Dr. Brandy Victory, Nederland. Spring is here! And many people are looking to improve their health, lose their winter pudge, and clean up their diet so they can simply feel better. That’s great! And, it is important to know the facts about cleansing before you begin so you can choose the right direction for your body.

First, let’s get clear on the difference between a “fast” and a “cleanse”. A fast is basically choosing not to eat or drink anything other than water for an allotted amount of time. Commonly I have my patients fast prior to lab work, maybe you’ve done this type of fast. Others fast for spiritual reasons, like Ramadan, and some people do it for their health and to lose weight.

There are different types of fasts, like the Master Cleanse, where you only drink water with lemon, cayenne pepper and maple syrup throughout the day for 10-40 days, and then there is intermittent fasting, where you fast for shorter periods of time, from 12 hours to 2 days. They all have their beauty, as I believe there is a place for everything, and, there are certainly some down sides to fasting.

The risks of fasting include dehydration, increased stress, headaches, heartburn (especially when you smell food), lowered metabolism, muscle wasting and metabolic damage. Another really big risk is triggering an eating disorder which can then lead to guilt, shame, and create a yo-yo type syndrome which if very hard to break. Please talk to you doctor before starting any type of fast or cleanse and make sure you have someone guiding you for your best wellbeing.

A “cleanse” is a method of improving your health in which you can eat food, although it is very specific foods and, regardless of which cleanse you do, they are all basically designed to improve your detoxification pathways, reduce inflammation, and improve digestion, just to name a few. The problem with a cleanse is, for example, if you do a liver cleanse yet you have constipation or insufficient digestion, you could cause yourself a big problem. The toxins released from your liver get backed up in the body and can cause everything from headaches to severe immune reactions. The toxins could get into the blood stream elicit an immune response and that is a very uncomfortable experience. This is why it is important to have guidance when doing these types of dietary modifications.

There are a number of foods and herbs that you can simply add to your diet to facilitate detoxification on a daily basis. Those include cilantro and chlorella, which chelate heavy metals out of the body, spirulina, which NASA sends with astronauts because it’s such a wonderful superfood, turmeric, ginger, nettles, dandelion, garlic, beets, apples, green tea, lemon, broccoli sprouts, leave greens, and grapefruit are some that you can eat everyday. If you plan on improving your diet in this way, please understand that adding these foods to a processed food-based diet will certainly help a little, but you’d get more bang for your buck if you stayed away from anything in a package or inflammatory. Just step up and go for it! Pick a few days/week to try it out and see how you feel. I never have anyone tell me they feel worse after making these types of changes.

I recently recommended a cleanse, specifically a 10-Day Transformation Program, for a patient and she loved it so much she did a second one back to back! She said “it was easy, I didn’t have to think about cooking, and I wasn’t hungry”. It’s so wonderful to help people find the best way to nourish their body and create greater health from the inside out. This is how we change the world!

Add some of those detoxifying foods to your diet on a daily basis as a start, and if you’d like some guidance on navigating your healthcare in this way, I am here for you.

For more information visit www.DrBrandyVictory.com/10day.

Photos by Dr. Brandy Victory.

(Originally published in the May 2, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)