WATER: HYDRATION AND HYDROTHERAPY
Water is the universal solvent. It is also the quintessential symbol of the Tao in Chinese philosophy. As Lao Tze states in the Tao Teh Ching, “Nothing is more yielding than water / but when it attacks things hard and resistant / there is not one of them that can prevail.” With sufficient time and exposure, water can dissolve almost any toxin, hold it in solution, and deliver it elsewhere for elimination. Like city sewer and industrial waste-disposal systems, water is the medium required to flush waste products out of the body. Therefore, when you’re detoxifying your body, you must drink extra quantities of pure alkaline water to dissolve, neutralize, and wash away all the toxins and acid wastes that the detox process releases into the bloodstream from the tissues.
Water is also the element that extracts nutrients from food, transports them into the bloodstream, and delivers them in solution into the cells for metabolism. Ninety percent of the blood and 85 percent of the brain are water; even the bones contain 30 percent water. Water is thus required for nourishment and the replenishment of vital fluids, as well as for detoxifying the blood and tissues and eliminating wastes. To do this, good quality water must be consumed daily in sufficient quantities to perform both of these essential functions properly.
Water has a unique capacity to carry energy and information, and it may be very precisely “programmed” to function as a potent and highly efficient tool for cleansing and healing the body. By using such diverse methods as electrolysis and magnetic fields, light and sound, oxygen and herbal essences, water may be energized and imprinted with specific information patterns to give it potent therapeutic cleansing and healing properties.
Today, a number of effective methods, both traditional and modern, technological ones, can be utilized to specially program water to enhance its detoxifying and purifying properties, and to improve its capacity to hydrate tissues and deliver nutrients and medicinal herbal essences into the cells. Water may be therapeutically programmed for internal as well as external use, and both applications are highly beneficial to any detox program.
INTERNAL USES: HYDRATION
Chronic dehydration has become a common condition throughout the world today. It is estimated that about 75 percent of the American population lives in a state of chronic dehydration. This in turn causes the body’s natural thirst response, which is supposed to signal the body to drink water when thirsty, to be mistaken instead for hunger, prompting frequent snack binges that lead to food addictions and obesity. In a study conducted at the University of Washington, it was shown that one glass of water effectively shut off the “midnight munchies” syndrome in 100 percent of the dieters tested.
Dehydration produces a state of chronic toxemia and is one of the primary causes of daytime fatigue, sluggish metabolism, depression, and inability to concentrate. It also a major contributing factor in cancer. Several studies have demonstrated that by drinking only five glasses of pure water per day, the average person may reduce his or her risk of colon cancer by 45 percent, breast cancer by 80 percent, and bladder cancer by 50 percent. Other research indicates that drinking up to eight glasses of water daily significantly relieves chronic pain in the back and joints.
Dehydration is often the hidden cause in cases of chronic pain, including headaches, and in chronic fatigue. Dehydration dries the blood and other bodily fluids, causing cells to shrink and retain their toxic wastes. When cells are properly hydrated, they expand and become active, spontaneously cleansing themselves of toxic wastes. All bodily tissues are wrapped in envelopes of very fine membranes known as “fascia,” which continuously rub against each other as various parts of the body move. All fascia require a layer of water in between them to provide lubrication as various organs and tissues rub against each other. When the body is dehydrated, this lubricating layer of interfascial fluid dries up, producing interfascial friction that causes tissue inflammation and chronic body pain. This is one of the main causes of the chronic-pain syndrome of which so many people complain these days, and for which they take billions of dollars worth of toxic chemical drugs to control pain. Yet most of this pain can usually be relieved simply by drinking sufficient quantities of pure alkaline water each day. If you drink specially energized waters, such as ionized microclustered water or oxygen water, then the therapeutic benefits of hydration become even greater and take effect faster. Proper daily hydration with good quality water is therefore the first remedy people should try for all types of chronic pain, including headaches, as well as daytime fatigue.
The water used by most people throughout the world today carries more toxic elements into their bodies than it washes out. Typical tap water contains chlorine, fluoride, aluminum, and a variety of toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and nickel. This is “dead” water, killed by chemical additives and acid elements, not the “living” water the body requires to function properly. Most commercial bottled waters are not much better, and the minerals in the so-called “mineral water” that is sold these days as an expensive gourmet health beverage are not in the ionized, microclustered form required by the cells for assimilation and utilization.
What the body requires is alkaline, ionized water that has been “restructured” into microcluster form. Only alkaline water can effectively neutralize acids in the blood and tissues and carry them away for excretion, and only alkaline minerals are beneficial to the body. Water that is charged with negative ions functions as a potent antioxidant to scavenge free radicals and prevent degenerative damage to the cells and tissues. The presence of negative ions also neutralizes all toxic substances in the bloodstream, because all toxins in the body take on a positive charge. Water that has been restructured into microcluster form passes easily through cell walls and tissue membranes, quickly hydrating the whole body and delivering essential nutrients into the cells, while also flushing out and carrying away toxic wastes. Water thus plays four fundamental roles in the body: hydration; alkalization; mineralization; and detoxification.
MICROWATER
A device has recently been developed in Japan that produces alkaline, ionized, microclustered water, known in health circles as “microwater” or “restructured water.” It is a small machine about the size of a large dictionary that sits on the kitchen counter and attaches to any faucet. First the water runs through a very fine activated charcoal filter to remove solid particles and microbes. Then it enters a chamber with two titanium plates that are coated with platinum. By the process of electrolysis, all alkaline minerals held in solution in the water are drawn toward one plate, while all the acid elements, such as chlorine, fluoride, and heavy metals, are drawn to the other plate. The acid water drains out an exit tube into the sink for disposal, and the alkaline water is dispensed through a spout for consumption. In Japan, microwater has been successfully used to treat cancer, arthritis, immune dysfunction, and many other debilitating conditions, and it is now beginning to catch on in the West. Dr. Theodore Baroody, author of the aptly titled book Alkalize or Die, uses microclustered water as a therapeutic tool in his clinical practice and says, “It is my opinion that this technology will change the way in which all health care providers and the public approach their health in the coming years.” Microwater has become so popular in Japan that bars and nightclubs now make all their ice and mix all their drinks with alkaline ionized microwater, and Japanese drinkers claim that when they mix their whisky with microwater and use microwater ice cubes, they never get hangovers the next morning, regardless how much they drink at night. That is because the negatively charged alkaline microwater neutralizes the acid by-products of alcohol metabolism and flushes them out of the body before they get lodged in the liver, brain, and other tissues.
The microwater technology does three things to water:
Alkalize: By eliminating every molecule of acid while retaining all alkaline minerals, the machine alkalizes the water with beneficial minerals. These alkaline elements serve two functions: they neutralize acids and thereby restore proper pH balance to the blood and tissues, and they mineralize the cells with beneficial alkaline minerals in ionized microcluster form.
Ionize: Electrolysis ionizes the water molecules as well as the minerals with an extra electron, giving them a negative charge and turning them into potent antioxidants that scavenge free radicals throughout the body. Negative ions also charge each water molecule with strong antitoxin properties that enable it to neutralize and carry away positively charged toxic molecules in the blood and tissues.
Microcluster: This technology also breaks the alkaline minerals and the water itself into smaller microclusters, so that they pass more easily and swiftly into the cells and tissues to hydrate, alkalize, mineralize, and detoxify the body. Ordinary water clumps in clusters of about twelve molecules each, while microwater is restructured into clusters of only five to six molecules. Similarly, the alkaline-ionized minerals are reduced into smaller molecular clusters, so that they, too, pass more easily into the cells to remineralize them.
Many good reasons support the purchase of one of these units and its use for all of your water requirements at home and at work, including cooking, making coffee and tea, and preparing ice cubes. During a detox program, drinking microwater is a great way to neutralize and flush out all the toxins and acids that drain from the tissues and bodily fluids, and to quickly rehydrate the body and keep the blood alkaline. If you use microwater for all your drinking and cooking requirements at home, it provides you with an ongoing “mini-detox” each and every day.
Microwater is a highly efficient antioxidant, and if you drink it throughout the day, it provides continuous antioxidant activity in the blood and tissues. Since free-radical damage is now commonly acknowledged in medical science as the primary cause of premature aging and tissue deterioration, drinking microwater daily can help you slow down the aging process and prevent a lot of unnecessary debilitating damage to your tissues. Many people complain that they find it difficult to drink large amounts of water, but drinking down two large glasses of alkaline microwater is both easy and pleasant, because the microclusters allow it to assimilate so quickly through your stomach and into your blood and tissues. By contrast, drinking just one glass of ordinary “dead” tap water or commercially bottled water makes your stomach feel bloated and heavy, because it just sits and pools there, like a stagnant pond, and that is why so few people like to drink water these days. Microwater solves the problem of “hydrophobia,” as well as the problem of dehydration, by making it pleasant to drink sufficient amounts of water throughout the day, and its positive effects can be felt immediately. Its alkalinity counteracts the excess stomach acidity caused by modern eating habits; its microclustered minerals and trace elements provide essential nutrients that are chronically deficient in modern diets; and its negative-ion charge continuously scavenges free radicals and sweeps toxic substances from the bloodstream, enhancing overall vitality. All these benefits come at a cost that amounts to only a small fraction of what you’d pay for expensive nutritional and antioxidant supplements sold in health stores, and in the long run it is also much cheaper than buying bottled drinking water.
Other new technologies that enhance the blood-purifying and tissue -detoxifying powers of water include the “Vortex Energizer” and the “Grander Living Water System,” both of which utilize water’s unique capacity to transmit energy and information into the human system, by imprinting it with healing energy frequencies and wave patterns. The Vortex Energizer, developed by the Center for Implosion Research in England, is a small device that energizes water and counteracts the damaging influence of artificial electromagnetic fields in the environment. Drinking this activated water strengthens the human immune system, purifies the blood, and protects the body from toxic contamination.
The Grander Living Water System, invented by Austrian naturalist Johann Grander, revitalizes ordinary tap water by running it through a chamber in which it is exposed to sealed cylinders of highly energized water drawn from a five-thousand-year-old artesian spring in Austria. This water, which carries the natural electromagnetic properties of the earth itself, is further encoded with healing energy information by subjecting it to implosion technology and properly balanced bio-magnetic fields. As it passes through the chamber, the flowing water picks up the precise energy frequencies and polarity patterns encoded in the programmed water in the cylinders, thereby becoming identically “informed” to perform cleansing and healing functions in the body. In addition to purifying the bloodstream and detoxifying the tissues, Grander Water imparts its bio-active energies to all the vital fluids in the body, thereby enhancing immune response, improving digestion, facilitating excretion, and increasing the overall vitality and resistance of the whole system.
SEA WATER AND SEA SALT
Seawater has precisely the same pH as healthy blood and contains all of the essential minerals and trace elements, in exactly the correct proportions required by the human body. The sea is therefore an excellent source of mineral nutrients for human health, especially those rare trace elements that are generally missing in modern diets. It is also a rich source of alkalizing elements that counteract acidosis in the blood and tissues.
If you live near the ocean, one way to use seawater as a supplement is to keep a bottle of it in your refrigerator and drink a few ounces each day, diluted in a glass of pure water. Dr. Norman Walker, who lived to the age of 116 by periodically detoxifying his body, keeping his blood and tissues at proper pH balance, and eating properly, drank a few ounces of seawater daily to insure that his bloodstream contained all of the essential elements, known and not yet known, required by the blood and cells. If you’re doing a detox program at a health resort near the ocean, this is a good way to help neutralize all the acid wastes that are released from your tissues by detox, and to provide your body with all the essential minerals it needs to support the detox process. It is important, however, to make sure that the water is drawn from clear, unpolluted parts of the ocean, not from coastal waters that have been excessively exposed to industrial contamination. One way to do this is to ask someone on a fishing or diving boat to haul a gallon of clean seawater from deeper offshore waters.
Another way to tap into the sea as a source of alkalizing minerals and essential trace elements is to use whole, unrefined sea salt for all of your culinary requirements and also as a nutritional supplement. The best choice, as mentioned in chapter 1, is Celtic sea salt. The use of the word Celtic refers to an ancient northern European method of harvesting whole sea salt, a method still practiced along the Normandy coast in northern France today. This harvesting process makes it possible for all of the salt’s essential elements to remain, as well as the important trace elements contained in the brine. The brine, also known as “bittern” or “mother liquor,” is the thick residual fluid that remains in the salt pans after wind and sun have evaporated the water and the salt has been collected. With much of the brine’s elements remaining in the harvested sea salt, the salt has a characteristic light gray color and slight dampness that distinguishes genuine Celtic sea salt from ordinary refined forms of sea salt. Commercially refined sea salt is heated and bleached and often treated with additives, to make it snow-white and to prevent clumping, but this process also strips the salt of many of its essential nutritional elements, especially the vital trace elements contained in the bittern.
Celtic sea salt contains eighty-four minerals and trace elements, including every one that is essential to human health. Its light gray color and moist crystals are the identifying traits that indicate the presence of the bittern in the salt. Besides providing all of the essential minerals required by the body, Celtic sea salt bestows specific benefits that are particularly helpful for detoxification and rejuvenation. It contains organic iodine, which, unlike the refined iodine added to industrially processed table salt, protects the body from harmful radiation in the environment and radioactive fallout in the atmosphere. The microminerals in Celtic sea salt provide the adrenal and pituitary glands with precisely the elements they require to sustain balanced secretions of vital hormones. Studies have shown that when refined table salt is used, secretions of the adrenal and pituitary glands are measurably reduced, and this results in low vitality, low motivation, and low libido.
Another type of sea salt that has become available today is Himalayan Glacial Salt, which is harvested from glaciers that were formed when the Indian subcontinent pushed its way into the Asian land mass, trapping huge lakes of seawater in the Himalayan valleys. As the water evaporated, enormous deposits of sea salt remained, and these were compressed into gigantic pink salt rocks by subsequent glacial pressures. These deposits of sea salt are the purest and most complete source of essential minerals and trace elements on earth, because they come from ocean waters as they existed many millions of years ago, before mercury and other industrial contaminants were dumped into the earth’s seas. This salt is now available both in rock crystal as well as finely ground forms.
The denatured, industrially refined table salt that most people in the world use today does more harm to the body than it does good. This salt has been robbed of its synergistic minerals, trace elements, and other cofactors, leaving a denatured white substance that is 99.9 percent sodium chloride. Doctors today often advise people to drastically reduce their salt intake to prevent high blood pressure, but this advice applies only to the deleterious effects of industrially processed table salt, which contains an unnaturally high ratio of sodium and no synergistic cofactors to counterbalance the excess sodium. Furthermore, the sodium in refined table salt is hardened, and it therefore remains lodged in the body for an excessively long time, which is why it causes blood-pressure problems. The sodium in Celtic sea salt retains its natural pliant form, is less concentrated, and drains out of the body quickly. Furthermore, some of the trace elements contained in the bittern automatically neutralize and flush out excess sodium from the blood and tissues, thereby preventing it from causing any problems.
One way to use Celtic and Himalayan Glacial sea salt as an alkalizing mineral supplement is simply to dissolve about ¹⁄3 tsp in a glass of water and drink it. This is also very helpful when you experience excess acidity in the stomach. Another way is to reconstitute the bittern, or “mother liquor,” from whole Celtic sea salt, which is richly permeated with bittern, and use this as a supplement. To make your own bittern, place five to ten pounds of coarse light gray Celtic sea salt in a clean, unbleached cotton bag and tie the bag shut with a piece of string. Fill a large pot with pure spring water, and soak the bag of salt in the water for three to five minutes. Then hang the soaked bag of salt over a ceramic or glass bowl (but not metal), and let all of the fluid drip into the bowl. Funnel it into clean glass bottles, and take about one ounce of this reconstituted bittern, diluted in pure water, once or twice a day. A similar saline solution can be made simply by placing a pound of rock crystal Himalayan Glacial salt in a large jar and filling it with a liter of pure water, periodically adding more salt and water as you use the liquid brine. One or two teaspoons of the brine in a large glass of pure water is an excellent way to start each day.
Magnesium is one of the macrominerals that is most required for human health, but today more than half the population of the world suffers a critical deficiency of magnesium, including people in the richest, most highly developed countries, such as America and Western Europe. Magnesium deficiency is a major contributing factor to heart disease, and studies in the United States have shown that more than half of the fatal heart attacks there could probably have been be avoided if adequate magnesium supplementation had been administered in time. A shortage of magnesium contributes to depression, insomnia, irritability, and other problems related to central-nervous-system dysfunction. Magnesium is also one of the most important nutrients required by the body during the detox process, because magnesium is an essential element for the production of a multitude of alkaline enzymes that are required for the detoxification process. It is therefore a good idea to include some form of magnesium supplementation in any detox program, as well as in daily life.
You can prepare an excellent magnesium supplement yourself at home, using Celtic sea salt and magnesium chloride hexahydrate. Dissolve .28 ounces of Celtic sea salt in just under a quart of cold water, and seal tightly in a bottle with a cap. Then dissolve 2⁄5ths of an ounce of magnesium chloride hexahydrate in one liter of cold water, and cap it in a clean bottle as well. To use, mix one part of the salt solution with five parts of the magnesium solution and three or four parts of your favorite fruit or vegetable juice, or herbal tea, to make one full cup. Drink one cup in the morning and another in the evening for a period of ten to fifteen days, to correct conditions related to magnesium deficiency. The formula is also an essential support for any detox program. For ordinary use as a daily dietary supplement, one glass in the morning is sufficient.
An even easier way to get your daily magnesium chloride is to buy a bottle of magnesium oil, a viscous fluid solution of pure magnesium chloride available in the United States from globallight.net. The best way to use the oil is to fill a sprayer bottle with the fluid and add three to five sprays to a glass of drinking water two to three times daily. It may also be sprayed directly onto the skin for even more effective transdermal assimilation.
While we are on the topic of internal salt-water therapy, let’s take a quick look at an ancient Indian technique for detoxifying and restoring the delicate tissues of the sinus cavity. Known as the “Neti” nasal douche, this method employs whole sea salt dissolved in warm water to gently wash the sinuses and flush out dust, smoke, air pollutants, and other toxic residues that become lodged in the sinus cavities. It is a highly refreshing cleanse that greatly improves nasal breathing, fully restores the sense of smell, and detoxifies the convoluted passages of the sinuses.
To do the Neti nasal douche, put about ²⁄3 tsp of Celtic sea salt into a small ceramic tea pot of about 1½ cup capacity. Add warm water at about body temperature and stir to completely dissolve the salt. Bend over forward, or kneel down, place the spout of the tea pot firmly into the left nostril, then tilt the head slowly to the right, until the water starts flowing into the left nostril, through the left sinus passage, and back out through the right sinus passage and right nostril, in a steady stream. When about half the solution is used, switch over to the other side and do the same thing. When you’ve finished the solution, bend over forward and rock your head up and down, then from side to side, while snorting air out your nostrils to blow residual water from the nasal passages.
OXYGEN WATER
Less than two hundred years ago, the earth’s atmosphere contained about 38 percent oxygen. Today, oxygen constitutes only about 19 percent of the air we breathe, half of its former level, and a lot less than that in polluted inner cities. Oxygen deficiency has therefore become a common condition throughout the world, and it is a major contributing factor in toxemia, immune deficiency, cancer, and most chronic degeneration conditions. Since the air we breathe delivers only half the oxygen we require per breath, it is very helpful to provide an additional form of oxygen supplementation during detox, and one of the most effective ways is to use oxygenated water.
Besides its essential role as a fuel for metabolism, oxygen is also the great cleansing agent of the body. All toxins must first combine with oxygen to be carried out of the cells and tissues for excretion. Oxygen kills bacteria and viruses, neutralizes toxins, and purifies the blood, tissues, and individual cells. Unlike antibiotics, however, which kill friendly as well as harmful bacteria, oxygen kills only the harmful anaerobic bacteria that invade the inside of the body, without damaging the beneficial bacteria in the bowels and other tissues.
Brian Goulet, a health practitioner who utilizes oxygen therapy in his clinical practice, says, “Rubble, garbage, toxins, refuse, debris, and anything useless are destroyed by oxygen and carried out of the system. Just as a clean house holds little interest to passing flies, likewise any oxygen-rich body is a difficult fortress to assail.” Molecular biologist Dr. Stephen Levine believes that oxygen deficiency could be the beginning phase of immune deficiency syndrome. Levine says, “We can look at oxygen deficiency as the single greatest cause of all diseases. It is believed and supported by a great deal of research, that a shortage of oxygen in the blood could very well be the starting point for the breakdown of the immune system.”
One of the swiftest ways to oxygenate water to produce an oxygen supplement is to put a few drops of hydrogen peroxide into a glass of pure water. Hydrogen peroxide has the same molecular structure as water, except that it has an extra oxygen molecule. When dissolved in water, each molecule of hydrogen peroxide breaks down to produce one molecule of ordinary water and one molecule of free oxygen. These extra molecules of free oxygen enter the bloodstream and circulate throughout the tissues, thereby enriching the entire body with additional supplies of detoxifying oxygen. When you first start using hydrogen peroxide as an oxygen supplement, however, it is advisable to first consult with a health professional for specific guidance.
During detox, a small daily dose of hydrogen peroxide provides the blood with an extra boost of oxygen to deal with the overload of toxins that are released into the bloodstream from the tissues. In addition, you may take daily doses of this oxygenated water to protect yourself from the flu and other contagious diseases during epidemics. In the autumn of 1983, in the midst of an avian flu outbreak that killed over eleven million chickens in America, about one million chickens were given small amounts of hydrogen peroxide in their drinking water, and not a single one of these birds died of the disease. Another effective way to oxygenate water is to bubble ozone gas through it, but to do that, you must have a special ozone machine. Some spas and health resorts now have these devices. Drinking water treated with ozone releases even more free oxygen into the bloodstream than water treated with hydrogen peroxide, and this makes it a very useful item for internal cleansing purposes. As Dr. George Freibott of the International Association for Oxygen Therapy states, “Oxygen is a powerful detoxifier, and when its quantity is deficient, toxins begin to devastate body functions and deplete the body of life-giving energy.”
One of the most remarkable oxygen supplements on the market today is a specially formulated solution of “heavy water” (deuterium sulfate) known as “ESF,” which stands for “Everett Storey Formula,” named after the American nuclear scientist who invented it during the 1950s. This product is sold throughout the world under license from the company that holds the patent, using various different brand names, including Cellfood, Liquid Life ESF, Hydrocell, Cellogen, and Hydroxygen.
ESF is based on a patented split-water technology. What it does is split a very small amount of the water molecules in your body to release one molecule of free oxygen and two molecules of free hydrogen, which then enter the blood and permeate the cells. As we have already noted, oxygen is one of nature’s most potent detoxifiers, and oxygen levels in the air we breathe, which is our primary source, have dropped by half over the past two hundred years. ESF therefore serves to correct this oxygen deficiency by providing the body with a constant internal stream of free oxygen released from water. It also releases free hydrogen, which is an essential element for producing energy, repairing cells, and maintaining strong immune response. ESF contains microscopic, ionized forms of 78 vital minerals, 34 essential enzymes, and 17 important amino acids, all of which are carried into the cells along with the oxygen and hydrogen. ESF is therefore both a potent nutritional supplement and a highly effective detoxifying agent.
ESF should be taken three times daily (early morning, afternoon, and night) to insure a steady stream of free oxygen and hydrogen in the blood and tissues. For detox programs, or to help cure specific diseases, eight drops of ESF taken three times daily in a glass of plain water or juice is an effective dosage. For ordinary use as a daily supplement, five drops three times a day is sufficient. To order this product, please refer to the section on “Suppliers” at the back of the book.
EXTERNAL USES: HYDROTHERAPY
During detox, the skin must bear an extra heavy burden as an excretory outlet for toxic wastes, and it can easily get damaged and become blemished from contact with all the toxins that pass through the pores. The skin therefore needs special attention while the body is detoxifying itself to prevent toxic damage and to facilitate the rapid elimination of all toxins that are driven from the lymph, blood, and tissues out to the surface of the skin for elimination.
It should be noted that unlike the interior of the body, which should be slightly alkaline, the exterior surface of the skin should have a slightly acid mantle to protect the body from invasion by external pathogens. While the microbes that invade the interior of the body are anaerobic and thrive in acid environments, those that attack the exterior surface are aerobic and cannot tolerate an acid environment, which is why the skin is meant to have a slightly acidic pH value. Most people wash away this acid mantle on a daily basis, by using commercial bath soaps and shampoos, all of which contain strong alkaline detergents. This renders the skin vulnerable to infections, rashes, and other irritations. It is therefore advisable to cut down on the use of commercial bath soaps and shampoos, or to switch to milder varieties made only from pure vegetable, nut, and essential oils, without chemical additives. Another solution is to keep a bucket of the ionized acid water discharged from a microwater ionizing unit in the bathroom, and rinse your skin and hair with a few cups of this water after finishing your shower or bath. Since this acid water has been filtered, ionized, and reduced to micro-clusters, the same as the alkaline portion that you consume internally, it too is an extremely pure and potent therapeutic water but serves instead as an antiseptic acidifying agent for external use on the skin and hair.
The best way to protect your skin from damage and accelerate the excretion of toxic wastes through the pores during detox is to soak your body, or even just your feet, in hot water laced with sea salt or Epsom salt and a few drops of detoxifying essential oils. If you don’t have time for a full body soak, or if you don’t have a bathtub at home, just soaking your feet and ankles in a basin of hot saltwater is also very effective, for it draws toxic wastes through the lymph channels down to the feet and facilitates their excretion out of the body into the water.
HOT SALT WATER BATHS
The most popular way to prepare a hot saltwater bath today is to add a cup or two of Epsom salts to a bathtub full of hot water. Epsom salts are various forms of magnesium salts, and these are particularly effective for detoxification purposes because they stimulate lymph drainage and draw toxins out through the pores by osmosis.
You may also use coarse gray Celtic sea salt, which includes dozens of beneficial micro-minerals and trace elements contained in the bittern, to prepare a hot saltwater bath for detox purposes. To prepare a potent, sea-salt, detox bath, add three pounds of gray Celtic sea salt plus one pound of magnesium chloride hexahydrate to a bathtub full of hot water, and soak in it for about half an hour. The higher the salinity of the bath water, the stronger the power of osmosis that draws the toxins out through the skin, so for intensive detox purposes you need to use a greater quantity of sea salt, and add magnesium chloride for an extra boost of lymphatic detox. For ordinary saltwater bathing, one or two pounds of gray Celtic sea salt is sufficient to cleanse the skin and mildly detoxify the system, and the magnesium chloride may be omitted.
A particularly potent form of sea salt is available from the Dead Sea in the Jordon Valley. At 400 meters below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest spot on the surface of the earth, and it produces a bath salt that is extremely rich in medicinal minerals and natural detoxifying agents. This bath salt, which is available from health-product suppliers, has both detoxifying as well as healing properties, and hot Dead Sea salt baths provide highly beneficial support for the skin during detox.
Another useful skin detox product from the Dead Sea is therapeutic mineral mud. Dead Sea mud has amazing cleansing and healing powers, and it seems to work on both the physical, biochemical level as well as the energetic, electromagnetic level. To use Dead Sea mud for detox, put a sufficient amount of mud into a bowl and place the bowl in hot water to heat the mud. Smear the mud thickly over the affected part of the skin, cover with food wrap or cellophane, and tape in place with medical tape. Leave it there for about an hour, then wash off the mud, and take a hot Dead Sea salt bath. One woman in Australia reports that she cured herself of breast cancer and completely eliminated the tumors by applying Dead Sea mud packs and soaking in Dead Sea salt baths repeatedly over a period of several months. While such evidence is often discounted as “anecdotal,” it is nevertheless a documented fact that it happened, and if such a cure can work once, it can certainly work again.
The therapeutic benefits of hot salt-water baths may be further enhanced by adding essential oils, which have detoxifying and healing properties, to the bathwater. Since these oils are also highly aromatic, some of their therapeutic essence is absorbed through the sinuses and lungs as the volatile vapors rise from the hot bath water. The oil of grapefruit seed and peel is a particularly good choice for helping to detoxify the lymphatic system. Sage and rosemary both have potent tissue cleansing properties, and peppermint oil may also be used for detox purposes. If you’re feeling enervated and “uptight,” try adding a few drops of frankincense oil to your hot saltwater bath, or a dash of lavender. Keep a variety of these essential oils in the bathroom, and experiment with different combinations for various conditions.
Another way to enhance the therapeutic power of bathwater is to use a Jacuzzi or whirlpool tub. The gentle vibratory stimulation from the water jets activates lymph drainage and boosts micro-circulation in the tissues just below the skin, thereby facilitating elimination of toxic wastes through the pores. By virtue of the piezoelectric effect, whereby any sort of rhythmic vibratory stimulation applied to a crystal substance is transformed by the crystal structure to produce an electromagnetic energy pulse, jet-water baths create a soothing, healing energy pulse deep within the body as a result of the piezoelectric effect of the vibrations in the water on the crystalline structures in bones, glands, connective tissue, and bodily fluids.
“MAGNUM” BATH
An extremely effective version of hot salt water bath for detox is what I refer to as the “Magnum” Bath. To prepare this bath, place ¹⁄3 cup of magnesium chloride bath crystals, 1–2 tablespoons of magnesium chloride oil, and 1 tablespoon each of magnesium oxide and mica powder into a bathtub of hot water. Then soak your body in it for about half an hour. Alternatively, you can add about half those amounts to a bucket of hot water and simply soak your feet in it for twenty to thirty minutes. This method is almost as effective as a full-body bath, and it is a lot easier to do.
The magnesium chloride not only draws toxins out of the body through the skin, it also feeds magnesium into the tissues and cells of the body, thereby replenishing optimum cellular levels of this essential mineral, which is required for over three hundred vital enzymatic reactions in the human body.
The complete formula for this bath is given in appendix 1, “Recipes & Formulas,” p. 303.
BATHING IN THE SEA
If you live near the ocean, or stay at a health resort by the sea, daily plunges in the ocean are another good way to provide your body with saline detox hydrotherapy. Seawater contains all of the medicinal minerals and cleansing elements found in sea salt, and therefore bathing in the sea allows the skin to detoxify and repair itself, albeit not as intensively as in a hot bath containing extra high concentrations of mineral salts added to the water. Again, be sure that the sea is clean before you jump in, otherwise you’ll come out even more toxic than before. Avoid harbor waters and areas where raw sewage is disposed into the sea.
Another benefit of bathing daily in open seawater is that the ocean, which has its own vast electromagnetic energy field, naturally recharges and rebalances the human energy system whenever the body is submerged in it. This contributes significantly to the detoxification and regeneration process, and accelerates healing. In addition, the air along ocean shores is highly charged with negative ions, which also help detoxify the blood and tissues and facilitate rapid elimination of wastes. Finally, the rhythmic force of waves and currents in the ocean provides a gentle massage to the entire body, providing similar therapeutic effects as those discussed for whirlpool baths. Added together, these various benefits transform a daily dip in the ocean into an effective and pleasant therapeutic activity. No doubt that is one reason so many spas and health resorts are located by the sea.
MINERAL HOT SPRINGS
Since time immemorial, throughout Asia as well as the Western world, soaking in steamy mineral water baths at natural hot springs has been a traditional way of relaxing, cleansing, and healing the body. Today, this ancient custom is still widely practiced as a health regimen in East Asia, particularly in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, whose mountain ranges are riddled with natural hot springs. In Japan, the mountainous southern island of Kyushu is the place to go for traditional hot-spring spas, many of which feature charming old Japanese inns with all the traditional amenities. Korea has numerous hot spring resorts in the mountains along the southern and eastern coastline. In Taiwan, the entire island steams with over one hundred hot-spring sources, from the well developed traditional hot-spring resorts of Peitou in the north to the rustic alfresco spas in the central highlands and southeast coastal region. Some of these hot springs have been operated as health spas and rest retreats for hundreds of years.
Since hot springs are usually located in rugged mountain settings that often feature waterfalls as well, a few words on the purifying power of falling water are in order here. Waterfalls produce a powerful, pulsing energy field that radiates for many meters, and the effect of this vibrant field on the human energy system, when one sits tranquilly at rest by a waterfall, is to detoxify and rebalance the entire system. Simply sitting quietly beside a big waterfall, and cultivating a calm state of mental serenity and physical relaxation, quickly clears blockages and corrects imbalances in the human energy field, and this in turn activates cleansing and healing responses in the nervous and endocrine systems. In addition, the air around waterfalls is richly charged with negative ions. Breathing this air saturates the blood with negative-ion energy, which acts as a powerful antioxidant to scavenge free radicals and neutralize toxins in the bloodstream, tissues, and cells The detox effect is swift, and it reaches the deepest tissues of the body. This form of hydrotherapy works on both the physical and energetic levels and may be utilized as an effective support for any detox program. Indeed, “sitting still doing nothing” beside a waterfall is an ancient Taoist way of practicing meditation, so you may combine your meditation practice with your hydrotherapy and reap a richer harvest from both.
HERBAL STEAM POWER
Among the most effective and pleasant ways of all to detox is to use traditional Thai herbal steam therapy, which is one of the most efficient methods of ridding the body of toxic wastes through the skin and lungs. It is basically the same set-up as any ordinary steam room system, except that highly aromatic medicinal herbs are added to the water in the boiler to produce a therapeutic herbal steam that engages both skin and lungs in the detox process. This is also a form of aromatherapy, but instead of just sniffing the aromatic essence released in the air through your nose, you immerse your entire body in it and breathe in hot damp vapor that carries the medicinal aromatic essences of the herbs deeply into your lungs, where they are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and circulated directly to every tissue of the body, delivering their therapeutic powers to each and every cell. At the same time, the hot steam opens the pores and allows the herbal vapors to enter the skin to draw toxins out with the sweat. Thai herbal steam simultaneously cleanses the body from the inside and the outside, providing a doubly detoxifying effect as well as a very relaxing, soothing experience.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, hundreds of herbal steam facilities existed all over Thailand. Every town and village had them, and many were located on the premises of Buddhist temples, where traditional Thai medicine is still taught and practiced by monks. Herbal steam served as a primary form of healing and health care, with specific formulas for every disease and condition. Today, these herbal remedies have been replaced by Western pharmaceutical drugs, and public health in Thailand has diminished proportionately as a result. Nevertheless, you can still find traditional herbal steam facilities in most of Thailand’s cities and resort areas, and you can also set up your own steam room at home.
More than seventy different aromatic herbs are used in traditional Thai steam therapy, but the primary ones are lemongrass, kaffir (a common Thai cooking herb), lime, ginger root, galanga root, basil, cinnamon, rosemary, thyme, pepper, and mint. In addition, you may also use aromatic medicinal herbs from other regions of the world, particularly those known for their cleansing, relaxing, and rejuvenating properties. The exact proportions are not particularly important, and they may be blended according to personal preference. As to quantity, that depends upon how strong you wish to make the steam and how big the boiler is in your steamer system. Generally speaking, you might use a total of 7–9 ounces of mixed fresh herbs, or 3½–4½ ounces of mixed dried herbs, for a medium sized steam boiler of 5–10 gallon capacity. Fresh and dried herbs may also be mixed together in the same batch. The lemongrass should preferably be fresh rather than dried to derive maximum benefit from this refreshing, relaxing, highly aromatic herb. Fill the steam boiler with water and let it come to a full boil before adding the herbs, which should be coarsely chopped. The herbs may be added directly to the boiling water, or else placed inside a cloth spice bag and tied shut with a string, which is then dropped into the boiling water. You may experiment with a variety of different blends until you discover the ones that suit you best. Meanwhile, as a general guideline, several classic combinations that are still commonly used in traditional Thai herbal steam therapy today are given in the “Recipes and Formulas” section (appendix 1, pages 302–3) at the back of the book.
To use an herbal steam bath for detox therapy, first drink a few cups of hot herbal tea that has cleansing or relaxing properties, such as chamomile, peppermint, sage, or ginger. Then enter the steam room and sit quietly inside for about twenty minutes, breathing deeply through the nose. Next, leave the steam room and take a plunge in a cool pool, or stand under a cold shower, to cool off the body, rinse sweat from the skin, close the pores, and stimulate the lymph and endocrine systems. Relax for five to ten minutes and then repeat the process two or three more times. When you’re finished, be sure to drink at least two large glasses of alkaline water to rehydrate your tissues and remineralize your cellular fluids.
WATER SHORTAGE
Today, the supply of pure, naturally balanced water is shrinking at an alarming rate. The water situation has gotten so bad that many people now depend on bottled water for their daily drinking supplies, because the water provided by most municipal water utilities is so overloaded with chemicals.
Water’s incredible solvent properties are a two-edged sword. On the one hand, water is required to dissolve and transport essential nutrients, trace elements, and herbal essences into the cells and tissues; water vapor can carry healing herbal energies into the lungs and skin; and water can neutralize and flush away virtually any toxin in the body. On the other hand, these characteristics also mean that water dissolves any toxic substance to which it is exposed in the environment, holds it in solution, and transports it wherever it goes. Thus, the more toxic the environment becomes, the more poisonous the world’s water supply gets. Regardless of whether you use it internally or externally, water can either harm you by bringing dissolved toxins in solution into your body, or else heal you by dissolving toxins that are already imbedded in your system and then carrying the toxins out of the body as liquid waste. It all depends on the original quality of the water you use, how well you purify it, and whether you “program” it to nourish, cleanse, and heal your body.
Most of the water on the earth today has been seriously polluted and acidified by various artificial means, such as industrial waste, sewage, and chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride. Therefore the only way to purify and alkalize water for consumption is to use special technology that makes water fit for human health and healing. When used for intensive detox purposes, water may be specifically programmed in the various ways discussed in this chapter to enhance its hydrating and alkalizing properties, increase its cleansing and detoxifying effects, and amplify its antioxidant activity.
It is also important to remember that when taking water internally for detox purposes as well as for ordinary daily consumption, quantity is every bit as important as quality. Water can only work to cleanse and heal your body if you drink sufficient quantities each day to keep your blood and tissues consistently well hydrated and to fully replenish the water lost from the body each day with the excretion of wastes. That means you need to drink about five to eight glasses of pure water per day, depending on your individual requirements and metabolism, to prevent dehydration and keep your bodily fluids fresh and freely flowing.