This Colon Cleanse Gave Amazing Results!

NOTICE: Just a friendly warning to you that if you're really put off by explicit talk about human bowel functions, this post sure isn't for you!  On the other hand, if you're intensely interested in radically improving your overall health, immunity and longevity, read on...

It feels so strange... moving my jaw up and down in order to pulverize food for easier digestion.  The action stirs distant memories of a time long ago... five days ago, in fact, which was the last time I chewed anything!

The Past Week's Adventure in Resilience 

That's because I've spent the last week doing Blessed Herbs' Colon Cleanse, and what a super cleanse it is!  What basis do I have for making that claim?  Simple, by the visible results.


You see, with a colon cleanse, seeing is believing.  What you're out to eliminate from your system is the toxic mucoid plaque that's lining you colon / large intestine / bowel.  And it's easy to identify because it's totally different in color and texture from your usual bowel movement.  Here's what it looks like (no, this isn't mine ;-)

Mucoid plaque is long, rubbery, usually somewhere between very dark green and black.  This was the first time using an all-herbal colon cleanse that I've been able to eliminate this stuff. 

Previously, I was convinced that the only way to do this was by doing colonic hydrotherapy - that is, using water under pressure to flush out the colon.  The only problem with the latter is convenience, because it will probably cost you a few hundred dollars to have it done professionally, or you can probably get set up to do it at home for a couple hundred or so. 

So kudos to Blessed Herbs for a really effective colon cleanse that's so convenient to use and doesn't require colonic hydrotherapy!

Why Bother Cleansing Your Colon?

Of course, the begs the question of why you would want to cleanse your colon.  Well, if you're a reader of this blog, you probably already know, but briefly, here's why:

• As the plaque builds up over time, it leaches toxins directly into your blood stream, compromising the function of all you cells and significantly increasing the toxic load on your system
• The plaque inhibits your ability to absorb nutrients from your food, creating a kind of internal "malnutrition" no matter how good your diet is
• If you have spent any of your life on the "Standard American Diet" (SAD), you can be sure you're carrying around some unwanted pounds of this stuff (consider that even though my diet is heavily organic, mostly follows the rules of food combining and that I've done colonic hydrotherapy in the past, I still eliminated about eight feet of plaque this time around!)

So naturally, when you cleanse your colon of mucoid plaque build-up, you eliminate all these problems and return your metabolism to a higher level of functioning and overall resilience. 




Know What You're Getting Into...

Now, before you run off to grab their kit, let me tell you up front that this does require some adjustments to your lifestyle for the duration of the cleanse.  You go through three stages:

1. Stage 1: The 3 day pre-cleanse, where you eat ever decreasing portions of raw, organic food.
   
2. Stage 2: The 5 day liquid-only cleanse.  That's right, NO solid food, for reasons I'll explain below.  And as my business advisor, Kathy, so kindly reminded me last week, "liquid only doesn't include having a beer on your patio!"  You'll be on water and organic fruit juice, with some vegetable broth if you want it.  Even my traditional fruit smoothie was out of bounds.
   
3. Stage 3: The 1 day break-the-fast, where you start slowly (since your digestive system has been largely in shut-down mode for several days), with a diet of fresh fruits and veggies, steamed veggies, brown rice or baked potato.
   

Just to clarify, the reason for no solid food is simple: their Toxin Absorber, that you'll be taking every three hours mixed into apple juice, binds to the mucoid plaque and escorts it out of your body.  If you still have solid food in your digestive system, the Toxin Absorber will bind to that instead and leave the toxic garbage inside you - not a great idea!

So there you have it - nine days invested total and well worth it!!


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

 

Fasting Part One: Fasting to Improve Your Health

===========================================================

Ageless Beauty – Timeless Health:
Building a Lifestyle that Automatically Creates the
Health, Immunity and Longevity You Want

Toronto, Canada: June 4-5, 2011

http://www.harapower.com/AB/

=========================================

This is Holy Week for most Christians and a time when tens of millions of people will be fasting.  So what better time to do a two-part series on the value of fasting?  Why two-part?  Because there are two main reasons people fast...

We fast in search of better health or we fast as a method of spiritual purification.  As we'll see the two are related.  Today, though, we'll focus on fasting to create health, immunity and longevity....

What Exactly is "Fasting"?

That's not as stupid a question as you may think.  That fact is, there are lots of misconceptions out there about fasting.  Some people believe that simply abstaining from certain foods or food groups, either temporarily or permanently, is "fasting".  That's most definitely not fasting.  That's "abstinence".  


Fasting is going without eating solid food, and sometimes liquid nourishment as well, for a defined period of time.  That could be a matter of hours, days or weeks, depending on what you're trying to achieve and how.  

The Health Benefits of Fasting

So why would you bother?  Perhaps because there are few if any other health tools in your arsenal that give you such bang for the buck.  Here are just some of the primary benefits of fasting:

1. Initiates a detoxification / cleansing reaction in the body, enabling you to rid yourself of accumulated toxins.
2. Enables weight loss.
3. Puts the digestive system, and the body as a whole, into "rest mode", allowing the energy usually devoted to digestion to be diverted to healing.
4. Clears up skin problems and the whites of your eyes.
5. Naturally lowers blood pressure without drugs.
6. Makes it easier to overcome bad habits and addictions, and to make a fresh start with a new, healthier diet and lifestyle.
7. Reduces inflammation throughout your body.
8. Reduces water retention throughout your body.
9. Pacifies many allergic reactions and sensitivities.  
10. Historical and biological research strongly suggests proper fasting promotes longevity.

Varieties of Fasting

You may have heard of many types of fasting for health, including water fasts, juice fasts, total fasts and many others.  Natural health pioneers like Dr. Bernard Jensen and Victor Irons used fasting together with colon cleansing to achieve remarkable results for their patients and clients for about half a century each!  More telling is that both of these great pioneers lived healthy lives to nearly age one hundred.  


Here's a video with Dr. Nicholas Tancheff, a chiropractor who has founded a fasting retreat facility in Hawaii.  You can learn a lot by listening to how he went from the typically disastrous North American lifestyle to learning how to self-heal...

Warning: Avoid the Traps!

There are several traps with fasting, so here's my advice on how to get started:

1. Check in with your physician or a licensed health-care provider to help you get started.  This is particularly important if you've never done this before or have a pre-existing medical condition.
2. Be clear on what you would like to achieve with the fast.  This will help you select the proper type.
3. Don't make it up on your own: follow a program based on reliable and tested information.
4. Don't overdo it.  Fasting for just a few days can provide enormous benefit!
5. Don't become addicted to fasting and cleansing!  These are activities you should do periodically, not constantly.  Once your fast is over, start giving your body all the nutritious food it needs to stay healthy!

If you would like to learn a whole lot more about fasting and cleansing directly from people with a lot of experience, you should consider coming to the health workshop I'm doing with Michael Morningstar in Toronto, Canada on June 4-5.


As you've heard from the teleseminar we did last week, Michael really knows his stuff.  And we are confident that you'll leave our event with the knowledge and the confidence to take your health to a whole new level.


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger






 

 

Colon Cleansing - Why and How to Get Started

It's no secret that our bodies are piled high with toxins these days, toxins from our corrupted food chain and water supply, the air we breathe, the household cleansers we use and any number of other sources.

So if you're serious about your health, immunity and overall resilience, you do need to be thinking about incorporating a regular detoxification program into your life.  And the best place to start for most people is definitely the colon.  Why?

• Over time, thanks partly to poor dietary habits, not all your bodily waste is excreted and some of the leftover ends up attached to the walls of your intestines, where it eventually becomes toxic and leaches those toxins into your bloodstream
   
• This leads to a less efficient colon, longer "transit times" for waste matter through your colon and more toxic build-up
   
• The most extreme colon cleanse is a colonic irrigation, where the colon is filled with water.  This breaks down and flushes out the caked on waste matter and what comes out is quite a shocking revelation to most people!
   
• Colon cleansing was quite popular until the pharmaceutical revolution of the '20s and '30s buried it under false promises of "miracle drugs"
   
• Great 20th century exponents of colon cleansing, such as Dr. Bernard Jensen and Victor Irons, lived extraordinarily long and healthy lives 

So colon cleansing sounds like a great thing to do for your health, right?  Unfortunately though, very few beginners have any idea where to start and what to do...

Blessed Herbs - Colon Cleanse in a Box

One of the easiest ways to get started and to see and feel great results is to use a colon cleanse based on herbs and fiber rather than on colonic irrigation.  It's quite a bit easier and more convenient, and I say that as someone who's done it all.  


One of the top cleansing kits out there comes from Blessed Herbs and I love their Internal Cleansing and Colon Cleansing kits because they're so well laid out, so easy to use and have such clear directions.  


Here's a brief video about their Colon Cleansing kit and three different ways to use it:









As a point of information for you, the Blessed Herbs Internal Cleansing kit targets the intestines, the liver, gallbladder, lungs, kidneys, lymph, blood and skin.  While you can order the Colon Cleansing kit on its own, it's currently being offered for free if you go for the Internal Cleansing kit.  


You can find all the information you need right here.


However you do it, I would encourage you to make regular cleansing and detoxification a part of your health routine this year - the benefits are truly astounding.


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

Summer: the Key to Building Your Personal Resilience (Part 2)

(There's a special breathing exercise for you at the end, but read the whole thing first!)

Last time I talked a bit about how and why to use the summer months to work on certain aspects of your fitness, aspects that are far easier to work on with the higher ambient temperatures. 

(Speaking of higher ambient temperature, the reason I'm inside writing this and not out enjoying the bright sunny day is that the humidex in Ottawa today is 44C / 111F.  "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun.")

Anyway, I digress.  There are also lots of other ways you can build your personal RESILIENCE most easily at this time of year, so let's take a look at them:


Nutrition:

Switching your diet around to include more freshly grown fruits and vegetables can significantly boost your intake of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, trace elements and more.  In addition, the energetic or "qi" content of these foods is far superior, giving your immune system a much needed boost.

And including more "cooling" foods in your diet - including most fruits and veggies, as well as cooling herbs like fresh mint (my garden's overrun with the stuff) - will help your metabolism to function most effectively in the hot weather.  Also, these foods require far less energy for your body to digest than do heavier foods like red meat, so you benefit from that as well.

One easy way to include more cooling foods is to make smoothies.  Here's an excellent site for smoothie recipes:

http://www.smoothieweb.com


Cleansing:

Since your body doesn't need to devote a lot of resources to keeping your core temperature warm in the summer, this season is ideal for doing a cleanse.  If you've ever done a cleanse in the winter, on the other hand, and especially one that cut down your food intake, you know firsthand how cold you get without the food you're used to.

Your body also detoxifies naturally during the summer.  Since your skin is a major organ of elimination and you're exposing more of it to the air, and since you're sweating more, toxin removal is much more efficient.  Some of the best cleanses we know of (and that I've used myself) can be found here:


http://www.blessedherbs.com/

http://www.galaxynutrients.com/



Sunshine, Energy and Immunity:

In Chinese medicine, summer corresponds to the high point of Yang energy in the Yin-Yang cycle.  Yang stands for a strong, positive, hot and expanding type of energy, and as the world around you becomes more Yang, so does your body. 

In other words, your body's energy tends to become expansive and radiate outward, whereas in winter the opposite was true, since your body was automatically conserving its energy.  This is actually good news, since it means that in the summer your body automatically recharges your "wei qi", which is the type of qi that forms a barrier around you against harmful pathogens and other intruders.  What can you do to help this process along? 

One way is to make sure you get enough sun exposure.  Yes, there's a ton on information out there about how bad the sun is for you, how it will give you skin cancer, wrinkle your skin and probably fog your i-pod.  Personally, I really don't buy it.  Yes, you should be cautious about sun exposure, but cautious is not paranoid.  Baring your skin to the sun helps replenish your body's vitamin D reserves and you may need those reserves in winter, when sunlight is harder to come by and when you're so bundled up the sun can't get to you anyway.  Here's one expert's take on the whole "sun causes skin cancer" spiel that might interest you:

http://bit.ly/cSwDh9




Emotional Cleansing:

Lots more sunlight has a very positive effect on the human psyche, as we all know from experience.  You can magnify the effect by making a decision to work on positive emotions over the summer: simply decide now to stay in a "headspace" of positive expectation, of gratitude, of generosity and kindness, and you'll see results pretty quickly. 

You can also decide to learn an emotional healing technique over the summer, such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or Be Set Free Fast (BSFF).  You may even get bold enough with these tools to take on some of your inner demons and turf them out ;-)


A Breathing Exercise for You:

(Always get your physician's approval for undertaking physical exercises such as this.  Contraindications include some chronic conditions, cardio-vascular disease, high blood pressure, as well as pregnancy.)

If you'd like to use the summer to detoxify naturally, accumulate more qi, calm your emotions and improve your life in nealy every way, try this:

1. Go for a walk
2. As you walk, pay attention to your breath... watch it come in and go out naturally as you breathe through your nose
3. As you inhale, feel the breath descend to your lower abdomen, a few centimeters / inches below your navel. 
4. As you exhale, just watch the breath exit through your nose
5. After you've done this for a while and gotten used to it, pay attention to the sensations on various areas of your body as you inhale.  Feel energy entering your body at various points and gathering at your lower abdomen
6. As you exhale, feel the energy you've taken in expand from your lower abdomen outward only as far as the surface of your skin

This is a walking meditation from ancient Taoist sources.  It's very relaxing, reintegrates your mind and body and improves your immune system too.  Just don't get so absorbed in it that you forget to watch for traffic!

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

Want REAL Health? Go on a Cleanse!

Just so you don't think I'm all hot air, that I write about all these great practices without ever doing them...

...Last week I was into two phenomenal resilience-building activities.  It was an amazing week, a week of challenges, of pain and finally of sweet victory.  Today, though, I'll just cover the first of those activities - a comprehensive internal cleanse or detoxification.


If you're reading this blog, you probably already know how important periodic cleanses are.  Your body is packed with a dizzying array of toxins and parasites absorbed from food, water, air pollution, toxic substances used in building interiors and more.  And by all accounts, this toxic load is considerably worse than it was even two or three decades ago.  Yet a good cleanse is almost guaranteed to get your blood pesticide levels down to FDA standards ;-) Even more amazing is that a good cleanse can eliminate the after-effects of previous emotional and even physical traumas.

In fact, some of the greatest "miracle" stories of healing and longevity have been based on cleansing, such as those of Victor Irons, Dr. Bernard Jensen and many more.  




The Cleanse I Used:


Over the years, I've used a number of different cleanses, and most of them have been incredibly positive experiences.  The cleanse I just started was recommended by my business associate, Kathy, about two years ago and I had wanted to try it ever since.  It's produced by a US company called Blessed Herbs and Kathy's naturopath was very impressed with the contents.  


If you know how confusing a cleanse can be, with a zillion different capsules to swallow or potions to drink at specific times of day, you'll really appreciate the Blessed Herbs approach.  Yeah, they have the pills and potions, but the layout is SO user-friendly you can't possibly get confused.   


This cleanse is, as the name implies, based largely on herbs, and runs for three stages of seven days each, so three weeks in all.  Right now I'm on Day 6 of Stage 2, or a bit more than half way through (which is good, since I'm developing a serious craving for cheese ;-)


That brings up the whole question of diet, since some cleanses are based on fasting of various types.  For this cleanse, it's up to you -  if you eat burgers and fries every night, you'll pretty much torpedo any benefit from your investment in all those amazing herbs.  On the other hand, if you eat light, vegan meals and drink lots of filtered water, you'll get fantastic results.  




My Results (Knock Wood...):


So far, I haven't experienced any kind of healing crisis - a healing crisis happens when you have a lot of toxins and the cleanse starts moving them out of your body at a rapid rate.  The symptoms are pretty unpleasant and mimic real illness, even though they're actually a good sign. 


For me, however, it's all been the opposite so far.  Well, a bit of intestinal pain one afternoon, but who's to complain?  All in all, I've noticed:

• Lots more energy throughout the day
• Improved mental clarity
• No more joint pain (a miracle, considering my other resilience-builder last week...)

This cleanse targets the colon (absolutely the most important place to start) and then moves on to all the major organs of toxin eliminations: your liver, gall bladder, lungs, kidneys, bladder and skin.  


So far, so good.  I'll keep you posted.  Cleanses are highly recommended at least twice a year.  Remember, you should only undertake a cleanse with the approval of your physician and / or a licensed and qualified health care provider. 


Next time, I'll fill you in on my other big activity of last week ;-)  


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger