Healing your body and achieving good health are much simpler than most of us imagine. We have a natural and miraculous capacity to self-heal and an inborn tendency toward health. In most situations, complex therapies aren’t required. In a sense, all we need to do is get out of the way of our body’s ability to detoxify and repair itself. A noted medical doctor named John H. Tilden wrote a book called Toxemia Explained, in which he detailed many recommendations that are used today by doctors in clinical detoxification programs. Joe Boucher, a well-known Canadian naturopathic physician, wrote, “The essence of all disease is the accumulation in the system of waste matter and impurities due to wrong habits of living. The elimination of this toxic matter from the body is what nature is striving for all the time.… It is through detoxification … that the healing latent within all of us can be given a free hand to function.” Letting your body rest and taking a break from your regular schedule for one week allows all the organ systems dedicated to healing to undergo a change toward wellness.
Some simple methods are available that you can use to take care of yourself. The three health modules described in this chapter give you the basic tools that you need. After following this program for one week, you will feel better. Our clinical experience has conclusively proven that this week-long program is a winner. The basic program includes a detoxification diet, nutritional supplementation, hydrotherapy, and exercise. You’ll begin to feel the benefits after about three days.
The first few days—what we call the initial “scrub” mode of internal cleansing—might be difficult for you, and during the seven days of the program you might feel hungry or weak. Unfortunately, this mild discomfort can’t be avoided, but sit back, relax, and don’t worry. These unpleasant sensations are a sign that the program is working and that your body is cleansing itself of toxic substances. Unless these difficulties are part of a separate disease process that has arisen at the same time, you should ignore the discomfort. Get as much rest as you feel you need and concentrate on completing all the exercises, following the instructions for hydrotherapy, and taking your supplements. If you have any questions or concerns about your symptoms, consult a health care practitioner.
Case History
Ray, a forty-year-old pastor, has always been interested in sports and nutrition. He came to us complaining of deteriorating teeth, mental fatigue, and exhaustion so severe he would almost faint while giving a sermon. A hair analysis revealed mineral deficiencies, and we recommended a specialized mineral supplement. We also asked him to do a seven-day detoxification program. Ray agreed and was surprised that energy improved immediately. He felt that he hadn’t been able to be so active since he was in his twenties. By avoiding wheat, coffee, and sugar (which we identified as irritants for him), eating a proper diet, fasting regularly, and staying on his mineral supplement, Ray manages his own health, and no longer needs to see us.
All the following symptoms are considered a normal response to detoxification:
You can expect to see, to varying degrees, the following results from a detox program:
The decision to take responsibility for healing yourself requires a burst of energy. It’s a challenge to change your habits, especially in the beginning. The hardest part is to make the commitment to do something that requires planning, discipline, motivation, and a willingness to undergo some discomfort and inconvenience. If you could simply order the qualities needed for this effort from a catalog, you would need willpower and moral strength, a strong desire for vitality, a resolve to follow instructions, common sense, and a dedication to understanding your health program so that you’re in full control of the process.
Healing can be hard work. Friends and family members can offer valuable support. In our practice, we see that when a family member agrees to go through the process with the patient, the rate and depth of the patient’s healing accelerates and there’s a better chance for a positive clinical outcome.
Ask a friend or family member to read this chapter with you. Make a plan for your detoxification week together. Ask him or her to help you organize all your supplements and food purchases. Make a date to eat together at least twice during your week so that you have some company and can socialize during mealtimes.
The EcoTox diet has been formulated for maximum digestibility. It’s like eating without eating.
The success of this program, as well as your ability to self-heal, rests mainly on your resolve to focus on your health—now and in the future. As doctors, it has been our experience that this determination is closely linked to an individual’s ability to acknowledge their own lack of well-being. Some of our patients become determined to change when they reach the point at which they’re willing to do anything to escape the pain their disease is causing. The perception of pain, as unpleasant as it is, can become a powerful motivating force. If you’re questioning your resolve to undertake this program, examine your life and ask yourself whether you’re ignoring your discomfort—feelings that are really telling you that you have a problem that needs your attention. Unfortunately, no doctor can do this for you, and no medicine will make it any easier. To heal, each of us must face our weaknesses and commit to growing stronger—physically and emotionally.
The seven-day EcoTox program is safe for most people to use. As with any health regimen, specific reactions and results will vary from one individual to another, and effects that are considered normal vary widely. If you have any hesitation about your ability to undergo the rigor of detoxification, get a physical exam by your naturopathic or medical doctor. Request a blood chemistry screening to make sure that you’re not anemic. Any history of liver or immune disorders might require special attention in the form of additional supplementation, as recommended by your doctor.
If you take any medications regularly, it’s very important that you consult a health care professional before beginning the program. As you detoxify, the rate at which drugs are metabolized will change, and once the function of your body’s mechanisms for detoxification have been revitalized, any drugs you’re taking will be cleared from your bloodstream more quickly. This means that your dosage might need to be adjusted.
A word of warning: The seven-day EcoTox program is both safe and beneficial. However, some people shouldn’t use this program by themselves. To minimize the risks of complications, we strongly recommend that people with certain specific diagnosed health conditions, as well as children and nursing mothers, work closely with a trained health care professional.
You need to seek professional assistance and use this program with a doctor’s supervision if you:
Probably the most frequent question posed to us on radio shows, in television interviews, and by newspaper reporters is, “How often should I do this program?” The answer to this question is simple: as often as you like. Some patients I see in the clinic who have autoimmune disease or cancer are placed on a program similar to ours on a permanent basis because of their weak immune systems. Because most of your immune system is in the liver and intestines, if you have any immune problems, by definition, you have an intestinal problem. Cancer patients benefit from a diet similar to the detox diet because they find simple foods easy to digest. Similarly, patients who consult me for a cold or flu are given a special diet like the detox diet. If the intestines are working overtime to deal with a diet that is irritating or difficult to digest, this will affect immune function throughout the whole body. An acute sinus infection is a good example. A sinus infection can be difficult to treat, even with antibiotics, because the patient is usually eating something that’s irritating the intestines. When the patient changes his or her diet to rice, vegetables, and fruit for several weeks, the infection clears up. The sinuses are really just an extension of the digestive tract: By definition, chronic sinus problems are caused by chronic digestive problems.
You can do this program at least once a year, though several times a year is also probably a good idea. Anytime you feel run down, overstressed, sick, or whenever you experience headaches or the natural balance of your body goes out, you can do the program to reset your internal regulating mechanisms. When you rest the intestines, the healing machinery embedded in the liver and intestines goes into overdrive to help you recover optimum health.
The detox program consists of three modules. The first focuses on diet, the second on nutritional supplements, and the third on improving circulation through hydrotherapy and exercise. The recommendations offered for each module have been chosen to provide some variety so that you can pick and choose what best fits your situation. We urge you to use at least some recommendations from each module, but if the program in its entirety seems overwhelming, try focusing first on the diet module only. Follow the diet instructions precisely, as health begins in the aisles of your supermarket. Your overall health—present and future—depends on what happens in your digestive tract, what’s in your refrigerator, and what’s on your fork.
The foundation of the EcoTox plan is a specialized seven-day food plan. The first two days of the program prescribe a clear-liquid fast. No solid foods are consumed. Although this can be difficult and uncomfortable for some people, you will experience much better results if you start off this way. However, if you feel that fasting is more than you can cope with, you can modify the plan according to your needs by including some of the foods from the plan for the remaining five days.
For the first two days—preferably a weekend or days on which you don’t need to go to work—consume only water, lemon water, herbal teas, and (if necessary) fresh juices (although the best results are obtained when juices aren’t included). Going without food for two days poses no danger to your body. It’s not uncommon for people to go without food for forty-eight hours when they’re suffering from influenza, a fever, or a gastrointestinal infection. Your body has adequate food stores for two days of fasting.
Unlike many other detoxification regimens, we do not advocate a long-term juice or water fast. Our experience is that extended liquid fasts are too stressful for most people, although they can be excellent treatment programs for certain types of health problems when done under clinical supervision. A two-day liquid fast is a remarkably effective and safe method for cleaning the blood. Short liquid fasts have been successfully used for the treatment of pesticide poisoning, rheumatoid arthritis, pancreatitis, diabetes, heart disease, food allergy, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, and psoriasis.
It’s easy to become dehydrated without even knowing it. In our hyperactive society, many people ignore their thirst sensors and don’t take the time to drink sufficient quantities of water each day. People often mistake thirst for hunger. We find dehydration especially prevalent in heavy coffee drinkers, who unknowingly are consuming a powerful diuretic that removes water from the body through the kidneys. Dehydration causes the accumulation of waste in the blood. The resulting blood toxicity has a profound effect on human health and metabolic efficiency. It is well known among runners that if you wait until you’re thirsty to drink, you’re already dehydrated and your performance decreases.
The compound D-limonene, found in the oil in the lemon peel, has been used to prevent and treat cancer in research animals. Its protective effects are due to its ability to induce Phases 1 and 2 detoxification to neutralize carcinogens. It also improves resistance to depletion of glutathione, a powerful detoxification agent.
During your week of detoxification, we recommend drinking a minimum of eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily. Choose distilled, filtered, or spring water—not tap water. Your water needs will vary with climate, temperature, and exercise: You need less water in a cold, damp climate and more water in a hot, dry climate, and generally you need more water with greater physical activity. Two quarts of water daily is a good baseline for everyone.
Lemon water is especially effective for rehydrating the body during this cleansing period. It can be drunk throughout the day instead of plain water (or in addition to it) during the liquid fast and for the following five days. You can drink lemon water hot or cold. To make it, simply take a quart of pure water and squeeze half an organically grown lemon into it. Add the remains of the lemon and the peel to the water and leave them there. If you need a little sweetener to make the lemon water more palatable, add half a cup of organic concord grape juice to a quart of lemon water.
During the two-day liquids-only fast, the filtering mechanisms of the liver can become overwhelmed. This can lead to sick feelings, much like those that accompany a fever. Taking the assigned supplements, including antioxidants (detailed in module two), helps prevent any side effects of enhanced liver detoxification, such as extreme fatigue, headaches, dizziness, hunger, offensive body odor, bad breath, and irritability. Some people find that they most benefit from taking no supplements at all during the two-day fast—I find that a water-only fast is the easiest way to go.
For people who can’t afford to lose any weight or who are in a debilitated condition, a protein shake two to three times a day during the first two days is recommended. In more severe cases of weakness, we suggest skipping the two days of fasting on liquids only and following the diet recommended here, which includes vegetables, fruit, and rice for seven days.
After the two-day fast, your diet for the remaining five days is simple: Eat fresh fruits, vegetables, and brown rice in any form. You can eat as much of these foods as you want, both cooked and uncooked.
The following lists will help you plan your EcoTox diet. Remember that you can eat as much as you want of the permissible foods, except those for which quantities are specified. You must completely avoid all foods that are not permitted. You need to carefully read the labels on the packaged foods you buy to know exactly which ingredients they contain. Your best bet is to build your meals around fresh produce and brown rice. Organic produce, if available, is preferable. Shopping in a health food store will probably offer you more options than your local supermarket.
Carbohydrates Use: Brown rice, basmati rice, Thai (jasmine) rice, wild rice, and rice products such as rice cakes, rice crackers, breads and pasta made with rice flour (read the label to be sure they don’t contain any wheat), and rice-based pancake mix. If you find that you need a break from rice, you can include the grains quinoa, amaranth, and millet as desired.
Avoid: Sugar, honey, molasses, artificial sweeteners, and all products containing them; corn and all products made with corn; and wheat and all products made with wheat or containing wheat gluten.
Legumes Use: Mung beans, garbanzo beans (can be hard for some people to digest), bean thread noodles, and miso (a flavorful paste made of naturally fermented soybeans).
Avoid: All other beans and products made with beans.
Vegetables and Fruits Use: All varieties of fresh produce. The only exception is grapefruit, which shouldn’t be eaten during this period because it contains a compound that inhibits liver detoxification. Fruits and vegetables can be steamed, baked, lightly sautéed in a small amount of virgin olive oil, eaten raw, or juiced. You can eat any vegetable combined with any other vegetable in any quantity you desire. Select from the following vegetables:
Raw vegetable salads are difficult for some people to digest. You should steam and bake your vegetables if you experience digestive discomfort. Raw foods are an excellent source of vitamins, enzymes, and minerals, but if you can’t digest them, you shouldn’t eat them. Fresh pressed fruit and vegetable juices are also a wonderful alternative. They offer all the life energy of raw foods but are easier on the digestive system.
Initially, you might notice an increase in intestinal gas from the increased consumption of vegetables. This is the result of bacterial fermentation of plant cell wall products, but it should gradually dissipate. If problems with gas persist, stick to lightly steamed vegetables and stay away from raw vegetable salads, cabbage, and onions. You can also reduce gas by using ginger root and powder, cardamom, and cinnamon to season your food. Indian and Ayurvedic cookbooks feature recipes with carminative spices to help with digestive discomfort and decrease gas.
The following fruits and vegetables typically cause problems for some people, including hives, wheezing, headaches, and stomach upset. Avoid only those that bother you:
Fats and Oils Use: Olive oil (extra virgin) or unheated flaxseed oil (only 2 tablespoons daily).
Avoid: All other oils and forms of fat, including butter and margarine.
If organic produce is not available, wash foods well. To remove pesticides, you can use one of the following methods:
Beverages Use: Herbal teas, green tea, water, lemon water, diluted fruit juices, vegetable juices, water (only filtered, spring, or distilled).
Avoid: Coffee, black teas, and all forms of alcohol, including beer and wine.
Condiments Use: Vegetable salt, sea salt, vinegar, naturally fermented soy sauce or tamari, any culinary spices, and miso.
Avoid: Ketchup, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, and all other packaged relishes, dressings, and seasonings.
The foods that form the basis of a normal Western diet cause the liver to work overtime as it tries to metabolize the dense concentration of nutrients that are constantly flooding the digestive system and bloodstream. Poor digestion is one of the main causes of toxicity because it adds an unnecessary and in many cases overwhelming burden to the liver’s normal workload. The liver simply can’t keep up with the quantity of contaminants in the blood that must be processed. When food is properly digested, the liver can attend to its job of detoxification. The EcoTox diet has been formulated for maximum digestibility. It’s like eating without eating. This is why it’s essential to avoid all the following foods:
A Word on Rice
Because it’s a light food that digests easily while supplying carbohydrate energy essential for daily activity, brown rice is perfect for detoxification. You can boil it, bake it, fry it (with only 1 tablespoon of olive oil daily), and put it in soup. Rice is unequaled as a food for curing many of the diseases induced by Western diets.
Most people digest rice easily. For some, the lighter rices, such as basmati or Thai, are easier on their digestive systems than brown rice. In the literature of medical research, rice is an accepted hypoallergenic food. This means that it rarely stimulates or aggravates allergic reactions. Rice is gluten-free, and in one study of seven hundred atopic patients (people genetically predisposed to certain allergies) only 1 percent showed sensitivity. Historically, rice diets have been used in Western medicine to manage diarrhea in adults and children. Studies show that rice has been used in the treatment of children with diarrhea to enhance superior healing. In addition, it’s high in an antioxidant called ferulic acid. Ferulic acid has been studied in the treatment of a variety of inflammatory bowel disorders and has been found to have a remarkable ability to prevent inflammation in the intestinal membranes.
When people are discouraged about how restrictive the EcoTox diet is, we try to cheer them up by reminding them that most Asian cultures live on rice, eating it three times a day. Having to subsist on rice, fruits, and vegetables for one week might seem like a plan for starvation, but this is the normal daily diet for millions of people around the world. Not only will it do you no harm, it will allow your detoxification mechanisms to work more effectively and give the blood-cleaning filters of the body an opportunity to catch up and clear out the overload of toxins that have accumulated.
Your food choices are limited, but relax: After the two-day water fast, it’s only for five days.
Eating a large quantity of vegetables and rice every day, after the initial two-day liquid fast, is a big change for those who are used to eating a great deal of bread, pasta, and meat. However, by being creative in your food preparation, you might find the change more enjoyable than you expect. In addition, a visit to your local farmers’ market or a walk through the produce department of a good supermarket will reveal a huge variety to choose from. The following are some foods that you should be sure to include in your detox diet—and regularly in your meals after your detox week—because they offer special healing benefits.
Beets Daily portions of beets, an excellent source of betaine, are good for the blood, intestines, and liver. In our clinic, we notice that beets keep our patients regular, especially while they’re going through the detoxification program. Eating beets every day is a safe way to alleviate constipation, both acute and chronic. In addition, beets have long been used as a folk remedy for liver disorders, as betaine is essential for proper liver function and fat metabolism. Research has found that betaine protects the liver from the ravages of excessive alcohol consumption, making it an important substance for detoxification. It has no known harmful effects and should be considered a dietary substance that has medicinal benefits, a safe and effective food “drug” for a toxic liver and for other toxic conditions.
Betaine has proven helpful in the management of ho-mocysteinemia, a disorder involving altered amino acid metabolism. Although usually an inherited genetic condition, homocysteinemia can also be brought on by a diet high in red meat combined with deficiencies in folic acid and vitamins B12 and B6. The body has difficulty breaking down a molecule called homocysteine, which, as it builds up in the blood, initiates the destruction of blood vessels and damages the artery walls, increasing one’s susceptibility to cardiovascular disease. (Many medical experts now believe that elevated blood levels of homocysteine, not high cholesterol, are the main cause of cardiovascular disease in Western society.)
The success of this program, as well as your ability to self-heal, rests mainly on your resolve to focus on your health—now and in the future.
Homocysteinemia responds to vitamin supplementation, but betaine supplementation is often overlooked even though it’s especially important for patients who are genetically prone to produce an excess of homocysteine. The betaine found in beets is an important source of a molecule that accelerates the detoxification of homocysteine and transforms it into cysteine, a safe amino acid.
Broccoli Cruciferous vegetables, a group that includes broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower, offer the body special protection. All are high in a unique class of substances called glucosinolates. These are used to make compounds, such as indole-3-carbinol, sulforaphane, and cyanohydroxybutene, which researchers believe improve the ability of the liver and other organs to detoxify drugs, chemicals, and pollutants.
Broccoli sprouts have the highest concentration of these protective substances. They have been shown to change the rate of liver detoxification so that toxins in the blood can be cleared more easily. The therapeutic potential of these natural antioxidants is so powerful that the pharmaceutical industry is looking at ways to synthesize them to create a new class of food drugs called phytochemicals. Science has finally caught up with mothers, who have long urged their children to eat their vegetables.
Green Barley Powder One food that has been shown to counteract the negative effect of intestinal poisons is green barley powder. Barley shoot extract is nature’s ideal antioxidant. The flavonoids that it contains protect against cell membrane damage caused by toxins. This can be especially helpful in the intestines. The bioflavonoid 2-0-GIV has antioxidant capabilities that outperform vitamin E and BHT. In the clinic, we have had several patients with advanced bowel disease experience excellent results with green barley extract.
Artichokes and Other Inulin Foods Inulin, a substance found in artichokes, Jerusalem artichokes, and burdock root, is a powerful stimulator of the kidneys and the immune system, and daily portions of these vegetable are very helpful during the detoxification process. Elecampane, echinacea, and sunflower also contain high amounts of inulin.
Historically, all these foods and herbs have been used as blood cleansers, and we now understand that a real scientific basis exists for the tradition. Poisons from harmful bowel bacteria (endotoxins) tend to leak into the bloodstream and wreak havoc on the detoxification mechanisms of the liver. Inulin-containing foods and plants turn on a part of the immune system called the alternate complement pathway. When this chemical switch is turned on, the body intensifies its efforts to clear out these bacterial poisons.
Rice Protein Research has shown that protein plays an important role in tissue detoxification. To add high-quality protein to your five-day plan and alleviate hunger and the difficulty of eating away from home, we recommend a shake made with rice protein concentrate. The powder is mixed with juice or water, and fresh fruit can also be blended into the shake. You can drink a rice protein shake several times a day, in mid-morning and mid-afternoon as a snack, and as a meal replacement. Some people have a high biological need for protein. If you experience extreme fatigue that’s not alleviated by sleep once you begin the diet, it’s especially important for you to include rice protein concentrate.
Liquid protein drinks have been used for years by medical doctors in the treatment of food allergy and food intolerance. These drinks contain no intact dietary protein but utilize free-form amino acids and fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. Unlike other protein shake formulas that often taste unpleasant, rice protein concentrates are more palatable. In addition, medical research has shown that most people can tolerate rice protein concentrates, which are hypoallergenic. Some detoxification programs suggest consuming only rice protein shakes for several weeks. In the EcoTox program, the rice protein shake is used as a snack during the first two days or as an occasional meal replacement. In our clinic, we put patients on an exclusive diet of rice protein concentrate formula only if they’re quite ill.
Ultra Clear, developed by Healthcomm Inc., is an extremely popular, patented, rice protein product and is ideal for detoxification therapy. In one study using this product, it was found that patients were 53 percent improved in liver detoxification tests. In another study, patients using Ultra Clear had a 52 percent reduction in toxicity symptoms on their symptom questionnaire scores, as well as an improvement on liver detoxification function and intestinal permeability. Ultra Clear contains supplemental NAC, glutathione, glutamine, inulin, and the full spectrum of vitamin nutrients we recommend. The product also contains medium chain triglycerides. This type of fat, which is quickly absorbed and efficiently used by the body, increases energy production for the purpose of detoxification. Ultra Clear is available only through health care professionals. (For information about how your health care provider can order Ultra Clear, see the Healthcomm Web site at www.healthcomm.com.) A number of other brands of rice protein concentrate are available in most health food stores, including a product distributed by Nutribiotic. For more product information, visit our Web site at www.peterbennett.com.
The ten most common problems you’ll experience during your seven days and antidotes to these problems are the following:
Consume water, lemon water, and herbal tea only, as often as you want. Be sure to meet your minimum daily requirement of eight 8-ounce glasses of liquids.
The following is what a typical day’s menu might look like (variations depend on your appetite and preferences). You might need to eat more or less than this amount of food. Include snacks only if you find yourself hungry between meals. Remember that thirst is often mistaken for hunger.
Upon arising: 8 ounces of hot lemon water
Breakfast: A rice protein shake made with fresh fruit and fruit juice; rice cakes; fresh fruit; herbal tea
Snack: Fruit and/or a protein shake; herbal tea
Lunch: Salad and soup; rice and steamed vegetables; baked or sweet potato and cold steamed vegetables
Snack: Fruit and/or protein shake; rice cakes; rice crackers; herbal tea
Dinner: Rice and mixed vegetables, steamed or lightly sautéed; soup and salad; salad and baked potato
On the morning of the eighth day, begin adding protein into your diet. After the seven days of restricted foods, you use this period to gradually add foods into your diet and try to determine if some foods you were eating were upsetting the digestive system and liver. You can be “sensitive” to foods and not allergic; the result is an ongoing irritation in your digestive tract and immune system that weakens your overall vitality.
I recommend, as your first new food, that you begin with eggs because they are a perfect protein from the standpoint of amino acid balance. However, some people are allergic to eggs or do not tolerate them and so should not use them as the first food. Those who do not tolerate the eggs (symptoms are gallbladder pain, stomach pain, abdominal burning, or sulfur burps) will move on to the next step, which is to begin adding fish or fowl (chicken or turkey). This should be done over three to four days. Vegetarians who do not eat animal sources of protein should move on to the next step by adding other foods. Many of the patients seen in our clinic who have been long-term vegetarians and are not healthy (weight gain, fatigue, muscle soreness, or poor concentration) are advised at this step to try adding animal protein at this time to see if they feel better.
Test one new food each day. It may take weeks to get through all the food testing listed here, and it is not necessarily important for all individuals. Those with the following problems should go through the complete food testing program:
Psychological: Anxiety, depression, insomnia, food cravings, childhood attention deficit disorder
Ear, Nose, and Throat: Chronic nasal congestion, teeth grinding, postnasal drip, chronic fluid in the ears, Meniere’s syndrome (chronic dizziness)
Gastrointestinal: Irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diarrhea, abdominal cramping, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, gallbladder disease, infantile colic
Cardiovascular: High blood pressure, arrhythmia, angina, edema
Skin: Acne, eczema, psoriasis, canker sores (aphthous ulcers), hives
Musculoskeletal: Muscle aches, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis
Neurologic: Migraines and other headaches, numbness
Respiratory: Asthma, recurrent colds, sore throats, ear infections
Urogenital: Urinary tract infections, prostate inflammation, yeast infections, bed wetting, frequent urination
Metabolic: Obesity
If one of your problems is arthritis, test one new food every other day because joint pain reactions may be delayed. Also remember to test pure sources of a food. For example, do not use pizza to test cheese because pizza also contains wheat and corn oil.
Dairy tests: Test milk and then cheese on a separate day. You may wish to try several cheeses on different days because some people are sensitive to one cheese but not another. Test yogurt, cottage cheese, or butter separately.
Wheat test: Use a pure wheat cereal.
Corn test: Use fresh ears of corn or frozen corn (without sauces or preservatives).
Citrus test: Oranges, grapefruits, lemons, and limes. Test these individually on four separate days. The lemon and lime can be squeezed into Perrier or seltzer. With oranges and grapefruit, use the whole fruit.
Food additive test: Buy a set of food dyes and colors. Put half a teaspoon of each color in a glass. Add 1 teaspoon of the mixture to a glass of pineapple juice or diluted (50:50 with water) grape juice. This is especially helpful for children with hyperactivity and behavior disorders.
After you’ve discovered which foods you are sensitive to, challenge them several times to confirm that the food is disturbing to your body. Then make a commitment to not eat that food for six months before retesting it again.
The following are some general tips to help you with the diet and to help you avoid toxins found in places you might not expect. We strongly recommend continuing these practices even after your detoxification week.
This diet program has proven to be the easiest to follow and the least expensive of any other we have tried. In our practice, it has had the lowest relapse and dropout rate. The design of the program is the result of many years of personal and clinical research. We have studied much of the medical literature on the subject, observed many patients as they followed a variety of detoxification recommendations, and, most important, have tried many different detoxification dietary regimens ourselves. We’re convinced that the plan we’ve created offers the best of all solutions to a wide variety of health problems.
Your nutritional needs during the detoxification process are quite high. Shortages of critical nutrients can inhibit or even arrest entire biochemical pathways, thus making some patients dangerously toxic when they go without food for more than a few days. Without proper nutritional supplementation, it’s possible to feel quite ill. A person who is already sick with a toxicity syndrome has even greater nutritional requirements. The body uses a number of methods to remove toxins, and, operating with an ecological perspective, we believe that it’s essential to support the whole body and all its functions simultaneously.
For thousands of years, herbs, clays, and special substances have been used to assist in purifying the body and supporting it during detoxification, especially those that stimulated and protected the liver. Scientific research has identified new remedies to be used in detoxification, such as the mineral molybdenum and the amino acid n-acetyl-cysteine. Today, our knowledge of biochemistry makes it possible to understand why traditional remedies are effective and to choose from hundreds of detoxification medicines. Taking the best of both the old and the new, we list a range of therapeutic options that include traditional elements and the latest biochemical approaches.
As you detoxify, the rate at which drugs are metabolized will change.
In general, nutritional supplementation should fulfill the following key functions in a detoxification program:
Each of these functions represents what we call a detoxification strategy group, and we recommend that everyone use at least one substance from each group.
Antioxidant nutrients protect the tissues. The most well-known antioxidants are vitamins C and E. Less familiar but equally important antioxidants include lipoic acid and milk thistle. The general opinion of nutritionally oriented physicians is to provide a full range of all the antioxidants whenever using them in therapy. Let’s discuss these antioxidants in some detail.
Vitamin C Vitamin C is an essential nutrient that affects most body functions. Orthomolecular physicians, medical doctors who specialize in the use of vitamins and minerals for the treatment of disease, have been using high doses of vitamin C for many years to reverse acute and chronic disease. Vitamin C plays critical roles in numerous body systems. It activates white blood cells called neutrophils and the production of lymphocytes in the immune system. It is involved in fat metabolism and the absorption of iron. It works with enzymes and helps with the conversion of the amino acid tryptophan to the neurotransmitter serotonin (the so-called “feel-good” brain chemical). Collagen, the basic substance of connective tissue, is an essential component of tissue regeneration. Vitamin C is important in collagen tissue formation.
Many conditions in the body, including inflammation and detoxification, increase the production of free radicals. That is why protective substances for free radicals are called antioxidants; that is, they act to protect cells from harmful oxygen variants. As an antioxidant, vitamin C helps check the production of free radicals, protecting vulnerable cellular structures from the damage they cause.
Toxic metals, such as lead, mercury, and aluminum, can be chelated out of the body using vitamin C. In chelation, heavy metals bind with the vitamin molecules and are carried out of the body. Megadoses of vitamin C are very effective in cases of mercury poisoning and should be considered an essential component of mercury detoxification therapy. Some dentists recommend intravenous vitamin C during silver amalgam removal to prevent the mercury released in the drilling process from interfering with cellular enzymes and being absorbed into body tissues.
Vitamin C is an excellent bacteriostatic (meaning it prevents the growth of viruses and bacteria) and should be considered by all doctors and patients as a first line of therapeutic defense in cases of infection. To be effective, high enough doses must be used. Studies have shown that vitamin C can neutralize a wide variety of bacterial toxins, including tetanus, diphtheria, and staph. It also has proven helpful in defending against tuberculosis, a common infection sixty years ago that has lately reemerged in forms with a tendency to resist current, and toxic, drug therapy.
Vitamin C appears to be a kind of universal antitoxin, although researchers haven’t yet identified the precise mechanism by which it exerts its influence over a wide variety of toxic substances. Studies have shown it to be effective against snake venom, chemicals such as benzene, and strychnine (a plant toxin). This suggests that vitamin C can protect us from toxins in plants and animals, as well as industrial chemicals. No other known compound possesses such a range of protective properties. Its universal application, safety, and low cost make it unequaled in the pharmaceutical industry.
Despite some reports to the contrary, the safety of vitamin C in large doses has been confirmed both in the laboratory and in the clinical setting. The fear that at high doses vitamin C caused kidney stones has proven unfounded. The experience of many clinicians with thousands of patients demonstrates that there is no danger of forming kidney stones when large doses of vitamin C are administered.
Certain occupational exposures and lifestyle habits increase the daily need for vitamin C. For example, smoking depletes the body’s stores of vitamin C, diminishing the body’s ability to get rid of the harmful chemicals that it is exposed to in daily life. In our clinic, vitamin C is regarded as the most important supplement for detoxification.
The starting dose we usually recommend for the EcoTox detoxification program is 2 g of vitamin C, three times daily. If this doesn’t loosen the bowels within one or two days, increase the dosage 1 g every day until well tolerated by the bowel. For serious problems like acute infections and toxic poisoning, start with 1 g every hour. If this does not cause diarrhea, double this dose. Individuals vary in how much vitamin C their bodies can comfortably handle. In some cases patients can take up to 20 g of vitamin C daily without any negative effect on the bowels. Clinical observation confirms that tolerance for such high doses is indicative of a patient’s physiological need. We have some patients who can handle only 250 mg daily. Sometimes the type of vitamin C is important. The most easily tolerated type for preventing diarrhea is sodium ascorbate.
We recommend that you work up to 4 to 20 g of vitamin C daily. This dosage can be continued following your detoxification week. It can be especially helpful if your occupation exposes you to pollutants or industrial chemicals.
Vitamin E Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin discovered in 1922 by Herbert Evan and Katherine Bishop. It’s an important antioxidant for detoxification as it offers protection from cell membrane lipid peroxidation. The process of detoxification can create dangerous molecules. Unless these “renegade molecules” are controlled, they can do more damage than the original toxin. Cell membrane damage by free radicals generated during detoxification has been associated with cardiovascular disease, cancer, nervous systemdisorders, immune system dysfunction, cataracts, and arthritis. Vitamin E also helps to stabilize blood glucose and prevents muscle tissue breakdown.
The recommended dosage of vitamin E is 200 to 1,200 IU daily.
Note: Taking more than the recommended dosage of vitamin E is not necessarily better. A recent study looked at the effects of varying amounts of vitamin E. After twenty weeks, it was shown that doses of vitamin E can be helpful, but larger doses did not seem to offer significantly more protection unless there was tremendous oxidative stress, as in smokers or those exposed to chemical pollutants.
Glutathione Reduced glutathione (GSH) is a major antioxidant and free-radical scavenger. Glutathione is an essential component of liver detoxification. It’s remarkable because it can do two jobs in the detoxification cycle: It intercepts toxic compounds from Phase 1 detoxification, and it combines with Phase 2 toxic chemicals to form a water-soluble conjugate that can be excreted in the bile and urine. Because glutathione is not broken down easily by digestive enzymes in the intestines, it’s available to intestinal cells for local “first pass” detoxification. Therefore, oral supplementation is not the best way to increase glutathione in the body.
The body must manufacture glutathione from other amino acids in the liver for more efficient detoxification in the blood. It is found in fruits and vegetables and is assembled in the body from the amino acids glycine, cysteine, and glutamic acid. Glutathione deficiency comes from poor diet, free-radical stress, and toxic overload.
Although studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of glutathione supplementation in some conditions, we feel that boosting glutathione levels, other than by dietary means, is not a good idea. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables provides adequate glutathione for localized intestinal detoxification. For blood cleansing, we suggest using other precursor substances that seem to be better absorbed than glutathione. Research has shown that when comparisons are made between cost and tissue saturation, doses of oral vitamin C are cheaper and more effective than supplemental glutathione. N-acetyl-cysteine is also effective in boosting blood levels of glutathione.
For many patients who have problems with severe toxicity, central nervous system damage, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease, I have been using intravenous glutathione with excellent results. Because it does not absorb well from the gut, the intravenous route has shown promise as a powerful way to offer protection to the body with a tool that is fast and effective. Two interesting medical studies have been published showing dramatic results with intravenous glutathione. One study showed that patients benefited from intravenous glutathione after a heart attack. Another study was done in Italy by a neurologist who showed that intravenous glutathione (600 mg twice daily) significantly improved patients with early Parkinson’s disease (42 percent decline in disability).
The recommended dosage of glutathione consists of daily servings of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Lipoic Acid Lipoic acid is an element found in foods rich in B-complex vitamins, such as liver and yeast. When you are shopping for lipoic acid, it has so many different names, like alpha-lipoic acid, thioctic acid, biletan, lipoicin, thioctacid, and thioctan, that you may have trouble finding it. Your body makes small amounts of lipoic acid, so it is not a true vitamin and is not essential in our diet. Unfortunately, there is not much information on the food sources of this nutrient. But foods that contain mitochondria, especially red meats, are thought to provide the highest levels of alpha-lipoic acid.
Lipoic acid is unusual because it’s both an antioxidant and a B-vitamin-like substance. It is also a potent antioxidant in both fat- and water-soluble mediums, which is an unusual property. Its antioxidant abilities extend to both the oxidized and the reduced form. This is like having a football player who can play offense and defense equally well. Lipoic acid turns out to be a vitamin-like “universal antioxidant.” It helps other antioxidants, like vitamin C, vitamin E, co-enzyme Q10, and glutathione, to “recharge” themselves to their active forms.
Cells in your body use lipoic acid to generate energy. Therefore, it helps improve energy metabolism, especially in individuals who are chronically ill. Like other liver-protecting agents, lipoic acid has proven effective in treating poisoning from mercury, lead, carbon tetrachloride, and aniline dyes. It has also been used to treat liver disease and alcohol-induced cirrhosis. It’s a potent antioxidant and should be considered when treating viral hepatitis, AIDS, glaucoma, and complications of diabetes.
The use of lipoic acid for diabetics is compelling. Research shows that it reverses the glycation (hardening) of protein caused by elevated blood glucose, which is believed to contribute to many of the complications seen in diabetes. These glycated proteins are referred to as advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs) and are thought to be responsible for the kidney damage and advanced atherosclerosis seen in diabetes.
Clinically, I have seen remarkable results in patients undergoing detoxification medicine who use lipoic acid. They recover more quickly. I believe that lipoic acid is an extremely important supplement for this program.
The recommended dosage of lipoic acid is 600 mg twice daily.
An amino acid is an organic compound that, when bonded together in chemical chains, forms the proteins that are the fundamental components of all living cells and plays a vital role in the growth and repair of tissues. Enzymes, hormones, and antibodies that are essential for the proper functioning of the body are made from protein; the amino acids from which these proteins are built can be obtained from foods such as meat, fish, eggs, milk, and legumes.
Amino acids have a special ability to “grasp” toxins in the body, capturing them and facilitating their removal. Studies show that patients who have a protein deficiency can’t access the critical amino acids needed for detoxification. Their livers become sluggish, resulting in a toxic buildup in their bodies. People with a consistently low intake of dietary protein, including vegetarians and vegans, increase their risk of toxicity from exposure to environmental pollution and other toxic syndromes.
Because laboratory results have shown the damaging effects of low-protein diets and amino acid deficiencies for patients undergoing detoxification, we recommend glycine, n-acetyl-cysteine, and methionine supplementation to all patients to prevent any possibility of a shortage of these critical amino acids and to facilitate detoxification. We strongly advocate including all these amino acids in your detox program, but of the three, the most important supplement to include is n-acetyl-cysteine (NAC). Let’s take a closer look at NAC and some other important amino acids.
NAC NAC is the primary precursor to glutathione, a liver compound that drives the mechanism for shuttling toxins out of the body. Studies have shown that NAC affects concentrations of glutathione in the blood, helping to provide adequate levels so that the chemicals produced during detoxification don’t damage other tissues.
NAC is easily absorbed in the digestive tract and is six times more cost effective than supplemental glutathione. Clinical studies have shown that NAC has demonstrated the following properties:
The recommended dosage of NAC is 500 mg three times daily between meals.
Note: Any intestinal yeast infections should be eliminated prior to NAC therapy.
Glycine Glycine is a nonessential amino acid that the body uses for detoxification reactions in the liver (explained in chapter 5). In the 1930s, a medical doctor named Armand Quick had good results using glycine for his patients with liver disease. Roger Williams, the renowned and visionary biochemist, was one of the early advocates of nutritional medicine for the treatment of disease and promoted glycine supplementation for alcoholics in the 1950s.
Not only is glycine a necessary component of the detoxification pathway in the liver, but it’s also a building block for glutathione, the most vigorous free-radical scavenger in the body. Glycine is considered a conditionally essential nutrient. This means that only under certain conditions is the body’s need for glycine likely to exceed production or dietary availability. When these conditions arise, as during periods of detoxification, the supplementation of glycine has shown to be beneficial.
The recommended dosage of glycine is 1,500 to 3,000 mg daily between meals.
Methionine We were taught in naturopathic medical school that methionine is essential as a lipotropic. These are substances that increase the removal of fat in the liver. Lipotropics, including methionine, are usually molecule donors, which means they contribute a particular type of molecule that is needed in certain detoxification reactions. Other lipotropic agents are choline, betaine (remember the beets?), folic acid, and vitamin B12. Herbs that have the properties of chola-gogues, meaning that they stimulate the contraction of the gallbladder, and choleretics, meaning that they stimulate bile secretion in the liver, are usually also thought of as lipotropics (for more details on choleretics and cholagogues, see “Strategy Group Three: Bile Lubricants”).
In addition to its role in fat metabolism, methionine performs many other critical jobs in the body. It combines with the cellular fuel ATP to form S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), the main source of methyl groups. Methyl groups are very important for cellular biochemical reactions. Methionine is used in RNA and DNA and in the production of taurine and cysteine, two other critical detoxification amino acids. Methionine is especially important in breaking down estrogen, making it very important in the treatment of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), which can be caused by a toxic excess of estrogen hormones.
The metabolism of methionine depends on the presence of adequate levels of vitamins B6 and B12 and folic acid. Without vitamins B6 and B12, there’s a buildup of homocysteine in the blood. This buildup is known as a folate trap. Anyone who is taking methionine or eating a diet high in methionine (for example, a meat diet) needs to supplement with extra folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12.
Some experts feel that those who have poor sulfoxidation abilities, usually due to a genetic metabolic defect, should avoid methionine supplementation, believing that it can cause a toxic buildup in the bloodstream of the amino acid cysteine, which could eventually affect the nervous system. This defect is related to another defect resulting in low availability in the enzyme sulfite oxidase. To determine whether you have this defect, ask your doctor to test your sulfite oxidase levels. Symptoms of sulfite oxidase insufficiencies are headaches, chronic pain, gastrointestinal problems, and a history of reactions to sulfite-containing foods. If you find you have high urinary sulfites, you can treat your problem with supplementation of extra molybdenum.
The recommended dosage of methionine is 1,000 mg two or three times daily.
A tried-and-true method for internal cleansing among naturopathic physicians is to use natural remedies to increase bile flow. Toxins are excreted from the liver through bile fluid, and when the flow is stimulated and improved, the liver can remove poisons more effectively. Dandelion root (taraxacum), turmeric, chelidonium, artichokes, lecithin, ox bile salts, and milk thistle are excellent bile lubricants. You don’t need all these bile lubricants, however, so select just one from the following list:
Taraxacum Dandelion root is high in the compound inulin (discussed earlier in this chapter). The benefits of dandelion come from its ability to increase bile production and simultaneously activate the gallbladder to excrete it. Dandelion is a safe, gentle, and effective bile lubricant and should be used in relatively high doses.
The recommended dosage of dandelion root is 1 teaspoon of solid extract three times daily or 8 g daily of powdered root as a tea.
Turmeric Turmeric is a common spice in South Asian cuisine. Its distinctive yellow color is a defining characteristic of Indian curries. Although not a spice with general appeal to a Western palate, turmeric is very important as a medicine. It has been used by Indian and Chinese healers for thousands of years to protect the liver and promote bile flow. The therapeutic agent in turmeric is thought to be curcumin, a bioflavonoid contained in turmeric’s yellow pigment.
Current research has identified turmeric as a powerful anti-inflammatory, comparable in effectiveness to any anti-inflammatory drug currently on the market. Studies have shown it to be especially helpful in the management of arthritis pain. Curcumin’s ability to fight inflammation also makes it helpful as an antioxidant, scavenging free radicals and protecting DNA from oxidant breakage and lipid peroxidation.
The recommended dosage of turmeric is 4 capsules after every meal or 1 teaspoon stirred into a cup of warm liquid after every meal. (You can make your own curcumin capsules. Buy empty capsules, which are available at many health food stores and pharmacies. Fill them with powdered turmeric, which can be purchased wherever culinary spices are sold.)
Lecithin Lecithin is an excellent way to thin the bile and promote the flow of toxins out of the liver. Although made from soybeans, lecithin is permissible in the detox diet because it’s refined so that the original, hard-to-digest proteins are no longer present. It has demonstrated an ability to significantly improve the solubility of bile. We use it in our clinic for all gallbladder diseases and feel that it’s also helpful in liver diseases.
One study found that lecithin was able to delay the onset of—and even reverse—cirrhosis of the liver. In this study, lecithin actually prevented liver scarring induced by alcohol damage. This is remarkable because it shows that lecithin can both improve bile flow and protect the liver. It can also be used to treat high cholesterol and hepatitis. However, more is not necessarily better when it comes to bile lubricants. In fact, stimulating bile flow too quickly can cause headaches and gallbladder pain.
The recommended dosage of lecithin is 500 mg three times daily.
After the bile “shoots” through the liver and biliary (bile) system, it squirts out into the intestines. Unless something is there to bind the bile, “packaging” it for excretion, certain toxic compounds that it contains can be reabsorbed through the highly permeable membranes of the intestinal tract. Because detoxification aims to enhance the removal of all this toxic bile, charcoal should be used to bind it in the intestines. Soluble fiber from vegetables and whole grains will also help bind the bile. The bowels must move easily and regularly to prevent toxic bile from remaining in contact with the membranes of the large intestine any longer than is necessary.
Charcoal In the intestines, toxins processed in the liver and excreted in the bile fluid mix with bacteria. Some of these bacteria produce an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase, which releases the toxins from the bile, allowing them to be reabsorbed and circulated through the body again. However, once bile is bound with charcoal, the toxins it carries can’t be detached, even when washed with blood plasma or gastric fluids.
Charcoal acts like a sponge, and it has a tremendous absorptive capacity relative to its size. For example, 1 quart of pulverized charcoal can absorb 80 quarts of ammonia. Activated charcoal can absorb bacteria, viruses, bacterial toxins, and even hormones. It has been used for Asiatic cholera, dysentery, diarrhea, and dyspepsia. Charcoal is especially useful in conditions of harmful bacteria in the intestines. Even patients with liver failure can benefit from large doses of charcoal because it effectively prevents the buildup of toxins in the blood. Charcoal’s ability to act as an antidote to poison has been known for more than a hundred years, and it’s still used in hospitals today as the treatment of choice for certain types of poisoning.
Charcoal holds on to toxins more effectively than any other substance. It’s safe, effective, and inexpensive. Wood charcoal, the only type that’s recommended, is available as a supplement in capsule form.
The recommended dosage of charcoal is 2 capsules per meal or up to 2 teaspoons in powdered form. For best results, take it on an empty stomach. For those using charcoal in their seven-day program, I usually recommend it only to those patients who have severe digestive problems. Those who have a lot of acid, mucus in the stool, flatulence, and abdominal pain (irritable bowel syndrome) are the ones who get the most benefit.
Soluble Fiber Fiber is essential for detoxification in the intestines. The longer food stays in the intestines, the more likely it is to putrefy and create poisons that leak into the bloodstream. An adequate amount of soluble fiber prevents constipation by providing the bulk that allows digested food to move through the bowel easily. Fiber decreases the overgrowth of endotoxin-producing bacteria, shortens the time that toxins stay in the intestines, and reduces toxin absorption. It increases the excretion of bacterial toxins and protein putrefaction products found in the intestines.
The recommended dosage of soluble fiber is found in the EcoTox diet of rice, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a rice protein concentrate.
As we discussed in chapter 4, there are at least four hundred microorganisms in the human gastrointestinal tract, some of which are helpful and others that aren’t. These “good” and “bad” bacteria compete for space and nutrients. “Friendly” bacteria, also called probiotics, secrete substances to kill the harmful, pathogenic microbes that inhabit the intestinal tract and breed there when conditions are favorable. If the balance between the two is disrupted, the population of hostile intestinal bacteria grows abnormally large, allowing bacterial poisons to enter the bloodstream. Altered intestinal bacteria and/or bowel toxemia (the presence of toxins produced by bacteria in the bowel) have been implicated in a wide range of disease conditions, from rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis to colitis, diabetes, meningitis, myasthenia gravis, thyroid disease, and bowel cancer.
Antibiotics, steroids, and birth control pills commonly upset the normal bacterial equilibrium in the intestines. Poor diet and chronic constipation are also contributing factors. Reseeding the intestines with favorable bacteria, taken orally as a nutritional supplement, creates an optimum, balanced environment, protecting the intestines and the rest of the body from dangerous bacterial insurgents.
The most commonly recommended sources of favorable bacteria are Lactobacillus acidophilus and the L. bifidus strains. Lactobacillus bacteria are normally found in the large and small intestines and vaginal lining. To inhibit the growth of other less favorable bacteria, Lactobacillus must be present in extremely high quantities.
Some doctors are beginning to consider the yeast Saccharomyces boulardii as another therapeutic probiotic agent for intestinal disorders. It has been used extensively in Europe with good results and is beginning to gain acceptance in the United States. It has been shown to soothe mucous membranes and is very good for patients with chronic intestinal irritation.
Whey concentrates, a special milk immunoglobulin made from cow’s milk, are another form of probiotics that many doctors recommend. Whey concentrates contain secretory IgA, an immunoglobulin that protects your intestines by binding with harmful bacteria. This makes it more difficult for the bacteria to adhere to the intestinal wall so that they do less damage.
Supplementation with probiotics is especially important in a number of situations: after taking a course of antibiotic therapy (this also applies to nursing infants whose mothers are on antibiotic medication), when using birth control pills or steroids, and in cases of chronic constipation, monilial (yeast) and bacterial vaginitis, and gastrointestinal infections or inflammation. It is also highly beneficial for those who are lactose intolerant; who have high serum cholesterol, chronic liver disease, oral infections with herpes simplex, or cancer; and who experience diarrhea from radiation or bacterial or viral infections. It can also be used as a preventive against diarrhea in infants and in the control of acne.
In adults, a dose of 15 to 20 billion organisms per day is helpful in cases of acute bacterial or yeast infections.
The recommended dosage of supplemental probiotics is 3 to 7 billion organisms daily for extended use as well as during the week of detoxification. The ideal forms of supplementation are L. acidophilus and L. bifidus, in capsules or as a liquid, which are usually available from a health food store. Quality products containing live viable bacterial cultures require refrigeration and are best taken between meals. (Supplementation from fermented products, such as yogurt, is not recommended because doses aren’t standardized and the cultures are likely no longer alive.)
Because of the tremendous amount of medical research documenting its effectiveness, we recommend the use of acidophilus in our program. Health care practitioners are increasingly using other probiotics as well, such as S. boulardii and whey concentrates, so we include suggested dosages for your information. The recommended dosage of S. boulardii is 300 mg three times a day.
The recommended dosage of whey concentrates is 1 teaspoon dissolved in warm water three times daily.
The walls of the intestines are designed to allow only very small molecules to pass through them. If the walls become more permeable, compounds meant to be excreted from the bowel leak into the bloodstream. When this leakage occurs, a kind of biological Alamo is created: Toxic enemies invade the stronghold of our bodies, our resistance weakens, and eventually we’re overrun and defeated. The amino acid glutamine, gamma oryzanol found in rice products, vitamin E, pantothenic acid, zinc, soluble fiber, and inulin from Jerusalem artichokes have been shown to heal damaged intestinal membranes.
Glutamine The amino acid glutamine is a fuel burned by intestinal cells and is essential for their proper function. It increases the thickness of the membranes in the intestines so that the wrong molecules can’t pass through and circulate in the blood. It prevents the movement of bacteria across the intestinal membranes, increases the secretion of valuable immune antibodies in the intestinal membranes, and generally improves the health of intestinal immune function.
At our clinic, we saw a young boy who had been given antibiotics just after he was born. Ever since that time, he had terrible eczema, which was treated with all types of topical creams. When he finally came to us, he was four years old. We immediately started a program to treat his intestinal permeability and had excellent results. The program included doses of glutamine three times daily.
The recommended dosage of glutamine is 500 mg three times daily.
Nutrients are integral to the formation and action of all biochemical processes in the body. Detoxification biochemistry requires specific vitamin and mineral support. In fact, many of the benefits ascribed to vitamin therapy are linked to their participation in the cycle of detoxification. We have included a few common vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional substances that are important in detoxification.
Bioflavonoids Bioflavonoids, which include more than six thousand different food-based substances, have a natural antioxidant, tissue-protective capacity. Vitamin C replenishes the antioxidant capability of bioflavonoids, so the two are best used in combination. The bioflavonoids we suggest for detoxification are catechin, Silymarin, and curcumin.
Catechin is found in green tea. Green tea contains several polyphenol catechins (a type of antioxidant bioflavonoid), but the strongest is EGCG, which was found to have two hundred times more antioxidant strength than vitamin E in protecting cell membranes. Studies have shown that drinking green tea (as distinct from black tea) offers smokers some protection from cardiovascular disease. Its ability to activate detoxification enzymes in the liver has also been shown to provide a defense against cancer. Catechin has a special affinity for the liver, so it can be used effectively in the treatment of liver diseases, hepatitis, and alcohol-related liver syndromes. It also offers protection from bacterial toxins in the intestines and from collagen diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and scleroderma, a condition in which the skin thickens and hardens.
Green tea does contain some caffeine, but is permissible because it’s ideal for heavy coffee drinkers, mitigating the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. It’s safe and probably advised for those who feel a little sluggish and want a pick-me-up. It’s also very good for people who need to lose weight.
The recommended dosage of catechins is at least 3 cups daily taken as green tea.
Silymarin Silymarin, a substance comprised of a group of bioflavonoids found in milk thistle, can have very dramatic effects. Its antitoxin, antioxidant effects make it a substance for which there is no pharmaceutical replacement. No drug can protect your liver the way Silymarin can because of its strong action against free radicals and its ability to enhance glutathione production by more than 35 percent, thus increasing liver detoxification. Its effectiveness has been measured by lower enzyme markers on liver function tests, which reflect nonspecific liver cell inflammation. Its low cost, safety, and effectiveness place it at the top of all natural products.
Silymarin is truly a wonder plant and has been used successfully in the treatment of the following:
The recommended dosage of Silymarin is 200 mg three times daily.
Vitamin A We recommend vitamin A—not beta-carotene but rather retinol or retinoic acid—for many types of immune and toxic diseases. Studies have shown that exposure to environmental toxins increases the body’s need for vitamin A.
The recommended dosage of vitamin A is 10,000 to 30,000 IU daily. Doses over 10,000 IU per day need to be on a doctor’s recommendation.
Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) Riboflavin is important in the production of energy in the cells and is also involved in the production of the critical detoxifying antioxidant glutathione. Low levels of riboflavin diminish glutathione’s antioxidant defense. Using riboflavin may turn your urine yellow.
The recommended dosage of riboflavin is 10 to 20 mg daily.
Niacin (Vitamin B3) Niacin has been used to treat high cholesterol, diabetes, schizophrenia, and cerebrovascular insufficiency (poor blood flow to the brain). It plays a critical role in energy metabolism in the cell and in producing the neurotransmitters that are necessary for normal brain functioning. It is also involved in detoxification reactions.
The recommended dosage of niacin is 10 to 1,000 mg daily. If you’re taking more than 1,000 mg daily, ask your doctor to perform liver tests to monitor your progress: In rare cases, individuals are sensitive to high levels of niacin, and instead of helping the liver, niacin can cause liver inflammation in them.
Pantothenic Acid At our clinic, we call pantothenic acid the “stress vitamin” because of the many ways that it protects the body. Pantothenic acid is important for the synthesis of coenzyme A and glucuronic acid, both of which the body uses in detoxification of drugs and toxins. Coenzyme A also helps to burn sugars and fats to release energy in the form of ATP and aids in the synthesis of fatty acids, cholesterol, steroids, phospholipids, and porphyrin. It supports the synthesis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and helps repair damaged tissue. Pantothenic acid can control antioxidant enzymes, which modulate cellular free-radical reactions, and support and improve white blood cell activity for healing wounds. It’s an important nutrient in times of increased biochemical demand due to injury and toxin exposure.
The recommended dosage of pantothenic acid is 500 mg daily.
Cobalamin (Vitamin B12), Folic Acid, and Pyridoxine (Vitamin B6) Because of its ability to donate a part of itself as a methyl group, vitamin B12 can help detoxify the amino acid homocysteine. Folic acid, vitamin B6, and betaine are also able to detoxify excess homocysteine from a high-protein diet. Because these three vitamins are interconnected in this chemical reaction, all of them should be included in an ongoing supplementation program, especially for those who eat meat regularly.
Vitamin B12 can also help those who are sensitive to sulfites, which are used as a preservative in salad bar foods and wines. Asthma-like symptoms, especially after eating foods that contain sulfites, are a sign of sulfite sensitivity. In this situation, vitamin B12 should be used in combination with molybdenum supplementation, 100 to 600 mcg per day.
The recommended dosage of vitamin B12 is 1,000 mcg daily.
Magnesium, Copper, Manganese, Zinc, Molybdenum, and Selenium Enzymes that manage detoxification in the cells need all these minerals to become active. The minerals become reaction sites for enzyme action. Without these minerals, enzymes can’t do their jobs. Mineral deficiency is usually caused by vegetarian and weight-loss diets, alcoholism, old age, or protein deficiency.
Magnesium is the number-one mineral deficiency we see in our clinic. Such deficiencies are so common that we put all our patients on magnesium supplementation. The mineral is used in the treatment of asthma, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, fatigue, fibromyalgia, migraine headaches, and PMS. The body uses it in more than three hundred enzyme reactions, generating energy and driving the detoxification machinery of enzymes.
Copper, manganese, and zinc are important in the formation of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase. Zinc works with many other enzymes and is important to the structure of cell membranes. It’s also an essential component of hormones and stimulates healing by nourishing nutrient-hungry cells in the process of replicating. Extreme zinc deficiency manifests as lesions in the skin and intestinal tract. Diets limited in animal protein, the richest source of zinc, pose the highest risk for zinc deficiency.
Molybdenum deficiencies can lead to sulfite toxicity because the enzyme that breaks down sulfite, sulfite oxidase, depends on molybdenum. This deficiency also causes asthma and even neurological damage. Xanthine oxidase, which reacts with molecules used to construct DNA, is another enzyme that requires adequate levels of molybdenum.
Selenium is used to form the enzyme glutathione peroxidase, which protects against free-radical damage. It also protects against heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, aluminum, and cadmium.
The recommended dosages of these minerals are as follows:
The intestines are the most active site of immune function in our body. Cathartics have a laxative effect that purges the bowels, purifying and emptying them. Because this action encourages optimum immune response, cathartics are powerful agents for treating acute health problems. Removing irritants and cleansing the bowel improves immune recognition, the ability of disease-fighting molecules to recognize disease-causing invaders. That’s why it’s said that the doctor or patient who heals the bowels controls the immune system and thus controls disease.
The herbs listed as cathartics are for use only in cases of constipation or fever and for those who are in a severe toxic state, symptoms of which are a heavily coated tongue, bad breath, offensive body odor, excessive intestinal gas, irritability, and poor appetite. If you develop a fever during your detoxification week, consult with a health care practitioner to be sure that it’s the result of the cleansing process and not some other cause.
O. G. Carroll, a well-known naturopathic doctor of the post-Depression era, used cathartic herbs to help in the early stages of many types of acute disease, especially in cases of acute infection or inflammation. According to Dr. Carroll, colds could be aborted if you took this formula and skipped the next two meals. He used the same herbal combination that we recommend to treat the early stages of many types of acute disease, including poor digestion, roundworms, pin-worms, angina, and asthma.
A basic cathartic formula consists of 4 parts of wormwood (Artemesia absinthum) and 2 parts of cape aloe (Aloe so-cotrina), together in capsule form. Wormwood acts as a tonic for the upper portion of the intestinal tract, and cape aloe stimulates the lower intestine. We consider this herbal formula a frontline treatment in any healing crisis.
The recommended dosage of this cathartic is 1 capsule daily as strong laxative action or 2 capsules every four hours until the bowels move. Cathartics should not be taken for nausea unless the nausea is caused by food poisoning.
Much consumer literature has been published attributing the cause of many chronic diseases to the presence of parasites. Intestinal worms and microorganisms, such as Giardia and Blastocystis hominus, have been cited as the source of much human suffering, from cancer to AIDS. Both the curious and the desperate are using formulations containing cloves and black walnut hulls, both of which are folk remedies for parasites, in the hopes that this diagnosis is accurate.
What Is a Healing Crisis
A healing crisis is a change in health during detoxification that is characterized by fever, diarrhea, headaches, loss of appetite, and other symptoms common to acute infections. Because it can be difficult to determine the difference between an illness and a healing crisis, when symptoms appear it is best to consult with a health care professional, preferably one who is trained in detoxification medicine.
If you have chronic disease symptoms and suspect parasites, see your doctor and request laboratory testing for parasites. If the results are positive, proceed with an appropriate treatment. Certain herbs and extracts have been found to be effective for parasites, but for some types of infestation, drug therapies might be warranted. We don’t recommend a cleansing for parasites unless you know that you have a parasite problem.
Clearing intestinal parasites from your system involves treatments for worms, amoebas, and yeast. Each of these is a significant subject in itself, and it’s beyond the scope of this book to include a complete review of all varieties of parasite therapy. We have listed some antiparasitic herbs and included some treatment recommendations for each parasite group. However, this list in no way represents the only available therapy protocols. Warning: These herb therapies may not be appropriate for pregnant woman. Please consult your physician.
Worms: Wormwood (Artemesia absinthum) Wormwood is a type of sage and a member of the daisy family. Absinthol, the volatile oil the plant contains, makes its taste extremely bitter. This oil is remarkably effective against worms. Historically, wormwood was used in the production of bitters, an after-dinner digestive drink popular in Europe.
Unfortunately, in producing the drink, toxic substances in the plant were concentrated to such a degree that, when ingested over long periods of time, it led to neurological problems. Today, wormwood preparations, in the form of tea or a powder-containing capsule, contain negligible amounts of the toxic elements, so there’s no risk of dangerous side effects unless taken in doses exceeding the recommended amount. In addition to its antiparasitic properties, wormwood is a very effective medicine for liver and gallbladder diseases.
The recommended dosage of wormwood is 1 teaspoon in a glass of boiling water, steeped for ten minutes, taken in 3 doses for one or two days. The recommended dose for capsules is 2 capsules per dose.
Amoebas: Papain Some of our patients who travel extensively in South America and other tropical countries have mentioned that papaya fasts are used in these countries for amoeba infestations. In our clinic, we use papain, an enzyme from papaya that has the ability to dissolve parasites in the intestines. We have achieved very good results using papain in pill form. The treatment is safe and relatively inexpensive.
The recommended dosage of papain is 1 tablet three times daily between meals for one week while using the EcoTox program. Stop taking papain if you have any abdominal discomfort or irritation.
Yeast Overgrowth: Undecylcenic Acid It is not well known that undecyclenic acid, the fatty acid in castor oil, is very effective against intestinal yeast overgrowth. Many effective antifungals are available as pharmaceutical drugs and natural antifungal agents, and we can’t say for sure whether un-decyclenic acid is better than any other antifungal. However, we can say that our patients have had favorable results with this treatment.
The recommended dosage of undecylcenic acid is 2 tablets three times daily between meals.
Tips for Supplementation
Because massive amounts of toxins flood into the system during the first two days of fasting, the body needs antioxidants, which tend to prevent headaches and feelings of sickness. You can use a full supplemental program during your fast, but if vitamins and other nutrient supplements make you queasy when you take them on an empty stomach, you can use the following three critical nutrients alone: charcoal, 1 capsule three times daily; vitamin C, 500 mg three times daily; and milk thistle, 1 capsule three times daily.
We have found—after using pharmaceutical-grade essential oils orally, under the tongue, on hundreds of patients—that this an effective method to stimulate rapid liver detoxification, although there is no medical literature to support this recommendation. If you can find oral-grade essential oils, we highly recommend it. We use a combination of ginger, chamomile, and rosemary, 1 drop of each, once a day for seven days.
Your baseline supplementation plan should include the following:
If you have a specific condition that you want to address, add those supplements that apply to you. Those who are diagnosed with parasites, for example, need an antiparasitic. Those who are chronically constipated benefit by including a cathartic. If you have a history of chronic liver inflammation, you might want to include lipoic acid or glycine. If you have a history of bowel inflammation or food allergies or have other reasons to suspect that you have intestinal permeability, add glutamine to your list.
Remember that different people have different levels of tolerance for specific vitamins. Be aware that your body might not react well to larger-than-normal doses of certain vitamins. Some of our patients have reactions to vitamin C, some to niacin, and some to B vitamins. In these cases, we search for alternative choices to achieve the same effect.
To help you select the correct supplementation program for you, use the following guidelines:
It’s essential to tune your piano or your car’s engine if they are to work properly. Your body and mind are no different. This module is devoted to tuning your body by establishing proper circulation of the blood and lymphatic fluids. This is especially important while you’re undergoing a seven-day detoxification program. In addition to following a specialized diet and taking nutritional supplements, we recommend four simple methods to increase blood circulation and metabolic rate: hydrotherapy, dry skin brushing, exercise therapy, and breath and mind training. These methods also release tension to facilitate the removal of toxins from the body.
The circulatory system is very important for all your organs, tissues, and cells. It carries waste products away so that they can be eliminated. Hydrotherapy improves blood flow to vital organs and reduces fat in the tissues. Exercise therapy can increase the metabolic rate and mechanically push body fluids through the filtering organs of the lymph system. Breath and mind training aim to reduce tension in the nervous system that disturbs the delicate enzyme systems in the liver, making it more difficult for toxins to be released and removed.
A simple, traditional health care method, such as hydrotherapy, is rooted in common sense. It has the added value of being time tested. It can be done without medical assistance or specialized knowledge. Years of clinical observation and experience of doctors skilled in detoxification medicine confirm the effectiveness of this therapy. It has been the cornerstone of traditional naturopathic methods of detoxification therapy in both North America and Europe for 150 years. Rational Hydrotherapy, a 1,200-page book by John Harvey Kellogg, M.D., published in 1923, describes 224 ways to apply hydrotherapy.
Hydrotherapy consists of using hot and cold water in different ways to increase the flow of blood to various tissues of the body, especially the skin. You must do one type of hydrotherapy each day. This aspect of your detoxification program is very important because it regulates circulation in organs that are under stress during detoxification, healing illness and preventing disease. We have chosen four of the easiest methods for you to apply, listed in order of simplicity.
A word of caution: If you go outside after any hydrotherapy treatment and get chilled because your hair is wet or you are not warmly dressed, you can get very sick (severe bronchitis and pneumonia are two possibilities). Always stay warm after the treatment and make sure that you are thoroughly covered and dry. Also, it’s best to do hydrotherapy on an empty stomach. Ideal times are first thing in the morning and last thing at night. No food should be consumed following dinner in the early evening. These are also good times for exercise and meditation.
Shower Method Take a hot shower for five minutes, allowing the water to run on your back. The water should be as hot as you can tolerate. Then switch the water to pure cold and leave it running while you count thirty breaths (fast ones). Follow this with another five minutes of hot water, taking care not to burn yourself, and then cold water again for thirty breaths. Repeat this hot-cold cycle one more time. After you’ve finished three rounds, get out of the shower and dry off quickly. Get into bed and lie under the covers for thirty minutes, making sure you stay extremely warm. Then get up and continue your day.
Bed rest is important because it allows circulation, which has been opened up, to continue for a brief period of time. As soon as you begin to move around or get excited by activity or thoughts, the blood flow to the abdomen becomes restricted again. Because the main idea is to get blood flowing to the intestines, the best results are achieved when the stomach is empty (digestion requires blood circulation to the stomach).
This therapy relaxes the tension of the sympathetic nervous system and increases blood flow through the filtering organs of the abdominal and chest region. The alternating hot and cold water on the back stimulates the sympathetic nerve chain that runs up and down the spine on both sides. When done correctly, you should experience a cool feeling in your abdomen from the increased blood flow and have a sensation of being clean inside and out.
If you don’t have time to get under the covers, make sure that you’re warmly dressed after the shower. This hot and cold showering can be done twice a day but must be done at least once a day.
Bath and Wet Sheet Method This can be done instead of or in addition to the shower method. Fill a bathtub with water that is as hot as you can tolerate (usually about 107 degrees Fahrenheit) and lie in it for fifteen to forty-five minutes, until you can’t stand the heat any longer. Get out of the bath and wrap yourself in a cold, wet sheet.
Chill the sheet in the refrigerator or the freezer. To prepare the sheet, soak it in cold water, wring it out well, and put it in a plastic bag in your refrigerator a few hours prior to bathing. You want the wet sheet to be as cold as possible. If you chill the sheet in the freezer, be sure not to leave it there more than an hour, or it will become stiff and difficult to handle. If your kitchen and bathroom are relatively far apart, you can either ask a helper to bring it to you when you are ready or keep it in a small picnic cooler in the bathroom.
Wrapped in this sheet, get into a bed lined with towels and pile layers of blankets on top of yourself. You’ll be chilled for a minute or so, then you’ll become warm, and finally you’ll become very hot and start sweating. Stay under the blankets for thirty to sixty minutes; you might even fall asleep.
We suggest doing this treatment before bed. When you get up after your hour of sweating, quickly change into warm pajamas, remove the wet towels from the bed (making sure that all your bedding is dry), and go to sleep for the night. If you do this at any other time, make sure that you dry off thoroughly and dress warmly before going out. It’s very easy to get chilled after this treatment, so be extra careful. The chill will upset the flow of blood into the skin and could cause a respiratory infection.
The wet sheet and bath method is especially good for the skin and lymphatic system. It can also create a healing crisis (an immune reaction brought on by detoxification) accompanied by a low fever; this is especially good for toxic conditions. Wet sheet treatments are very beneficial at the beginning stages of a cold, when there is a feeling of chill with a slight sore throat.
Constitutional Hydrotherapy Dr. Bastyr, the famous naturopathic physician for whom Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington, is named, was emphatic about the importance of using constitutional hydrotherapy for people suffering from chronic diseases. It works by intensifying blood circulation to the kidneys, intestines, and liver. This promotes filtering by the liver and kidneys as well as better digestion of food, boosting nutrition to the cells of vital organs and tissues. It enhances oxygenation and circulation of blood and lymph, toxin elimination, and immune system activity, thereby strengthening the body. It’s a difficult treatment to do alone, so you’ll likely need a helper.
To begin, prepare two sets of towels. One set of two bath-sized towels should be soaked in hot water and wrung out, and the other set should be soaked in cold water and wrung out. Lie on your back, bare from the neck to the waist. Your helper layers the hot damp towels on top of you from the collarbone to the pubic bone and then covers you up to the neck with warm blankets. After ten minutes, the hot towels are replaced with cold ones, covering the same region of the body, and topped by warm blankets for ten minutes.
Repeat this procedure of alternating hot and cold towel packs, but instead lie on your stomach and have your helper apply packs to your back from the neck to the buttocks. For this treatment to work, it’s essential that you keep the towel temperatures as hot and as cold as you can tolerate. Soaking the towels in cold water filled with ice cubes is a good idea. If you finish the treatment and the cold towels aren’t warm from your body heat, replace them with a fresh set of hot towels, followed by another application of towels that are not quite so cold. End the treatment only when you are able to warm the cold towel packs with your own body heat, otherwise you will not derive any of its benefits.
Sauna Therapy Saunas are extremely safe and have been used for thousands of years by many cultures. In the Ayurvedic medical tradition of India, sweating therapy is one of the five main methods for detoxification. Both the Finnish and various Native American peoples have long advocated the benefits of wet and dry heat to prompt intensive sweats. After each sauna session, you should take a cold shower to get the best results for circulation.
In chapter 4, we discussed that the skin acts like a second kidney. Our skin has an amazing 11,000 square feet of surface area, and our sweat is made of the fluids from the blood and lymph. When we sweat, some of the poisons these fluids contain are excreted through the skin.
We’re convinced that the plan we’ve created offers the best of all solutions to a wide variety of health problems.
The wonderful thing about sauna therapy is that almost everyone seems to tolerate it well. Adults, healthy or ill, seem to benefit from saunas, except for patients with seizure disorders, who should not use this form of therapy. Generally, sauna therapy is not recommended for children because they tend to dehydrate quickly. It’s also not recommended for pregnant women or for those with a tendency to get headaches or get overheated easily. Nor should sauna therapy immediately follow intense exercise.
Research has shown that even patients who have heart disease and complex circulatory problems experience very few complications from saunas. Several studies have shown that sauna heat improves circulation and takes a load off the heart by relaxing constricted blood vessels and promoting better peripheral circulation.
Saunas are a powerful strategy for promoting detoxification through the skin.
The body stores many toxins in fatty tissue. Sweating therapy reduces fat stores quickly, releasing these poisons for excretion through the stimulation of receptors in the fat. Tissue biochemistry and nervous system functioning undergo changes in sauna therapy, activating fat stores and facilitating fat loss. As you sweat, a wide range of toxins that are stored in the fat and blood (e.g., PCBs, cadmium, lead, and industrial chemicals) are excreted through the skin. The heat of the sauna also encourages the body to burn fat stores quickly, and this effect continues as long as one remains in the sauna.
Scientific studies have been done to evaluate the effectiveness of sauna therapy for detoxification. In one study, fourteen firemen who were exposed to PCBs and subsequently developed neuropsychological problems six months after the fire underwent three weeks of a sauna program. They were compared with a “control” group of firemen from the same department who did not participate in the detoxification program. The control firemen showed significant impairment of memory for stories, visual images, and counting numbers backward. Conversely, retesting in the detoxification group showed significant improvement in scores in these three memory tests.
The technique of sweating therapy is simple. Use a low-temperature sauna, about 140 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Any sauna that you have access to is acceptable, including those at health and exercise clubs. Many hotels have saunas that can be used by non-hotel guests for a nominal fee. Sweating intensively, a person can lose as much as 3 liters (or about 8 pounds) of fluid per hour, so drink 1 quart of warm water before entering and take water into the sauna with you, continuing to drink throughout the length of your sweat. Begin by staying in the sauna for fifteen minutes, then come out for a cold-water rinse. Repeat this process for one hour. As you become more acclimated to the heat, increase your time every day until you reach two hours. The rinse therapy is important because it stimulates circulation in the skin and removes waste material being excreted through it.
Make sure that you’re taking a mineral supplement during sauna treatments. Valuable minerals are lost in sweat and need to be replaced during detoxification treatment. Stop sauna therapy and consult a qualified professional if any problems arise, such as headaches, rashes, eye problems, or extreme dizziness and fatigue. If you find that the heat bothers your head, wrap a wet towel around it.
If sauna therapy is too difficult, try steam baths. You can get a steam bath installed in your shower or find companies that sell the type of steam box in which you sit with your head sticking out. Steam baths are easier to use because they make you sweat faster and aren’t as dehydrating.
Your skin does many things: It helps regulate body temperature, functions as an organ of both respiration and elimination, and participates in the absorption of oxygen and nutrients. The skin acts as a protective shield to the outside world. Surprisingly, although the skin weighs twice as much as the liver and brain, it receives only one-third the circulation.
Dry skin brushing is an old natural healing method used to increase blood and lymphatic circulation. (For more information about the lymphatic system and its important role in your health, see chapter 3.) Stimulating the skin improves circulation, a benefit for every organ of the body. Skin brushing removes dead skin cells, keeps the skin soft, improves blood and lymph circulation, helps control cellulite, and rids the body of toxins.
To use this method, brush your whole body once a day with a natural-bristle dry skin brush that you can find at health food stores. During your week of detoxification, do this after hydrotherapy. Your strokes should be short and brisk. Start with your arms, front and back, moving from the fingertips up into the armpit, always brushing toward the heart. Then do each leg, front and back, starting at the feet and brushing upward. Don’t forget to brush the bottoms of the feet. Follow each leg up through the pelvis, buttocks, abdomen, and lower back. Then do the chest and upper back, always brushing toward the heart. If you want, you can lightly do the face and head, using downward strokes.
Keep the brush dry (never get it wet). Just as you wouldn’t use someone else’s toothbrush, be sure that only you use your skin brush. If skin brushing is painful, do it lightly and persevere—the discomfort will pass. Brush the whole body daily using at least one stroke for every section of skin. The chest, abdomen, and inner thigh should be done gently and carefully.
Every cell of the body produces waste that must be metabolized and removed or the cell will die. Exercise is critical for health because it stimulates blood circulation and the movement of lymphatic fluid, making it easier for the body to eliminate these waste products. Exercise also promotes the reduction of fat reserves, a primary storage site for toxins. Mobilizing these fat reserves is a very important part of detoxification therapy.
Aerobic Exercise We feel that a little aerobic exercise every day is good for everyone, especially during detoxification. Such exercise can be bicycling, jogging, swimming, or brisk walking—anything that raises your heart rate for twenty minutes. Do this at least three times a week. People who are overweight or have knee and hip pain should try a low-impact aerobic exercise, such as swimming or walking on a treadmill. Exercise is optional on the fasting days; if you feel weak, don’t push yourself.
Jumping rope is a good type of aerobic exercise. It’s easy, can be done at home, and offers a good workout that will increase aerobic capacity, timing, and coordination. It’s excellent for the calves, hips, thighs, and abdominal muscles.
If you’re in good aerobic shape, start with 200 skips per session and work up to 1,000. Jumping should be crisp, without any errors. If you can’t manage 200 skips, do as many as you can to start with, adding another ten each day. When you make a mistake, pause and then resume counting from where you left off. Rest briefly and catch your breath as often as you need to. If you’re diligent in practice, you’ll see improvement over time.
Detoxification includes the mind. A negative, tension-filled mind does not support well-being. Although the main focus of the EcoTox program is the biochemical purification of the blood, our clinical experience has shown the value of a program that addresses each person’s mental state. Internal tension is a result of stress. This tension causes toxicity and eventually disease.
The body reacts to stress by secreting hormones that disturb the detoxification mechanisms. Thousands of years ago, physicians in China noted that emotional disturbances such as anger upset the liver’s ability to function. Herbs, acupuncture, and qi gong exercises were often recommended for the problem of tension irritating the liver.
Working with breathing is an effective way to calm the mind. It affects the involuntary control centers in the brain that issue stress and alarm signals to the rest of the body. There is a wealth of current medical literature supporting the benefits of breath training. Breathing exercises have strong, measurable effects on the body. As these exercises relax the mind, they help to oxygenate the blood and, most important, regulate the autonomic nervous system. Current research has affirmed the powerful effect that these exercises have on asthma, diabetes, chronic gastrointestinal disorders, and psychosomatic and psychiatric dysfunction.
It’s easy to see the effect of mental states on your breathing patterns. When you’re agitated, your breathing is agitated. When you’re angry, your breaths are short and uneven. Conversely, when you’re in a peaceful, relaxed state, the breath is long, fine, and barely perceptible. The following breathing exercise offers a simple way to start relieving mental stress.
Alternate-Nostril Breathing Sit in a chair with your spine straight or on the floor with a cushion under the hips. Gently exhale all the air from your lungs. Close the right nostril by pressing with the thumb of the right hand. Inhale slowly and deeply through the left nostril until the lungs are full. With the lungs full, remove your thumb from the right side of your nose and press the left nostril closed with your ring finger and exhale through the right nostril. Inhale through the right nostril, slowly and deeply. When the lungs are full again, close the right nostril with your thumb as before and exhale through the left nostril. This completes one round. Begin with ten rounds and gradually increase to thirty.
The autonomic nervous system regulates the involuntary action of the intestines, heart, and hormone glands. It’s divided into two parts: the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. Both are affected by stress. The sympathetic nervous system is turned on during stress and causes increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure. Alternate-nostril breathing has been shown to decrease sympathetic nervous system tone, altering the stress response, and cause shifts in hemispherical electrical activity in the brain.
After you’ve acquired the skill of breathing in this way, combine timed breathing with alternate-nostril breathing. Count to ten slowly while inhaling, and then count to ten slowly while exhaling. When you can do this comfortably, increase the count to fifteen. When you can inhale and exhale slowly to a count of twenty, change the pattern by exhaling for twice as long as you inhale. Start with an inhalation of fifteen counts and an exhalation of thirty counts. Work up to an inhalation of twenty-five counts and an exhalation of fifty. If you get to this point and want to learn more, contact a qualified yoga teacher for further information.
Follow your breathing exercise with a mental exercise meant to help you relax deeply and increase your self-awareness. Concentrate on experiencing the present while ignoring thoughts of the past and future, reflecting on your own state in a calm, natural, intentional way. The best results are achieved when this is done every day. Some religious, spiritual, and psychological systems refer to this type of mental exercise or mind training as meditation, prayer, awareness, affirmations, or relaxation therapy.
There’s no mystical mumbo-jumbo and no trances—just an effort to make the mind as clear and quiet as it can possibly be. When you do this as described here, you should gradually feel your body relax as well; tension in the facial muscles is released and a mood-enhancing blood flow to the brain occurs. You might also notice a slowing of the heart rate and a change in negative emotional states.
Calming the Mind Because thoughts are what make up the mind, emptying the mind of all thoughts gives us an opportunity to achieve a calm, peaceful state of mind. If we can practice achieving this on a daily basis, it becomes a habit. A habit of inner peace is the beginning of a healthy mind.
To begin, sit in a relaxed position with your back straight and your eyes gently focused on the floor in front of you. Sense your breath as it enters your nostrils, and mentally follow it as it fills your lungs and empties from your chest as you exhale. Count each breath (as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on) without allowing thoughts to interfere. Every time a thought interferes, go back to counting from the number 1. Try counting up to 100 without your mind being disturbed by thoughts.
Do this for ten minutes.
Shavasana: A Relaxing Yoga Posture Take five minutes to relax your body and mind with shavasana (the corpse pose) after you exercise and before you go to bed. The corpse pose looks like a sleeping position to anyone viewing it, but it’s quite different because it’s done with consciousness and awareness. If performed correctly before bed, the amount of sleep needed can be reduced and the sleep that you get is much more refreshing.
To begin, lie on your back with palms on the bed or floor facing up. Inhale deeply and exhale through your nose. With each exhalation, visualize all your tension leaving your body. Each exhalation should accomplish this more effectively than the previous one. Sense your body and your hands, feet, abdomen, throat, and eyes getting heavier and heavier as you exhale tension out of your body. Do this for fifty breaths.
Yoga The benefits of yoga for detoxification are unequaled. In our experience, people who practice yoga regularly are by far the healthiest of all our patients. Our personal experience confirms that yoga training is ideal for attaining optimal health. Yoga encourages the proper circulation of blood and lymph fluid, enhances digestion, reduces nervous tension, strengthens the endocrine system, lubricates the joints, reduces excess fat, improves concentration, and provides resistance to hunger and to the extremes of heat and cold. Every organ system in the body benefits from yoga. To add the practice of yoga to your lifestyle, follow these rules:
Most doctors recognize that any treatment program will fail if negative mental and emotional states continue to dominate. Nurturing positive intentions and feelings of love, joy, compassion, and even-mindedness toward all situations should be a part every health care plan. Daily relaxation is a powerful medicine that allows your body to heal.
The only way to avoid mental and emotional pain is to cultivate selfless, humble, and altruistic qualities. Affirmations, self-hypnosis, psychological counseling, dream journals, prayer, and meditation cleanse and heal the nonphysical dimensions of health. Positive emotional states of joy, compassion, pure love, and religious devotion remove the painful presence of negative mental and emotional states of mind. Highly evolved positive emotional states manifest as feelings of oneness with creation and a unity with the entire world.
7 A.M.: Exercise, breath training, mind training, hydrotherapy, dry brushing
10 A.M.: Stretch
5 P.M.: Exercise/yoga, sauna, hydrotherapy, dry brushing
10 P.M.: Shavasana
To get yourself on the path to good health, write the following down on a paper and make an “action list” to get started.
1. Hair analysis: We recommend everyone have a hair analysis. It is quick and easy to do, and the information is very reliable and useful. Some labs provide hair analysis interpretations that exceed clinical significance, so we recommend staying with a reputable lab. The Prime Level lab kits are excellent. You can order your kit through Better Life Institute (BLI) at www.blionline.com.
2. Order supplements: Make a list of the supplements you need and purchase them online (see appendix D), at a retail outlet, or find a health care practitioner to help you. We enjoyed hearing from one seven-day detoxification enthusiast, Ted Walters, who is the associate director of the BLI. He suggests his clients pick a basic plan of supplements.
Plan A Basic:
A high potency multi vitamin and mineral supplement like:
| Double-X | 2 sets per day |
| Milk Thistle | 1–2 tabs twice per day |
| Antioxidant Complex | 1–2 tabs twice per day |
| Protein Powder | 2–4 scoops (30–60 gms per day) |
For those who want to use a thorough approach and don’t mind purchasing a few extra supplements, Ted Walters also suggests a Plan B added to Plan A.
| Plan B: | |
| Probiotic Formula | 1 packet each meal |
| Digestive Enzyme | 1 with each meal |
| Omega-3 Fish Oil | 2–4 g per day (The recommended FDA dosage for omega-3 is 2 g per day. Doses over 2 g per day need to be on a doctor’s recommendation.) |
| Vitamin C (he recommends the Bio-C Plus) |
2–6 tabs per day |
| CoQ10 | 2–4 tabs per day |
| Garlic | 2–4 tabs per day |
After Ted Walter’s clients have completed the week of detoxification, he recommends a maintenance plan of:
| Double-X | 2 sets per day |
| Milk Thistle | 2 tabs per day |
| Antioxidant Complex | 2 tabs per day |
| Omega-3 Fish Oil | 2–4 g per day (see note above regarding omega-3 dosage) |
3. Schedule your week of detoxification: Unless you plan your program, it will never happen. The only thing that is important about this program is that you should probably not travel or entertain during this week. Remember to schedule the exercise component into your week. If this is a new addition to your lifestyle, make it easy. Go to a local gym and ask for a qualified person to train you for 3–5 days during this week. Or if you don’t feel that you need that type of support, call a friend and ask them to join you for a walk every day at a scheduled time. The help of other people while you are going through a transformative experience is immeasurable.
Carrying out the three-module detoxification program isn’t easy. You’ll need to make some choices that temporarily change how you live. Sticking to a plan requires discipline, and you’ll encounter many obstacles, including skepticism and a lack of support from others. The only way to get through these obstacles is by sitting yourself down, reviewing your health problems and your reasons for believing that you might be suffering from toxicity, and then saying to yourself, “I’ll do it!”
Choose a week for implementing your plan and make all the necessary arrangements. If necessary, include a friend or spouse in the planning process. Arrange time off from work if you can.
Some of the obstacles that you’re likely to encounter include the following:
The things that you’ll miss during your week of detoxification are not important in the context of your whole life. Put into perspective the things that you must give up for that week. The most you’ll lose is a few lavish dinners and tasty desserts, but you can have these when the week is done. However, you might be surprised to discover that you don’t want them at all. We usually see people making new lifestyle choices after their week on the program, with no desire to go back to their old habits because they feel so good.
In preparation for your EcoTox week, take the following shopping list to the store with you.
It might be easier to purchase these items through a reputable company like Nutrilite or METAGENICS. One advantage to using Nutrilite products is that they contain many natural ingredients and all of them have phytochemical concentrates, key substances that enhance the detoxification pathways and the utilization of nutrients. You can visit the web site at www.Nutrilite.com or www.Quixtar.com. An independent business owner in your area can make these products available to you by drop shipping them to your door. Nothing could be easier.
Health is not merely the absence of disease. It is a state of optimum organ function that’s like money in the bank. Not only do you feel well, but you have a “savings account” to draw on in times of crisis, such as a serious accident or when you come down with an illness. These reserves also help keep you looking and feeling younger. The more you diminish your organ reserves, the faster you will age. By following the seven-day EcoTox plan, you’re making a big deposit in your health account. In the next chapter, we’ll explain how to modify some of your lifestyle habits so that you can continue to build up your “savings” and increase your organ reserves in the weeks and months following your detoxification program. The choice is up to you.
