The Importance of Internal Cleansing

Welcome to the premier issue of Genesis Today's Nutritional Newsletter, written by Dr. Lindsey Duncan, CN, ND., co-owner, founder and head formulator of Genesis Today, a leader in the natural supplement industry. Genesis Today products were originally created for the clients of Home Nutrition Clinic, Lindsey's "nutritional clinic to the stars", in Santa Monica, California.

In the last 18 years, over 20,000 people have consulted with Lindsey, practicing his methods of internal cleansing and proper nutrition. A dual-degree holder in nutrition and natural health, Lindsey also studied and worked (for over 7 years) with Dr. Bernard Jensen, a world renowned healer, author, and educator on internal cleansing. Join Dr. Lindsey Duncan on this educational and enlightening journey into the principles and importance of internal cleansing.

My success as a nutritionist and natural doctor can be attributed to my unwavering and deep conviction in the healing powers of internal cleansing and detoxification. I had serious health problems as a child, and struggled to overcome them as a young adult. Internal cleansing played a huge part in helping me to overcome my physical problems, as well as regaining my health and vitality. My detoxification work with thousands of patients has also proven itself time and time again. Internal Cleansing WILL profoundly change your life and health for the better!

Despite my own convictions, the real challenge for me in writing this newsletter is to convey my knowledge of internal cleansing to the general population, keeping my message simple, clear, interesting, and easy to understand. Not always an easy thing to do when you're talking about the intestinal system, bowel care, proper bowel movements and the like.

Talking about "going to the bathroom", especially in western society, has always been an embarrassing and taboo topic. We just don't talk about it. My parents never talked to me about "bowel movements" as I was growing up, nor did they keep track of "if and when" my brothers and I happened to "go".

Like most parents of my generation, my mom and dad were uneducated on proper bowel management. They relied on the family doctors to take care of any health problems that concerned their children or themselves. Unfortunately, the medical profession, with all of its modern technology, was intent on curing symptoms and illness with prescription drugs and surgical techniques, while drifting further and further away from the old school of natural and non-invasive healing.As an adult, I find it ironic that the foundation of my successful practice has been built upon addressing and educating my patients on proper bowel management and internal cleansing, with emphasis on the body's 5 channels of elimination...the bowel, kidneys, lungs, skin and lymphatic system. I discovered the benefits of internal cleansing in my early twenties, and the effect it had on my life at the time was "earth-shattering"! I was so amazed at the positive changes and rejuvenation it brought about in my body that internal detoxification became a passionate part of my life, as well as a main component in my nutritional practice.

Many experts claim that the intestinal system and bowel is the true center and hub of the human body. They also claim that toxic build-up in the bowel is a precursor to various types of degenerative disease. My teacher and mentor, Dr. Bernard Jensen, nutritionist, lecturer and author of over 30 books on natural health care, states:
"Every cell and tissue in the body is fed by the bloodstream, which is supplied by the bowel. When the bowel is dirty, the blood is dirty and so are the organs and tissues. It is the bowel that must be cared for first before any effective healing can take place"

Proper bowel function entails having 2 to 3 good bowel movements per day! Most people are not aware of this, and go through their daily lives eliminating once a day, once every other day, or less. I ask my patients this question on a daily basis: If we eat 3 full meals a day and only eliminate once a day, once every other day, or twice a week, what happens to all the un-eliminated waste matter? Where are all the other meals hiding? I always find humor in their stunned reactions. I often validate the importance of eliminating 2 to 3 times per day by using an infant as an example. Ask any new mother for further proof - a baby will eat and immediately eliminate. Their fresh, new digestive systems have not had time to develop mal-absorption problems caused by improper diet, environmental toxins, stress, and pollutants in our water and food. Faulty digestion and elimination develop in our bodies over time, through years of improper lifestyle and dietary habits, along with negative environmental factors, which we'll talk about in a minute.

Unexpelled Waste Spells Trouble!

When we are not eliminating properly, wastes my not be expelled for days, weeks, months, or years. When we don't eliminate our waste, toxins back up in the colon, which can cause auto-intoxication, or self-poisoning. This occurs when the actual bowel walls become impacted with uneliminated fecal matter, hampering the absorption of vital nutrients and providing a breeding ground for unhealthy bacteria, organisms and even parasites. Blood capillaries lining the bowel wall which normally extract good nutrients from our digested food and distribute them throughout the body, begin instead, to absorb these toxins into the bloodstream, consequently polluting all of our organs and cells. These poisons rob our body of good health and energy, making us feel old, tired and sick.

Interesting Fact: Did you know that in the early 1900's, standard hospital practice included administering warm water enemas to almost all sick patients. Flushing and cleaning the lower bowel almost always provided relief and overall improvement in the patient's health

I like to use the following analogy with many of my patients. What would happen if we didn't empty our kitchen garbage cans for months and we kept on throwing more and more food waste on top of the old?

Wouldn't all of our homes start smelling like a garbage dump? Wouldn't our kitchen garbage become a breeding ground for nasty organisms of all shapes and sizes? The same thing happens with a constipated, clogged-up colon. The toxic wastes have nowhere to go, so they build up in the bowel. These poisons eventually seep into every cell and tissue, especially settling into the weaker areas and organs of our body. This process is setting the stage for degenerative disease and chronic illness. This auto-intoxication lowers our overall feeling of health and vitality. We start to blame other factors such as aging on why we experience a lack of energy, why we don't have that "zip" in our walk, or that "sparkle" in our eyes. The true fact is that age has nothing to do with this depletion of energy and life-force. Ninety percent of the time, these complaints can be alleviated or greatly reduced through internal cleansing techniques.

How Do I Know If I Need To Cleanse?

Many of my seminar topics focus on internal cleansing and bowel management. Repeatedly, I am asked the same question by seminar attendees: "How do I know if I need to cleanse?" My answer is quite simple... After consulting with over 20,000 patients, I can honestly state that I have never worked with an individual that did not directly benefit from detoxifying his or her body. In this day and age, we ALL need to cleanse! In a world where dietary choices or poor, environmental pollution is heavy, stress levels are high, and exercise is often a last priority, internal cleansing is more important than ever for optimum health.

The Doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient in the care of the (human) frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease. Thomas A. Edison

HOW THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM WORKS

Understanding the basics of how your digestive system works is really important. We live and die by what foods we put in our mouth and how our bodies assimilate these foods. Digestion starts in our mouths, when we bite into our food and begin chewing it and mixing it with saliva, a powerful digestive enzyme. As our food travels down to the stomach, it mixes with hydrochloric acid, a powerful digestive acid that liquefies the food and prepares it for further digestion in the small intestines with help from the pancreas and liver.

Our intestinal systems are connected to a network of blood vessels and veins which wrap around the stomach, small intestine, and bowel. Our blood receives nutrients from our digested food through this network of blood vessels, which look and function much like the roots of a tree, drawing dissolved nutrients out of the intestines and transporting them to the liver, where they undergo further breakdown, recombination, and storage. Later, the heart pumps these nutrients, stored in the liver, to nourish the various living cells that make up the tissues of the human body. By-products of the digestive process are passed into the bowel, where they solidify, and "in a perfect world", are completely excreted from the rectum.

This is basically how our body gets nourishment and energy. After it delivers nutrients throughout the body, the blood also collects cellular waste materials (by-products of metabolism) and "drops them off" at appropriate eliminative stations (lung, kidneys, skin, lymphatic system, colon) where, also, "in a perfect world" they are quickly excreted from the body.

Unfortunately, our "modern day society" is NOT a perfect world. Pollutants, toxins, chemicals, fertilizers, growth hormones, pesticides and other hazards to our health bombard and infiltrate our air, water and food on a daily basis. Our diets, no longer wholesome and fresh, consist of fast foods, junk foods, pre-prepared foods, fatty foods, and devitalized foods. There is no way our digestive systems can function optimally with the heavy burdens placed on them on a day-to-day basis. Digestion becomes sluggish, assimilation becomes inefficient, mal-absorption of nutrients begins, the metabolism slows down (weight gain!) and elimination becomes poor.

In a nutshell... poor digestion = toxic build-up!

Digestion starts in our mouths, when we bite into our food and mix it with saliva, which contains a powerful digestive enzyme...

Once in the stomach, it mixes with hydrochloric acid, another powerful digestive acid that liquefies the food and prepares it for further digestion in the small intestines, with help from the pancreas and liver...

Our blood receives nutrients from our digested food through a complete network of blood vessels, which draw dissolved nutrients out of the intestines and transporting them to the liver...

In the liver, they undergo further breakdown, recombination, and storage...

Later, the heart pumps these nutrients to nourish the various living cells that make up the human body...

By-products of the digestive process are passed into the bowel, where they solidify, and "in a perfect world," are completely excreted from the colon.

Possible Signs & Symptoms of a Toxic Body:

How We Become Toxic

Now that we all know the basics of what internal cleansing is, and how important it is to cleanse for overall health, I want to list for you, the 8 most common causes of toxic build-up in the human body. I have validated this list time and time again through my clinical work at Home Nutrition. This information, once assimilated, can be a huge help in keeping you on a healthy path in life. Learn these basics and apply them to your every day life by making the right choices...

1. CONSTIPATION - The colon is your body's sewage system. If your sewage system backs up, toxins become trapped in your colon. Chronic constipation means these toxins are fermenting and decaying in the colon, often being re-absorbed into the bloodstream, which in turn, pollutes all of our tissues and cells, and sets the stage for chronic disease and illness to follow.

2. POOR DIET - Poor diet includes dead, cooked, devitalized, clogging, low fiber foods, fried foods, junk foods, over-processed foods, etc. As a modern society, we have drifted further and further away from eating raw, organic "good for you" fruits, vegetables and whole grains high in natural fiber, nutrients, and enzymes. We now use processed and pre-prepared foods to fit with our busy lifestyles. Unfortunately these foods do nothing to benefit our health. These foods, unlike live foods (fresh, raw fruits and vegetables), lack the proper enzymes to assist in proper digestion and assimilation, and lack the fiber or bulk to assist in proper elimination. They are also lacking in essential vitamins, minerals and other basic, life giving nutrients. You are what you eat! Eat healthy!!

3. OVER-CONSUMPTION - Overeating puts a tremendous amount of stress on our digestive system. Most people eat too much food, too fast. A meal should be eaten slowly and food chewed thoroughly.Saliva mixed with food in the mouth plays a huge role in foods being digested properly. The body must produce hydrochloric acid, pancreatic enzymes, bile and other digestive factors to process a meal. When we over-eat, the digestive system cannot always meet the demands placed upon it. The stomach bloats as the digestive system goes into turmoil. Foods are not properly broken down and tend to lodge in the lower intestines. Vital nutrients are NOT absorbed. Try to eat smaller meals, with "healthy" snacks in-between meals. If you only eat when you're "starving", you will constantly over-eat and wonder why you feel so heavy, bloated and tired afterwards. Eat light and stay healthy!

4. LACK OF WATER - Water makes up 65 to 75% of the human body. It is second only to oxygen in order of importance to sustain life. Water cleanses the inside of the body as well as the outside. It is instrumental in flushing out wastes and toxins. When our bodies do not receive enough water, toxins tend to stagnate, hindering all digestive and eliminative processes. Drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water a day is imperative to good health. By the way, sodas DO NOT COUNT as water intake! Sodas of any kind (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, etc.) contain high levels of sodium, sweeteners, caffeine, and very bad-for-you chemicals. Over time, sodas can be a big contributor to ill health. Try and limit your soda intake and drink as much water as possible.

5. STRESS - Stress effects every cell and tissue in the human body. Stress breaks down the immune system as well as all of the major organs. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to get sick when you're under a lot of stress? Stress is TOXIC to our bodies! It robs the body of important vitamins and minerals, and over time, can cause severe acid build-up. Stress hinders proper digestion, absorption and elimination of foods by throwing the digestive system out of balance. The worst thing a person can do is to eat a meal while experiencing extreme stress. This usually causes indigestion, and nutrients will not be absorbed. Regulate and control the amount of stress in your life, and you will be a healthier and happier person.

6. ANTIBIOTICS - Antibiotics, despite their benefits in fighting certain bacterial infections, have a damaging effect on the intestines. Their prescribed purpose is to eliminate unhealthy bacteria in the body; bacteria that causes illness. However, antibiotics also eliminate the healthy, necessary, good bacteria in our bodies! They strip the colon of ALL intestinal flora... good and bad. After antibiotics are taken, it is usually the bad bacteria that regenerate and multiply quickly, often causing nagging yeast infections and digestive and eliminative upset. Our entire gastrointestinal tract becomes imbalanced, creating problems in the colon and hampering proper digestion. When we are forced to take antibiotics, it is extremely important to supplement our diets with cultured foods that contain live "good" bacteria, such as yogurt, cottage cheese, and probiotic supplements. We must replace the good bacteria, for optimum health and proper intestinal function.

7. LACK OF EXERCISE - Exercise strengthens our entire bodies. It stimulates the circulatory and lymphatic system, building muscles, nerves, blood, glands, lungs, heart, brain, mind and mood. Blood is pumped throughout our bodies by the heart, but lymphatic fluid depends solely on exercise to be circulated throughout our lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is the human body's sewage system... it is responsible for the removal of cellular and toxic waste. Here is a remarkable fact... there is 3 times more lymphatic fluid in the human body than blood! Physical exercise and movement is the lymphatic system's only "pump", so to speak. If we don't exercise, our lymphatic system becomes sluggish and toxic, effecting our over-all health. Lack of exercise lowers metabolic efficiency, and without circulatory and lymphatic stimulation, the body's natural cleansing systems are weakened. Exercise is extremely important.

8. EATING LATE AT NIGHT - The human body uses sleep to repair, rebuild and restore itself. In essence, our bodies use the sleeping hours to cleanse and detoxify, and to build strength and immunity. When we eat late at night and go to sleep with a full stomach, the body IS NOT at rest. Even though our mental processes are quiet, our physical body is actually quite busy digesting and processing a large amount of food. This inhibits the vital cleansing, building and restorative processes that normally occur while we sleep. We've all had the experience of going to sleep with a full stomach, and waking the next morning feeling tired, exhausted and disoriented, despite 8 hours of sleep. This is because your body, in actuality, did NOT get 8 hours of sleep... more like 3 hours of sleep, after working hard most of the night to digest and process the big meal you ate before bed. Do not eat late at night! Eat an early dinner, and eat light in the evenings.

Education is the Key! Perfect dietary and lifestyle habits, stress management and a proper exercise program cannot be incorporated into a person's daily regime overnight, and I don't expect everyone to be "perfect" all the time, but an increased awareness of these health tools and their positive benefits will serve as a basic and powerful guide to many individuals for the rest of their lives. I encourage my patients, clients, friends and associates to read and educate themselves on natural health, proper nutrition and the powerful benefits of internal cleansing. Learn, learn, learn, all you can! Our motto at Home Nutrition is "Health Through Education". I believe in these words passionately. Through education, all things are possible. It's time to take charge and regain control of our own bodies and our own health... after all, who "really" knows the body better than you, the owner! Remember, your health is not everything, but everything is nothing without your health! Yours In Health, R. Lindsey Duncan, ND, CN