Spring is detox time

 I did my first detox attempt 50 years ago at the advice of a physician turned Naturopath. I stopped eating because that is what I thought fasting was - stop eating.  I had no knowledge of the importance of proper supportive protocols. Over the last 50 years I came across many detox systems and 15 years ago found Shaka Vansiya Ayurveda that clarified many important points in successful detox.

Let's start with toxins. The industrial age has given us many comforts and also many toxins,  The President's Cancer Panel informs us that nearly 80,000 chemicals  are on the market in the USA. 50 years ago Rachel Carson wrote "Silent Spring" and unfortunately the governments have done little to stop the number of chemicals in our environments. 

Ayurved was cognized by the ancient doctors starting about 5000 years ago when there were no industrial toxins in people's lives.  The toxin written about in the ancient texts was "AMA" or undigested food.  Ama is cold and sticky and to get rid of Ama we need herbs and medicinal spices and foods that are heating. For example ginger, thai chilis, pepper, fenugreek, to name a few.  However once Ama has been in our body for a while is become more hot and is call AMAVISHA.  Visha means poison, therefore Amavisha is a more toxic or poisonous Ama. Old Ama ferments and becomes hot. It needs a different process to move it out of the body.

Modern day chemicals are neither Ama or Amavisha. The closest comparable found in the ancient writings of Ayurveda would be Garavisha. It is hot and quickly penetrating like poisonous plants and snake venom. There has to be a highly skilled way to get rid of this kind of toxin. There is much written about these types of toxins. One book I recently read was "The Toxin Solution" by Dr. J Pizzorno. He collects a lot information about the specific chemical toxins and EMF. Don't agree with all his protocols however.

And lastly we are finding many people suffering from EMF and EMR. The toxicity produced by all the electromagnetic frequencies and radiation. Some people are highly sensitive to the increasing amount of electromagnetic pollution, to the point that they cannot function. I have known several people who have to live away from any towers the put out electromagnetism.  The closest comparable in the Ayurvedic texts is being struck by lightening. My beloved teacher Vaidya RK Mishra tells the story of how his father taught him about the toxicity of EMF/EMR. Vaidya was invited to London England to see patients. While taking their pulse (a diagnostic technique) he noticed spikes and fluctuation that he had never seen before. He called his father saying, "There is something you have not taught me." The answer from his father was look around you at the environment and look for something that did not exist in our village.  Their village had not electricity and he was in Piccadilly Circus  surrounded by neon lights and every imaginable electrical devise.  Now with 5G towers and more and more time spent with cell phones we are constantly being bombarded with this type of toxicity.  Living close to water and trees helps to mitigate it.

Now that we have a beginning understanding of what toxins we might be carrying in our bodies how do we help support our body to detox safely.  I say safely because if we start to move out toxins and they are hot and aggressive ( closest modern day name would be free radicals) then they could damage the channels of excretion.  

Before we start to detox, lets stop adding more toxins into our bodies by supporting organic food production with our buying dollar and local food producer who do not use chemical herbicides and pesticides even thought they might not be certified as organic. Next lets look at the water we are drinking. Please go to my entry on hydration which describes a simple and wonderful herbal tea using common culinary spices to support the liver, kidney and lubricate the channels and protect them from damage from hot toxins.

We are closely connected to the fluctuations of Nature particularly the sun and moon. As we move around the sun, the seasons change and the intelligence of bodies respond to the seasonal changes. In winter everything shrinks including out channels and in spring everything starts to open and flow. So the body's channels start to open and flow and toxins start to be slowly excreted.  By drinking the "Smart Water Hydrating Tea" you help support that. Also by eliminating foods that are heavy and congesting. Heavy meats, cheeses, big beans, winter squashes, and any processed foods heavy in salt.  Eliminating salt or greatly reducing it helps with detox as salt holds water.  What I try to do is have one a day week where I eliminate salt and heavy grains and foods. That way there is a constant gentle detox happening weekly, less build up.

This is a start to understanding safe detox.  Also exploring my entries on Triphala, Cilantro Chutney and the balanced churna of Turmeric/Coriander/Fennel/Cumin would be also good. This is a big topic and there is a course on detox that I have taught under the auspices of Shaka Vansiya Ayurved. There is much to learn and taking it one step at time, introducing once change into our lifestyle until it becomes a habit is the best way to proceed.