Pollutants
Why you may need a physical and emotional cleansing.
By Laurel House, photography by Andrew Purcell
Detoxing, cleansing, and fasting are not new trends. Hippocrates, now known as the father of Western medicine and considered to be the first physician, believed in fasts as a healing mode that allowed the body and digestive system to cleanse and recuperate from the strains of daily life. Various religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism, use fasting and detoxing as a method of cleansing and purifying the body, mind, and spirit. Purging the body of impurities is also incorporated into Native American and Indian Ayurvedic traditions. While various detoxification rituals have been in practice for centuries, with an increased level of pollutants infused into our lives, we are in greater need of physical and emotional cleansing today than we have ever been.
Modern medicine and health care has, for a long time, focused on symptom-specific treatments and medication, but there are a few physicians and integrative healers who believe that we should return to the time-tested holistic practices of our medicinal forefathers. Dr. Elson Haas, author of The New Detox Diet (Celestial Arts, 2004) and regarded as “The Detox Doc” in private practice in California, believes that medicine “has been taken over by pharmaceuticals and crisis care. Health care has become more about treating disease from the outside in, when real health care is about treating people from the inside out.”
Regardless of how dedicated you are to your organic grocer, how cautious you are about using only natural skincare products and household cleaners, or even if you live in the middle of a forest or field with nary another house, let alone a smog causing factory in sight, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) we are all infested with some amount of poisons and chemicals. Statistics show that over 2 billion pounds of toxic pollutants are dumped into our environment each year most of which were invented within the last 75 years. Thus, increasing your risk of hosting such contaminants in your tissues, organs, and blood stream is constantly increasing. This is more than just a dirty little problem. It’s time to take your health into your own hands and liberate the “physician within” through a detoxifying cleanse. While Haas believes in the benefits of cleanses and practices them himself, he feels that staying clean is a lifestyle. “The word ‘detox’ is a relative term. Some people, depending on their specific state of health, need a deep cleaning. Just like a house that is really messy needs a serious overhaul in order to be clean and organized,” your body may need a deep cleanse. However, Haas continues, “once it is clean and a system is put in place, you don’t have to do so much cleaning anymore; you just maintain. Just eating more fruits and veggies and drinking more water is a step to detoxifying the body. And that is a very doable regimen.” Haas realizes that diets have to fit into our lifestyles and sometimes taking two weeks to detox using an extreme diet that requires you to minimize energy output is not always realistic. “You don’t have to be so extreme. Detoxing is an evolutionary process, a transformational medicine that can help you to achieve your goals, like looking and feeling younger, eliminating congestion, sleeping sounder and deeper at night, having increased energy levels, and losing weight.”
Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., C.N.S., award-winning author of New York Times bestseller The Fat Flush Plan (McGraw Hill, 2001) and The Fast Track One-Day Detox Diet (Morgan Books, 2005), believes that, “The next mantra should be ‘detox don’t diet.’ We are living in a sea of chemicals and they are not only making us sick they are making us fat.” According to Gittleman, it’s not just about changing what you eat, “You are trying to change your awareness in relation to food, personal care, cosmetics, and things that are impacting your lifestyle. You need to recondition your mindset and you will find that the way you feel whether you lack attention, feel fidgety, or suffer from mood disorders or depression may be related to what you are and are not eating, what you are putting on your skin and leaking into your air.”
There are an array of detox regimens to choose from. From all-juice diets, raw foods-only, or the “master cleanse,” but it is most important that you take your lifestyle into account before choosing a detox plan. The “master cleanse” (also known as the “lemonade diet”) has been around since 1940 with a strict regimen that eliminates everything from the diet except a concoction of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper as well as a laxative herb tea. But, warns Gittleman, an expedited release of pollutants, as is experienced with the master cleanse, can overstress the liver and its ability to safely eliminate the garbage.
Gittleman also notes, however, that, “Jumping on a quick and easy fast may be even more toxic to your body because you can overwhelm your liver with such a rapid release of stored waste. Fifty years ago an extreme cleanse may have been very beneficial, but today we are all carrying maybe 500 different types of toxins, from plastic to pesticides to tobacco. If you are going to fast, you have to do it correctly.”
Many of the painful side effects of detox, such as headaches, nausea, weakness, and diarrhea, are actually caused by the rapid release of toxins into your system and your body’s inability to dispose of them quickly enough, Gittleman explains. A well-structured gentle detox can minimize or completely avoid such symptoms. Of course, regardless of how well you plan, if you have an addiction to caffeine, you may experience a few symptoms of caffeine withdrawal such as headaches and nausea.
It’s not just about what you remove from your diet that helps to detox and promote a healthier lifestyle long-term. According to Gittleman, many of us actually have to add fat back to our diets! “Essential fats,” Gittleman explains, “are important for brain chemistry, your joints, and heart. I recommend ground flaxseed to fortify the system against cancer, fish oil capsules without mercury for the brain, and a particular botanical called GLA that you can find in evening primrose oil, borage oil, and black currant seed oil. Essential fatty acids promote healthy, beautiful skin by helping the skin retain moisture and increasing cellular resilience.”
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