have to eat a diet that is much healthier than most people even aspire to. (You have to eat loads and loads of produce — mostly vegetables — and choose only 100 percent organic varieties.) For more information about all the vitamins you need, flip back to Chapter 17.

Some people take a once-a-day multivitamin. While that’s definitely better than taking nothing at all, the pill probably doesn’t include high enough doses of each of the vitamins you need. How do I know? If a once-a-day vita- min contained adequately high doses of all 14 essential vitamins, it would have to be at least as big as a golf ball. Most of the multivitamins that offer comprehensive vitamin coverage require you to take several pills a day. Four capsules or pills a day is a pretty standard number.

A range of good brands and reasonably priced options is available. You want to find a company that does third-party analysis (see Chapter 5). Most of the better products are not sold over the counter and must be purchased through an integrative physician or a pharmacy that is involved in natural wellness.

Make sure the multivitamin you choose includes a good calcium source, and make sure that it comes as calcium hydroxyl apatite and not calcium carbon- ate. You don’t necessarily have to understand the differences between the two; just make sure your multivitamin includes the former and not the latter.

Multimineral

In total, you need to supply your body with 16 different minerals if you want it to perform at an optimal level. I won’t list them here — check out Chapter 17 for a rundown — but rest assured that getting anything less than all 16 means a compromise for your health.

Multimineral supplements are easy to find, and in many cases you can find multivitamin/multimineral combination supplements. These options can be tricky, and you need to make sure that if you choose to go that route you buy an option that includes all 14 vitamins and all 16 minerals. (That’s quite a lot!)

When you’re picking out a multimineral supplement, go with one that contains chelated minerals. I’ll spare you all the boring details of the process that creates chelated minerals. But keep in mind that unless you’re getting chelated minerals, you’re probably paying for minerals that end up in your toilet instead of in your body’s important systems.

Don’t take a multimineral supplement that comes from a clay source. These products are not chelated, and they contain silver, tin, and nickel. In some cases they even list lead as an ingredient!

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

You’ve probably heard or read about omega-3 fatty acids in the news recently. The importance of this essential fatty acid has been getting a lot of press, and for good reason. It’s one of those substances that your body has to have to survive and thrive, and despite all the wonderfully complex chemical processes your body can do, it can’t manufacture omega-3 fatty acids.

The best dietary source of omega-3s is organic beef. Fish is the next best source. You should eat fish as part of a healthy diet, but unless you’re eating wild Alaskan salmon or one of the other few types of fish that don’t commonly contain high levels of mercury, chances are you’re getting a very unhealthy dose of toxins along with your omega-3 fatty acids.

To steer clear of mercury but still get your omega-3s, supplement with liquid fish oil or a capsule or softgel. Take one gram twice a day to get what you need.

Resveratrol

Resveratrol is a powerful antioxidant, and I recommend that everyone get a dose of it each day. Resveratrol has developed a much higher profile since a Harvard Medical School study a few years ago showed a pretty dramatic increase in the health and lifespan of mice when they were given resveratrol in addition to their diets. If you read up on this antioxidant, you’ll probably see that it is present in red wine, and that’s the truth. (It’s also present in grape skins.) But if you wanted to get a significant dose of resveratrol from red wine alone, you’d have to glug a few hundred bottles of the stuff per day, and that would kill you long before you got to enjoy any benefits of resveratrol.

The good news is that you can buy resveratrol supplements at many health food stores and at any good vitamin retailer, either in person or online. You’ll see it listed either as resveratrol or red wine extract. I recommend getting 30 milligrams per day, which should be rather easy given the breadth of supplement options on the market.

Vitamin C

If you take a good multivitamin, you’re probably getting a good amount of vitamin C each day. But don’t think for a second that you’re getting all that your body needs to really be able to operate on a high level.

I recommend taking a 1,000-milligram vitamin C supplement twice each day. I know that sounds like a lot, but if you’ve read much of this book, you know that I believe very firmly that vitamin C is a huge boon for your good health. Even though it’s present in lots of fruits and vegetables, it can still be difficult to get enough of the stuff in your diet. Hundreds (perhaps thousands) of vitamin C supplement options are available, so do some research and talk to your integrative doctor to find out which ones are right for you.

When you’re fighting an illness, take 8,000 milligrams of vitamin C each day instead of the usual 2,000 milligrams.

Vitamin B Complex

The term vitamin B complex refers to all the B vitamins: B1, B2, B3, B5,B6, B7, B9, and B12. Several of the B vitamins have other commonly used names — riboflavin and niacin are two good examples — and you can read all about those names, as well as my dosage recommendations, in Chapter 17.

The range of important functions that the vitamin B complex plays in your body is staggering, and I wouldn’t even attempt to cover all the details here. Just know that if you want to be healthy and live a long, comfortable life, you’d better plan on getting plenty of B vitamins.

I think it’s a good idea to take a vitamin B complex supplement in addition to your multivitamin every day. You can find such a supplement that will give you what you need in only one dose per day. Check out Chapter 17 to get my recommendations on how much of each of the B complex vitamins to get every day.

Magnesium

Several solid studies done over the course of the last few years have shown very strong connections between high levels of magnesium intake and the avoidance of cardiovascular illness. People who get plenty of magnesium — in their diets and through supplementing — commonly have a lower heart disease risk.

In addition, magnesium is involved in about 300 different biochemical reactions that take place in your body, so you can see why it’s a good idea to make sure you’re getting enough of it. To be certain, take a supplement that gives you 600 milligrams per day.

Sulforaphane

Not everyone has heard of sulforaphane, and that’s too bad. It’s been making headlines on a pretty regular basis lately, and I hope that continues, because I think everyone should be taking it as a supplement regularly.

Recent studies have indicated that sulforaphane helps to thwart some kinds of cancer and can slow tumor development. Other studies show that sulfora- phane reduces the amount of H. pylori bacteria in the stomach, and that bacterium causes stomach lining inflammation and ulcers. If those aren’t good reasons to take sulforaphane each day, I don’t know what are.

You can get sulforaphane in supplement form in two ways: broccoli seed extract or straight sulforaphane. If you go with the latter, shoot for 500 milligrams per day. If the former is your preferred sulforaphane supplement, try to get 30 milligrams every day.

Vitamin E

Like vitamin C and the vitamin B complex, vitamin E is something that will almost certainly be included in your multivitamin regimen but probably not in high enough amounts. You can see continuing health benefits of supple- menting with vitamin E up to 800 milligrams per day, so don’t be afraid to get that much.

What are some of the health benefits of taking additional vitamin E? First, vitamin E has powerful antioxidant effects, and if you check out Chapter 5 you’ll know how important antioxidants are to your total health. But vitamin E does all sorts of other good things for your body as well, from boosting your immune system to keeping your blood vessels in tip-top shape.

Do yourself a huge favor, and don’t scrimp on the vitamin E.

Alpha-lipoic Acid (ALA)

You’ll often see alpha-lipoic acid referred to as ALA. It’s a top-notch antioxidant that helps your body fight disease and keeps your various cells functioning at a high level.

I always suggest to my patients that they take an ALA supplement, and I recommend finding a capsule form that provides about 800 milligrams per day. That number has been shown to offer many health benefits without being overwhelming or wasteful in the body. You can find ALA supplements at any good health food store and at your local vitamin retailer.

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Ten Ways to Tell That Your Detox Diet Is Working: Losing weight and gaining health, Smelling, feeling, and looking better, Watching food allergies, blood pressure, and digestion improve and Experiencing better moods and higher quality of life.

Ten Ways to Tell That Your Detox Diet Is Working

In This Chapter

▶ Losing weight and gaining health

▶ Smelling, feeling, and looking better

▶ Watching food allergies, blood pressure, and digestion improve

▶ Experiencing better moods and higher quality of life

Say you’ve made the decision to start on a detoxification diet. You get the necessary equipment; clean the processed and toxin-filled food from your fridge and pantry; replace it with wholesome, natural, organic food; and work hard to improve your eating habits. These steps aren’t easy to take, so if you complete them successfully, congratulations are in order!

But enough with the congratulations — how do you know when this diet is really working? How do you know when the healthy choices you’re making start to have a positive effect on your body?

That’s the topic I tackle in this chapter. Read on to get the scoop on ten wonderful ways that you can tell your efforts to implement and stick to a detox diet are paying off and helping to create a healthier you.

You Lose Some Weight

When your body contains high levels of toxins, it relies on a natural process that isolates the toxic materials and tucks them away where they can’t do any harm to your important organs and tissues. That process involves toxins being absorbed and stored for long periods of time in fat cells. Many people don’t know it, but fat cells can be storehouses for toxins, particularly heavy metals and chemical toxins. After toxins end up in fat cells, another natural process takes place. That process causes fat cells to grow and expand in an effort to dilute the toxins. Put these two processes together, and toxins can not only result in an abundance of fat cells but also a growth in the size of those fat cells.

So what happens to those fat cells when you embark on a detoxification diet? When you drastically cut down on the amount of toxins you take in with your food and water, and when you also make a concerted effort to eat the kinds of foods that boost your body’s efforts to rid itself of toxins, the result is an over- all decrease in the amount of toxic materials present in your body. And when the toxin levels go down, your body no longer needs the multitude of growing fat cells necessary to sequester all those toxins, so your body begins to do away with them. This nifty sequence of events is one of the main reasons why detox dieting is such a great way to help you reach your ideal weight. (It also doesn’t hurt that detox diets focus on healthful, low-fat foods, which can only give you another step down the path of healthy weight management.)

You Don’t Get Sick as Often

With all the foreign substances that can end up in your body, it’s safe to say that your immune system, which your body relies on to fight infection and disease, has plenty to deal with. Even in the purest, cleanest environments, harmful materials end up in your bloodstream and in your body’s organs and tissues. When that happens, your immune system comes to the rescue. It’s an extremely complex and effective natural machine, and you want to keep it in the best possible condition so it can thwart the dangerous advances made by bacteria, parasites, viruses, and toxins.

The immune system is complex and kind of fragile. Its many unique parts must work together in order for you to enjoy maximum immunity, and these parts can be thrown out of whack or even destroyed if they’re exposed to certain materials, including toxins. In relatively low amounts, toxins can be a disruption to your immune system, and when toxic levels are high the effects can be devastating. Your body can quickly lose the ability to defend itself against foreign invaders.

You may not notice a huge effect on your immune system when you first start a detox diet, but after a while you may be pleasantly surprised by how resilient you are against infections. You may dodge the bullet when the rest of the people in your office catch a nasty cold, for example. The reason is that a decreased toxic load takes away a major threat to your immune system, and all those wonderful, efficient parts of your body are able to work together to keep you healthy and feeling great.

Your Gas Doesn’t Smell as Bad

Okay, this one may catch you off guard. But it’s true! Sticking to a detox diet will go a long way toward preventing the creation of foul-smelling gas in your intestines. Allow me to explain.

When your intestines are at their healthiest, you have a balance of bacteria that features a normal amount of good, beneficial bacteria and only trace levels of bad bacteria. At their worst, the good bacteria don’t have any effect on you at all, and at their best they can help you digest certain foods that you wouldn’t be able to digest on your own. Bad bacteria, however, can do all sorts of nasty things to your body, including causing disease, robbing you of key nutrients, and even contributing to really bad-smelling gas.

How can you make sure your intestines contain the right amounts of good bacteria and very little amounts of bad bacteria? Go on a detox diet. Making wise food choices will help to create an environment in your intestines that helps good bacteria to succeed and makes it hard for harmful bacteria to get a foothold. And that will work wonders if you’re one of the many people who suffer from offensive, foul-smelling gas.

You Have More Energy

Want to put some pep in your step? Go on a detox diet. A noticeable (and extremely pleasant) increase in energy levels is one of the first things that my patients mention when they’ve been on a detoxification diet for a few weeks. Why does that happen? There are several reasons, but an important one is the ability of your thyroid gland to work as it’s supposed to. Your thyroid gland is responsible for regulating your metabolism, which is the root of your energy levels. The thyroid can be a fickle gland, and it’s prone to acting up when you have too many toxins — particularly mercury — in your blood- stream and elsewhere in your body.

When your thyroid goes on the fritz, it can do lots of bizarre and unpleasant things to your body, including wreaking havoc on the amount of energy you have. (Read all about that subject in Chapter 11.) If you want to enjoy healthy, comfortable amounts of energy — not too much, not too little — work toward detoxifying your body and put a detox diet at the very top of your priority list.

Your Skin Looks and Feels Better

Sweating is one of the most effective and important methods for detoxification. When your body is overrun with toxins and you sweat them out constantly, your skin can really improve. Sweat is good for your skin and can make you look and feel very healthy. Sweating also increases the natural oils on the skin that keep the skin soft and moist.

Slashing the amount of toxins in your body using a detox diet helps to limit the toxins that you sweat out onto your skin. When you combine that effort with a careful skincare regimen and a commitment to drinking plenty of purified water, you’re bound to end up with softer, healthier skin.

You can also use a sauna to help sweat out the toxins that are already in your body — see Chapter 18 for details. Just be sure that you take a good, long shower after you’re done so toxins go down the drain and don’t stay on your skin.

Your Food Allergies Improve

If you’re one of the millions of people who suffer from food allergies, you know how annoying, frustrating, and even dangerous they can be. Some food allergies are relatively easy to deal with — it’s pretty easy to avoid eating oysters if you’re allergic to shellfish, for example. But others are a real pain. If you’re allergic to gluten (a common substance in many grains), you know exactly what I’m talking about.

If certain foods give you fits and you want to improve the situation, get started on a detox diet right away. Dodging toxins and eating foods that help to flush them from your body will help to prevent a condition called leaky gut syndrome that can contribute to the occurrence and severity of food allergies. Leaky gut syndrome occurs when toxins irritate and inflame your intestines, and as a result the intestines accidentally allow dangerous materials to pass through your intestinal wall into your bloodstream. Many people believe that leaky gut syndrome can play a big part in causing food allergies. If you can cut way down on your toxicity, you’ll keep your intestines healthy and make leaky gut syndrome much less of an issue.

Your Blood Pressure Decreases

One out of every four Americans suffers from hypertension, commonly known as high blood pressure. This condition contributes to stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure, among other problems, and the unhealthy diets and abundance of toxins that are so prevalent in our world today are only making matters worse.

If you or someone you’re close to suffers from hypertension, I strongly suggest a detoxification diet. It’s a little known fact that several toxins can have a harmful effect on your blood pressure. Lead is the worst of the bunch, and it also happens to be one of the most common toxins. Cut out those toxins and take an active approach to flushing them out of your body, and you’re almost certain to lower your blood pressure and help keep it down at a healthy, comfortable level.

Your Bowel Movements Are More Regular

People sometimes cringe when it comes time to talk about bowel movements, but the truth is that they’re an important part of your health and you need to pay attention to them. Regular, comfortable bowel movements are a sign that your digestive system is working as it should, and that should be a goal for everyone.

Toxins have a negative impact on your bowel movements. They can cause lots of intestinal problems from constipation to diarrhea and everything in between. The results can be malnutrition, dehydration, and increased toxic- ity, just to name a few.

A detox diet greatly reduces the amount of toxins that enter your body, which helps improve the quality and regularity of your bowel movements. Also, a detox diet provides you with plenty of fiber and other food sub- stances that contribute to healthy bowels and bowel function.

Your Mental State Improves

Quite a bit of evidence suggests that detoxification and the avoidance of toxins can help your brain and the rest of your nervous system operate on a higher, healthier level. Of course, some folks also like to refute that idea.

You could spend half a lifetime sorting through the studies and research results trying to figure out the exact, quantitative effect of toxins on your neurological system and your mental health. Before you go off and do that, consider this: Nearly every patient I’ve ever helped to start and follow through with a detoxification diet has reported that his or her mental state has improved by leaps and bounds. Detox diets make people feel calmer and more at ease, and they also help people think more clearly and avoid the “brain fog” that makes it hard to excel at work and enjoy personal time.

You Live a Long, Healthy Life

Okay, okay, so this one takes a little bit more time for you to see the results. But if you make the commitment to maintain a detox diet for life — and don’t be mistaken, that’s the kind of timeline we’re talking about here — you’ll be less likely to suffer from the diseases that now afflict so many people as they age. These diseases include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and many different forms of cancer. Going on a detox diet and following a detox protocol is probably the best chance you have to avoid facing these illnesses. And a detox lifestyle will positively affect every other aspect of your health in the meantime.

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Ten Foods to Leave at the Store: Skipping the milk, margarine, and corn oil, Banishing artificial sweeteners, colors, and fats and Keeping tuna, soy, processed meats, and animal fats at bay

Ten Foods to Leave at the Store

In This Chapter

▶ Skipping the milk, margarine, and corn oil

▶ Banishing artificial sweeteners, colors, and fats

▶ Keeping tuna, soy, processed meats, and animal fats at bay

When you’re grocery shopping, do you feel like you have a very good sense of what kinds of foods you should put into your cart and, eventually, into your body? If not, that’s one of the first skills you should develop as you work on the many ways that you can detoxify your body and strive for maximum health.

In Chapter 6, I fill you in on what you shouldn’t be eating. In Chapter 7, I focus on all the kinds of foods that should fill your shopping cart, your pantry, and your stomach. If you’re interested in some detailed information on detox diet food choices, those are the chapters for you. However, if you want to get some quick, basic information on the foods that you should definitely leave on the grocery store shelf, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to find out which foods you should eat very, very sparingly or — if you’re really serious about detoxification and building good health — not at all!

Milk

Cow’s milk can seem like a harmless food, and millions of dollars are spent each year to make you think that it’s healthy. But the truth is that most of the milk you find in grocery store refrigerators can be harmful to your health. Most milk is heavily processed: It’s spun, heated, separated, and reconstituted, for starters. The majority of the healthy proteins that can be found in milk are destroyed during all the processing steps. How different is the milk at the grocery store from natural cow’s milk? One research project gave gro- cery-store-bought milk to newborn calves, and all of them died before they reached 2 months of age.

Here’s some more food for thought: A 12-year Harvard study of 80,000 nurses showed that the nurses who drank the most commercially produced milk also had the most bone fractures. That certainly doesn’t jibe with the message that comes from milk proponents, who insist that we need to drink milk to get the calcium and vitamin D we need. That’s simply not the case. You can get all the calcium and vitamin D necessary for strong bones (and more) from vegetables, sunshine (for the vitamin D), and supplements.

Some people can’t imagine life without cow’s milk. If you’re among them, please find a good, clean source of whole, raw milk. Chances are you can get a tip if you ask around at your local health food store.

If you want to drink milk but you’re not dead set on drinking cow’s milk, try substitutes like rice milk, almond milk, and soy milk. (However, if you go with the soy milk option, remember that almost all soy products have been created using genetically modified soybeans.)

Many brands of commercially produced milk contain antibiotics and hormones. If you want to drink cow’s milk, make completely sure that the brand you buy states clearly on the label that the milk doesn’t contain these toxic substances.

Margarine

It always breaks my heart when I hear about someone who has decided to give up butter in favor of margarine in order to lose weight and stay healthy. Given the amount of fat present in butter, a lot of people avoid it. But please don’t start eating margarine as a substitute. It’s unhealthy and in many cases can contain trace amounts of toxins.

About halfway through the 20th century, people began eating margarine as a butter substitute for health reasons. We’re now at the point where Americans eat twice as much margarine as they do butter. The problem is that margarine isn’t healthy. More often than not it contains hydrogenated oils and trans fats, and you don’t want either of those things in your system.

What’s more, margarine is made using processes that involve toxins, and I have a hard time believing that margarine makers are able to remove all the toxins from the finished product. Two of the toxins commonly used to make margarine are hexane — a nasty petrochemical solvent — and nickel, which is a very harmful heavy metal toxin.

Before you reach for the margarine, consider using very small amounts of 100 percent organic butter instead. The butter may not be as good for you as many of the other foods out there, but it’s always better for you than margarine.

Corn Oil

If you look in most people’s pantries, you’re likely to find a bottle of corn oil. If the same goes for you, do yourself a favor and get rid of that bottle!

Corn oil is an extremely common cooking and baking ingredient, but it’s flat- out not good for you. In addition to being loaded with plenty of bad fats, most corn oil is hydrogenated and made using genetically modified corn. I won’t get into the nitty gritty details of genetically modified food products here, but please flip back to Chapter 6 if you want the scoop.

If you’re looking for healthy oil alternatives to corn oil, consider using 100 per- cent organic coconut oil and hempseed oil. Find them at a nearby health food store or online.

Artificial Sweeteners

In my opinion, very few products are as detrimental to detoxification and a detox diet lifestyle as artificial sweeteners. If you could get a dime for every food product in the average grocery store that contains an artificial sweet- ener, you could easily be reading this book on a big, beautiful boat some- place sunny (with a nice glass of 100 percent organic carrot juice by your side!).

I cover the details of artificial sweeteners in Chapter 9, so flip back there if you want to read up. For the purposes of this list, I’ll just say that you should do everything you can to cut artificial sweeteners and any products that contain artificial sweeteners out of your diet. You’re much more likely to live a healthy, detoxified life if you can make that important step.

You should avoid artificial sweeteners at all costs and do your best to limit your intake of sugar. But what’s left to use for sweetening foods and drinks? Try using stevia, which is an extremely low calorie, natural sweetener that comes from a plant and has been used in other cultures without negative health impacts for decades.

Artificially Colored Foods

When it comes to foods that have been colored, I like to imagine what it would be like to go back in time a few centuries and offer some of these food items to the people of that era. Can you imagine trying to get an early American settler, for example, to drink a fluorescent blue liquid and eat a neon pink snack cake?

The chemicals used to make most food colorings are a murderer’s row of harmful toxins, and you don’t want them in your body. Many food coloring products are made of coal tar — the same stuff used on our streets. Don’t eat foods that have been colored! To make sure you’re making wise choices, always check ingredients lists. When in doubt, do a simple logic check: Is the bright green gummy snack in front of you really that color because of natural factors? Probably not. Skip it.

Olestra

In the 1980s, scientists cooked up a new substance that was touted as a terrific replacement for fat. The idea was simple: The olestra molecule had some of the characteristics of fat, but it was too big to be absorbed by the human digestive system so it didn’t end up in your body and didn’t cause weight gain and all the other problems commonly attributed to fat.

Sound too good to be true? It is. At its very best, olestra is simply a fake, unnatural fat. At its worst, it makes absolutely no contribution to weight loss and can cause a disgusting anal discharge condition. Not good.

What’s more, olestra doesn’t do any of the positive things that good fats can do for your body, like helping you to absorb important vitamins (vitamins A, D, E, and K). Leave olestra and any products that contain olestra on your grocery store shelves.

Tuna

Tuna is a delicious, easy-to-find fish, and you can get it in all kinds of forms — from a gourmet tuna steak at a fancy restaurant to a big vat of tuna salad at a corner grocery store and deli. Unfortunately, more often than not, tuna contains the deadly toxin mercury. Because of that disturbing trend, I have to suggest you avoid eating tuna whenever possible.

If you’re used to eating tuna and you want to continue making fish part of your diet, try using wild Alaskan salmon instead. That variety of fish traditionally scores very low when it comes to mercury levels, and it also happens to taste great and works in a huge range of delicious recipes. (For a good example, check out the recipe for Crunchy Curried Salmon Wraps in Chapter 9!)

Soy

When I tell my patients that they should consider avoiding eating soy or buying soy food products, they sometimes look at me in disbelief. Most people think of soy as harmless or even healthy, and in a perfect world that might be true.

The problem is that an overwhelming amount of the soy and soy products available in the United States come from genetically modified soybeans. And if you know anything about soy, you know how impossible it is to get away from the stuff. It’s everywhere!

What if you want to keep soy and foods that contain soy in your diet? Make sure that the soy you eat is 100 percent organic and that it doesn’t come from a genetically modified soyce . . . er, source.

Processed Meats

It doesn’t take a natural foods specialist to realize that processed meats are a bad idea. Just looking at some potted meats can make you wonder how it ever makes sense for someone to eat those materials. But lots of people do eat potted meat, along with other processed meats like lunchmeat and hot dogs.

Just to set the record straight, here’s what’s wrong with processed meat: It offers little or no nutritional value and can be full of toxins. All the various chemical and mechanical techniques used to make processed meat rob it of whatever nutrients it had to begin with, and just about every processed meat product on the market contains a toxin called sodium nitrite. It’s a chemical used as a preservative, and after it’s in your body it can go through a chemical reaction or two to create nitrosamines, which are compounds that many people believe cause cancer (particularly liver cancer).

Animal Fats

What’s an animal fat? You guessed it: any fat that comes from an animal. Animal fats are not bad if they come from clean animals. And fats (oils, really) that come from fish are quite good for you. But most animal fats available in your grocery store are rotten for your body’s systems; they often contain toxins because substances like antibiotics, hormones, and steroids are used on many commercially raised animals.

To get the good types of fats into your diet, focus on vegetable fats (more commonly referred to as vegetable oils). The best varieties to use are coconut oil, flaxseed oil, olive oil, and hempseed oil. (Make sure you pick out 100 per- cent organic oils if possible.)

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Trying a Few Other Kinds of Detoxification: Seeing the detoxification benefits of saunas, Calling on the detox strengths of chelation, Assessing the usefulness of acupuncture and Harnessing the power of meditation.

Trying a Few Other Kinds of Detoxification

In This Chapter

▶ Seeing the detoxification benefits of saunas

▶ Calling on the detox strengths of chelation

▶ Assessing the usefulness of acupuncture

▶ Harnessing the power of meditation

The human body is a wonderful machine. It is designed to heal itself and correct almost anything that goes wrong, so long as it has all the nutrients it needs and is not poisoned. Unfortunately, in the last 50 years or so we have been getting poisoned by the environment and many foods. Fortunately, we do have available some really good options to boost the body’s ability to get rid of toxins.

Because toxins and nutritional deficiencies are major factors in acute and chronic disease today, we need to look at ways to increase our detoxification efforts. That’s what this chapter is all about.

Sweating It Out in a Sauna

If you’re really interested in detoxifying your body, you can’t ignore the usefulness and practicality of saunas. Using a sauna is a wonderful way to rid your body of toxins.

Saunas certainly aren’t a new invention. They’ve been around for thousands of years, and their use developed independently in many different societies throughout human history. The Romans had their baths (called thermae), the Japanese their hot springs (called onsen), and the Aztecs their sweat lodges (called temescalli). All were based on the same idea: Humans spend time in a hot environment and sweat heavily to produce curative and restorative effects on health.

Why are saunas so effective at removing toxins? The concept is simple: Saunas make your body sweat at a very high level, and sweating helps to flush toxins from your body. Most of the toxins you’re exposed to are fat- soluble, which means your body is able to tuck them away in your fat cells in an effort to get the toxins away from your organs and other vital parts. But fat-soluble toxins are released during times of stress or illness, and they then travel through your bloodstream, causing harm to organs and important tis- sues. After that, some of them end up right back in your fat cells, where they can persist for years. After the toxins reach your fats cells, the only way to detoxify them is to sweat.

Your sweat glands are capable of removing one-third as much toxic material as your kidneys, and many of the toxins that are removed through sweating aren’t removed by the kidneys or broken down by the liver. These two facts alone give you a terrific idea of the importance of detoxification through sweating.

Before the advent of air conditioning, humans in most parts of the world were subjected to a kind of sauna every year for several months during summer. That helped to keep the toxins — which were much lower at that point anyway — to a minimum.

Without the natural detoxification caused by sweating in the continuous summer heat, humans must find another way to sweat enough to flush out the accumulated toxins. Saunas are the answer.

Understanding the many benefits of sauna

Saunas have been around for thousands of years for a reason: They’re great for your health. Your body benefits several ways from spending time in a sauna regularly, and I give you a feel for these advantages in the next couple of pages.

Flushing out toxins

Saunas are great for flushing out the toxins that build up in your body’s fat cells. Your kidneys are detoxification powerhouses, and the intense sweating you can enjoy while spending time in a sauna can clear out about one-third of the toxic material that your kidneys remove from your bloodstream. That is no small contribution to a detoxification effort.

Multiple studies have shown that saunas are effective in removing solvents, organic chemicals, PCBs, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metal toxins from the human body.

L. Ron Hubbard’s sauna protocol

In the 1970s, L. Ron Hubbard developed a sauna protocol to help drug addicts heal from their addictions. His theory was that even after addicts stopped taking drugs, drug residue was sequestered in fat cells. Like any other toxin, the drug residue would be released occasion- ally during times of stress. Those releases would trigger the flashbacks and cravings that plague addicts who are trying to keep moving away from their addictions.

Hubbard’s protocol uses a dry sauna for three to five hours per day, for an average of 34 days.

It involves exercising before sauna and even during the sauna. Integral to the program are the use of vitamin B3 (an essential vitamin, also known as niacin) in increasing dosages, cold- pressed oils with omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids, phosphatidylcholine, and a few other vitamins and supplements. Not only are recreational drug residues removed during the program, but fat-soluble residues of numerous environmental toxins, heavy metals, and even pharmaceutical drugs are flushed out as well.

Consider a very dramatic example of the detoxification power of saunas related to the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. As you may imagine, the people at Ground Zero were exposed to massive amounts of toxins. Firemen and other rescue workers were exposed to toxins ranging from solvents to heavy metals, and the exposure lasted as long as the cleanup effort. Mercury was one of the biggest problems; there was enough mercury in the fluorescent light bulbs in buildings that were destroyed to poison every person in Manhattan.

To help these heroic individuals fight off the dangerous health effects of the toxins they’d been exposed to while helping to save lives and clean up Ground Zero, an intense sauna program was implemented. The program was based on one designed by L. Ron Hubbard. (You can read about Hubbard’s sauna program in the nearby sidebar.) A total of 822 people who were exposed to toxins as a result of the events of September 11, 2001 were treated with frequent, long sauna sessions over a period of weeks. The results have been truly remarkable; an overwhelming majority of the program participants have reported major improvements in the toxin-related ailments they were suffering from as a result of their exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.

Enjoying the other benefits of sauna

The health benefits of using a sauna don’t stop at detoxification, although they do fit in with the core values of a detoxified lifestyle. For instance, the high temperatures of a sauna can give your immune system a boost. The number of white blood cells that fight infections increases as much as 58 per- cent with the levels of increased temperature you get in a sauna. And that’s just the beginning. Your T cells (another important part of your immune system) and antibodies can increase by as much as 2,000 percent. Also, a lot of microbes just can’t take the heat; many of them die off at temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Sauna treatments are often used to help people suffering from the common cold, and the success levels are high.

Increased temperatures also help your body to secrete endorphins, which are the “feel good” chemicals in your brain. Endorphins also make great painkillers, so it’s very common for people suffering from chronic and acute pain to get quite a bit of relief from sitting in a sauna.

Studies have shown sauna to be effective in reducing the symptoms of a range of conditions, from arthritis to chronic fatigue syndrome to fibromyalgia. Research has also supported the use of sauna to help with glaucoma, anorexia, chronic obstructive lung disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and atherosclerosis. If all that weren’t enough, saunas can even help people quit smoking and kick drug addictions. Pretty incredible, huh?

If you spend time in a sauna, your cardiovascular system will also thank you. Here are just a few of the benefits you can get from regular sauna sessions:

✓ Stronger heart muscle contractions

✓ Improved function of the cells that line your arteries, which are extremely important in helping to keep cardiovascular disease at bay

✓ Reduced incidence of abnormal heart beats

✓ Lower blood pressure resulting from a healthy enlarging of the blood vessels

✓ Increased blood plasma and number of red blood cells, which helps with oxygen distribution and increases exercise tolerance

✓ Increased fat metabolism, which leads to weight loss

In addition to that last bullet point, a second mechanism for weight loss is also related to saunas. When you sweat heavily in a sauna and flush the toxins out of your fat cells, that process allows the fat cells to reduce in size, which can be a big help with weight loss. I’m a firm believer that toxins imbedded in fat cells are a major contributor to the obesity epidemic in the United States.

Getting a feel for the three different kinds of sauna

If you read any of the last few pages, you’re probably pretty excited about using saunas to improve your health. I’m happy to report that you have three excellent sauna options to choose from: wet saunas, dry saunas, and far- infrared saunas.

No matter which type of sauna you choose to enjoy, here are a few sauna basics to keep in mind:

✓ Wear as little clothing as possible when in a sauna. Enjoying a sauna in the buff is a great idea, but if you’re in a public place, you need to find out if that’s appropriate before going au naturel.

✓ When you first start using a sauna, limit your sessions to 20 minutes or less. Gradually work your way up to sessions of 30 to 40 minutes. Do two sessions each day for maximum detox.

✓ Drink lots of water while in the sauna. About 10 to 20 ounces every 30 minutes is a good general rule.

✓ Make sure you’re relaxed while in the sauna to maximize the experience.

Saunas are a great place to meditate — just be sure you don’t fall asleep!

✓ Shower immediately after you’re done, taking care to brush the skin thoroughly to remove the toxins you just flushed out with your sweat.

✓ If you can, try to rest for 15 minutes after your sauna session.

✓ Saunas are a great way to start or end your day, so don’t be afraid to go for a sauna session first thing in the morning or in the evening.

I’m convinced that saunas should be a part of all our lives. Our exposure to toxins makes saunas a necessity if we’re going to keep our bodies healthy.

Saunas can be hazardous to your health if you have certain conditions, especially heart disease or high blood pressure, so be sure to talk to your doctor before beginning any sauna program. I go into more detail on who shouldn’t sauna a little later in this section.

Wet saunas

A wet sauna is exactly what it sounds like: a space with elevated temperatures and also elevated amounts of water vapor in the air. If a dry sauna is like the weather in Phoenix, a wet sauna is like the weather in sultry New Orleans.

The steam in a wet sauna is usually generated by pouring water on volcanic rocks that are heated by electric or gas heaters. Some saunas use wood fires to generate heat, but they’re not common. Temperatures in a high humidity wet sauna generally range from 150 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit.

One of the problems with wet saunas is that it’s harder to evaluate the amount of sweating you accomplish because the water vapor condenses on your skin and creates excess moisture. Wet saunas can also be difficult to keep clean because mold is likely to grow in the warm, moist environment. Finally, some people find that the extremely high levels of water vapor can bother their nose and sinuses.

Dry saunas

Dry saunas are extremely common because they’re easier to construct and maintain, and you don’t have to deal with the mess that the water in a wet sauna creates. Mold is much less of a problem, as well, and many people cite that as one of the main reasons they prefer dry saunas. Temperatures in a dry sauna can reach up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit! That’s plenty to generate a very healthy sweat and help to move toxins from your fat cells out through your skin.

Far-infrared saunas

Far-infrared saunas may sound a little space age, and truthfully they’ve only started catching on in popularity in recent years. At its core, the technology is pretty simple: Far-infrared saunas have a specialized heater that produces energy in the infrared spectrum. Feel free to dig up your high school physics books to read up on the details of the infrared spectrum if you’d like, but for this discussion you just need to know that infrared energy heats up your body without heating up the air around you. It can sound a little discomforting to some people, but the practice really is safe. If you read about it, you’ll find that some people absolutely swear by it. Many users contend that far- infrared saunas penetrate the body better than wet or dry saunas, producing a more thorough and heavier sweating effect.

Here are a few advantages of far-infrared saunas:

✓ There aren’t any hot surfaces, so there’s nothing that can burn your skin.

✓ Lower heat ranges (100–130 degrees Fahrenheit) are easier on patients with cardiovascular problems.

✓ Far-infrared saunas are more energy efficient.

✓ The warm-up time is only about 5 to 10 minutes, compared to 30 minutes or more with a wet or dry sauna.

✓ Far-infrared saunas are portable, easy to assemble, and less expensive.

✓ Some reports indicate that you sweat two to three times more than you do in wet or dry saunas.

✓ Recent studies have shown that sweat from traditional saunas is 97 percent water, but sweat generated using far-infrared saunas is about 85 percent water and about 15 percent other materials, such as heavy metals, sulfuric acid, sodium, ammonia, uric acid, and fat-soluble toxins.

Knowing who shouldn’t sauna

Saunas are safe for most people, but you shouldn’t use one if you have any of the following health conditions:

✓ Adrenal suppression (meaning that your body doesn’t respond to heat)

✓ Anemia

✓ Hemophilia

✓ Hyperthyroidism

✓ Recent myocardial infarction (heart attack)

✓ Unstable angina pectoris (chest pain or discomfort)

Also, you should avoid using a sauna or at least use extreme caution if any of the following is true:

✓ You’re pregnant.

✓ You have acute joint injuries.

✓ You have enclosed infections.

✓ You have artificial joints.

✓ You have silicone implants.

✓ You’re menstruating.

✓ You’re taking medication that can be removed through sweat.

Capitalizing on Chelation

Chelation is another detoxification process that can be very useful as you work to rid your body of the harmful toxins that can have long-term damaging effects on your health. Generally speaking, chelation is a term used to describe the chemical attraction of one substance to another substance. The word chele means “claw-like,” and you can think of chelation as one sub- stance acting as a claw that grips another substance in your body. The basic idea is that you introduce a substance — called a chelating agent — to your body, where it binds to toxic material and is flushed out with your urine.

When it comes to detoxification, the most basic and well-known form of chelation is the use of the drug ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid — you’re better off referring to it as EDTA — to remove lead from the body’s systems. EDTA was developed by the Germans before World War II to remove lead from clothing dyes. It was later found that EDTA could be given to people with lead poisoning, and the chemical would remove the lead from their bodies. After the war, EDTA was brought to the United States and patented by a pharmaceutical company for its usefulness in treating lead poisoning. Further research showed that EDTA removed not only lead but also chromium, iron, mercury, copper, zinc, cadmium, cobalt, aluminum, manganese, magnesium, and calcium.

Since then, the effectiveness of chelation using EDTA has come under fire. Many traditional physicians are skeptical about the usefulness of EDTA, even though it has been identified as a potent antioxidant that has been shown to produce beneficial effects in many studies. Millions of people have received chelation therapy to remove heavy metals from their bodies, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive.

The effectiveness of EDTA in removing heavy metal toxins has been disputed over the years, but no matter what you hear, keep in mind that it is an FDA- approved drug that has been used safely for more than 60 years.

Several different types of chelation are commonly used today: natural, oral, rectal, transdermal, and intravenous. Each method has its advantages and potential problems, and I fill you in on the range of options over the next few pages.

Natural

Natural chelation involves the use of a substance that occurs naturally to draw toxic materials out of the body. The natural substances are many and varied, but one prime example is glutathione. Glutathione is a natural antioxidant that has been shown to work well in the removal of heavy metals. Most people take it orally, in capsule form. Glutathione is thought to remove multiple toxins from your body, and you can increase its effectiveness by taking melatonin supplements at the same time.

Another common substance used in natural chelation is chlorella. Chlorella is a single-celled, freshwater algae that has been shown to attach to heavy metals in the intestines. From there, the mix of chlorella and heavy metal toxins is removed from the body with the feces. I would certainly place chlorella in the “might help, and can’t hurt” category, and I would recommend taking it on a regular basis if you’re interested in natural chelation.

If you want an extremely natural form of chelation, try incorporating more cilantro into your diet. Cilantro is an herb in the parsley family that has been shown to help remove heavy metals from the intestines. Many people find it delicious even without considering its detoxification properties!

Oral

Oral chelation involves the use of chemical chelating agents that can be taken orally to help reduce the amount of toxins that are floating around in your body. Two of the most common chemical chelating agents taken orally are dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) and sodium 2,3-dimercaptopropane-1- sulfonate (DMPS). Taking something orally is extremely easy because you can eat it or drink it with few issues, but DMSA and DMPS have been called into question recently because many people believe they aren’t absorbed very well by the body when taken orally. Also, if you have existing stomach or bowel problems, the absorption rate is even weaker.

Rectal

If you’re looking around for chelation options, you’ll probably run across rectal suppositories that include EDTA. (You can find such products easily on the Internet.) All I can say is buyer beware! EDTA and DMSA can be given rectally, but the absorption rate is very poor and the results are extremely hard to evaluate. If you go this route, don’t expect much!

Transdermal

Like rectal suppositories used for chelation, transdermal chelation doesn’t produce the best of results. Absorbing a chelating agent through the skin doesn’t really work all that well. I don’t recommend the transdermal method of chelation. If this method appeals to you and you decide to pursue it, just don’t plan on the best possible results, especially when it comes to reducing heavy metal toxicity.

Intravenous

When it comes to chelation, intravenous administration of chelating agents is the gold standard. IV chelation offers exact dosages that aren’t affected by varying rates of absorption, and it really removes all the variables that are present with oral, rectal, and transdermal options.

As you can imagine, the intravenous chelation method must be done by a qualified professional, so if you’re very serious about removing toxins — particularly heavy metal toxins — from your body using chelation, ask your doctor about your options for chelation with intravenous chelating agents, but don’t expect a traditional physician to have any knowledge or respect for chelation.

DMPS

When administered via IV, DMPS is a slam dunk for removing mercury from the human body. It has a long, illustrious history of success and safety. It hasn’t been approved by the FDA but is approved to be imported and used legally, and pharmacies that offer compounding can prepare it for IV use.

EDTA

If you want to harness the power of chelation to remove any toxin other than mercury, EDTA administered through IV is one of the best ways to go. It has a 60-year history as a safe and effective means for removing a wide range of toxins, particularly the heavy metal toxins that are so prevalent in our environment today.

Advocating Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an ancient method of improving health and healing, and it fits in extremely well with a general effort to make your body perform at a higher level without the introduction of potentially harmful toxins. The origins of acupuncture are in Asia, where acupuncture is a part of traditional Chinese medicine. Variations also come from Tibet, Vietnam, and Korea. At this point, more than 3 million adults and 150,000 children in the United States receive acupuncture treatments each year.

In broad terms, acupuncture involves the use of extremely small, sharp needles that are inserted into the skin at specific points that have been shown to produce a range of effects on the body. In total, more than 2,000 acupuncture points on the body can be stimulated individually or, more commonly, in groups.

The needles aren’t the extent of acupuncture treatment, however. Several variations exist, including the use of mild electric currents in the needles. Some practitioners choose to apply pressure to certain points instead of actually inserting needles. Some others embrace a variation of acupuncture called auriculotherapy, which is based on the concept that acupuncture points on the ears can be stimulated to produce effects across the entire body.

A trained, talented acupuncturist will assess your health history, as well as any symptoms of current conditions, to figure out which abnormalities in your health are causing you the most harm. He then stimulates the acupuncture points on your body that will help to relieve you of your conditions.

Here are just a few conditions that are commonly treated using acupuncture:

✓ Allergic rhinitis (allergies to dust, dander, or pollen)

✓ Chemotherapy side effects

✓ Depression

✓ Dysentery

✓ Headache

✓ Hypertension

✓ Nausea and vomiting (including morning sickness)

✓ Primary dysmenorrheal (painful periods)

✓ Rheumatoid arthritis

✓ Sciatica

✓ Sprains

✓ Stroke

The most accepted use of acupuncture in the United States is for the treatment of pain. Acupuncture is used to treat fibromyalgia, carpel tunnel syndrome, lower back pain, menstrual cramps, myofacial pain, neck pain, osteoarthritis, tennis elbow, and postoperative dental pain.

Acupuncture is safe and, when practiced correctly, has no harmful side effects. The big challenge is to find someone who is skilled in the art. You should check the credentials of anyone you’re thinking of seeing for an acupuncture treatment. Training varies from weekend courses to thousands of hours of training. I once checked the credentials of an alternative practitioner who was the president of two national organizations, which seemed very impressive at first. The problem was that he was the only member of both organizations.

Mixing in Meditation

Meditation dovetails extremely well with other detoxification measures. It has taken many forms across the centuries, and many different cultures and religions use it. I don’t have the space here to explain all the various types of mediation, but you should try to embrace some general principles related to the practice as you endeavor to lead a detoxified life.

In general, meditation practices are mental disciplines in which a person attempts to reach beyond reflective thought to grasp a deeper state of consciousness, relaxation, and awareness. If practiced effectively, meditation results in a marked reduction in stress that can improve your health on every possible level.

Many religions utilize meditation as an integral part of the belief system, but meditation doesn’t have to be related to any religion. Every person needs to seek out the form of meditation that suits him or her best, but you need to keep an open mind and realize that you stand to gain quite a lot just through clearing your mind and focusing your thoughts for a few minutes each day.

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