Body Cleansing (Part I)

Body Cleansing

PART I: Digestive Tract & Bowel

November, 2016

For most people in the 21st century the words natural, organic & healthy are not the norm of life anymore. Exposure to known and unknown (or should we better say undisclosed) pollution, chemicals & toxins has become common and dominates in many areas of Life. Do you think this is exaggerated? We invite you to keep on reading Part I and II about Cleansing our Body & you’ll understand why we say so. Part III will be about how to make you physically healthier by cleansing your emotions & mind.

Let us start with the extensive external exposure to all sorts of chemicals & toxins, which gets even worse if you live near heavy pollution (including a dump), pesticide spraying, eat poor quality food, drink bottled, tube-delivered or unfiltered water, or live in a moldy house.

Concentrating on our internal physical trash or waste, our body also produces toxic trash metabolites that must be cleared. Such a clearing is taken down if you have digestive problems, sinus problems, or like many people are under high stress, are fighting a virus, are recovering from surgery or an accident, do not sleep enough, or physically wear yourself out (including prolonged exercise).

There is no ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ Cleansing

In other words, every day there is a certain amount of housecleaning we have to do which depends on a number of different variables. Thinking that there is ‘a one-size-fits-all’ cleansing or remedy, is simply not accurate. And speaking from experience, our need to use different detoxification strategies can vary greatly on some days, depending on what is going on in our life.

“Exposure to known & unknown pollution, chemicals and toxins have become common and ask for different detoxification strategies to stay healthy.”

Two Toxin-Removal & One Cleansing System

In order not to become too complicated, let us divide up the toxin removal systems into three categories that must all be working in harmony with each other. These involve:

1. Digestive Tract & Bowel: Body Cleansing, Part I
Clearance of waste products by our digestive tract (what most people focus on)
2. Lymph, liver, kidneys, lungs, skin: Body Cleansing, Part II
The removal of waste products through our lymph, the processing of toxins by our liver (with the help of bile of the gallbladder), the kidneys, lungs, and skin; plus the body’s internal disposal of cellular waste products, including lactic acid after vigorous exercise.
3. Cleansing of Mind & Emotions: Body Cleansing, Part III
The physical body is not the only body that we can cleanse. There are ways that we can do a so-called cleansing for our Emotions & our Mind too. We’ll explore a variety of practices that can make you mentally stronger, emotionally more balanced and as a result physically healthier!

These systems tend to flow from one to another. But any glitch in any one of these systems of cleansing & detoxification will back up trash in our body and cause problems. So let’s start with the most common one – the Gut and our Bowels. They happen to be very important for our health for different reasons – and with a twinkling eye, the reasons go way beyond how many times did you poop today!

Mechanical Function & Information

There are essentially two processes that the gut is responsible for:

The mechanical function
The neural tissue of the gut requires chemical processing, mechanical mixing and rhythmic muscle contractions to break down food, absorb nutrients, and expel food! And yet, the gut system is way too complicated to only make sure that things ‘move out of our colon’.

Informing the Brain (and not the other way around!)
Scientists were shocked when they learned that 90 percent of information is carried from the gut to the brain, and not the other way round! This means that the health state of our gut is HIGHLY important since it provides a multitude of information to our brain which then influences our emotional & mental state. Scientists found that up to 95% of the body’s serotonin – the feel-good hormone – resides in the gut, not the brain!

There is an emerging science, called neurogastroenterology, which will likely offer some new insight into the workings of the second brain—and its impact on the emotions & the mind. We will come back to this in a later Blog series, how psychiatry might need to expand to treat the primary and secondary brain together.

It turns out the Gut informs the Brain, and not the other way around!

The Gut – Our ‘Second Brain’

“Good health starts in your gut,” said Hippocrates over two thousand years ago and was many centuries later joined by Paracelsus, the famous Swiss Doctor.

Meanwhile, modern science goes even a step further & says, “Think Twice – How the Gut’s ‘Second Brain’ influences our mood and overall health,” as published in the Scientific American in 2010. In this article, Dr. Gershon explains that the nerve system in our bellies goes far beyond just processing foods and drinks. Not many people know that there is a huge network of neurons lining our guts that outnumbers the brain & spinal neurons!

“Science finally confirms: the health of our Gut plays an important role for many diseases.”

Surprisingly, this mass of neural tissue can influence and even determine our mental state, or a variety of diseases throughout the body. In other words, when the immune function of the Gut is compromised, illnesses occur, like inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, joint & muscle pains, most skin disorders like eczema or psoriasis, depression, migraine headaches, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, type 1 diabetes, thyroiditis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, scleroderma, Crohn’s disease and Addison’s disease to name a few.

So the health of our gut and especially our bowels is a much bigger deal than most people think! Scientists have finally confirmed what practitioners of natural medicine have long known: “the health of our gut plays an important role for many diseases.”

And yet, the link of the Gut with one more system is the biggest surprise for many people! Our IMMUNE SYSTEM & Gut Health are directly linked with each other! We usually think that taking Vitamins & Minerals keeps our immune system high. While this is partially true, most forget that the lining in our intestines is majorly involved in helping our immune system. Let’s look at this more closely.

The Immune System & the Gut

Scientists say that about 70 percent of our immune system is aimed at the gut to expel harmful bacteria, infectious invaders and toxins. This has nothing to do yet with enzymes to properly break down foods for digestion, or clean intestines for proper absorption of vitamins & minerals. It only demonstrates how complex this subject is! Diet has a dominant role in shaping the gut microbiota and this is of great importance because the gut is our first line of defense against diseases, including cancer!

The power to defend ourselves against infections & cancers lies in a healthy Gut Mucosa, also called gastrointestinal immune cells.

Were we Missing a Link?

The immune system is linked to the intestines by the gut mucosa, or in other words, the 9 meter long lining of it! And it is this lining that connects with the largest population of immune cells in the body. They are known as gastrointestinal immune cells and their job is to help release powerful T-Cells and B-Cells to defend us against infections & cancers. Without a healthy gut mucosa and sufficient good bacteria, our immune system is simply not efficient!

You can find yourself showing symptoms from low energy to easily getting sick, up to all sorts of serious illnesses. How unfortunate that most doctors rarely, if ever, pay attention to the levels of good bacteria we have in our bowel or the quality of our gut mucosa. We could truly improve the quality of many people’s lives!

The small & large intestine together are the longest organs with a total of 9 meters!

Concentrate on the Bowel first!

Before looking into the details of what causes our organs to be on overload with chemicals & toxins (see Part II of this Blog), let us concentrate on where it usually starts – our food or diet. Everything transported to our organs, brain, or skin, started by something we ate or drank. In other words, it pays off greatly to pay attention how we feed ourselves every day! Like we said before, plenty of scientific research shows that the types of food we eat will determine the levels of good bacteria in our intestines or bowel.

Cleanse the Bowel – Improve the Blood Quality

What we eat determines the cleanliness of our bowel which in turn determines the quality of our blood. Why? Because every tissue in the body is fed by the bloodstream. So when the bowel is dirty, the blood is dirty and over time, so will the organs and tissues become dirty. When we do not eliminate waste properly, this “sludge” may not be expelled for days or weeks. What is even worse, it could become a permanent hard lining in the bowels, successfully obstructing now the necessary absorption of vital nutrients.

Additionally, toxins can back up in the colon which then causes auto-intoxication or self-poisoning. When the bowel walls become encrusted with un-eliminated fecal matter, the blood capillaries, lining the bowel, are absorbing the rotting fecal matter in place of life-giving vitamins and minerals! Is it any wonder then that this turns into many varied illnesses, as our body has lost its ability to feed and repair itself properly? That is why you first have to care for the bowel before any true healing can take place.

Detox Protocol for Weight Loss

No matter which weight loss program you follow, you need to accompany it with a cleansing and detoxing protocol. The most important reason is that weight loss goes together with burning fat cells.

Our body is fundamentally intelligent in that it tries to protect us from harmful substances. One way of doing that is to encapsulate toxins in fat cells to protect vital organs from damage. By starting to burn fat we continuously release these toxins back into the body. If we do not bind them (with bile) to fiber or an algae, these toxins will float around in the blood stream and stress our liver, kidneys, brain, bowel, and of course our blood itself!

The result of these toxins floating is that you feel sluggish, without energy or very moody! Normally, when you have a proper Weight Loss Detox Program in place, you should start to feel energized, sleep better and feel good after the first 3-4 days. If not, increase on the amount of fiber & detox supplement that you are taking, or consult with your health practitioner.

But in general the rule goes like this: whenever you lose some weight, use an efficient detox that can bind toxins for proper elimination & ensures increased bowel function. Additionally, make sure that you rid your liver and lymph of toxins too! Find out more about these organs & their importance for good health in Part II of the Body Cleansing Blog.

In Summary:

The conclusions are simple: a healthy immune system is the result of a diet that supports healthy gut function! In other words, it emphasizes whole, unprocessed, and natural foods.

Concentrate first on the health of your bowel in order to ensure healthy intestines and consequently good blood quality.
Work daily on having sufficient good bacteria in your bowel. You will not only have a strong immune system, but be able to avoid most chronic illnesses, especially autoimmune diseases!
If you need a little help or a boost in the beginning, you can always repopulate the gut with a probiotic supplement, or look for high-quality fermented foods to add to your diet!

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