Published November 29,
2003 in the North Island Weekender
There are five legs to the balanced table of health. Nutrition, elimination, structure, heredity and mental/emotional health. If any one of these legs of the table are out of balance the table will be wobbly and so thus will be your health. Many people focus on one or two aspects and ignore the others. We see this in people who are avid exercise enthusiasts who emphasize their structural health and pay much less attention to their nutrition and elimination health. Their body will attempt to tell them that something is out of balance however these signals are generally ignored. For their morning fatigue they drink 3-4 cups of coffee, for their heartburn they consume Tums daily and for their increasing tendency to pull muscles and suffer muscle pain they just take more Advil. If the fire alarm goes off in a building would you rather the Fire Marshall cut the wires to the alarm to shut off the annoying sound or would you rather that he find out if there is a fire in the building? Yet using coffee, Tums and Advil is like cutting the wires of the alarm without finding the cause. Treating the cause of fatigue and pain starts with prevention and detoxification is a central theme to prevention and optimal health.
To start a plan for optimal health there is no better way to start than with a one or two week detoxification program just after the overindulgences of New Year, Easter and Thanksgiving. If you are already experiencing wellness then facilitating elimination of toxins from your body is an important component of prevention. Set up a yearly budget for your health and include the detoxification program within it. Most often the money you will spend on wellness will be much lower than what you spend on your car and your habits or what I term “ceremonies” such as drinking coffee and alcohol.
If you are having symptoms a detoxification program can save you a panic trip to the doctor’s office or the emergency room.
Detoxification has been practiced since the time of the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, recommended fasting as a form of detoxification to improve health. In this day and age fasting is extreme for most people and many people with health problems should be assessed before embarking on any type of detoxification program to avoid unwanted aggravations of symptoms. Consult with a naturopathic physician before you start. Once you have found a program that works for you then stick with it and repeat it regularly.
The idea that you can cleanse your body once per year for one to two weeks and then resume an unhealthy lifestyle for the rest of the year is erroneous. Aside from the toxins we knowingly put into our body in the form of fats, sugars and alcohol, there are thousands of environmental toxins that our bodies have to deal with on a daily basis. A report published in 2001 suggests that between $568-793 billion is spent per year in Canada and the United States for environmentally caused disease. These toxins accumulate in various tissues in the body including the nervous system and fat cells. They also accumulate in the extra-cellular matrix, that space outside and between cells. When detoxification remedies are taken these tissues are given a chance to eliminate some of these toxic substances and therefore the cell is able to function more efficiently as noticed by an increase in energy, loss of weight and general feeling of well being.
There are seven elimination organs or emunctories in the body: the liver, gastro- intestinal tract, kidney, skin, lungs, lymphatic system and reproductive tract. If any one of these is in a state of imbalance then elimination is compromised and that organ may exhibit symptoms. This explains some initial symptoms that may be experienced while on a cleanse: headaches, bladder infection or a skin rash. The body mobilizes the toxins and then needs to find a way to eliminate them. The remedies in a cleansing program assist these processes and the feeling of well- being is enhanced as you come to the end of the program.
This does not mean that you have rid your body of every conceivable toxin known to man in two short weeks! The average person has 60 environmental toxins in their fat cells (as determined by fat biopsy) at any given moment and the body does have mechanisms in place where it is continually attempting to eliminate these toxins. The question is one of balance. If your diet is as clean as possible then your over all load will be less than someone who doesn’t take care at all what they put into their mouth. It is however impossible to avoid the exposure to PCB’s, dioxins, heavy metals and pesticides in our world. Therefore three times per year assist the body to eliminate toxins in a more aggressive manner in order to prevent chronic diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, atherosclerosis, arthralgias, cognitive decline as well as chronic pain and inflammation.
There are many detoxification kits on the market and naturopathic physicians have developed their own. Pick one that works and stick with it. To optimize your health between cleanses: drink 8 glasses of purified water daily, take adequate nutrients including Calcium and magnesium citrate, B complex and purified fish oils. Consume greens drinks regularly to facilitate detoxification on an ongoing basis, make sure you have a good bowel movement daily and to open up the skin and lymphatic elimination do very gentle dry skin brushing before bed. These are what I call “Basic Treatment Guidelines” because they benefit everyone!
Plan now for your optimal health and come to know what it feels like to have balanced energy, weight and health as you enter 2004!
Dr. Pincott has been practicing naturopathic
medicine since 1985 and is currently practicing in Campbell River. She can be
reached at (250) 286-3655 or www.DrPincott.com