Lunch/Supper: One of the meals should be a raw salad with potato or brown rice and either bean curd (tofu), low-fat cheese, nuts, or seeds. If raw food is difficult to digest, stir-fried vegetables and tofu or steamed vegetables eaten with a potato or rice and low-fat cheese, nuts, or seeds will suffice. The other main meal should consist of fish, chicken, or game, or be vegetarian (bean and grain combination and/or vegetables lightly steamed, baked, or stir-fried). Seasoning can include garlic and herbs, but avoid salt as much as possible.

  Desserts: Lightly stewed fruit with added apple or lemon juice (not sugar) or live natural yogurt is fine.

  Remember, eat slowly, chew well, don't drink with meals, and consume at least two pints of liquid daily between meals. Also, take one high potency multimineral/multivitamin capsule daily and three garlic capsules, and a daily acidophilus supplement for bowel detox support.

  When the tongue no longer becomes furred during detoxification and headaches no longer appear, these intensive detoxification weekends can be spaced apart-three a month and then two a month and then, as maintenance, once a month thereafter.

  Alkaline-Detoxification Diet: This three- to four-week plan was developed by Dr. Haas. This diet  helps to detoxify the body tissues of protein and acid wastes that can create both inflammatory and degenerative changes when interacting in the body. Dr. Haas notes that this diet plan is a gentle and safe way to detoxify, and can also help to reduce weight, increase vitality, and promote curing.

  Dr. Haas adds that when foods oxidize in the body, they leave a residue or ash. If the foods are acidic, they leave an acidic residue (i.e., acidic ash, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, or uncombusted acid radicals), which can be harmful. Success with this method is achieved by the elimination of acid-forming foods from your diet. This makes the question not what to eat, but what not to eat.

  Essentially this diet consists of fruits and vegetables (mostly vegetables), plus fresh sprouts and millet. The diet also focuses on particular eating principles, including exceptional chewing (thirty to fifty times per mouthful), drinking quality water plus the steamed vegetable water, and eating all food prior to nightfall, advisedly before 6:30 P.M.

  Dr. Haas recommends the following guidelines:

• Relax a few minutes before and after your meal.
• Eat in a comfortable sitting position.
• Chew very well and take your time when you eat.

• Take only herbal teas after dinner.
• Eat primarily steamed fresh vegetables and some fresh greens.

  According to Dr. Chaitow, a person undergoing detoxification therapy can do a number of things during the process to help aid the natural cleansing ability of the body.        

  Dr.Chaitow suggests: 

Hydrotherapy: Epsom salts baths or wet sheet packs, once weekly.

Skin brushing: To assist the skin elimination function, daily.

Stretching and relaxation exercises: Practice daily.

Aerobic exercise (if appropriate): Brisk walking, jogging, dancing, etc., daily except during the fast period.

Massage and manual lymphatic drainage: As often as available, twice weekly if possible.

Aromatherapy: Use of appropriate (to your condition) essential aromatherapy oils, in baths or as part of massage.

Breathing, relaxation, and meditation methods: Daily for at least ten to fifteen minutes, twice if possible.

  Morning (upon arising): Two glasses of water (filtered, spring, or reverse osmosis)-one of these mixed with the juice of half a lemon. After a little stretching, have one serving of a fresh fruit such as apple, pear, banana, grapes, or citrus. Fifteen to thirty minutes later, eat one bowl of cooked whole grains-specifically millet, brown rice, amaranth, quinoa, or buckwheat. Flavoring can be two tablespoons of fruit juice for a sweeter breakfast taste, or use the "better butter" mixture (mentioned below) with a little salt or tamari for a deeper flavor.

  11:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M.: One to two cups vegetable water, saved from steamed vegetables. Add a little seasalt or kelp and drink slowly, mixing each mouthful with saliva.

  Evening: Herbal teas-peppermint, chamomile, pau d'arco, or blends.

  Colon therapy can be combined with massage, nutritional programs, and special diets to help cleanse the bowels and aid in the treatment of parasitic infections. 

  Colonic irrigation is one of the most effective ways to cleanse the large intestine of accumulated toxins and waste products. It functions to draw toxins from the blood and lymph back into the colon for excretion. With the help of a trained professional and a colonic machine, purified water (which may contain vitamins, herbs, friendly bacteria, or oxygen) is introduced directly into the rectum. 

  Colonic therapy can be used prior to other detoxification programs, but is not recommended during the hyperthermic program described later.

  Lymph is a clear fluid containing lymphocytes (T-cells and B-cells of the immune system) which circulate through the channels of the lymphatic system carrying waste away from all parts of the body to the lymph nodes. The lymph nodes filter out the wastes in the lymph, particularly bacteria, preventing it from entering the bloodstream, while at the same time allowing the lymphocytes to pass through.

  Jack Shields, M.D., a lymphologist from Santa Barbara, California, conducted a study on the effects of breathing on the lymphatic system. He used cameras inside the body and found that deep, diaphragmatic breathing stimulated the cleansing of the lymph system by creating a vacuum effect which sucked the lymph through the bloodstream. This increased the rate of toxic elimination by as much as fifteen times the normal pace.

  Lymphatic circulation can be reinforeced by lymphatic massage as well as osteopathic and chiropractic lymphatic drainage techniques. Jared Zeff, N.D., L.Ac., Academic Dean of the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon, states, any vigorous aerobic exercise causes lymphatic flow to accelerate. There are now devices which stimulate the lymphatic system such as the Light Beam Generator (LBG). An LBG puts out photons of light and a high-frequency electrostatic field to correct the electromagnetic charge on cells. Rena Davis, of Davis Nutrition Consultants in St. Helens, Oregon, believes that the Light Beam Generator stimulates the lymphatic system by breaking open sealed and calcified vessels, increasing blood circulation, reducing edema and carrying away waste products which have built up in the tissues, thereby inducing detoxification.

  Each year, more and more studies on vitamin C confirm its importance in curing and maintaining health. The relationship between vitamin C and body toxicity is complex. For example, if a person is deficient in vitamin C, he becomes far more susceptible to environmental pollutants. Vice versa, exposure to various toxins, like lead or benzene, will deplete the person's vitamin C stores. Evidence also suggests that vitamin C deficiency hampers the body's own detoxification process.

  As a detoxification agent, vitamin C combines with certain toxins in the body and destroys them. According to Robert Cathcart, III, M.D., of Los Altos, California, vitamin C functions as a free-radical scavenger, neutralizing the immunosuppressive toxins produced by infectious diseases. Dr. Cathcart has successfully treated over eleven thousand patients with vitamin C therapy, and his results have been widely published in professional journals.

  In chelation therapy, a synthetic amino acid known as EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) is administered intravenously and binds to various toxic metals in the blood, such as lead, cadmium, and aluminum. The toxins are then flushed from the body through the kidneys.

  Though it has been used primarily in the past to treat cases of lead poisoning, many doctors have found that EDTA can remove the calcium and plaque present in the walls of arteries in atherosclerosis, the major cause of heart disease. Chelation therapy has been tested and used safely for the past thirty years on an estimated five hundred thousand patients, but has yet to receive FDA approval as a treatment for heart disease. Nevertheless, several FDA-approved studies are currently being conducted. Over one thousand physicians offer chelation therapy in the United States.

  According to Zane Gard, M.D., and Erma Brown, P.H.N, hyperthermia, or heat stress detoxification (saunas) is the only detoxification program that has proven successful in removing fat-stored toxins from the body. Dr. Gard says that heat stress can also remove calcium deposits from the blood vessels and break down scar tissue from their walls. Other studies demonstrate that hyperthermia can remove chemicals such as DDE (a metabolite of DDT), PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls), and dioxin from fat cells.

   Many studies have shown that hyperthermia can affect numerous body systems, including the cardiovascular, endocrine, neurological, neuromuscular, bronchopulmonary, blood, skin, and immune.

  Hyperthermia can be combined with other detoxification therapies. However, proper medical supervision and laboratory evaluations are necessary because the removal of certain toxins can have a potentially adverse effect on the body, particularly on the kidneys and liver.

  The BioToxic Reduction (BTR) Program: The BioToxic Reduction (BTR) Program created by Drs. Gard and Brown is a medically managed detoxification program designed to reduce the body's internal "toxic load" of chemicals, heavy metals, medical or street drugs, and alcohol.

  Before starting the BTR detoxification program, it is necessary to have a complete evaluation by a physician. This includes a physical examination, health survey, immunologic profile, antibody level testing, toxic panel, and heavy metal analysis, as well as the usual CBC (complete blood count), blood chemistry panel, EKG (electrocardiogram) readings, and personality and perception testing. Throughout the program, the patient meets weekly with the physician, and has additional laboratory follow-up if needed. Anyone with a heart condition needs to have frequent EKG monitoring and an authorization from a cardiologist to undergo BTR detoxification.

  The BTR program should be undertaken for a minimum of two weeks, tailored to each patient and adjusted daily. It begins with therapeutic doses of vitamins, minerals, and oils, given in conjunction with exercise and dry sauna heat. The regimen consists of the following components:

• Daily doses of niacin
• Daily exercise routine prior to entering the sauna
• Sauna "sweat-out"
• Daily nutritional supplementation including replacement vitamins, minerals, trace elements, oil, and amino acids
• Pre- and post-program blood chemical analysis.

   

  Drs. Gard and Brown note that most patients report increased energy and mental clarity, and that many also report a decrease in body aches and pains, positive changes in hearing and vision, and changes in the texture of skin and hair. Most experience greater emotional stability and an overall sense of well-being.

  The most important in this program are exercise, adequate fluid intake, and proper breathing. But Dr. Gard says that it takes more than proper exercise and increased water intake to rid the body of the additional circulating toxins. They employ lymphatic massage at least three times weekly, and frequently give an intravenous infusion of five hundred milliliters of Lactated Ringers (a solution compatible with blood) with vitamin C, B-complex, and electrolytes. The BTR Program is currently available in Mexico.

  Hazel Parcells, N.D., D.C., Ph.D., a 103-year-old practicing naturopathic physician, recommends the following detoxification baths that she uses at The Parcells' System of Scientific Living in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

  For poisoning from irradiated food (Cobalt 60): Dissolve two pounds of baking soda in a tub of very hot water, and sit in it. As the water begins to cool down, the toxins pass through the skin by osmosis.

  For general radiation: Add one pound each of sea salt and baking soda to hot water and sit in the bath until the water has cooled down.

  For heavy metals, insecticides, and carbon monoxide: Add one cup of Clorox to a hot bath and soak in it until the temperature cools down. This method can help eliminate environmental toxins such as lead, aluminum, insecticides, and the chemicals released from car exhaust.