Safety Tips for Using a Digestive System Cleanse

(I am not a doctor or health practitioner. This isn't medical advice, but suggestions from personal experience with poor digestive health.) In order to get well, I had to go out to Alternative Medicine and start looking for solutions. I am now convinced of the benefits of periodic Digestive System Cleansing. "Traditional" doctors can prescribe medicine for digestive problems ranging from heartburn to constipation, but often when the medicine is finished, the problems come back. That is because it is calming the symptoms but not getting to the root problem. In the field of alternative medicine it is believed that "Good health is all in the gut." That is why Digestive System Cleansing is important. When your digestive system and intestines aren't functioning right, it can lead to bothersome, chronic and even life-changing ailments like allergies, skin diseases, acid reflux, acne, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), ulcerative colitis, chronic fatigue, yeast infections, joint and bone irritations, malfunctions of other organs and even colon cancer.

Your digestive health can be upset by poor eating habits and food choices, antibiotics, long-term anti-inflammatories, parasites, stress, environmental toxins and/or previous illnesses or ailments.

You can do Digestive System Cleansing several ways:

Go for professional "colonics" or "colonic hydrotherapy"- where a speculum is inserted through the anus to clean out the colon. It is connected to a long hose which deposits the residue in the colonic unit.

Do a Juice fast, where you don't eat or drink anything but juices (preferably fresh vegetable and fruit juices for fiber, without added sugar) for several days.

Or you can do a Home Digestive System Cleansing program. There are many boxed and bottled Digestive Cleansing programs (sometimes called intestinal cleanse) on the market, to be found on the Internet or at natural food and health outlets. They will often consist of oriental herbs but also regular foods which are excellent for the digestive system, like ginger and licorice.

These are Safety Tips for Using Home Digestive System Cleansing.

Guidance by a natural nutritionist or alternative care doctor is still preferable, especially if you have any of the following:
-blood sugar challenges like diabetes, hypoglycemia.
-intestinal problems like colitis or IBS
-heart problems
-autoimmune disorders
-other chronic ailments like Celiac disease.

Follow the plan explicitly.

During the Digestive Cleanse, drink plenty of water and beverages with electrolytes.

Most Home Digestive System Cleansing programs don't demand that you stop eating. But you must limit or completely cut out all sources of sugar, wheat, yeast and dairy intake. They all inhibit proper digestion, and could be your problem in the first place.

Be careful of the ingredient Cascara Sagrada. It is an herbal laxative that can become habit-forming and cause pounding headaches. If it is in the cleanse at all, it must be many items down on the list, which indicates a smaller proportion.

If you have a history of IBS as I do, do not rely on a digestive cleansing product based on psyllium or psyllium husks. This is a bulking agent which takes several days to work and can make constipation much worse.

See this article on Irritable Bowel Syndrome by Vaxa International , an excellent alternative health products company which has a plethora of health info on their website (this writer cannot vouch for all their products, but their information on health conditions is top-notch).

If you do your research on "traditional" medical websites or with your family doctor, they may not recommend or believe in periodic Digestive Cleansing.

Always take "probiotics" - before, during and after the cleanse (you can stay on them all the time). In the digestive tract, there should be a balance between "good" and "bad" bacteria. Probiotics, the supplemental form of the beneficial micro-organisms, help to increase and preserve the proper proportion of protective bacteria so that your system isn't overrun by the "bad" bacteria, which makes you sick.

The most commonly known probiotics are lactobacillus acidophilus and bifidobacterium. These are easily found in combination with other "friendly" bacteria at natural outlets.

Do a parasite cleanse at the same time, especially if:

-you've spent time out of the country; or
-you've been helping in devastated areas where there has been long-standing water;
-you eat a lot of sushi or rare-cooked meat or poultry.

See this entertaining but scary article "Parasites: What Everyone Ought to Know".

Do not do a Home Digestive System Cleansing program more than once or twice a year. Your bowels can get used to "waiting for help" to perform their normal "peristalsis" - the contracting activity which leads to proper expulsion of waste.

A simple juice cleanse for 2-3 days is different - you can do that every 3-4 months.