It’s time for a cleanse!
Doing a liver cleanse with a significant dietary clean up can have several benefits:
Increased energy, improvement in sleep, mental clarity and memory, improved bowel function, improved menstrual cycle, clearer skin, decreased joint pain, weight loss and many others
Many of our patients begin a dietary clean up prior to their cleanse. Even through Thanksgiving and all the Holiday celebrations some were doing their best at improving their health. There is no better time than the present to jump in and get going. There will always be a family function, a birthday, or a party; we need to learn to take care of ourselves even during those events. That means removing all things white; potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, cereal, and many packaged starches. They also remove all sugars, natural and and artificial, from their diet including fruits. Many of those patients have a starting goal of doing this plan for 7 days, a goal your head can wrap around pretty good. And you know what we had happen? Many patients, men and women, losing 5-8 pounds in those 7 days. Those men and women feeling drastically different. Pain going away. Moods improving. Cravings disappear. I can’t even list all of the things they would describe. And you know what they all say? Wow. I had no idea. And then you know what happened?!?! They asked if they could keep going…they didn’t want to slide backwards they were feeling so good. They didn’t want to bring the old food choices back. Man, did that make my heart sing!!!
You have 5 areas in your body that naturally cleanse each and every moment of the day:
- Skin (sweating) Sweating each day 20-30 minutes through exercise, a really hot bath, or moist/dry sauna or even dry skin brushing.
- Lungs (breathing) Breathing deeply at least morning and night in and out through your nose (best if practiced for one minute of every waking hour).
- Kidneys/bladder (urine) Drinking more water; half your body weight in ounces.
- Digestive tract (bowel) Cleaning up your diet and making sure you have vegetable sources of fiber for your colon to move.
- Liver (all toxins, fats, and sugars) the liver loves, loves, LOVES dark green vegetables and HATES sugars.
Make sure when choosing a cleansing program, it fits you well and has a whole-food supplementation system so you are not depriving your body of vital nutrients. This is one area I am very strict on. No cleanse should be taking vital food nutrients away from your already depleted body. 100 years ago eating broccoli provided you with 450 milligrams (mg) of magnesium. Today, you get a whopping 50 mg. Yep, we have totally depleted our soils, which has depleted our food source, which has depleted our bodies. And this actually includes your organic produce as well. Unless you know the farmer is replenishing his soil with compost, you have no idea under which nutritional circumstances your food has been grown and many studies have shown the nutritional comparisons between conventional and organic food to be quite similar. The largest difference between organic and conventional is the cleanliness and lack of toxic pesticides, herbicides and other harmful chemicals. So choosing organic is always best, but also dependent on family budget (go for the ‘Dirty Dozen’ for sure). Cleansing means giving the body more nutrition, giving it the ability to perform its duties strongly and naturally. The liver, kidneys, bowel, and skin knows how to clean, we just have to support and strengthen what it already does.
Vital questions to ask yourself of a cleansing program:
- Is it free of preservatives, chemicals, and artificial sweeteners?
We just learned while out at Metagenics in Washington the issue with simply ‘rice protein.’ They said there were 42 suppliers of rice protein for them to choose from that claimed their products were ‘clean, organic, and pure.’ Upon full chemical testing using spectrometry, chromotography and a whole host of lab data we got to see, only TWO companies truly were clean. The rest contained traces of arsenic and other heavy metals that Metagenics will not put in their formulas. But guess what, those companies are selling to someone else and they are getting out on the market by those companies trying to do things ‘affordable’ or to some other nutritional supplement label. You really want to make sure your supplements are GMP certified. - Does it provide you with a whole-food base supplementation to emphasize the detoxification pathways in your body?
Allowing you to eat beets, brussel sprouts, dandelion leaf, broccoli, artichoke, and others? Encouraging you to eat unlimited amounts of dark green vegetables? Again, please refrain from those programs that cut all your food out, do a long ‘fasting’ period, or only having you eat a few single foods for several days. If you eat right each day, you can fast 12 hours each day and this has been shown to be adequate rest for your metabolism. - Is it gentle on the body; allowing you to go at your own pace?
7 days, 14 days, or 21 days? - Does it eliminate caffeine, alcohol and sugar from your diet during the cleansing process?
- Do you have someone to help encourage your healthy self-care activities such as exercise, chiropractic, massage, eating well and succeeding on your plan?
All of our staff are here to help you along the way. Whether it is an encouraging word, or to help you problem solve, they are there for you in this process because they have been through many cleanses themselves. They help Dr. Christine by being a strong support for all of you.
How are we going to know if your cleanse was successful?
Not only are your symptoms going to decrease, but we have an objective way to check how the 75 trillion cells of your body have responded to what you have just done for yourself. We have a BIA (Body Impedence Analysis) machine to assess where you may be beginning on this health journey or the test may help you chart your progress as you make lifestyle changes. We use this tool a lot for our patients to objectively view the trends in their health and cleansing programs. Watch your fat mass, muscle mass, toxicity, and glucose metabolism change over the course of time to see how the changes you have made are affecting the 75 trillion cells in your body. Is that new exercise routine doing what you want it to do? Has cutting out gluten and/or sugar caused as much improvement in cell health as you had hoped? Has sleeping more improved your age? This has been a fabulous tool for us to use to help you achieve your health goals.
Join us for our annual
One Week Detox Challenge!
Jan 23rd Thru Jan 27th
Click Here for all the Details
20% off Cleansing Products
- UltraClear Plus pH and Renew
- UltraInflamX 360
- Estrium Whey and Estrium
- Ultra GI Replenish
and - Dynamic Fruits and Greens
Phone: 320-983-2333 or e-mail staff@naturalelementshealth.com to make an appointment, for more info or if you have questions!