Well, after a disastrously bad start to the year health wise (bad cold type thing, chest infection including face swelling and then mild food poisoning) I'm pleased to say that I'm back and fighting fit! And now it's April??

It fits with other people's experience of liver flushing that I felt so hideous after my first two, so much so that I decided against flushing for two consecutive months...much to the confusion of my colonic hydro-therapist, but that's another story.

So, the last flush. I don't mean to sound blasé about the flush process, but since the first one they really haven't been that bad...aside from the dreaded (you know what I mean, yes you Epsom salts bleurgh). I've felt better since my last flush too so maybe my body has decided that, actually, I'm not going to stop doing them until the stones stop coming and just to get on with it. It's what my brain thinks about most things anyway (the getting on with it bit, not the flushing...that would be weird...brain flushing *shudders*). I've noticed a few weird lumpy things on my body which aren't usually there. There's a red spotty thing on my left breast (!) and I've also been a hell of a lot spottier than normal. Seriously, I didn't have acne as a teenager and have always had relatively blemish free skin (except on days following unstoppable crisp and chocolate binges - we've all been there, right?), but now, at the age of thirty I have nasty 'orrible spots. Go figure.

Spots aside, the stones were less prolific in their appearance than during previous flushes so I didn't feel the need to scoop & shoot as I did before. I did find these two beauties. Look at the size of them compared with previous stones!!

That's about as exciting as it got this time I'm afraid. Nothing else to report other than I am on day two of malic acid water and shall be flushing on Monday evening/Tuesday morning...because it's all over by lunch time for me, unlike my dad who passes stones for a few days after. Lucky me eh?!

Peas n love

I found it!

Enjoy.

Click to enlarge

Hiatus and experience

I did my second flush on 19th December. I don't know why I haven't written about it until now, but I haven't. So apologies for that. Actually I do. Things are on the move. I've been quite ill a few times since then and emotionally I have been all over the place. I thought things were settling down on Friday last week and I'm a lot happier about my life now, but then I was struck by ANOTHER BLOODY COLD over the weekend! So. In short I am not doing a flush this month. I'm taking a time out to rest. When you can't breathe because your nose is blocked and you can't taste much the last thing you want is to do is be drinking a litre of malic acid water for six days because...that is all you can actually taste. 

However, my last flush: The haul on stones was not as impressive as the first, which was a little disappointing I must say (those who have flushed will understand me here). I have also magically lost the photo of the stones that did come out so I can't post it here (GAH!!) I remember them being mostly pretty small and certainly none as big as the ones first time.

I also remember thinking how utterly VILE and PUTRID the epsom salt part of the flush is. I tried mixing it with a small amount of fruit juice, but that did nothing to make it taste better. It works (slightly) better to mix the salts with warm water, leave it to cool then drink it (it tastes less disgusting when cool than warm) then follow with a tiny swig of fruit juice to rid your mouth of the taste of the salts. That doesn't mean it stops it being disgusting, it doesn't. I need to clarify how utterly disgusting it is.  It really is the most horrible part of the flush in my opinion. You can't even block off your nose and just drink the stuff - IT'S HORRIBLE! There is no way to describe how nauseating it is to swallow. Apparently there are other things that can be taken to do a similar job, but none are as effective as the b*****d epsom salts. Great.

On a more positive note, after only two flushes my menstrual cycle seems to be lengthening (yay!). My usual cycle is 26 days. You could set a watch by it, a watch that required some freakish 26 day long setting anyway. Now it seems to be creeping towards the 28 day mark. This is a good thing! I'm interested to see how it develops over the course of the flushes and I'm hoping by the end of it all I'll be in sync with the lunar calendar etc. 

Since starting the flushes I've noticed that I'm not hungry for breakfast until mid morning. This is quite bizarre for me because I have always (in recent years, not so much as a teenager) been a breakfast person. In-fact I would wake up so hungry that I'd have to eat before getting showered and dressed or I'd feel faint in the shower. So to not want breakfast immediately is a little disconcerting. 

I can't think of anything else that has changed, but if it does I shall be sure to note it.

My next flush is still scheduled for 20th February so I shall see you after that.

Flush the first

I have flushed!

I didn't post about my first colonic. More on those as they get more interesting.

So, onto what you really want to hear about...the flush! I started to take the malic acid on 20th November. If I'm honest (which I usually am as tis the best policy) I missed a day and it didn't seem to make much difference. Not that I have a basis for comparison? So on the sixth day of malic acid consumption (a Friday) I had finished it all by lunch time as per the book, but had completely forgotten that I wasn't supposed to eat anything from then until 11am the following morning! D'oh!

*Later that evening*

So 6pm rolls around and it's time for me to take the epsom salts. I remember getting some on my lips and licking it by mistake when I spent some time in a floatation chamber several years ago. It was pretty grim then, but the pure unadulterated stuff is MUCH WORSE. Seriously, it makes regular tap water taste like sweeties! Much to my dismay as I had another glass to consume at 8pm. By far my least favourite beverage experience to date. Even Becherovka is preferable. I was most pleased to have taken the second glass that evening and gleefully put the buggers away, only to be reminded by my Pa that I had to take another TWO glasses of the blasted stuff the following morning. Quelle horreur!  So anyway, I started taking notes around 6.30pm for my own reference and to help me write this post. They follow thus:

6.30pm - lower back ache. Not sure if this was to do with things moving or just how I was sitting.
7.45pm - Rumbly guts, feels on the move, feeling of needing to poo.
8.55pm - Similar feeling to colonic. I'm not sure what I meant by this, but for those of you that haven't had a colonic I guess it's a bit like that awful feeling of knowing you're about to spew forth from your rear end in a most undignified fashion, but without the pipe or therapist being present.
9.10pm - Bottom wee! This is self explanatory, yes? I might add "burning" to that. I might also refer to it as BoWee in future.

I interject here with the 10pm taking of the olive oil & grapefruit juice mix (I only needed to juice 1 1/2 grapefruits). This particular step of the flush was a walk in the park compared with taking the [b*****d] epsom salts. Much like a quirky salad dressing. I loathe and detest grapefruit in all its forms, but it was tolerable when coupled with the olive oil.

12.45am - Woke up feeling v. nauseous. Understatement. It was like being that horrible drunk sick whilst being totally sober with rumbly guts. After a few minutes hugging a bucket I went back to bed. I wasn't actually sick and did manage to get back to sleep. It wasn't terribly nice, however.
4.30am - First emission containing green stones! Added later - largest ones.

After that I went back to sleep and woke up with my alarm at 6am for another epsom delight. It's pretty quick acting stuff I can tell you! Within an hour of taking it I was on & off the loo losing stones like nobody's business. Then the final glass at 8am and they're back in the cupboard for next time (the salts that is, not the stones, that would be gross).

The most unnerving thing about the whole experience for me was how many stones came out and that they float in the toilet bowl. I was unprepared for this, aside from the words in Andreas Moritz's book, but I didn't believe him...why?! I'm told by Dad that some don't, the bigger ones. I may have missed some, but I doubt it because this is only my first flush. It will take time to work out the older stuff.

So, here they are then:

Click to zoom (go on, I dare you)

There you have it. Actual-BoWee'd-out-by-me proof that stones are in you whether they show up on an x-ray or not. In-fact it would seem that the ones to show up on an x-ray are the calcified, hard, old, nasty as you like ones. These are by no means all of them either, there were plenty more, I just didn't fancy it after my seventh trip to the toilet.

Apparently almost everyone has blockages (stones) in their liver; they block our bile ducts and prevent the liver from functioning correctly. It is extremely difficult for me to place value on one human organ over another as they [should] all work harmoniously together to keep us alive and well, but the liver does an awful lot for us.

A brief summary of the liver’s functions follows, but remember there are more than 500 functions:

• processing digested food from the intestine
• controlling levels of fats, amino acids and glucose in the blood
• combating infections in the body
• clearing the blood of particles and infections including bacteria
• neutralising and destroying drugs and toxins
• manufacturing bile
• storing iron, vitamins and other essential chemicals
• breaking down food and turning it into energy
• manufacturing, breaking down and regulating numerous hormones including sex hormones
• making enzymes and proteins which are responsible for most chemical reactions in the body, for example those involved in blood clotting and repair of damaged tissues.

Taken from here.

How can my liver do all of these things (and more) if it is clogged up with this 'orrible stuff? I consider myself a reasonably healthy person, yet I successfully BoWeed X number of stones on my first flush, all of which would have been scuppering my lovely liver from producing bile*, keeping me in check/healthy etc. Preventative medicine anyone?

* Bile. Sounds gross, but is of the utmost importance in healthy bodily function.

"Bile has two major functions in the body. Firstly, it breaks down the fats that you eat so that your body can utilize them. Without adequate bile you do not metabolize your fats well which can result in a deficiency of the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K). You may also have problems digesting the essential fatty acids...Secondly, bile is a very powerful antioxidant which helps to remove toxins from the liver. The liver filters toxins (bacteria, viruses, drugs or other foreign substances the body doesn't want) and sends them out via the bile, which is made in the liver. The pathway of departure is from the liver through the bile ducts and into the gallbladder or directly into the small intestine where it joins waste matter and leaves through the colon with the feces. A healthy liver produces about a quart to a quart and a half of bile daily."
Taken from here.

So if your liver and gallbladder are clogged with gunk how can you produce enough bile to complete all the important tasks it usually undertakes?

I digress. Back to the flush timeline. I had finished BoWeeing by lunch time on Saturday, but this differs for everyone.

A few things since the flush: I had a cracking headache on Wednesday night and a day of pure emotional misery yesterday. Who can say if these things happened as a direct result of the flush or not? It is likely that I've started a process of releasing toxins held in the liver, gallbladder and indeed colon. These things are bound to make me feel unwell. You scientific folk will no doubt dismiss such thoughts as unsubstantiated poppycock, but both are hugely out of character for me so I beg to differ (except maybe the emotional misery, but it's the wrong time of the month for that!)

Despite the dreaded epsoms, I'm actually looking forward to my next one. I'm excited to see what comes out! I'm wondering how many more of these I shall have to undertake before the stones stop coming?

I'd also like to say that, since researching people's experience of liver flushing I've discovered that many people attempt a liver flush without the preparatory steps of colonic sessions and taking malic acid/gold coin grass/apple juice. They then complain that it was a terrible experience not to be repeated and leave it at that. If you don't do it properly then of course it's going to be hideous. You should also be serious about doing it as once you start it makes sense to continue until the stones stop coming out. Like any alternative practice,  it's not a quick fix and will take time. It took time to become blocked so...it's going to take time to fix. My experience wasn't terrible by any means and hey, what's a few days discomfort when considering the benefits?

Until next time

P.S.:  It's all linked people, to think otherwise is JUST PLAIN FOOLISH.

The following is taken from here.

Apart from helping with the pain and discomfort of a poorly functioning digestive system, all of the symptoms mentioned above may also be helped by a series of flushes. They are:
1. Digestive problems (such as burping often, bloating, intestinal gas, stomach pain)
2. Food allergies and sensitivities
3. Chemical sensitivities (such as reactions to gasoline, cleaning agents, soaps, cosmetics, etc.)
4. Rashes, various kinds of skin problems
5. Eye problems (such as blurred vision, eye pain, decreasing eyesight, eye flutters or twitches, etc.)
6. Difficulty sleeping
7. Irritability, frequent anger, depression
8. Tendon or muscle problems (such as frequent sprains/strains, muscle injuries, delayed healing)
9. Swelling of the breasts
10. Menstrual problems (such as too little or too much blood flow, blood clotting, cramps)
11. Headaches (especially pain at the vertex of the head, and throbbing headaches). A headache of the gallbladder is most commonly over the right eye, at the temples or on one side of the head.)

First flush imminent!

Greetings flush fans! 

Apologies for my absence. My son and I have been settling into our new routine and generally adjusting. 

However. 

The time is now! I am pleased and ever so slightly nervous to reveal that the date of my first flush will be 26th November. Well, I'll start taking the malic acid on the 21st making the actual stay-at-home-near-a-toilet day 26th. 

I've booked six colonic sessions with the only colonic hydrotherapist in my town. The reason for booking so many is that she offers a deal of six sessions for £210 making each session £35 rather than £60. Which is fantastic! I recommend enquiring about deals with your own therapist if you are serious about flushing properly. My first one of those will be 21st November and then I'll have another one on 1st December. Ideally I'd have liked to have had it a little sooner after the flush, but between us we couldn't sort the dates. 

My Dad is coming to stay over the weekend of the flush to offer general moral support as I've heard (from him and other sources) that the first one isn't much fun. He will also be able to help with my little boy as I may be...indisposed as it were! Needless to say I am glad he'll be around. Thanks Dad!

So, I shall report back my experience of colonic hydrotherapy when I've experienced it!

T.T.F.N.

Apologies and a new start date...ish

I feel I owe an apology After such a sterling start too!

So, on the week I was planning to have my first colonic...I put my back out dancing at a house party. Transpires I have a chronic twist in my sacrum, ouch, lying down for a week etc. It doesn't usually hurt, but the osteopath thinks I strained it which I can only attribute to getting down with my bad self. Rubbish!

PLUS!

The place I was going to have said colonic lied about the fact that they do it and, well, don't offer it at all! Which irked me rather. Add to that a multitude of changes at home and moving house etc. The long and short of it is: I shall not be flushing for at least a month. Rest assured I AM GOING TO DO THIS. It will be good for me, but I need to get things in order first.

So, until then.

Peas n love

Introductions: Sarah

Post number one eh? Not really. I've been writing about my experience of pregnancy and motherhood over here since January 2009 (has it really been two and a half years since I started that?) and I've come to realise that writing stuff down is good for a few reasons: A) you can't forget it, B) it's an incredibly useful reflective tool, C) it stops your brain over loading (in the manner I imagine a penseive would) and D) other people might enjoy/benefit from/be inspired by the sharing of your words.

My interest in flushing comes from the wonderful man that is my father. Aside from liver flushing he is a qualified Bates Vision Educator, so if you want to see without glasses and live near/don't mind travelling to Gloucestershire, look him up! Able2See is his rather informative site. I digress. I do that a fair bit. Back to flushing. He has completed twenty one flushes and finally they are clear so he now flushes once every six months rather than once a month. I've been with him on his flushing journey and remember the phone call after his first one quite clearly! What did I glean from his first experience? Don't flush your kidneys at the same time.

I am fortunate that I have his years of experience to consider in my own flushing experience. The thinking is that, as I am younger than him, I won't have to do so many before they are clear. However, I know I've done more undesirable things than my Dad so that remains to be seen. Something for which I am particularly grateful is not having to drink a litre of apple juice every day for six days! Dad has experimented with apple juice, gold coin grass tincture and malic acid powder diluted in water. I share his view that drinking so much apple juice for 6 days once a month is very expensive and too sickly/sweet for the body to cope with considering you are trying to cleanse. The gold coin grass tincture proved expensive as it seems the only place that ships it is in Canada and we are not. Malic acid is what is needed from the apple juice so why not go to the source? Indeed.

The next piece of advice from him is: the best time to let go of things is on a new moon. I shall therefore be planning my flushes so that the sixth day coincides with the new moon, or as close to it as I can get depending on family commitments (nobody wants to get caught short!)

As the flushes release toxins from the liver it is recommended to have colonic hydrotherapy along side them to help eliminate them and move things along the intestine*; I have booked a pre-flush colonic for this Thursday evening to begin the proceedings. I'm a bit dubious of the £25 colonic hydrotherapy fee quoted over the phone as everywhere else charges £60 - £65 per session! Fingers crossed eh?

Reflection is kicking in now.

What am I doing?! Once I start the ball rolling I can't really stop! When pregnant I said I wanted to do the flushes, but would obviously have to wait until not pregnant/breastfeeding/freakishly hormonal to do them. That time has arrived. It's all go...and now I'm...I'm...debating things with myself. I know it's not going to be a walk in the park and that experience differs for everyone. I also think that it will do me a lot of good. Snap out of it woman!

If I'm preparing myself as best I can, what else can I do?

The time is now. See you after my colonic!

* Funny (yet disturbing/thought provoking) story - a friend of my Dad has been vegan for a fair few years now and yet at a colonic therapy session after her 7th flush, the therapist pulled a piece of bacon out of her! GROSS AND MOTIVATING!

P.S.: Also, both liverflush.blogspot.com and liver-flush.blogspot.com were not available because they've been taken already (of course), but upon closer inspection THERE'S NOTHING ON THEM AT ALL! Get with the program people!