First of all, the tone of your writing indicates that you have a superiority complex. This indicates a personality that is incapable of true learning since you already believe you know everything. You also have zero capacity to convince anyone of your viewpoint if you continue in this manner. I hesitate to even respond to your message but just for the benefit of others that may read this, I will respond.

You are right I am not an expert on ayurveda or any other topic and I don't claim to be. However, I do have very keen powers of observation; this is something I have been blessed with my entire life. By the way, I am not a newb, I have been on curezone for about 7 years and have experimented with many of the protocols on here, mainly learning to avoid most of them, especially Iodine supplementation and liver flushing.

My main problem with Iodine supplementation and Liver Flushing is that they are not safe. I am not saying that they have no benefit or that no one experienced any benefit from them. Certainly, this is not the case or no one would be using them or advocating them. But to say that they are completely safe and everyone should use them, that is what I strongly protest. I can tell you with complete certainty that I have read hundreds of posts from people who have had extreme negative reactions to supplementing with iodine. Every time I look on the Iodine forum, on the first page there are at least a few people complaining of problems from Iodine. Sometimes they are extreme symptoms other times moderate, but it can by no means be considered safe. When I pay attention and read enough posts, I start to see patterns develop. I read similar negative reactions over and over and start to put together what I know about how the endocrine system works and how the negative reactions people experience all seem very similar to various endocrine disorders such as thyroid toxicity, hyperthyroidism and graves disease. I add to that what I know about ayurveda that everyone is an individual and will react in different ways to various substances. It is not very difficult to put this together and understand that Iodine may be beneficial to some and poisonous to others. However on the Iodine Forum , they don't care what symptoms you have, everyone needs to take it. I strongly disagree with this way of thinking and the elitist mentality that I see so often on the Iodine Forum .

Iodine is a naturally occurring substance, it is a trace mineral that is found in many foods and herbs and just because some ayurvedic substances may contain trace amounts of naturally occurring iodine, this is a far stretch from saying that ayurveda supports iodine supplementation. This is, in fact quite preposterous. I have no problem with iodine as a naturally occuring substance, it is when it is artificially removed from natural substances and ingested in forms that the body was never meant to ingest in large doses that I don't agree with. Ayurveda ALWAYS uses foods and herbs in their entire form as nature intended. They NEVER separate substances and take minerals or extracts.

Although the origin of the Liver Flush may originate in ayurveda, the current Liver Flush protocol as advocated by Dr. Clark and others is an extremely hazardous process. I personally was hospitalized from this when I did it about 4 or 5 years ago. Taking large amounts of Epsom Salts is not safe by any means and has nothing to do with ayurveda in any way. A safe Liver Flush would be taking 1-2 tablespoons of oil with lemon and a small amount of rock salt, this would be something advocated by ayurveda and cannot be compared to the liver flush protocol on curezone. As far as salt flushes go, I don't necessarily think they are terrible but I certainly don't think they should be used to the extent that they are advocated on the Iodine Forum . In connection to ayurveda, the only practice similar to a salt flush is a protocol known as shankaprakshalana and has to do with ingesting large quantities of saline water to flush the intestines. Even this practice is not clear if it was part of ancient ayurveda and I don't know the exact origin but I don't believe it is in the original texts of Charaka and Shusruta. And it is certainly not emphasised or taught as part of the regular aurvedic curriculum. Those that practice shankaprakshalana do this no more than once a month and normally only twice a year.

Panchakarma is a very important part of ayurveda and some of these cleansing procedures are very intense and that is why they are only practiced by trained professionals. I have my class on panchakarma next month and will be very interested to learn about this. Personally, I am starting to understand the real power of ayurveda is in the most simplistic practices of using food as our medicine. The first rule of medicine is to do no harm and I take this very seriously. Modern medicine and most alternative practitioners break this first rule all the time. I don't think they are bad people, just think that they don't understand healing, medicine and the human body. I don't claim to be a healer myself or have all the answers but I do know a healer when I see one and I also know someone who is not a healer when I see one. There are a couple of real healers that I have run into on curezone here and there, most of them have moved on I believe.

The people who I'm referring to are the hundreds, if not thousands of people posting on the Iodine forum with all kinds of health complaints, ranging from moderate to serious, who you and others on the forum assure time and time again that any ill effects are simply the body detoxifying. I have no doubt in my mind that you really believe this is the case. I don't think any of you guys are bad people, but my personal belief is that there are many other reasons people feel ill when supplementing with iodine, besides just the fact that they are detoxing.