2.3.10 Supporting Evidence: Cleansing

Water fast -- Fasting for 1 day to months on solely water.
Juice fast -- Fasting for 1 day to months on juice.  Common in European detox centers.
Master Cleanse -- Basically drinking fresh squeezed lemonade sweetened with maple syrup and cayenne pepper.  Assisted bowel evacuation is encouraged as well: shanka prakshalana or other herbal based laxatives may be used.  
Awareness coming off of a cleanse is very important.   Our digestion has functionally been shut off.  What we eat after a cleanse is exceedingly important -- simple to digest foods -- fruits, well cooked vegetables, miso and bone broths. 

Kitcharee Cleanse -- See Below
Panchakarma -- "Five Actions" of Ayurveda -- See below.
Ghee Cleanse -- Sneha -- See Fat Based Cleanse Below
Dry Skin brushing -- Remember that the skin is an elimination organ.  Clears toxins.
Self massage -- Nourishes our body and helps clear toxins that we are shedding.
Triphala  -- Great daily tonic during cleanse or anytime to strengthen digestive tract and assist elimination.

PANCHAKARMA = "Five Actions"
Virechana -- Purging -- Cleanses Small Intestine
Vamana -- Vomiting -- Cleanses Kapha from Stomach
Neti -- Nasal Douche -- Cleanses congestion/kapha from bronchials
Vasti - Enema - Cleanses Large Intestine.
Bloodletting -- Cleanses excess blood.

KITCHAREE CLEANSE   Ayurvedics recommend eating simply kitcharee as a powerful ama reducing diet.  The thrust of this cleanse is to eliminate difficult to digest foods and support our nutrition needs as simply as possible.  (Similarly, whenever I get sick -- I eat very simply: chicken soup or miso broth with a few well cooked veggies to give my body easily digestible energy but not overload my system with extra work for digestion.)  

SNEHA Taking an increasing dose of ghee each morning on an empty stomach (2--> 8tsp incremented by 2 tsp each day for 4 days) Do not eat for 30 minutes.  Ideally sit in a sauna.  Avoid other fats and ideally just eat kitcharee 3 meals per day. 

Fat based cleansing is becoming significantly more important as more and more petrochemicals enter our ecosystems and our bodies.  Many of our pesticide and herbicides that we are consuming in our food supply are petroleum based.  They also exist on our lawns and in our waterways.
Sneha -Ghee cleansing often incorporated into a kitcharee cleanse or panchakarma.   
Method Eat 2 tsp more ghee each morning on empty stomach then sit in a sauna.  (2 --> 8tsp) over 4 morning.
**My bee theory.  I believe that letting bees process fat out of their bodies (in the form of wax making comb) is essential for the survival of the bees.  Industrial beekeeping maximizes honey production so has figured out honey extraction without harming the comb, consequently bees have less opportunity to expel fat based toxins. 

Antioxidants

• Help with the electrons that gamma radiation creates
• General immune support
• General tissue repair

Examples: Astaxanthin, Ubiquinol*, alpha lipoic acid, carotenoid foods, cod liver oil, Vitamin C
Supplanters

• Using healthy elements to supplant radioactive elements.

Example: Clean Iodine helps supplant radioactive iodine because your body is smart enough to kick out the radioactive stuff.  
Chelators**

• Bind and carry out radioactive materials/heavy metals.

Examples: Clay (zeolite, azamite, terramins, bentonite), pectin, cilantro, algae*, seaweed*, mushrooms*.
Notes :
*Ubiquinol is an endogenous antioxidant that is a powerful support to our system.  We must exercise prudence around how often we use this  or our body will eventually produce less of it, relying upon the supplementation.
**Chelators —  As we live in a higher concentration of radioactive fallout, I begin to worry about ingesting algae and seaweed from areas where there may be high levels of radioactivity present.   Saturation levels of my cells vs. chelators is relevant.  I avoided mushrooms, seaweeds and algaes for a while after Fukushima fallout but now I feel it is likely that they clean me more than the atmosphere (depending upon where they are grown).  I am a huge fan of using mushrooms in Earth based myco-remediation — Paul Stamets TED talk.  
The other consideration regarding chelators is that clays are sometimes thought to be non-discriminating about which things they remove so they may bind to minerals that nourish us as well. 

Neti -- Most common is pouring salt water through the nasal passages (Jala neti).  Occasionally a thread flosses these passages (sutra neti).  
Dhauti -- Cleansing the upper GI tract with salt water or cloth to clear the mucous from the stomach. Methods include induced vomiting of salt water (jala dhauti) or pulling up the ama (congestion) with a swallowed piece of gauze (vastra dhauti).   Eliminates kapha.
Nauli -- Specific movement of the abdominal muscles to purify and strengthen (massage) the internal organs and middle GI tract.  This can be done during vastra dhauti to enhance cleansing effects.
Basti -- enema, using water to cleanse the lower GI tract.  Ayurvedic wisdom often holds to nourish the Large Intestine with Sesame oil or honey as the final enema.  
Kapalabhati ("skull shining") -Breathing technique (similar to bhastrika) that cleanses respiratory system and purifies the brain.
Trataka -- eye gazing often at a candle that induces tearing thus cleansing the eyes and focusing the mind.