Detoxification and Drainage (How It All Works)
How It All Works
Homeostasis is the ability of the body to maintain balance. In so doing, there is a flux and flow of chemical reactions within every cell of every living organism. Cells make up each organ and tissue in the body and are the basic functioning unit of that organ or tissue. The human body has approximately 250,000 billion cells with approximately 35,000 chemical reactions taking place per second within each of these cells. Many of these chemical reactions are involved in the healing and repair.
Toxins disturb the natural flux and flow of homeostasis. The body's immune system must defend against these toxins. The battle waged by the immune system between toxins and homeostasis is expressed as disease. A strong immune system quickly identifies the enemy and works to destroy it, hence causing fast and possibly more severe symptoms that quickly abate. A weakened, worn out, overloaded immune system is slow to respond to the toxic invasion, or does not respond at all, and thereby does not cause much, if any, symptomatology. How many times have you known or heard of someone who was "so healthy" and who "never got sick", but ate very poorly and maybe even smoked cigarettes, that suddenly died of cancer "with no warning" at a relatively young age? What happened? Let's examine the body's normal, physiologically programmed methods of maintaining homeostasis, the key to health.
Six phases of disease have been outlined by Reckeweg in Homotoxicology, Illness and Healing through Anti-homotoxic Therapy. Depending upon the severity and quantity of the toxin, the body will pass more rapidly or slowly through these phases. These phases in order are Excretion, Reaction, Deposition, Impregnation, Degeneration, and Neoplasm. In the first three phases, the cell remains intact and in control and essentially is winning the battle against the toxin. The body's natural ability to heal is not so impaired.
In the last three phases, the toxin has entered the cell causing internal damage and, hence, destruction to the organ or tissue involved. The ability of the body to heal itself is greatly impaired due to terrific interference of the homeostatic chemical reactions within the cell. This is the beginning of organ and tissue deterioration with the end result as cancer. In the first three phases, the outcome is more hopeful. In the last three phases, the outcome is more uncertain.
Here's how it happens. A toxin enters the body. The immune system's first defense is to excrete, or expel, the toxin. This is accomplished through perspiration, saliva, urine, feces, menstruation, ear wax, sinuses and nose, and the eyes. In fact, often when a person has "a cold", they are actually detoxifying and draining out some toxin. That toxin may be a virus or another live organism, or it may be some chemical the person got a dose of without even knowing.
If that toxin gets past this first line of defense either due to the strength of the toxin, the high quantity of the toxin, or the weakness of that immune system, the body's second line of defense is stimulated into action. Now inflammation sets in. This is when the person is diagnosed with some kind of "itis" which simply means "inflammation of." For example, tonsillitis is inflammation of the tonsils, colitis is inflammation of the colon, dermatitis is inflammation of the derma or the skin, etc..
If the immune system still cannot handle the toxin, the body will create storage spaces outside of the cell in which to put the toxin. In this manner, the body does not allow the toxin inside the cell where it could do irreparable damage. These spaces also act as holding tanks so the body can deal with the toxic invasion a little at a time. Examples are cysts, swellings, engorged fat cells, and benign tumors.
Typical diagnoses are colon polyps, ovarian cysts, fibroid tumors, lipomas, and obesity to name a few. Up to this point, the body has kept it's organs and tissues safe. Beyond this point is where real trouble occurs. If the toxin is allowed to enter the cell, it may do irreparable damage to the chemical reactions that take place in that cell and that allow the cell to do it's job. It may also do damage to the DNA of the cell, the replicating factor of the cell, which leads to the creation of sick, malfunctioning organs. Examples are liver cirrhosis, heart attacks, impotence, Crohn's Disease (this is a wearing away of the lining if the intestines), Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases, etc..
If these sick cells continue to replicate with no reversal of the situation, the likelihood of these cells turning cancerous is great. Therefore, the end stage of a toxic invasion gone unhandled by the immune system could be cancer.
The use of medical drugs to handle the symptoms of disease up until the toxin invades the cell, only serves to weaken the immune system's ability to handle the toxin and, in effect, pushes the toxin deeper into the organ/tissue. Remember, symptoms are the expression of immune system function . When the symptom goes away with the use of a chemical drug, is the illness cured or has it just gone deeper into the body only to rear it's ugly head some time later? This author believes the later is true.
Consider this: A young child, Janie, has pain in the ear that is keeping her, and the rest of the family, awake at night. Janie also has a low-grade fever of 101 degrees. The parents are careful with their child's health, so they take the child to the pediatrician. The doctor diagnoses an ear infection and prescribes antibiotics.
After about 2 or 3 days Janie is better. Two months later, the same problem occurs, the same diagnosis is made, the same prescription is carried out. Only this time, it takes about one week for Janie to feel better. About three months later, the same thing happens only this time Janie also has a sore throat with swollen tonsils.
Now the parents are distraught that their child keeps getting sick. The pediatrician agrees that stronger medicine is needed. A stronger, full spectrum antibiotic is prescribed with a longer course of care. Approximately two weeks go by before Janie feels better in the ear and throat. But, in the meantime, Janie has started complaining of tummy aches off and on and seems to always have a slight fever of 99.5 degrees.
This goes on for several months before the parents decide that it may be a problem that they'd better get checked it out by the doctor. The doctor says that Janie has allergies and will likely grow out of them, but to help with the pain and fever, it's O.K. to give Janie baby aspirin whenever needed. This seems to have proven true because within about a year, Janie stops complaining of tummy aches and the fevers go away. However, Janie has developed headaches that escalate to migraines at the onset of her periods.
Janie is now a teenager and has had a terrible time with her periods ever since they started. She takes over-the-counter medication to help with the horrible cramps she gets every month that keep her out of school, as well as medication for the migraines she gets every few months that also keep her out of school. She also gets depressed easily and can't concentrate on her studies. Although her I.Q. is quite high, her grades are well below average. Her parents accuse her of not applying herself which severely strains their relationship.
Several years pass with no change in these situations. Janie gets married and has a very difficult time getting pregnant. After two miscarriages, she finally does get pregnant. After a very difficult pregnancy, there are complications during delivery and the obstetrician is forced to do a hysterectomy. But she does have a beautiful baby and Janie is very happy. except Janie can't lose her pregnancy weight, her migraines aren't as bad but her stomach always hurts, she's either constipated or she has diarrhea, she's always bloated, she's tired all the time even when she can sleep through the night, and she has this horrible rash on her hand that just won't go away. Oh, and her baby has ear infections like she did.
Now, consider this: Janie brings her baby to the doctor for ear pain. This doctor understands the normal physiological processes of detoxification and drainage. The doctor explains to Janie that her baby is detoxifying yeast. Since Janie is nursing her baby, the problem is that Janie is drinking commercial cow's milk. The doctor explains that milk is very mucous producing and commercial cow's milk has the added problems of having residual hormones and antibiotics that are given to the cows.
As the hormones stimulate the production of yeast in the body, the antibiotic kills off the good bacteria in the intestines further allowing the yeast overgrowth. Janie's ears are being used by the body to drain out the excessive yeast build-up that her immune system is fighting. The prescription is for Janie to stop drinking commercial cow's milk and eliminate from her diet any foods with commercial cow's milk in it.
The baby is given a powdered probiotic (this is the good bacteria that should be in the intestines) and Janie is told to give her baby pure spring water frequently throughout the day.
In one week, Janie returns to this doctor for a follow-up visit. Janie reports that her baby has started sleeping through the night, is not pulling on her ear and generally seems brighter and happier. She also tells this doctor that consequently, her own problem of abdominal bloating and cramps has subsided a bit she thinks. She asks if stopping the commercial cow's milk could be related and, if so, would the probiotic help her, too.
The doctor says that most likely it would, but since her problems have become chronic conditions, it is a better idea to be thoroughly examined and tested so that her problems can be handled fully and completely. Janie's baby is put on a healthy diet of organic, whole foods (foods that are made without chemicals and that are minimally processed), and very limited dairy and wheat. She does fabulously well and only occasionally needs some natural medicines to support her immune system.
Janie reports often through the years that she is amazed at how healthy her daughter is and that she never seems to get sick like all the other kids at school, and if she does at all, the natural medicines handle the problem within a day or two. Janie's daughter never misses school! As Janie's daughter grows, she learns to eat truly healthy foods, she drinks plenty of water, she exercises and takes vitamins daily.
Her female cycles start at the average age and she has no problems with cramping or headaches like Janie did. She graduates college with honors. She gets pregnant and has 3 children without difficulty. She returns to her normal weight after each birth and is able to maintain it easily.
Throughout her life, she only ever needed natural medicines to help her body whenever she got sick, which was rare. She was never plagued with any "usual" condition like headaches or abdominal bloating like her mother. She lived happily and healthfully and passed her healthy habits on to her children, teaching them the importance of vitamins and the use of natural medicines.
Note: These two situations, Janie and her daughter, are based on real people.