Kristen Rae Stevens

For Good Health SEASONAL CLEANSING The Reasons and Importance

What seems like a new approach to health care is actually a common practice in Traditional Medicines that has been incorporated into health care regimes for thousands of years. Seasonal Cleansing is a time-tested practice that has been used by traditional cultures to strengthen the immune system, rid the body of chronic conditions such as allergy symptoms, aches pains and inflammation and also to prevent more serious conditions that occur with aging like arthritis. Following a seasonal cleanse will aid the body in reducing the pollutants that are acquired merely through daily living, especially in a modern environment. This practice should be a fundamental concern in health care prevention based on the current reports of the US being plagued by preventable diseases. According to the Center for American Progress (a think tank founded by former President Clinton www.americanprogress.org) approximately 70 percent of deaths and healthcare costs in the USA are attributable to chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular conditions. Since athletes' demands on their bodies are strong this is certainly a practice that athletes should take seriously as part of his/her training regimen to improve performance while providing optimal health care results.

The body's metabolic processes of converting air to oxygen, food to energy and discerning which wastes to eliminate are an ongoing process of living that actually produces a more acidic inner environment in our bodies thus, producing toxins that can build up over time Taking good care of ourselves may mean taking some time out from our daily habits to ensure that our body is cycling the contents of our lives through our systems just like camping leaving nothing behind. When an athlete is training outdoors as a runner, playing football or soccer, there is the beauty of the natural environment and the sensation of getting "fresh air", but the truth is that our modern industrial life has given us a multitude of particles to process and it is challenging to our delicate systems.

Daily we are challenged by the environmental toxins that continually circulate the body's living space indoors with manmade materials from construction materials or biological pollutants like molds and bacteria and outdoors with some of those same environmental wastes from cars, planes, power plants and more. In the EPA's 2005 report (this is the most thorough current data) the agency cited 23, 461 factories, electrical plants and other industrial facilities produced 4.34 billion pounds of toxic chemicals that were emitted into our water, air and earth. In this mix more than 900 million pounds of carcinogenic compounds that are potentially harmful to human health. (http://tinyurl.com/2pudh)

Setting up a cleanse can be a wonderful way to reconnect to yourself and reassess your state of mind and state of being while taking good care of your overall health. It can be quite thorough if one is to work with a practitioner. The consultant will guide you with a specific diet for your body type and individualized herbs and treatments that cover the whole health of the individual and look at your specific body care needs. By then recommending the proper regimens and practices for your concerns you will have the practitioner as a coach to guide you throughout the experience. A cleanse can also be as simple as eating healthier meals for a week or giving up caffeine and refined sugar and eliminating challenging workouts that put a significant amount of stress on the body which increases the acidic state of the person and can cause toxicity. Instead of a strenuous workout opting for a gentle mind-body practice such as tai chi, yoga or Pilates to balance the musculo-skeletal and nervous systems and decrease the stress level on the body. This is similar to what performance athletes call tapering that is necessary near a competition allowing the body to rejuvenate to perform optimally for the event. Researchers believe that it increases a person's maximal ability to take in and use oxygen and increase the production of energy efficiency throughout the body. (American College of Sports Medicine Journal August 2007, Volume 39, #8)

While fatigue interferes with coordination and performance and tapering alleviates this eating certain foods fatigues or slow down our digestive system and going vegetarian for a week can be a great way to increase the strength of the digestive fire. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine reports that vegetarians have much lower cholesterol levels than meat eaters. Allowing the body a week of increased fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes rather than meats can not only improve the power of your digestion but give you a new outlook on food and guide you towards foods that you may not have ever thought about before expanding your palette and nutrient intake. It can freshen your perspective with new recipes and food choices as well as freshen your body's cellular functioning. Studies dating back to 1920 show that vegetarians have lower blood pressure than non-vegetarian and breast cancer rates are dramatically lower in countries where diets are typically plant based. (www.pcrm.org)

The evidence is out there with the increase of holistic health care practices finally being covered under insurance such as chiropractic care and acupuncture that people are looking towards prevention. The Surgeon General's office issued a statement that 50 percent of premature mortality is behavioral. Changing habit now is key. Although we have increased the average lifetime by decades with the aid of modern medicine it is imperative to continue in this positive direction with quality of life concerns as well. Taking good care of your health now will ensure a graceful aging process and keep us moving farther than we could possibly imagine. Taking time out in our lives to look at our health concerns over a week is a blessing in disguise. It can encourage us to 'up our game' and make better choices in the days and years ahead whether it is for athletic performance or for our lifetime performance.

Kristen Rae Stevens, HHC, SMT, E-RYT, CPI, Ayurvedic Consultant is a health care expert who specializes in injury care and recovery, prevention, low energy and nutrition deficiencies, weight maintenance as well as other health concerns. She offers introductory consultations for $30. She can be reached at kristenrae@somarae.com or www.somarae.com