Monday, December 25, 2006

Inner Cleansing: Why You Must Cleanse To Maintain Your Health!

Inner Cleansing: A Crucial Part of Your Wellness Plan

By: Dr. Ariel Policano,
Medical Director for NW Center for Cleansing & Rejuvenation

Why learning and participating in a cleansing program is as important as taking vitamins and getting enough exercise and rest.

“I've been to the doctor, and he says that there is nothing wrong.”

When was the last time you truly felt great? Do you find yourself coping with increasing fatigue and difficulty coping with stress? What about digestion? Do you find that you need to take an acid blocker, or find yourself avoiding more and more foods due to indigestion, bloating or other digestive upsets? If any or even all of these are issues that you have been experiencing, you absolutely must consider a cleansing program. A cleansing program focuses on “cleaning up” the digestion and the liver. By changing this, you affect all the other parts of the body. In naturopathic medicine, I learned that “all disease begins in the gut.” There is another saying that goes, the road to wellness is paved with good intestines.” Clean up your digestion and the liver and watch your energy, focus and feeling of well-being return in a way that you might not have believed. This cleansing process affects the hormones, the adrenals, the metabolism, the immune system and so much more.

“ I take the best supplements, I still don’t feel better.”

There are great quality supplements out there. There is wonderful, organic food that you may choose as well. If you are taking supplements and eating wonderful food without cleansing, you are probably losing a large portion of the nutrition that you paid for! Why? This potential nutrition is not having the same impact because of congestion in the liver and weakness of the digestive tract. It is like laying on a top quality coat of paint before removing all the past layers of paint and carefully cleaning and preparing the surface. When the digestive tract is clean, the food is digested properly and completely absorbed. Then everything you take into the body gets utilized by the body. You can feel the difference that it makes. Often patients tell me they have been on a regimen of good quality supplements, but they did not feel better. I explain to them, do a cleanse first, then you will really start to feel the true effect of that nutrition and natural medicine.

Why is the digestive system related to all these other aspects of health?

The digestive tract includes the stomach, small intestine and large intestine. In the stomach, which is primarily designed for protein digestion. Stomach acid plays a key role. However, most of the patients that I see are deficient in stomach acid. This undigested protein starts to ferment in the stomach. It produces inorganic acids and can sometimes be the cause of heartburn or reflux. Taking an antacid only makes this situation worse because it suppresses what is already too low. If proteins do not digest properly here, then the good food you have eaten can become a source of toxins in the body! The cleansing program helps to correct this with changes in diet and specially designed supplements.

The next part of the digestive tract is the small intestine. Here, pancreatic enzymes and bile from the liver and gall bladder are very important in proper digestion. This is where proteins are further broken down by pancreatic enzymes. Fats are digested with the assistance of bile and enzymes. As well, carbohydrates are broken down to sugars, again with the aid of enzymes. Due to stress and the heavy consumption of complex cooked foods, many people are also low on pancreatic enzymes. The cleansing process also helps to correct this. This correct breakdown of food is very important. You absolutely need complete digestion to get your nutrition. In addition, anything not digested well will ferment or “rot” in this warm, moist environment. These toxins route themselves back to the liver via the bloodstream. We can begin to “swim” in the poisons created by poor stomach acid and low enzyme production. If you feel toxic, you probably are toxic! And we unknowingly did it to ourselves!

The cleansing process helps stomach acid to get stronger and gives the pancreas a rest, so that it can work more effectively. The cleanse also detoxifies the liver and flushes out the gall bladder. This helps to release old, toxic bile that aids in fat elimination. Have you been trying to lose weight without much luck? This might be the reason! Cleaning your digestive tract and liver will help fat to be broken down more easily. Most participants in the cleansing program lose 5-12 pounds in just 14 days!

“The road to wellness is paved with good intestines.”

The last part of the digestive tract is the large intestine, or colon. It is our garbage can, our waste removal system. It is the one part that no one likes to talk about in public. It is so very important in the maintenance of health. Eliminating waste quickly, efficiently and with regularity cannot be emphasized enough! There may be as much as 5 or 6 pounds of old “fecal matter” inside each person eating a “standard American diet”.

A combination of stress, low fiber diets and minimal water consumption have lead to many people being constipated most of the time, and they do not even know it. These waste products may stay in the large intestine and “rot” inside of us. Some of these wastes are so toxic, especially the ones produced from meat consumption that they actually have names like “cadaverine”! You may be dying from the inside and not know it! A very important part of the cleansing process is releasing these harmful toxins from the colon by using special fiber blends, teas and dietary changes.

When the colon is clean, you feel it in every other part of your body. Your colon actually contains reflex points throughout its 5-6 feet in length that touch every other organ system in your body. When people tell me that there hearing or sight seemed to improve during the cleansing program, I let them know that it may be a direct result of this colon cleansing process. However, don’t worry. The cleansing program is specifically designed to be gentle, but effective. You will not find yourself running to the bathroom every few minutes. Yes, you will be able to continue all of your regular activities.

Realize your greatest health now.

A cleansing program touches every other part of your health. To stay healthy in today’s world of external toxins and toxins that may result from poor digestion, a cleansing program absolutely MUST be part of your wellness plan. Yes, good vitamins, nutrition, exercise and rest are things that you have realized are important. Now, add to your plan the new wellness practice of the 21st center. Place on your calendar now a time to do a 14-day cleansing program twice per year. You will feel the difference on the inside, and everyone else will notice our this inner health shines on the outside as well.