If you have been following a healthy, high-raw lifestyle for several years and have done a herbal cleanse or two you may well assume you are now fully “detoxed”. I’m here to tell you that you are almost certainly not! How do I know that? Because I’m willing to bet you grew up on the standard, “socially accepted” fare and ate this diet throughout your teens, most probably your 20s too, and quite probably even longer.
If this is you, make no mistake: you could benefit from at least two “hard-core” detoxes a year, and a colonic every week for the rest of your life. Why? Because those years of toxic eating caused a massive accumulation of waste to be stored deep in your tissues, and that waste can only be released very gradually – as and when the colon is clear enough to take out more of it.
So no matter how long you’ve been on your junk-free diet, nor how many cleansing programmes you’ve done, there is much to gain from committing to at least two week-long detoxes a year. I guarantee you will still be releasing deep stores of old toxins from your tissues. That is why when we cleanse we can feel so uplifted.
We start life with a clean internal system. It is interesting to note that babies, birds and animals evacuate within 15 to 18 hours of every meal. This, however, is not the case for most of us, for numerous reasons. The human bowel is naturally meant to eliminate yesterday’s waste – not that from years or decades ago.
Even if you eliminate several times a day, every day of your life, and think your bowels are working efficiently, I doubt that you are getting out anywhere near as much as you have put in. Don’t agree with me? Here is a simple test you can do to find out. First thing in the morning, while still lying in bed, suck in your stomach as much as you can. If your mid section – the area from under your rib cage to your hip bones – goes concave, then you are empty. This is the area that houses your intestines and colon, and chances are you have enough old waste matter lurking there that your stomach will look more convex than concave.
Accumulated waste in the colon can affect any of our organs at any time. Organ tissues are only as healthy as the blood that feeds them and the blood is only as clean as the bowel from which our nutrients are supplied. So when we routinely take in more than the body has the capacity to process (and/or substances the body can’t easily process) this excess will start to build up not only on the walls of the colon, but eventually in cells and tissues throughout the body.
Most of our aches, pains, sicknesses and infections can be traced back to the health of our body’s “waste disposal unit”. The colon health expert Dr. Bernard Jensen identified and mapped the colon into 72 reflex areas that each correspond to specific organs and body parts – for example, the kidneys, liver or spleen and the neck, arms or legs. He theorized that old waste that has become toxic in the colon will affect the tissue of the corresponding organ or body part. Symptoms can include headaches, backache, mental fog, depression, swelling and inflammation.
What’s the matter?
What you ingested over the last four to five days that has not yet managed to leave you is known as normal waste matter. The matter that goes back a month or three, and which will have begun to embed itself in the intestines, is called putrefactive matter. This matter is still moist and it is really stinky stuff, as you can imagine. Slow cooking at 98.6 degrees for weeks on end will do that.
Then there is the even older waste, which has been polluting your insides for years. This is post-putrefactive matter. It is completely dry and tends to be black, dark brown, grey or white, hard like plastic or rubber, and it normally comes out in long strips. Juice fasting can eventually remove some of this, but more effective is a regular regime of psyllium and bentonite clay mixed with herbs, enzymes and a daily enema done for a week twice a year. This combination softens this old matter and sweeps it out of its hiding places.
Psyllium is the seed from the plantago plant. It can absorb ten times its weight in water, and as it expands in the body, it brushes and sweeps along the intestinal walls, taking old impacted matter with it. Bentonite is a volcanic clay that will draw toxins to it in huge quantities.
For optimal health, I recommend a week-long colon cleanse using psyllium and bentonite twice a year – preferably in the spring and autumn, when you will ideally be changing your diet to the new foods that grow in your locality. You will achieve the best results on a detox like this when you have been cleansing, eating raw and drinking juices for a while.
My eyes have changed colour since I started to regularly detox. I used to have dark brown eyes and now they have turned three-quarters green as the acidity and areas of toxicity in my tissues and cells reduces (and many who have undertaken a long-term cleansing regime report similar results). This has taken years and will continue to change, I am sure, as I keep to a pure diet and a deep tissue detox twice a year. I still see old post–putrefactive matter leave me each time I cleanse, which is remarkable.
Or is it – remembering I only started to cleanse in my late 30s?
Fiona Robertson
runs a detox retreat in Biarritz, South West France, where she guides clients through a week of purification and relaxation. Fiona is also the brains behind “The Home Detox Box”, a seven-day total body detox you can do in the comfort of your own home (more details on page 7). For more information see retreatbiarritz.com and homedetoxbox.com.
TESTIMONIAL
“I went raw overnight six years ago, and I haven’t looked back. Even after being a vegan for 15 years, which initially helped me lose a lot of weight, I noticed a massive improvement in my health after going raw. I healed myself from an enlarged thyroid, type-2 diabetes, headaches, backache, a serious sun allergy and a few other ailments, too. A raw diet has helped me be free of any menopausal symptoms – which is remarkable in itself, and a real blessing.
I am always looking for new ways to improve my diet, my energy levels and overall health, so I decided to do a deep colon cleanse and give my body the opportunity to get rid of the toxins lurking at a deeper level. I was amazed at the amount of old waste that left my body – even after six years on a raw diet. I released long lengths of rubber-like substance, all in twists and turns like a carbon copy of my insides. I noticed on several days I was deeply emotional and felt a great feeling of letting go.
The substance that I was eliminating kept coming out for several days even after I returned home. How much of this stuff can there be in your body? I certainly felt lighter, more energetic and healthier afterwards, and happy that I had done something wonderful for myself.
I will do another cleanse in the autumn and see how much I can remove next time. Cleansing is certainly not to be thought of as a quick process it takes years, and the more you can do for yourself, the better.”
Heleen Jonker, Holland
this article here: Get Fresh October 2010