Natural Detoxification: Cleansing, Juicing and Fasting

When it comes to natural detoxification people have many questions as to how best to engage that process. Some people wonder about juicing, others wonder about fasting, while other folks wonder about cleansing. These are all different way of allowing the body to fulfill its own natural process of natural detoxification and its own movement towards deeper levels of balance and homeostasis.

 

Typically, cleansing refers to an herbal or other regimen where various natural supplements attempt to stimulate the body’s natural detoxification pathways such as: increasing peristalsis of the intestines, engaging the enzymatic detoxification avenues of the liver and relaxing the bile ducts of the gallbladder. These are ways of encouraging the body without compromising its normal activities, in the same way that an infrared sauna can induce perspiration. These natural means help to withdraw toxins of all sorts – chemicals, heavy metals, etc. from the various deposits throughout the body and to bring them out of the tissues where they are stored and thence into the blood stream where the liver breaks them down and the kidney filters them and excretes them. In the case of those that are attempting colon cleanses, the idea is to engage the intestines in such a way that any built-up debris in the small or large intestine is removed from the walls or deep pockets where it is currently interfering with the body’s attempts to return itself to deep levels of health.

 

Natural detoxification can also be aided by juicing which is an attempt to dramatically reduce the burden on the digestion. By reducing the burden on the gastrointestinal tract the body is given more energy to restore itself to homeostasis. When less energy is diverted into digesting food, (the juicer has already done this by breaking the cell walls of the fruit and vegetable material,) all it has to do is absorb and assimilate the vitamins, nutrients, enzymes, phytonutrients and antioxidants, etc. which are available in fresh squeezed juice. This does not include pasteurized juice or juice from concentrate. Only fresh squeezed juice by that consumed while it is still fresh.Perhaps the most natural (though some would think extreme) method of natural detoxification is fasting. Fasting has many different connotations but simply put, fasting means to refrain from doing something. One can fast from food, or refrain from eating solids as in the case in a juice fast. One can fast on water and refrain from ingesting anything other than purified and filtered water. One can also fast from television or spoken communication. For others a mild fast might include refraining from meat, cigarettes, alcohol or other intoxicants.

The idea behind all of these methods of natural detoxification is to reduce the ingestion of additional stimuli, whether this stimulation is coming in through the gateways of the ears, eyes, nose or the mouth. As the stimuli are reduced the body is given more and more opportunity to digest the material, material that has in the past overwhelmed the body’s capacity to process. This engages a process called autolysis which is the process by which the body breaks down its own tissues. The clarity and wisdom of the body breaks down unhealthy, diseased and toxic tissues not the healthy ones. The more the body can be induced to rest and repair the greater the results. These are forms of natural detoxification. These are the pathways by which the body itself utilizes. Hippocrates said, “First do no harm.” Instead of detoxing via unnatural or forceful means which can be harmful, look instead for ways to encouraged and assist the body in in its own process of natural detoxification.

A final point about fasting is that fasting is not starvation. Most people have ample caloric supplies to last them far longer than they actually think. There is significant confusion that people experience regarding this principle. Starvation begins when fasting ends. The hunger cramps and agitation people feel from not having food is actually part of the body’s process of natural detoxification and repair - for more information go to "healing reactions"