Spring is a time when many of us would like to take advantage of the longer days to re-implement our flagging New Year’s resolutions. For many of us that includes some type of “cleanse.” Below are safe and effective ways to accomplish these goals.
There are more than 83,000 chemicals registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Most of these have not been thoroughly tested for their effects on human health. The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) 2011 National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (NHANES), Fourth Report, presented data on 212 chemicals, including 75 measured for the first time in the U.S. population.
Key findings from the report include widespread exposure to some commonly used industrial chemicals, first available exposure data on mercury in the U.S. population, and first-time assessment of acrylamide exposure in the U.S. population, just to name a few. The research literature clearly points to many of these chemicals acting as neuroendocrine disruptors that get stored in fat tissue, organs, and the fatty sheaths surrounding nerves. This can wreak havoc on some organ systems.
Adequate Hydration
- The human body is composed of approximately 65-70% water. Every cell, tissue, and organ contains water. Every metabolic reaction and function in the body needs water.
- The evidence is conflicting regarding “optimal” water intake. It can vary depending on daily activities. I tell my patients to drink enough filtered, not distilled, water that the urine is clear or straw colored. Drinking distilled water can alter electrolytes in the body and cause harm.
- Performing the above will ensure that all metabolic waste products, as well as contaminants in the environment, are safely removed from the body without excessive burden on the kidneys.
Diet
- Fruits and vegetables are your friends. The more varied the colors of the fruits and vegetables, the more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants you will get. Most detoxification pathways in the body utilize the nutrients we obtain from fruits and vegetables. Buy organic when you can. Consider the “dirty dozen” from the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org) if on a budget.
- There are also certain functional foods (foods that have actions beyond their basic nutrient content) that are known to enhance the body’s ability to detoxify. Examples include artichokes, the Brassicaceae (Cruciferous) family of vegetables such as broccoli and brussel sprouts, beets, onions, garlic, green tea, and herbs like turmeric and dandelion root.
- Fiber. Just as water helps to excrete toxins via the urine, fiber is needed to excrete toxins via the stool. The Institute of Medicine states that adequate (not optimal) intake of total fiber in foods is 38 and 25 grams per day for young men and women, respectively. The 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 93% of Americans consume less than 25 g/d.
Exercise
- Let’s face it―humans sweat, and in so doing, remove toxins. Also, as one’s heart rate goes up, so does metabolism, thus burning fat. Many of the toxins that we’re exposed to on a daily basis get stored in fat. Burn the fat, release the toxins, and sweat them out. With adequate hydration and fiber, even more of these contaminants will be excreted and secreted.
- Studies have also shown that certain toxic metals, such as mercury, can be excreted via our sweat.
- The more vigorous the exercise the more we respirate. Some of the most volatile compounds—solvents, cleaners, etc.― can be excreted via the lungs (about 40% total excretion.
Biotherapeutic Drainage
This a process of detoxifying the body by opening the emunctories (organs of elimination; i.e.-liver, kidney, lung) and then excreting the toxic accumulations. Unlike “detoxing or metabolic cleansing,” biotherapeutic drainage works extracellularly and intracellularly, restoring optimal cellular function. UNDA numbers actually work not only by removing toxins from outside and inside of cells, but restore enzymatic and biochemical pathways to their optimal functioning.
Essentially, biotherapeutic drainage is a method of medicine that cleanses, purifies, corrects function and optimizes all cells, tissues and organs in the body, including the brain and central nervous system using medicines called UNDA numbers. These are carefully constructed homeopathic combinations of low potency botanical medicines and metals that are organ specific. They were formulated using anthroposophical principles, metallurgy knowledge (alchemy), and the principles of Chinese medicine and homeopathy. They have been around in Western Europe since the 1920’s. Originally there were 1002 different remedies, but after years of clinical experience, physicians decided on the 76 that worked the best.
I have been utilizing biotherapeutic drainage in my practice and have seen unparalleled results. “Detoxing” via other methods, although helpful, is far more superficial and temporary. This system of medicine can correct and optimize any organ or system in the body—including difficult to treat central nervous and endocrine concerns.
Here is an example of how effective this medicine can be. A 45-year-old female came to the clinic where I was a medical student. Her chief complaints were perimenopausal symptoms, fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, headaches, chronic musculoskeletal and joint pain, abdominal pain, and a benign essential tremor which made her very self-conscious. She exercised at a club in a golf course community where she lived as well did most of her walking around the golf course. These courses are consistently sprayed with pesticides that can have deleterious effects. Many of these toxic chemicals work by paralyzing the central nervous systems of the insects and causing them to die of respiratory failure. Just imagine what they were doing to her!
After some simple blood tests to rule out organic causes of her concerns (i.e., anemias, autoimmune disease, and chronic viral infections), she was referred to a gastroenterologist for an endoscopy. The abdominal pain had been going on for almost ten years. Everything was completely normal, except the endoscopy showed mild gastritis (inflammation of the lining of the stomach). We got to work. She received weekly B12 (in the active form of methylcobalamin) and folic acid injections, peat baths in a Hubbard tank, some dietary modifications including increasing organic fruits and vegetables, avoiding usual dietary causes of heartburn, and a homeopathic remedy of Phosphorus. After two weeks all of her symptoms had at least 30% improvement. I convinced my supervising physician (remember, I was only a medical student) to prescribe UNDA numbers and begin biotherapeutic drainage.
After six weeks of biotherapeutic drainage, along with the aforementioned treatments, she was 90% better and her energy went from 2/10 (10 best) when she originally came to the clinic to 9/10. Menopausal symptoms were obsolete, insomnia was resolved, and abdominal pain only existed when she ate her known food triggers or became very anxious–which was also 90% improved. And what about her tremor? Gone!
Another interesting case study was during my residency. A 24-year-old female presented to my colleague’s private practice with a chief concern of amenorrhea (no menstrual bleeding) since she was about 17. She was a competitive athlete in high school and college and experienced the loss of her menses then. She had tried acupuncture, Chinese herbs, Western herbal medicine, Reiki, craniosacral therapy, dietary modifications, homeopathy, and oral contraceptives (birth control), all to no avail. My fellow resident asked me if I knew of anything to treat this since she had tried everything else and had not had a period in almost seven years! I recommended that she give the patient UNDA numbers – one to treat her liver, one to treat her kidney, and one to address the female hormonal system. In three days, the patient called my colleague in tears―she had a period.
Dr. Born utilizes integrative medicine to focus on chronic disease, with a strong interest in difficult to treat and refractory cases, gastrointestinal issues, neurological and neurodegenerative disorders, endocrinology, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, autoimmune disease, development and behavioral issues, HIV/AIDS, and geriatrics.