Detoxing 101: The Role of the Colon in Detoxification

Hey y'all! Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

As promised in this post from a couple of weeks ago, Introducing Detox Herbs, I want to begin teaching y'all how to use herbs to detox. Many people are familiar with the word "detox," but some people may not really know everything that goes into the process of detoxification. Detoxification simply means "get the unwanted gunk out of your body which is making you sick (or has the potential to make you sick)."

Our bodies are created (designed, evolved) to take in nutrients (food) and eliminate what we do not need. We have three main elimination channels: 1) the skin (perspiration), 2) the gastro-urinary tract, including the kidneys, ureters, and bladder (urination), and 3) the gastro- intestinal tract, including the small and large intestines (defecation).

Today I want to begin a discussion of the role of the large intestines, or colon, in detoxification. This may seem like Too Much Information for some readers, but I ask you to bear with me. This is simple anatomy, and may help save your life or the life of a loved one. If you really desire to heal yourself naturally, you need to know how the human body works.

Here is an image of the entire gastro-intestinal tract, from the stomach to the rectum. You can easily see the small intestines in the middle of the lower abdomen and the large intestines forming a "frame" around them on three sides- image courtesy of A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia (awesome reference, by the way)

Here is an image of the colon, isolated from the rest of the body- image courtesy of A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia

This chart labels the parts of the large intestines as well as the major blood vessels which are associated with the colon- image by Integrative Medical Center

I want y'all to become familiar with the parts of the colon, because as we get into various ways to do a bowel detox or colon cleanse (same thing), you'll find out that different methods work for different parts of the colon.

Looking at the very beginning of the large intestines, which is to the reader's bottom left, what is at the "end?"

The appendix. That's right! So if someone has appendicitis and has to have an appendectomy, what do you think is going on inside the body? That's right! There's not a good "flow" down there. Things have gotten stopped up and it has led to inflammation ("-itis") in the appendix. The surgeon's answer is to cut the appendix out. The "natural healing therapy" way is to prevent (or correct) the blockage in the first place.

Directly above the appendix is the cecum and the ascending colon, which runs up the right side of the abdomen. The liver sits on top of the upper section of the ascending colon. The right kidney sits in back of it.

The large intestines turn, and run across the top of the abdominal cavity, right below the stomach. This is the transverse colon. The transverse colon ends at the spleen on the left side of the body. There is another turn, then the colon continues downward. This section is called the descending colon.

The large intestines then travel from the left side to the center of the body. This portion of the colon is called the sigmoid colon. From there, the end of the colon, the rectum, sends fecal waste out of the body's exit, the anus.

If you remember from high school Biology class, the intestines move waste out of the body through a process known as peristalsis. Peristalsis is simply a muscular action which looks like waves or ripples. This is all done involuntarily.

I've provided a short video clip of peristalsis in action. This is actually a camera shot (endoscopy) of the end of the stomach, but the action of the intestines is similar.

                                

And here is a short video of a very healthy colon. You can actually see the muscles and blood vessels running all through the colon tissue. I want you to get a good mental picture of what a healthy colon is supposed to look like, so when we start discussing colon issues and diseases next week, y'all can see the difference.

                               

I hope you enjoyed this little anatomy lesson!

P.S.: I'm going to do my best to get the Superfood ebook finished by the end of May. I am interning to be a public school teacher, and have enjoyed substituting for some wonderful students lately. This has put me behind in my writing schedule. Bear with me. I have not forgotten my promise to you!

  

Eating Clean and Still Not Losing Weight? Eight Questions to Ask Yourself

Hey y'all!

I hope everyone had a wonderful time viewing the Supermoon last night!- image courtesy of David Yankowski and Texas Hill Country.com

One of my readers asked a "super" question in a comment on my post entitled "Which Diet is Right for Me? A Look at Some of the Best and Healthiest Diets." Here's what this person asked:

"Great info! How do you feel about all natural organic peanut butter? Greek, non fat, plain yogurt? Artificial sweeteners? Just wondering, because I eat clean and I'm still not dropping the weight, I even cut out fruit. Help!"

First, thank you very much for your kind words and for your wonderful comment. Very briefly, I've noticed that some people can handle peanut butter and dairy very well, and others simply cannot. I personally do not tolerate peanut butter, even if it is all natural and organic. I have eaten peanut butter all my life, but in the past couple of years, I feel awful after eating even a teaspoon of it. I am not sure why. I just avoid it. You may try eliminating peanut butter from your diet and see if you notice any changes. 

The same can be said for Greek yogurt. I love Chobani (I am not an affiliate, just a happy customer). Siggi's yogurt is another brand that a lot of "clean eaters" rave about. However, a lot of people cannot handle dairy. This may be the case for you.

Artificial sweeteners? Run. Run as far away from them as you possibly can. I'll write a long info bomb about how bad aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet) poisoning is. Thank you for the question.

Your real implied question when you wrote "I eat clean and I'm still not dropping the weight. Help!" is "what do I do now?" I've prepared a check list for you with some suggestions to consider.

Eating clean and still not losing weight? Eight questions to ask yourself:

I can give you some fairly solid suggestions because the same thing happened to my daughter-in-law, Sarah, who blogs at thedailysophisticate.com. She has graciously allowed me to share her story with others. 

Sarah struggled with weight all her life. An emergency gall bladder surgery at age 23 was a wake up call to get on the road to health. She started with the Bob Greene Best Life Diet and the Couch25K program, losing about 25 or so pounds in a year. She hit a plateau, did a ton of research about proper nutrition, and switched to the Eat Clean Diet her second year. She kept up the cardio, and added a strength training DVD program using mostly dumbells. She lost another 30 or so pounds that year.

Sarah found out that the closer a person gets to his or her weight goal, the harder it is to get the excess weight off. She wanted to stay "natural" and not take "diet pills" or "fat burners." She looked at what she was really doing, and found she was making some common mistakes. Here is a checklist for anyone who is eating clean and still not losing weight:

1. Are you drinking enough water? At a minimum, we are supposed to drink half our body weight in ounces of pure water every day. I have visited enough bodybuilding and fitness websites to know that most fit people drink at least a gallon of water every day. Water helps us flush out the unwanted toxins. This may be too much information for some people, but I must say that water softens the waste in our colons and moves it on out. This is how we lose weight. 
2. Are you measuring your portions for every meal? We actually have to either weigh our food on a food scale or scoop it out of a serving dish with a measuring cup. This is especially true if we are eating any kind of grain or potatoes. If we do not use portion control, we may be consuming more calories than we think we are.
3. Are you eating enough healthy fat? This sounds crazy, but our calories are supposed to be roughly divided into thirds: one third lean protein, one third complex carbohydrates, and one third healthy fats. Healthy fats include avocados, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, raw nuts and seeds, butter (if you are not vegan), and even small amounts of animal fat such as bacon (if you eat meat).
4. Are you counting calories? Some people believe we do not have to count calories if we are eating "right." If you are counting calories and still not losing weight, you want to make sure each calorie is "nutrient dense." This means "make every calorie count." Try eating more green vegetables and less starchy grains. 
5. Are you dairy or gluten intolerant? Through a lot of experimentation, my daughter-in-law found out she was both dairy and gluten intolerant. She started losing weight again when she gave dairy and wheat up.
6. Are you eating five or six times a day? Our bodies actually hold on to fat when it thinks there is no more food coming. When we keep our bodies fueled, our metabolism kicks in to high gear and we burn fat like crazy. It makes no sense, but we really do lose weight by eating more food and more often.
7. Are you exercising hard enough? If we burn 500 calories in one hour and work out seven days a week, we will burn off one pound of weight. What kind of activities burn 500 calories in an hour? A vigorous game of racquetball, jogging for an hour at 5mph, high impact aerobics, doing cardio on a stair treadmill, and working out on an elliptical burn roughly 500 calories per hour. If we cannot exercise that hard or for that long, then most of our calorie reduction has to come from our diet.
8. Could you try a different diet? When my daughter discovered she was dairy and gluten intolerant, she and my son switched to the Paleo Diet. They joined a Crossfit "box" (the Crossfit word for gym). I know a lot of people may think, "Oh, no! Not another crazy Crossfitter!" Well... the Paleo lifestyle is working for them. It will work for me if  I become consistent with it. I suggest that anyone who is eating clean and still not losing weight try switching to the Paleo Diet and switching his or her workout around on a daily basis. If you are a vegetarian, switch to a high raw vegan diet, or even an all raw vegan diet. I have done a 30 day all raw food vegan challenge a couple of times (lots of cool videos at that link). I felt amazing and dropped a minimum of ten pounds each time. It is definitely worth looking into.

Thanks again for the great questions! Try some of these suggestions and get back to us with your results!

Does anyone have other suggestions to add to mine? Please post them in the comments!

P.S.: I want to give a big shout out to my Russian readers! Hey y'all! Thanks for being a part of my life!

Introducing Detox Herbs

Herbs for detoxification are wonderful when you are knowledgeable about them- image by gardenguides.com

Hey y'all!

It's time to start talking about detox herbs! I've tried to lay out a good foundation of health for you. I've talked about getting enough sleep, drinking enough pure water, healthy diets, "earthing," and how to lose weight safely. It is at this point in a healthy lifestyle that we want to begin releasing all the bad "gunk" we have accumulated in our colons, livers, kidneys, and bloodstream. I personally love detoxing, and feel fantastic when I do it!

I was delighted to see this post on Dr. Richard Schulze's blog. I love Dr. Schulze. He's a really "out there" character, but he knows herbs like nobody's business and has witnessed people healing themselves of everything under the sun by simply doing the right things for their bodies and lives. I'd like to get y'all excited about detoxing by letting Dr. Schulze tell you about it.

There are herbs for practically everything: detoxing, losing weight, improving skin tone, calming nerves...- image by weightwatchers.com 

In time, I'm going to teach you how to make some herbal recipes, plus give you all the information I can on these herbs so you can make educated choices about your health. I'll tell you right now (and constantly) that I'm not a doctor, and not an expert. I will tell you to always seek the advice of a qualified health practitioner before doing anything you read about on the Internet. But if you'd like to learn more about herbs and other natural healing therapies, stay tuned!

Mountain Rose Herbs Certified Organic Teas: Rave Review

Hey y'all!

It's tea time!

Do y'all love tea as much as I do? I am crazy about all different kinds of herbal tea, and guess what? Mountain Rose Herbs has a gorgeous new line of teas!

image courtesy of Mountain Rose Herbs

I have been a happy Mountain Rose Herbs customer for years. I buy almost all of my herbs from them, and have also bought things like organic aloe vera gel, castor oil, and wheat germ oil from them. I love their products and customer service so much that I became an affiliate. Sometimes in my herb orders I'll tuck in a little treat, like tea!

Mountain Rose Herbs teas are made from 100% certified organic ingredients. They are earth kosher and "fair for life" fair trade teas. These handcrafted tea formulas have been time-tested for over twenty years. There are over sixty-five different varieties of greens, reds, whites, blacks, and blends to choose from.

I've enjoyed their delicate green sencha, their bold gunpowder green (oh, wow!), their yerba mate (tastes a little like hay or dried grasses and smells wonderful), and their exquisite red roobois (which I am totally hooked on). Y'all might like to try the tea sampler, which contains three 1.5 oz. tins of certified organic green sencha, black ceylon, and red roobois for $14.95 plus shipping.

MRH tea sampler set- courtesy Mountain Rose Herbs

Aren't these containers beautiful? 

All of the tea boxes are completely sustainable. They are made of 100% recycled cardboard, printed with soy ink and water based varnish. The boxes are either compostable, reusable, or recyclable. The labels contain detailed brewing instructions and are recyclable, too. The tea bags themselves are made from 100% compostable Pacific Northwest non-GMO tree resin. 

Here in Texas it gets really hot beginning in May and doesn't let up until late October. We love our sweet iced tea. I make my iced tea from green tea because of the amazing antioxidants, and sweeten it with honey. So we drink tea all year round.

You can enter the Mountain Rose Herbs site by clicking on the banner:

I was just hired as a teacher and I look forward to bringing some of these teas to work with me! Leave a comment and tell me where you most enjoy sipping tea!

How to Heal an Earache Naturally

Hey y'all!

My little five year old granddaughter has an earache! My daughter asked for recommendations on how to heal an earache naturally. Several people chimed in with their thoughts. I thought my readers might appreciate knowing how to heal an earache naturally, since it is a pretty common experience, especially among children.

My advice to my daughter was simple. I told her to put anywhere from a few drops to a full eyedropper of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in my granddaughter's ear, and then plug the ear up with some cotton. I suggested my daughter give my granddaughter "something for the pain," and place a warm heating pad over her ear while she was lying down. Put her on a "clean" diet and give her a lot of orange juice in order to help break up the mucous build-up. I also told my daughter to check my granddaughter's temperature. If it went up above 99 degrees Farenheit (37.2 degrees Celcius), she would be running a low grade fever, indicative of a full-blown ear infection- acute otitis media. At that point, my daughter would need to decide if she would take my granddaughter to a doctor or not. A friend of mine in nursing school said to use an "anti-inflammatory" pain reliever such as Motrin. Earaches are no fun.

The reason I told my daughter to use hydrogen peroxide was because this is a very common household item, and I was almost positive she had some at her house. However, for the future, this is what I would tell anyone who wanted to heal an earache naturally.

First, I highly recommend that everyone get into the habit of taking echinacea tincture every day. Echinacea is the herbalist's number one go-to herb for boosting the immune system. Here is an article I wrote for Natural News a year ago on the effectiveness of echinacea against radiation. Echinacea is that good. How much echinacea is enough? It really depends on body size. Top herbalists say to take 1-2 eyedroppers of echinacea tincture two or three times a day for an adult maintenance dose. For a child, we would want to cut that amount in half or a quarter, depending on the age and size of the child. If someone is fighting an infection, of course we would increase that. Just so you know, most herbal tinctures taste terrible. You will want to mix them with unsweetened fruit juice in order for a child to take them. I will write a post next week on the powers of echinacea and teach you how to make your own very potent echinacea tincture. I promise, you will love not getting every cold or sniffle that comes along.

Next, there are two herbal products that have a host of anecdotal evidence (to the point of being empirical evidence) suggesting their use for earaches. One is garlic oil, and the other is an herbal formula called B & B. Garlic is very well documented scientifically to effectively heal bacterial and fungal infections as well as many other medical issues. My favorite brand of garlic oil is from Dr. John R. Christopher, who was perhaps the greatest master herbalist of the twentieth century. The garlic kills any infection in the ear. You can get this garlic oil on Amazon.com (in full disclosure, I am an Amazon.com affiliate):

                                                                

Herbs First.com also sells Dr. Christopher's Garlic Oil, if you would rather purchase it from some place other than Amazon.

You can put a decent sized clove of garlic in the ear canal and put a piece of tape over it to hold it in place, but it has been my experience that the heat from the allicin (the chemical that gives garlic its distinctive odor) may be too intense for someone with an earache.

Simply putting about four drops of garlic oil in the ear at night, stuffing the ear with a piece of cotton (from a vitamin bottle, or use the cotton balls women use to take off eye makeup), and covering the ear with either a heating pad, a warm hand towel, or a clean sock filled with rice or oats and heated in the microwave should start the healing process. Do this for a week, then make a solution of half apple cider vinegar and half warm water to rinse the ear out. Use an ear syringe like this (be gentle, please):

Ear syringe for rinsing out the ear after an earache- image by Quick Medical

Another herbal formula I have been pretty impressed with is Dr. Christopher's Ear and Nerve Formula, which is nicknamed "B & B." This formula contains blue and black cohosh, blue vervain, skullcap, and lobelia in a grain alcohol menstrum (suspension). For an earache, you would put four drops of garlic oil followed by four drops of B & B at night for a week, followed by the apple cider vinegar and water rinse at the end of the week. Each night, you will place a warmed towel or heating pad over the ear for soothing comfort.

                                                                   
                                                                  

Personally, I cannot recommend B & B for any pregnant woman because of the blue and black cohosh. These herbs can cause uterine contractions.

HUGE DISCLAIMER: These products have *not* been tested or approved by the FDA. The information I have provided here and anywhere else on this site is for education purposes only. I do my best to provide accurate, scientifically documented information. However, it is not intended to replace or substitute for advice from a knowledgeable and professional health care provider. Especially when dealing with children, please seek the advice of a physician or other trusted health care provider and do your own research before taking any action. Just because something may work for me does not in any way mean it may work for you. We are all different, so please take responsibility for your own health and assume your own risk.

I want to say something else. Check your child's throat if he or she is complaining of an earache. One of my sons complained of an earache and a sore throat for a week. It hurt so bad he could not sleep. I finally took him to the doctor. He did not have an ear infection as I suspected, but instead had strep throat!  I found out that with strep, the pain is referred to the ears.

P.S.: I am making steady progress on my Superfood ebook. I think y'all will really like it!

P.P.S: I continue to be amazed at all of the readers I have from all over the world! Today I send special greetings and love to my Canadian and Russian readers! I am so honored to have you!