Tuesday, March 29th, 2011:

Enhance Your Detox

 

 

An excerpt from a two thousand year old Confucian classic entitled “Spring and Autumn Annals” reads: “If the body does not move, essence [vital fluids] does not flow. When essence does not flow, energy stagnates.” And when energy stagnates, the whole system loses power. 
 
 

The first function to fail is the body’s ability to cleanse and repair itself. 
 

The human body was designed to move, not to remain inert, and thus body fluids were meant to flow, not to sit still and stagnate. Some of these vital fluids, such as lymph, depend solely on body movements for their own mobility. 
 

Whenever you’re sitting or standing still, your lymph also stands still, and your blood slows down. Whenever such immobility occurs, waste drainage stops, and toxins accumulate rapidly in the blood and tissues. Insufficient movement also causes joint stiffness and tightens the tendons, congests the bowels, and slows down metabolic efficiency.
 

Unfortunately, insufficient movement and the resulting stagnation of bodily fluids is one of the great maladies of modern life and a major contributing factor to chronic toxemia that so many of us are faced with. Examples of our day-to-day activities that are aimed at convenience rather than physical movement are: driving in cars rather than walking, using machines rather than manual labor, taking elevators instead of stairs…
 

The body is a complex and intelligent network of muscles, tissues, and nerve structures that are all interrelated. A disruption or imbalance in one area of the body can lead to an imbalance elsewhere in the body. 
 

The lymphatic system is often overburdened. Lymph is a clear watery fluid comprised of mostly white blood cells, with some red blood cells and proteins as well, that is found throughout the body. While skin is the first line of defense, protecting the internal organs from outside invaders, lymph is our body’s second line of defense against pathogens, viruses, yeast, and bacteria. 
 

Lymph circulates through the body tissues, picking up fats, bacteria, and other unwanted materials, and then filtering these substances throughout the lymphatic system, an extensive network of vessels and capillaries that are linked to lymph nodes - small nodules that act as filters to trap unwanted substances. Lymph nodes also produce more white blood cells, refreshing and arming the lymph before it is pumped out of the lymphatic system and back into the body. Lymphatic fluid requires body movement in order for it to circulate.    
 

During detoxification on The Body Ecology Diet, it is especially crucial to keep your blood, lymph, and other bodily fluids flowing freely, to keep your joints loose and limber, to stretch your tendons and other connective tissue, and to stimulate activity in your organs and glands.  There is a tendency during the detoxification process to remain inert and inactive because your body may feel tired, weak, and sluggish as the toxins are continuously released into the bloodstream for elimination. However, if you don’t move your body and keep your fluids flowing, the toxins released from your tissues circulate in your bloodstream for a much longer period of time, making you feel even worse and prolonging the discomfort, as well as the duration of the detoxification process. 
 

When you’re on The Body Ecology Diet and you’re following The Principles of Cleansing, toxins, which are cellular waste, are already abundantly present in your system and get released rapidly. 
 

Since the dawn of humankind, bodywork has been used to heal people’s injuries and illnesses and promote relaxation. Healers have long understood that the external surface of the body can be used as a conduit to positively influence the internal organs. A massage will contribute to this rapid release of toxins so that the detoxification process is more powerful and more efficient. Various forms of bodywork improve circulation and lymphatic flow, which allow the body’s cells to detoxify and the tissues to recover from injury. 
 

The good thing is if you’re just too depleted to move your own body (and blood and lymph) during detox, you can simply pay someone else to do it for you with a therapeutic massage, which efficiently does the job. It does this by kneading toxins from the tissues, activating lymph and sinus drainage, stimulating glandular secretions, calming the nervous system, and toning the joints, muscles, and tendons. If a professional massage is not in your budget, you may apply self-massage techniques instead to facilitate the detox process and prevent stagnation.


One easy self-massage technique is stimulating an acupressure point called “Ho-gu” or “The Valley of Harmony”. This is one of the body’s primary power points, and stimulation here gives a boost to the entire energy system. It is located on the large intestine meridian, in the V-shaped depression in the webbing between the base of the thumb and the index finger.

1. Press the tip of the thumb deeply into the “valley” until you find this sensitive point, and then push hard on it for about ten seconds.
2. Release and rub the surface in circles, and repeat two or three more times.
3. This point stimulates the colon, relieves headaches and toothaches, alleviates fatigue, and improves respiration, all of which are beneficial to the detox process.    

After a massage, it is very important to drink one or two glasses of pure alkaline water. This hydration is necessary to quickly dissolve and excrete the flood of toxins that deep tissue massage releases into the blood and lymph from every part of the body. Try the Potent Proteins to aid in the detoxification process. 
 

Remember: When working with soft tissues of the body, there can be many issues and discomforts that you experience due to a wide range of factors from tissue injury to a chronic repetitive movement pattern that is simply overworking and fatiguing the muscles.  It doesn’t matter what the problem is - any discomfort or pain experienced by the recipient of massage should be easily breathed through during the therapeutic process. 
 

You should be able to take a deep breath and relax with the pressure, helping the muscle to also relax and release the tension. If you find yourself tensing or are unable to take a breath, then the pressure is too strong, and you should ask the therapist to lighten up. Getting healthy doesn’t have to be painful.
 

Make it easy and enjoyable by treating yourself to a therapeutic massage... you deserve it!

 

About the Author
 

Kat Farovitch is a Certified Massage Therapist and Holistic Nutritionist. Kat@TheDetoxTemple.com

 

 

 

 

 

Learn more from The Body Ecology Diet book:

The Body Ecology Diet Buy from Amazon.com   Buy From Amazon.co.uk