Detoxification Benefits

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Detox to Rejuvenate Your Mind, Body and Spirit < back to article list >

By Mary Jo Ruggieri, PhD, RPP

Healing occurs when the life sustaining systems of the body function at peak performance. Unfortunately with our environment being so toxic and with the pesticides in our food being so prevalent we have no other choice but to detox and repair the support systems of our body!

The health care system of the future will incorporate all levels of detoxing. Detoxing is for everyone and can change the quality of your life, while slowing down the aging process.

Everything needs cleaned or detoxed. How often do you spray down all your filters – car, hot tub and furnace? We clean our house vents, flush our radiators and call roto-rooter when our pipes get clogged. So what’s wrong with taking this one step further – cleaning our body’s pipes, removing plaque from our arteries and cleansing our colon.

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Why Detox?

The answer lies in “Toxins.” Dr. Christina Scott-Mancrieff, in her book “Detox”, states that these toxins can affect our ability to think properly; they can produce physical symptoms such as exhaustion or headaches; and create emotional turmoil such as anger and frustration. Following a detox program, she continues, reduces the amount of toxins entering your body and helps your body deal with them better by improving nutrition and enhancing the removal of unwanted waste.

Our environment, which has reached high levels of toxic waste, is the main culprit. We cannot get away from the fact that we live in a toxic waste nightmare.

The first prize goes to the chemical industry and its hidden toxic legacy. An industry that has put our health, wellness and safety at a dangerously high risk while continuing to lie and hide the truth at any cost. On PBS, March 26, Bill Moyers aired “Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report” which was a ground breaking program, that finally gave the chemical industry the glowing attention it deserves. It would be worth getting a copy of the Moyer Report!

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Is Your Life Toxic?

A checklist from Scott-Mancrieff’s gives us some eye-opening information on toxic elements in our life. How many of these toxic elements are in your life?

Toxic Food and Drink:

  • Tea or Coffee
  • Sodas or Fizzy Drinks
  • Processed Meals
  • White Bread
  • Artificial Sweeteners
  • Non-Organic Fruits and Vegetables (Not Washed or Peeled)
  • Processed Meats

Environment:

  • Do you live in a city?
  • Do you live near sprayed areas?
  • Do you swim in or drink chlorinated water?
  • Do you have clothes dry-cleaned regularly?
  • Is your plumbing more than 20 years old?
  • Do you use pesticides?
  • Do you use large amounts of bleach, detergent, household cleaners or disinfectant?

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Is Everything Toxic?

No, just what the majority of Americans are eating, wearing and using. What is so difficult to understand is the correlation of cancer to environmental toxins and the lack of concern about these facts? One in three people will have cancer in their lifetime yet we still sit idle watching the environment deteriorate. It is more of a shame when we see the rise of cancers in children knowing that it is often environmentally induced.

Beginning A Simple Plan to Detox

  • Increase your water intake. This helps keep your fluids moving, flushes your kidneys and keeps your minerals balanced. Drink reverse osmosis bottled water.
  • Add one tablespoon of liquid chlorophyll to at least two glasses of water daily – Chlorophyll is a natural antiseptic and removes mucous from the body.
  • Skin Brush – (using a dry vegetable brush) before you shower, brush every part of your body stroking toward the heart. This stimulates the skin (largest organ of the body) to begin purging toxins.
  • One day per week drink organically juiced juices – carrot and/or green vegetables. Eat a large organic salad in the evening. Helps with digestion.
  • Drink green daily – Spirulina, Barley, Wheat Grass adds oxygen to the body and eliminates toxins.
  • Sweat!! Steam, Sauna, Hot Epsom Salt Baths
  • Lymphatic cleanse – Polarity Lymphatic balance and or lymphatic massage are effective.
  • Fasting – most health care systems, except western medicine, use some form of fasting as a preventative practice. There are major hospitals in Europe that use controlled fasting for many debilitating diseases.
  • Colon Cleanse – Can be as simple as eating specific foods such as grains, organic fruits and vegetables to a more elaborate system of taking certain herbs and digestive enzymes. I find colon cleansing to be one of the most effective ways of healing the body. Most experienced holistic practitioners or naturopathic doctors can advise you on the process.
  • Vitamins, minerals, herbs and Homeopathics all are useful for detoxing. The antioxidants are primary.

Constant tiredness is the main symptom that indicates a person needs to detox. Let’s put detox into our thoughts – daily attention to its benefits can save your life.

A final quote from Dr. Scott-Mancrieff, “Health is more than the absence of disease, you need to feel well.” It’s your choice.

May the long-time sun shine upon you.

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