Detox

[Ginabros]

Hi everyone !
Has anyone ever tried the 3-7 days supplement treatment for the colon cleansing or detox? Whole Foods and other stores sell different prepackaged options.
Some brands even include the milk thistle in addition to senna or casgara sagrada or Psyllium etc. I know that people with the chronic hepatitis need to be careful with what we consume. So I wanted to get your opinion on this.
Cheers
Gina

[Mugwump]

The only result one usually achieves buying products that claim to "detox" is the very rapid "cleansing" of the wallet!

There is no short cut for a balanced diet, exercise, and clean water. Over the years during my infection I have seen many others and have fallen myself for extremely expensive quack "detox" products. Not one made a bit of difference in the speed at which HCV destroyed my liver or "boosted immunity" to counteract HCV. All they did was very quickly and efficiently reduce my finances.

 

[dragonslayer]

The only result one usually achieves buying products that claim to "detox" is the very rapid "cleansing" of the wallet!

There is no short cut for a balanced diet, exercise, and clean water. Over the years during my infection I have seen many others and have fallen myself for extremely expensive quack "detox" products. Not one made a bit of difference in the speed at which HCV destroyed my liver or "boosted immunity" to counteract HCV. All they did was very quickly and efficiently reduce my finances.

I totally agree!  There is no shortage of charlatans all too willing to part desperate people from their money, whether it's in the financial field or the healthcare field... Doesnt matter.  The goal is always the same: market a gimmick and fool the uninitiated into forking over their money.

[Ginabros]

Appreciate your opinions, Mugwump and Paul!

[Lynn K]

You really cannot detox your liver anyone that promotes something that is for liver cleanse may or may not mean well but end result is the only thing cleansed is your wallet

[Ginabros]

Thank you Lynn!
I Am so thankful I found this forum!

[Mugwump]

Ginabros, I do not mean that there might not be something to the efficacy of known medicinal plants. However the companies that take them and create remedies out of them are at best shady and their use of trendy catch phrases like "detoxify the liver" or "cleanse the blood" certainly indicates where they are coming from.

For example, it is well known that there are substances within rose hips that are known to have compounds that are used and prescribed in the Scandinavian countries for treatment of flu and colds. They have been used for thousands of years. I remember my grandmother creating rosehip teas in the winter specifically for this purpose.

My family, which is Mennonite also ate thistle as a vegetable. So as a part of our regular diet the very compounds which these companies peddle, at huge profits while making outrageous claims about their properties, are know to have some effect.

The problem is that the compounds in question are not adequately quantified and the extraction methodology used by the companies in question are at best like using a sledge hammer to darn a sock!

All this taken into consideration, I do think that the traditional use of medicinal plants as regular part of ones diet is a good idea. In fact the species Cirsium arvense  is delicious! Though a little prickly to harvest. And one heck of a pile of money cheaper to eat than the commercial thistles the artichoke! It is illegal to plant in the States so like pot is on the hit list of plants but it is everywhere. Funny but our ancestors originally brought it to North America as a vegetable. All you have to do is find a clean patch of ground where it grows that is not being poisoned by commercial agriculture and bingo you have free food.

The same thing applies to rosehips, crab apples and the list is endless. Here on the West Coast we have free blackberries in huge quantities which are sold commercially for ridiculous sums of cash.

I am convinced that if we change our diet back to the way we once ate we have the best chance of avoiding, fatty liver, diabetes and who knows what other diseases that are exacerbated by todays fast food industry diet.

[Ginabros]

Mugwump! Very good points! I share your believe completely.

Stay healthy!
Gina

[KimInTheForest]

Mugwump - How to you prepare thistles for eating? Boiling the leaves? Or is it stems? Roots? Just curious. Have never actually heard of eating thistles before. I do harvest and consume stinging nettles. Very nutritious. Must harvest and prep with gloves on. But sting goes away with just a few minutes of steaming - or even raw in smoothie made in blender.

And a friend just gave me some delicious dandelion root coffee she made (tastes like bitter chocolate!).

kim

[Mugwump]

Mugwump - How to you prepare thistles for eating? Boiling the leaves? Or is it stems? Roots? Just curious. Have never actually heard of eating thistles before. I do harvest and consume stinging nettles. Very nutritious. Must harvest and prep with gloves on. But sting goes away with just a few minutes of steaming - or even raw in smoothie made in blender.

And a friend just gave me some delicious dandelion root coffee she made (tastes like bitter chocolate!).

kim

Gloves with thistles unless you have hands like a bear! then use cooking scissors to remove the spikes along the leaf edges. Whole plant harvest with a trowel and wash all the roots. Chop roots separately and cook like a root veg. The greens then can be blanched and served with a vinaigrette cold salad style or used in soups and stews. The thick part of the the stems is particularly lovely chopped in a salad. My favourite is using the stems and young leaves in a shrimp salad with boiled egg and blue cheese dressing. Choose only young plants that have not gone to flower as the stems and roots will still be tender. The same as harvesting dandelion greens and roots.

I started using them after my first treatment was a failure and I first heard about the connection between the delightfully bitter and sour antioxidants in them and liver function health. I began to occupied my mind with positive thoughts about how to change my dietary habits and tastes to keep my liver function as healthy as possible. Instead of falling into depression over the treatment failure, then eating too much ice cream and Tim's donuts in an attempt to fatten the hell out of my liver and kill myself. LOL

We here on the West Coast also have several species of a berberine-containing plants. One, Mahonia aquifolium has inner bark that was used in very small quantities like tumeric for food and cloth coloring by the Natives. It was said by elders that I know to be very important in treating jaundice but also to be very powerful and used carefully only in small quantities.

However the juice from the berries of Oregon Grape, which are much less powerful, (substitute toxic) and therefore more edible also make a wonderful sour jelly that is fantastic on broiled salmon. The inner bark is more powerful but is great in very small quantities as a tumeric substitute to flavour and colour Dog Fish shark fillets and all the other steam pit roast cooked ocean white fish like sole, rock fish, greenling, halibut and ling.

I also got in the habit of eating raw baldhip rose buds in the fall whenever I went fishing and found them before the birds and bears got to them    Over ripe Salal berries and November picked Evergreen huckleberries are also wonderful in granola and yogurt. So when I fish in the fall I also feast as I walk the rivers.

Whether or not the addition of any of these traditional foods to my diet helped to slow down my progression to F4 cannot be known. However the journey and the learning about the incredible culinary heritage of the West Coast Natives was wonderful for my spirit. It has profoundly changed me as a person by giving me a clear perspective and deep respect for the ecology and the much maligned Native peoples food and heritage here in BC, something that is far beyond value.

Cheers
Eric

[KimInTheForest]

That's awesome information, Eric! Thanks! These things all sound so delicious.

kim