“Eating an apple a day can no longer keep the doctor away” (from the book Radical Medicine by Louisa Williams, ND). Perhaps eating an apple a day is no longer sufficient in maintaining good health because there is (a derivative of) nerve gas on the apple that we eat in our society, as reported in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article Harmful pesticides found in everyday food products on Jan 30, 2008 (source: Environmental Working Group, original study published in Environmental Health Perspectives journal, January 2008). According to this article, organophosphates are “the family of pesticides spawned by the creation of nerve gas agents in World War II” and are commonly used in the pesticides on our apples. This is just to mention one toxic substance in our food. There are many, many more toxic substances, including heavy metals, in our daily food supplies.
This is why we need to cleanse our bodies on a regular basis using natural medicines/therapies. There are numerous natural supplements that can cleanse/detoxify our main organs of elimination, namely liver, kidneys and intestines. I do not recommend that people detoxify themselves on their own; to avoid detoxification side effects, you should be under the care of a naturopathic physician. One of my main specialties is Biotherapeutic Drainage which is the European version of detoxification/cleansing. In Drainage, we use UNDA numbered compounds, gemmotherapies and gammadyns (or oligotherapies) to drain the internal organs. Of course, conventional naturopathic detoxification using regular herbs (such as dandelion root, chelidoneum, etc.) and nutrients (i.e. vitamins and minerals) is wonderful as well, but NOT as deep acting as Biotherapeutic Drainage.
I find that just a basic detoxification regiment is sufficient in eliminating the majority of our patients symptoms, including chronic constipation, headaches, fibromyalgia, joint pain, skin conditions of various kinds, and a myriad of other conditions. To cure people, however, in addition to cleansing/detoxification, patients need to improve their lifestyle and diet, and utilize various other therapies, including homeopathy, body work, nutritional supplements, and sometimes palliative medicines, be it natural, or in rare cases even pharmaceutical medications (Refer to the article titled 7 Steps to Healing under the Educational Articles page on our website. Note that detoxification is only one of the steps to healing- Step two).
To summarize the need for detoxification, just remember that any mechanistic system in the universe requires good input and good output. For our bodies, good “input” constitutes water and healthy foods (i.e. non-GMO foods that are also not contaminated with pesticides- organic foods); and good “output” constitutes regular daily bowel movements (minimum of 1-2 daily), and an effective detoxification regiment. This is why constipation is actually a very serious health problem; the good news is that it is easily curable.
Dr. Sharif