Herbal Cleanse Update

As I discussed previously, Emily and I have been doing an herbal cleanse to see if we can't shape up these old bodies a little bit. The reason we got into it in the first place was to help me reduce or eliminate my allergy symptoms, which have become pretty nasty lately.

I started on a pretty strict diet several weeks before taking any supplements ... mostly to see if I could do it. The diet is intended to enable the herbs to do their jobs. If I'm gumming up the digestive tract with junk, I can't really cleanse my body very well. So, I began a diet of vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains and I found I was able to reduce my allergy symptoms dramatically - maybe 90% - by eliminating certain foods. After experimenting a little, I think dairy is the biggest culprit.

Dairy - it tastes great, but it's killin' me

Since I started the herbs, though, some weird things have been happening. I reported in the previous post that I had done a sinus cleanse and all my old sinus problems seemed to come back with a vengeance before going away ... well, it seems that a detox hurts before it helps. The toxins hurt on the way in, impair you while you store them, and they hurt on the way out. The first thing I noticed was a few small nodules on my skin that seemed to be holding something that wanted out. They weren't large and it wasn't disgusting - sort of like small zits - but they erupted in several places, localized in parts of my arms and legs.

A week or two into it, I noticed a couple of warts appearing in the exact same places where I had had warts previously. It seems the herbs were encouraging the viruses to exit the body ... and they did. They're gone now.

About a week ago, I got a couple of cold sores in my mouth. Very painful ones. One was a nodule on the tip of my tongue that hurt a lot more than its small size would have suggested. Another on my cheek that started out as a big open sore - it's still there. Not quite as open, but it hurts.

I think my weight has stabilized. Hopefully no more weight loss; I can't really afford it. I have cheated on the diet and eaten meat several times and I think that has helped me stabilize my weight. When I'm traveling for work like I was this last week, it's hard to stay off meat completely, but I think I can get by with one or two meat dishes a week and still be cleansing pretty well.

Exactly one week ago, I started to feel congestion building, a bit of post-nasal drip. And I thought - 'oh great; it's cleansing the sinuses', but it turned out to be a cold. I don't know whether a cold virus can lie dormant in the body or not - I'm thinking I may have simply caught the cold - but maybe it's related to the herbs ...

In general, I feel healthier than normal and I think these herbs are doing good things for me. I'm sure the improved diet has done wonderful things for me. We are finishing week 5 of 8, so three more weeks to go. I'm sure I'll post more fun developments as I finish this 8 week course. Wish me luck!