BODY CLEANSING - CRUCIAL FOR YOUR HEALTH - from Dr. Mercola's Website

BODY CLEANSING - CRUCIAL FOR YOUR HEALTH - from Dr. Mercola's Website


This is a hot topic right now as more and more people are finding an inability to properly absorb nutrients from food, and several of you have been asking me about body cleanses. I have known about these cleanses for years, but with pregnancies and breastfeeding each child for over a year each I got way behind on doing them. I am a member of an internet health forum with 11,000 members, and body cleansing has been a "hot" topic lately in the battle for optimal health.

You don't need to do these all at once. It is probably best to start with a full body cleanse like the one Dr. Mercola is recommending here.

Blessings,
Miriam

Here is another great article that I found yesterday discussing how important it is to remove the toxins and the pounds of old dried-up fecal matter that line our intestines:
http://barefootherbalistmh.com/uploads/File/Lower%20Bowel%20Balance.pdf
Dredging Out Poisons is Crucial

To help you examine why cleansing may be helpful to your overall health, let’s compare it to a non-human model…


We make it a national priority to clean the toxins from our rivers. Why not your body also?
You may or may not be aware that many rivers are full of poisons that make them unfit for recreation, wildlife, food supplies (fish), and even commerce. Numerous rivers, both inside and outside of the United States, have been or are slated for dredging to clean up PCBs.

Take these rivers, for example…

Hudson River – the largest federal Superfund site, stretching a 200-mile span to clean up PCBs dumped there from 1946 to 1977.
Clinton River in Michigan – scheduled for clean-up of toxic contamination at levels three times higher than much-publicized Rouge River pollution.
Columbia River near Vancouver, Washington – where a PCB hot spot three feet deep with concentrations as high as 300,000 ppb (parts per billion) will be cleaned up, to not exceed a level of 98 ppb.
And there are many more, both in the U.S. and abroad. But some rivers are dredged for other reasons…

Not Just for Poisons, But Dredging for Regular Accumulations of Sediment Too


Dredging is for cleaning up non-toxic but hazardous sediments also. Remember to clean the sludge from your body.
Dredging is even performed when there is no contamination. Rivers carry sand and soil with them as they flow toward the ocean. The greater the water speed, the more capacity it has to move sand, silt and even rocks with it. Then when the water slows down, materials that were suspended in the water drop down to create sand and gravel bars that can impede navigation.

If enough sediment falls out, the deposits create shoals or sandbars, making navigation channels shallower than shown on navigation maps. Shoals are hazardous as they can cause ships to run aground, damaging the vessel and its contents… and even damaging the environment if dangerous cargo is spilled in the waterways.

Dredging is underwater excavation used to re-establish the channel for smooth navigation, and to clean up contaminants. Periodic dredging is performed to keep a channel clear and safe for navigation and other purposes, called maintenance dredging.

What does this have to do with your internal cleansing? More than you might think…


Ways to Show Toxins the Door

Here’s what I mean…

You could be taking in more toxins than you realize – through pesticides on your foods, by eating unhealthy convenience food loaded with preservatives, drinking chlorinated water, smoking or alcohol use, auto exhaust and other environmental pollutants, the skin care products you use, and your own metabolic wastes.

Although normally present in small amounts, it’s easy to see how toxins can accumulate over a period of time (just as the pollutants in our rivers accumulated over time).


Your detoxification program should include an exercise program that creates profuse sweat.

There are only a few ways you can show toxins the door.

Exercise that creates a large amount of sweat is a very effective way to facilitate toxin elimination. If you’re not engaged in an exercise program that causes you to sweat profusely on a regular basis, consider starting one today.

Additionally, it’s the job of your liver and colon to force toxins to exit your system. Removing toxins and cleansing your intestinal tract can then set a healthy stage for reintroducing beneficial microflora, which is critical to good overall health.*

It is clearly not recommended to cleanse excessively, but many adults benefit from 2-4 cleanses per year.*

Also, while not recommended for women who are pregnant or nursing, I believe that cleansing when you want to get pregnant is a great way to prepare your body for optimal health.* It’s also very appropriate after weaning your child to promote cleansing of your body.*

Just as periodic dredging of a navigation channel in a river is done to clean it up, conscious commitment to cleaning your internal organs and digestive system on a regular schedule makes good sense.

It helps you get rid of the ‘sludge’ of toxins and other non-helpful things that build up in your system over time.* Here’s why…


Your Liver – a Critical Organ to Protect

Your liver, weighing about four pounds, is the second largest organ of your body (your skin is the largest) and its largest gland. It performs more than 500 separate jobs, and is critically involved in every aspect of your metabolism. It’s the central ‘chemical laboratory’ of your body, producing chemicals you need to survive, such as bile, albumin, blood clotting factors, cholesterol, and vitamin E.

Perhaps its most important function is the secretion of bile. This fluid is stored in the gallbladder and released as needed for digestion.

Bile is essential to break down fats into small globules, and also helps absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) and helps assimilate calcium. It converts beta-carotene into vitamin A. Further, it promotes intestinal peristalsis and normal bowel function.

Your liver plays an important role in fat metabolism, and production of cholesterol, lipoproteins, and phospholipids. In a complex process catalyzed by a series of enzymes, your liver converts amino acids (proteins) and lipids into glucose.

Your liver helps regulate normal blood sugar levels, by creating glucose tolerance factor (GTF) from chromium and glutathione. Sugars not needed immediately are stored in the liver and converted back into sugar when needed for energy. Excess food is converted to fat in the liver and carried to your body’s fatty tissues for storage. When needed, it provides energy for the brain, heart and muscles.