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Faithful caretaking of our body
is an obligation, not a choice.
is an obligation, not a choice.
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Pollution! You’ve read about it in all the newspapers and magazines. You’ve watched it on the six o’clock news. You’ve breathed it on the freeways. Pollution is a serious ecological problem of global magnitude that affects every human being.
Unless we clean up our environment and stop polluting it, we will bring ill health and even imminent death to our children and ourselves. The forests, trees, plants and wildlife, as well as the ozone layer, are all slowly dying. Our planet has become a sick environment for man, and soon we will no longer be able to live the healthy life we knew many years ago.
While we all should do our part for improving our environment and surroundings, it would do us better to be aware of what’s going on in side our body or our ‘invironment’. This is the term ‘invironment’ coined by Dr. Albert Zehr. Dr. Zehr states, "While the environment is the atmosphere and surroundings in which we live, the ‘invironment’ is the atmosphere and surroundings inside of us. Just as our environment is being plagued by pollution, so is our invironment also. Unless we do two things, stop polluting and clean up the existing pollution we will be faced with unnecessary health-related illnesses and eventually have a less than acceptable quality of life to the point that we experience premature death."
To get a better view of what is going on inside your digestive system why not take a trip through the digestive system and see how it works.
Elimination is one of the most important yet probably the least understood bodily functions. That’s probably because it’s not something we talk about every day. In fact, it’s a taboo subject one we avoid. Who wants to talk about waste, bowels and parasites? We’d rather talk about beautiful, healthy and pleasant things. But as we’ll discover, the elimination process, when functioning properly, leads to beauty and health. And when functioning improperly, it can lead to lack of energy at best, and sickness and disease at worst. So it’s worth putting aside the taboos and talking about it, don’t you think?
When you swallow a mouthful of food, it goes to your stomach to be converted to a semiliquid form called chyme. After the food (chyme) leaves your stomach, it travels through the small intestine. The chyme passes from the small intestine into the colon through the ileocecal valve. The colon, a large muscular organ five feet long, is located at the end of your digestive tract.
HEALTH FACTS:
The colon has three basic functions:
1. To absorb water and electrolytes from the chyme
2. To move waste material out of the body
3. To store the waste until it is evacuated
Imagine your colon being like a curvy roller coaster. The passengers (chyme; consisting of food, water, liver excretions and so forth) enter the roller-coaster car, which starts at the bottom (the cecum). The colon begins to move the car up the ascending colon with involuntary wavelike contractions, a process called peristalsis. Billions of friendly bacteria in our colon break down some of the materials we can’t digest, and from this process come nutrients like vitamin K and a few of the B vitamins. This bacterial team also breaks down some of the protein into less complex substances.
When the car reaches the hepatic flexure at the top of the ascending colon, it does a 90-degree turn and goes across the transverse colon, still climbing to a higher level. From there the car does another 90-degree turn at the splenic flexure and heads straight down the descending colon to the end of the ride at the sigmoid colon and the rectum.
In the past several years many health authorities have agreed that most illnesses are linked directly to either a blockage in the colon or poor bowel function. Well-known bowel specialist V. E. Irons claims, "In my opinion there is only one real disease, and that disease is autointoxication" the body poisoning itself. It’s the filth in our system that kills us. So, I’m convinced that unless you clean out your colon you will never regain vibrant health.
Dr. Norman Walker states, "Good health not only regenerates and builds the cells and tissues which constitute your physical body, but also is involved in the processes by which the waste matter, the undigested food is eliminated from your body to prevent corruption in the form of fermentation and putrefaction. This corruption, if retained and allowed to accumulate in the body, prevents any possibility of attaining any degree of vibrant health."
Dr. Walker concludes by saying, "Not to cleanse the colon is like having the entire garbage collection staff in your city go on strike for days on end. The accumulation of garbage in the streets creates putrid, odoriferous, unhealthy gases which are dispersed into the atmosphere."
During the digestive process the chyme is moved through the colon by the peristaltic muscular action in the colon walls. In this process some positive bacteria and moisture is withdrawn. The matter that begins its downward journey through the descending colon is called feces. Toxicity and waste from your blood as well as putrefying bacteria are carried in the fecal matter to the sigmoid colon, the rectum and then out of the body.
If the colon is healthy and operating normally, it will eliminate the toxic waste materials easily and regularly without strain. But if your colon is not in good operating condition, it will not eliminate properly. This causes those toxins in the feces to build up in your system and begin damaging and destroying your health.
Think for a moment back to elementary school. Do you remember mixing flour and water to make paste? That paste enabled you to glue paper ornaments together or glue cutouts to a page. A similar paste-like substance can build up in your colon. If the food selections you make are not compatible to your blood type, if they are not in their freshest state and full of roughage but instead are processed, or if they are dairy, they are difficult for your colon to move through the digestive tract. Consequently, slime builds up on the porous walls of the colon, which actually plasters the walls like paste.
As the buildup continues over the years, your body can no longer absorb the nutrients and nutritional supplements through those walls. Often, because of the buildup on the inner walls, there is barely enough space for food and fecal material to pass through. Believe it or not, most people are walking around malnourished, even those who eat regularly and take their vitamins. They lack energy because their colons are clogged. According to Dr. Norman Walker, a specialist in colon health, "The consequent result is a starvation of which we are not conscious, but which causes old age and senility to race toward us with the throttle wide open."
"In the fifty years I’ve spent helping people to overcome disability and disease, it has become crystal clear that poor bowel management lies at the root of most people’s health problems. In treating over 300,000 patients, it is the bowel that invariably has to be cared for first before effective healing can take place," says Dr. Bernard Jensen.
HEALTH FACTS:
Several unnecessary illnesses are common today because of the conditions of our colons. Hopefully, recognizing them will raise your level of awareness and motivate you to clean your invironment and avoid the dismal consequences.
Frighteningly, your internal digestive, absorption and elimination system can be turned into a garbage dump that will pollute your body and weaken and destroy your health.
HEALTH FACT:
There are several important steps that you can take to keep your colon healthy. These include:
When the chyme and fecal matter cannot move regularly through the colon and be disposed of, they ferment and putrefy just as if a sewage system were backed up. Think of the environmental health problems that would exist if the sewer system in your city was backed up and ignored by the sanitation department. It wouldn’t take too many days before the sewer system became a cesspool, polluting the entire environment and causing parasitic infestation and disease. Your city would become extremely toxic, not an acceptable environment in which to live.
Well, the very same results occur when your digestive system is not kept operating properly. Many people are in a constant state of fatigue, lethargy and sickness because of their neglected interior sanitation system.
Do you experience the blahs, not just once in a while, but day after day? You might exercise regularly, eat healthy foods and even take dietary supplements to ensure proper nutrient intake. But still you feel less healthy than you should for all the good preventative steps you are taking. Well, you could possibly be suffering from autointoxication.
If your colon is congested and has been plastered for a long time, it probably is not functioning normally. In fact, it cannot function normally! Your body cannot rid itself of the rotting fecal matter because it’s impacted onto the walls, and that slows down your body’s ability to eliminate efficiently. Ultimately your congested colon is actually poisoning you and producing toxicity throughout your entire body.
This condition of your colon also affects your body’s ability to absorb nutrients properly. In fact, the small amount it is absorbing is toxic because a congested colon is polluted and very toxic. Your entire digestive system becomes a toxic dump, and these toxins are carried via the blood stream to other areas of your body, introducing you to an another entire host of health problems.
According to Dr. Bernard Jensen, "autointoxication is the result of faulty bowel functioning which produces undesirable consequences in the body and is the root cause of many of today’s illnesses and diseases."
The colon seems to be able to endure this infectious and toxic condition without much pain because it lacks nerve endings. Unfortunately, many of these abnormalities are allowed to develop because they go unnoticed.
Harvey W. Kellogg, MD, says, "Of the 22,000 operations I personally performed, I never found a single normal colon, and of the 100,000 performed under my jurisdiction not over 6 percent were normal."
According to Dr. Walker, "If a person has eaten processed, fried and overcooked foods, devitalized starches, sugar and excessive amounts of salts, his colon cannot possibly be efficient, even if he should have a bowel movement two to three times a day."
Because of the undesirability of the topic the colon is usually overlooked. Since this area of the body is very important for everyone to maintain, why discover who is living inside you?
Approximately three hundred types of parasites thrive in the intestinal tracts of people in America today. It is quite possible that you are walking around town, as a human buffet for tiny little invaders that did not receive your VIP invitation. June Wiles, Ph.D., and parasite expert, stated, "Parasites are vermin that steal your food, drink your blood and leave their excrement in your body to be reabsorbed into the blood stream as nourishment."
Whether a microscopic single-cell parasite or a four-inch worm, these little parasites love to eat whatever the host is eating—but they are first in line. After they are thoroughly fed, we get what is left over, mainly in the form of excrement. Parasites can also become your unwelcome guests through shaking hands and playing with your pets. They can be transferred by adults, children and food handlers and by eating uncooked meats or raw fruits and veggies.
Parasites are easily passed around by millions of people each day just by coming in contact with one another. And if you consider the millions of people who eat at restaurants every day, you can see how parasitic contact can become overwhelming. Usually if one member of your family has them, then everyone will get them.
Among children in temperate climates the pinworm is the most common parasite. Overcrowded schools and day-care centers aid in passing these parasites around. These conditions have caused an increase in pinworm infestation in children. One child in six having pinworms used to be the norm, but now this infestation is up to an astounding 90 percent of children in America.
While there are more than three hundred varieties of parasites, only about twenty-five varieties can be seen without a microscope. Those that can be seen without a microscope include pinworms, hookworms, roundworms and tapeworms. These critters build colonies in the rectum and colon and cause them to be irritated and raw. In the Southern states, the hookworm is most common. This uninvited body destroyer causes abdominal pain, diarrhea, malnutrition, apathy, anemia and even underdevelopment in children.
The problem of parasites is much more widespread than the health professionals ever dreamed it could be. Centers for Disease Control experts point out that doctors are at a loss when it comes to the diseases brought on by parasites because their training and schooling is very limited on parasitic infestations. Doctors are reluctant to admit to the microbial epidemics like parasites and clogged colons. Most people are ignorant of the health problems that can be caused by parasites. It is a medically known fact that impacted clogged intestines and junk-filled and sugar-filled colons are the two major causes for the epidemic breakout of parasites. This condition of your ‘invironment’ makes a perfect place for all worms of all sizes to thrive.
Intestinal parasites and worms can cause you to be sick. For instance, if you are housing Giardia lamblia, you may end up doubled over with abdominal pain or vomiting, belching, feverish and exploding diarrhea. Unfortunately, antibiotics do not affect the Giardia. Having intestinal parasites or worms may also cause you to have a greater susceptibility to weight problems because the parasitic infestation is due to the accumulation of undigested food and impacted food. That condition lends itself to the parasites building colonies, which break down and destroy the normal digestive functions. Consequently the body cannot assimilate or digest foods properly. Many parasites do not penetrate the intestinal wall, but they leave your blood stream full of their excrement. If they cannot enter your intestinal region, they can still dump toxins in your body and can challenge your immune system.
Transit time is the amount of time it should take for a healthy colon to transport the nutrients into the body for nourishment and then dispose of the toxic waste that remains. The volume of food and liquids ingested as well as the condition of the colon determines transit time. In a healthy colon the transit time should be no more than sixteen to twenty-four hours. Elimination should occur once after each full meal. If the body takes longer than the normal transit time to eliminate the waste, then toxic buildup begins.
Once toxic buildup occurs, your digestive tract becomes a real breeding ground for parasites. These little guys are looking for a home to raise their families—and they love to multiply and produce lots of kids.
The faster the roller-coaster ride, the less time these parasites have to multiply. The average incubation period for a parasite is thirty-six hours, so if your roller-coaster car is traveling at the prescribed sixteen to twenty-four hours, then you are in good shape. On the other hand, if your colon’s transit time is that of the average American’s, then you have serious problems. That’s because the average transit time for people in America is ninety-six hours!
Dr. Tom Spies, recipient of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Distinguished Service Award, reminds us, "All the chemicals used in the body—except for the oxygen we breathe and the water we drink—are taken through food." The choices of food selections we make have a direct link to the way the bowel responds. Studies have shown that the regular intake of refined carbohydrates or sugars and the lack of sufficient fiber in the diet slow down the transit time, increases the buildup of waste and fecal matter and promotes putrefactive bacteria.
Remember your colon is your sewage system, and you cannot afford to neglect it. Through neglect or ignorance thousands of people suffer from diverticulitis, irritable bowel syndrome, cancer of the colon and many other chronic diseases because of the poor sanitation service they are giving their bodies. An unhealthy colon impacted with sugars, burgers, fries and white-flour products is at the root of these poor health problems.
At the turn of the twentieth century a health survey was taken involving approximately 110 different nations. Our country ranked thirteenth from the top for good health. Recently, a similar survey was taken of seventy-nine countries, and the United States ranked seventy-ninth. We’re a sick people, and we are not giving our children a good shot at their future when we just sit back and do nothing about it.
Many medical experts consider it myth that a plaque-coated colon or parasitic infestation could be directly linked to illness, disease and sickness. This attitude may be due to the fact that there is no patented medicine or drug for quick relief of an impacted colon. In fact, medicines can’t unclog an impacted intestinal tract or colon.
You might want to consider that your colon and intestinal tract might be totally coated with plaque. That along with parasites may be making you feel lousy, weak and unhealthy. Do you have foul breath, feel achy, sore joints or regular headaches? Then there is a good chance that your colon needs some cleansing and detoxifying. Perhaps by this point you are screaming, "What can I do?" The only way to cleanse and detoxify the colon is with natural ingredients.
Most people assume, by taking a laxative (natural) they are cleaning their colon when in fact they are only experiencing bowel movement. One can have regular bowel movement and still not have a healthy functioning colon. Only when the colon has been scrubbed clean causing the parasites and mucoid build up to be removed and eliminated can the body absorb foods much more efficiently. After a colon cleansing, your energy will increase, your mental alertness will be keener, and you will have satisfaction of mind that you have done the right thing for your health.
Keep in mind that if you do not have a bowel movement three times daily then you are considered clinically constipated. If you eat two or three meals a day and only eliminate once every two or three days, where do you think all that waste is? It’s impacted in your colon. Think about babies—all they do is eat and poop, eat and poop, just like clockwork. That’s because their colon is clean and operating efficiently.
Once you have cleansed and detoxified your colon there are additional ways to maintain a healthy colon to enhance a healthier life.
Most people choose the wrong foods as their staples. Generally speaking, the majority of their selections come from what I call the "four whites"—white flour, refined sugar, salt and fat. Allowing these foods to remain in your diet over time will cause destruction to your superstructure similar to the destruction that termites do to a house.
People cannot easily digest the white flour that certain breads, bagels, rolls, pastas and even pretzels are made of. Though these foods are common, they are not good for your body. White flour in any product is dead flour, and it provides empty, useless calories. Let me show you what I mean. God created the wheat in the fields perfect in its total composition. It lacked nothing and did not need to be fortified. The problem with flour is that it fell into the hands of the food manufacturers. In the process of getting that beautiful white flour to your dinner table, all fiber is stripped from it. During its destructive journey a bleaching process is necessary, which destroys the nutrients. In obvious acknowledgment that good things have been removed, manufacturers then add some synthetic nutrients and call it "fortified, enriched" flour.
Many innocent shoppers assume that everything on the grocery shelves is good for them. But that’s not true. White flour is a major contributor to weight problems, low blood sugar and the inability to fight the good fight against the sugar monster. The body treats white flour as sugar; when it is eaten too often and too much, the body experiences an over-insulin response, which contributes to slowing down its metabolism (the very thing you need running at high speed for weight management). Consequently, white flour causes us to get fat.
Besides getting fat, our bodies are not getting the nutrients or fiber that were originally in the wheat when it was in the Garden. Over time, often at a slow pace, the body breaks down because it hasn’t been receiving the nutrients it requires. Last but certainly not least, this "wonder food" has clogged the colon and allowed it to become the hostess of the most-est parasites in town.
Perhaps you thought junk foods were limited to candies, cakes and chocolates. Well, think again. White flour and white-flour products must be included in this category. Do yourself and your family a favor and do not buy any more white flour products. Try eating Ezekiel Bread (sprouted grains and wheat) Spelt and Millet bread instead, both compatible with everybody’s blood type. You can get it at your local health food store in the freezer section. Other alternative choices are buckwheat, barley flour, spelt, millet or 100 percent rye bread (based on blood type compatibility). If you eat wheat bread, keep it to a minimum. But if you are a blood type O or B, eliminate it completely. If you love pasta, try spelt, rice flour and Jerusalem artichoke pasta as alternatives.
Refined sugar is basic table sugar, which is found in candies, pastries, cookies, pies, sodas, sweetened iced tea, doughnuts, ice cream—and the list goes on and on. I’m sure you’re familiar with all these good-tasting ingestibles. (Did anyone call them foods?) Many processed foods contain a high amount of sugar, too. Refined sugar is not digestible; it contributes to tooth decay, obesity, depression, hyperactivity, hypoglycemia, and weakness, cancers and much more. Does this sound like something you would recommend to someone you love—even yourself?
Interesting, isn’t it, that parents will reward their children with goodies for performing well or obeying them. This only sets their children’s health into a downward spin. Too many sweets can cause kids to become hyper and out of control. Then in desperation, parents accept prescriptions for antidepressants and hyperactivity medications for their children.
Here’s a tip if you are a soda drinker: Get off of it. Come off immediately or come off slowly, but do come off soda. Replace every can of soda you eliminate with a glass of water. If you need that fizzy feeling in your throat, then have some sparkling water. It even comes in various flavors in case plain sparking water is too boring for you.
Salt is also called sodium chloride because about 40 percent of salt is sodium and the rest is chloride. If you eat a diet high in salt, it is also usually high in sodium. Sodium is a double-edged sword. It is a key element for maintaining proper bodily functions, and when taken in normal amounts, it regulates proper metabolic function. But when the levels of sodium are elevated, the body begins retaining water to create equilibrium between sodium and water. Likewise when the body water is low (say, after exercise), the brains signals the thirst sensation so the person will drink water and bring back the equilibrium between sodium and water.
The average American diet contains too much salt. When the levels of sodium are high, the water level is also high. The kidneys must remove excess fluid in the body. Over time, this overload on the kidneys may cause health problems such as kidney damage or even failure. Along with kidney problems, the retention of water may stress the heart by increasing the volume of blood it needs to pump. High blood pressure may be directly associated with high sodium consumption as well. As an alternative for that salty taste bud of yours, consider using sea salt or kelp.
Not all fat is the same. Some fats are harmful when over consumed, yet others enhance your health. To understand this, let’s look at the three types of fat: saturated fat, monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat.
Saturated fats are typically solid at room temperature. Most of these fats come from animal sources, such as red meats and whole dairy products like butter and cheese. Vegetable oils high in saturated fats are coconut oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, cocoa butter and hydrogenated vegetable oils. Saturated fats tend to raise your total cholesterol count. They are difficult to digest and play a major role in the development of coronary heart disease.
Monounsaturated fats are generally vegetable and remain liquid at room temperature. A primary source of monounsaturated fats is olive oil. These were formerly termed "neutral fats," meaning they were neither good nor bad for people. But recent studies have shown an association with lowering the bad cholesterol (LDL) without lowering the good cholesterol (HDL).
Polyunsaturated fats are usually vegetable and stay liquid at room temperature also. These are the preferred fats to ingest. They are easily digested and act to lower LDL (bad cholesterol) values. Safflower oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil and corn oil are some examples of polyunsaturated fats. Generally, Americans are advised to take no more than 10 percent of their daily calories in polyunsaturated fats. Remember, when making any dietary changes make them gradually. Try one or two changes at a time, then add others. This will ensure long-term success.
Eating the compatibly foods for your blood type will help eliminate conditions in the digestive system that are derogatory to our health. By eating foods that are compatible to our blood types (and avoiding those that aren’t), you can actually find relief from digestive disorders, discomfort and illnesses. Certain foods are treated by a particular blood type as a poison. They interfere with the normal digestive process. But those same foods will be treated as a medicine by another blood type.
Eating foods that are compatible to your blood type will allow your body to go through a natural detoxification period because of the blood type association with the wall of the digestive track and the dietary lectins found in food (avoid foods). You will experience a tremendous relief in the digestive tract, and you will be able to assimilate your food more efficiently. Consequently, you will have little to no gastrointestinal problems. You will have a greater sense of being satisfied after eating because of the improved digestion and absorption abilities. There will also be fewer opportunities for parasitic infestation to take hold. All that comes just by making food selections that are compatible to your blood type.
In their book Cleansing the Body and the Colon for a Happier and Healthier You, Teresa Schumacher and Toni Lund tell the following story: One day the body organs got together and decided to have a board meeting. Here’s what went on behind closed doors. There was intense discussion to determine who was the most important part of the body.
The brain was the first to speak. "Without me, nothing would be accomplished."
Then the heart spoke up. "Without me pumping blood to your brain, you could not function."
The arms laughed. "You’re both wrong. Without me to put food in the mouth, nothing would work."
The stomach said, "Without me, your food would not digest."
The lungs bellowed back, "Without us, you could not breathe."
The eyes blinked, "Without me, you could not see."
The kidneys snorted, "Without me, you could not detoxify and eliminate."
Then the colon meekly spoke up. "I am important. You need me to eliminate all of the garbage from your systems."
Everyone laughed and made fun of him. "How can you be as important as we are? You’re just a smelly old sewer." The poor colon—his feelings were hurt. He turned away and thought, I’ll show them. He shut down! Then he sat back and watched what happened.
The brain was stupefied.
The heart’s beat was weak and irregular.
The arms were weak and couldn’t move.
The lungs gave in to shallow breathing.
The eyes became clouded.
The kidneys quit.
The colon looked around and decided it was time to call another meeting. It wasn’t too lively this time, but everyone was in total agreement—the colon was the most important organ!
NOTE - The information in this article was taken from the chapter A Clean ‘Invironment’ from the book Seven Pillars of Health authored by Joseph Christiano. Edited for www.bodyredesigning.com