8 Tips For Cleansing and Weight Loss

Most people think of bowel cleansing when they hear the term cleansing, but it means a lot more than that. Below are eight little-known facts about cleansing and weight loss.

1.    According to some natural health experts, most people carry excess undigested fecal matter in their colon.

The sooner they begin to eliminate it, the better they feel. When it comes to weight loss, the weight lost through the elimination of fecal matter is weight permanently lost. (See #8 fore more information on the colon.)

2.    A healthy body is clean and lean.

Each organ that eliminates waste in the body can be cleansed. The primary organs that detoxify the body are the:

• Skin
• Colon
• Liver
• Kidneys
• Blood and lymphatics

Body wrap experts report that when cleansing formulas for the liver are started a few days before the body wrap, the inches lost increases at least 20%.

3.    Our body accumulates chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals or other poisons in fat cells throughout the body.

It’s believed that the greater the accumulation of these toxins in the body, the harder it is for the fat cell to break down. That’s one reason why it’s difficult to lose weight.

A herb that supports the liver and kidneys is always beneficial when a person is trying to lose weight because these internal organs perform many roles related to digestion and metabolism.

The liver is the body’s major internal detoxification organ, successfully binding up any chemicals, pesticides or metabolic intermediates that need to be removed from the body because they will cause harm. Binding them takes them out of direct circulation and eliminates them through the kidneys and the colon. Using the herb couchgrass helps speed up this process.

Couchgrass supports the liver and kidneys and has been used historically for liver complaints, to treat jaundice. It protects the urinary tubules against infection and increases the volume of urine, flushing out irritants and chemicals along the way.

4. Filtered water and detoxification through cleansing can make a big impact on your overall health.

If you’re trying to flush waste out of your body, it only makes sense that you drink water that doesn’t have waste in it!

If you haven’t heard, a whole slew of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anticonvulsant meds, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — can be found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans.

If you don’t think you can afford a water filtration system, then check out the costs of kidney dialysis… over $1 Billion per year in the U.S. It may cost patients as much as $30K per month… do the math for the co-pay.

The kidneys are pretty small internal organs by weight, but they receive a huge amount – about 20% – of the blood pumped by the heart each minute. Every day, your kidneys process and cleanse about 200 quarts of blood to sift out about 2 quarts of waste products.  Be mindful of your ‘machine.’ Love and nurture it and it will, by nature, take care of you.

5.   Cleansing always requires drinking more water than what is usually drank during the day.

Experts recommend as little as 1 ounce for every 2 pounds of body weight and as much as 1 ounce for every 1 pound body weight.

6.    Cleansing formulas often contain herbs and supplements that support the organ that are being cleansed.

Some formulas add herbs, minerals or supplements that may contribute to weight loss.

Minerals help buffer toxins and provide vital nutrients to cells. In fact, your overall health is tied closely to the minerals consumed in the diet. When it comes to herbs that contain a lot of minerals, hydrangea is quite interesting because it contains:

• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Silicon
• Chromium
• Manganese
• Sodium
• Cobalt
• Phosphorus
• Tin
• Selenium
• Zinc

In research studies, calcium, chromium and zinc have been found to have a link to weight loss. Calcium supplements may improve weight loss. Chromium deficiency is tied to blood sugar irregularities that can create the “munchies” and drive people to the refrigerator, vending machines and fast food restaurants as if they are mindless zombies. Zinc deficiency can cause appetite loss that interferes with eating regular meals and results in the person eating only one meal per day, thus gaining more weight.

The mineral content of hydrangea, historically used as a kidney cleansing herb, can potentially assist in the creation of a lot of benefits and there are other active ingredients in the herb. Hydrangea also has appreciable amounts of rutin and quercetin, two components of the vitamin C complex. One research study found greater antioxidant power and liver cleansing properties than the combination of milk thistle and turmeric. (Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry, 2003)

7.    Cleansing formulas may also contain herbal blends to improve the function of the kidneys, GI tract, gall bladder and liver.

This can indirectly assist in weight loss by creating a more healthy system overall.

Little is known about the impact chickweed can have on those who want to lose weight with detox, but it is especially valuable in purifying and cleansing the system. Chickweed assists the body in releasing fat while supplying missing nutrients. Chickweed is high in calcium, magnesium, manganese, cobalt, zinc, iron, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and vitamin A.

Susan Weed, well-known herbalist, reports that chickweed may have a regulating effect on the thyroid, which can definitely assist with weight loss. She thinks of it as a metabolic balancer. The saponins in chickweed emulsify the fat cells, assisting in their breakdown.

8.    When cleansing, it’s important to start detoxifying the skin or colon before any other organ, even though liver cleanses may facilitate greater weight loss.

This is because toxins released from the liver will have no open route to leave the body. They end up getting re-circulated throughout the body, causing headaches, joint aches and pains, fatigue and skin breakouts. Always cleanse the skin or colon first!

Many people worry about colon cleansing because they have heard that diarrhea can cause loss of water and electrolytes, which of course can lead to dehydration and death. This is understandable but not true because colon cleansing is not meant to cause diarrhea.

Our intestinal tract should be used as a processing plant for the food we eat, not as a storage bin. “Some food in … some food out” is the motto of someone with healthy colon function. However, think about it. If you ate three meals yesterday, were three meals eliminated? If not, what happened to the fecal matter? Most likely, it’s still sitting in the processing plant, but the problem is that the longer it sits there, the more toxic the matter becomes.

If you add in the factor of not drinking enough water, now that toxic matter gets hard in the colon and sometimes “stuck.” The purpose of a colon cleanse is to gently stimulate the colon to release its contents, thereby decreasing your body’s overall toxicity level. When you think about it, colon cleansing is safe; living with a toxic colon is unsafe!

In fact, it is possible to die from a toxic colon. The medical condition is called autointoxication and the person literally dies because their body accumulated too much waste matter.

Colon cleansers are generally safe. In the initial days of using them, it’s possible to have a little diarrhea as the body is clearing itself of the toxic fecal matter. This should stop within a few days. You’ll be amazed at how great you feel when all that old matter is gone, and surprised about how easy it is to eat healthy foods afterward. It’s as if all the toxins in the old fecal matter prevented you from eating junk food.

Try a good colon cleanse and evaluate its health benefits today!

“Health is wealth”—though this is an age-old saying, it holds good even today. Undeniably, health is one of the most indispensable assets in life! You might possess all other forms of wealth, but to enjoy them you need to be healthy and lead a disease-free life. The best medicine is no medicine. You could prevent the many diseases by performing a body cleanse. What type of body cleanse have you tried with success?