The Key to Excellent Health: Cleansing the Colon
RICHARD ANDERSON, N.D., N.M.D.
This article can be found at http://www.curezone.com/cleanse/bowel/bowel_dr_anderson.html
Nothing has changed since Dr. John Harvey
Kellogg said a century ago that “90% of diseases are due to improper
functioning of the colon.
There is much talk today about the
importance of colon cleansing, but how does having healthy intestines actually
improve your health?
It has always been an axiom of naturopathic
medicine and most forms of natural healing that the digestive system is the
foundation for good or bad health. As naturopaths, we routinely assume that
most people are constipated, no matter how many times a day they go.
In fact, nothing has changed since the great
natural healer Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium
in Michigan, declared nearly a century ago that “90% of the diseases of
civilization are due to improper functioning of the colon.”
In 1987, I developed a four-phase, four-week
colon cleansing protocol using herbs, electrolytes, probiotics, and nutrients.
Since then, an estimated 70,000 people have done the self-care colon cleanse.
The benefits of cleansing are numerous. One
user stated: “The main improvements I have noticed are energy levels, vision,
hair, skin, mental attitude, ability to cope with stress situations—generally
I’m a much happier and healthier person.”
Other benefits typically cited by users are
cessation of menstrual pain, migraines, and joint pain, fewer colds, resolution
of lifelong sinus congestion, skin problems, and breast cysts, weight loss, and
improved concentration, among many others.
Consider the following cases from
our patient files:
Lisa, 55, had suffered from a skin rash for
35 years. She had consulted numerous physicians but nothing had reversed this
problem. When the intestines are clogged and toxic, and the liver, too, is
overburdened, toxins start backing up into the skin for elimination from the
body.
By the time Lisa completed the colon
cleanse, 95% of her skin symptoms had disappeared. We find Lisa’s experience
replicated often; cleansing the colon frequently yields softer, more beautiful
skin, with long-standing blemishes removed permanently in many cases.
Traces of an earlier illness often remain in
the intestines as potential seeds for a recurrence. During a cleanse, it is not
unusual to reexperience the symptoms of the former illness as these traces are
purged from the body.
Lil, 42, who suffered from chronic
bronchitis, could not exercise or even walk up stairs without wheezing. During
the cleanse, she had a ten-day fit of coughing and wheezing, then it abruptly
stopped and never returned. By emptying her intestines of old, putrefied
matter, Lil had purged her body of the seeds of her recurrent bronchitis.
Margot, 47, had been beset by intense hip
pain for seven years, such that she needed a cane to walk. X rays showed that
the cartilage was worn off the head of the femur (thigh bone connecting to the
hip bone) and the nerves in that area were pinched. Margot had tried numerous
alternative therapies but was still relatively crippled.
Margot reported that on the second day of
the cleanse, 50% of her pain disappeared and she no longer needed her cane; on
the third day, she was able to perform gentle stretching exercises; and over
the next several months, Margot’s pain continued to diminish leading her to
declare: “For the first time in seven years, I’m seeing the reversal of the
downward spiral.”
Merely consider three facts about the
intestines. First, if stretched out to their full length, the large and small
intestines together would measure 25 feet long. Second, the total surface area
in the intestines (made larger by myriad folds) capable of absorbing nutrients
is the size of a tennis court.
Third, the intestines can store a vast
amount of partially digested, putrefying matter (as well as drugs and other
toxic chemicals)—for decades even. Some intestines, when autopsied, have
weighed up to 40 pounds and were distended to a diameter of 12 inches with only
a pencil-thin channel through which the feces could move.
That 40 pounds was due to caked layers of
encrusted mucus mixed with fecal matter, bizarrely resembling hardened
blackish-green truck tire rubber or an old piece of dried rawhide. I call this
mucoid plaque. This mucoid plaque, when it is removed during an intensive colon
cleanse, often shows ropelike twists, striations, overlaps, folds, creases—the
shape and texture of the intestinal wall.
Mucoid plaque may vary considerably,
depending on the chemical conditions in a person’s intestines. It may be hard
and brittle; it may be firm and thick; tough, wet, and rubbery; soft, thick,
and mucoid; or soft, transparent, and thin; it can range in color from light
brown, black, or greenish-black to yellow or grey, and sometimes emits an
intensely foul odor.
One client I know, in the course of a
month-long colon cleanse, passed a single length of mucoid plaque 15 feet long;
another client excreted a total of 11 pounds of mucoid plaque during a cleanse.
It is not unusual to pass a total of 35 to 45 feet of plaque, often in the last
week. In our clinical experience of monitoring thousands of intensive colon
cleanse programs over the last 14 years, most people pass a staggering amount
of this strange substance.
I coined the term mucoid plaque, meaning a
film of mucus, to describe the unhealthy accumulation of abnormal mucous matter
on the walls of the intestines. Conventional medicine knows this as a layering
of mucin or glycoproteins (made up of 20 amino acids
and 50% carbohydrates) which are naturally and appropriately secreted by
intestines as protection from acids and toxins.
However, mucoid plaque is different from the
mucosal lining (mucosa) of the gastrointestinal tract. The latter acts as a
necessary buffer to the gastrointestinal wall and as a lubricant for peristalsis;
it is also responsible for the secretion of mucins which comprise mucoid
plaque. The cells of the outermost layer of the mucosa (the epithelium) stay
fresh and vital, renewing themselves every four to seven days.
It sounds paradoxical, but medical research
indicates that mucoid plaque is a normal self-defense measure—natural
protection from unnatural toxins.
Evidence indicates that mucoid plaque, with
the possible exception of that found in the stomach, is unnatural to the
healthy body and is found only after the body has moved away from perfect
health and into a diseased state. The theory goes that if you were completely
healthy, your system would produce no mucoid plaque because it wouldn’t need
to.
When the body has been chronically subjected
to (or put under attack by) drugs (such as aspirin or alcohol), salt, heavy
metals (including dental mercury), toxic chemicals, parasites, harmful microbes
and their toxins, and circulating immune complexes (immune cells locked onto
undigested particles or foreign substances in the bloodstream), it produces
mucoid plaque to protect itself.
The trouble is once the mucoid plaque is
created, for whatever biologically important reason, it is not routinely
excreted from the intestines. Instead it lodges in the numerous folds and
crevices of this large organ and can remain there for many years. Over time,
the mucoid plaque grows thicker, firmer, and more widespread—colonizing, as it
were, the tennis court–sized interior of the intestines. Old feces adhere to
the plaque and are not removed during a normal bowel motion.
The plaque slows down intestinal action,
both waste excretion and nutrient absorption. It can harbor pathogens,
including bacteria and parasites, which actually hide underneath the plaque; it
may block the normal outflow of lymph and mucin drainage. It binds toxins to
itself and contributes to bowel toxicity, slowly emitting toxins into the
bloodstream. Finally, plaque creates a friendly environment for disease, in
some cases for colon cancer and gastric carcinomas.
Gradually your immune system is weakened as
the chronically toxic bowel environment destroys useful bacteria. Your liver
becomes overburdened by the unprocessed intestinal toxins, and nerve meridian
points in the intestines related to hundreds of other parts of the body are
compromised.
A toxic bowel results in toxic blood and lymph, toxic organs and cells, and toxic
function. The bowel “feeds” every organ, tissue, and cell in our bodies, so
when the quality of feeding from the digestive system is contaminated or of
poor quality, the cells and organs elsewhere in the body will be compromised
and grow sluggish and inefficient.
So while mucoid plaque is “natural” in that
the intestines produce it, it is most unnatural in that the presence of a large
amount of it indicates a high degree of intestinal ill health. When the
intestines are ill, you will be ill.
Here is a concise
review of the essential elements you need:
Assess Your pH—This is a chemical measurement of your body’s acidity
or alkalinity and, to a certain degree, your level of toxicity. The simplest
way to assess your pH is by moistening a
specially prepared (litmus) paper with your tongue; the color it turns
correlates with pH values.
Reduce Your Eating—Generally, as you move further into the program you
should eat less. This enables your body to focus on clearing out the toxins and
old fecal matter without the distraction and energy output of digesting new
foods. Each successive stage in the program involves stricter dietary controls
and a higher intake of supplements and fresh juices with a correspondingly
deeper cleansing.
Herbal Laxative—You need a formula to soften and break up toxic waste
material while detoxifying cells. An herbal combination that works well for
this (when mixed in the proper way) includes plantain, cascara sagrada,
barberry, peppermint, sheep sorrel, fennel seed, ginger root, myrrh gum, red
raspberry, rhubarb root, goldenseal, and lobelia. This herbal formula prepares
the mucoid plaque for removal and neutralizes stored intestinal toxins such as
pesticides, drugs, and heavy metals. It also helps cleanse the liver and other
body tissues.
Herbal Nutrition—At the same time, you need to bolster your system’s
ability to detoxify. An effective herbal formula for this works as a vitamin
supplement and includes alfalfa, dandelion, shavegrass, chickweed, marshmallow
root, yellowdock, rosehips, hawthorn, licorice root, Irish moss, kelp, and two
digestive enzymes, amylase (digests carbohydrates) and cellulase (digests plant
fiber).
Bentonite—Liquid clay derived from volcanic ash, bentonite
taken orally is highly effective in absorbing toxins from the intestines and
removing them from the body.
Psyllium Husk Powder—This fibrous bulking agent forms a gel when mixed
with water. While the herbal laxative and nutritional formulas loosen the
mucoid plaque, and bentonite pulls out and absorbs toxic debris, psyllium helps
push the toxins and waste materials out of your body.
Probiotics—Your intestines need certain “friendly” bacteria (probiotics)
to perform all of their functions, including the suppression and elimination of
pathogenic microorganisms. Probiotics can also help restore alkalinity to an
acidified intestinal tract thereby assuring that electrolytes
will not be lost because of intestines overrun with acidic bacteria. A
particularly helpful probiotic is Bifidobacterium infantis.
Electrolytes—Your body depends on the essential alkaline minerals
potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium to remove toxic acids, maintain fluid
balance in cells and the bloodstream, and control pH, hormone secretion, nerve
conduction, and other functions. An effective way to deliver alkalinizing
electrolytes is via dehydrated juice of beets, celery, and carrots, combined
with goat milk whey concentrate, fig powder, and lecithin.
Antioxidants—As the intestines begin to purge themselves of old
matter and mucoid plaque, large amounts of toxins and free radicals are
released. It is prudent to take an antioxidant
formula while doing the colon cleanse to help your system clean up these
released toxins. Good antioxidants to include are milk thistle, curcumin (from
turmeric), Ginkgo biloba, grape seed extract, pine bark extract, vitamins C, E,
and B6, bioflavonoids, lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10, zinc, and chromium.
Dietary Changes—First, I generally encourage people to not eat meat
in order to reduce acid-forming dietary input. Second, I suggest people reduce
grains, potatoes, yams, and sweet potatoes for 30 days after they have
completed the colon cleanse. Third, I recommend a raw foods diet maintained
whenever possible, ideally based on home-grown organic fruits and vegetables. A
raw foods diet is rich in digestive enzymes
and encourages the body to continue detoxifying.
Yes. You will find that in many cases a
colon cleanse will purge old emotions and attitudes stored in the intestines.
Consider this case: Jessie, 20, was a vegan
yet was bothered by digestive problems and candidiasis. Candidiasis, or the
overgrowth of Candida albicans in
the intestines, is a condition often reversed by an intense colon cleanse.
During the first two weeks of the cleanse, Jessie began feeling better, but the
turnaround came in week three. Jessie passed what looked like three white
cotton balls (presumably Candida masses lodged in her colon), and
thereafter had no more candidiasis symptoms.
In addition to her physical improvements,
Jessie had an emotional benefit as well. She felt an increase in will power, a
clarity in her feelings, a new desire to be of service to others, and a release
of long-held resentments.
These points highlight an important aspect
of colon cleansing. Many people, after completing a cleanse, feel energized,
uplifted, and freed of old patterns, thoughts, feelings, and memories that have
held them back. When a person is on a course of personal growth and wants to
change their consciousness but is stuck in old negative patterns of thinking
and feeling, there is nothing that will get them unstuck and change them faster
than a colon cleanse.
In my observation of many individuals doing
the colon cleanse, a negative state of consciousness is often, at an energy
level, at the root of whatever physical problem they suffer from. Every thought
or feeling we have has the potential of moving from the mind into the physical
structure of the body where it can provoke illness. I estimate that about 70%
of those doing the intensive colon cleanse will experience long-forgotten
memories and buried emotions.
Often the memories and emotions surface into
awareness with all their original charge and soon afterwards you pass a large
section of mucoid plaque. As it passes out of your body, so go the emotions. In
most cases, you don’t reexperience those particular emotional memories.
Here is what I think happens. It is as
though you can magnetize proteins or undigested food left in the intestines
with certain thoughts and feelings. These proteins hold onto the feelings for
as long as the proteins remain in the intestines, and the old emotions and
thoughts continually radiate through the body and mind.
They remain literally—tangibly—stuck in your
body, somehow bound up with the mucoid plaque and contributing, though not
often usefully, to the personality. Both the individual’s biochemistry and
psyche are continuously negatively affected by these residues of emotionally
magnetized matter.
Let’s say you were 13 and had a traumatic or
deeply embarrassing experience. At some level, every cell in your body was
affected by the emotions of that event. It is conceivable that some intestinal
matter imprinted by that experience remains in your intestines, wrapped inside
mucoid plaque and bearing the memory of the original pain (even though you are
now 45 and barely remember the episode).
The personality and one’s operating belief
system, after all, are controlled mainly by a massive accumulation of past
thoughts and feelings. To a large extent, intestinal matter helps hold these
feelings in place. The colon cleanse, by purging the intestines of the mucoid
plaque, flushes out this accumulation of old negative thoughts and feelings.
Dr. Anderson is the founder of Arise
& Shine Herbal Products, a company that produces the Cleanse Thyself
Program a colon cleanse and full body detoxification system. Dr. Anderson
is also the author of Cleanse and Purify Thyself , Books One and Two
(Christobe Publishing, 1998). More information can be found on his website at www.cleanse.net
|
As a
leader in natural medicine research and writing, Dr. Richard Anderson holds a
special place in the Natural Health world. With his first Book, Cleanse
and Purify Thyself, he awoke tens of thousands of people to the physical and
spiritual benefits of internal cleansing. He has developed one of the most
profound internal cleansing systems ever made known and available to the
public. Through extensive research, Dr. Anderson has expanded his Cleanse and
Purify Thyself series to the exceptional offering of spiritual inspiration
and science that it is today. Dr. Anderson continues to devote himself to
research, writing, lectures and spreading his message of health and love. More information can be
found on his website at www.cleanse.net |