The second significant way that juice fasting will affect the body is that it helps to both empty and relieve stress on the bowel. A significant portion of clients will have primary bowel issues which are the reason they are seeking out the fasting program in the first place. Through their own research and their intuition clients will know that fasting and colon hydrotherapy will have significant potential in the treatment of their afflictions.

We know that the alimentary canal has some of the highest cell replacement rates in the body so much good can be done when it is allowed to heal completely from mouth through to anus. Cells can be almost entirely replaced in six days. Fasting allows the canal to empty itself significantly. And, colon hydrotherapy really helps to remove more stubborn deposits. For example, we have seen barium removed nine years after the diagnostic barium enema procedure was performed.

Another benefit that comes from emptying and resting the bowel is that the bowel is given a chance to shrink back toward a more normal size. This will help to restore function through better motility as with chronic constipation and, by decreasing the diameter of the bowel, less fractals will seep prematurely through bowel lining. Many fasts and colon hydrotherapy procedures may be required to restore tone and shape to a bowel. Still, for some clients with serious bowel disease, restored function is far superior to the seemingly inevitable prospect of receiving a colostomy bag.

Fasting is like pushing a body’s reset button. Almost without exception clients will profess feeling far better at the end of day seven than they did at the beginning of day one. But addressing the acute condition is far different from treating the chronic condition.  In Alternative health we differentiate between acute care and chronic ill-health treatment. The first portion of a therapeutic fasting program is designed to address primarily the immediate, acute health concerns of the client. However, there is a reason clients become ill in the first place and the second portion of a therapeutic fasting program needs to address this issue.

The second powerful holistic therapy used in a therapeutic juice fasting program is the alkali regimen. The purpose of alkali eating is to place the client on the long upward spiral of health with each year leaving the client feeling better than the last … growing younger and younger until, pthst!, the client dies suddenly and painlessly “in the saddle” at a ripe old age of 83+.

We are what we eat. When our clients practice an alkali-based therapy their bodies become very, very healthy. Interstitial fluid of a body is approximately pH 7.2. The body maintains itself at this point of dynamic equilibrium. We can make it easy for the body to maintain this equilibrium by eating a net alkali diet, or, we can make it very difficult for the body to maintain this equilibrium by eating an acidic diet. An alkali diet is the spiral upward toward ever improved health. An acid diet is the downward spiral toward ever debilitating illness. Intuitively I’m sure you can picture an acid diet as being provocative of insitu body toxins, and also their direct corrosive nature.1  Most people entering our therapeutic fasting program are acidic. This means their urine tests as acid (i.e. less than 7.0 pH). In fact, their urine usually tests on my strips as less than or equal to 5.0 pH! The body dumps excess acid out in the urine in order to maintain homeostasis. Also, to counter excess acid and bring body fluid toward pH 7.2, a counter-balancing withdrawal of stored body alkali is necessary, and the greatest store of ready alkali in the body is bone material.

To keep the body really happy one’s diet should be, on average, as close to a net 7.2 pH as possible. And that is what we do for our clients by way of the alkali regime.  Our alkali regime is essentially a simple variation of a basic food combining diet. We provide an eating regimen and detailed recipes for a week of food combining during the therapeutic fasting program. From this our clients quickly learn how easy it is to food combine. They learn that it is not at all a diet but is instead a means of making more intelligent eating choices.

We educate our clients to the existence of three food groups: animal product, (cooked) bulk carbohydrates, and fruit & vegetables. The first two are acidic and the last is alkali. We educate our clients as to proper food group combining: animal product with fruit & vegetables; (cooked) bulk carbohydrates with fruit & vegetables; but never [an acid with an acid] animal product with (cooked) bulk carbohydrates.

And finally, we educate our clients that the objective is to make each meal a “net alkali” meal by weight. In other words, each meal must have more alkali (fruit & vegetables) weight than acid weight. By doing this the body will eventually become alkali and hence on the upward spiral of improved health.

Funnily, borrowing against future alkali is allowed. No need to be unnecessarily strict. If one meal is known to be acidic (e.g. a steak dinner) then a compensating alkali meal of equal or greater weight must be eaten the next day. Not exactly a healthy habit but allowed on occasion nevertheless. Of course we stress certified organic where possible. The bulk of our dietary toxins come via our fruit & vegetables with the herbicide, pesticide, anti-moulds, artificial fertilizers, and fumigated storage.2 Advise the client as to these fat-soluble toxins accordingly. Many people test with an alkali of 7.5 pH before even the first week of the therapeutic fasting program is finished. Every client is alkali half way through the second week.

At the end of the food combining stage everybody is glowingly ecstatic about how good they feel.  The failure rate (unable to complete entire program) is virtually zero as clients quickly realize vastly diminished ill-health. Not discussed at length here are the powerful holistic therapies of sauna and colon hydrotherapy. In my opinion both are critical adjuncts if one is to achieve stellar results. As mentioned previously colon hydrotherapy is critical to removing toxic matter from the bowels. It is also instrumental in achieving increased bowel tone and in restoring normalcy to the overstretched bowel. Less obviously, colon hydrotherapy also helps to reduce infection and overcome fever. [Think about it. Digestion is an immune system function. Toxic bowel over-occupies the immune system.] Do not make the mistake of discounting the effectiveness of this therapy.

Sauna therapy is crucial in driving loosened toxins out through the skin. We have built here at Arcady Holistic a special therapeutic sauna made with ‘doaty’ wood; Nova Scotian poplar. Doaty wood is moisture absorbing, unlike cedar which is moisture resistant and is used in recreational saunas. A good sauna knocks moisture out of the air: the drier the air, a hotter tolerable temperature, the more the perspiration, hence more toxin elimination.3

Supplementary

I originally learned about both a seven-day juice fast and a cleansing diet from articles written by Ella Birzneck which were presented through programs delivered by Dominion Herbal College, Burnaby, British Columbia. A great deal has been modified and adapted over the years especially the concept of linking these two powerful holistically-applied therapies together as part of a more comprehensive program.6

Pretty much any old fast or cleansing diet will do the job, I’m sure. But be mindful of their constructs.

The fast should be almost entirely liquid (preferable vegetable juices)  in nature so that the bowel has a chance to rest. There is so much bowel-oriented ill-health out there. There is indisputable truth in the expression, “health begins in the bowel.” Juice fasts are very good because they are also nutritious. A heavy emphasis should be placed upon carrot juice because it is a very effective, yet natural, chelating agent. The traditional adding of parsley and celery to the carrot base makes the juice less fun to drink but more effective for purposes of the program.

Intestinal parasites come and go in most us but in many they can hang around and possibly provoke difficulties. Almost as a rule here we discount to clients their parasites. We do this because people tend to freak at the idea that they may have parasites. Many unscrupulous Alternative-health practitioners use this knowledge to leverage clients into purchasing more services or products. We simply have people do a clove of fresh garlic (the only solid allowed in the early stages of our fasting regime) daily. It works well as an anthelmintic especially in the fasting client.

Very frequently an elated client will wish to extend their fast. Be encouraging of this activity. More is better! We simply advise our clients to keep repeating the fifth day of our juice fast until they decide it is time to continue with our withdrawal days: “day 6” and “day 7.” During their extension we recommend the addition of ½ tsp wheat germ oil (vitamin E) to their daily regimen. We recommend that fastings be ended slowly and carefully. We allow two days for this task. The whole exercise can be for naught if someone binges in celebration immediately after their fast. Keep the process alkali.

The alkali regime is more a way-of-eating than a diet. Whatever weak dispositions the client may possess by the blessings of nature the alkali regimen will usually compensate and correct. That is why we call it the upward spiral of health. We give people a one-week detailed meal plan and it has proven sufficient for them learn the idea of “food combining.”

There is little need of diets involving rotating food sensitivities, dairy & gluten elimination, “candida”7 restrictions, diabetic or glycaemic practices, etc. Life need not be so difficult and complicated. Virtually all clients can participate in some type of therapeutic fasting program, be better for it, and learn a logical, attractive eating regimen. Even severe (“brittle”) diabetics benefit greatly.

The beauty of a therapeutic juice fasting program is that holistic practitioners can teach it, clients can learn it, and virtually every nature-cure minded person can do it. Chronic illnesses from rheumatoid arthritis through systemic lupus erythematosus, and acute illnesses from influenza through constipation, all benefit greatly. Two weeks is more than enough to show the path and the way, but usually more frequent and / or intense effort is required to overcome a chronic illness. It is too bad we don’t have publicly-funded Cottage Hospitals 8,9 or community Alternative Health Clinics10 set up to assist people in their efforts to restore health in a more natural and effective manner than current Standard-paradigm options provide.

1 Refined sugar is an acid. Sugar burns the bowels leading to increased leakage of fractals and subsequent increased likelihood of sinusitis, bronchitis, and asthma.

2 Dr. Jozef Krop, Alive Magazine, issue not remembered. Dr. Krop has a private practice in Mississauga, ON.

3 Moisture in the sauna creates an illusion of copious perspiration. Moisture simply condenses from the air onto the body. Also, moist heat is not well tolerated so temperature must be lower.

4 Page 968, Davidson’s Principles and Practice of Medicine, 17th ed, Churchill Livingstone

5 Known as a “Purification Rundown:” Running, niacin, megavitamins, followed with four hours in a sauna. Repeat for 30 days. Used as a drug addition treatment. We have had people phoning our clinic looking to perform this ritual over a one week period. We no longer accept them.

Healer J. Mark Taylor, Medical Herbalist