Spring cleaning for your body

by Barbra Williams Cosentino R.N., C.S.W.

Remember when spring cleaning used to refer to purging your closets and attacking your home with a broom and mop? Practitioners of alternative medicine believe that you can "spring clean" your body by getting rid of accumulated sludge and debris.

Are you feeling sluggish and lethargic, with an assortment of odd and seemingly unrelated symptoms like headaches, allergies, and joint pain? Maybe some "spring cleaning" will remove the waste that has taken up residence in your arteries, vital organs, and cells.

"People now carry around a modern-day chemical cocktail derived from industrial chemicals, pesticides, food additives, heavy metals, anesthetics, and the residues of pharmaceutical, legal and illegal drugs," says Burton Goldberg, a respected holistic authority and author of Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide. Even if you scrub your bathroom every morning and wash your hands before meals, you are still exposed to a startling array of toxic substances that can pose a threat to your health.

The liver plays a key role in ridding the body of toxic byproducts. Many holistic practitioners believe that detoxification is best enhanced by strengthening liver function. How?

• Follow a healthy diet, low in saturated fats, refined sugar, and alcohol and high in whole plant foods such as vegetables, grains, fruits, legumes and seeds.
• Take a daily high-potency multivitamin with minerals and antioxidants.
• Utilize nutrition supplements such as milk thistle (silymarin) and dandelion root, as well as lipotropic agents that promote the flow of fat and bile to and from the liver.

Sometimes illness-causing toxins result not from environmental exposure, but from an imbalance within the body itself. The human intestinal tract is normally populated with huge numbers of bacteria. Although most of them are beneficial, there are some "bad bacteria" lurking among them. These unfriendly bacteria can crowd out the good ones, causing symptoms such as cramps, bloating and diarrhea.

Other intestinal conditions such as "leaky gut syndrome" or "toxic bowel," in which undigested food particles collect in the intestinal tract and eventually enter the bloodstream, can lead to an unhealthy build-up of pathologic waste products. Practitioners of complementary medicine speculate this toxic accumulation can result in serious ailments such as arthritis, asthma and even cancer.

Colon hydrotherapy (colonic irrigation), a procedure whereby the inner wall of the colon is filled with water, coffee or an herbal solution and then drained, is purported to cleanse the bowel by dislodging trapped fecal matter. The American Colon Therapy Association claims that colon therapy can help relieve a variety of symptoms including backache, headache, sinus congestion and digestive disorders. The procedure should not be used by people with intestinal disease or hemorrhoids, as well as by those who are in a weakened state due to other medical conditions.

According to ayurveda, an ancient healing tradition from India, disease is the result of an imbalance of the three doshas, or energies: vata, pitta and kapha. These energies, present in every cell, tissue and organ, govern psychobiological functioning, including digestive and elimination processes. When the doshas are aggravated because of poor diet, unhealthy lifestyle or emotional stress, undigested food particles accumulate in the gastrointestinal tract, turning into ama, a toxic, sticky, foul-smelling substance. Eventually the ama overflows to other parts of the body, causing clogging of the blood vessels and other bodily channels and leading to a disease state.

According to ayurvedic theory, ama can be eliminated by a powerful purification program known as panchakarma , which includes:

• Internal oleation - the patient drinks a small amount of ghee (clarified butter) every day for several days.
• Oil massage and steam bath, to help the toxins move toward the GI tract.
• Procedures to eliminate the accumulated waste products, such as therapeutic vomiting, enema or laxative therapy, or nasal administration of herbal powders or oils.

Chelation (from the Greek word chele, meaning "to claw" or "to bind") is a chemical process that removes metallic or mineral toxins such as lead, mercury, aluminum and calcium from the body by binding them with an amino acid, called EDTA, which is administered intravenously. This amino acid compound then transports the bound metals or minerals to the kidneys, where they are excreted in the urine.

Although the FDA has not approved EDTA for use in anything other than heavy metal poisoning, alternative medical practitioners claim it is effective in treating coronary artery disease and certain circulatory disorders. They believe that the EDTA binds to the calcium in arterial plaque, allowing its removal and reversing atherosclerosis without cardiac bypass or angioplasty.

Many holistic practitioners advocate the use of special dietary regimens and/or fasting programs to increase the elimination of bodily wastes. A metabolic cleansing diet

Before using any of the numerous methods that proponents claim will cleanse the body, it is important to determine if you really need to be detoxified. Some practitioners utilize laboratory tests and analysis of blood, stool, urine, hair or fatty tissue to check for the presence of toxins.

Naturopathic physician Michael T. Murray, N.D., of Bellevue, Washington, suggests that the following factors may indicate a toxic state:

• Carrying excess weight (more than 20 pounds)
• Suffering from psoriasis, diabetes, gallstones or hepatitis
• History of heavy alcohol or drug use
• Use of natural or synthetic steroid hormones (i.e. estrogen, oral contraceptives, anabolic steroids)
• Exposure to chemical compounds such as cleaning solvents, pesticides, or antibiotics

Other experts suggest that recurrent respiratory problems, headaches, constipation, arthritis or autoimmune disorders indicate the need for a detoxification regimen.

Could a cleansing, detoxifying or purifying routine enhance your health and well-being? "I truly believe that cleansing/detoxification is one of the most powerful healing therapies I have ever seen," says Elson M. Haas, M.D., founder and medical director of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin in San Rafael, California. He points out that "These treatments promote real healing of ailments