Detoxification

Prologue

Detoxification – the removal of pollutants from the body – can look back on a long tradition.

Since time immemorial, people have felt a wish to cleanse their bodies and souls at regular intervals  and to rid them of needless and harmful ballast. This may be due to the instinctive feeling that purification is a great relief for body and soul and is also needed to maintain or regain health. At the same time, a thorough detoxification and cleansing of the body is a prerequisite for all deeper processes of healing.

Among other things, detoxification measures are used to activate the body’s powers of self-healing. Only by thoroughly removing pollutants can we remove the precondition for many ailments, letting body and soul recover.

This book describes all natural therapies which have proven to be effective in basic detoxification. These measures are down to earth, motivating and efficient and include medicinal plant therapy, homeopathy, Schuessler salts, specific cleansing of the organs of detoxification, water applications, wraps, reduction of stress, changes of diet and so on.

With the help of the detoxification cures here chosen and presented, you will soon regain your vitality, strength and zeal.

With kind regards from your pharmacist, Dr. Angela Fetzner

The use of detoxification

Thorough detoxification frees body and soul from needless ballast and harmful substances such as residues and acids from the body’s own metabolism as well as from mold, organic solvents, heavy metals, formaldehyde, dioxin, radioactivity and so on. Of course, mental rubbish is no less a hindrance, whether it is made up of traumatic experiences, fears or unprocessed problems. Such pollutants needlessly hamper and weaken us and finally make us ill, so we have to free body and soul from the harmful burden.

Indeed, countless environmental toxins and other pollutants lessen our physical and mental resistance and make us ill in many ways. Careful detoxification and cleansing can here be specifically applied, optimally through various means of detoxification, as these can achieve much more in combination. The reason is that various means of cleansing and treatment can mesh deeply and dovetail into each other, as long as they are precisely coordinated. The processes of cleansing can also serve to activate the self-healing powers of the body and harmonize misdirected energies.

In view of these factors, it is hardly surprising that after a detoxification cure we feel as if we were freed and reborn. Body, mind and soul may be subjected to a comprehensive process of cleansing and regeneration, so after a thorough detoxification, we ideally bounce back, deeply relaxed, full of joy and vitality and with increased efficiency in everyday life. What is important is giving the process of detoxification ample time, space and attention to let it have deep and long-lasting positive effects.

Many complaints such as constant weariness, fatigue, insomnia and lack of energy may completely vanish or notably improve. The gastrointestinal tract benefits from a thorough cleansing of the body, so ailments such as constipation, fullness, bloating, heartburn and nausea soon become things of the past. In the case of allergies and skin ailments, such as impure skin, eczema and poorly healing wounds, cleansing the body carefully proves to be very useful. Detoxification also benefits ailments of the joints involving all kinds of pain and inflammation.

Detoxification also benefits the mind, lessening or elimination nervousness and inner turmoil and alleviating depression and anxiety. In effect, cleansing the body also freshens the mind up, improving concentration and memory. Last but not least, detoxifying the body often leads to a lessening of obesity, and due to the renewal of cells, the skin and hair benefit too. In general, the process of aging is slowed down and there may be an impressive rejuvenation, affecting not only the skin and hair but all organs. This applies in particular to the organs of detoxification such as the liver, kidneys, skin and lungs as well as the lymphatic system. Cleansing increases their activity and capacity.

In effect, thorough detoxification is the basis and prerequisite for vitality, well being and zest, as well as being the first and most important step towards healing all kinds of ailments. According to naturopathy, all ailments are due to overloading the body and/or the mind with pollutants. Through sustainable detoxification, the self-healing powers of the body are activated and the organism is prompted to return to the path of healing and complete recovery.

A detoxification cure is for not only the sick but also the healthy, whose vitality and quality of life it is able to increase. The process of aging slows and mental and physical resilience increase. Moreover, the immune system too is strengthened, so the body is less often infected with colds and influenza. Detoxification may also pave the way to healthier habits like smoking and drinking alcohol less or not at all.

Health through detoxification

A thorough detoxification of the body is the basis of health and the prerequisite for the healing of ailments of all kinds. If the body is not regularly detoxified, toxins and slags become gradually so abundant that the body is unable to cope and get rid of enough. These troublemakers then settle as time bombs in organs, joints, fats and connective tissues, waiting only to be released and to lay everything waste.

This accumulation of pollutants disturbs the natural balance of the body, then the regular functioning of the formerly intact organism is largely lost. On the one hand, the body can no longer excrete the flood of pollutants to the required extent, and on the other hand, the hopeless extent of pollution prevents it from processing enough nutrients. The organs affected can then no longer cope with their proper tasks and, in view of the scale of pollution, they finally give in.

This is why any holistic therapy should begin with general detoxification of the body before specifically addressing any particular problem. A therapy designed to cure a particular ailment has little chance of success unless the body as a whole has already been thoroughly cleansed. Otherwise, if the body is overloaded with toxins, its ability to heal itself is so impaired that neither the body nor soul can properly recover. It may still be possible to deal with some of the symptoms but not to cure the underlying ailments, since toxins and slags hinder the body’s efforts.

Before any specific therapy is undertaken, the body must be prompted to follow its own path towards healing. Often, once the body has been cleansed as a whole, a specific therapy is no longer needed, since ailments are often caused by an excess of harmful substances, so once they have been eliminated, the body is able to heal itself. Many ailments then seem to vanish into thin air, in having been uprooted. The body has its own regulatory mechanisms, and once these have been effectively unclogged, they begin to work smoothly again of their own accord.

Innate means of detoxification

The body has various purification organs and regulatory mechanisms responsible for cleansing and detoxification. In the course of normal metabolic activity, slags, acids and toxins are eliminated from the body along these natural pathways. But we have to remember that detoxification is undertaken not only by organs but also by individual cells, each of which has its own metabolism and thus its own means of waste disposal and detoxification. The main organs responsible for detoxifying and purifying the body are:

liver

intestines

kidneys

skin

lymphatic system

lungs

Note: the lymphatic system is, as its name suggests, not an organ but a system of organs and lymphatic vessels running through the whole body.

The liver

The liver works on our behalf all round the clock. Countless metabolic processes take place in this important organ, so it is no accident that the liver is sometimes called the body’s powerhouse. As the main organ of our metabolism, the liver has a whole range of tasks to perform. The most important of these consist in controlling the body’s energy and hormones, in processing and storing fats, proteins and carbohydrates, in producing vital proteins such as coagulation factors and in producing bile. It is also involved in regulating the balance of acids and alkalies. Some substances which are soluble in fat are changed to be soluble in water, letting them then be excreted in urine.

But above all, the liver is our main organ of decontamination. All poisons which find their way into us through the skin, the intestines or lungs for instance enter this organ. The liver is continually modifying toxins, to let them be eliminated through the kidneys or the gut.

The liver is thus the main site for detoxifying all harmful substances like alcohol, chemicals, bacteria and viruses. Moreover, substances made by the body and later no longer needed, such as hormones, are there broken down, as are body cells, old and faulty red blood cells and waste products of the protein metabolism. The liver also protects the body from bacteria from the gastrointestinal tract, thus supporting the immune system, and it eliminates substances like bilirubin, cholesterol, metabolic products and medications by releasing them in its bile, which is then passed out of the body in faeces.

The gut

This plays a very important role in excreting toxins and metabolic end products. The unusable remains of food are thickened by removing water and are then excreted in faeces. These are made up of water, non-absorbed parts of food, cells rubbed off the mucous membrane of the gut, secretions of the digestive glands, gut bacteria and products of fermentation and decay.

A healthy gut flora and controlled digestion are important prerequisites for a smooth detoxification of the gut, which also plays an important role in keeping the immune system intact. In fact the gut has 80% of the cells of the immune system, so more than ¾ of all the body’s immune cells are there in the mucous membranes. A healthy gut flora is an important barrier against pollutants, preventing toxins and pathogens for instance from entering the body. Apart from this, the gut’s efficiency depends on many factors, including:

- a balanced composition of food

- an adequate supply of blood to the gut

- a good absorption of food by the villi (small protuberances increasing the surface area)

- the length of time spent in the gut by food

- the peristalsis (waves of contraction moving food along).

The kidneys

These too are continually busy, and their metabolic end products are eliminated with the urine several times a day. The kidneys purify and filter the blood, removing water-soluble toxins and pollutants. Blood circulates through the kidneys continually, letting all fluids from tissues be cleaned. As many as 1500 liters of blood are filtered and cleaned every day, letting about 1.5 liters of urine be eliminated together with other waste products such as urea with nitrogen from foods rich in protein, while important substances like minerals are reabsorbed.

These processes, however, can work smoothly only if enough fluids are drunk to flush the pollutants out. Water increases the blood’s volume, which helps the kidneys in their hard work.

The kidneys also play an important role in regulating the balance of acids and alkalies in our bodies. They defend us against an excess of acid with the help of several well designed mechanisms.. In critical cases, for instance, they shed fewer alkalies for the sake of offsetting the amount of acid, while also replacing hydrogen ions with sodium and potassium ions. Organic acids and acidic nitrogen compounds can also be excreted in urine, so the function of the kidneys may be stimulated for the sake of removing more acids. The acids are then channeled into the bladder, where they are stored before being excreted.

The skin

With an area of up to 2 square meters, the skin is our biggest organ. Of course such a big organ has many tasks to perform such as protecting us from heat, cold and radiation and shielding our inner organs from pressure and impact. It also stops pathogens entering our bodies. Moreover, glands in lower layers of the skin produce sweat, which protectively mantles the skin. If our bodies are over-acidified or polluted, the sweat glands produce more sweat and an extra layer, thereby releasing more pollutants and acids. This is why sweating in the sauna or during sport is so healthy, especially for restoring the body’s balance of acids and alkalies.

The notion of having a healthy sweat also applies to sweating while infected with a cold or influenza, when sweating is a way to get rid of bacteria and viruses. The sweat glands also serve to filter out acids and poisons such as quicksilver, which are then sweated out of the body, but for them to do this effectively, the blood must circulate properly through the skin.

There are various ways to prompt or to further healthy sweating. Physical activity and the associated muscle contractions stimulate the circulation of the blood, so in just an hour of physical activity, half a liter of sweat may be secreted. Sweating may also be prompted by heat in a sauna, which causes blood vessels to widen and more pollutants to be released. Apart from physical activity and saunas, unusually warm or hot baths and massages let the skin eliminate more pollutants.

Under normal conditions we lose between 1.0 and 1.5 liters of sweat a day, though this is seldom noticed due to swift evaporation. Sweating is a natural and useful process, but if we sweat profusely at all times, we may be seriously ill or in need of detoxification. If we spend a lot of time sitting, we may sweat only about 0.5 liters a day, removing much less pollution.

The lymphatic system

This is responsible for cleaning and detoxifying water in the body, to keep the water clean, healthy and clear. The lymphatic vessels collect bacteria, heavy metals, cell debris, bacterial toxins, chemicals, viruses, fungi and cells which are degenerate or no longer functional. All these waste substances float in the lymphatic fluid till reaching the lymph nodes, serving as a filtration plant. There the lymphatic fluid, full of waste products and poisons, can release its ballast.

Lymph nodes are found throughout the body but mainly in the groin, neck and armpits. In them, pathogens and toxins are destroyed, since the nodes are packed with phagocytes able to destroy cancer cells, neutralize toxins and kill bacteria. But if the lymph system is overloaded, the fluid may be cleaned only partly before reentering the blood and slowly poisoning the body, so it is important for it to be cleaned regularly and for the activity of the lymph to be stimulated.

The lungs

These are where oxygen is exchanged. We breathe more oxygen in and more carbon dioxide out. Oxygen passes through the lungs into the blood, while carbon dioxide passes from the blood into the lungs and is there released. Carbon dioxide is acidic, so releasing the harmful gas is very important, but we often breathe too shallowly to do this effectively. Bad breathing habits, little exercise, stress and inner tension all contribute to this, so physical exercise and the reduction of stress play a key role.

At rest a person breathes about half a liter of air in with every breath, whereas a sportsman breathes about 10 to 12 times as much in at the moment of greatest exertion. The greater the physical effort, the more oxygen is breathed in and the more carbon dioxide is breathed out, so in the absence of physical exercise, the body is more likely to become acidic. People with disorders of the metabolism tend to breathe out more forcefully than in, as this is the best way to reduce acidity. By breathing out, the lungs take over the task of oxidizing and removing the acids. The lungs can also remove gaseous toxins like acetone as well as nitrogenous and sulfurous putrefactive gases.

Deep breathing furthers detoxification through the lungs, so it makes sense to improve the depth of breathing through exercise by walking, running, cycling, gymnastics and swimming. The aim is not to be briefly and intensely active but to exercise moderately for awhile.

The need for detoxification

Our metabolism works like a factory all round the clock. Every day foodstuffs are taken in, processed, stored and finally excreted in the form of waste products. In effect, waste products accumulate in the process of digestion, so detoxification is a natural and essential part of the process. It is important for maintaining good health, not only because the metabolism pollutes our bodies with end products but also because we are exposed to environmental toxins, viruses and bacteria. It is not a fanciful notion dreamed up by traditional healers in the backwoods but a real need.

Many mainstream medics claim that detoxification is superfluous, as the body takes care of itself, but the environment is becoming increasingly polluted with heavy metals, poisons, chemicals of all kinds and radioactivity. There are also more additives in food and personal care products, while countermeasures such as healthy nutrition, enough exercise and stress relief are taken less often.

Hardly anyone doubts the need for brushing the teeth every day and keeping the body clean on the outside, but the need for cleaning the body on the inside is often questioned. Everyone knows how useful it is to look after the teeth, but what about looking after such vital organs as the liver, gut and kidneys? Do you look after these as carefully as your teeth? If you were to ask a group of people in a room, the reaction might be only a vague answer or