Modern life is filled with toxins that our bodies struggle to eliminate. Key to this process is a healthy colon. What most people don’t know: A salt water flush is a superior and less expensive way to detox your colon than a colonic irrigation procedure.

Colon Protection

A popular adage maintains: “Death begins in the colon.” This medical maxim is more than a mere generalization. When toxins build up in the colon due to insufficient and infrequent elimination, poisons breed, leading to complications, disease and eventually death.

A shocking 85 percent of Americans battle poor digestion and inadequate elimination. And food can putrefy and rot in the body when not properly digested and eliminated. The process is similar to the way unrefrigerated meat rots and turns sour because of bacterial action on animal proteins.

Parasites dwell in the colon, intestines and other organs, feeding off tissues and producing undesirable wastes. When your body transports parasitic wastes and byproducts of improperly digested food through the bloodstream, these substances wreak havoc on the body.

A long-term buildup of toxins hinders your body’s natural ability to get rid of poisons the accumulated effects of which could eventually kill you.

Digestion Optimization

Colon cleansing optimizes digestion and ensures against toxic buildup. But professional colonic irrigations, also referred to as colonics or colon hydrotherapy, can be expensive and rely on the care of a medical practitioner.

But if you are looking for a natural, inexpensive detoxification program to either replace or to complement colonics, opt for the saltwater flush, a simple, at-home treatment that effectively and safely cleanses the colon and digestive system.

Saltwater flushes are not only safer than traditional colonics and enemas, but are also more effective. Colonics treat only the colon, but saltwater flushes move through the entire digestive tract, without any harmful side effects.

Flushing

Salt water has many uses. It is a well-known treatment for a sore throat. You can soak in salt baths to help treat wounds and soothe sore muscles. In a similar manner, the salt in the salt water cleanse promotes the rejuvenating capabilities of the body by gently coaxing the body to repair itself.

Picture a salt water flush as a therapeutic soak for your insides. As your body relaxes, toxins that have been trapped inside your digestive tract — much like the grime and oil that builds up in household pipes — are removed. A good washing cleans those pipes and your body so that fluids and solids move through with more ease and efficiency.

A Simple Procedure

Ingredients:

• 2 level teaspoons unrefined, non-iodized sea salt. Do not use iodized table salt or Epsom salt.
• 1 quart (32 oz) purified lukewarm water.

Equipment:

• Quart jar made of glass.
• Straw.
• Kettle for warming water. Do not microwave.

Instructions:

• Place 2 teaspoons of salt into quart jar.
• Pour in warm water and stir.
• Drink the entire 32 ozs of salt water first thing in the morning, without food and as fast as possible. Most people find it easiest to drink the salt water with a straw.
• After drinking the salt water, lie on your right side for 30 minutes so the salt water reaches the lower right side of the stomach, which houses the opening to the small intestine.
• After 30 minutes, you are free to move about as you wish, though you should remain near the bathroom.

Expectations

Traveling through the small intestines, the saltwater flush triggers contractions that push the liquid through your digestive tract. You can further stimulate the passage of liquids through your abdomen by massaging the area.

While everyone reacts differently and at different speeds, you should feel the need to eliminate within one to two hours. You will need to use the bathroom more than once; intense and frequent diarrhea is common and is a sign that the cleanse is working as it moves through the digestive system.

Nausea and vomiting are also side effects. In fact, hospitals once used cleanses similar to the salt water flush to induce vomiting. Please note that the urge to vomit reduces with each use.

Since the salt water flush is moving through the digestive tract at such speed, eliminating, while brief, may be uncomfortable. The discomfort is temporary, while the lasting effects of the cleanse are impressive. Make sure you pass gas only over a toilet in case liquid emerges.

Tips on Practicing the Salt Water Flush

Herbal laxative teas are good supplements the night before a flush; they intensify the process. Massaging your stomach to help shake up waste matter is also beneficial, speeding up the process. Brisk abdominal exercises also help.

The salt water flush is a safe, natural alternative to expensive colon cleanses. Ridding your body of toxic buildup increases energy, aids digestion, encourages weight loss and promotes a stronger immune system.

Not New

Ketamine is not a new drug. Researchers at the Connecticut Medical Health Center analyzed ketamine’s effectiveness as an anti-depressant nearly 10 years ago. Further studies at that time were not conducted, perhaps because ketamine requires intravenous injections administered under medical supervision.  Cases of ketamine triggering temporary psychotic episodes in some patients also may have contributed to the halt in research.

Research into ketamine and its effect on depression has accelerated in recent years. Medical experts are now trying to determine the best way to utilize ketamine’s therapeutic properties without stimulating unwanted side effects.

Mending Chronic Depression

The Aug. 20, 2010 online edition of Science journal reported the findings of a ketamine study conducted at Yale University. Dr. Ronald Duman and his team discovered that a single treatment of ketamine not only eliminated depression in lab animals, but also repaired connections between damaged neurons that had been harmed by chronic depression and stress. This process, dubbed “synaptogenesis” by Duman and his team, points to a long-term benefit of ketamine, even though the effects of ketamine on animals lasted only 10 days or less.

Duman’s study also demonstrated ketamine’s ability to work with remarkable speed. Human trials confirm such findings: Two-thirds of patients diagnosed with previously untreatable depression react positively to ketamine treatment within just a few hours.

Long-Term Potential

While ketamine’s effects have been shown to deliver short-term benefits only, medical experts are hopeful that with a bit of tinkering, ketamine can be converted into a form yielding more long-lasting benefits.

Dr. David Feifel, director of the Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Program at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), explains that all patients given only a single ketamine injection eventually relapse, but notes that researchers are developing several different methods to remedy this issue. One such fix is a ketamine regimen consisting of a series of injections delivered over several weeks, similar to the way people receive electroconvulsive therapy.

Success Rates

A recent study showed a 100 percent success rate from a single dose of ketamine. Dr. Carlos Zarate Jr., chief of the Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders and chief of Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch (ETPB) at the National Institute of Mental Health, studied 17 patients diagnosed with severe, treatment-resistant depression.

When participants filled out the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale 110 minutes after one ketamine treatment, they all reported a decrease in depression. Seventy-one percent reported a substantial decrease in symptoms after 24 hours, and 29 percent of patients confirmed that they were completely free of depression after one week.

While Zarate’s study does not keep track of participants’ progress after one week, the rapidity and benefit which ketamine treatment provides is undeniable. Experts agree that more research needs to be conducted to capitalize on ketamine’s effects and promise as an anti-depressant.

Discovering a safe and easy-to-administer version of ketamine could provide quick relief to depressed people who have not responded to conventional treatment techniques. Candidates for ketamine treatment include people who suffer from suicidal or violent thoughts. Due to its speedy action, ketamine may alleviate symptoms that would otherwise take weeks, months or years to treat.

Recognizing the capabilities of this unconventional drug, doctors have begun using ketamine as a viable treatment option. Even though ketamine is not yet an approved medicine, treatment centers across the Nation now administer ketamine injections to extremely ill patients who have exhausted other treatment options.

Popularity Surge

The coconut has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity. The natural health community and established Western medicine are beginning to fully appreciate its copious health benefits. While it is not fully understood how the coconut works its wonders, its capabilities are unquestioned. Coconut is able to stabilize blood sugar, lower cholesterol, hydrate and heal.

Coconut can also save lives. During World War II, medics reportedly extracted unadulterated coconut water from newly ripened coconuts and used it to supply electrolytes, necessary for cellular metabolism, intravenously.

Superior Benefits

Imbued with strong antioxidant properties, coconut’s health benefits include:

• Lowering cholesterol
• Improving digestion
• Preventing wrinkles
• Stabilizing glucose levels
• Defending against viruses
• Regenerating cells
• Balancing hormones
• Increasing thyroid production
• Reducing weight
• Increasing metabolism
• Fighting infections
• Staving off memory loss
• Killing bacteria

The benefits of this revered food can be enjoyed in all of coconut’s many forms — as coconut flesh, coconut water, coconut oil and coconut cream.

Consider coconut oil, which beats even extra virgin olive oil when it comes to delivering essential nutrients to the body. Unlike other fats and oils traditionally used for cooking, coconut oil does not manifest as polymerized oils or dangerous trans fatty acids in our bodies. Other oils can increase cholesterol levels, clog arteries and even make skin lose elasticity and firmness. Coconut oil delivers a healthy dose of antioxidants, which rejuvenate cells and enhance overall health.

Coconut Promotes Health Benefits In Many Different Forms

Whether you are looking to ward off disease or capture a more youthful look, coconut comes to the rescue.

Here are a few suggestions about benefitting from this superfood:

• Coconut Water: No need for alkaline water filters, the coconut filters its water naturally during the nine months leading up to the fruit’s maturation. Be assured that the coconut water you drink is completely pure and sterile.

  Coconut water is also a wonderful substitute for sports drinks because it is high in electrolytes that are lost in sweat. In fact, coconuts contain a higher concentration of electrolytes than any other natural substance.

• Coconut Oil: Not just for baking, coconut oil can also be applied topically to draw out toxins and impurities from the skin. Coconut oil naturally softens and hydrates skin, making it look and feel more youthful.A lesser-known benefit of coconut oil is its ability to protect your teeth against cavities and disease. For stronger, healthier teeth and gums, apply a small amount of coconut oil daily

  Coconut oil also promotes weight loss. Replacing unsaturated fats and oils with pure coconut oil may be enough to help you shed excess pounds.

  Oils such as canola, corn and other vegetable oils contain unsaturated fats, which pack on pounds when they curb your metabolism. Our bodies are subsequently unable to properly metabolize calories and fats, which end up stored on the body as extra weight.

  Coconut oil has the opposite effect. It encourages thyroid function and increases metabolism.

• Coconut Cream: This luxury cream is superior to other skin creams because it restores elasticity and radiance to the skin in a healthier fashion. Conventional skin creams actually deplete the skin by hydrating with fats and oils. Those other fats and oils break down the skin’s elasticity over time.

Coconut Choice

Whenever shopping for coconut, choose coconut that delivers maximum benefits to your immune system, metabolism, skin and overall health and well-being. Opt for wild coconuts and always choose young coconuts which are made of the purest unsaturated fat. Look for coconuts that are tinted green and irregularly shaped. More mature and hairy varieties are less potent coconuts.

If you are traveling to a tropical paradise, be sure to take advantage of the many benefits of coconuts. Local health food stores or Asian grocers carry exported coconuts from all over the world, allowing you to enjoy the many health benefits of the coconut regardless of your location.

Treating A Widespread Illness

The most often prescribed asthma medications range from short-acting beta agonists (such as albuterol) to inhaled corticosteroids (such as Asmanex and Qvar) to leukotriene modifiers (such as Singulair and Zyflo) to combination inhalers containing corticosteroids and long-acting beta agonists (such as Advair and Symbicort).

As is the case with most drugs, asthma medications come with attendant side effects. Some side effects brought about by asthma drugs are localized and appear in only one part of the body. These include reflex cough, bronchospasm, oral candidiasis or thrush, and dysphonia (hoarseness). Others are systemic and the effects are seen throughout the body. These include decreased bone density, poor growth, cataracts and glaucoma, adrenal gland suppression, Disseminated Varicella Infection (chicken pox that spreads to organs), and easy bruising.

One of the best ways to help asthma, however, does not involve the use of drugs. Severe asthma attacks have been closely linked to insufficient levels of vitamin D. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology confirms that vitamin D insufficiency is linked to a 50 percent increase in the risk of severe asthma attacks.

Vitamin D And How It Helps Asthma

When you get enough vitamin D, your asthma attacks may be significantly minimized or completely disappear. The ideal source of vitamin D is sunlight. Therefore, the asthma solution is as close as the great outdoors, is free and comes with no side effects (except if you stay in the sun too long and burn).

For those who live in regions that don’t get a lot of sunshine, or those who don’t have time to receive the sun exposure necessary to soak up sufficient levels of vitamin D, taking a high-quality vitamin D supplement is advisable.

How much vitamin D is necessary to achieve therapeutic effects, particularly in asthma cases? If you believe the recommendations of U.S. health agencies, you’d think that 200 to 600 IUs of vitamin D per day are sufficient. Unfortunately, the healthy vitamin D ranges recommended by these agencies are based on flawed and outdated guidelines, and are considered by most enlightened health practitioners to be grossly deficient.

Many health experts believe that the average person needs about 35 IUs of vitamin D per pound of body weight daily. Therefore, someone weighing 150 pounds needs 5,250 IUs, and a child weighing 60 pounds needs 2,100 IUs. Although this might seem like a lot 1,000 IUs is only 25 micrograms or 0.025 milligrams. In some cases where severe vitamin D deficiency exists, the recommendations are even higher.

There are two types of vitamin D supplements, namely: vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), which comes from eggs, organ meats, animal fat, cod liver oil and fish. Natural vitamin D3, which is equivalent to the vitamin D3 produced on your skin from UV-B rays of the sun, is the type most often recommended for therapeutic reasons because it is far superior to synthetic vitamin D2, which has been shown to be toxic at higher doses.

Bacopa is a creeping perennial herb that can be found in Nepal, China, India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Vietnam and some parts of the United States, including Hawaii, Florida and other Southern states. Bacopa (also called Bacopa monnieri or brahmi) thrives in wetlands, on muddy shores and around ponds or bog gardens.

Used in India for thousands of years for both traditional and medicinal purposes, Bacopa had a central role in religious consecration ceremonies for infants: The botanical was believed to open a gateway to intelligence for children.

Shamanic Memory

Researchers may first have been intrigued by Bacopa monnieri because of the effect they believed it had on ancient shamans, who reportedly used the herb to help them memorize epic poems.

Researchers theorized that perhaps the Bacopa plant enhanced the shamans’ brain function and improved their memory, concentration and recall.

It’s no wonder researchers suspected a link, since some of these epic poems — when they were finally written down — exceeded 900 pages, and the shamans could recite them word for word!

Mind Booster

Today, modern science is confirming traditional wisdom about Bacopa. In research conducted in Australia and the United States, Bacopa improved study subjects’ ability to retain new information — and it also helped them increase their visual processing speed in as little as three weeks.

Research into the benefits of Bacopa includes:

• A study by the psychology department at the University of Wollongong in Australia that demonstrated Bacopa could increase memory and recall ability.
• Research in 1996 presented at the International Brain Research Conference that showed that Bacopa reduced the time needed to learn new tasks by almost half. Participants taking Bacopa mastered mental exercises in as little as six days compared to 10 days for the control group.
• An extensive 2001 rigorous, randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment in Victoria, Australia confirmed the herb’s benefits for learning. After 12 weeks, those taking Bacopa scored significantly better on all higher order cognitive processing tests.

Bacopa monnieri has been extensively tested and proven as a memory and concentration enhancer, but the benefits of Bacopa extend to other mental and emotional functions, as well.
In many areas of the world, Bacopa is also used to treat:

• Depression
• Stress
• Anxiety
• Attention Deficit Disorder
• Epilepsy
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Mental deficiency

Bacopa May Combat Cognitive Decline
In addition to its short-term cognitive benefits, Bacopa may also prevent long-term cognitive decline. A study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine showed that elderly participants who used 300 mg per day of Bacopa demonstrated improved mental functions in comparison to a placebo group. Improvement was most profound in the areas of attention and verbal-information processing — and researchers concluded that Bacopa could be effective in preventing cognitive decay.

Since research has shown a link between mild cognitive decline and eventual dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, preventing even mild memory difficulties may play an important role in warding off those memory-related diseases that are so prevalent among baby boomers and elderly people.

News of the many health benefits of Bacopa recently seeped into mainstream news. In his TV show on May 30, 2011, Dr. Mehmet Oz (also known as “America’s Doctor”) recommended Bacopa for brain health.

Dr. Oz said, “Bacopa Monnieri will make you smarter, enhance your memory and help you focus better.”

How to Use Bacopa

A 225 mg tablet of Bacopa taken up to three times daily is recommended by many health practitioners, although consultation with a qualified herbalist is advised to determine your ideal dosage.

To be most effective, Bacopa extract is usually taken in the recommended dosage daily for 12 weeks.

In low doses, Bacopa is mild and non-addictive. Although overdose is uncommon, Bacopa has been known to be toxic in very high doses, so caution is advised. However, it is reported that any symptoms of toxicity will immediately subside once Bacopa supplementation is discontinued.

Bacopa is relatively inexpensive and can be found at health food stores and through a variety of online retailers.

Turmeric, a perennial herb prized in Ayurvedic medicine, is also known as the gold-colored Indian spice used to make curry. Now, it’s winning renown as nutritional chemotherapy.

Growing Popularity

This low-cost, natural substance is taken by countless people every day to prevent cancer — and at chemotherapy levels to treat cancer in early and advanced stages without side effects.

Curcumin is one of hundreds of natural chemicals found in the turmeric root. People often use the terms turmeric and circumin interchangeably, but turmeric refers to the whole food or whole herb and curcumin is an extract with significant therapeutic properties.

Curcumin’s medicinal use dates back 6,000 years ago to the ancient Egyptian pharaohs and Ayurvedic medical practitioners in India. Today, curcumin is an antioxidant used to combat arthritis, inflammation, tumors and neurodegeneration.

An American pharmaceutical company tried to patent turmeric when Western researchers first revealed its cancer-fighting properties, but health practitioners and suppliers from India were outraged since practitioners had been using the herb for thousands of years to heal and treat major diseases.

“Curcumin has broad anti-cancer effects during initiation, promotion and progression of tumors. Several studies suggest that curcumin can cause cancer to regress, has action against carcinogens, substantially reduces the formation of mutagenic (cancer causing) chemicals and eliminates DNA damage to prevent the development of cancer,” says Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa (KP), Yogaraj in Ayurveda, author of Herbal Defenses and one of the world’s foremost natural healing experts.

Potent Herb

Curcumin has been shown to be effective for both cancer prevention and treatment because it contains potent levels of:

• Phytochemicals: Plant chemicals that have protective and disease preventive properties.
• Polyphenols and chemo-preventives: Compounds that suppress tumor formation and block harmful chemicals from crossing cell membranes.
• Antioxidants and anticarcinogenics: Free-radical scavengers that suppress harmful mutations and halt precancerous and cancerous growths.

Experts believe curcumin may prove helpful in reducing our high breast cancer rates because it can slow and stop the division — and the spread — of cancerous cells. In a study on human breast cancer cells, curcumin reversed cancer’s development by 98 percent. Another study using curcumin in mice hindered the spread of cancer from the breasts into the lungs, throat and other areas.

Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center conducted a study that showed that adding curcumin into cell cultures containing multiple myeloma (a type of cancer) stopped cancer cells from reproducing — and killed the remaining cells.

Cancer Obstruction

Curcumin also obstructs cancerous cell growth by activating and enhancing the release of human glutathione. Glutathione is a key antioxidant that the body produces to maintain normal cellular activity. Working together, glutathione and curcumin inhibit cellular mutagens that might otherwise promote cancer.

Curcumin has also been shown to reduce chemically induced cancer by 90 percent, including mouth and tongue cancers caused by smoking. Curcumin inhibits activities of the P450 liver enzyme that would otherwise convert environmental toxins into carcinogens, which stimulate cellular mutation and promote cancerous growth.

“Curcumin has been found to influence over 60 molecular targets in the cancer process. With an established safety record and a fraction of the cost of conventional chemotherapy, plant compounds like curcumin represent an enormous and almost untapped resource for cancer treatment,” says Jonathan Treasure, co-founder of Centre for Natural Healing and co-author of Herb, Nutrient, and Drug Interactions: Clinical Implications and Therapeutic Strategies.

High doses of pure curcumin are required to reach chemotherapeutic levels; however, over-the-counter supplements can provide a high concentration of the extract.

For the proper dose of curcumin for cancer treatment, consult with a naturopathic doctor or an Ayurvedic medical practitioner.