Saturday, April 30, 2016

Time for Spring Cleaning


You may or may not know this, but according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Spring time is the best time to cleanse or detox the liver and in our toxic world, we could all benefit from cleansing our liver. This isn't just beneficial for someone that drinks alcohol. If you take any medication, drink water from the tap, eat conventional foods or simply live in the world that we live in, you will benefit from cleansing your liver. One of the simplest things you can do on a regular basis is to drink roasted dandelion root tea, preferably organic. I learned this from one of my first Naturopathic doctors. Dandelion is extremely beneficial for your liver and drinking tea on a daily basis is simple to do. If you don't like tea, you can typically find dandelion root in capsule form in your local natural foods store. When the dandelions start to bloom, this is a good reminder that it is time to take care of your liver. There are so many other ways to cleanse your liver and some of our livers need more attention than others. If you have a health condition, you likely need a little extra help in this department.

I will be doing a more serious cleanse/fast at the end of May. It is a 9 day fast. The first 3 days are juice, followed by 3 days of water and then another 3 days of juice. There is more to it than that, but this is beneficial for more than just the liver and it will be doctor supervised. This isn't something you should do on your own without supervision. There are other fasts that can be done on your own. Any fast will give your entire digestive system a break so that it can repair itself. I've done this type of fast a couple of years ago and I feel I'm ready to do it again. It is definitely not for a first time faster either. I used to do juice fasts on a regular basis. It is best if you've never fasted before and are thinking of fasting to start with a juice fast. If you have health issues, I highly recommend that you talk with your doctor first before doing a fast. The health benefits from a fast can be huge and it can improve chronic conditions depending on how long the health condition has been there.


Fasts are a matter of personal choice and they aren't for everyone, but if your curious and you've never fasted before, spring time is a great time to fast.  But, if a fast is not for you, there are so many other ways to detox and improve your health. What type of spring cleaning are you doing for your body?