Why and How We Detox

What is detox? That is a word you will hear a lot while you are here at Hippocrates. Unfortunately, it is no secret that we live on a polluted planet today. The air, the land, the water, and the food are contaminated by the 85,000+ chemicals we humans have created over the last 200 years for whatever reason. Here is a list of the ten most common toxic chemicals that permeate our environment:

• PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). Risks: Cancer, impaired fetal brain development.
• Pesticides. Risks: Cancer, Parkinson's disease, miscarriage, nerve damage, birth defects.
• Herbicides. Risks: Cancer, heart disease, asthma, multiple sclerosis, diabetes.
• Plastics. Risks: Endocrine system damage (plastics chemically mimic hormones)
• Formaldehyde. Risks: Cancer, eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches, dizziness, visual disorders, and memory impairment.
• Dioxins. Risks: Cancer, reproductive and developmental disorders, chloracne (a severe skin disease with acne-like lesions), skin rashes, skin discoloration, excessive body hair, mild liver damage.
• Asbestos. Risks: Cancer, scarring of the lung tissue, mesothelioma (a rare form of cancer).
• Heavy Metals (lead, mercury, etc.) Risks: Cancer, neurological disorders, Alzheimer's disease, foggy head, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, decreased production of red and white blood cells, abnormal heart rhythm, damage to blood vessels.
• Chloroform. Risks: Cancer, potential reproductive damage, birth defects, dizziness, fatigue, headache, liver and kidney damage.
• Chlorine. Risks: Sore throat, coughing, eye and skin irritation, rapid breathing, narrowing of the bronchi, wheezing, blue coloring of the skin, accumulation of fluid in the lungs, pain in the lung region, severe eye and skin burns, lung collapse, reactive airways dysfunction syndrome (RADS) (a type of asthma).

The human body is perfectly capable of dealing with limited exposure to many of these toxins within a given time frame. However, once you come into contact with and ingest more of these toxins than you can cope with, your body has no choice but to store those toxins until a later date when hopefully you clean up your act. Typically, these toxins are stored in fat cells but they may also be stored in your muscles, organs, and other tissues.

So, maybe it’s been a long time since some of you have eaten:

• 100% organic
• 100% plant-based
• 100% raw
• 50% living foods (sprouts)
• Each of these four protocols is extremely important in and of itself. When you combine all four of these protocols as you will here in the Hippocrates Life Transformation Program, you come up with a super-charged package for enabling the body to restore its own natural vibrant health. Plus, you are drinking purified water while you are here on campus. You are on a fragrance-free and a chemical-free campus. We use salt and ozone to clean the pool and Jacuzzi waters and keep them pure. We have scalar energy devices hidden throughout the campus to protect you from harmful electromagnetic radiation, Wi-Fi, routers, and cell phones.Your body thanks you for your pure diet and pure environment by cleaning house first. That means getting rid of stored toxins. These toxins can make a little trouble on their way out. Detoxification manifests itself in different ways depending upon your history.

Detox symptoms can include:

• Tiredness
• Headache for no apparent reason
• Nausea
• Joint/muscle aches and pain
• Pimples, rash or other skin eruptions
• Temporary cold- or flu-like symptoms
• Emotional

Whether or not a person experiences detox symptoms and the severity depends on many factors – previous diet, exposure to environmental toxins, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, prescription drugs, stress, sleep patterns, etc. This is exactly the same effect as the more familiar “withdrawal” some people experience when trying to come off of certain addictions such as alcohol, cigarettes or drugs. And, it happens for exactly the same reason. You eliminate toxins through four channels: breath, skin, urine and bowels. When you fast, or eat 100% organic, plant-based, raw, and living foods the body has extra energy. It uses that extra energy to push the toxins out of the body quickly. When the toxins start coming out faster than you can eliminate them through the normal channels we commonly get a detox reaction. The best way to reduce or eliminate detox symptoms is to give these four channels a little help. Here are some of the methods that we can use to accomplish that:

• Drinking lots of purified water and fresh green drinks
• Drinking fresh wheatgrass juice
• Rebounding
• Breathing exercises
• Yoga
• Exercise (any form)
• Infrared sauna
• Steam room
• Anything that makes you sweat a great deal (Jacuzzi, regular sauna, etc.)
• A very warm Epsom salts bath
• A very warm powdered ginger bath
• Lymphatic massage
• Enemas and colon hydrotherapy

If you use some or all of these protocols you will reduce or completely eliminate any uncomfortable detox reaction. As a last ditch effort eating a handful of raw soaked nuts or seeds or having some toasted Manna bread will also slow down the detox reaction.Chlorella, blue-green algae, and LifeGive® Internal Cleanser are three supplements that can also reduce the negative side effects of detox. The reward for working through this process and getting all the toxins out is a new, vibrant, radiant, and healthy you! Come to Hippocrates to detox and experience new levels of health you never thought possible.