Question for Anja - regarding bowel cleansing regimen

[di]

Anja,
I'he read some of your old messeges in which you recommend the curezone site. I have been searching this site, looking for a bowel cleansing regimen. Can you, please, tell me what regiment had you followed for intestinal cleansing? I've read that Bentonite clay and flax seeds oil will do it, but I couldn't find information about the dozage, number of days, how to take the Bentonite, etc.
Thank you.

[SteveInAustin]

I know criticism wasn't asked for, but for what it's worth, I investigated colon cleansing regimens before and found that the assumptions they're based upon are bogus. The idea that your bowels contain a build-up of sludge sticking to the walls of the large intestine is wrong. To prove it to yourself, find videos of Katie Couric's colonoscopy. Notice the walls of the intestine are nice, clean, smooth, and pink. No black sludge. Prove it to yourself some more by getting other videos and looking at them. Ask a nurse. Ask a doctor. They will tell you the same. Don't believe the naturopathic community. They're making stuff up. They may truly believe it, but they're easily disproven (see the videos).

Colonic irrigation (sticking a water hose up your rectum to clean it out) will pull lots of feces down the tube, and you will see it. But the key thing to remember is that you're seeing last night's dinner. If you fast for a day after taking a Dulcolax tablet, your intestines will be more or less empty, and colonic irrigation won't reveal much.

Aside from that, if you want to improve your bowel movements, eat more fiber. Eat fruit between every meal. Eat at least one salad a day. Eat high fiber cereal in the morning. Stuff like that. Oh, and avoid stuff that irritates your bowels. For me that means any dairy products. That will make you feel better. You don't need any special regimen. And herbal cures and remedies are pretty much a waste of money and potentially dangerous.

My unsolicited advice for what it's worth.

Steve
Austin, Texas USA

[di]

I have a healthy diet, I was always careful about what I eat...I have a regulat bowel movement (every day), all my life I was drinking lots of water and eating lots of fruits and vegetables, but I was looking at http://www.curezone.com and I tought maybe it would help my rosacea if I do a bowel cleaning. I don't know. Maybe just a liver cleaning would be fine. What do you think about smoking and rosacea? Does smoking aggravate it?
Thank you.

[crzyakta]

give betaine HCl a try before meals, you might have low stomach acid

[di]

How much should I take? Have you tried it? Any results?
Thanks.

[anja]

It's funny, I have not been in this forum for many months and just decided to check it out today and saw your post. I have been using natural methods for the past fifteen years with many, many significant improvements in health as a result. Not everything I've tried has been beneficial, there has been a lot of trial and error, but some things have definitely been life-changing. What works for one does not work for all, some are more sensitive to health decline or health improvement than others, but that does not mean all claims are bogus as the above poster stated. Sometimes things that aren't apparent now will catch up with you later in life, too. I personally have seen very long, rubbery, tube-shaped black ropes after bowel cleansing that had nothing to do with "last night's dinner," and the smell was unbelievable, definitely extreme decay. It actually happened when I was taking a fiber product along with a strong anti-parasite herbal product - I had done various colon cleanses before but never saw the "ropes" until actually shortly after my first dose of the De-Wormer. I felt about a million times better after that was out. "Lighter" does not begin to describe it. I have also been told that a lot of old fecal matter is not seen on colonoscopy because it is tucked into the folds and diverticuli, and you should really be eliminating more than once a day. I've read that coroners routinely find many pounds of dried fecal matter in the intestines during autopsies. John Wayne, apparently, was "famous" for that - the morbid amount of old stuff in his colon on autopsy. People carry around all kinds of toxins in various organs, not just the colon, they are in the blood, at the cellular level, it's all lifestyle, food choices, and just living on a chemically laden planet in sort of an artificial environment and we are all under stress, you can't really get away from it, but a lot of the cleansing regimes really do help, and I think are essential if one still eats processed food. You just have to find the one that's right for you. I personally like Unicity's Li Fiber, their Nature's tea and some of their supplements, but I don't think their parasite product is what it used to be. They are a multi-level company, and I buy them wholesale through my naturopath. Even at wholesale, they are kind of expensive, but I feel it's worth it. There are common anti-parasitc herbs for the larger parasites in particular, like clove, wormwood, black walnut hull, and some formulas are better than others, you might want to get some recommendations on that. I'm hesitant to advise the one I took because it's very strong, and a "home-made" product by an herbalist on Curezone who is a bit of a crazy fringe-dweller, though I think he makes good herbal formulas. I have to say, though, that his De-Wormer did not touch a protozoan infection that I suspect I've carried for years, I'm having better luck with homeopathics for that. We all carry parasites, by the way, it's not just a "third world" thing.

You can help yourself a lot by just eating from nature (wash all fruits and veggies very well - my naturopath recommended Dr. Bronner's almond castile soap for that), cut out refined foods with flour, sugar, etc., basically avoid things out of a bag, box or can. Olive and virgin coconut oil are healthy, good cod liver oil, etc. Avoid the other oils, and no trans-fats. Also take a good quality probiotic (I also like Unicity's), I have heard that "Culturelle" is a good one, though never tried it, there are probably others, and eat naturally fermented foods like kefir (home made is far superior than store bought and very easy to make, tastes much better), lactofermented vegetables (i.e. traditional saurkraut, unpasturized), good yogurt, etc. The probiotics are extremely important. Check out Dom's Kefir site for complete kefir info.

Liver flushing, as described on Curezone, also did a world of good for me, and many people do see skin improvements when they liver flush and start cleaning out their bodies in general. I am thinking that if Demodex causes rosacea in some, but others can carry the bugs without any effect, it must have something to do with depressed immunity (as I've read here), and that people who have their rosacea or acne improve after cleansing and dietary changes have probably improved their immunity. The skin being an organ of elimination could also get overloaded trying to expel toxins, I would think, so a less toxic body would work to your favor in that case.

I hope this is of some help!

[di]

Anja,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write about this!!! Thank you, I really apreciate it. It seems I'm lucky you decided to take a look at the Forum today...

I am going to try the liver flush in several days. I don't have the EPSOM salts right now. Do I find these salts at a health food store? Any suggestions where I could find this product?
I couldn't find a colon cleansing regimen so far. Do you have a specific "receipe" that you tried and liked?
Thank you.
Take care,
Diana

[anja]

Diana, I do like Unicity's Li Fiber, you could try looking them up on the net, I think their site would be at http://www.makelifebetter.com (?) At least that's the site I use when I order, but I have a customer number I use to order wholesale thru my naturopath, since it's a multi-level company. I don't want to push products on anyone or abuse this site for any kind of advertising, I wouldn't profit from it anyway, but I'm not sure what the rules are about that. A lot people just use psyllium powder, it's cheap, but the Li Fiber has a lot of other herbs in it that promote colon health, and I haven't talked to anyone who didn't like it. I've never used bentonite, since it seems a little controversial, but some people swear by it. I am not sure what to recommend as to a parasite cleanse, but I have seen a product in the health food store called Paragone, and I've read some people get good results from that.

As to the liver flush - please know that it can be an intense experience, many people breeze right through it, others feel pretty sick when they do it. Often each time is different. I've had phenomenal results with it on a few occasions, very little or nothing on others. Felt fine with some, felt quite sick with others (though it passed quickly). Typically, if you have not done any cleansing before, you might have a harder time with it. Most people recommend spending a few weeks or a month on a healthy, whole food diet with some sort of colon cleansing regime, then parasite cleansing, then liver flushing. I have done the liver flush successfully even when I knew I had parasites, though. It's important to "clear the pathway" before the liver flush because that's where the congealed bile "stones" will pass through.

Obviously if you have any major health issues like heart stuff or diabetes, you should tread carefully, and of course this is all my opinion based on personal experience and all the material and testimonies I've read about it. A few of my friends have done it successfully, as well.

If I were you, I would work on the colon first, keep reading and educating yourself about cleansing and the liver flushing and what to expect, and then do the flush. They have a liver flush forum on curezone where people can ask questions and share their experiences, if you haven't seen that yet. The epsom salts you can pick up at the drug store, they are easy to find. High quality essential Peppermint oil under the nose, on the ears, helps with any nausea from the oil, and use a hot water bottle over the liver for the first half hour after you drink the oil/juice mixture. I find that if I top off the mixture with a little lemon juice, around 1/2 cup oil to 1/2 cup grapefruit to 1/4 cup lemon juice (or at least 1/8 cup lemon juice), it gets through the stomach faster, something about the lemon juice seems to help that. You can also drink a little water later than that Hulda Clark flush recommends, basically you just don't want anything in your stomach (including water) when you drink the oil. I find I feel better if I don't let myself get too dehydrated the day of, and since I'm not good at fasting (tend to get low blood sugar), I drink a little juice past lunch and into the evening, as well. Those Emergen-C packets help with electrolyes, I think. At least that makes me feel a little better the next day. Definitely no fat w/breakfast or lunch the day of the flush. Well, you probably read about all that.

Hope that all goes well for you! Good luck!

[di]

Anja,
Thanks for the information, it is really helpful!!! I need to make a trip to the drug and helalth food stores...after that I'll start with a colon cleanser...
Thanks,
Diana

[SteveInAustin]

I personally have seen very long, rubbery, tube-shaped black ropes after bowel cleansing that had nothing to do with "last night's dinner," and the smell was unbelievable, definitely extreme decay. It actually happened when I was taking a fiber product along with a strong anti-parasite herbal product - I had done various colon cleanses before but never saw the "ropes" until actually shortly after my first dose of the De-Wormer. I felt about a million times better after that was out. "Lighter" does not begin to describe it.

First of all, people are often fooled by appearances and expectations of appearances (biases). If you believe that the concoction will result in something that looks "nasty", then you may look at your feces and think you're seeing something much nastier and much more unusual than you would normally see. You essentially see "ropes", because that's what you've told yourself to expect. It's like seeing Jesus in burnt toast. Jesus really isn't there, but you think you're seeing it, because that's what you want to see. When you look for evidence of your concoction working, you may be deluding yourself into thinking that what you're seeing is something very out of the ordinary. That's one problem.

Another problem, assuming you did see something unusual, is that you don't actually know that the "ropes" you saw were actually in your body very long, like you think they were. You saw something unusual as a result of ingesting the "de-worming" concoction. That's all you really know. Someone told you that what it's doing is removing fecal matter that has been in your intestines for perhaps years. Then you therefore conclude that since you're seeing something unusual, it must mean that what you've been told is true, and that the fecal matter is years old. But you're making a mistake in logic. The only thing you know is that you saw something unusual. You don't really know where it came from, how long it was there, etc. Just because someone says it's really old feces, it doesn't make it true. The "de-worming" concoction could have easily changed your normal feces to look strange. How do you know? You don't. And that's the most likely explanation for it.

I remember a while back I investigated a "gall bladder clease" program. Or was it "gall bladder flush"? I forget. Anyway, the program involves drinking cups of olive oil and apple cider vinegar. They say it's supposed to release gall stones that are trapped in your gall bladder or bile duct or something like that. The idea is that all these gall stones collect in your body and cause bile ducts to be blocked off, and that prevents the bile from getting to the feces. By releasing the gall stones, one supposedly improves elimination of toxins by making it easier and more effective to get bile to flow. Okay, so after taking the potion, you're told to look at your waste in the toilet. You should see spheres of some strange looking substance. You're told that those are the gall stones, and there will be potentially hundreds of them. And low and behold, that's what you see. Lots of little spheres. Wow! I guess those must be the gall stones, right? Eh, no. What those really are, if you actually scooped one out and analyzed it, are little beads of olive oil and maybe mixed with some other stuff. The oil naturally forms a sphere in the presence of water. That's what happens if you drink cups of olive oil with apple cider vinegar. They aren't gall stones. And actually I remember doctors (actual MD's) performing this experiment to prove it. It was on TV even.

So be very skeptical about what you hear on the web about these magical cures and detox programs and such. It's almost always bogus. I say almost, but that's just my scientific background talking. In layman's terms, you can say it's always bogus, not just almost always.

And yes, people feel lighter after having any sort of bowel movement. That's not especially unique.

I have also been told that a lot of old fecal matter is not seen on colonoscopy because it is tucked into the folds and diverticuli, and you should really be eliminating more than once a day.

Yes, well you've heard something that was incorrect.

Please, right now go and do a search for Katie Couric's colonoscopy video on the web. It should be out there somewhere. Maybe on webmd.com. It's very educational. Notice that the so-called "folds" of which you speak are not places where fecal matter reside. They're not so much "folds" as they are "segments". It's not like they're deep pockets or anything. It's just a gradual, shallow concavity in the length of the large intestine. That's all. You'll see on the video smooth, pink flesh. No dark sludge. No fecal matter. And you'll see there's no way for fecal matter to collect on the walls of the large intestine. What you heard was incorrect.

I've read that coroners routinely find many pounds of dried fecal matter in the intestines during autopsies. John Wayne, apparently, was "famous" for that - the morbid amount of old stuff in his colon on autopsy.

That is possible. Remember, it takes about 24 hours for food to pass through completely. That's if you're not constipated. With constipation, it could slow things down to 2 or even 3 days. How many pounds of food do you eat per day? Quite a lot actually. And consider that the large intestine is 7 feet long. That's a lot of space to contain digested food. No doubt this would cause problems for autopsies. They have to unravel it all and go poking through it. Not the most glamorous job one could have.

People carry around all kinds of toxins in various organs, not just the colon, they are in the blood, at the cellular level, it's all lifestyle, food choices, and just living on a chemically laden planet in sort of an artificial environment and we are all under stress, you can't really get away from it, but a lot of the cleansing regimes really do help, and I think are essential if one still eats processed food. You just have to find the one that's right for you.

I do know that there are such things as toxins. Science doesn't dispute that. For example there's mercury in fish, and eating it causes a build-up of mercury in your fat cells, nerve fibers, spinal fluid, brain, and bone. Question is, how does one eliminate that mercury? Give you a hint, it's not possible with any of your naturopathic or holistic concoctions you hear about on the web. Sorry. They don't work for mercury. Or lead. Or pesticides. Or dioxins. Those toxins are stored in fat cells and other areas where your herbs and whatever other potions you want to ingest are not able to get to in order to carry the toxins out of you. It's just that simple.

So while I agree there are "toxins", I have absolutely no indication and no faith whatsoever that these amazing, magical naturopathic concoctions will actually do anything about them. They may make you feel better in some way, maybe through placebo, but there's no reason to think they actually work to eliminate toxins.

Not even chelation therapy (a real, scientifically proven method of removing heavy metals from the blood) can actually remove metals that are trapped in fat cells, nerve tissue, bones, etc. However, chelation therapy will work if you've just recently ingested heavy metals, and it's still in your blood or immediate fat cells. And that stuff is the most powerful anti-toxin known to medical science at this point, from what I can tell.

Steve
Austin, Texas USA