Health recovery is grueling non-stop hard labor for your body. It has to maintain as much function as possible while finding solutions, and then, it has to fix it.
When the body has to spend 100% of its energy and resources to maintain minimal function for the demands you place on it, it will not have the energy nor resources to find solutions, nor for healing.
Are you pushing your body even if it is asking you to slow down or change?
Do you use your symptoms to make better decisions for your body or do you complain about them?
Do your choices support your body’s efforts?
Or, are your choices adding unnecessary burdens?
Your body has a master design to find solutions to survive and thrive, but the body won’t heal when it doesn’t have what it needs. In the same way you give the painter paint to do his job, if you want your body to rebuild itself then you need to figure out what materials it needs and make sure it gets them, be it water, enough sleep, the right foods, herbs, vitamins, minerals, supplements, quiet time, exercise, medication or something else.
Give your body what it needs, so it can do what you can’t
Anything you can do, so your body doesn’t have to, is an act of kindness towards your body. If you see goosebumps on your skin, cover up. If your ears or head are cold, put on a hat. These simple yet important actions help your body and relieve it of unnecessary burden so your body can use its energy and resources to do what you can’t.
Any imbalance, too much of one and not enough of another, will cause an upset (or symptom). Many years ago while complaining to a friend about my symptoms, he said “You are lucky to have symptoms”. I was silenced and asked “How could having these symptoms be lucky?” He had a blood disease with NO symptoms and replied “I have no idea if what I am doing is helping my body or not because I have no indicators”. What he shared that day forever changed the way I understood, came to accept and respect my symptoms as my best health recovery allies. My client’s symptoms are one of many tools I use to help them understand what their bodies need from them. Good choices bring improvements. A screaming body or a violent reaction indicates you are pushing too hard, demanding too much and that you need to slow down, take a break, adjust, re-evaluate, step back or choose a very different direction.
You live in your body 24/7. You are its expert. Use what you know, what your body is telling you, and trust the quiet voice inside, the one you often disregard because it can’t be justified or because someone ridicules you for listening to it. Your signs may reveal themselves in images, words, a voice, dreams, hunches, a gut instinct, an emotion, a twitching muscle or something else that only you understand. Learn to recognize your signs and honor them.
Make a point of noticing the tiny fleeting improvements, those moments when the body’s multiple and complex systems are synchronizing and working together in harmony. If it synchronized for just 30 minutes today, maybe soon it would be synchronizing for 60 minutes at a time. I had to put my focus on what my body was doing and telling me and stay objective and clear.
Judge no stone and leave no stone unturned. The suggestion you scorn may be the solution. The comfortable methods you rely on most may need to give up some space for something new to come in.
I realize how exhaustively exhausting this list will appear,… because I wrote it, but it is the product of 15 years of learning, mistakes and some of the treasures I found along the way. My goal is to offer you what no one told me and present it as objectively as possible. This one article is one you can come back to as often as you need for a new perspective or idea that you can run with whenever you are at the end of your rope, frustrated and feeling helpless about your health recovery. There is more that you haven’t yet investigated, don’t know about or haven’t tried, than what you have.
Included are some of the raw basics because time and time again I meet people whose health problems vanish simply by drinking more water, sleeping more or taking a casual 30 minute stroll outside their front door each day. Each suggestion contains enough information to get you up and mobilized.
1. Sleep
Do you push through the day on coffee, stimulants or waiting for that 2nd, 3rd or 4th wind? Are you waking up frequently to go to the bathroom when you should be sleeping? Do you snore or flail around in bed? Do you make mistakes with simple tasks? Does a minor detail make you blow a fuse? If any of these sound familiar than improving, structuring or increasing sleep could be helpful.
Your body needs sleep – more than you probably give it. Society undervalues the importance of sleep. Your body does many tasks when you are sleeping that are essential for proper body function.
Make changes such as allocating 1-2 hours more sleep, resist drinking tea or water before bed, take a nap at lunch time, set up a sleep schedule, you may need to consider sleeping separately from a partner if their sleep interferes with yours. Maintain the changes for at least a week and see what happens.
2. Water
You lose a whole liter of body hydration while you sleep. Drink a couple glasses of water when you wake up. Coffee and tea are diuretics and further dehydrate the body.
Drink water throughout the day, every day. Your urinary output is a reflection of your hydration input. If you are not urinating for upwards of 4-6 hours during the day, then it is safe to assume you are not drinking enough water. Water hydration is not to be confused with coffee, tea, soda, juice, alcohol or something else. A large glass or stainless steel travel bottle can serve to indicate if you have taken in enough water during the day without having to keep track.
3. Water is not Water
Water options include reverse osmosis, distilled, alkaline, magnetic, natural well water, tap water and filtered. Filtered varies considerably depending on the filtration method. If you are drinking tap water, then you probably should find out if your water department is adding fluoride or something else. Each type of water has a different taste AND a different effect on the body. Second hand exposures to medications and toxic residues found in the water are a source of symptoms for certain people.
The type of water that is “perfect” for your body may not be for your spouse or child and last years’ water choice may no longer be appropriate now. The inclusion of a simple and inexpensive shower filter could create positive change.
Over the years I have tried different types of water. Alkaline had me doubled over in gripping abdominal pain. Home filtered versus reverse osmosis didn’t change anything. Early this year I decided to buy a water distiller after learning a local veterinarian was eliminating dog and cat kidney problems by prescribing distilled water. I figured if the animals were benefitting maybe I would too? I had had the idea distilled and reverse osmosis were the same, but my body soon told me they weren’t. Within a few weeks of drinking distilled water I was getting up 1-3 times a night to pee rather than the usual 4-6. It was amazing. The improved urinary function allowed me to sleep which cascaded into additional body function upgrades. Just from changing water.
Home water systems are convenient and ultimately pay for themselves over and over again. If you buy a glass or stainless steel travel bottle you can take your water with you and avoid unnecessary harmful exposures to packaging materials and manufacturing processes. My travel bottles also let me know if I have or haven’t met my daily water requirements without my having to conscious think “Just how many glasses of water did I drink today?”
If you are an avid buyer of bottled water then check out this short 8 minute video called “The Story of Bottled Water”.
4. To Fast or Not to Fast?
Fasting slows down certain body functions while accelerating others. The duality is a crap shoot. The process forces a diametrical shift in two opposing body systems as it switches off digestion and energy intake and turns on your survival system. Imagine you have a great paying job, you spend freely, enjoy life without concerns. Suddenly you lose your job, you stop spending & start hoarding, all the while panic and stress are escalating as you find a back-up survival plan. That is sort of the alert state that fasting does to your body.
Fasting puts your body into a high state of alert. It doesn’t know you are doing it for fun, experimentation or for healing. It just knows everything just totally changed. If you have never fasted before then it will be an even more dramatic first time shift for your body.
While the shift in function produces desirable results, it can also create devastating outcomes.
Fasting impacts and alters
Glucose tolerance
Metabolism
Cortisol patterns and levels
Intestinal peristalsis movement
Inflammatory responses
Body chemistry & hormones
Gallbladder function (may heal, cause gallstones or result in gallbladder removal)
Food intolerances/allergies (remove them or create new ones)
Your body may line up these shifts for miraculous outcomes, but not necessarily. Tailoring a fast to your specific body may produce the best outcomes. The goal is healing. Compliance to one person’s one size fits all fasting recipe will not necessarily lead to your healing. If you do a juice fast, opt for no or low sugar vegetables and fruits. Avoid vegetables high in oxalates if you are sensitive to them. Fasting can cause the body to release more stored toxicity into the digestion system which could be reabsorbed if not properly carried out. So you may want to include activated charcoal and or dietary bulking fibers such as chia, flax or psyllium 1-3x a day. These absorb and trap harmful waste while continuing to provide regular complete elimination and keep intestinal peristalsis in motion.
How about a vegetable only fast that does not include any starch vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower. You can eat them raw, cultured, steamed, roasted, baked or stove top cooked with or without broth. This may be the best option for people with sensitive gallbladders. Chewing and swallowing solid food keeps digestive fluids flowing, intestinal peristalsis functioning and the natural vegetable fibers will naturally grab body waste for proper elimination.
Fasting may be a miracle, have no effect or be disastrous. The results may be positive or negative and they may be temporary or long lasting. It is essential to listen to your body and pay attention to how it responds to your choices. Continue, adjust, change course or stop based on how your body responds and the inner knowing you have access to all the time.
Just because fasting is the miracle for one person doesn’t mean it is for your body. Your body changes seasonally, as you age, after illness and depending on medical conditions. Just because fasting was your miracle in the past doesn’t mean it will be now or in the future. To confuse you even more, fasting may have been a problem in the past, but it may actually be what your body needs at this time.
5. Reduce unnecessary harmful exposures
Each time you eat, drink, breathe or expose your skin to personally inappropriate items you are giving your body work it doesn’t want, need or shouldn’t have to do. The more you reduce unnecessary body burdens the more energy your body has to focus on finding solutions and fixing the source of the imbalance.
Ways to help your body include:
Avoid your triggers
Employ a 4 day rotation diet
Replace personal care products with safe natural alternatives
Use baking soda, vinegar and borax rather than chemical cleaners (it’s less expensive too)
Opt for free & clear detergents
Avoid dryer sheets
Eat organic
Eliminate sugar, fast and processed foods (consider ketogenic or low glycemic index diets)
Locate the diehard natural organic extremists in your community because they have figured out the best ways to manage the challenges of your geographic region which are not only safe for your body but will benefit environmental regeneration.
If you have heavy metal or environmental toxicity then it is important to identify all the possible exposures and remove them. Your body will be hard pressed to heal if it can’t get away from the culprit. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is a great place to find comprehensive and free reports on more than 175 toxic substances known to cause disease and illness. Here is the direct link to find the report you need. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/index.asp
6. Vitamins and Essential and Trace Minerals
Essential and trace minerals are pivotal for health recovery because they play a part of every single process in your body. Heavy metals, toxicity, illness and disease vastly influence the body’s need and use of minerals resulting in deficiencies and excesses. Essential and trace minerals need to be replenished each day, throughout the day. Not meeting the body’s needs could result in additional health concerns that could have easily been averted.
The market has exploded with every type of essential and trace mineral product imaginable. There are now liquids, capsules, tablets and powders sourced from labs, vegetable and the earth. Did you know there are more than 10 types of magnesium and each has different delivery methods for ingestion while others are transdermal? You may think they are the same, your body knows they are different. If one type of mineral causes upset, such as ionic, colloidal, chelated, food/herbal/earth sourced, then find one that doesn’t cause problems, but increases body function. Consider all the types of vitamin C that are on the market – ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, lyposomal, fruit/vegetable (acerola) AND there is even a fat soluble vitamin C (ascorbyl palmitate). Your body will accept, reject and use each type and delivery method in its own way. Add liquid minerals to your drinking water, especially if you are using reverse osmosis or distilled water.
Medical chelators remove toxicity and metals, but they also remove essential and trace minerals your body needs to function properly and heal. The article “Heavy Metal Chelators (BAL, DMSA, DMPS, EDTA, Penicillamine, Glutathione, Vitamin C)” will provide for more detailed information.
https://blog.kristaumgelter.com/heavy-metal-chelators/
7. Activated Charcoal
Activated Charcoal absorbs and carries certain types of heavy metals and toxicity out of your body and prevents the risk of reabsorption while protecting healthy bacterial environments from unnecessary harm and exposure. It is important to protect your microbiomes because they play major roles in your health and healing. Without them you die.
Activated charcoal is jet black and passes through the digestive tract without being absorbed. This makes it a safe, healthy and reliable way to understand your body’s intestinal transit time from entry to exit. Why is this important? It is very important because your body’s GI tract probably has an optimal transit time. For some it may be 24-30 hours, for others it may be 12-15 hours. By paying attention to when you pass black stool (the activated charcoal) you may or may not notice a correlation between transit times, intensity of symptoms and overall well-being.
I realized the relationship between my symptoms and intestinal transit time by accident. The longer the transit time the more painful my skin conditions became. My digestion need to be within its optimal time frame. Faster transit times didn’t improve my skin problems, it just caused other imbalances. Learning this about my body enabled me to adjust food choices and intake to keep transit times as my body needed.
Each person’s optimal transit time is DIFFERENT. It may or may not relate to your symptoms, but it is worth paying attention to to see if it is playing a role in your body, mental and emotional well-being and healing.
I take 7-10 activated charcoal capsules every morning with a glass of water containing psyllium powder and slippery elm powder on an empty stomach. I know others who only take activated charcoal capsules the day before, day of and the day after chelation treatments. You will have to experiment, adjust and see how your body responds.
“THE COMPLETE HANDBOOK OF MEDICINAL CHARCOAL AND ITS APPLICATIONS” by John Dinsley can provide you with a lot more detailed information, including its effectiveness for acute poisoning and for what types of toxicity it is effective.
8. Increase fiber intake
Dietary and supplemental fiber provides a bulking medium to sequester heavy metals, toxicity and bile to ensure more complete and regular stool elimination, prevent toxic reabsorption and safeguards your intestinal microbiomes. Fiber also feeds internal bacterial environments to ensure they survive, thrive and help your body do the same.
Why is it beneficial to trap bile? Bile is known to contain and harbor high levels of toxicity. Making bile is a long and laborious process for your liver. Recycling bile is one of your body’s recycling mechanisms. Unused bile is reabsorbed by the intestine, carried back to the gallbladder and stored until it is needed when you eat your next meal. Trapping and eliminating the bile will require your liver to work a little harder to produce more, but your health is likely to benefit from getting the bile toxins out of your body.
Your body will respond differently to each type of fiber. Popular choices include chia, psyllium and flax. They are available in whole seed, husk, ground, organic, powder, capsule and more. A personally appropriate fiber will increase body function and comfort. An inappropriate fiber choice will cause gas, bloating, diarrhea and could exacerbate already existing problems or cause other undesirable symptoms.
When you discover your body’s optimal type of fiber then I encourage you to investigate and try others variations of that same fiber. Psyllium husk is different from powder. Taking fiber in a glass of water will yield a different outcome than will taking capsules. Your mind may not think there is a big difference but your body knows better. Let your body tell you which one is prefers.
9. Pectin
Pectin powder or pectin capsules, such as citrus pectin, pectaclear and pectasol are effective binding agents for toxicity and bile while also decreasing the effects of radiation, reduces cholesterol and the risks associated with heart disease and gallstones. As a polysaccharide, pectin is food for your internal bacterial environments. While pectin offers similar actions to that of dietary fibers like psyllium, flax and chia, it needs to be in a class of its own.
Pectin supplementation works for some, not for others and some may benefit more by including the natural food sources of pectin found in apples and citrus fruits rather than its supplement form. Pectin may be one of the puzzle pieces your body needs you to find.
10. Probiotics and Cultured Foods
You are alive because of the living bacteria in your intestine and what they do for your body. The intestines are the primary elimination route for body waste and toxicity which makes it one of the first places the body will begin to manifest symptoms. Toxic exposures and toxic elimination to the intestine make it difficult for healthy bacteria to survive.
Eating cultured foods and taking personally appropriate probiotic strains is like sending in more troops to keep the homelands safe. It is crucial to protect, feed and support your internal microbiomes. The more out of balance your digestion the more important it is to find and include probiotics and cultured foods. Live organisms are found in yogurt, cheese, kefir, kombucha, cultured vegetables/fruits and certain specialty foods. Yogurt cannot be compared to sauerkraut even though both are cultured and often have similar bacterial strains. Cow, goat and sheep yogurt are different as are hard cheeses compared to soft.
Many cultured foods include yeast which is a powerful catalyst for healing or for problems – just depends on the person. Cultured yeast foods include vinegar, beer, wine, kefir, kombucha, any type of soft cheese with an edible mold rind such as camembert as well as mold based cheeses such a Roquefort. Most hard cheeses such as Swiss, cheddar, parmesan, Romano, Manchega and others do not have yeast. Yeast will be indicated on some ingredient labels as “Saccharomyces”, “S. Cerevisiae” or “S. Boullardi”. I have found a person’s body response to a food to be a more accurate indicator of ingredients than the actual labels themselves, so trust your body.
Bacterial strains all have their own personality, qualities, skill sets and perform diverse roles and live in different places in the body. Each is as different as is each person, plant, tree, climate and animal. A same strain produced by another company may be distinctly different. Depending on your health, body function and sensitivity your body will respond accordingly. Price is not an indication of quality. Shelf stable products typically have greater potency because their viability doesn’t rely on specific temperatures which are easily broken during transport and storage.
Once you find personally appropriate probiotic strain(s) you can use them to culture your own yogurt or vegetables in the medium that your body benefits most from. You will never find a better return on investment than by culturing your own probiotics.
11. Malic Acid and/or Magnesium Malate
Malic acid and magnesium malate are known to remove aluminum via the urine and stool while preventing toxic reuptake in the blood. Their benefits are considered and believed to be the same, but some will benefit from one, not the other or benefit only from natural or food sources.
Other known side benefits: reduces chronic pain, relieves chronic fatigue, boosts energy, aids liver health and repair, and alleviates symptoms related to fibromyalgia (one of the many auto-immune diseases commonly associated to heavy metal toxicity). Used orally it increases saliva. Applied topically it can relieve certain skin conditions (heads-up though cause I am sure it will cause certain skin conditions to flare).
Malic Acid is naturally found in certain “tart” fruits, especially in apples, but the longer the apple sits the less malic acid it will have. Malic acid is a crucial component for energy production.
Certain people take one or both on a daily basis while others only on chelation days. Some can’t take them at all without a lot of discomfort.
12. With Food or Without – Time of day – Combine Methods
Treatments, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, herbs, chelators and everything else you give to support your body will have a different result if taken with food or without. Body chemistry, hormones and blood are entirely different during digestion. Taking with or without food will make something more or less effective or vary the results.
Body chemistry and hormones fluctuate and vary their combinations throughout the day and night. Awake, sleep and napping states influence internal body activity. One seemingly insignificant adjustment may radically change results. It is worth experimenting. Even if it doesn’t produce the desired result, you will understand your body better.
Use knowledge you know about your body and combine healing methods. If an herb or supplement benefits your pain, then how about applying heat to that particular area? Or applying a castor oil pack or magnets? This minor adjustment would encourage and concentrate blood flow with the supplement in it to that exact location. How about including enzymatic therapy (enzymes taken on an EMPTY stomach)? Enzymes not only break down scar tissue but they facilitate the rebuilding process.
Coffee increases heavy metal release in mother’s breastmilk at 3 cups because coffee is a natural methyl donor (a substance that increases natural methylation cycles in the body which remove toxicity). While it is something no breastfeeding or pregnant woman should be doing, choosing to increase coffee to three cups ONLY on chelation treatment days while avoiding coffee every other day may increase healing and body comfort. If you are sensitive to coffee’s extremely strong medicinal qualities then this would NOT be a good option for you.
There are no rules. Made adjustments to see what happens. The options are ENDLESS and depend only on your creativity and curiosity.
13. Move your body
Body movement increases body oxygenation, improves heart function and blood flow, allows proper lymphatic drainage, muscle use and regeneration, encourages the release of growth hormones and enables you to just plain feel better cause it forces your body into a different mode of function.
Do things you enjoy. Garden, walk, play ball with your kids or grandkids, go to the park, mountains or beach, build a sand castle, go fishing, bike ride, fruit picking or something else. Cleaning your house is great exercise and doing so will help your body clean its house. Exercise is not a punishment it is a privilege.
If you prefer to spend time with others then use exercise as an excuse to be social. Join a walking group. If you like to flirt with charming people then how about joining a dance class or club.
Sometimes exercise is difficult at best, but maybe you can walk for 5-10 minutes at a time several times a day. If no matter how you look at it you hate moving then sign up for a class, show up, do the time like it’s a necessary prison sentence and just get it over with.
The goal is for your activity to increase healing, not hinder it. Your physical activity needs to be the reason your body heals, not why it can’t.
14. Keep your lymph system mobilized and draining
Moving your body and lymphatic massage can help your body’s lymph system move and drain which is crucial to proper body function AND healing.
The lymphatic system runs parallel to your blood circulatory system. Some refer to the lymph as the body’s sewage. Your blood moves its waste to the lymph in much the same way you would take a piece of trash from your desk and put it in the waste bin. Your heartbeat pulses your blood around the body, but only muscle contractions move your lymph. It is simple – No movement, no lymph drainage nor elimination. Lymphatic massage (manual, electric, body brushing) mimics the body’s natural muscle contractions to mobilize lymph and this is sometimes necessary when movement is not possible, such as during serious injury or when your body is overburdened from toxicity (including bacterial/fungal/parasitic or viral toxicity) or when lymph nodes have been surgically removed.
Tip: Cod Liver Oil taken in small doses on an empty stomach a few times a day purportedly bypasses the liver portal vein, enters the lymphatic system for cleaning and lubricates joints to relieve and reverse joint pain and disease.
15. Body Brushing (dry or wet)
Body Brushing increases blood circulation, microcirculation and lymphatic drainage.
In my early 30’s I was getting saline injections for spider veins on both legs. When my health began to fail I began body brushing. I felt better, my skin was better and not only did I no longer need spider vein treatments, but no new ones were forming. I am now 46, still body brushing and can’t imagine a shower or bath without using it and haven’t had vein treatments since and I am more than 10 years older now. I have spent loads of money on body brushes over the last 10+ years and believe it or not my preferred body brushes are actually the cooking kitchen brushes to clean root vegetables. They offer the best grip, durability, bristle firmness and density, and they happened to be by far the least expensive.
16. Your weak AND strong systems need support
It is crucial to support the weak AND strong systems of your body. Support the weak systems, but don’t forget the strong system must compensate by picking up the slack to make sure tasks get completed.
If you have a weak gallbladder then you probably need to avoid fatty foods, improve food choices, ensure proper and regular stool elimination while including elements to support its function and healing (such as coffee, lemon juice, peppermint, barberry bark, cleavers, colocynthis, burdock or dandelion). Each option is available as a tea, capsule, extract, tincture or homeopathic remedy and that too will influence if it produces the result you need or not.
Supporting your weak gallbladder is essential, but you must support the liver too because it is working to compensate for the impaired gallbladder. Liver supports include bitters to stimulate bile production or milk thistle to repair damaged liver cells. Removing harmful exposures will also support the liver. Choose organic whole foods rather than processed or fast food, eliminate sugar, switch to natural personal care products, use baking soda and vinegar for cleaning your home, free and clear detergents and forgo the dryer sheets.
Some people have back pain (weak system). Increasing abdominal and butt muscle tone and strength sometimes gets rid of the back pain. Look at both sides of the coin for best outcomes.
A strong system may be forced to become stronger out of obligation, but it could reach its breaking point and be the next system that goes into failure. Support the weak and the compensating system.
17. Focus on a finding solutions for a different symptom
Are you focusing on resolving the symptom that most interferes with the lifestyle you want to live?
Pick another symptom and work to resolve that one. Symptoms are often related to one another. By fixing the “less important” symptom (less important only in your eyes) may in fact lead to healing the symptom that bothers you most.
18. Find the root of the problem instead of hacking at the branches
You can give your body pain killers for a headache which would be like hacking at the branches of a sick tree. Or you can look below the surface. Is it constricted or dilated blood vessels, lack of hydration, slow intestinal transit and reabsorbing toxicity, electrolyte imbalances, an emotional upset which is shifting body chemistry and hormones, malabsorption problems, mineral deficiencies or maybe harmful respiratory or dermal exposures. Be a detective.
Problems may stem from something you are doing or something you aren’t doing. Look at the 24 hours before it started to identify possible sources. But also look at what happened in the hours before it began to subside.
19. Avoid what hurts and increase what helps
Avoiding your triggers is half the solution, the other half is including more of what helps.
If your joint pain subsides when you go to or walk on the beach, then go more often. AND while you are there try and figure out what it is that makes you feel better so you can bring that into your lifestyle. Is it being alone? The sound? An emotional connection to the past? Playing in the sand? Walking in the water? The visual of the beach? The ions in the air? Figure out what it is and bring it into your more 24/7 lifestyle.
Please see my article “Your Body has a Voice – Are you Listening?” for more information to apply what you know for your health recovery.
https://blog.kristaumgelter.com/your-body-has-a-voice-are-you-listening/
20. Allergies and Intolerances
The body is similar to your psychological state. When a person is maxed out from their life’s events they often blow their fuse on a dime, make careless mistakes, argue in a snap and choose defensive and self-destructive patterns for no reason. Your body is the same. When it is overburdened with toxicity and dysfunctional organs and systems it may begin to hyper respond to elements that are NOT dangerous.
Allergies and intolerances may be food, respiratory and or dermal reactions to natural or chemical exposures. Your food intake, personal care products and home exposures should be personally specific to your body and in respect of your body’s needs, not your ideas, nor the ideas of an “expert”. Be honest with yourself.
Allergies and intolerances manifest symptoms that may be extreme or mild. It may directly impact body function or it may influence thought patterns, emotional states or behaviors. For some people the sensitivity remains silent, only to reveal itself later as organ dysfunction, auto-immune disease, degenerative illness or cancer.
Many believe allergies and intolerances are instantaneous. That is not true. Allergies and intolerances (respiratory, ingestion and or dermal) may manifest up to 72 hours AFTER exposure. That means a reaction today may be the result of an exposure THREE days ago.
Methods for determining allergies and intolerances include
IgE and IgG lab blood prints
Elimination diets where you remove everything and add one item every 4 days
Detailed daily logs of exposures (food, skin, respiratory)
Transdermal skin patch tests
Muscle testing
I thought muscle testing was hokey. Then one day I paid just $90 to a professional whose job was to muscle test patients. His results were identical to the two blood lab results that I paid more than $1000 for. AND his results were more complete. Muscle testing works, find a professional who is set up to do muscle testing.
Lab tests provide information with little effort, but they should never trump direct body responses. If you, a loved one, child or pet has severe mental and emotional upset after eating “one of the healthiest foods on earth”, such as spinach, then AVOID IT, even if lab tests clearly state “no allergy to spinach”. Treat the person, not the lab result.
21. Body Histamine
Your body’s reaction to sensitivities, intolerances and allergies may increase body histamine too much. Histamine is important for the body, but too much histamine which remains too elevated can cause debilitating symptoms that won’t go away until body histamine is reduced.
Simple ways to manage histamine intolerance include: avoiding exposures that elevate it, Epsom salts baths, a low histamine food diet (which eliminates foods high in histamine), avoid foods that interfere and inhibit histamine breakdown, and you may benefit from histamine lowering supplements.
22. Epsom Salts Baths
Epsom Salts Baths (Magnesium Sulfate) increase magnesium and sulfate in the body without the need to involve the digestive system. Magnesium and sulfate (the bioavailable form of sulfur) have fundamental roles in body function. Epsom salts baths increase natural body detoxification, improve insulin viability, lowers histamine levels while relaxing and calming. Baths also offer a gravity free experience for the body which changes blood flow while the warm water and quiet time have a positive influence on body chemistry and hormones.
Water should be warm enough to be very relaxing and comfortable but not too hot that your body is in “sweating” mode. If your legs and arms are seeking cooler air outside the bath, then the water is too hot for proper absorption. Soak for 20-30 minutes.
23. Enzymes
Enzymes are necessary for digestion, but are also essential for body maintenance. They clean, break down, build, and denature foreign material for removal.
The more symptoms and problems you have, the more likely you are to benefit from including digestive enzymes and enzymatic therapy (enzymes taken on an empty stomach). Your digestive enzyme is taken during the meal and should include protease, amylase and lipase. Enzymatic therapy is taken 1-4x a day on an empty stomach and works to heal the body by breaking down scar tissue, foreign body masses, mucus, unhealthy build up, medications and more and are made up of proteolytic enzymes (protease), sometimes amylase and or Serrapeptase (an enzyme from the silk worm).
You need to commit to taking enzymes regularly for 3-9 months before judging their viability. Enzymatic therapy should start slow and increase over a few weeks to your personal high dose. Because enzymes break down damaged areas in the body your body is likely to have more waste than it may be able to eliminate and this may cause your body to have a setback simply cause it has more waste than the trash cans can hold at any given time. Take a break for 3-5 days until your body has caught up, then resume taking them.
A quality enzyme product will indicate how many units of each enzyme is present in each capsule. This will allow you to compare and choose the best product based on quality/quantity/price. Bromelain and papain are popular vegetable source enzymes, but you may need to avoid these if you are sensitive or allergic to pineapple or papaya.
Three books on enzymes I recommend are:
Enzymes The Fountain of Life
Enzymes The Key to Health
Enzymes Enzyme Therapy
24. Castor Oil Packs
Castor oil comes from the castor bean and its nickname is the Palma Christi (the palm of Christ).
Taken internally it acts as a laxative and can clear impactions in the ascending colon. Applied externally on the skin as a castor pack it instantly increases blood flow to clear stagnating clogged tissue conditions, ensures proper healing at sites of injury, reduces inflammation, enhances liver function, breaks down fibroids and cysts and more to promote thorough healing.
For more detailed information about using castor oil please see: “Four Surprising Ways to Control, Manage or Remove Pain while also Encouraging Full Recovery and Healing” article https://blog.kristaumgelter.com/four-surprising-ways-to-control-manage-or-remove-pain-while-also-encouraging-full-recovery-and-healing/
“How to set up and use a castor pack” video:
https://blog.kristaumgelter.com/instructional-videos/
“The Oil that Heals – A Physician’s Successes with Castor Oil Treatments” by William A. McGarey M.D. is a good book about castor oil and its uses.
25. Food Grade Organic Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth is powdered diatoms (micro algae). When taken internally (organic food grade only) on an empty stomach it can harmonize internal environments with its unique actions while providing additional benefits from its 14 minerals.
GOING GREEN USING DIATOMACEOUS EARTH HOW-TO TIPS by Tui Rose is a valuable reference book for the uses of diatomaceous earth.
26. Antibacterials, Antimicrobials, Antifungals and Antivirals
Bacteria, fungus and virus’ sometimes form extremely strong bonds to heavy metal and toxic particles. These bonds are often referred to as “Heavy Metal Complexes”. The bond must be severed before a chelating agent or methyl donor can grab and eliminate the toxicity from your body. Tightly woven bonds will result in IV challenge heavy metal urine tests to be falsely lower than the actual body burden.
Breaking down the bonds may require herbs, supplements, or prescription medications depending on the exact conditions. You may need professional guidance to help navigate the passage. Dr Amy Yasko understands and works a lot with this type of obstacle. Her book, Pathways to Recovery is quite complex, but it may be a good place to start.
http://www.dramyyasko.com/wp-content/files_flutter/1327512160_9_1_1_8_pdf_02_file.pdf
27. Light Therapy
Light therapy is most commonly known for the full spectrum white light used to treat and reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD or Winter Depression). But light therapy encompasses the use of colored light with varied wavelengths to create specific changes in the body. Third world countries use blue lights for newborns with jaundice, dermatologists use blue light panels to reverse certain types of acne, skin conditions and to enhance skin laser treatments and red lights are commonly used for inflammation. Every color and wavelength have value for something. Unfortunately light therapy lost its value in the eyes of professionals. Not because it doesn’t work, but because there is little profit margin.
I began researching light therapy after more than 10 years of struggling with severe skin conditions. The last straw came when I went to see yet another dermatologist and he prescribed anti-psychotics after talking at me (not with me) for a mere 10-15 minutes. I bought and read four books on light therapy, narrowed in on the color, wavelength and panel size I needed to cover the area. Surprisingly I found the panels on Ebay. Paid a couple hundred dollars, which was less expensive than another doctor’s appointment. I used the panels every other day. Thirty minutes of one color, followed by 30 minutes of the second color. I listened to audio books or took a nap and used a timer. Since my skin conditions didn’t worsen I continued using them every other day, watched and waited. It was two steps forward, one step back, then the problems began to recede, but only after a 6-8 week committed regime. Once the condition healed and remained so for a few weeks I decreased frequency to every third day while maintaining 30 minutes of each color. A couple weeks later I was only using them every 4th day. Soon it was only once a week and before long I wasn’t using them at all. Over the last three years my skin remained healthy and continued to become healthier even still. I ended up selling the panels on Ebay for half their initial cost in excellent condition.
Light therapy is a commitment therapy. Commit to it and just do it. If light therapy causes your condition to worsen then re-evaluate, adjust, take a break, make changes or stop. Combine what you know to enhance its effectiveness for your body. Move the panel closer, or farther away. Experiment with time frames, time of day and frequency. Consider taking helpful supplements on an empty stomach 60 minutes before light therapy so they are in your blood stream. Wash the skin clean and keep it bare. Or maybe best results would happen by using a topical serum or other on the skin. Be mindful of what you are eating because your food choices will be in your blood stream. If you eat a fast food death meal and then do light therapy, then guess what? You just brought that death meal to that injury site you are hoping to heal.
Here are four book recommendations for Light Therapy
Light – Medicine of the Future – Jacob Liberman O.D.
The Healing Energies of Light – Roger Coghill
Light and Color Therapy – Dr C.H. Wood
Let There Be Light – Darius Dinshah
28. Visual ways to monitor the body
Sometimes seeing is believing. If you need to see it, then get yourself home monitoring devices such as blood pressure, blood glucose meters, urine strips, or even a microscope for live blood microscopy. There is no better proof than seeing how the sugar lunch skyrocketed your blood glucose or how the burger and fries made your blood look like a battle field.
Monitoring devices that give you visual real time feedback help you understand in undeniable ways how your decisions are influencing your body function. Getting the instant cause/effect feedback leaves you with powerful experience and new understanding. It is hard to make the same poor decisions when you already saw the direct impact it had on your body the last time you did it.
29. B Vitamin Therapy
Heavy metal toxicity often causes digestive issues by upsetting internal bacterial environments. This isn’t good because the intestinal bacteria are a principle supplier of your body’s B vitamins. Including a B-100 complex at least once a day at mealtime will provide the B vitamins your body needs while also bringing your body back up to speed so your microbiomes can again begin to flourish.
B vitamins are responsible for healthy digestion, appetite, energy, muscle strength, skin and hair, quality sleep, brain health and function and they are also necessary for proper enzymatic functions. Each B vitamin provides different services to organs and the body. You may need to include one or more B vitamins in isolation depending on your body’s health conditions. You can do additional research on each B vitamin (B1, B2, Niacin, B6, Folic Acid, B12, Biotin and Pantothenic acid).
30. Food & Pharmaceutical Grade Clay
The polarity of clay is believed to bind easily to its opposite (like a magnet) and heavy metals, toxicity, endo and exotoxins are often its opposite. Its qualities are so recognized in France that every pharmacy in France sells food and pharmaceutical grade French green clay which is the clay believed to be the strongest for healing purposes. During wartime, every soldier had a packet of green clay to assure he had what was necessary if he got sick because drinking clay is very effective for dysentery and diarrhea.
Food and Pharmaceutical Grade Clay is dissolved in water, usually at bed time in a no lead based glass and drank in the morning on an empty stomach (stir with food grade wood or plastic – not metal). Some people add a small amount of clay to their bath water. It can also be added to water to create a thicker substance that can be applied externally for skin conditions, burns and more. Clay used for healing must be food and pharmaceutical grade quality only.
THE HEALING POWER OF CLAY by Raymond Dextreit is a good book on the history and the many uses of clay. Buy direct from the publisher for the best price. There are other books now available on the types and uses of clay for healing, but I am unfamiliar with their content.
31. Magnetic Therapy
The benefits of magnet therapy include:
• Regeneration
• Repairs damaged nerves
• Increases blood flow, microcirculation and cellular oxygen carrying capacity
• Promotes natural stem cell activity
• Enhances enzymatic processes
• Improves nerve growth and maturation
• Realigns cell orientation for clear transfer of elements and information
• Harmonizes cellular spin
• Corrects energy fields in and around the body for balanced energy flow
Typically the north side of the magnet is in contact with the skin. Magnets and magnetic pads come in all sizes and strengths for injury sites on the body or whole body mattress pads for the bed. Magnetic therapists offer treatments that last 30-90 minutes and use electricity to create extremely strong magnetic fields. High strength magnets for short sessions will create a different result than will lower strength magnets 24/7. The only way to know what is best is to try it. Trust your body’s response.
To give you a few ideas I will share a couple of my experiences. Magnets on the abdominal area slow down digestion, for people with proper digestion that is not good, but I have Crohn’s, pan colitis, Celiac, pancreatic insufficiency and liver/gallbladder dysfunctions – food was going straight through me EXTREMELY fast, coming out the exit entirely undigested and the pain was gripping 24/7. I can’t take pain medications which turned out to be a blessing because it forced me to find other ways to manage it while looking high and low for solutions. The magnets relieved the pain and slowed down the digestive process. I wore an extremely strong magnetic pad 24/7 for about 2 years. Then was only wearing it at night and now years later I no longer need them. The once excruciating pain is no longer my daily reality and my digestion is more functional than I ever dreamed possible. I also have problems with dowager’s hump which is an extremely painful condition that also impairs my head to turn and tilt as needed. It would last months or years at a time and physical therapy made it far worse. When I feel the hump and discomfort return I put on the strong magnets and keep them in place 24/7, include a daily Epsom salts bath and within a few days the crisis subsides and I am back to normal.
My mom found her memory was impaired when the magnets were too close to her head, she could NOT fall asleep on a magnetic mattress pad, magnets worked miracles after she had faulty rotator cuff shoulder surgery and she has great relief by placing two small sized strong magnetic pads on opposite sides of her ankle in her sock when she goes to bed at night.
If results are undesirable then go weaker, adjust or stop using them. Whatever upset they may cause will disappear once removed. If you experience positive results then consider using a stronger magnet to see what effect that may have. Using magnets around the clock on the site of injury may produce permanent results. I buy my magnets from Therion (I receive no financial compensation for sharing this with you).
More advanced use of magnets encompasses using south facing magnets to divert and north facing magnets to attract which creates very defined energy pathways.
I have more information about using magnets at this link:
https://blog.kristaumgelter.com/four-surprising-ways-to-control-manage-or-remove-pain-while-also-encouraging-full-recovery-and-healing/
The books on magnets I recommend are:
Magnet Therapy The Pain Cure Alternative
Biomagnetic and Herbal Therapy
32. Far Infrared Sauna
Even just one degree of temperature change in the body, up or down, causes the whole body to function differently. Increases in body temperature changes and increases blood flow, improves microcirculation, alters body chemistry and hormones and opens pores to cause perspiration to release skin level toxicity.
Far Infrared Saunas (FIR) work at deeper tissue levels at much more comfortable temperatures (110-140F) than traditional saunas.
The body temperature usually only rises with extreme physical exertion, illness, toxicity, hormonal changes or some other imbalance. The sauna can elevate the body temperature while the body is sitting which creates an interesting dynamic in the body to induce the conditions necessary for healing. Your body must be able to keep up with the supply and demand on the heart, organs, electrolyte needs, cellular energy and waste removal happening at rocket speed. Sauna treatment is akin to putting the pedal to the metal and it may be best to try it for 10 minutes the first time to see how your body does. Pay attention to how your body feels and functions during the 24-48 hours after. Make decisions accordingly, one decision at a time.
Be sure to prepare your body before, during and after a sauna treatment with enough water, essential, trace and electrolyte minerals to avoid unnecessary and additional body strain. Most people need 5-10 treatments before their body adjusts, uses and reaps the benefits of the treatment. You may not even perspire correctly until the 5th, 6th of 7th treatment.
33. Foot Patches and Ionic Foot Baths
More than 10 years ago I came across the newest method of removing toxicity – it was foot patches. At the time my mercury levels were through the roof (more than 3x in my blood and 20x in my urine). My initial judgment of them was “Are you kidding me?”. But I decided “Why not try?” I put one on each foot that night, put on socks and went to bed. The next morning I could see there was a black sticky mass between the patch and my skin. I crawled to the bathroom and it was a challenge to get it off. I kept using them and each morning I had that black sticky tar on my feet. I didn’t notice anything in my body improve so I wasn’t too sure they were helping. When my first house guest arrived, post foot patch discovery I slapped one on each of his feet before bed. He wasn’t too thrilled but complied under my enthusiasm. In the morning his were clean, mine were black as usual. I was confused to see his and he was shocked to see mine. I gave some to my mom and hers were clean too. I didn’t know how they worked, but something was happening. A month later I met a girl who knew about and had been using the foot patches. She showed me her legs and then showed me photos of her legs with the severe lower leg psoriasis that she had had her whole life. Within 2-3 weeks of using the patches her skin was healthy. I couldn’t help but ask “What do your feet and patches look like when you wake up?”. Her reply “black and messy”. Some years later when my health was much better I slapped two foot patches on just for fun and curiosity. In the morning they were clean. Not sticky. Not black. Clean. It was like the patches were telling me “Congratulations – you have been on the right path for health recovery”.
Ionic foot baths are another one of those treatments that have people screaming “Scam”, but you know what? It relieves symptoms from gout, inflammation, pH balance, cleansing and other issues. At some point I noticed that a free foot bath that someone offered me left me without knee pain. I tried it again and got the same result – no knee pain. After trying an the inexpensive unit and then comparing it against the expensive thousand dollar unit I realized my knee pain went away with both, so I bought the inexpensive unit for a couple hundred dollars. I used it for a few years each time my knees bothered me. One day I saw the unit and realized I hadn’t had problems with my knees in months. I sold it and my knees are still good. Be sure to replenish minerals and electrolytes before and after an ionic foot bath.
34. Sweep clean and flush out your GI tract
Your intestine is about 25-30 feet from entry to exit. To grasp the magnitude of that, go outside, unravel and look at a 25 foot garden hose. That garden hose you are looking at, that is reminiscent of your intestinal track. That length, in tissue, is all housed in your abdominal area and shares space with the rest of your vital organs. Depending on your health conditions, food and lifestyle choices, you may need to flush it out bi-monthly or once a week. Options include:
• Hydro Colon Therapy (open or closed system) gently cleanses your colon with body temperature filtered water and takes about an hour. The process often stimulates the liver, causing a bile release which will cleanse out the small intestine too.
• Fifteen minute coffee retention enemas are held in the rectum and absorbed into the body via the colon and the liver portal vein. This absorption stimulates the liver, increases natural body detoxification pathways and mobilizes waste elimination.
• Activated Charcoal + Magnesium flushes create a sort of flash flood that cleanses and absorbs toxicity as it does so. Take 10-15 capsules of activated charcoal with your personally appropriate dose of any laxative form of magnesium. Laxative forms of magnesium include: magnesium sulfate, magnesium hydroxide, magnesium oxide, magnesium citrate, or magnesium lactate. Magnesium works by drawing body hydration into the colon. Magnesium laxatives are not suitable for everyone as they can cause electrolyte imbalances and dehydration.
• Daily cleansing simply by choosing to eat a whole foods organic diet that includes vegetables, fruits and whole grains as well as bulking fibers such as psyllium, flax or chia.
This method is to be used not abused. Laxatives weaken intestinal muscles which result in muscles that can no longer move body waste without a laxative. Overusing and abusing laxatives can create a vicious cycle. Laxatives force the body into a “diarrhea” type of body state which results in malabsorption, vitamin/mineral and electrolyte imbalances, dehydration, damage your internal microbiome and place the body in a state of trauma. This is a tool, not a way of life.
35. Inner Spiritual Work
Everyone has a spirit. How each person connects with theirs is unique and special. You may use one method or a combination of methods including Religion, Prayer, Nature, Shamanism, Meditation, Yoga, Exercise, Journey Work, Systemic Constellations, Dream work, Visualization, Sound, Art, Gardening, Hobbies or something else.
Working with your spirit is anything that incorporates that more elusive, invisible and unseen space for guidance, insight and direction. A lot of people ridicule spiritual work, but most are doing it in some form or another. It is the quiet space where people collect themselves. Knitting, cooking, gardening, being with their animals or out in nature. Consider incorporating new ways you have never considered before but are curious about and drawn to.
36. Thoughts and Emotions
Thoughts and emotions influence body function, but so too does watching a movie, reading a book, a powerful dream, observing a heated debate, being in a hostile environment, a loving hug, or a violent argument. Even your minds daydreams about things that will never happen are influencing your body function in this very moment.
Any and all types of inner mind and emotional experiences are influencing body chemistry, hormones, heart rate, blood pressure, hunger, energy levels, blood flow in the body and brain, digestion, elimination processes, behaviors, decision making and MUCH more.
While I embrace this understanding I also know that not everything can be “fixed” by being more mindful. Some health conditions are life experiences that have their own path and cannot be reversed or stopped. Health problems are not a result of you being “broken” in your mind or heart. However you can begin to ask yourself the tough questions with unconditional love. Questions like – Why did I get so wound up just then? Why did I say that when I don’t think or feel that way? Why did that leave me with a bad feeling? What other choices did I have? How could I have handled that differently? Where did I get off track and why? When you have the courage to ask the tough questions, the answers will shower down upon you. When you see your inner workings they lose their power on your life and you come to a place of greater peacefulness which makes your body and life far more comfortable.
You live in your body 24/7. You are its expert. Trust your body and trust the quiet voice that is often disregarded and can’t be explained. Let it be your guide.
Warmest,
Krista Umgelter
PS – My articles are written from a neutral position to honor all the directions and choices available since each person’s body, lifestyle and situation are so vastly unique. If my big picture is more than you want to chew on, then call me, and we can work together. I provide personalized direction when working with people because with the client comes their expertise about their history, body and evolving situation.
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