Cleansing cures, also called detoxification cures, remain a basic part of classic traditional natural medicine and has been practiced for thousands of years in most cultures.  Unfortunately, it is not acknowledged by conventional medicine even though the evidence is clear that people improve their health within a short period of time when they undergo the detox procedure. It is especially valuable in cases of metabolic syndrome and chronic  illnesses. The cure costs almost nothing; only fruit and vegetables, a few teas and herbal remedies. That’s it!

How do sludge substances build up in the body?
The biggest factor is unhealthy diet, insufficient chewing, medications, preservatives, amalgam of teeth fillings, unnatural food, mold, environmental and household chemicals and chemicals evaporating from carpets, furniture, insecticides. Also alcohol and nicotine, lack of physical activity and stress are considerable factors.

How do we know, if there is too much waste substance in our body?
Typical signs are general tiredness, lack of energy, lack of joyfulness and enthusiasm, low immunity with recurrent infections, body feels heavy, moving becomes difficult and everything is an effort. Watch for edema in feet and legs, pain in various parts of the body, insomnia and constipation.
Natural Medicine states that “a sick body is mostly a “toxic” body’.

Measures to get rid of these waste accumulations:
The focus in cleansing cures is directed to the organs of elimination: Kidneys, liver, skin, intestines and the lymph system.

The goal is first to dissolve and then to flush out toxic substances from the body.

Nature provides many medicinal herbs for this process along with the use of water and clay for therapeutic measures.

Kidneys
To flush out the toxins and the waste from the body the kidneys need a lot of liquid in form of natural water (not mineral water). The formula for how much water we need is: body weight(in kilograms)x 35/1000 or .035 liters per kilogram. For example, 70 kg(154 lbs) needs 2.45 liters of water a day. To support the kidneys, nature provided us with wonderful medicinal herbs. They can be taken as teas, tinctures or as supplements, i.g. stinging nettle, horsetail, parsley, uva ursi, goldenrod.

Liver
The liver is the most important organ for detoxification. The liver prepares the wastes for the kidneys to dispose of. When we have too much toxins accumulated in the body, then the liver is overworked. Constant tiredness is often the warning sign.

To detoxify the liver, natural medicine uses bitter herbs and food such as moringa, rucola, chicory, radicchio or artichokes. Medicinal herbs for the liver are milk thistle, quassia, boldo , vermouth. Swedish Bitter is an excellent combination of digestive aid and detoxifying herbs. Especially milk thistle has a protective, detoxifying and supportive property for the liver.

Skin
The skin is our biggest organ for elimination.  The best support for the skin is to drink sufficient amounts of water. It is highly recommended in the morning to brush firmly the whole body and if available have a steam bath and hot spring visits.

Intestines
About 70 % of the immune cells are located in the intestines. Sludge accumulation inhibits the defense mechanism and causes allergies and food intolerances. Therefore intestinal cleansing procedures with saline salts, enemas or colonics are a crucial part of the detoxification. Internal use of medicinal clay binds toxins, so that they can easy be expelled from the intestines.

Lymph System
During cleansing cures, intercellular fluid with dissolved substances from the tissue is taken to the lymph nodes which work like a “washing machine” in the body. Herbs like dandelion, marigold, sarsaparilla, moringa, tumeric are supportive for the lymph system.
Cleansing cures can be done in various ways and last from a few days to several weeks.

For more information contact Barbara Rotthaler, German certified Naturopath, Tel. 376 – 10 80 444, email. barbararotthaler@gmail.com , www. ChapalaHealth.com