Today we'll be discussing detox protocols - what works and what doesn't? Intermittent fasting, detox via a health diet, heavy metals detox, FIR saunas, coffee enemas, and more!
Included, as always, will be Zoya's pet segment.
on BlogTalkRadio
Here's the transcript of the show:
Johnathan: Welcome everybody, my name is Johnathan and I will be your host for today. Today is May 25th 2015 and our topic for today is going to be detox protocols. Joining me in our virtual studio from all over the planet we have our full crew today; Tiffany, Doug, Erykah and Gaby are all with us. Zoya will be joining us later with her pet health segment also regarding detox which will be very informative.
I'm going to start out with some items from the news; we have a few things to cover. Our first item here is talking about the recent bill SB-277, California senate bill 277 that is passed through the judiciary committee and it needs one more committee's rubber stamp before it arrives on the senate floor. It does look like it's actually making its way there and what that entails is eliminating the personal belief and religious exemptions from state mandated vaccines for children. So your kids would have to be vaccinated in order to attend school and that other penalties could be put in place if the government's vaccination schedule is not kept.
We have a little clip here that we wanted to play; it's about 6 minutes long. Its some parents from California talking about this bill and about the oppositions to it so we will just play that for a few minutes and then we'll be right back.
(Chanting) If there's risk there must be choice! If there's risk there must be choice! If there's risk there must be choice!Johnathan: That was parents from California discussing California bill SB-277 and there is some pretty interesting information there. I think choice is the main thing that it comes down to. Some people would personally argue that there should be more information about vaccines. Some of them should outright be banned but that's my personal opinion but I also think that it should be everybody's choice and if someone wants to get vaccinated I'm not going to stand in their way of doing that. I also think that people who don't want to get them should also be allowed to make that choice. We see the state stepping in here and especially denying kids access to school and other services because of that is pretty damning.
Woman 1: SB-277 is a mandatory vaccination bill that would strip the parental right of parents in the state of California to choose and to have informed consent over a medical procedure for their child; vaccination is a medical procedure. If we don't choose to follow the CDC recommended schedule which has almost tripled in the last 15 years then our children are losing the right to not only a public education but a private education in the state of California.
Woman 2: We are basically kicking out kids that are not sick, who are not contagious, on the supposition that they may in the future get a rare disease and that they might be sent to school with that disease and they might get someone sick. So we are kicking children out based on that premise. There have only been 100 measles cases in the entire nation and there are 320 million people in the US. That is not compelling interest when no one has died from the measles.
Woman 3: Initially on the bill home schooling was included under the umbrella of SB-277. They have since amended it to exclude home schooling so parents do have an option but for many families in the state of California home schooling is not an option.
Woman 4: A parent cannot afford to quit their job so they are basically going to be forced to vaccinate their children. Even if they've demonstrated a susceptibility to vulnerability to the vaccine.
Woman 5: A vaccine decision should be something that happens between a doctor and a parent and you want to work with your doctor to make those decisions that you are comfortable with. I need to vaccinate my children or else they don't get a proper education which is their right; it is a constitutional right.
Woman 6: It's unconstitutional, it violates the Nuremberg Code, it violates education rights, it violates parental consent, and it violates the relationship between a doctor and a patent.
Woman 7: I feel like its discrimination. The California constitution guarantees a right, an equal right to an education to each and every child in the state of California regardless of their race. Even kids with HIV, Hepatitis B and Tuberculosis are protected under the California constitution and are not supposed to be discriminated against based on a fear of contagion.
Woman 8: There has been a lot of adverse reactions and I know a lot of people say "There's no link between autism and vaccines" but when you actually talk to parents whose children have been through it and they've been vaccinated and they've had these adverse reactions - those are the type of people that I'm going to believe.
Woman 9: My oldest got the chicken pox vaccine and got shingles in her eye following that. I have a middle child who wheezed after his 2 month shot and was diagnosed with full blown asthma by 18 months. My third child received a vaccination and went into anaphylactic shock following the DTaP shot. Basically they are all on personal belief exemptions because it's just not enough for them to get medical exemption. My youngest can qualify for a medical exemption for the anaphylactic shock on the one vaccine however there are numerous other vaccines, 15 other vaccines that he would be required to get. My concern is that they have the same ingredients in them that he reacted to. I have no way of identifying which ingredient put him into anaphylactic shock.
Woman 10: We had started vaccinations with both of my daughters; they both had strong reactions to the shots that they did receive. My husband is a paramedic, we are well educated people, we both have college degrees and we individually and collectively came to the understanding that the vaccinations that are currently on the market are not safe for our kids.
Woman 11: We had 2 children in Mexico die that were undergoing the national vaccination program; there are 6 others in grave condition and 30 total that were hospitalized. The country of Mexico has suspended the vaccination program based on this occurrence and we have seen the same thing. We have seen Japan not vaccinate children unless they are 2 years old or older because of the risk of death. We have 16,000 kids a year in the US dying from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), we don't have an explanation as to why they are dying.
Woman 12: Vaccines are individually tested and I would argue that they are fraudulently individually tested however that's my opinion on the matter. The actual schedule, the 49 shots by the age of 6 has never been tested to show that it's safe; to show that that amount of carcinogenic chemicals going into the bloodstream of a developing immune system is valuable for a child and we have an increase in almost every neurological disease in children. 1 in 5 kids have a mental disorder, autism is on the rise; its 1 in 68 children. It's taking away parental rights, it's taking away informed medical consent, it's making the state responsible for your child's body rather than each individual parent doing their own informed due diligent research about vaccinations and it's robbing a child of a public or private education so I would encourage every parent - if you don't really know what's going on and you are wondering what are we all talking about - I would encourage you to do your own research, look into the vaccination issue, go on the CDC website and pull up the ingredient list in every single shot and consciously look at that and go "Am I comfortable with those ingredients being injected into my child's bloodstream?" And weigh the risk and benefit because that's what all of us have done and we have spent hours and hours and hours of our personal time, our energy, our money, our resources researching and educating people about this issue. It comes down to a choice and SB-277 would rob parents of that choice.
Woman 13: I encourage you to get involved in this issue; this is a very slippery slope that you do not want to go down. If we allow the state to have the right over the sovereignty of our own body, where will it stop? Are they going to force us to take chemotherapy? Are they going to force us to take antibiotics for everything? We know that every single drug has risks. If you would like to get involved and find out how to stop mandatory vaccination please visit, stopmandatoryvaccination.com and click on the take action tab to find a group near you were you can become involved.
(Chant) Stop Mandatory Vaccinations!!!!!!!!
Tiffany: I think those parents had some very valid arguments and some good points. They didn't sound in any way wacky or crazy or like conspiracy theorists or anything like that.
Doug: Yeah that's true
Johnathan: Moving on into connecting the dots with some recent items from the news, Erykah wanted to cover some information about Big Pharma advertisements. What do you have on that?
Erykah: Along the same line of the audio that we opened with this article is called; President of Network News Division Confirms that 70% of Revenue comes from Pharma Advertisements and this was published on May 22nd of this year by Jeffery Jaxen at Natural Blaze. He starts the article talking about Robert F Kennedy Jr. He is doing speaking engagements in particular about the SB-277 in Sacramento.
They were doing a showing of a movie called, Trace Amounts which talks about vaccines and toxicity. This discussion was mentioned in this article, he has been on the Bill Maher HBO show to do some talking about it and he also spoke at a major news interview with a former Minnesota governor Jessie Ventura. He had this to say:
"I ate breakfast last week with the president of a network news division and he told me that during non-election years, 70% of the advertising revenues for his news division comes from pharmaceutical ads. And if you go on TV any night and watch the network news, you'll see they become just a vehicle for selling pharmaceuticals. He also told me that he would fire a host who brought onto his station a guest who lost him a pharmaceutical account."So we see that this inundation of advertising to make money. One thing that is interesting about Robert F Kennedy is that he has been speaking out. There are 2 great articles in the SOTT health and wellness section, one is called Robert Kennedy Jr. Fights to Stop Vaccine Holocaust. In both these articles he even admits that he had his children vaccinated but he says in this article about the vaccine holocaust that, "They can put anything they want in that vaccine and they have no accountability for it, which ironically maintains its own exclusive and unconstitutional exemption from legal liability for vaccines that injure and kill children."
In this second article called; Thimerosal, let the science speak he says "High stakes and the seamless marriage between Big Pharma and government agencies have spawned an opaque and crooked regulatory system. An insatiable pharmaceutical industry has 271 new vaccines under development in CDC's bureaucratic pipeline in hopes of boosting vaccine revenues to $100 billion by 2025."
So we can see that there is this huge big pharma push to get these things accepted, you can see this in the California bill. There was one that was also discussed in North Carolina and if anyone is interested in reading about that the article is called; Senator Explodes when Questioned about his Vaccine Bill. That was published on May 23rd. So you can see that big pharma is really influencing senators and lawmakers to pass these mandatory laws regardless of the side effects for the children.
You can hear in that audio how parents are really upset. Like you were saying Johnathan it is a personal choice and as we have said many times on this show - do your research and find out for yourself while you still can. We see this push state to state, I know that based on Kennedy's discussion that they stopped a bill in Oregon to make these vaccines mandatory. They also stopped the North Carolina bill based on the fact that people are just not having it. They are going to fight for this, for their own children's safety, as a parent.
Check those articles out because you can see the line of force here and it's coming fast and furious. As a parent myself, you can be overwhelmed by the amount of information but as long as you do your due diligence and research you start to see a very scary pattern developing here.
Gaby: I wonder with one of the first comments, I think they are very desperate in big pharma because people are waking up about the cholesterol myth. Fighting drugs which are lowering cholesterol drugs which are big profits. They are going to lose if these things come to the public awareness debunking the cholesterol myth. Also because antibiotic resistance is putting a stopping block between new drugs and antibiotics and so forth. Big pharmacies seem to be investing a lot in vaccines. They still have a lot to deal with, with them trying to defend their profits and it's all very psychopathic but that's what it is.
Tiffany: Once drugs go "off patent" they lose a lot of money and vaccines are a big way to recoup that loss. Speaking about advertisements, I don't watch TV much but when you do watch the national nightly news it's just one drug commercial after another. I actually have a short little drug commercial so I want to play that, it's actually about skin disorders. Do pay attention towards the end and what they say about vaccines.
Caridee: I'm Caridee, I've had moderate to severe psoriasis through most of my life but that hasn't stopped me from modelling. My doctor told me about Stelara and it helps keep my skin clearer. With only four doses per year after two starter doses Stelara helps me be in season.Tiffany: So that's the kind of commercial people in the US see. I think the US and Australia are the only countries that are allowed to advertise drugs on TV?
Male voice: Stelara may lower your ability to fight infections and increase your risk of infections. Some serious infections require hospitalization. Before starting Stelara your doctor should test for tuberculosis. Stelara may increase your risk of cancer. Always tell your doctor if you have any sign of infection, have had cancer or if you develop any new skin growths. Do not take Stelara if you are allergic to Stelara or any of its ingredients. Alert your doctor of new or worsening problems including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. These may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. Serious allergic reactions can occur. Tell your doctor if you or anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccine.
Female voice: In a medical study most Stelara patents saw at least 75% clearer skin and the majority were rated as cleared or minimal after 12 weeks.
Caridee: Stelara helps keep my skin clearer, ask your doctor about Stelara.
Gaby: New Zealand.
Tiffany: And New Zealand. That's what we get bombarded with day after day.
Gaby: It's the first time I've heard an ad like that! Yikes!!
Tiffany: They list all the side effects. Is 75% clearer skin worth getting cancer for?
Gaby: Or a neurological disorder?
Tiffany: A potentially fatal brain disease? (Laughter)
Gaby: Want to get sick? Ask your doctor!
Erykah: Even how they set it up, they give you all the benefits then they read you all the side effects then they go back to the benefits!
Doug: Exactly.
Tiffany: And then the part where they say tell the doctor if you need a vaccine or if you have recently had a vaccine. That just gave the information that this is a drug that compromises your immune system and that people shed live virus when they're vaccinated.
Johnathan: Speaking of the cancer risk, Tiffany I think that leads well into an article you wanted to cover about psychiatric drugs and the risk of cancer.
Tiffany: The article was on SOTT just a few days ago and it's called; Psychiatric Drugs put 49 Million Americans at Risk for Cancer. It was written by a Dr. Kelly Brogan M.D. In this article she says that there are about 1 in 5 Americans who take psychiatric medications which is a huge amount. There is literature that suggests long term treatment with psychiatric meds would leave you with a lesser quality of life. There has been current research that shows that psych meds also increase your risk of cancer.
A group of researchers, Amerio et al. published a study in April 2015. This was only a review of studies done on animals so they are not entirely reproducible in humans but the author points out that the information that should be given to patents as part of their given informed consent when taking these medications. These studies on humans are subjected to publication bias, meaning that the researchers only publish the favorable results and ignored the results that were not favorable.
That's really sad because they have to resort to looking at animal studies because human studies are so unreliable. Yet the drugs are used on humans. That says a lot about our faulty scientific system. In this study the researchers found that:
"Over 63% of antidepressants were associated with carcinogenicity. As in it causes cancer. Those drugs are mirtazapine, sertraline, paroxetine, citalopram and escitalopram, duloxetine and bupropion. 90% of antipsychotics agents were associated with carcinogenicity. 70% of benzodiazepines/hypnotics were associated with carcinogenicity, specifically clonazepam, zolpidem, zaleplon, diazepam, eszopiclone, oxazepam and midazolam. 25% of amphetamines/stimulants were associated with carcinogenicity, with methylphenidate specifically associated. 85.7% of anti-convulsants ("mood stabilizers") were associated with carcinogenicity. The only agent not associated with carcinogenicity was lamotrigine. Specific agents associated with cancer were valproate, carbamazepine, gabapentin, pregabalin, oxcarbazepine and topiramate."The reasons that these medications can cause cancer is because they alter the gut biome, they alter metabolism and they lead to drug toxicity, all of which lead to cancer over time. Speaking of drug advertisements, the really strange thing about those package inserts that come with all medications - the researchers who did this study they got this information from the package inserts in the drugs because they have information about drug trials. It's all there so you just have to look, but how many people read the package inserts? Moreover how many people actually understand what they are reading when they read the package inserts? I don't think very many people are doing that.
Gaby: It blew me away, 90% of anti-psychotics are made with substances like that? What!?
Doug: That's staggering.
Gaby: Many people say "I don't read the inserts because I will not take the drug." Maybe you should read it!
Doug: That makes a lot of sense.
Erykah: Some people are on a multitude of drugs too so it's not just one, it's several different ones.
Tiffany: It's never just one.
Johnathan: On the heels of talking about those pharmaceuticals, Doug do you want to talk to us about medicinal plants and some of the "underrated" ones?
Doug: Yeah that sounds good. There was a recent article in the health and wellness section on SOTT, it was originally published on Collective Evolution and published by Alanna Ketler on April 22nd. The title of it is 5 of the Most Underrated Medicinal Plants. Just off the top she says that there are thousands if not millions of herbs that have medicinal use out there. I would definitely agree with her on that there are so many to the point where whatever you seem to be suffering from, you can probably find a herbal remedy that will at least help with it. She covers 5 different herbs and that is just to give a quick run-down of them. She is emphasizing ones that are fairly common. Ones that you can find easily, or in many cases that you can actually grow yourself.
The first one she covers is ginger; which is not only delicious but it also quells nausea, has antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-parasitic and anti-inflammatory properties. Through those anti-inflammatory properties it's also used for things like joint pain, menstrual pain and migraines. It also contains protein digesting enzymes that help with digestion and it assists with the emptying of the stomach. Anybody who is having some kind of digestive issues can often quell that with a bit of ginger tea. I really like to cut up some fresh ginger and steep it in boiling water; it makes a really nice tea. It can get pretty strong so you might want to be careful with that and dilute it.
The second one she covers is peppermint; this is one of my favorite herbs especially when it comes to herbal teas. It's really good for the respiratory system; it can be used in treatment for coughs, colds, asthma, allergies and even tuberculosis. You can also use peppermint oil rubbed on the chest to assist with breathing and lung issues. It's also good for digestive health; you can use it in IBS cases. It has anti-spasmodic properties. You can find capsules of peppermint oil that are enteric coated and that means that it doesn't dissolve in the stomach it dissolves in the small intestine in an alkaline environment. By making sure it gets all the way down into the lower digestive tract it opens there and that helps with the spasmodic symptoms common in IBS. It can also ease digestive and abdominal pain, so if you are feeling some pain after eating the wrong thing or maybe too much then you can have some peppermint tea. It also helps with gas relief.
The third one she covers is chamomile. Chamomile; is widely known to relieve stress, make you feel relaxed and help you sleep but it also reduces swelling on the skin. You can use it for psoriasis, eczema, chicken pox and even diaper rash. You can find some chamomile creams for topical usage but you can also make a compress. It also has antibacterial properties; it's anti-inflammatory, anti-allergenic and anti-spasmodic.
The fourth one that she covers is thyme, again one of my favorite ones especially for cooking; I love the flavor of thyme. Thyme contains beneficial flavonoids including ones called apigen, naringen, leteolin and thymonin. All these flavonoids protect fats in the cell membranes and they actually increase the amount of healthy fats that you find in the cell membranes. If you get the essential oil of thyme it can be used topically for gout, bug bites, sores, arthritis, menstrual pain, nausea, fatigue, athlete's foot and even hangovers. Using it in aromatherapy it can actually strengthen the memory, concentration and calm the mind and nerves.
The last one she covers is lavender and again using that one for aromatherapy you can use it for insomnia, depression, stress and restlessness. I know a lot people will take lavender essential oil and put a couple of drops into a bath to make for a very relaxing bath. If you put some sodium bicarbonate in there as well as some Epsom salts you will have a bath that will put you to sleep in no time. A lesser known property is that it is used for is that it fights anti-fungal resistant skin and nail infections; you can use it topically for that. It can also relieve muscle and joint pain, treat skin disorders like acne, psoriasis and eczema, soothe insect bites, kill lice and nits, improve hair growth, improve digestion and alleviate various respiratory disorders. It can be used in conjunction with thyme in a lot of cases because their uses do tend to overlap quite a bit.
Those are the ones that she covered but like I said there are thousands of different herbal remedies out there. It's worth it to do some research on it depending on what you may be going through at any given time because you could find out a good herbal remedy that you could maybe use for it.
Johnathan: Awesome. I can attest to the benefit of a lot of those. One thing that is worth mentioning is that a lot of people pooh-poo the natural remedies because they are not as powerful as pharmaceutical drugs but people that are taking pharmaceuticals for a very basic illness like the one that Tiffany explained about; skin conditions. A lot of that can be cleared up by diet and then any resulting complications can be cleared up by using these natural remedies after somebodies diet is fixed.
Doug: Another thing too is that a lot of these herbal remedies are actually available in extracted form so when you find standardized extracts of these herbs, they can become very powerful. Maybe taking the herbs straight as it is won't have as powerful an effect but when you're talking about a standardized 25:1 extract then those can be extremely powerful. The people that pooh-poo them are very often people who haven't actually tried them.
Johnathan: Gaby is going to cover for us as we get into our topic about detoxing. Let's start off by talking about Far Infrared saunas. Do you have some information on that for us Gaby?
Gaby: Yes, I'm going to read you the material shared by Sherry Rogers, she is an environmental physician and she wrote a book called, Detoxify or Die. When I first read this book it blew me away because it is really amazing research that I didn't know about even though I was well acquainted with mainstream physicians.
I'm starting with a concept that sweat is one of the most effective ways to get rid of toxic chemicals lodged in your body. She reports how saunas help to heal drug addicts, fire fighters, Vietnam vets, pesticide pilots, and consumers of polluted dairy, drug workers contaminated from occupations as diverse as electricians to farmers. This is all very well documented in the research and these are all very serious conditions which conventional medicine is powerless to help. Sweat has also been a better method for detoxifying chemicals; it's better than chelation, better than surgery, drugs or any other detox methods.
In Europe saunas are very famous throughout the ages and as an example, in North America we have the example of Dr. William Rea. He is a pioneer in environmental medicine and he has an environmental health center in Dallas where he has treated a lot of people with very serious conditions that are classically considered epidemic or "we don't know what causes it" kind of thing.
These are very debilitating diseases and one of the parts of the detox program is the sauna which was initially only a conventional sauna and he was able to heal a lot of people. I personally know of two people who were involved with cleaning up after the gulf oil spill; they were cleaners and they got very, very sick. They got strange neurological symptoms that conventional medicine didn't recognize as a consequence from the gulf oil spill and they went to the health center and they healed. What Dr. Rea used was vitamin C, other intravenous nutrients and Far Infrared saunas.
The concept of the Far Infrared sauna is that you can heal a lot of problems with a conventional sauna but not everyone can tolerate them. People are so sick, they have such imbalances in their nervous system, such damage from toxic chemicals that they cannot even break a sweat or they cannot tolerate a conventional sauna. Especially those who have heart problems like heart failure, especially a medical contraindication for going in the sauna.
The reason for the Far Infrared sauna is that it is the best and safest way to get rid of toxic chemicals including pesticides and also heavy metals which are difficult to detoxify; such as lead and hydrocarbon residues. When a conventional sauna makes you feel weak or just plain miserable you know you are a candidate for a Far Infrared sauna.
A Far infrared sauna uses heat energy to penetrate tissues and it triggers mobilization of chemicals from the fat storage directly into the sweat and this is the key; the penetration of heat energy into the fat tissue allows lower temperatures to be used so you don't have to force yourself to bear high temperatures such as 150 degrees Fahrenheit or higher and you don't have to have all the chemicals pulled into your bloodstream which basically results in the imputation of diseases and chemical toxicity. Instead with a Far Infrared sauna, toxic chemicals are release from the fat directly into the sweat bypassing the bloodstream.
When you are using a Far Infrared sauna on a regular basis over weeks and months, the chemicals that are stored in the organs will slowly make their way to the fat tissues under your skin and then they can be released through the sweat; through the Far Infrared sauna. There are several forms of the sauna; the most cost effective one is the blanket Far Infrared sauna. If we think about all the money people spend getting diagnosed, having all these laboratory tests and getting diagnosed with all these rare diseases that incredibly common and conventional medicine doesn't know the cause or the cure for and all the money that people spend on drugs, the Far Infrared sauna ends up being very cost effective.
People have to keep in mind that we are constantly bombarded with chemicals every single day; tons of them. There is no corner of the world where you are free of them so the Far Infrared sauna is a really good investment. People with heart failure can do it and also the elderly. We have to remember that toxic chemicals can damage the heart and when various heart failure patents reach toxicity there is no safe way to get rid of it except for Far Infrared saunas. People usually have more heart problems or more complications from them when they use a regular sauna. With a Far Infrared sauna these can disappear or at least decrease.
There are no reported adverse effects with a Far Infrared sauna used for those who are very sick. The very interesting thing - and this blew me away - is that some people with heart failure can get off their prescription medication for heart failure using a Far Infrared sauna. This is something that is unheard of in conventional medicine. Conventional medicine first starts you with a closet full of drugs for heart failure; one drug after the other after the other until you die. The average survival rate is 15 years, it's a really problematical disease and most problems with heart failure is toxicity.
Some of the studies documented in the literature cover the benefits of the Far Infrared sauna and no side effects basically. They sent people home to die because they were not candidates for heart transplantation. They were either too old or too sick so they sent them to experiment with the Far Infrared sauna and that's it. Some of these people actually healed, their heart function improved so much that they were no longer candidates for heart transplantation. This is all research that is covered and claimed by the Japanese who are pioneers in this type of therapy.
And it's not just for heart problems, Far Infrared saunas can help heal pains and diseases in war veterans exposed to agent orange so that's how dirty it's been. In some studies heart health can improve in only 3 weeks but as a general rule it is recommended that if you are very sick to use the Far Infrared sauna for at least a year every other day or even on a daily basis for an hour or less. After that it is recommended to use it at least once a week for life just because there is so much toxicity in our environment.
Some people ask why infrared saunas are so healing. Basically it uses energy like the energy that comes from the sun. It's a Far Infrared spectrum which has the longest and most healing waves. They are the safest and the most vital to wellbeing as well. These are the spectrums responsible for photosynthesis and without photosynthesis there would be no life on earth. The Far Infrared sauna that uses ceramic elements and it admits energy in the ideal range for the deepest tissue penetration which is about 1 - 5 inches. The healing effect stimulates endorphin which is your happy hormone, it helps kill bacteria and parasites which reside in your body and it helps detoxify chemicals including heavy metals. It really does help to detoxify them. It improves lymphatic flow and blood circulation; this is the general overview of the Far Infrared sauna.
I have tried it myself for years and I can really attest to the effect in people who have very debilitating diseases and how they can improve their lifestyle.
Tiffany: Nice. I have used the Far Infrared sauna and if you want to take a nap just get in there for 15 minutes and you'll be asleep!
Doug: Yeah totally.
Tiffany: You can get in there and wrap yourself up and read a book or watch a movie. It is extraordinarily relaxing.
Gaby: That's typically what I do after my shift work; I just get into the blanket and go to sleep there.
Erykah: I can attest for the Infrared sauna as well. I was never much of a sweater really and I had very poor circulation for most of my life, I always had very cold feet and cold hands. A few years ago we started using the blanket as a family. We kind of rotate through it, whoever wanted a turn. The kids got in it when they weren't feeling well to sweat out any sickness. After about 3 or 4 months the time it took to heat the body up and start sweating became less and less.
The skin being one of the largest detox organs; it's really an amazing sensation when you get out. You do feel cleaner, you have more energy, and you feel relaxed. There are just so many benefits.
Tiffany: I have also noticed that - not just with myself but with other people who have tried it on - the first time you use it you might not sweat. That might be how toxic you are or you might sweat after your session is over. If that happens just keep ploughing through and you'll eventually start sweating when you're still in the blanket.
Erykah: You can adjust the temperature too so if you are sensitive to heat you can start at the lowest temperature and then as you get used to it you can start to turn the temperature up higher and higher.
Gaby: I can briefly cover a little bit of the guidelines and a lot of ways to do the Far Infrared sauna; like you guys just mentioned when people are so toxic that their sweat glands don't work anymore but if you persist you will finally break a sweat. When you go for an Infrared sauna you can do it with a detox protocol, there are 3 ways to divide your supplements when you do a Far Infrared sauna.
The first group is to replenishment nutrients which are basically minerals, especially magnesium; drink enough water, also anything that will help you dilate your vessels, that opens up the channels so to speak; it helps to flush out the toxins. You can do this several ways, you can either exercise for 10 - 30 minutes, you can have a massage or you can take Niacin which is vitamin B3. It produces a flush, it dilates your vessels and the starting dose is 50mg. You can move up the dose depending on if you have a flush or not. If you have too much of a flush you can take Benadryl.
That's the basic concept, open up your vessels, do exercise or take your supplements, take minerals, magnesium and drink plenty of water before going into the sauna. You can also take enzymes which help flush out toxins from the lymphatics and blood but it's not strictly necessary.
The second group of supplements is for after you get out of your sauna which is the basic detox cocktail. This consists of vitamin C - if you don't have an iron overload then you can take plenty of vitamin C without any problems - and anything that contains glutathione which is a great detoxifier of the body; it's an antioxidant. Also typically alpha lipoic acid or N-Acetyl Cysteine, those are precursors for glutathione. Also alpha lipoic acid is able to reach your fatty tissues so that is very good.
The third group of supplements is any supplement which you might choose to take for a specific problem or you thought it was great idea. Those are best taken hours after the sauna. Sherry Rogers says 12 hours but I think any point after 6 hours after your sauna is good.
As for the Infrared sauna itself, if you're very apprehensive or if you have a very debilitating disease just start very, very simple. People with heart failure can tolerate 60 degrees Celsius which is 140 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes without any problems. You can even choose to go slower just in case, you can start using the sauna at 100 degrees Fahrenheit which is around 40 degrees. You can do short 10 - 20 minutes increments at first building up your body's tolerance.
Those are very basic guidelines, there is no strict plan to do this, just basically if you are very sick start the slowest with the lowest temperature and build yourself up. Depending on your schedule, if you are a very busy person you can do 15 minutes twice per day or 4 time a day for 10 minutes per day if you feel better doing it. The idea is to get some detoxifying going because whether you like it or not we are exposed to tons of chemicals every single day whether you live in the mountains or the North Pole or in New York itself where you will definitely be exposed! (Laughter) We are exposed.
Johnathan: I think an important point - something that a lot of people don't think about - is that these days you don't necessarily need to live next to a manufacturing plant that kicks out a lot of exhaust or in an old industrial area in order to receive these toxins, they're pretty much everywhere. There may be a few bastions of clean air left on the planet but they are very few and far between.
Thank you Gaby, for covering that. Let's go into another aspect of detoxing which is intermittent fasting and Erykah is going to cover that for us.
Tiffany: Since our show today is about detox; another excellent way to stimulate the detox pathways in your body is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is kind of an umbrella term for various diets that cycle between a period of fasting and non-fasting; eating and not eating. It's one form of calorie restriction which is self-explanatory - restricting the amount of calories that you eat.
I have 4 articles here that are really helpful and I'll list them as I go through the information for people who want to learn more about this. It's really ideal on a ketogenic diet; high fat, low carb because you don't have the hunger pains that you have on a high carb diet.
The first article that I wanted to share is called; Intermittent Fasting, This is what Happens to your Body and it was published in November 2014 by Arjun Walia on Collective Evolution. It says that intermittent fasting is not an extreme or dangerous form of dieting; it's actually a very healthy practice that is loaded with a number of health benefits. According to the article it's about timing your meals to allow for regular periods of fasting. Recommendations for allocating time throughout your day to go without food range from approximately 12 - 16 hours. One example is only eating between the hours of 11am and 7pm.
The author goes on to emphasize - and I would like to emphasize as well - that does not mean binge eating in between your fasting periods or loading up on junk food. He also says it's really important how you break your fast. We had this discussion earlier before the show, you don't want to do your intermittent fasting then go eat a hamburger with a bun and all this stuff because it could really affect you in negative ways.
The second article is called, Intermittent Fasting is a Powerful Healing Modality and this was by the website Primal Doctors. It was published in 2013 and the doctor is called David Jockers. They list the benefits, it reduces oxidative stress and inflammation, it improves the levels of sugar and fat circulating through your blood, it also cuts blood pressure, it enhances cellular repair responses, it is a key strategy for anti-aging and longevity, it enhances synaptic elasticity and in this article it says that it is possibly also increasing the ability for successful recovery following brain injury so basically it reboots your brain.
In rodents they found that intermittent fasting was shown to protect animals against diabetes, cancer, heart disease and neurological degeneration. In humans it helps to reduce obesity, hypertension, asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis. It also improves metabolism and the body becomes more efficient in fuel burning.
The third article is called, Intermittent Fasting Supercharges your Brain and More and it's from the same author. This was published in 2014 and leading scientists now believe that intermittent fasting is one of the key strategies for maximizing brain function. I want to share the strategies that they offer. In all the articles they really emphasized the importance of already switching diet so getting off the standard American diet; high carbs, sugar, dairy and stuff like that.
The best way to begin fasting is by giving your body 12 hours between dinner and breakfast every single day. This is recommended because 4 hours is about the time you need for complete digestion and 8 hours for the liver to complete its detoxification cycle. After this is a standard part of your lifestyle try taking one day a week and extending the fast to 16 - 18 hours. Eventually you may choose to do a full 24 hour fast each week. During the fasting period it is great to drink cleansing beverages, herbal teas, water, and water with lemon or apple cider vinegar. These enhance the cleansing process while providing anti-oxidants and micro-nutrients that enhance healing while not interacting with insulin or high HGH levels.
Another important aspect is the precautionary steps before fasting. As I said earlier, before one begins a lifestyle of intermittent fasting they should remove as much sugar and grains from their diet as possible. This will create better blood sugar balance and help regulate insulin and the stress hormone called cortisol. The diet should be built around good fats, anti-oxidants and clean protein. It would be most advised to take 3 - 7 days to stabilize blood sugar and stress hormones before intermittent fasting.
The last article that I wanted to share is much more in depth and it goes through explicitly explaining all the benefits I have just listed above. It's called, The Myriad of Benefits of Intermittent Fasting by Mark's Daily Apple and that was published in 2011. He makes a note about calorie restriction; it's all the rage in aging circles. He says that it's a little bit more stressful, it takes a lot more energy to count your calories and whatnot. He says that "intermittent fasting is the best way to have your cake and eat it too."
"Beyond the already proven benefits of a keto diet or primal blueprint low carb lifestyle, fasting once in a while seems to offer many of the same benefits as calorie restriction. Stuff like increased longevity, neuroprotection, increased insulin sensitivity, strong resistance to stress, cool effects on the endogenous hormone production and increased mental clarity." He is saying that fasting becomes a lot easier and intuitive when you have got your food dialed in so you're already on a low carb, high fat diet. What is also interesting and I wanted to share was that at the end of the article he said that in his experience overall fasting seems just right, it's like a reset button for your entire body - presumably across a large spectrum of maladies and dysfunctions. It puts your body into repair mode at a cellular level and it can restore normal hormonal function in the obese and overweight.
The author says "I don't plan my intermittent fasting, I let them happen. I prefer to fast when it's forced upon me like when I'm travelling or under a deadline. Once you have acclimated to the primal diet, give it a shot and report back." I know many of the co-hosts here have done intermittent fasting and I will speak of my own experience, it just seems to become a normal way of life. Here in our house we usually eat breakfast and then we eat before 5 o' clock in the afternoon and then we do the intermittent fasting until the next morning. You don't need to eat 5 meals a day like so many people recommend.
There is also a good article from the keto diet home blog, it's called; The Complete Guide to Intermittent Fasting and it goes through a breaks a lot of the myths. One of the myths is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I personally eat breakfast every day; I find that a breakfast of bacon, sausage and eggs with lots of butter helps me get through the entire day until dinner. I have a lot of energy; I do a lot of physical labor in my job so I never feel sluggish or hungry. Also supplementing things like bone broth, or a fat tea or coffee drink.
Just one little note from that article The Complete Guide, once you're keto adapted you don't depend on glucose so you don't need to eat those 5 small meals a day since your insulin levels will not spike you won't need small portions regularly. You can eat one meal or two meals and get satiated from the food. They said that compared to calorie restriction, intermittent fasting is not restricting in calories it just simply limits your eating windows to a few hours a day and in fact you usually fast for 14 - 20 hours or even up to 36 hours.
Do you guys want to share anything? Do you have any added experience to that?
Doug: I don't generally eat breakfast; I usually have 2 meals a day; lunch and dinner. Then I won't eat again till the afternoon the following day. I've incorporated intermittent fasting into my day pretty much all the time and I never really feel hungry during it. Being on the ketogenic diet your body just seems to switch into burning its own fat stores while you're fasting so there isn't any hunger or cravings or things like that.
Tiffany: After I eat breakfast I can go all day at work, I don't have to take a break or stop for lunch or stop for a snack here or there like I used to have to do. I just eat breakfast and eat dinner. Sometimes I'll have a cup of tea.
Gaby: I second that, I have breakfast. Usually before, in work I would have to have 5 meals or a snack really frequently. So much food!
Erykah: It just seems like the benefits are so amazing. I know I can speak for myself and the other hosts, your levels of energy are amazing and you don't feel that hunger sensation. Like you all shared, I would go through the same thing, I don't even feel hungry. Even in this collection of articles, they all say the same thing - you find that you are not even thinking about food and it's been 12 - 16 hours.
Johnathan: Since we are talking about food and on the topic of cleaning up your diet - I have had a very similar experience just eating breakfast; very little hunger throughout the day; eat dinner and then don't feel like snacking; pretty much breakfast and dinner every day. I used to be in that pattern that you mentioned where you are eating at least 3 meals a day and snacking in between all day long. That was mostly a carb based diet at that time; lots of carbs and sugar.
Doug: It's funny because I visited friends a while back and I was eating with them and we had dinner at 6 o' clock or whatever and around 8 o' clock they all start pulling out all these snacks; nuts, cheese and crackers and so on and I was thinking how can you guys be hungry? I don't understand this at all, I feel like I just ate. It was crazy.
Tiffany: I think a lot of people want to eat again after a couple of hours because they have a blood sugar spike when they eat and then their blood sugar drops back down and they want to eat again just to stop the rollercoaster.
Gaby: It's like you just ate! What do you mean you're going to eat again?
Erykah: I wonder if in social situations it's just there to keep people entertained? The food situation?
Johnathan: At least if things are awkward you can snack on something instead of just sitting there and staring at each other. (Laughter)
Tiffany: You can text instead.
Johnathan: Doug do you want to talk about the diet? We are going to talk about detoxing just through changing your diet and I know intermittent fasting covered some of that but I think we have some more information to share.
Doug: What I was going to talk about was how the ketogenic diet in and of itself is naturally detoxing. Most approaches to detoxing involve a high carbohydrate, low fat, low protein composition. They also tend to recommend avoiding animal products just because they are considered inherently bad. It's considered a burden on the body to be eating any kind of animal food. What we have been covering on the radio show here and what we have been covering on SOTT for a long time is that this is actually just not the case.
When I'm talking about most approaches to detox I'm talking about juice fasting, master cleanse and things like that. They also tend to load people up with fiber and laxatives which generally is not a good idea. I'm going to get a bit into debunking some of the cleansing protocols later in the show. I'll just say for now that it is not generally a good idea to load up on that sort of thing. The idea behind these approaches is to give the body a break from all the "bad stuff" - or what is perceived as bad stuff like animal products in particular - to allow the body to get rid of these stored toxins.
The problem is that by depending on carbohydrates for energy you are keeping your insulin levels high and your body can't access its fats stores to burn them so all of these cleanses that involve high carbohydrate eating are essentially flawed because they are actually blocking you from accessing your fat stores which is where most of the toxicity tends to be stored.
On the other hand being on a properly formulated ketogenic diet you are naturally detoxing just by the nature of the diet itself. Because the toxins have an affinity for fat - they are what's called lipophilic - but also because they body needs a place to sequester these toxins much of the toxicity of the body is stored in the fat. Just so it won't interfere with important cellular processes by being in the cellular matrix.
Getting your body into fat burning mode by lowering your carbohydrate consumption to near zero and giving it no more than its minimum daily requirement for protein it'll start burning these fat stores and therefore releasing these stored toxins. There is some speculation that part of the dreaded low carb flu - and I don't know if you have heard of this before but when people first transition to this ketogenic diet they sometimes feel crappy, almost like they have got the flu; they have some body aches, they get tired and that sort of thing - well some of that might actually be from the release of these toxins from burning your own fat stores.
Some of it I'm sure is because your body hasn't switched over to primarily fat burning mode with all its energy so you're not getting all the energy that you need but like I said there is some speculation that some of these symptoms might actually be detox symptoms. Once you are transitioned to ketosis one can try undergoing what is known as a fat fast to more readily burn stored fat and cleanse the body at a deeper level. A fat fast involves lowering the total calorie consumption to 1000 - 1200 calories per day with 80 - 90% of those calories coming from fat. So you are lowering your calories when you do a fat fast but you are still taking in some fats. You're not hungry per say, you might feel like you want to eat a little bit more but it's fairly easy to get over that with a little will power.
These are short term fasts, they easily last a maximum of five days so it avoids going into your protein stores to make up for an amino acid deficiency. If it doesn't have a sufficient amount of protein for a long time your body will start breaking down your lean muscle mass to make up for the protein that it's missing. Any fast that causes a loss of muscle mass is not a beneficial fast. You should not be breaking down your muscle tissue; it's important to keep that. By taking in the fat, fat actually has a protein sparing effect where even though you are not taking enough calories in, because you are getting enough fat your body won't start breaking down its own muscle tissue.
Even outside of doing an actual fat fast being on the ketogenic diet does mobilize some of that stored fat and releases some of those toxins to have a cleansing effect. It's important to keep your protein levels low enough to have that cleansing effect because high protein consumption will increase your insulin levels and that will prevent your body from getting at that fat to burn it. Also a paleo/ketogenic diet will naturally avoid a lot of the toxic foods out there that you find in the average diet so you are giving your body a break, hopefully permanently, from all these harmful constituents so your body's not having to sequester all those toxic elements into the fat tissue.
This includes things like gluten, casein, plant defenses, heavy metals, anti-nutrients, herbicides and pesticides, sugar and GMOs. So just by transitioning to a paleo/ketogenic diet in and of itself is a cleansing diet, it is a detoxing diet. A lot of people on this diet aren't diligent about restricting their protein, they'll go over on their protein levels quite frequently and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing as long as you're not overdoing it. To get stripped every once in a while just to do this kind of cleanse, if you are ever feeling the need to do a cleanse, then this is the perfect way to do it.
Johnathan: That's a great summary of that process. There was maybe about a year or two years where I was tapering off from the old bad diet into a looser paleo diet then into the keto diet and I definitely had periods of detoxing when I noticed heavy symptoms of that and I went through the "keto flu" for about 2 weeks. It was pretty rough but from everything I've read it was exactly what you have described, those toxins being released into the system.
Doug: My approach to intermittent fasting is that I usually do a fat fast on a daily basis so when I wake up in the morning I'll have a fatty drink, a fat tea or a butter hot cocoa or a butter coffee so I'm not craving any calories first thing in the morning but I'm only taking in fat. My body is still in that cleansing detoxing mode but I'm still taking in calories so I'm not hungry at all.
Johnathan: Let's talk about heavy metal detox a little bit. Doug, do you want to give an overview of that?
Doug: Sure, this information comes from a Sidney MacDonald Baker MD. He wrote a book called Detoxification and Healing. It's a pretty great book, it goes through a lot of different detox protocols and he does talk about heavy metals at one point so I'm going to briefly cover what he says about that. He says that there are many different toxic metals in our environment that we are exposed to but he concentrates on three of the most common; mercury, lead and aluminum.
We get exposure of mercury from old thermometers, you don't see too many of these around anymore but back in the day they used mercury in thermometers and if those ever broke open you would be exposed to the mercury vapors. I know back in the day you would see kids playing with the mercury because it is a cool thing, its liquid at room temperature and it's very heavy so people used to love playing with it. I think we know a little bit better now; not to do that. Fluorescent lights have mercury in them, particularly those compact fluorescent bulbs which are supposed to be so environmentally friendly but contain quite a bit of mercury; industrial pollutants, vaccines, sea vegetables, fish.
Ocean fish is a controversial one because a lot of people talk about the amount of mercury you actually find in fish but most fish have a very high selenium content and selenium actually binds with mercury and when it's in that bound state you don't actually absorb any of it. I would still try to stay away from eating too much of the large predatory fish like tuna but it might not be as dangerous as everybody tends to say it is. Of course there is the radiation to take into consideration and PCB's so it's not just the mercury that you have to worry about.
Probably the most common exposure is from dental amalgam fillings. I know some dentists have moved away from using the mercury fillings although they will still swear that there is nothing wrong or dangerous about using mercury to fill your teeth. You have to think that every time you chew you are releasing those mercury vapors from those amalgams. Dr. Baker does say that it is a very good idea to have those amalgams removed from your mouth. You definitely want to find a dentist that knows what they are doing, who is familiar with the process and knows how to do it in a safe manner so that you are not getting exposed to more mercury while that happens.
Mercury vapor enters the body via the lungs, oddly enough mercury doesn't enter the body via the skin or the intestines, and it's just the vapors that really pose a threat. Interestingly enough there is a million fold differences in how individuals will react to mercury. Some are extremely sensitive and others won't seem to react at all. That's pretty incredible that it's a thousand fold to a million fold difference in the range of how different people react to it. One person may be exposed to a minute amount of mercury and have a severe reaction and others exposed to that same amount won't seem to notice at all.
Signs of toxicity could include fatigue, eczema, irritable bowel, acid reflux, intermittent urinary urgency, pain, foggy thinking, mood swings, nervousness, irritability, insomnia, headaches, abnormal sensations or muscle twitching, tremors, trapped nerves, weakness or muscle atrophy or decreased cognitive function.
It's difficult to tell how much mercury is in the body, blood tests and urine tests aren't very reliable. It seems the most reliable way to do it is hair testing. That's when they take a small sample of hair and they test what's in there. They can test it for a lot of different metals and other toxins. That seems to be the most reliable but there is also a way of doing it with what is called a provocation test and that is where you take a chelator like DMSA or EDTA and then you test the urine. So you are taking something that sucks the mercury out of your tissues and then they can test that and see how much is actually in there.
The next one he goes into is lead. Lead exposure is less of an issue these days because within the mainstream they are up to speed with how toxic lead is so it's been taken out of things like paint and gasoline and things like that. You do get some exposure though if you are exposed to some old paint in old housing or old plumbing; there can be lead in there. There is still stuff coming out of China and Asia that still has lead in it like ceramic blazes, cheap cast iron pans sometimes have lead in them.
Lead becomes deposited in the bones because it has a similar structure to calcium. Aside from acute lead poisoning, small repeated exposure over time can lead to problems. Symptoms of lead exposure include problems with attention, learning or behavior problems, seizures, abdominal pain, headaches and irritability.
Another one he goes into is aluminum exposure. Aluminum is extremely common in the natural environment so exposure can only be limited to a certain extent. You find it in baking powder, antacids, antiperspirants, aluminum pots and pans, aluminum foil and it's in many immunizations. We actually excrete a lot of aluminum but some of it does get left behind. If you're in a situation when you are taking in about 50mg of aluminum a day you usually excrete about 49mg of that so you are getting rid of most of it but some of it does stay behind.
The problem with aluminum is that it binds to DNA and interferes with its functioning and once it's bound on there it won't come off until the cell actually dies. There is no method for ridding the body of aluminum so avoidance is really key there.
Treatment for dealing with these heavy metals usually involves putting in good molecules to bind on to the bad and usher out the toxic elements. These molecules are called chelators and that comes from the Latin chela meaning claw. If you picture the little molecules they are kind of like claws and they claw on to these toxic elements and then they allow the body to excrete them.
One pretty good chelator is called chlorella which is a blue green algae and it is good for chelating heavy metals, particularly mercury. Another good one is cilantro which is something you can find at pretty much any grocery store. It tastes great, some people tend to have an issue with it; they don't really like the taste. Apparently they are missing an enzyme in their saliva that helps to break it down so they end up thinking it tastes kind of like dirt. I love the stuff; that is also a good metal chelator.
So these are two things that you can supplement or add to your diet in many ways and you would be giving yourself a bit of a cleanse all the time.
Folic acid which is a product of the breakdown of organic matter - the breakdown of leaves, sea matter and things like that; you can get folic acid supplements - is great for chelating heavy metals. Also ones like EDTA which is used in mainstream hospital situations as well as a chelator for dealing with cases of toxicity. There's another one, I don't know if you can actually get it any more, it's called DMSA. We used to be able to get it in Canada off the shelf in health food stores but I haven't been able to find it recently. It might be a little bit more difficult to find but Sidney MacDonald Baker actually goes into a DMSA protocol.
DMSA is a sulfur compound which is really great at removing metals from the tissues. He has a whole protocol where you do have a 14 day cycle and for the first 3 days of that you do the DMSA along with a bunch of other supplements and then you take 11 days off. You do 3 days on, 11 days off, 3 days on, 11 days off and over that time you are taking other supplements as well to help the body get rid of stuff. You can't just do it outright because it can be very difficult. You go through a lot of detox reactions from this so you do need to be sparing with it.
When you are dealing with lead, vitamin C is very good at helping you get rid of lead; so is vitamin B6 which is a form of pyridoxal 5' - phosphate. Calcium is actually very good because it will push the lead out of the bones. Using DMSA and EDTA as well of course. So that's a little bit on the metals stuff.
Johnathan: Just to interject here for a little bit, Erykah you and your husband had some personal experience with mercury and arsenic detoxing. Would you mind telling us about that?
Erykah: Doug gave a really good overview and I just wanted to share a bit of experience with mercury toxicity and arsenic which wasn't mentioned. As Doug said in his discussion, my husband and I had our hair tested; a hair analysis. We were working with a doctor out of Los Angeles and he did a hair analysis so we could see our mineral content and the things that were in our body. We were really surprised to receive the results because we both had very high levels of mercury and arsenic in our hair samples. It turned out that it was from farming. We were organic farmers on land that had been heavily treated with pesticides for years. It was old sugar cane land and we were putting in an organic farm and basically cleaning up the soil. We were obviously receiving a lot of the toxins, whether it was through the air as Doug explained or just hands on experience; digging in the dirt.
My husband had a very severe reaction. Around the same time he also had his mercury amalgams taken out of his teeth and they did not use the proper procedure so I think a lot of exposure came from that as well. All the symptoms that Doug listed were experienced by him and as his wife I was very concerned. "My gosh, is my husband starting to get Alzheimer's?" He just did not feel good and this went on for months. We did do the Infrared sauna during that time, several times per week to start the detox process. We also did the detox protocol that Gaby mentioned in Detoxify or Die and it was about 6 months of being very regimented. We ended up moving off the farm we were on because our concerns were so grave. We had children working down there too and it was just not a good scenario.
It took 6 - 8 months for my husband to really eliminate all of those side effects. After about a year we had our hair tested again and for both of us the levels of arsenic and mercury went down considerably so I can say from experience that these protocols work. There are times where you suffer through it, we live in a very warm tropical climate so getting into the Far Infrared sauna when it's 80 degrees and 80% humidity is not the most enjoyable! I will say it was literally a life changer. In addition to the diet my husband has come back 100% and has more energy than I have ever experience since he was 12 years old. I will say from personal experience that this was life changing.
As a farmer I would have never known to check for those things. You assume you're outside; you're working in the soil. We are in Hawaii so we have very clean air because the trade winds blow a lot of the pollution away. But we are also massively inundated with toxic chemicals in the soil and in the air. For those who may not know we are the number 1 test site for GMO technology. It has literally taken over. Sugar cane is no longer grown in Hawaii but now we are the number 1 GMO seed producer for the nation. I really recommend that if people are having any of those symptoms - even the mood swings, the fatigue - check out the mercury detox protocol because it can really be a life changer. It's quite amazing to experience.
I will add to what Doug said about the fish. It was the first thing I asked because we do have a lot of fish here. Both reef fish and deep sea fish like tuna or ahi as it's called. That was the first question I asked the doctor, is this high mercury content that we are experiencing because of the fish we eat in our diet? This was at a time where we were probably eating it 3 or 4 times a week and he said no actually. In addition to the agriculture exposure I would say if you are eating a lot of seaweed - because we do have a lot of sushi here - that the seaweed is like the sponges of the ocean and it picks up all sorts of heavy metal toxicity in the ocean. That could have been another part of it. Wherever it was coming from we managed to cut it in half with these different protocols so I'm a firm believer.
Johnathan: Awesome. Let me just briefly cover along the lines of heavy metal detox and also chelating radioactive materials. Edible clay, French green clay specifically. It is referred to as other mineral names. There are several different types, you can look for montmorillonite, bentonite and illite clay. I actually use a mix of this that I got from a vendor who makes healing clays. It can be used internally, oftentimes people just use it externally for skin conditions and things like that but there are specific types that can be used internally. You just want to be careful with how much you use and the protocol that you follow.
If anybody is curious to check out green clays I can tell you the basic method to use is to start out by mixing a little bit in with a glass of water. About a quarter teaspoon - it's a very small amount - in an 8oz glass of water. Let it sit overnight and then the next morning just drink the water after the clay has settled to the bottom. So you just drink the water solution that is on top and you toss out the clay material that is at the bottom of the glass. You do that for 5 or 6 days for the first week and that primes your digestive system for the presence of this clay and then you can start mixing the clay in with the water and start actually taking that internally.
Some people use this daily for many years without any negative side effects, other people experience some constipation. I think that mostly has to do with overdoing it at the beginning. I use it off and on, a couple of weeks here, a couple of weeks there with usually about a month or two in between. It's very good for a number of different things but I'll keep this short and list off some of the benefits from the website eytonsearth.org, they have a lot of information there about internal and external use of clay. Here is just a small list of benefits of using bentonite, montmorillonite and illite:
"To assist in the removal of toxic substances in the digestive system, both chemical and pathological, bacterial food poisoning, organic and in-organic toxicity, to cleanse the colon and promote proper bacterial balance in the intestines, to begin the process of detoxification of the liver, to stimulate liver function, part if the short term cleansing program is used to promote good health, critical to support external clay treatment - so you can use it internally and externally at the same time, removal of heavy metals and recovery from chemical therapies from radiation. There are certain special long term treatments to fight free radicals and fix free oxygen in the blood stream. Reduction in free radical damage, improved immune function and improved cellular respiration. It can also have the effect of reducing food sensitivities."It's got quite a wide range of things but there are also some interesting historical aspects to clay. It was used around the area of Chernobyl when the disaster happened. It was specifically fed to the cattle to detox the cattle from radiation so that the meat could still be fed to people. They also put it into chocolate bars and passed those out so that people could receive the clay to have some radiation detox themselves. If you look up French green clay or specifically bentonite clay and radiation detox there is a lot of information on it online. That's just my little aside on green clays.
Erykah: Applied on the skin clays are excellent for insect bites. It's really helpful because it sucks the poison out. I've used that before, also for skin irritations. Obviously not if you have an open wound. Do you know if it's ok with an open wound Johnathan? I've used it on a pretty mean spider bite in the past and it has really helped with the inflammation on it.
Johnathan: I'm not certain about that. When I had shingles I used it on the shingles sores. The only negative thing I came across was that when the clay dried it irritated the skin really badly because it cracked and it was moving around this really sensitive skin. I think if you were going to use it externally on sensitive skin you want to make sure that you rise it off immediately after it dries so that you don't have this rough interaction.
One thing that I forgot to mention is that generally the clay should be used 2 - 3 hours before or after you take your supplements because it is such a powerful chelator that when looked at under a microscope the clay particles look like little sponges. They can actually chelate the supplements you have taken as well, so you want to space it out with other things that you are trying to absorb.
Next up Tiffany wanted to cover coffee enemas which is a very little covered topic. I have spoken with some people about this in the past and they were like "Enemas with coffee???? What do you mean???" (Laughter) Tiffany do you want to explain that a little bit?
Tiffany: Once again I'm on booty duty. (Laughter) Everybody else is talking about things you put in your mouth so we'll go to the other end now. We've been using water enemas for thousands of years but coffee enemas go above and beyond that because of the multitude of benefits. Water enemas will really just cleanse out the bowel relatively speaking. Coffee enemas first came into fashion during the First World War. They were looking for a way to relieve the pain of soldiers who had just had operations, they typically used water but one nurse either accidentally on purpose tipped some coffee into the enema bag and gave it to the patent and the patent said that he had a reduction in pain. He also said that he had a reduction in constipation for the anesthesia. So that's how the coffee enema came into regular use.
One of the biggest proponents of coffee enemas is Dr. Max Gerson. He uses the coffee enema along with nutritional guidelines to treat cancer. He says the major benefit of the coffee enema is to enhance the elimination of toxins through the liver by triggering increased bile flow. The bile alkalizes the small intestine and promotes improved digestion. So how does it work?
Coffee contains theophylline and that dilates the blood vessels and increases blood dialysis across the colon wall. Coffee also contains caffeine as well and two forms of palmitic acid called cafestol and kahweol. When you give yourself a coffee enema you are skipping the digestive tract so the caffeine and the palmitics are absorbed through the bile and directly into the blood stream then they make their way to the liver. The caffeine also causes the expansion of the portal vein in the liver and it causes the bile ducts to expand. The bile is released and gets toxins out of your body by triggering peristalsis which is the contractions in your muscles. Then you can flush out your waste.
The palmitic acids are also important - and this is the main thing that makes coffee enemas so great - because it increases the production of glutathione. Glutathione is a master anti-oxidant and detoxifier. So the glutathione is produced by the liver and it binds to the carcinogenic compounds, oxidized lipids, metabolized drugs and any kind of toxins that you might encounter in your environment. It can also remove heavy metals like mercury. So glutathione latches onto toxins and it serves as an escort and it ushers them out of the bowel. When you give yourself a coffee enema the amount of glutathione production goes up by 600 - 700% above the normal rate of glutathione production. It's much cheaper than getting your glutathione from your doctor and it's better than taking glutathione orally. If you take it orally there is a debate that it's not absorbed that well and enzymes in your digestive tract break it down. I saw one study where they were giving people 1000mg of glutathione orally daily and they only absorbed 30 - 35%.
There are a lot of videos on you tube. People actually giving themselves coffee enemas on video. They don't show any of their bits or anything but they show you how to do it so you can look those up. One caveat is that if you are suffering from ulcerative colitis it's probably a better idea to heal your gut first before you attempt to do any kind of coffee enema. The first thing you want to do is get some high grade organic coffee, I know in Sherry Rogers book Detoxify or Die she says that you can use Folgers or anything but I say get the best coffee that you can get. If your budget allows for it then go for it. You also need an enema kit which you can find at any drug store or on amazon.com. Amazon also sell this fancy-shmansy kit with a stainless steel bucket so if you really want to do that you can buy one of those too.
You get yourself 2 tablespoons of brown coffee. Some people say 2 tablespoons others say 3 but if this is your first time you might want to start with 1 tablespoon and see how you react to it. Some people are more sensitive to caffeine than others. You may want to do it in the morning versus night time, see how the caffeine affects you; you don't want to be up all night after you do a coffee enema. So you have your 2 tablespoons of coffee, use filtered water; purified water, never use tap water. Grind up the coffee and put it in a pot with 2 cups of water, let that simmer for 5 - 10 minutes and then allow it to cool down to body temperature. Some people use their coffee maker; I just do it on the stove top.
When the coffee is done you filter the coffee grounds, do don't want to put the grounds in there as well. Put the coffee in a little bag; make sure the tubing is clamped because you don't want it all to flow out of the tubing when you pour it in there. When you have got all the coffee in the bag you open up the clamp and flush the coffee out to get the air out. Then you can hang it on the door know in your bathroom or at least 18'' off of the floor. You don't want to put the bag up too high because it'll flow too fast and that can be kind of uncomfortable. You want to use a lubricant like coconut oil on the nozzle to make the tubing easier to insert. Put some towels down on the floor - there might be a tad bit of leakage - then lie down. There is some debate here as to whether you should lie down on your left side or your right side. When I was in nursing school they said that when you do an enema put the patient on the left side because of the anatomy but I was reading that if you want to do a coffee enema you should lie on the right side because it gives the coffee easier access to the hepatic; the liver or portal vein to make it more readily take up the coffee. I think that either way it goes in, the coffee is going to get to where it needs to go.
So lie down on your right side and let the coffee flow in slowly. If you feel a very strong urge to go you can clamp the tube, take some deep breaths, relax for a while and then open the tube back up again because you want to take in the whole 2 cups. Some people like to leave the nozzle in while they are doing it, other people take it out; I personally take it out. You want to hold onto this coffee enema for at least 12 - 15 minutes. I start on my right side or my left side and I stay on that side for about 5 minutes and then I roll onto my back, stay there for 5 minutes, do a little abdominal massage and then roll onto my right side depending on which side you start on. You relax, you might want to read a book or something. Hold it for 12 - 15 minutes, you don't want to hold it for more than 15 minutes because you don't want the bile to get reabsorbed back into the bloodstream. While you're doing it you should hear a lot of gurgling noises; on your right side especially. That's your liver releasing the bile. Then after the 15 minutes get up, get on the toilet and release it all.
If you can't hold it for the entire 15 minutes that's ok, you can work your way up to it. I forgot to mention to you it's very important to have a bowel movement before you do the coffee enema. You want to make sure that there is nothing that is going to be blocking the flow of coffee. If you are very constipated you might want to do a water enema first and then do the coffee enema. While you are releasing this substance you might feel a little bit nauseous, you might notice a metallic or polluted smell more than usual. That's just a sign that you are really detoxing some stuff and the coffee enema is working. I always say its better out then in so just let it all out!
Dr. Max Gerson has given coffee enemas daily - or several coffee enemas daily if you have the sickest patients; like if they have cancer or something serious like that - without any ill effects. I've also read that coffee enemas don't excessively kill off good bacteria in your gut but I can't find much evidence supporting that. I would assume any enema that you give yourself is going to clean out both good and bad bacteria. If you are taking a nice good quality probiotic you shouldn't suffer any ill effects from taking a coffee enema. After your coffee enema you might notice that you have a boost in your energy levels, increased mental clarity, and improved mood, a decrease in chronic pain and improvement in allergies.
Another thing that I ran into that I thought was a joke when I first read it was that there is an ancient description of enemas which was written about 2000 years ago. It was allegedly found in the Dead Sea scrolls in a section called the manual of discipline. I thought I would wrap up with that. It's really weird. One of the authors that I found this little snippet from said that it was done during the time of Jesus and the master Jesus used these methods to perform his miracles of healing. That's funny on several different levels. If you can see Jesus giving his Acolytes enemas! I'll just go ahead and read this.
"Think not that it is sufficient that the angel of water embrace you outwards only. I tell you truly, the uncleanliness within is much greater by much than the uncleanliness without. And he who cleanses himself without, but within remains unclean, is like to tombs that outwards are painted fair but are within full of all manner of horrible uncleanliness and abominations. So I tell you truly, suffer the angel of water to baptize you also within, that you may become free from all your past sins and that within likewise you may become as pure as the river's foam sporting in the sunlight.Wasn't that beautiful?
Seek, therefore, a large trailing gourd, having a stalk the length of a man; take out its inwards and fill it with water from the river which the sun has warmed. Hang it upon the branch of a tree and kneel upon the ground before the angel of water, and suffer the end of the stalk of the trailing gourd to enter your hinder parts that the water may flow through all your bowels. Afterwards rest kneeling on the ground before the angel of water and pray to the living God that he will forgive you and all your past sins and pray to the angel of water that he will free your body from every uncleanliness and disease. Then let the water run out from your body, that it may carry away from within it all the unclean and evil-smelling things of Satan. And you shall see with your eyes and smell with your nose all the abominations and uncleanliness which defiled the temple of your body; even all the sins which abode in your body, tormenting you with all manner of pains. I tell you truly, baptism with water frees you from all of these. Renew your baptizing with water on every day of your fast till the day when you see that the water which flows out of you is as pure as the river's foam.
Then betake your body to the coursing river, and there in the arms of the angel of water render thanks to the living God that he has freed you from your sins. And this holy baptizing by the angel of water is: Rebirth unto the new life. For your eyes shall henceforth see, and your ears shall hear. Sin no more, therefore, after your baptism, that the angels of air and of water may eternally abide in you and serve you ever more."
Johnathan: Wow! That's definitely the most eloquent description of an enema I have ever heard.
Erykah: A spiritual enema!
Doug: When you started reading I thought it might have been kind of metaphorical but nope, it sounds like they were describing an enema for sure!
Tiffany: That's why I thought surely it could not be true. It is a very eloquent and beautiful description. I do have to give him that. Imagine, they were just talking about water enemas, think about how beautiful it would be with a coffee enema!
So coffee enemas are great, do try them, and don't be afraid.
Johnathan: Awesome, well thank you for all that information, sorry that you got stuck with the booty duty again. We really appreciate your work.
Tiffany: Oh, my booty duty.
Erykah: Don't pooh-poo the booty duty. (Laughter)
Johnathan: Before we go to Zoya's pet health segment I know Doug wanted to talk about some of the popular detox methods that are out there in the mainstream and debunk a few of those; like the master cleanse.
Doug: As I said before, a lot of these cleanses out there emphasize the high carbohydrate, low fat, low protein approach; usually vegetarian. Things like juice fasting, the master cleanse, some of the boxed cleanses that you get out there in health food stores like psyllium husk and that sort of thing. The idea behind these is that animal products are bad and that we need to give our bodies a break from them. It's based on a completely incorrect view of human physiology and what is actually bad for us. We know as we do here at SOTT and talk about quite frequently that the body runs more efficiently on fat. We can see that these detox plans are little better than mainstream holistic health plans and they may actually do some harm.
Starting off with the main popular one, the master cleanse. Sometimes it is also referred to as the lemonade diet. It was concocted by Stanley Burroughs in the 1940's and ended up revived in 1976 and has been with us ever since. It's a fast, it involves no food, the only things that are allowed to be consumed are a lemonade mixture made of freshly squeezed lemons, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and water, water and herbal teas. It's essentially a starvation protocol. The only energy taken in is sugar in the form of maple syrup meaning the body has little ability access to fat stores and can't actually get to any of the built up toxicity that is actually in there. There is no protein provided so the body has no recourse but to break up lean muscle mass to recycle the amino acids that are needed for all the necessary biochemical processes. Especially when you consider the fact that most people are doing this fast for at least 10 days - that's what they are recommending is the minimum with a maximum of 40 days - you can imagine how much protein your body needs and is missing out on there and how much lean muscle mass it is actually breaking down. Pretty much all the weight loss that is achieved on the master cleanse is a loss of muscle mass, not a loss of fat.
As I said, if you are drinking sugar constantly your body doesn't have access to those fat stores because your insulin levels are high and whenever your insulin levels are high your insulin discourages getting rid of your fat to be burned. People do report good things on this fast but surges in energy that are often reported usually intermittent with periods of fatigue are likely from an adrenalin in response to low blood sugar. It shouldn't necessarily be looked at as a beneficial thing. When your body is running on adrenalin for 10 days it's not really a good thing.
Most of what is said here about the master cleanse could also be applied to juice fasting. That's fasting when people are drinking freshly squeezed juices throughout the period of the fast. It's the same thing; basically you are surviving on sugar whether it's a lemonade mixture you are making up with maple syrup or just the natural sugars present in vegetables and fruits that you are having during your juice therapy. It's the same kind of thing.
Speaking of juice fasting, Tiffany mentioned Dr. Gerson, there is a cancer protocol called Gerson Therapy that was created by Dr. Gerson. It is a Dr. supervised anti-cancer protocol that involves extensive vegetable juicing. It is a predominantly vegetarian diet supplemented with hourly consumption of organic juices and supplements. Animal proteins are excluded from the diet under the unproven premise that tumors are developed as a result of a lack of pancreatic enzymes.
It is said that acute leukemia, brain cancers and pancreatic cancers do not respond well to the treatment. Nor do Parkinson's or ALS but they say that the rest of the cancers will benefit. The problem is that people have to remain on this protocol for 2 - 3 years to see any benefit. In some cases people have to remain on the protocol for 5 years to see results. Some on the diet have suffered from a few different things such as electrolyte deficiencies, particularly sodium, due to the complete lack of salt on the protocol. The National Cancer Institute evaluated the Gerson Therapy and said there was no evidence that it was beneficial. It suffered from methodological flaws and no independent entity has been able to reproduce the claims.
Not that I'm going to take the National Cancer Institute's word for it but just looking at the way this therapy works I do have some problems with it.
Tiffany: So do I, you would probably have better luck doing fat fasting or the ketogenic diet along with coffee enemas.
Doug: Absolutely I agree. I think that that is very true. There is a lot of research out there showing the potential benefit for a ketogenic diet in addressing cancer. The simple way of putting it is that tumors feed on sugar. They don't have the ability to metabolize fats so by taking all the sugar out of your diet and going low carb and feeding yourself on fat you are essentially starving it.
Getting back to the Gerson Therapy here, there was a 1994 article in The Journal of Naturopathic Medicine which attempted to follow 39 of Gerson's patients in Tijuana. Reviews of the study found it to have obvious flaws including the majority of patients lost to follow up and lack of access to detailed medical records and a reliance on patients for disease stage information. Even the authors of the article themselves regarded the results as unclear.
There may be some benefits to Gerson Therapy in that it gets people to remove a lot of harmful elements in their diet. It loads them up with a lot of anti-oxidants that you will find in plants so all of that can be beneficial for cancer therapy. However because it is high carbohydrate and cancer eats sugar its benefit will likely be negligible. It's like taking one step forward and one step back. As we just mentioned you would probably be much better off doing fat fasting and a ketogenic diet instead.
Lastly, just to go over these boxed cleanses that you find in health food stores a lot. These things just usually load you up with a lot of fiber and laxatives as well as supporting elimination organs. There's usually liver support in there; kidney support maybe. Essentially it's just forcing fiber through the digestive tract. The colon cleanse idea has been fairly thoroughly debunked and that's not to discount anything that we said about enemas because certainly they are very beneficial but there is this idea that these mucoid plaques build up in the colon and cause what is called auto intoxication which basically means that the colon is sitting there reabsorbing a lot of this toxic stuff that's fermenting in the colon. This hasn't ever really been supported by any actual evidence.
Just an aside, I've got a friend who is a colon surgeon and he has opened up hundreds and hundreds of colons and he says he has never found anything like that. He has never seen any of this plaque. I've heard of these holistic practitioners talking about this black paste on the inside of the colon because the colon is so dirty but he said that he has never in all the colons he has opened - and he has open up some pretty sick people - he has never seen any of this kind of stuff in there. This was all to support the idea that we need this harsh fiber to scrub down the inside of the colon when really there isn't much evidence that they are needed for that reason.
Psyllium husk is another one of those seed based fibers that is quite harsh. They stimulate the intestines so they can contract and they can actually lead to dependence. People who are taking psyllium husk on a daily basis in order to be able to go are actually taking laxatives. It does definitely lead to dependence. A good book on this is called The Fiber Menace by Konstantin Monastyrsky. It's a great book, it's actually very funny. He talks about how this obsession with fiber is actually quite damaging. That being said some of these box cleanses are actually pretty good. The ones that don't concentrate on fiber and laxatives but they might emphasize antifungals and probiotics.
There are a few homeopathic cleanses out there that can be very beneficial as well. They usually tend to be very gentle so they are not like these hard "scrub down the inside of yourself" approaches. They could definitely be done in conjunction with a ketogenic diet, especially when you are transitioning. As we were talking about before when you are mobilizing all these toxic substances they need an exit so if you are doing a cleanse or doing some clay or doing chlorella or something like that or the time when you are just moving over to the ketogenic diet, they can be very beneficial and it might actually lower the symptoms of the carb flu. As usual discernment is the key when you are looking at cleanses.
You do see some people reporting some short term benefits from these kinds of cleanses, like they will report clearer skin, clearer eyes, clearer thinking even, increased energy immediately after undergoing one of these protocols but really how much of this is simply attributable to simply getting away from the usual crappy food that they normally eat? And how much is actually from some of the benefits of the cleanse itself? I think taking liver supporting herbs is certainly beneficial, things that support the kidneys; the lymphatic system certainly is stuff that could be done and could have a lot of benefit. It's really when you get into loading up on the fiber and laxatives that you need to use your discernment.
Johnathan: Like Doug mentioned there you can see that there are a lot of these popular methods out there. I notice them every day when I go to the local health food store. There is a full shelf of these different things claiming different results. I think - just to reiterate what Doug said - that you need to look at the common sense of it, especially regarding cancer. Cancer feeds on sugar so you need to take those things out and then replace them with healthy fats, limited animal proteins and things like that.
Let's go to Zoya, she has some information here for us today about detox regarding your pets. This is about 11 minutes and then we will come back with our recipe for today which is going to be roasted bacon chicken. So we will clue you in on that after Zoya's pet health segment.
Zoya: Hello and welcome to the pet health segment of the health and wellness show. Today we are going to talk about detoxification for pets but first I would like to talk for a bit about something I heard the other day during the annual student research conference at my University. One of the students presented their research on the topic of prevention of hepatic lipidosis or in other words fatty liver disease in cattle. She mentioned several statistical facts and some of the facts had to do with the percentage of occurrence in various countries. In Belarus for example it is up to 60% whereas in the US it can be as high as 80%. The high percentage is due to the fact that the US dairy cows have a much higher milk production rate than Belarusian ones.
Actually liver disease is considered to be one of the main problems in highly productive cows including many other metabolic diseases such as ketosis which is a very serious problem for herbivores. At the end of this student presentation, one of the members of the conference committee stood up and presented a rather rhetorical question saying that perhaps Belarus shouldn't be so eager to impersonate production if the best preventive measure is to keep the milk production as low as possible. But as I said it was a rhetorical question because the reality of the situation here and elsewhere in the world is that the economic considerations and how much milk one can get from a cow in a short period of time outweighs the consideration of health. So the whole idea of prevention really has to do with cutting costs of treatment and upkeep.
I talked about the abuse in dairy farms in one of the previous shows so I'm not going to extrapolate any more now but just wanted to give another example of the absurdity and lack of conscience that happens all around us.
As I studied detoxification I found a good article by Dr. Karen Becker that outlined the mains principles and good protocols that you can follow. First, why do you need to detoxify your pet at all? Many animals go through their lives without a cleansing or detoxing process. Well perhaps it's not necessary in all cases but surely may assist in keeping their health at the optimum level. The fact is that today our pets are bombarded by hundreds of dangerous toxins in the environment. This includes radiation, environmental pesticides, lawn and home chemicals, electromagnetic fields, heavy metals, animal hormones and antibiotic residues. There are toxic preservatives in pet foods, mycotoxins in kibble and allergens. Our water sources contain fluoride and other toxins and there is a second category of toxins in addition to those listed above.
The chemicals in pesticides that many pet owners intentionally put on their dog or their cat to kill ticks and fleas and other kinds of parasites. Then there are vaccines, de-wormers, drugs that are routinely given to their pet by veterinarians. As if all these toxins weren't hazardous enough most pets also have some level of chronic low grade inflammation present in their bodies that causes metabolic stress. Nutrients that assist in healthy detoxification are depleted under stress making the body even more susceptible to damage. So, in order to counteract these influences your pet's body must be supplied with adequate resources for both cellular detoxification and organ assisted detoxification.
The primary organ of detoxification is the liver which cleans the body through a 2 phase system. Phase one, turns environmental toxins and bodily waste into intermediate metabolites which then require anti-oxidants as well as conjugation through phase two, detoxification for the complete neutralization and excretion of the toxins.
Your pet's body relies on a number of nutrients, anti-oxidants and cofactors to support the mechanism of both phase one and phase two detoxification pathways to protect against free radical damage. To assist the liver in detoxification Dr. Karen Becker recommends taking glutathione, it is the peptide molecule that must be synthesized from 3 amino acids including the hard to come by amino acid glycine. Glutathione is responsible from removing xenobiotics, the foreign chemical compounds that are present in all of our pet's bodies as a result of living in a chemical laden world.
Glycine is an amino acid that is essential for the healthy function of both the digestive and nervous systems and assist in the manufacture of glutathione. Glycine is also important for other detoxification mechanisms, for instance chloride can only be detoxified from the body with the help of glycine and the amino acid taurine so pets drinking city water benefit from a sufficient detox protocol. It can also rid the body of heavy metals and plastic residues including BPA.
To assist in level 2 of liver detoxification it is recommended to give your pet the supplements taurine and N-acetyl cysteine or simply NAC. Taurine is an anti-oxidant amino acid that stabilizes cell membranes, particularly the cells of the skeletal muscle, the heart, the central nervous system and the white blood cells. Taurine makes the cells of the body more resilient to free radical attack. Although a minimal level of taurine is included in foods taurine is easily depleted in stressed pets or pets with intestinal dysfunction. Taurine plays a very important role in neutralizing toxins produced by dysbiotic bacteria in the gut. This amino acid is also very important in the metabolism and excretion of xenobiotics. Taurine is also an important component in bile which the body produces to digest fat. Adequate bile production is critical for killing intestinal parasites and yeast and assists in the removal of fat soluble toxins and oxidizes cholesterol.
NAC is a cellular anti-oxidant that boosts tissue glutathione levels and also plays a role in binding heavy metals. NAC protects against oxidative stress and is also an important free radical scavenger, particularly in the central nervous system. NAC also increases the levels of intracellular glutathione.
Another detoxifier of natural origin that you can use is milk thistle; the active ingredient in this herb is silymarin which stimulates the uptake of glutathione from the liver cells. Milk thistle also assists in liver cell regeneration. Schisandra fruit is included in many traditional Chinese medicine formulas because it helps to protect the liver against various toxins. Curcumin is what gives turmeric its yellow colour. This potent anti-oxidant supports both phase one and phase two of liver detoxification. Curcumin is known to have anti-inflammatory activity because of its ability to inhibit pro-inflammatory enzymes. Recent studies also indicate that curcumin may also have a protective effect against mercury and other heavy metal exposure.
Phosphatidylcholine or PC for short is critical for a detoxification process known as methylation. Pet's bodies are wired with very important hormones needed for medical emergencies. Adrenaline and noradrenaline are very valuable for the purpose of helping your pet through crisis however these hormones are very damaging to the body is there is chronic exposure. The faster that your pet's body can get rid of these hormones once they are no longer needed the less damage is done. The process of getting rid of these hormones is called methylation. PC is required for this critical process of breaking down and eliminating these hormones.
Resveratrol is the active ingredient in the plant known as Japanese Knotwood. Resveratrol of course is hailed as one of the best anti-cancer, anti-aging and anti-oxidants ever discovered but believe it or not it also reduces liver enzyme elevations by reducing lipid oxidation in the liver. In essence it helps the liver clean house, flushing accumulations of fat so the organ can function optimally. The catechins found in green tea dramatically modify cancer causing molecules that damage cellular DNA. Inactivation and excretion of carcinogens is a big part of keeping your pet's body cancer free for a lifetime and green tea leaf extract can be very beneficial for your pet.
The green superfood known as chlorella functions as a potent heavy metal chelator as well as a detoxifier, binding up excess toxic metals many pets are exposed to in their environment. Chlorella's tough outer cell also binds with environmental pollutants in the gut allowing them to be eliminated efficiently.
Superoxide dismutase, also called SOD is a potent enzyme responsible for the removal of free radicals from your pet's body. Superoxide dismutase works by catalysing the breakdown of superoxide radicals into oxygen and hydrogen. Superoxide radicals are toxic in the living cells of your pet's body and removing them is critical for your pet's lymphatic system to work optimally.
The last is dandelion leaf. It has superior blood cleansing benefits and although dandelion also supports liver and gall bladder detoxification it is especially helpful for kidney detoxification, assisting in the removal of blood borne toxins excreted through the kidneys. Clean blood helps ensure metabolic waste gets efficiently carried away from your pet's tissues and vital organs.
As for the frequency of detoxification for your pet, it depends of course of the intensity and severity of exposure to various harming agents and sources. It is also bet to consult your local veterinarian, preferably a natural one in this case.
This is it for today; I hope it was interesting and useful. Have a nice day and goodbye.
Johnathan: Thank you Zoya, that was indeed very interesting and useful. As we continue to share more of Zoya's information here on the show I hope people take to heart about caring for their pets in this way and not just letting them go or just taking them to the vet. There are many things that we can do on our own to help them have better health.
Just to wrap up the show for today we've got a quick recipe. It's not a hard and fast 1 teaspoon of this, 2 teaspoons of that recipe. Some of you may have tried something similar before. It's something I stumbled upon years ago and it's a fun treat once in a while.
If you get a whole chicken and roast it for about 20 - 25 minutes per pound. You can do your calculations on that. Give or take the size of the bird I usually just cook it in the oven for an hour and a half at 350 degrees Fahrenheit to be safe. If it's a bigger bird you will want to go a bit longer but 20 minutes per pound is a pretty good estimate there.
Take the chicken and lay it on a pan with the breasts facing up and take a sharp knife and slice the skin near the legs on the edge of the breast. Towards the back opening where you would put the stuffing into the cavity. Slice the skin on each side and then take 2 slices of bacon for each side so 4 slices total and slide them underneath the skin. You will need to get your fingers in there and separate the skin from the muscle tissue and then slide the bacon slices in there.
You can do the same thing on the legs as well. You can make a slice at the top of each of the drumsticks, separate the skin from the muscle tissue and put one slice of bacon inside there. Try to get them all the way in and flattened out so they cover most of that layer of the breast and the drumsticks and then season the top to your liking. I usually use salt, pepper, garlic powder, rosemary, sage and thyme.
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes per pound and when it comes out you have this chicken that is totally saturated in bacon fat and it is really, really good. I have found that the bacon will turn the chicken meat slightly reddish or pinkish so you might be wondering if it's done but if you trust the time and cook it for the right amount of time you shouldn't be concerned with that. Just remember that the bacon will turn it a slightly different colour, it won't be white like you would normally expect a chicken to be.
That's it, that's bacon roasted chicken. It's pretty simple and you can play with it and do different variations. Sometimes it's fun to slap the bacon right on top of the chicken but I like doing it underneath the skin because then you also get the crispy chicken skin on top as well as the bacon fat throughout the meat.
Tiffany: That sounds great.
Johnathan: It really does.
Doug: A lot of the time the chicken breast tends to be dry so having the bacon fat there sounds like a way to keep it nice and juicy.
Johnathan: It does do that. So that's our show for today! I would like to say thank you to our hosts and to everybody who's tuned in. Thank you to everybody for participating on our chats. I just want to make a quick announcement that we will be moving the time of this show to Fridays at 10am eastern time instead of Mondays at 2pm eastern time. We will be starting that on Friday, June 5th. We will not be having a Health and Wellness show on Monday the 1st; instead we will be starting our new schedule on Friday, June 5th. Apologies to anybody who might not be able to make that time to listen to the live show but we always have the episodes archived on Blog Talk Radio. We are hoping this will work out a little bit better for everybody to be involved.
Thanks again and we will see you guys next week on June 5th!
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter