Welcome to the second installment of the Nutritional Balancing for Dummies series! If you missed the last post, check it out here.

I wrote a comprehensive explanation entitled What Is Nutritional Balancing? at Traditional Cooking School several months ago. In that post, I cite all kinds of scientific references for the four parts of a successful NB protocol: diet, lifestyle, supplements, and detox. If you’re new to this NB thing, I highly, highly recommend you click on that link and read that post first. Then come back here, and things will make a lot more sense!

Today’s post is an in-depth explanation of the detoxification aspect. I’m also going to explain how I’ve incorporated NB into my lifestyle.

I’ve been following a Nutritional Balancing protocol for over a year. In that time, I have seen symptoms and issues that I’ve had for literally my entire life — things I didn’t even know were “symptoms” because I’d had them for so long and they felt totally normal — disappear.

What a Traditional (WAPF) diet, the GAPS Diet, and Paleo alone couldn’t do for me, Nutritional Balancing has done. It’s truly been a godsend. (And so has my practitioner!)

When you try to explain Nutritional Balancing to people, most of what you say typically goes right over their heads … because it’s A LOT of information. I lose people somewhere between “I take 24 pills a day” and “I love coffee enemas”.

(Actually, neither of those statements is a joke…)

NB Program

Think about a wooden chair with four legs. What happens if you saw one of the legs off? The chair tips over, right?

Well, that’s how important each aspect of NB is.

You can change your diet, de-stress your lifestyle, and sit in a sauna daily, but if you’re NOT taking your supplements, you won’t see the full benefits a NB program can give your body. You can take supplements, do coffee enemas, and eat veggies all day long, but if you don’t learn how to relax and de-stress your lifestyle, your program will be lacking.

Each aspect of NB works with the other three aspects to give you a completely holistic and balanced healing approach that truly addresses the mind, body, and soul.

If you’re not doing one aspect of the program, you’re not going to have a completely successful program. Period.

If you read my post at Traditional Cooking School, but still find yourself scratching your head, trying to figure out exactly what you’re supposed to do on your NB program, this post will help you. And let’s be honest, Dr. Wilson (one of NB’s pioneering practitioners) is a freaking genius when it comes to this stuff, but seriously, who has time to sift through, process, and absorb all the information he offers??

Well, uh, actually I do; but even I have to keep going back and sifting through the articles to find what I’m looking for.

Today, I’m going to focus on another leg of the chair: DETOX.

Hopefully, I’ll answer any questions you may still have lingering about detox as part of a NB lifestyle. And if I don’t accomplish my goal, that’s what the comments section is for! If you ask a question in the comments, I promise I’ll answer it to the best of my abilities. 🙂

Why Detox?

Our bodies detox on their own every day. We don’t have to do or take anything to make that process happen. Detox is more efficient in some people than it is in others. How efficiently your body detoxes depends on numerous factors, including liver toxicity, metabolic rate, diet, stress level, sleep quality, and more.

If you are on a Nutritional Balancing program, it is likely that your body’s detoxification processes have slowed and are not as efficient as they should be. This causes things to get sort of “backed up”, and your liver/gallbladder can become sluggish, your skin may be broken out, or you may have classic lack-of-detox symptoms: headaches, brain fog, or a weakened immune system.

Our bodies have to process hundreds of thousands of toxins on a daily basis. Cleaning up your diet will go a long way toward reducing your body’s toxic load, but if your detox pathways have been slowed down for many years, diet alone is probably not enough to get things back where they need to be.

When the liver is overloaded and sluggish, other organs must pick up the slack. The skin often does this job, and skin conditions like acne, eczema, and dermatitis are evidence of a poorly detoxing body. The lymphatic system also assists in regular detox by picking up toxins throughout the body and storing them in collection sites — lymph nodes. It is important to support all of our body’s detox organs and pathways.

Check out 7 Easy Ways to Support Daily Detox for more information about supporting your body’s natural detoxification processes.

Two of these methods, coffee enemas and near-infrared sauna therapy, are the focus of detox on a Nutritional Balancing protocol.

NB Detox for Dummies

Dr. Wilson believes that ALL 21st century diseases are caused by the bombardment of thousands of toxins and chemicals we run into daily (and I tend to agree with him for the most part). A short list of toxins we encounter includes:

• Over 3,ooo chemicals that the law permits to be added to foods (food coloring, MSG, artificial flavors and sweeteners, and more)
• Pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides
• GMO crops
• Toxic metals in our air (bismuth, tin, uranium, beryllium, and more)
• Toxic metals in food and water (mercury, lead, cadmium, aluminum, arsenic, and more)
• Any prescription or over-the-counter drugs one has ever taken, including antibiotics, Tylenol, Advil, acid reflux medications, and more
• Dental and surgical anesthetics
• Vaccine preservatives and additives, even from infancy
• Recreational drugs used in the past or present (cigarettes, cocaine, heroine, ecstasy, meth, and more)

Coffee Enemas

The cumulative and combined effects of this toxic assault on our bodies has not been studied sufficiently, at all. […] According the United States Environmental Protection Agency, toxic chemicals and toxic metals constitute a great threat to our health. […] To say that this is the century of toxicity is no exaggeration. The coffee enema is one method, and a powerful one, to help with this problem. — Dr. Lawrence Wilson

For the purposes of this post, I will only discuss the detoxification aspects of coffee enemas — however, all the ways that coffee enemas are potentially beneficial to the body are too numerous to list here.

Coffee is a choleretic — a substance which increases the volume of bile produced by the liver. When bile production is stimulated, the body is better able to excrete toxins because bile is a natural laxative and improves the detox capabilities of cells. As the coffee travels upward through the colon, it reaches the hemorrhoidal vein to the liver. Caffeine in the coffee dilates this vein and opens the bile duct, allowing the liver to release bile which contains toxins. According to the Gerson Therapy, “The purpose of the coffee enema is not to clear out the intestines, but the quart of water stimulates peristalsis in the gut. A portion of the water also dilutes the bile and increases the bile flow, thereby flushing toxic bile […] out of the intestines” (source).

Coffee enemas also mechanically cleanse the colon, removing toxic substances, old mucosal lining, parasite nests, and colonies of harmful bacteria and yeasts. Repeated coffee enemas help to remove old fecal matter which often sticks to the colon wall and form pockets or dilations (also known as diverticuli) where food particles become trapped, especially if white flour products have ever been a staple in your diet during your lifetime. A common, yet serious, condition of the colon, diverticulitis, is the infection and inflammation of these pockets. These pockets are also common nesting sites for parasitic organisms such as worms, parasite larvae, and yeasts.

Dr. Wilson states,

I have recommended coffee retention enemas to more than thirty thousand people. I have yet to hear about horrible side effects of any kind, although the procedure is somewhat inconvenient, especially at first. Most people get used to it quickly. The coffee retention enema is really quite simple, very safe when done properly, highly effective, able to be done in the privacy of your home, and inexpensive.

While enemas in general have been historically used for thousands of years, the use of coffee enemas has been documented in modern medicine for at least 100 years. Nutritional Balancing is not the only protocol to require regular coffee enemas. A few cancer therapies, namely the Gerson Therapy and the Kelley Metabolic Cancer Therapy, have been very successful as alternative cancer treatments, and both highly recommend the coffee enema.

I have done coffee enemas daily for almost two years. Most people balk at the safety and wisdom of this, but I can honestly say that I believe coffee enemas were a turning point in my health and probably saved me from going down the long, painful road of autoimmune disease and long-term depression. I started doing coffee enemas as sort of a last-ditch effort to save my gallbladder, which had been giving me trouble for years. Turns out, a lot more than my gallbladder has benefitted from the enemas. I got up close and personal about How I Take My Coffee at Traditional Cooking School, and then updated last year with One Year of Coffee Enemas.

People either think what I’m doing is amazing or they think I’m downright crazy. Either way, as part of a complete NB program and under the excellent care of my NB practitioner, I’m still doing daily coffee enemas and still experiencing the myriad of benefits Dr. Wilson says are possible!

Near-Infrared Sauna Therapy

Saunas, in general, are used to stimulate sweating, and it has been known for thousands of years that sweating is good for the mind, body, and soul. Cultures from all over the world, including Native Americans, Scandinavians, and Inuit peoples have used saunas and “sweat lodges” as part of their lifestyles.

Near-infrared sauna therapy is a huge component to the detox part of Nutritional Balancing as well. As toxins build up in the body, it is important to stimulate sweating so as to more quickly and efficiently detox the body of those toxins. The use of sauna therapy is recommended as a daily regimen for anyone following a NB protocol.

Some of the benefits of near-infrared sauna therapy include:

• Skin rejuvenation: when the body is no longer storing tons of toxins, the skin is able to glow and indicates true health. The skin is able to handle the detox of toxins without becoming congested, which is very common among people today.
• Enhanced sweating: heavy metals, over-the-counter and prescription drug residues, and toxic chemicals are released into the sweat. Many people with slow metabolisms do not sweat as much as they should, which causes build-up of these toxins. Sauna therapy gently enhances an individual’s sweating capabilities.
• Stimulates circulation: toxins are stored in fat and where there is poor circulation (think cellulite). Sauna therapy stimulates circulation, which then detoxes the skin, cellulite, and internal organs, especially the kidneys and liver.
• Inhibits the sympathetic nervous system: people who require NB are more often than not functioning in a constant state of sympathetic dominance. This is very stressful to the mind and body because the “fight or flight” response is always active. For deep healing to occur, the sympathetic nervous system needs to be “put to bed” so that the parasympathetic nervous system can take over. Sauna therapy enables the body to relax, regenerate, and heal even faster.
• Healed infections and tumors: yep, the level of detox is so deep with near infrared sauna therapy that long-term infections, tumors, and even cancer cells are killed! Raising the body temperature by a few degrees over time is harmful to these infections and cells, so they can no longer live in a “hot” body.
• Kills Candida and parasites: the same principle of heating the body to kill organisms that thrive in a low body temperature is true here as well. The lower a person’s body temperature, the more Candida and parasites thrive in their body. Raising the temperature kills the harmful organisms — which = more detox and healing.

If you cannot afford a sauna or if your home lacks sufficient space like ours, you can rig up a simple infrared light in a shower or small closet to serve this purpose until you are able to find a more permanent solution. For less than $30, you can start experiencing the benefits of infrared light and heat. All you need is an infrared bulb and a flood light enclosure with clamp.

Several bulbs are ideal for adults, but I have experienced great benefits from just our single infrared lamp. Also, this set up is perfect for children because they need less light and heat to accomplish the same effects. Our practitioner recommends single infrared light therapy for children and for those who need to detox at an even slower pace.

Detoxing on a Nutritional Balancing protocol varies for each person. Some people have a much easier time of it than others. And there are times when it can feel like your detox regimens are doing nothing, and other times when you have detox reactions and even allergic reactions because your body is detoxing a lot of toxins at once.

This is yet another reason why it is important to remember two things:

1. Work with a NB practitioner. He or she can help you figure out the type and frequency of detox methods you need. They can also help you troubleshoot any reactions you may have. Trust me, it’s totally worth it to have someone who knows what’s going on when you have healing reactions!
2. Coffee enemas and sauna therapy are just ONE aspect of NB. It is necessary to make sure you are paying as much attention to your lifestyle, diet, and supplements as you are the detox. Don’t just do the detox and leave the others undone. Your program will be much more successful, and your body will thank you.

Are you beginning to understand Nutritional Balancing a bit more? Have you ever done coffee enemas or infrared sauna therapy?