Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

How do you track progress as you detox? It sure does help if one of your toxic (?) compounds has a gray-green tint and it collects under your skin. How do I know it's not a normal pigment ? Will if I rub my skin for about 5 minutes, I can get the pigment to move away leaving a pink spot on my skin. I'm pretty sure I had a Candida infection. One of the products to eradicate the Candida - a bunch of enzymes that attack it, left a growing gray-green tint under my skin. I've had this stuff under my skin for most of my life but faintly. It was most pronounced as a "moustache" on my upper lip. But now, the stain was growing until I only had two pinkish patches on my cheeks.... right above my lymph nodes. Well, the stain could be something from the Candida or it could be a by product of the enzymes. But I'm betting on the Candida because... Everytime, I read about Candida, people recommend a detox program especially for the liver. Candida by-products and wastes are particularly rough on the liver. Additionally, my gut was down. Constant diarrhea means your body isn't eliminating waste products efficiently. Or at all. But the gut recovered recently. I'm certified Candida-free. Now is the time to support the liver. And milk thistle is almost universally recommended. The silymarin in milk thistle helps 1) protect the liver (antioxidants protect the liver from free radical damage), 2) assists in liver function (stabilizes liver membranes, increases ability to filter toxins from blood), and 3) may regenerate the liver helping with recovery from cirrhosis and other types of liver disease/damage. The therapeutic dose varies - but 100 - 200 mg of silymarin is pretty standard Note, silymarin isn't very water soluble. Sadly, you're better off trying to make a tincture (alcohol solution). Does the milk thistle/silymarin work? Based on the color changes in my skin: the more silymarin I take, the cleaner my skin looks. I've tried anything from 500 to 1500 mg of this powder. I've tried to cook up a tincture (too much work, didn't like the alcohol). If I stop taking the milk thistle for a week, the stain just starts piling up again. Whatever this stuff is, it's been accumulating for months. I suspect a steady, rational approach with milk thistle would have this cleaned up in about six months. When have I ever been known for my steady approach? The other dirt simple detox is, of course, lemon juice. Juice one lemon in one gallon of water (or to taste) is enough to start a steady cleanse. 1/2 lemon in one cup of water is a laxative. Update: it's only been about five days but clearly the lemon juice and milk thistle work synergistically. The combination is more than double the effectiveness of each alone. 2) Next a mixture of unsweetened cranberry juice (Trader Joes) about 8 oz plus 1/2 lemon, plus water to fill a 2 liter pitcher: Results - big difference from just lemon juice. Accelerated rate of cleansing. Probably due to much higher concentration of acid. 3) Switched to apple cider vinegar. About 2 oz added to 2 liters of water. Matches rate of cleansing with cranberry/lemon mix. Clearly, this is the opening shot of what will evolve into a comprehensive detox program. Stand by for updates. Detox is a big term and people use it very loosely. Some might say "detox" but really they're talking about the gut. Or the urinary tract. Organs involved in detoxification. The gut The skin and the sweat glands in particular The liver The lymphatic system The bile duct The kidneys There may be others that I haven't identified. The first item in any detox is to support the organs. 1) Drink pure water. At least 1/2 gallon is the minimum. A gallon would be better. Supports all the organs. I do this normally so this ends up at the bottom here 1a) Skin and sweat: heat therapy - hot (epsom salt) baths or showers, sauna's. Foot baths are recommended for those who cannot take a bath. The key is to raise your core body temperature and sweat. For some toxins, this is the easiest way to expel it. Unfortunately for me, bathing & sweating does remove some of it and clear the skin but the heat just seems to draw out the internal motherlode and bring fresh stuff to the surface. It's a bit discouraging to see more of this stuff after a particularly hot bath. 2) Basic gut support (for the gut cleanse) a) use a quality fiber. I use WellbetX PGX because I'm diabetic but if you can't afford it, glucomannan is very good. b) use a probiotic. Probiotics can be super specialized. Pick a formulation that is designed to address your issues c) Use a resistant starch. Resistant starches resist digestion (by you), it is your helpful probiotics that digest this stuff. If you don't want to use a lot of products, then pick this one. Bob's Red Mill unmodified potato starch is the most concentrated form of resistant starch that is also readily available. Start SLOWLY, try 1/2 or 1 tsp and work your way up to 1 tbsp 3x per day. I'm a BIG fan of resistant starch. This stuff has got legs. It helps you at lower levels and it just keeps going. 3) Liver support - milk thistle 4) Kidney support - the acid in the lemon juice helps the kidneys function better 5) Lymphatic support - the increased water & lemon juice helps drain the lymph nodes faster 6) Bile - no specific treatment identified at this time 7) Support glutathione production. Glutathione is the master enzyme that regenerates ALL your antioxidant enzymes. Glutathione is made up of N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC). You can purchase this. Glutamate, I purchase this as a powder. Glutamate can only be absorbed on an empty stomach. So I dissolve in water and drink when I wake up in the middle of the night. Finally, glycine. I don't worry about this too much but it is readily found in collagen (buy as a powder or drink bone broth). You can also buy glutathione but it's not very bioavailable There are special methods to create bioavailable forms but it's technical and you need special equipment. Why glutathione? Most toxic chemicals generate free radicals; your antioxidant enzymes mop them up. But if your glutathione is stripped then the war is over and you just lost. 8) Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) - this is an antioxidant that is normally produced by the body and is found in the mitochondria. It can cross the brain-blood barrier. Normal therapeutic doses of ALA range from about 1200 mg to 1500 mg. Because it has a sulfur group, it is one of the few antioxidants that can bind mercury and stay bound. ALA is used to treat mercury poisoning (there is a special protocol). The levels suggested here are too low to treat mercury poisoning but they are sufficient to prevent mercury poisoning from regular everyday exposure. 9) Any antioxidants - melatonin, Vitamin C (7-8 gms for optimal function), E, lycopene, lutein, ALA- detoxification can sometimes draw out stores of toxins from the fat and other organs especially heavy metals. Neutralize them with antioxidants 10)vitamins in general: to restore normal function 11) Focus on magnesium, calcium and zinc. These are required for normal function and they are protective. Some will compete with toxins forcing the toxin out into the blood / other organ to be flushed. Unfortunately, they aren't very bioavailable. For example, the zinc will block the absorption of magnesium. The easiest way to take them is separately. Or you can go very high end and get Hardy's Essential Nutrients (it's over $100 per month, you need to take 12 capsules daily but Hardy's has the clinical trial data to back up their claims about bioavailable).