The third step of the herbal ABCs is cleansing, another vital part of natural healing. For the human body to remain healthy it must burn fuel cleanly to radiate the energy the body needs. The body must also eliminate waste material from the system. When the body is fed junk food, excess waste material accumulates and clogs the system, obstructing body functions and giving rise to various manifestations of disease (which means literally "a lack of ease').

Disease symptoms are the body's efforts to remove excess waste through one of the four "chimneys' of elimination: the bowels, the kidneys, the skin or the respiratory tract. If the body removes toxins through the bowels, the result can be nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.

When it eliminates toxins through the skin: rashes, pimples, hives, acne, itching and body odor can occur.

When the body removes waste through the respiratory tract, the result is a runny nose, watery eyes, sneezing, post-nasal drip, earache, sore throat and respiratory congestion.

Elimination of toxins via the kidneys may result in frequent, burning urination.
More chronic symptoms such as pain are manifest when waste is not released. Toxins accumulate and settle in the eliminative organs, where they begin degeneration of tissue, causing the body to no longer function, as it should.

The homeopathic physician Constantine Hering defined Hering's Law of Cure, which essentially states that the body heals from the inside out, from the top down, and in reverse order as the symptoms appeared.

From the inside out means that as we strengthen the body, it will push irritating toxins out of the body to get rid of them. Most of us today interpret the idea of top down meaning that healing must start in the head. It must starts with a change of attitude. Even when discussing changes in nutrition and the use of supplements, most people won't do these things until they have a change of attitude, until they have a desire to get well, until they believe the tools are available.
Healing has to start in the mind.
      
In reverse order as the symptoms appeared means that as you strengthen your body, you will again experience the symptoms you once suppressed. For example, you start with a runny nose and take drugs to suppress that symptom. This causes you to develop an earache. Again you turn to suppressive medications. Next, you get bronchitis and respiratory problems. Again, you suppress your symptoms. Finally, you wind up with a kidney infection.

When you decide to strengthen your body by giving it the ABC+D nutrition it needs, your body begins a process of cleansing.
First you experience relief from the current symptom. But as you find that relief, you will discover a recurrence of the respiratory problems you previously repressed.
As you continue, the ear and sinus problems will eventually recur. In other words, the body will retreat through the various suppressed symptoms from the most critical symptoms to the least critical symptoms.

This process perplexes people when they get into natural healing because they may have had a problem and thought they got over it when they took suppressive medications. They don't understand that some of their new problems are actually manifestations of the old problems they suppressed. When the body is strengthened, new symptoms will disappear and the old suppressed symptoms will return. This is the true definition of a "healing crisis."
  
In natural healing, rather than trying to suppress symptoms and block the ability of the body to eliminate irritations, we aid the cleansing process. We do this by taking herbs and supplements that support the eliminative functions of the body.
Most people will also enhance a health-building program by starting with a good cleanse.
However, cleanses are not recommended for people who are extremely weak, thin, pale, anemic or emaciated. In these cases, a building program is needed first.

Cleanses should also not be done during pregnancy or nursing.

When doing the cleansing program, it is wise to just focus on cleansing for that two-week period. This avoids overloading the body with too many supplements. After cleansing, one can return to taking whatever herbs, vitamins and minerals which are appropriate.

** We recommend this excellent cleansing herbal combination (a 10 day program) called Tiao He Cleanse Gentle yet very efficient for most of us.

Note: Much of the above text has been borrowed from an excellent book: The Body System's Approach to Natural Healing by Steven Horne

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