I would really suggest that you make these changes gradually, as I found it overwhelming to just try and change my whole routine right off the bat. Get comfortable with the dietary changes and try to get use to the good eating habits, these are the ones you want to try to keep!

Thanks again for stopping in to my page, take care and be well!

Well, just got done reading your blog, and am sad to see your last post was in May. What is going on, how are you doing, and how is the cleanse going.
We spoke this morning, and unlike what I read about you, I have known for twenty plus years about the importance of colon health and toxins.

See, at 16 I was bulimic, not the kind that throws up ( thank God, I was never able to do that) but the kind that takes laxatives to stay skinny. I always felt like a fat person stuck in a skinny body, because my eating habits definitelly were bad and fatning, but the laxatives kept me skinny. At 20 years of age I realised I was doing a bad thing, because I was unable to get of the laxative pills, and was up to 5 pills a day just to be able to keep going. My weight would fluctuate like crazy, depending wether I was going :>) or not. If not, I would get all bloated, not just my stomach, but my legs and arms as well, and I would break out like crazy. After taking laxative pills and going, I would feel much better, and skinnier. So I learned at a very young age that the way you feel is directly related with the way your bowels move. For the next 4 years I tried to get off laxatives by doing everything that was suggested. Fiber, fiber, FIBER, boy, my diet was nothing but fiber. I wss a compulsive excercises and drank tons of water, but to no avail. Apparantly I had killed my peristalsis. Doctors did not really know what to do with me, other than ….. yeap, you guessed it, prescribe more laxatives. Although in my heart I knew that laxatives were bad for me, I was always happy to hear the okay from a doctor. Somehow that took the responsibility away from me. When I was 24 I went to an accupunturist who said my intestines were like the ones of a 70 year old. It scared the hell out of me, but I did not know what to do. I was very depressed, and lived with tons of anxiety and fear. Forward a few more years.
I had somehow managed to become a flight attendant for a major airline. Training was very hard. I had to share one bathroom with 3 other fligh attendants. I got through school by taking a laxative tea every night. Again over the course of 6 weeks I noticed that I had to increase my doses dramatically. First one bag steaping for 5 minutes, in the end two bags for 15 minutes with hardly the same results. Again I had gone to doctors. They had done a colonoscopy on me and took x-rays. Other than determining that I had a lot of gas in my intestines, they saw nothing and told me to keep taking laxatives as needed ( well that was like every day for me) I would fly my trips, then come home, and take the same solution used for colonoscopy prep, and basically be in the bathroom on my days off. I would start a trip, looking all hot and thin, and by the end of a three day trip, my pants would no longer fit me. On one of my layovers I met a guy who introduced me to herbal laxatives. I felt better about taking them, and for the next 7 years, I felt kinda, sorta better as long as I took 3 of these pills every night ( which of course had senna and cascara sagrada in it) Although I stayed regular, it required alot of down time. I usually would get up in the morning around 9, have at least two cups of coffee to get me going, have severe bloating and cramping, and hopefully by about 11 AM I was able to leave the house and have a somewhat productive day, untill dinner time. As the day progressed I would become visibly bloated, appearing somewhat pregnant, and by 6 PM I would have lost all my energy and want to be on the couch for the rest of the night. Somewhere during this time I saw an ad in a paper about colonhydrotherapy, and I intuitively knew that might be the ticket to health for me. It took me 6 months to muster up the courage to get a colonic, and although I now know that my first colonics were not good ones, I did feel much better after them. When I turned 35 and I moved to Virginia Beach Virginia, I decided to take whatever money it took, to stick with colonhydrotherapy, and clean up my colon and my life. I found a place at the Beach where I started getting colonics every two weeks. I realised here what it was like to have a real colonic, with real releases. After three months, I swore off lasatives, and have not had one since ( this was 5 years ago). I went to a colonic every 3 weeks, every 4 weeks, every 6 weeks, and although I still had a lot of bad days I started to feel what it was like to truly live, and no longer be a prisoner to my body, and the toilet. I also did alot of meditating and found out about the body,mind, soul connection. I learned that all are emotions are seated in our colons, and I had a lot of fear, and childhood trauma to overcome to help me with my healing. I lost 10 pounds of stuff that summer. I changed my diet, learned about food combining, and eating whole foods, while saying no to processed food. Today, at 40, I feel the best I have since I was 16. I have amazing energy, and am thin without trying. My bowelmovements are regular and complete, and I am ready to start my busy days at 7 AM, with lots of energy left over to play with my two year old after dinner.
Why did I write all this down. Because I wish to share the importance of colon health as well. Through all this, I have become a massage therapist, reflexologist and colon hydrotherapist, and it is my goal to help educate the people of America about the importance of colon health. I stumbled across this product and dr Group’s book through a friend who is a colonhydrotherapist as well. I think dr Group’s book is the most thorough and educational book out there when it comes to colon health, and I have read a lot of them. I hope to somehow be part of a bigger group when it comes to promoting colon health, and I hope this letter will somehow make it to dr Groups desk.
Daniel, it was truly a pleasure speaking with you this morning. I hope to read more about your journey, and you are more than welcome to contact me concerning this letter or any thing else. I was excited to see your blogging about the importance of the mind and your emotions, and hope to hear you write more about that.
Be well, be happy and be clean :>):>)

Love and Light

Cherie

http://www.candidablog.com/a-comprehensive-oxypowder-review.php

Health-conscious consumers are more than willing to spend valuable time and money on natural means of maintaining their health. And many of these consumers subscribe to the philosophy that good health begins in the bowels.

As a result, the natural health supplement industry has recently been flooded with numerous infomercials on natural health, herbal colon cleansers, and detoxifiers. They may be natural, but are they really effective? And more importantly, does buying “natural” necessarily mean buying safe?

According to the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, and similar organizations, many herbal colon cleansers could be more than just ineffective. They could be putting consumer health at serious risk.

While there are a handful of safe herbal cleansing products on the market, most manufacturers choose to include cheap and potentially dangerous ingredients in their formulations. Popular herbal ingredients to be especially wary of include Psyllium, Cascara Sagrada, and Senna.

A lot of other potentially dangerous herb combinations make their way into herbal cleansers, so be sure to research each individual ingredient in any herbal cleanser before putting it into your body.

A better option would be to choose a non-herbal cleansing product with a well-documented safety record. In addition to being more effective than their herbal counterparts, oxygen-based cleansers, such as Oxy-Powder®, are much gentler on the digestive tract and carry virtually no reported health risks.
Psyllium

Psyllium is one of the most common herbal ingredients used in colon cleansers and especially in over-the-counter fiber laxatives. There have been numerous reports of serious allergic reactions following the ingestion of psyllium products. These reactions include labored breathing, skin irritations or hives, and potentially life-threatening anaphylaxis. Long-term use of products containing psyllium may also negatively affect absorption of certain essential vitamins and minerals including iron.
Perhaps most ironically, obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract has also been regularly cited in studies of patients taking psyllium products. These studies seem to suggest this problem is especially common in individuals who are prone to suffering constipation.

Oxygen cleansers, on the other hand, actually convert solid waste into a gas or liquid which makes it impossible for them to cause any sort of intestinal blockage. And because oxygen cleansers are usually made from magnesium compounds, they can help reintroduce some of the essential minerals that Psyllium cleansers strip away.

It’s difficult to comprehend why any intelligent person would purchase a “bowel cleansing” product with a tendency to cause bowel obstruction or constipation rather than a safe, proven oxygen cleanser.
Cascara Sagrada

The name Cascara sagrada is used generically to describe the aged bark of several species of Buckthorn shrub. It’s used as a key component in many colon cleansing products.

Some supplement marketers attempt to sell Cascara under the radar by disguising it as part of a “proprietary blend” or by listing it as less easily recognized “buckthorn bark.” These same companies will sometimes make fine-print disclaimers about their products containing this dangerous ingredient, presumably to protect themselves against potential lawsuits. It’s unfortunate they’re not so willing to protect the health of their customers.

In 2002, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned cascara and its derivatives from use in non-prescription laxatives due to lack of supportive evidence they were either safe or effective. The FDA however failed to protect consumers from manufacturers who include cascara in “dietary supplements.”

Oxygen cleansers like Oxy-Powder® are made from minerals instead of plant byproducts, which means they carry a significantly lower risk of of contamination and have a more predictable effect on the body than cleansers made with Cascara or other herbs.
Senna

Senna is produced from a tropical flowering plant and is a popular ingredient in “diet” or “cleansing” teas as well as body cleansing supplements. Senna has also been the subject of numerous consumer complaints stretching as far back as 1987.

Between 1992 and 1994, there were at least four recorded deaths of otherwise healthy young females who reportedly used senna-containing teas for extended periods. However, further investigation in these cases was unable to yield sufficient evidence to ban the substance, at least for the time being.

Both Cascara and Senna are forms of Anthraquinones–naturally occurring compounds are found primarily in plants and select insects. In addition to their newfound popularity as ingredients in dietary cleansers, they have historically been used in the commercial manufacturing of dyes and pigments.

Anthraquinones work with intestinal bacteria to cause bowel contractions. According to the National Institutes of Health, common side effects of Anthraquinone-based stimulant laxatives include brownish urine, severe abdominal cramping, diarrhea and vomiting. They also have a tendency to strip away good bacteria which normally assist the body’s digestive process, from the intestines.

If abused, Anthraquinones can also cause electrolyte imbalances and potassium loss, and because electrolytes play an essential role in creating nerve impulses that help to facilitate proper muscle function, unbalanced potassium levels can trigger irregular heartbeat and other potentially life-threatening conditions.
What to Look For Before Buying an Herbal Colon Cleanser

The majority of herbs used in these products are sourced from countries like China or India and, in order to turn a profit, these companies are using very low grade herb powders or solvent extracted herbal derivatives which may be contaminated with heavy metals, pesticides, insecticides and other toxins. In most cases herbs are also irradiated when shipped internationally, which tends to greatly reduce their effectiveness.

Make sure you ask any company from which you purchase cleansing supplements if they have documentation regarding the source of their herbs and a certificate stating that their product is free of herbicides, insecticides, pesticides, heavy metals, fumigants and also contains non-irradiated ingredients. Also try to make sure they use pure vegetable capsules, as opposed to those manufactured with toxic glues and binders, or gelatin capsules with animal-source byproducts and toxic preservatives.

It’s a good idea to avoid cleansers that contain questionable or hard-to-digest non-nutritive substances such as magnesium stearate, silicon dioxide (common sand), food glaze, methylcellulose, carnauba wax, apple pectin or any other “flow” agent or filler. Ideally, all of the ingredients utilized in a natural colon cleanser should be organically certified, wildcrafted, or at the very least, free of harmful contaminates.
A Better, Safer Option

While the facts surrounding herbal cleansers may seem disheartening to consumers seeking natural options for maintaining their health, safe alternatives are readily available. Unlike herbal or other over-the-counter laxatives, oxygen-based cleansers thoroughly cleanse the walls of the colon and intestines without dangerous or unpleasant side effects.

There are several reputable options for oxygen cleansing, but Oxy-Powder® is considered to be the best. It works by releasing nascent oxygen (ozone) into the bowel using a magnesium carrier. Simply put, specialized oxygen molecules are locked in place by being bonded to specific forms of magnesium. Gastric juices breakdown these bonds and allow the oxygen to escape into the intestines where it gently breaks up lingering waste.

Oxy-Powder® has several other notable advantages over other cleansers. In addition to fully utilizing modern technology in its manufacturing and development, Oxy-Powder® also boasts a stronger formula in lab testing than other products, and it comes in a convenient vegetarian capsule (unlike many other oxygen cleansers which come as a loose powder and must be mixed with water).

This information is in no way meant to dissuade consumers from using natural herb-based health products. In most cases, natural supplements are a great alternative to synthetic drugs, and herbs are about as natural as it gets. But they can be just as potent (and potentially dangerous) as pharmaceuticals. So please, do yourself and your body a favor and thoroughly research any herbal cleansing product before adding it to your diet.

http://www.colon-cleanse-constipation.com/dangers-of-herbs.html/warning-herbal-cleanser.html