Question:
I'm doing better today. Down 13 pounds! Headache is way less and I
dont feel so achy or weak. Yeah! Could the crisis be over? I noticed
other than the healing crisis, Dr. Roni only talks about flushing out
emotions. ALSO, under the healing crisis section she says "Your FIRST
healing crisis will probably happen..." Does that mean there are
more? No other ones are really talked about in the what to expect part
(page 92-93)
Answer:
Congrats on making it this far thru all the challenging detox
symptoms.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news (again), but yes. You will almost
certainly have more healing crises. When I started "all this" back in
early Jan I kept a nightly log of all my symptoms! Horrendous.
Remember back a week or two I suggested anyone doing this diet start
googling the hell out of detox and cleansing? It hurts! It's not
just a diet. It's an incredibly deep healing process. I had the
absolute blessing during my MONTHS of cleansing and detox to be eating
(granted, a very alkaline, anti-inflammatory, clean, high quality
organic diet) and also working out of my home. There were days when I
could do nothing but shower, walk the dog, skin brush (maybe), shower
again, and hit the couch for more internet research and comfort. I
planned nothing from early Jan thru the end of March since I never
knew how I'd be feeling in any one day. My good days would be followed
by horrible days. There is a natural cycle and progression to all
this. I think Roni may be doing a lot of people a real disservice with
this "diet" along these very lines, leaving them unprepared to really
deal with the forces set in motion. Rant over.
Anyway, one of the sites I found that I returned to a lot (besides the
Curezone forums on all these matters) is this one:
http://www.dr-jo-md.com/detoxificationsymptoms.html
Here's the part I always remember, or go re-read, when I have sudden
and strange detox pains in different parts of my body, seemingly "out
of the blue" (I did not use the products she speaks of. I found value
in the clear way she discusses the detox process):
In my clinical experience with patients the body detoxified from
inside out and from deep layers to more superficial layers. So the
internal vital organs detoxified first. Since the bowel, liver and
kidneys are the major organs of detoxification we always cleansed them
first. If we didn't, the toxins would back up into the skin causing
strange rashes or the person would experience more detox symptoms
because they would be swimming in their own toxins. Since the liver
dumps toxins into the bowel to be excreted, the bowel may react with
gas, bloating, constipation or diarrhea. The bowel must keep moving
the toxins out of the body or the toxins get reabsorbed. See bowel
cleansing for techniques of keeping the bowel moving and healthy.
Then the toxins started coming out of the muscles, bones and ligaments
and nerves. When inside the cells the toxins interfere with cellular
chemistry and energy production but do not cause pain. When they start
moving out of the cells into the connective tissue between the cells,
they are back in contact with nerves and can be very irritating. In
July of one year I awakened with exquisite pain in my right upper arm.
The only thing that relieved the pain was keeping the arm absolutely
immobile. Three days later I woke up with total mobility of that arm
without pain. The muscle had finally detoxified, relieving the nerve
irritation. A few years later, I could barely walk for a month when my
right sciatic nerve detoxified.
Other detox symptoms included chronic muscle tension or spasm,
backaches, neck aches, aching muscles, and painful joints. These
examples are to help you understand detox symptoms and not panic if
you experience some of these symptoms. Headaches, nausea, fatigue,
even depression can be part of detox symptoms also. If they occur,
say, "Yeah, my body is getting rid of this toxic old junk" and take
more Chlorella and Ambrotose. Also, utilize other cleansing techniques
that move the toxins out of the tissues faster. Be sure to consult a
health care provider knowledgeable in detoxification for assistance
and treatment.
The fat tissue in the body seems to detoxify last and was probably the
first tissue to become toxic. Since fat stores are not vital organs
the body probably figures that's the best place to store toxins, thus
protecting the vital organs from damage. And the body seems to store
the worst toxins (most likely to cause damage) in the fat. So you may
experience stronger detox symptoms toward the end of your body
purification process. I sure have. Recently if I exercise hard, I will
feel wiped out later in the day and the next day, probably from
burning old fat stores, which are releasing potent old stored
poisonous chemicals. So I need to remember to take more Chlorella
before and after exercise and throughout the day on heavy exercise
days. Several years ago I developed leg cramps ¾ of the way into my
swimming work out. I finally realized that swimming was releasing
toxic metals from inside my muscle cells to outside the cells where
they interfered with minerals (probably magnesium) that facilitated
muscular relaxation. So, what was my remedy? Right, take Chlorella
before my swimming workout. On the other hand, electrolyte deficiency
(deficiency of magnesium, potassium, sodium, chloride, bicarbonate)
can also cause muscle cramps. Exercising in hot weather, sweating a
lot, diarrhea or vomiting cause loss of electrolytes. Therefore, we
may need to take Chlorella before a work out and electrolytes
afterward. Take Chlorella at least 2 hours away from minerals like
electrolytes (E-lyte) since Chlorella soaks up minerals. Neither one
may be fully absorbed into your tissues adequately if taken together.
Toxins released from storage sites in the body also affect the brain.
Some days I felt brain dead, in a fog! What helped relieve those
symptoms? Right - more Chlorella and Ambrotose . But also drink lots
of water to flush the toxins and be sure those bowels keep moving.
Increase the amount of magnesium you take until you have at least one
and preferably 3 bowel movements per day. If you take too much
magnesium, you will know it when diarrhea starts. You may have to
adjust your magnesium dose daily. One patient took 52 capsules of
magnesium in one day to start her bowels moving. After that she cut
back on the dose. That's the most extreme case of constipation I heard
of.
So how did we get from the brain to the bowel? Well they are connected
you know by the blood stream. So back to the brain. Circulating toxins
can cause temporary episodes of depression, feeling irritable or
grouchy and just generally hard to get along with. Be alert for these
feelings and realize they probably won't last long so you can cope
with them without taking it out on those around you too much. If you
tell people, especially your family that you have a case of the
grouchies from detox, then they will not be inclined to take any
grouchy words from you so personally. Perhaps they can even sympathize
with you and help you through this time period (may be a few hours to
a few days). Hey - you could teach them to remind you to take more
Chlorella and Ambrotose and to drink more water when you are in such a
brain fog that you can't remember to take them. Be sure to say,
"thanks for reminding me".
Toxins circulating out of storage for excretion can affect sleep in a
variety of ways. When alcohol based chemicals detox, they suppress the
brain, making us want to sleep excessively. In other words we feel
drugged. When the "ene" type chemicals (like Dexedrine, benzene,
xylene) detox, they stimulate the brain. Then we have troubling going
to sleep or awaken in the night and cannot get back to sleep. I keep
Chlorella, Ambrotose and a bottle of water by my bed so I can take
them in the middle of the night if I have trouble going back to sleep.
Taking your calcium-magnesium supplement just before bed may improve
your ability to sleep also. Logically the body would concentrate more
on detox during the night when it did not have to deal with the
processes necessary to keep the body active during the day.
Consequently, the released circulating "ene" toxins may awaken us in
the night or the released circulating alcohol toxins may give us a
hangover, unrefreshed sleep feeling in the morning.
Anti-oxidants may also help neutralize released toxins and keep them
from damaging tissue on their way out of the body. Be cautious though.
You need some oxidant (oxygen power) in your tissues to fight
infectious organisms. If you take too many antioxidants, you could
become more susceptible to infection or increase of unfriendly
organisms in the tissues. You may need to experiment to find the right
amount of antioxidants for your system. Ambrotose AO has very high
antioxidant activity. Supplementing it may reduce the amount of
Ambrotose that you need to take to help you with detoxification.
Eating higher quality food can start the detox process. The body is so
smart. When you feed it the good stuff, it begins to dump out the old
inferior stuff so it can build healthy, correctly functioning cells
with the new high quality material. Some of the symptoms relate to
what the body is dumping out at the moment. For instance, when you
stop drinking stimulants like coffee, tea and chocolate, the body can
finally discard the accumulated toxic caffeine and theobromine
residues in your tissues causing you to have a headache and feel
fatigued. Vitamin C to your rescue here - take 500 to 1,000 mg of
buffered vitamin C 45 minutes after each meal. If you develop
diarrhea, cut back on the dose of buffered vitamin C. Be sure the
vitamin C is buffered, in other words alkalinized because vitamin C
unbuffered is acidic (ascorbic acid) and will not relieve your
symptoms.
When you feed your body high quality protein (not overcooked and full
of hormones and antibiotics) and take great digestive and systemic
enzymes, the body can get rid of the old damaged protein. This is
first phase of the elimination process is called catabolism. Waste
products are discarded more rapidly than new tissue can be made from
the new superior food and supplemental whole food nutrients. You will
most likely have more symptoms during this phase. Then you stabilize
and finally proceed into the stage of anabolism where rebuilding takes
precedence over eliminating toxins, wastes and inferior building
blocks (damaged protein, fat and carbohydrates).
Some health care professionals call detoxification symptoms a "healing
crisis" which may be an apt term. Certainly the healing part applies,
but hopefully your detox symptoms will not be a crisis. However, the
term applies in that detox symptoms are crucial to the healing,
regenerating process in the body, which can help you prevent major
health problems. So they are healing - please remember that. Do not
abort the whole cleansing, detox process just because you hurt, or are
nauseated or are grouchy. These symptoms will go away and then you
will feel better than ever (or at least better than you have in a long
time). Who knows, maybe you will even join me in participating in the
Tinman Triathlon every Labor Day weekend. It's great fun and keeps me
training in swimming, biking, running and strength training all year.
REMEMBER DETOXIFICATION TAKES TIME
The older you are; the greater the toxic stores in your body; the
slower your metabolism; the more deficient, damaged food you have
eaten over you life time; the fewer enzymes, whole food nutrients and
good fats you have eaten; the longer it will take to detoxify and
rebuild. Be persistent. Never give up. It's never to late to start. My
patients in their 70's and 80's and even some in their 90's made
terrific progress in improving their health and feelings of well being
when they embraced the program. Look at me. I reversed my inferior
eating habits in 1984 and discovered detoxification in 1996 and I am
still not through detoxification. But I know what my goal is - to have
a clean, healthy body that serves me well. I'm feeling better and
getting stronger every year. You can too. Join the quest for health.
Tell pain and disability good-by.
The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated the above
information. The products or the listed information is not intended to
diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the
care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to
be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE
PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY.
Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health
provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you
may have regarding a medical condition.
