Beyond the usual Triggers for Migraine Sufferers, a Food Elimination Diet may Hold the Clues to a Cure.

Casey is 27 years old, and has had migraines since she was a teenager.  They first started when she was in college, but they only occurred infrequently then — usually around stressful periods, like final exams.  She would get a narrowing of her vision, occasionally see stars or spots, then the headache would come on.  The pain was usually on the left side, and the only thing that would help was sleeping it off in a dark room.  At its worst, light and sound were bothersome.  Back then, she didn’t get nausea, and she only had to suffer through 1 or 2 migraines per year.  When she came to see me, she was having 4 – 8 migraines per month.  She had been to multiple neurologists, and they had tried various medications on her.  Some of these, known as “triptans,” would sometimes help, and sometimes not.  At best, she could abort a headache if she took the medication at the right time (just as it was starting, although it was not always clear if one was coming on).  However, occasionally the headaches could persist for 3-4 days. 

There seemed to be no pattern to her headaches.  She works an 80+ hr work week at an advertising agency, which she admits to being stressful.  Her diet is unrestricted.  She eats plenty of dairy “to get my calcium,” she says.  She had tried keeping a food and symptom journal, but nothing ever seemed to stand out to her.  At this point, her neurologist was thinking of starting her on a daily medication, such as Topamax or Amitriptyline, to see if they could get her migraines under control.  These are known as prophylactic remedies, as they help prevent, but they don’t treat the migraine once it is started.  She was hesitant to do this, but she needed to do something.  She could not go on living this way. 

What are migraines?  Why do people get them?

We still don’t have a clear explanation about why migraines start and persist.  However, there seems to be an inflammatory component to them.  It is generally recognized that the pain is caused by dilated blood vessels in or around the cranium. 

“]

Brain scan taken during a migraine attack.

In the Western medical model, there are plenty of remedies to attack the symptoms, but treating the symptom merely manages the problem, but does not help it resolve.  About 16-17% of the population will get a migraine headache at some point in their lifetime.  They are approximately 3x more common in women than men.  The headache has been classically described as unilateral, but this is really only in 60% of the cases.  About 80% will feel nauseous and be sensitive to light and sound.  The brain scan to the right was taken during a migraine attack.  As you can see there is a widespread increased activity and blood flow (as seen by the red and yellow regions). 

The typical triggers include: weather [barometric pressure changes -- some people say they can predict a change in the weather pattern by their migraines], missing a meal, alcohol [and consequent dehydration from drinking], and foods like chocolate or cured meats.  For some, a cup of coffee will make the migraine better.  For women, about 50% report that their menstrual cycle is a trigger [likely due to the hormonal shifts].  With so many potential triggers, migraine sufferers can feel overwhelmed and defeated.  Many just give up trying to keep track, and resign themselves to a life of “unpredictable” headaches.  For many, the only option for controlling them has been medication or just a few of the classic food triggers, but not a broader analysis of the diet and its potential influence on their headaches.  

The Food Elimination Diet  

For Casey, getting her migraines under control involved trying a food elimination diet.  A food elimination diet is simply a diet that eliminates one particular food, a combination of foods or condiment, or all solid food… from the diet.  It  is a very powerful tool, as often it can help uncover the hidden triggers for ailments such as migraines.  It can take on various forms as listed below:

• Caveman diet [Lamb, pear, rice, potatoes]
• Food-specific restrictions [Gluten, Egg, Dairy]
• “Candida control” diet
• Fasting

These may include a broad category, such as sugar, as in the “Candida control” diet.  The idea behind a food elimination diet is to reduce a person’s exposure to highly reactive foods – those that are the most inflammatory.  The theory is that these foods activate the immune system that lines the intestines, thus causing white blood cells to secrete chemical signals that trigger inflammation in the body.  This signal may be sensed by the vessels in the brain, and lead to an inflammatory cascade that becomes a migraine.    Are you ready to find out which are the top ten food sensitivities.  Ok, but don’t cry!  These are among the most common foods that people eat. 

 The Top Ten Food Sensitivities:

1.  Gluten
2. Corn
3. Beef/pork
4. Shellfish
5. Soy
6. Oranges
7. Peanuts
8. Refined sugars
9. Dairy products (all types)
10. Eggs

From my experience, however, the top two problem foods are bread and milk — in other words, gluten and dairy.  In Casey’s case, we started with dairy, because this seemed to be the food that she ate the most of, outside of breads and pasta.  This was a plan that Casey agreed she could try for 3 weeks, as she loved eating cheese and yoghurt. 

Two Top Problem Foods

We made a pact that she would take all dairy out of her diet for this duration.  The only way to know if a food is a trigger is to eliminate it.  Oftentimes the body may intially go through a detox reaction, during which symptoms may worsen, including getting one of the worst headaches she ever had.  This is called a “healing crisis.”  I warned her of this, and we proceeded.

An Integrative Approach:

Along with a food elimination diet, Casey also started using a few stress reduction techniques.  She employed better time-management so that she could go to 2 – 3 yoga classes per week.  She learned breathing exercises to manage the day to day work stresses.  She also started a course of acupuncture once a week.  Through this, she connected with a calmer self, which at first did not feel right.  She was so used to being high-functioning and wired that the blossoming inner calmness felt foreign to her — almost abnormal.  However, through time, she came to understand that this is where her normal should be.  

Results:

After 1 week on the above regimen, her migraines reduced to 1 or 2 of lesser intensity.  By the end of the second week, she had experienced 2 more migraines, but they were more easily attributable to triggers like poor sleep and a glass of wine (which she had, because she was feeling better).   They both responded immediately to medication.  By the end of the third week, she had been migraine-free for 7 days.  She felt more in control, and more attuned to potential triggers. 

Conclusions: 

This is a case study, and by no means represents the results every person will experience.  However, it exemplifies a new approach to migraine-management that is often ignored.  I have used this approach with multiple patients with great success.  Not everyone will get rid of their migraines; however, most experience a reduction in the severity of the pain, and report that their migraines become more manageable and more responsive to medication.  A food elimination diet is a powerful tool in the management of a seemingly unrelated disease.  For confirmation, the inciting food can be challenged after 3- 4 weeks.  If it is highly reactive, it will cause a migraine either immediately or within 24 hrs.  What I tell my patients is that figuring out the foods is half the battle, the other half is figuring out what you can live with.  Some people may never be able to eat dairy again without getting a migraine; however, most people will be able to “cheat” on occasion and get away with it.  This style of medicine empowers the patient and really involves them to partake in their care and management.  Sometimes, it is useful to look at at blood tests for food reactivity to further elucidate potential triggers.  However, this additional information serves only as a guide, and is not 100% accurate.  The gold standard is the food elimination diet and re-challenge. 

I hope this case study was informative, and the next time a doctor gives you a medication to cover up a symptom, you ask them what is the root cause of your malady.  They may not know!  But it may simply be a food your are eating.

In future posts, I will discuss the food elimination diet in more detail. 

What’s Good for the Earth, is Good for your Health!

It’s Earth Day — 40 years in the making, but are we better off than we were 40 years ago?  The world of convenience has taken over, and unregulated industry has created a lot of things that make our lives easier, possibly better in some ways, but these conveniences come with a price to the environment and to ourselves.  The ugly side you may not see if you don’t pay attention is sitting, for example, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  

A plastic rubbish dump twice the size of America is sitting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

As we enter the next decade of Earth awareness, we should really start thinking about it in the broader context of our health.  Plastic bottles, bisphenol-A, endocrine disruptors, fire retardants, pesticides, dry cleaning chemicals — all these things have created modern conveniences, but they also can have drastic adverse effects on our health.  This effect can be so indolent at first, that the typical signs of toxicity or poisoning may be misinterpreted as one of our modern diseases.  In our disease management-focused Western model of medicine, the underlying cause may be missed as the symptoms are treated and disguised. 

When the CDC has measured blood samples from healthy volunteers, not one person is free of exposure from environmental toxins.   Even cord blood taken from a newly born baby has shown environmental toxin exposures.  The number one toxin – can you guess it?  Plastics and plasticizers.  They are everwhere!  They are so pervasive, that we have a hard time getting rid of them.  Yes, that plastic bottle that you so conveniently picked up to drink your “healthier” drinking water from Fiji is leaching plastic into the water.  Take into account the long trip it took to get it to the U.S., with probably multiple temperature changes [heat increases leaching from plastics] – the combined carbon footprint of the bottle of water in your hand and its toxicity is huge.  Do you ever think of that when you purchase a bottle of water?  Where did it come from?   What did it take to get it here?  Some bottled water is no healthier than filtered water from the tap. 

New York City's Watershed

A charity that I am involved with, NY H2O, is working on protecting New York City’s drinking water from almost certain contamination by natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale.  New York City is one of only five cities in the country that do not have to filter their water, as it comes down from the Catskill reservoirs and Delaware river clean and filtered by nature.  This amazing resource is under threat as corporations look for big profits in drilling for natural gas using hydraulic fracturing — a technique that injects huge quantities of water mixed with over 600 possible chemicals, out of which only 300 have been identified by independent research groups (mind you, they’re proprietary, so the companies don’t have to reveal them due to a loophole in the law), and 90% of these are on the national toxic chemical list.  Prior experience with this technology has shown that it contaminates the aquifers and can cause a series of health problems, from breathing difficulties to skin rashes to nerve damage to possibly cancer.  A great article in Philadelphia’s Weekly Press summarizes the experiences in several small towns across Pennsylvania that are feeling the untoward effects of this gas rush.  One small rural town, Dimock, PA, has at least 14 families being shuttled bottled drinking water by Cabot because their own well water has been rendered undrinkable due to methane gas and other undisclosed pollutants.  A new documentary, Gasland by Josh Fox, does a great job of detailing what is slipping right under our noses with respect to water contamination and the natural gas industry in this country. 

If you are mother concerned about how industries like natural gas drilling may affect the health of your children visit M.U.S.T. (Mother’s United for Sustainable Technologies).  This is a group of mothers united in a common message — protecting our children from the potential toxic effects of polluting and poorly regulated industries.  Their website is a work in progress, but it will be a resource of information for sustainable green living. 

Steps we can each take to be Healthier and Greener 

As we enter into this next decade of Earth awareness, we really need to become aware of how our actions not only affect the earth, but also our health.  For my part, I carry a SIGG bottle that has been independently tested to show that it does not leach BPA.  

Klean Kanteen family

Another option is the Klean Kanteen.   This avoids plastic bottle waste.  I also replaced the Poland Spring cooler in my office (which is delivered in polycarbonate #7 plastic bottles, containing bisphenal A — linked to cancer and obesity) with a PiMag Aqua Pour Deluxe gravity flow filtration system by Nikken.  We merely pour water from the tap through the PiMag system, and it filters out chlorine, chemicals, and drug metabolites, delivering clean drinking water on the spot. 

PiMag Aqua Pour

I walk and take the subway to work every day, which reduces my carbon footprint.  I try to buy local, organic seasonal produce, which in turn supports local farmers over food that has been shipped over long distances and probably irradiated along the way.  I eat red meat only rarely, and if so, it is organic, grass-fed.  If we all just gave up red meat one day a week, that would help reduce one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gasses — our cattle.  I avoid Atlantic or farm-raised Salmon, as it can be high in pollutants.   I take my clothes to an organic cleaner rarely, but mostly I just wash it with a non-scented chlorine-free detergent.  My apartment is free of carpeting, which can outgas over 200 volatile chemicals.  And I use simple ingredients, like vinegar and baking soda to clean the apartment, thus avoiding a lot of the harmful products on the market.  My life is rich with outdoor activities, time for meditation, vegetables of all colors, and time spent away from the stresses of work to recenter and rebalance, ridding my body of any emotional toxicity along with all the physical pollutants I try to avoid.  These are just a few of the steps that we can each take every day to make our bodies less toxic. 

Earth Day 2010

►

Resources:

Visit SimpleSteps, a website run by the National Resources Defense Council, where you can learn how to make your home less toxic and more energy-efficient. 

Ecomii is another great website that has a plethora of information on green living and natural health. 

Please share in the comments your steps to making the earth and yourself a greener, healthier place.  Thank you for visiting my blog today.   Happy Earth Day 2010!

Vitamin D — it’s more than just for bones. It may save your life!

Vitamin D is not really a vitamin as originally defined – “vital amines” are substances that act as co-factors (i.e. helpers) for the body’s enzymes.  It turns out that Vitamin D is really a steroid (read “fat-soluble” so it can enter your cells without assistance) hormone that has a direct effect on the expression of over 2,000 genes by actually crossing the cellular membrane and gaining direct access to the cell nucleus where our DNA is housed.  What genes are activated?  Well, they include genes that regulate the absorption of Calcium from the intestines, the building of strong bones, and the efficient and coordinated activity of our immune systems.  Vitamin D deficiency is most commonly known as “rickets” in children, or “osteomalacia” in adults – it is a disease of soft bones.  However, new research is showing that this amazing “vitamin” plays an even stronger role in the prevention of disease, including heart disease, respiratory illnesses and cancer (specifically breast and colon).  In the Framingham Heart Study, it was observed that men with higher vitamin D blood levels (measured as 25-OH vitamin D) were less likely to suffer a heart attack.  Vitamin D levels are also inversely related to breast and colon cancer, meaning higher levels of vitamin D are associated with a lower likelihood of developing these cancers.  Again, this is probably due to its ability to regulate the immune system — the body’s main watchdog against cancer cells.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Vitamin D, in its active form, prevents excessive expression of inflammatory mediators during an infection, and optimizes the functioning of immune system cells, which includes increasing the expression of anti-microbial proteins.¹

^{___________________________________________________________________________________________________}

How do we get vitamin D, anyway?  Well, if you could eat oily, fatty fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner or drink multiple tablespoons of cod liver oil daily, you would be getting a few thousand units.  However, if this is not your thing, the typical American diet (SAD = Standard American Diet) contains very little vitamin D.   Milk, which does not naturally contain vitamin D, is fortified as mandated by the U.S. Government, to approximately 100 units per 8 oz. glass.  This falls far short of the current recommendation for 2,000 I.U. daily to maintain adequate levels.  You would have to drink 20 glasses of milk per day – not exactly possible, and not exactly healthy.  In fact, a recent study comparing the results of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), collected from 1988 through 1994, to the data collected from 2001 to 2004 (NHANES 2001-2004) confirms that Americans are not getting enough Vitamin D.² The most recent data alarmingly showed that three-quarters of U.S. children and adults fall below the acceptable value for vitamin D levels (< 30 ng/ml), as measured in the blood.  In other words, 75% of the population is vitamin D deficient!  Wow!  That is a staggering amount of vitamin D deficiency.  When you’re young, you may not notice, but your future risk of osteoporosis is increased.  Weak bones lead to a great deal of health problems in older age, including chronic pain, which will make those “Golden Years” much less enjoyable.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Your Safe Daily-Dose of Sunshine: For light-skinned individuals, approximately 10-15 minutes without sunblock; for darker-skinned individuals, up to 30 minutes without sunblock.  This is the daily amount necessary to build up proper stores of vitamin D.

^{_______________________________________________________________________________________________________}

Why is this happening?  Well, when you consider that the best source for Vitamin D is the sun, as the photoreaction catalyzed by the energy from UVB rays converts the inactive form of vitamin D stored in our skin to its active form, we begin to understand why this is.  Only 10-20 minutes of summertime sun exposure triggers the production of approximately 10,000 – 20,000 I.U.’s of vitamin D in the body.  In the last two decades the emphasis on sun avoidance and concern for skin cancer has increased exponentially.  Dermatologists all over the country have been telling their patients to avoid the sun when possible, or at least wear sunscreen rated SPF 15 or higher for UVA/UVB at all times when in the sun.  People’s fear of skin cancer and consequent sun-avoidance behavior and/or augmented sunscreen use has probably led to the current epidemic of vitamin D deficiency.  We have lost the concept of what is safe sun exposure.

Why are we concerned?  With the passing of the seasons, from winter to summer, there is a seasonal variation in vitamin D levels, regardless of diet or supplementation.  With the summer months, more sun means more inevitable exposure and a rise in vitamin D levels.  As the winter solstice approaches, the sun is far below the equator, and consequently most of the UVB rays necessary for vitamin D conversion are filtered by the atmosphere before they reach the earth.³ This is why getting sun on a perfectly sunny winter day does not produce significant Vitamin D activation on the skin if you live north of the 35 degree latitude (about the level of Raleigh, NC).  My patients often ask me this, and this is the explanation.   This seasonal variation in Vitamin D was looked at as the possible “unknown factor” that British researcher, Dr. Edgar Hope-Simpson, postulated was the cause for the seasonal rise in influenza cases in the winter, and their incidental fall and disappearance in the summer months.¹

I have seen my patients gain more energy, stronger immune systems, and experience reduced muscle aches by proper Vitamin D supplementation.  For some, it seems that vitamin D deficiency is the hidden factor that leads to seasonal affective disorder (the “winter blues”).   Correcting the low vitamin D level helps lift the winter blues.  These are not all linear relationships, but some examples of how proper vitamin D levels can change people’s lives.

The recommended daily dose of Vitamin D for adults now is around 1,000 IU/day.  However, in practice, I have found this to be too low, and for most adults it will not correct their low vitamin D level.  From my experience with patients in New York City, I believe a more accurate amount is 2,000 IU daily for adults, and 400-800 IU daily for children.  But don’t be fooled if you live in Florida — vitamin D deficiency can happen anywhere if you are hiding from the sun year-round!  These numbers are average doses; however, some of my patients have required much higher levels, up to 5,000 – 10,000 IU daily in order to correct a severe deficiency.  Your vitamin D level can be easily checked by a blood test for 25-OH Vitamin D.  The best form to take as a supplement is vitamin D3, which is better absorbed orally than vitamin D2.  High doses of vitamin D over the long-term can be toxic to the liver or create a relative vitamin A deficiency, and thus should never be initiated alone.  High dose supplementation should be supervised by a physician or knowledgeable health professional.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

The ideal blood levels for

Vitamin D[25-OH] are between 40 – 60 ng/mL.

^{________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________}

Each person is their own unique set of circumstances, and when it comes to vitamin supplementation, we have to look at the whole, and not make the mistake of confusing a vitamin for a medication.  All these nutrients coordinate together in the symphony that the body is.

Vitamin D resources:

The Vitamin D Council – a resource of information about vitamin D.

Vitamin D level testing – a link to a lab that can provide a vitamin D testing kit.  Note that many doctors can check vitamin D levels in their offices, although your doctor may think it is not necessary.  As recently as last month, I heard the resident doctor on Good Morning America saying that not all adults have to be screened for vitamin D deficiency.  Really?  With 75% of U.S. adults deficient, this surpasses any level that makes a widespread screening program cost-effective!  In New York City, where I practice, I am surprised at how many people are vitamin D deficient, that I would have not thought would be.  You cannot look at someone and know whether they are vitamin D deficient just based on how they look (unless they are ghost white and never go in the sun — then I’ll bet you $100 that they are).  In my practice, it makes sense to me to check vitamin D levels on all adults (both male and female), especially since vitamin D deficiency can be asymptomatic, or the person may not notice the symptoms, simply attributing them to their work schedule or life stress.  Many times mild symptoms are not noticed until they disappear.  Screening for vitamin D deficiency should be part of any preventive medicine strategy to help mitigate the risk of future disease.

Excerpt from The Ultimate Swine Flu Survival Guide Dr. Vincent Pedre

find it on

References:

1. Cannell, et al: Epidemic influenza and vitamin D.  Review Article. Epidemiology and Infection (2006), 134 : 1129-1140. Cambridge University Press.
2. Ginde AA:  Demographic Differences and Trends of Vitamin D Insufficiency in the US Population, 1988-2004.  Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(6):626-632.
3. MacLaughlin JA, Anderson RR, Holick MF. Spectral character of sunlight modulates photosynthesis of previtamin D3 and its photoisomers in human skin. Science. 1982;216:1001–1003.

Infrared Technology and Body Detoxification

While at the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine 2010 Conference, I happened upon a booth by a company called The Biomat Company, which produces mats that can are heated by infrared technology.   Infrared rays are part of the light spectrum, not visible to the naked eye, which penetrate deep into the body tissues.  They are felt as heat.  I spoke a little bit about using Infrared heat in detoxification in my previous post, but purchasing a far-infrared sauna for home use can be quite expensive.    These days, it may be too far out of budget, but we also have to balance the cost:benefit ratio of staying healthy versus living sick.  As a recent caller into The Doctor Show on Sirius Satellite that I was a guest on said, “[she walks every morning], because I don’t have the time to be sick.”  In our reactionary culture, this is a hard concept to digest, as in general many of us wait until something is wrong to go take care of it.  However, in the increasingly demanding, toxic world that we live in, waiting until a problem arises is making the work of getting well all that more difficult.  Having a portable unit, like the Biomat, at about half the cost of a far-infrared sauna, may make all the difference in how we feel in our bodies.

Why am I so interested in the Biomat that I bought one for my practice?   First, there is no dispute that we live in a toxic world with pesticide exposures, endocrine disruptors in plastics, fire retardants in our furniture, and inadvertent heavy metal exposures, etc… that dissolve in our fat and have few ways of exiting our body.  Secondly, the known benefits of far-infrared heat to help the body detoxify makes perfect sense to me from a systems biology perspective.  Reduce the body’s burden of toxins, and the body will work like the amazing machine it is meant to be.  The potential benefits of a healing session on the Biomat to help my patients feel better is worth it to me.  Sure, some of it sounds a bit too new agey, like the amethyst crystals in the mat and the production of negative ions.  But, let’s keep an open mind a take a look further.  Here is one of the representatives from The Biomat Company describing their product:

The Biomat Benefits

►

We know that waterfalls, forests and waves crashing on the seashore all emit negative ions.  This is part of the reason that our bodies react positively to these surroundings.  They have a healing effect on the body.

Well, everyone on the mat looked so peaceful, that I wanted to jump in and try this myself.  So here I am lying on the Biomat in a state of suspended animation with sound-canceling headsets playing a guided meditation, much like a voice from the movie The Fifth Element.  Wish I could play it for you, her voice is very soothing:

Relaxing on the Biomat

►

Here are some of the benefits of far-infrared heat:

• Pain relief
• Stress relief
• Relaxation of stressed muscles
• Improved sleep
• Blood pressure reduction
• Improved lymphatic flow

So, in summary:

My thoughts on the Biomat experience

►

I will let you know how my patients respond to sessions on the Biomat once I’ve been using it for a few weeks.  As much as I believe in randomized, double-blinded, placebo-control trials, I also believe it is important to tune into the experiences of individuals.  Statistics are helpful, but one person is not a statistic.  That said, a number of studies using Far-Infrared Sauna have shown that it can help lower blood pressure and has even helped refractory cases of congestive heart failure, when no other therapy (including medications) were no longer working.

Remember, far-infrared rays (as in a far-infrared sauna or a Biomat) help you detoxify, especially from chemicals that are fat soluble and have a harder time finding their way back out of your body.  If you are very toxic, you should start at a lower heat setting (close to body temperature or below) and slowly work your way up (to around 130 degrees F, but some people may tolerate higher temperatures with the far-infrared heat).  If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you should never enter into a sauna or undergo extreme heat without a doctor’s supervision.  And obviously, although these products are available for purchase by the general public, if you have any underlying conditions or multiple chemical sensitivity, you should seek the advice of a physician or naturopath that is skilled in detoxification.  There are dangers to extended heat exposure, even with far-infrared rays, so a device like this should be considered more than just leisure.  It is therapeutic, and should be supervised by a skilled health professional.  Always drink plenty of water, and ask your health professional if you should also supplement any mineral losses that may occur.

Good luck, and happy detoxing!

Cleanse your Body, Renew your Spirit

As the word “spring” implies, it is about movement — springing forth.  As the trees grow green again, the tulips and flowers sprout, we see all around us that spring is about renewal.  So many of our problems in Western society come from excesses, that a period of cleansing and detoxification is the perfect rite of spring for the body.  A detox can bring renewal to your body, as you let go of the old, that which was retained during the period of nourishment and internalization that winter is, and bring forth a cleaner, fresher more vibrant you.  Detoxification is about reducing your intake of toxins and improving elimination.  My hope is that this post will inspire and motivate you to begin your spring detox, and make it into a yearly ritual.

First Step – Elimination

The first step in your spring detox should be about eliminating those things that are harmful to your body.  Before you can renew, you must remove your body’s burden – this is what detoxing is all about.  I challenge you to take a week off of caffeine, alcohol and sugar.  If these substances are a heavy part of your daily routine, ease into it slowly, reducing the amount by half every 2 – 3 days, until it’s out of your system.  This will help minimize the typical withdrawal symptoms one would experience.  You can ease into your spring detox this way, and prepare for the most intensive part of the detox.

Second Step – Preparing the Mind

Detox your mind as well.  Begin by eliminating all negative thoughts.  Don’t allow any thoughts that are negative to linger too long.  It is amazing what happens when you draw attention to the steady stream of thoughts that come and go, and how many of those may be self-destructive or critical or negative in some way.  Let go of them, wash them out, as the incoming tide washes away footprints on the seashore.  Replace each negative thought, with a positive affirmation.  Detoxing is as much a state of mind, as it is for the body.

Drink Water

Now that you are in the detox mind, remember to drink a lot of water.  It is amazing how many of us are walking around dehydrated.  Our bodies hold up to 70% of its weight in water.  Our cells need water to function properly.  Without this essential component of life, toxins build up and accumulate within the body.  Drink at least 1.6 L per day during your detox phase, it will help you cut out the cravings, and make the elimination phase easier to stick with.

Third Step – Elimination Part II

Now you are ready for the next elimination step.  Remove all wheat, dairy, corn, soy and eggs from your diet.  You may feel I just wiped out your entire diet, but don’t despair.  This is part of your internal spring cleaning.  In order to do that, we need to eliminate the most common food sensitivities.  These foods tend to increase body acidity and mucous production.  Eliminating these foods will improve elimination and lessen the build-up of toxins in your body as you prepare to clear out.

The Detox Plan

You have reduced the toxic burden on your body.  Now you are ready for the detoxification itself.

Upon rising: A tall glass of filtered, room temperature water with half a lemon squeezed in it.

For Breakfast: Bowl of fresh fruit, followed by one bowl of cooked whole grains – brown rice, quinoa, millet or amaranth.  For flavoring, use fruit juice or a little sea salt.

Lunch: 2 medium bowls of steamed vegetables.  Save the water used for steaming, as it is full of nutrients, and you can drink it later.  Use fresh spring vegetables, such as broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, kale, chard, asparagus, and cabbage.  Another option is a raw foods salad, with a mix of dark leafy greens, and some bitters, like watercress, endive, or radicchio.  Use a simple salad dressing of lemon juice and spices.

Dinner: Bowl of steamed vegetables or salad (similar to lunch). If you feel tired, add some protein here in the form of fish, free-range chicken, or beans.

After dinner:  No more food, just water and herbal teas.

You can follow this detox plan for 2 – 3 days, or up to 5 – 7 days.

Other Nutrients and Supplements that can aid in body detoxification:

• Vitamin C, NAC, chlorophyll, Alpha-lipoic acid
• Garlic, Echinacea, dandelion root tea

Sweat it Out!

Finally, the missing ingredient to this process – sweating.  One of the best ways to get rid of toxins from the body is to sweat them out.  It’s springtime, so go outdoors for your exercise.  Draw up a sweat with a run or a long bike-ride on a sunny day.  Or head to the sauna for some intensive sweating.  The best sauna to use with the most therapeutic benefits is the far-infrared sauna.

After the Detox

Ease into your “normal” dietary routine.  You may find that you like the way the detox has made you feel, so incorporate some of these good habits into your dietary plan.  This can be the beginning of a redefined lifestyle – a new you, a new mindset of healthier, more whole living.  You may find it necessary to detox your apartment or home to reflect the less cluttered, cleaner you.  Ride the wave, and make the changes inside and out!