Whether it’s a prescription drug, vitamin, tea, herbal pill or tincture, it’s important not to overdose, to find one’s balance with the active ingredients. Thus, always start with the smallest amount possible, no matter what the bottle says is the recommended dose.
For instance, the full-spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement Spectro by Solaray recommends five pills a day for the amounts listed on the label, all of which are higher than the RDA. So take just one. See how you feel. See what it does to the color of your urine. If it turns deep yellow, then you aren’t absorbing it all, and taking more would be pretty pointless.
Some people think if a little is good, more must be better. This is not always true. Sometimes more is just more, or even dangerous. Balance is key!
When I do vitamins, I tend to do one every-other day, as that is how often I test positive for their use via kinesiology. When I was recovering from candida, I needed more than that for a time, but I’ve never needed as much as I thought I did, or as much as the bottles recommended.
If you’re taking something like a liver supporting herbal complex in order to cleanse and detox, expect to get a detox headache or other reactions and increase the dose until you do. This lets you know your appropriate dose and that the compound is appropriate - you really do have toxins that must be taken out. You can leave the dose where it is and hope the headache stops as you get better, or lower it until you’re in your comfort zone. If you stay in your comfort zone for awhile, try increasing the dose to see if your threshold has increased. This will keep the cleansing and detoxing moving at a brisk pace.
If you’re taking a myriad of supplements, it’s best to cycle through them. Don’t give your body too much to do all at once. Break them up into stages, cycles (anti-fungals) or alternate days.
Always have an end date in mind with any supplement, there are very few supplements that should be taken forever. The end date can be as simple as when the bottle runs out. Most supplements and medications are temporary intervention, the goal being no longer needing them. The exceptions are certain teas, spices, super foods and essential minerals and salts.
Also be aware of the amount of intervention you are doing when choosing protocols and try to find what’s appropriate. It's often best to start with the least amount of intervention and gradually increase as necessary. Herbs should be respected – they can be every bit as powerful as a prescription drug.
So say you’re trying to be more regular. The least amount of intervention would be to drink a large cup of water first thing in the morning to induce a bowel movement. The next step up would be to take in some good oils, as bile induces peristaltic action. If these work, they’re better than taking Senna, which is a strong laxative herb that can create dependency over time. So make sure you know your options and understand the hierarchy of which intervention is stronger or weaker and try to start out somewhere in the middle, or perhaps start off strong and then be sure to back off.
Have a clear goal in mind when you take supplements. Keep a list of your symptoms and update it weekly. After adding in a supplement or two, ask yourself weekly whether your symptoms list has changed. Are you closer to your goal? Feeling less brainfog? More energy? If you’re feeling worse, is it a legitimate healing crisis, or is the compound simply not right for your body type?
The “Eat Right for Your Type” database does include guidelines on herbs and vitamins. It’s worth a look, even if you end up taking something that is not recommended for your blood type for awhile.
Since so many of the issues we deal with in restoring vital health are confusing, overlapping and don’t have definitive tests available, our symptoms become our best signposts. Beware of saying things like “I have IBS” or “I have CFS” on your symptoms list because a syndrome is general and can mean different things. Better to say “I have fatigue and experience bouts of diarrhea and constipation” because these symptoms are easily understood and require different, specific interventions. You’re no longer lost in “syndrome land.” It also helps you to write your goals: “Increased energy,” for instance.
Kinesiology is the fancy term for muscle testing, which has been in use for centuries but fell out of fashion thanks to the age of reason and scientific method that changed our ideas of what we know and don't know, what we can prove and not prove. Since there's no microscope that proves kinesiology works, orthodox medicine does not admit to its existence.
When we touch a supplement or food or even look at a flourescent light, our body reacts to it. If it is something we need, something that strengthens us, we can tell based on how our muscles respond - they get stronger. If it weakens us, our muscles get weaker. This basic truth is what we test when we use kinesiology to test for the appropriateness of our foods and supplements, even crystals and gemstones, gold, silver.
There are two ways to do kinesiology, basically: with a partner, which is what I call the "arm test" and by yourself using your hands.
In each method, you should be touching the supplement you wish to test.
To use your hands, here is a reference that explains how:
It's a good idea to use both methods until you've been using the single-person method for a year.
The two person method is done like this:
First, find your baseline by holding nothing and just testing the strength of your arm. Hold your non-dominant arm (if you're right handed, hold out your left) straight out to your side like a scarecrow.
Have your partner press your arm down while you try to resist them. Feel how strong your arm feels, note how far down they can push it, while they use medium force.
Now test the supplement by holding the supplement in your dominant hand. Hold your non-dominant arm straight out to the side, again, like a scarecrow arm.
Have your partner try to push it down again.
It should either be the same, or stronger, or weaker and fall down farther.
If it falls down farther, this supplement is inappropriate for you now.
It pays to retest during another time of the day, because supplements can change appropriateness depending on a great many factors.
Kinesiology makes use of our electrical system via focus. We have to be focused on something in order to test our body's response to it. Consequently, "double-blind" studies and other methods used to debunk kinesiology won't work because they cannot work. You cannot test something that you're not conscious of. So if anyone says kinesiology is fake because double-blind studies says it is fake simply do not understand how consciousness, observation and the electrical system works.
All illness takes place in a poisoned body. How can you expect to get better if you're poisoned? You can’t! So cleanse, and keep cleansing. Cleanse your digestive system and that will support your efforts to cleanse every organ, tissue and cell. Even if your lab tests are normal, you could have stones blocking bile ducts in your liver, decreasing its overall functionality.
Cleanse the bowels thoroughly first and foremost, and keep it clean as you cleanse the liver, kidneys, lymph, etc.
2nd: change your diet and lifestyle; hope it's both a temporary change and a permanent change.
You don't have to give up everything for the rest of your life. There are some things that you would do better without, but if you really cleanse the body well, guess what? There's a Snicker's bar in your future! Education always pays off. It's time to go back to school - remember all those times you complained that school was boring because it wasn't about real life? Here's your perfect chance to learn about real life in a way that sustains your quality of life.
Hopefully you will learn to do certain things for the rest of your life to maintain vital health, even if just periodically. Some people, however, simply must clean up their diets and not cheat. The trick is knowing which body type you are and being that – or accepting the consequences.
Be prepared to learn some shocking things about health and what you thought to be good habits. For instance, fat is not bad, it’s very necessary. Tofu is not great. Overdosing on tofu is outright dangerous, so don’t drink that soy milk. Milk is no longer good food once it’s been pasteurized (boiled) and homogenized (fat cells denatured). It is one of the leading causes of ear infections, bronchial distress, and acne.
3rd: Address any deficiencies
Poisons, poor food choices, inflammation, all serve to make our bodies starved for the right nutrients. Without the right nutrients, things just don't happen. Deficiencies must be dealt with in balance, preferably with real foods. It's difficult to absorb or take in balance vitamins and minerals from supplements, usually you should take a combination rather than just one.
We can be deficient in water (dehydrated) deficient in friendly microbes (systemic candidiasis, acne) even deficient in salt.
Any imbalance means a deficiency of something, as imbalance means something more than the other. Nature is balanced into relationships, in order to have checks and balances for every system - a way to turn things on or off at will. One of the most important balances in the body is the pH balance. Abuse this balance and you will age, painfully. Most disease is due to too much acid by-products from digestion. Switch to an alkaline diet and alkaline eating habits and arthritis will disappear.
You can be deficient in mental energy, persistence, follow-through, peace of mind, forgiveness, joy, love, laughter and sexual responsiveness. For true vital health, these deficiencies must be addressed.
4th: Learn how to shop, prepare and serve tasty, healthy meals – it is a cornerstone of good health!
If you're not willing to cook, you're not committed to living a quality life. The person with the best kitchen skills lives longer and healthier – and cheaper. After major investments in juicers, blenders and food processors, quality pots and pans, knives, a mandolin, USE them. They will provide huge returns on your investment, much more so than any pill you can take.
Finding great stores, alternative ways to buy spices cheap or find a particular herb, even using Ebay, these are all part of the adventure of taking control of your health.
5th: Physical issues often have root causes with mental or emotional issues.
Suppressing one's self in any way long enough will cause physical harm. Constant stress, obsessive behaviors, anger, worry, lack of forgiveness for yourself and others, all will age you.
6th: It always comes down to the power of digestion, especially the liver and bowels. Take care of them and they'll take care of you.
The liver is the body's filter. You wouldn't swim in a swimming pool with a 20 year old filter would you? think your salt water fish would survive a 20 year old filter, or your car run as well on 20 year old oil? But that's what we do to our bodies by never managing our liver's health.
Eating improperly creates toxins. The toxins circulate and clog arteries, joints, organs, glands, skin, everything. Understanding the power of digestion is another cornerstone in healing and maintaining vital health.
7th: do your research.
A fad food, supplement or diet won't necessarily make you better, and plenty of foods thought to be healthy will give you severe deficiencies. One of the best things you can do for your health is learn how to use the Internet to search for both sides of every claim and assumption. Beware of all claims by people who stand to profit or lose money.
Options are power. Know as much as you can about the various options available to you.
8th: There are body types with certain proclivities.
Find out what your body type is (blood type, Ayurvedic Dosha, metabolic type) and that will clear up a lot of the mystery as to why some people are always warm while others are cold, some people can eat anything and not gain weight while others gain weight just by looking at food, etc.
People are all so very different. One person can drink alcohol while another gets sick. The same may be said for sugar, grains, animal products, herbs, NSAIDs, prescription medicine, nightshade vegetables, etc. Respect your body’s innate proclivities and you’ll be more comfortable.
90% of degenerative disease is due to weak digestion, poor absorption and asimilation of foods, giving the body too many bad foods to begin with, improperly prepared foods, and constantly exceeding the power of our digestion, constantly exceeding caloric needs, failing to rest our major organs by fasting occasionally, and failing to eliminate everything we eat by having a strong bowel movement each and every day without fail. Add to all of that the many toxins in the environment which we fail to fully cleanse out of ourselves and voila! ill health results.
Here are the guidelines for staying within and Increasing the Power of Digestion, waking up Agni (digestive fire) and increasing stomach acids. 90% of people exceed their digestive fire, create Ama (toxins), and that creates degenerative diseases. Even if you think you have acid reflux, you probably instead have weak digestion, not too much acid.
It's not so much what we eat but what we absorb and what we eliminate. If we can't absorb what we eat, the best diet in the world on't help us. If we can't eliminate the remains, we turn our bodies into sewers.
Only eat as much food as you can hold in both hands in a single meal. This is very important. Eating too much during a single meal complicates things tremendously and will turn good food into bad. It is the leading cause of acid indigestion/reflux.
Never drink iced drinks or very cold water with meals; stop drinking fluids 30 minutes before meals and up to 1 hour after. If you must drink with the meal, drink herbal tea or warm lemon water. Spicy tea with lemon or peppermint tea is best for weak digestion.
The stomach digests best with 1/3 air, 1/3 food, 1/3 gastric juices. Watering down your stomach dilutes the enzymes and acids that digest food. If food gets into the colon partially digested, bacteria goes to work to break it down. This causes gas, microbial imbalances, and over time, mucoid placque or systemic candidiasis.
Try to have at least 3 hours in between meals. Avoid snacking as much as possible so the stomach has a chance to be completely empty and burn toxins. Eat regular meals at regular times, pay attention to the meal and the atmosphere should be calm and relaxing. Chew slowly and thoroughly. Saliva is an essential part of the process.
If possible, have your main meal at lunch rather than dinner. Don't eat a meal after 8:00 pm, digestion is weakest at night and gets weaker the later it gets.
DO NOT eat if upset, stressed or grieving, digestion stops completely then. Best to fast then, drink a cleansing drink or tea instead. All those well-meaning people who say “but you have to eat SOMEthing” after a major shock or loss are not really helping you.
It's a good idea to take a short walk 15-30 minutes after meals. This really helps digestion and increases circulation, which helps the liver and absorption.
To wake up the digestion in the morning or after naps, lie on flat surface, bring knees to chest and hug them for 5 minutes. Then roll back and forth on back until little pops from the spine stop. Then sit up and do leg/hurdler stretches. Then you can begin your usual morning routine.
Avoid greasy foods. Deep-fried foods especially are real killers. Avoid very dead foods (refined) with none of their own live enzymes. Take digestive enzymes when you eat refined or cooked foods.
Digestive enzymes and fermented foods are an excellent option for increasing the power of digestion, including pancreatic enzymes for breaking down fats, carbs and protein, and the plant/fruit enzymes, papain and bromelain.
Some digestive supplements include HCL betaine, although it can be difficult to get the dose of HCL correct so make sure it’s a separate supplement and not mixed in with the enzymes. I simply use lemon juice. If you have issues with not enough stomach acids (low appetite, burpies, reflux, candida), then take 2 oz lemon juice in a glass of warm water with a dash of salt and drink 20 minutes before the meal. Or if at a restaurant, ask for water with lemon and eat the slice of lemon, or enjoy part of a glass of lemonade. 500 mg of Malic Acid or unbuffered Vitamin C will also increase stomach acidity. Peppermint tea.
Try eating just a little bit of something pickled and/or spicy before your main meal, such as Kim Chee (pickled cabbage), or pickled ginger (like what they give with sushi), sunamomo (cucumber salad with vinegar) or umeboshi (Japanese pickled plums. Very healthful and healing to liver/gallbladder).
Fermented foods aid digestion, increase stomach acidity and proper bowel flora. Most commercial versions of foods that started out as fermented foods are not so healthy, but when homemade, things like sauerkraut, kefir and pickled beets are immensely helpful to our health and friendly flora, and a lot cheaper than store-bought probiotics.
Eat a radish with a bit of salt half an hour or so before dinner to raise Agni (digestive fire).
If you're not eating fermented foods and juicing veggies, supplement with acidophilus to repopulate gut flora. Microbes are essential to good, complete digestion and get killed off thanks to refined sugar, dead foods, tap water, and not enough greens or other veggies.
Try to use proper food combining techniques at least in terms of fruit, the rest of those guidelines are probably not so crucial.
For instance, eat fruit alone as a fruit meal, never with dairy except the occasional cottage cheese or yoghurt or kefir smoothie.
Some fruits are okay to mix with other things, like apples, pears, berries, raisins, dates, but melons and most tropical fruit should be eaten alone or only with other fruit. They digest very quickly and tend to drag other things along with them whether they’re digested or not; or, conversely, the other foods delay the fruit digestion and so the sugars ferment instead.
Don’t ever follow a meat meal with a fruit dessert unless you want to be socially inappropriate (fart). Fermentation is only healthy outside the body. Inside the body it turns your intestines into something resembling an old refrigerator full of science project leftovers.
The exception to this rule is small amounts of cooked fruit with very little sugar added after cooking. Fruit sugars are easily broken down with heat. Jams and jellies have tons of sugar added into them after they are boiled down. So if you want sweet-n-sour sauce with baked pineapple rings for your teriyaki chicken, or apple sauce with your pork chops, go for it.
Consider eating lots of veggie stews and soups with onion, lentils, barley or other grains, garbanzo beans and spices rather than the usual protein surrounded by starch and bread meals. That way the water is reserved with all the goodness of the veggies, and you can add cumin, ginger and paprika and cayenne pepper to make them tastier and better digested.
An easy way to prepare veggies and preserve some of the enzymes is to cut up the veggie into a medium saucepan with a tight lid, 1/4 cup water and 1 tblspn olive oil. Put on high heat for 4 minutes then check for crisp-tender. Spice, add more oil, and eat.
Try to eat only 3-4 types of veggies in a single meal, or less. Consider putting them through a blender. Most of your veggies should be cooked, as you need a strong digestive system to move to a raw diet, but the occasional veggie juice is okay. (raw foods = weak spleen = persistent colds = chapped/peeling lips.)
Broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts are often gas-producing. Fix them with carminative spices like cumin, turmeric, ginger or coriander. If you tend to have issues with gas, try to use these spices with every meal. The cuisine of India really makes the best use of these spices in their curries and garam masala, and Moroccan cuisine also likes to use carminative, pungent spices to good effect.
Try to only eat beans and lentils and whole grains only if they have been soaked overnight before cooking, or at least slow cooked, and are eaten with carminative spices and not with sugar (baked beans have sugar, that's why they're the magical fruit!).
Try to eat more spinach, kale, beets, carrots. They have healing action on the entire digestive system.
If your food just sits in the stomach and you feel full long after the meal is over, you need more bitter and/or pungent, herbs and veggies to increase digestive fire.
Drink more spicy herbal tea, such as Yogi tea's India Spice, ginger, peppermint, Chai, or Fennel, in between and with meals. Wait to eat until you are very hungry. Drink lemon water as an appetizer to increase true physical hunger. Consider fasting, especially if your tongue is coated.
To really heal chronic digestive upsets, consider eating a mono-diet of nothing but Kichadi (basmati rice and mung bean stew) for one week.
If your tongue is very coated, consider a warm water and ginger tea fast for one day, or long enough for tongue to become clean (several days great for Pitta or Kapha, only 1 day for Vata types).
Triphala, an Ayurvedic remedy, is good for all body types and aids constipation, is rejuvenating to the entire digestive system. It acts like a very mild laxative but causes no dependency. It strengthens the colon and helps to clear away mucous. It has anti-fungal properties.
Trikatu, another Ayurvedic remedy: Containing ginger, black pepper and pippali, this pungent formula enkindles the digestive fire, promoting healthy absorption and assimilation. Trikatu supports metabolism of fat and reduces toxins and mucous.
Choosing foods that taste pungent is one of the main ways to enkindle "Agni," or digestive fire, and burn away Ama, or toxins. While many of us look to eating this food or that food, in reality, we can eat just about anything if we prepare it correctly to balance its overall affect on digestion.
When digestive fire is low and the immune system is compromised by all of the undigested toxins that haven't been eliminated, the tongue will become coated; appetite decreases; some fluids like tears decrease, while other fluids like mucous from the sinuses, increase.
"Pungent herbs and spices are stimulating, promote digestion, increase appetite, increase sweating, removes phlegm, kills parasites. It promotes circulation genreally increases all bodily functions while reduing all foreign accretions in the body. Be sure to be fully hydrated when embarking on pungent therapy." (from The Yoga of Herbs by Dr. Vasant Lad)
The pungent taste arises mainly from various aromatic oils. Pungent tastes can include acrid, spicy and aromatic tastes.
For the most part these herbs are a pretty safe level of intervention. You can expect good results quickly with no real side effects that you have to worry about, unless of course you overdo, and then all you have to do at that point is stop taking them!
Pungent herbs are used for:
Constipation; bad breath; really really smelly feces; tongue coating; abdominal pain and distention, especially if aggravated by massage; intestinal gas and cramping pain; low appetite; heaviness; slow pulse; cloudy weather; yellow feces; heaviness in stomach; sour taste in mouth; skin rash; brain fog; saliva threads; tonsil stones; mucus in stools and urine; generalized pain; fatigue.
An easy way to get your dose of pungent herbs is to drink ginger tea.
Fix foods like pasta with plenty of garlic, oregano, rosemary and basil - yum! Throw plenty of thyme and sage in your chicken soup, make your pancakes with a pinch of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, powdered ginger, or cardamom.
You can also include more pungent FOODS in your diet. Here is a list of foods that are pungent in post-digestive effect:
Once your tongue has no coat and your appetite is good and strong, back off on pungent therapy. It has done its job! What you want to do now is to use just enough to keep digestion strong and to counter-balance foods that are rich, high in fats, or tend to be mucus forming for you.
For instance, if I eat eggs or cheese, I eat them with red pepper flakes or green chili peppers. If I make a very rich cake, I make it a spice cake, incorporating cardamom or cinnamon, etc., and eat it with ginger tea. Sprinkle cardamom on vanilla ice cream - it tastes great and helps you digest it properly.
The skin is the largest organ in the body, and since it is responsible for about one-fourth of the body's detoxification each day, that makes it one of the most important paths of elimination. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most neglected paths.
The skin is often called the ‘third kidney’. Toxins/Ama gather beneath the epidermis from improper pH levels in body soaps, skin creams, anti-perspirants, synthetic fibers worn next to the skin, without causing noticeable symptoms.
Skin brushing, helps your entire lymphatic system to cleanse itself. Dry skin brushing improves surface circulation of the skin, encouraging your body's discharge of metabolic wastes and resulting in an improved ability to deal with bacteria. Your skin will look and feel healthier and more resilient.
Benefits:
Tightens Skin
Helps Digestion
Removes Cellulite
Stimulates Circulation
Increases Cell Renewal
Cleans Lymphatic System
Removes Dead Skin cells
Strengthens Immune System
Improves Exchange between Cells.
Stimulates the Glands, thus increasing overall metabolism
How To Dry Skin Brush:
Buy a brush with natural bristles and a very long handle. It looks like a regular bath brush.
Skin brush before showering or bathing or in lieu of a water bathe, once or twice a day.
Do not wet the brush or skin, this stretches the skin.
Avoid any areas of skin eruption.
Brush long strokes towards the heart on the extremities.
Circular, clockwise strokes on the abdomen, circular on elbows, knees.
Circular or up-down on the chest.
Pay special attention to underneath the arms. Try to brush the entire body. Remember to do the soles of the feet. If you’re pressed for time, just do the soles of the feet (this affects the entire body), stomach and underarms.
Try to brush under the chin because of the lymph nodes there; you do not have to brush your face, it’s probably too tender. Brushing the scalp promotes thick hair.
Wash your skin brush every few weeks and let it dry thoroughly.
Skin Food is a term I created as short hand for a variety of vitamins and minerals that are essential for healthy soft tissues, organs and skin. These are foods you should accent if you have any skin problems, especially acne, vitiligo, psoriasis, eczema, hardening/bumps, keritinization, premature aging, hair loss, dandruff, stretch marks.
Skin food is also essential for healthy glands, which regulate metabolism and decide how "old" or young we really are. Without a strong thyroid or adrenal glands, we just can't feel or look good. Symptoms of low gland power and low metabolism are: fatigue, easily cold, cold extremities, slow wound healing and recovery, impaired memory/recall, constipation.
Other issues to look for are jagged cracks on the tongue; brain fog; red, irritated eyes; hypoglycemia and numerous nervous system disorders like insomnia, ADHD, anxiety and panic disorder, manic-depressive and obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
One of the problems with learning about health and what to do is there is TOO much information. This is one way to refine information so that you only have to focus on the essentials and let the rest take care of itself. If you focus on these nutrients plus calcium/magnesium, you can pretty much forget about the rest because you WILL be getting them as a good side-effect of good eating and proper supplementing.
Skin food nutrients/foods are: A, D, E, essential fatty acids especially cod liver oil (A, D) and wheat germ oil (E); C (preferably as Emergen-C or 500 mg of unbuffered C), all of the B vitamins but particularly B1, B6 and B12, Biotin, Zinc and Iodine, and Lecithin because it has both choline and inositol (fat busters).
To get a good mix of all of these, accent in your diet:
All of my various Protein Shakes, Kefir Smoothies
Eggs, fish, oysters, clams, caviar
Wheat germ oil, Cod Liver oil, Fish oils
Emergen-C
Nutritional Yeast Flakes
Liver (cow or chicken), pate, liverwurst
Coconut oil, Ghee, Olive Oil
Sweet Potatoes, Carrot Juice spiked with Cream (turns beta-carotene into Vitamin A)
Almonds, brazil nuts, pistachios
Occasionally supplement wih Kelp (iodine), enjoy seaweed/sushi, or use Edgar Cayce's Atomadine from www.caycecures.com
Liquid or 50 mg chelated Zinc supplements occasionally, especially if taking Cod Liver Oil
The Detox Bath takes the load off the kidneys, cleanses lymph and skin, helps exit metals, pesticides, acids and other toxins. The trick is to get hot enough to sweat and promote sweating with herbs and such. It's best done on a near-empty stomach after taking in a lot of fluids.
Take 40-100 mg of Niacin depending on your size. I take 40 mg. Make sure it's the regular kind and not the non-flush kind, as you want to flush your skin and open your pores. Your scalp should itch and burn. Wait about 20 minutes for it to take effect. If you can't find the right kind, skip this step and drink extra peppermint/chamomile tea instead.
While waiting, use a dry skin brush and brush skin.
Drink a pint or more of good water, or the Cleansing Drink with cayenne, lemon, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup. Peppermint or Chamomile tea would also be good.
Run a hot bath and add:
1/2 to 3/4 cup Epsom salts
1/2 cup Baking Soda
1 cup Powdered Ginger, or make a quart of ginger tea by slicing and dicing an entire ginger root and simmering for 20 minutes on low heat. Strain into bath. You can also use ginger extract. You can also skip this step for convenience if you wish but do try it.
Optional: Add cayenne pepper - but beware! it stings. I often chicken out and don't add it. :)
Soak for as long as you can, scrubbing your skin with a loofah or washcloth the entire time.
When you get out, to continue the sweat, wrap up in towels or robe and get under the covers and continue sweating for another hour or so. Drink more water at this time. then air dry or take lukewarm shower, go to sleep. DO NOT try to do any housework or errands after bath. Rest peacefully! :) If you tend to get overheated (Pitta dosha) skip this step and simply air dry.
Note: there's a fantastic Japanese washcloth that is highly recommended for this. It's about 2 feet long and a kind of pastic synthetic that is rather abrasive and really creates a ton of suds from any liquid soap. Rinses totally clean and pristine in a second. It got an award for best invention. I get it from my health food store and from my Japanese grocery store. I have not found it online yet. It's only about 2 bucks and well worth it.
Pitta people may find this bath totally exhausting, too much heat for them. So what they can do is drink two cups of chamomile tea (it promotes sweatign and relaxation) and make the bath not so hot. They can do the post-sweat wrap up or immediately shower with a lukewarm shower, whichever helps them feel better. :)
If you want to pay special attention to your face for acne or pigmentation issues, you can:
give yourself a clay facial while dtaking the detox bath, just apply liquid bentonite clay or other clay masque after scrubbing your face clean. You can mix in colloidial silver for more of a detox effect.
Or apply a paste of ginger powder and turmeric, 50/50.
Preparation for Detox Baths is always the same - take in plenty of fluids preferably as a Cleansing Drink and/or chamomile/peppermint tea, and don't bathe if you've eaten within an hour. As the water fills, dry skin brush your entire body.
Contra-indications for immersing your entire body in a bath are diabetes and high blood pressure. Diabetics should leave their legs out of the bath and people with high blood pressure or extremely low blood pressure should not take long baths. They're better off with other kinds of hydrotherapy such as showering.
The ACV Detox Bath
You can use refined, regular grocery store apple cider vinegar for this to save money. ACV baths are excellent for excess acidosis, conditions of gout, arthritis, conditions arising after eating too much protein or kidney stress. ACV baths remove uric acid from the body and take a load off the kidneys, so they are especially good during liver and kidney management. Simply add a pint to a quart of ACV to a warm bath and soak for 20 minutes.
Oil/Salt Bath
This is fantastic for dry skin. Make a warm salted bath with one cup of Baking Soda and one cup of Sea Salt or Epsom Salts. As the tub fills, massage your body all over with pure, expeller-pressed sesame oil. The oil will open pores and relax veins, increasing metabolism so more toxins come to the surface. You can also add oil to the bath water itself. The salt encourages the body to release fluids and toxins, and cleanses the body of radiation.
Bentonite Clay Bath
Soak 2 pounds of bentonite clay overnight to hydrate it. Add it to a warm but not hot bath. Soak for at least 30 minutes. Only do this once a month or less as it may clog or seal pipes.
Medicinal Baths
Thyme Bath
Thyme is a good remedy for acute and chronic coughing, bronchitis, emphysema. Boil half pound of thyme in two quarts of water for 5 minutes and strain. Add the decoction to half a warm bath and sit in it, breathing very deeply in order to inhale as much steam as possible.
Bran Bath
For a full bath, use three pounds of wheat bran. Bring the bran to a boil quickly beofre adding it to the bath.
Bran baths have a soothing effect on inflammation since they reduce stimulation of the skin. Because they help form a protective, inflammation-resistant layer over the skin surface, tey are used to treat highly inflammatory skin diseases and hypersensitive skin troubled by eczema and hives.
Cold Half-Baths
Fill the tub halfway with cold water. Gradually get into the cold water, sit up in it, and stay in until you fllush. The water should come up to your waist but not the chest. At first your skin will get pale and goosebumpy, but after awhile it should become flushed, which is what you want. Splash your torso with the cold water.
Because this increases circulation in the lower half of the body, including the intestines, this is an excellent thing to do for constipation, prolapsed colon, hemrrhoids, estrogen dominance, cellulite. It strengthens the nervous system so is good therapy for any nervous system disorders.
Get out after 10-20 minutes and warm yourself up by toweling off vigorously. Really rub hard, massaging your body all over. Get under the covers or wrap up in a nice robe to finish warming up.
People who lack good vein food are often plagued by spider veins, varicose veins, hemrrhoids. To prevent and cure them, these are the foods to accent:
Skin Foods, plus:
Ginger, garlic and onions help break down the fibrin surrounding the varicose vein so it can shrink.
Bromelain, found in digestive enzyme supplements and Pineapple, also helps in this way. Plus it is a natural anti-inflammatory and prevents blood clots.
Dark-colored berries like cherries, blueberries and blackberries have plant chemicals that are very helpful to veins.
Bioflavanoids are fantastic. Most fruit have bioflavanoids, but blueberries and pears especially.
Calcium. A lack of calcium causes weak vein walls that are much more likely to break. But don't overdose! overdose means stiff and calcified tissues that are likely to crack. 500 mg twice a day, with half as much magnesium is the best way to take calcium. Don't take it on the days you eat dairy.
Apple Cider Vinegar all by itself has been known to cure varicose veins, so drink the Cleansing drink 3x a day.
Take a supplement for the stomach. It should include Glutamic Acid, Betaine, Pepsin, and sometimes Bromelain. Or just take the amount of HCL Betaine you've determined to be your needed dose per the stomach acid test.
Take a teaspoon or tablespoon of ACV with meals, and eat something vinegared or lacto-fermented such as saeurkraut.
Take 500 mg of unbuffered Vitamin C. (Emergen-C is buffered. Anything that says ascorbate is buffered.)
Drink 4 ounces of pineapple juice.
Drink a small lemonade with the juice of half a lemon and a dash of salt, or the Cleansing Drink.
Drink a cup of peppermint tea.
supplement with L-Arginine.
Avoid taking calcium with meals, or taking anti-inflammatories.
Be sure to get enough B vitamins, especially B6, and organic sodium, both of which are pre-cursors to HCL (Hydrochloric acid).
