You Are Going to Get Sick

What???
    

Deb!  You are trying to get me healthy and NOW you tell me I will get sick?!?!?!?! 

While I can’t guarantee you will get sick, I almost can. 

When a person starts drinking kefir, eating fermented veggies and cutting out wheat and sugar, there can be a die-off of bad gut fungus/yeast/bacteria.  This is a good thing but you can get sick from it!   This is called “Herxheimer’s Reaction”, named for the man that discovered it.

“The Herxheimer reaction was first described by an Austrian dermatologist Jarisch Adolf Herxheimer working in Vienna and Innsbruck in 1895 and shortly after this, confirmed by his brother Karl Herxheimer also a dermatologist working in Frankfort.

It is a phenomenon that results when there is an intensification of the disease symptoms and often an expansion of similar symptoms to other places all of a temporary nature, after which the patient is improved or well. Often it appears to some as if they have the flu. The symptoms of the Herxheimer Reaction can be most severe. Usually die off lasts only a few hours, though it can last several days, and may, in severe cases, be maintained for weeks. These symptoms can discourage not only the ill person, but also the doctor, therapist, or anyone who is in close relationship to the patient.  The Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction (referred to as "Herx" often) is believed to be a reaction caused by organisms (bacteria) dying off and releasing toxins into the body faster than the body may comfortably handle it.”  http://www.earthtym.net/ref-herxheimer.htm (underline emphasis mine)

The good bacteria in probiotic drink and foods, replace and kill off the bad bacteria in your gut and, depending on how badly you have them, determine how sick you will get.   Good news, eh?  It actually is good news for you!  A few days of discomfort or even worse will be worth it in the long run.   This die-off can cause everything from a bad day to severe flu-like symptoms for up to 3 days, in some cases longer.  

You may have no symptoms of bad gut fungus/yeast/bacteria but it does not mean they are not there.  If you have skin problems, dandruff, occasional nail fungus or even much worse, leaky gut syndrome or irritable bowel syndrome, or even simply cravings for sugar or bread, you can be sure you have an overgrowth of the baddies that needs to be conquered.   Within a week or two of introducing cultured drink and foods and eliminating wheat, grains and sugar will net you the Herxheimer reaction.  This way, you know its working!  If you are not changing what you eat, you probably will get no reaction.

“Mutated Candida produces 79 toxins according to Vitamin Research Products Inc journal (3/99Vol.13, #3). Sugar activates candida metabolism and some of its by-products are neurotoxins such as formaldehyde, alcohol and acetlyaldehyde. One's nervous system can become confused during candida infestation due to specific neurotoxins. Your symptoms may get worse before they improve.”     http://www.earthtym.net/ref-herxheimer.htm (underline emphasis mine)

Nothing to fear just drink plenty of water; avoid grains, sugar, and high sugar fruit like the plague!  Drink lots of kefir! 
Healing Crisis
But there is more!  If you really change your lifestyle/eating habits to a more whole food approach, leaving out grains and sugar, you can go through what is known as a “Healing Crisis.”  This is very interesting because it’s very good but can be very scary all at the same time! 
When one changes their lifestyle, they expect life to get better!  And it does but we also pay for our past.  That old saying, there is a pay day, has so much truth to it!  Let me give you an example. 
Let’s say you have found the perfect old table.  It is made of hardwood, well made and old.  Through the years the various owners have stained it with different stains and painted it all sorts of different colors to match times and styles.  When you get this table, you want to restore it to its natural beauty.  You want to take it down to the wood and stain it and make it beautiful again to live in your home and maybe even pass down to children and grandchildren.
When you begin to restore the table, it is easy to see to the layers and layers that are on it and they are from last to first.   This called “Herings Law”.  This is exactly how your Healing Crisis will happen. 

“Herings Law states that healing will occur “in reverse order as the symptoms have appeared in the body.”   What this means is that during the cleansing process, symptoms of illnesses that you have had in the past will return.  They will resurface in the reverse order in which they occur, all the way back to childhood.  If you had an infection a year ago, you will re-experience the symptoms, especially if they were suppressed with antibiotics or other drugs.”

                                                            “Herings Law”‘ – page 66 – “Healing Crisis” by Bruce Fife

The layers of toxins, fat and yuck that are left in your body from previous years of illness/disease, bad eating and toxin exposure will begin to be stripped away by your healthy new lifestyle of whole foods.   The human body has an AMAZING ability to heal itself, if we will allow it!

Unfortunately when this healing crisis takes place, what is our first reaction?  Run to the doctor.  What happens then is that the symptoms are treated with expensive drugs.  It is time we learn the difference in healing crisis and disease crisis!!
First of all I cannot say it any better than Bruce Fife does in his book “Healing Crisis”.  I urge you to read this book and understand that when we go back to the Ancient path in eating and living, we do the very best for ourselves that we can. 
So let me share my personal experience with you.  I was feeling good!  Back in September 2011 we changed our lifestyle to what I call the Ancient path.  We are trying to eat foods the way our ancestors would have eaten them and if we can’t, then we avoid it.  Let me give you an example.  In the case of eating an orange, the orange is full of fiber and nutrients that were designed by the Creator to do your body GREAT!  The whole orange has a Glycemic Index value of 40 and when you eat it, it has a Glycemic Load on your blood sugar level of 4.  Both of these numbers are excellent!  However, when we innovate and juice that orange, then the Glycemic Index jumps up to 50 and the Glycemic Load jumps to 14.  This is enough to trigger a bad insulin response and that orange juice can potentially be stored immediately as fat!!  YIKES!  Not to mention you do not get the benefit of all the fiber and other nutrients that orange has.  That’s what insulin does in your body; it responds to sudden blood sugar spikes to tame them and then make that easily storable as fat.  It’s interesting because the body’s preferred fuel is fat but if there is enough sugar it will burn that first and store the rest of that sugar as fat.  We have upped our intake of fat in using coconut oil, canned coconut milk, avocados, and roasted nuts (never raw! because of the presence of phytic acid).  I am losing weight by doing this and my husband is staying healthy and slim.  If you shoot your blood sugar up enough times, it will eventually cause what is known as insulin resistance (it takes more and more to do the job) which will cause you weight gain for sure and diabetes if not careful!!
This in turn causes build up in the body that your body’s cells ‘remember’ and they want to strip it away like the layers on the table. 
I will sadly admit to my bad food ways, my ill health through the years and generally not taking as good a care of myself as I should have.  I did start about 12-13 years ago trying for better ways but I never stuck with any one thing long.  After putting together all that I learned/experienced over the years and finally seeing the Ancient path more clearly, more fully, I have finally found something so simple and so good that it’s easy to stick with!!  Whole food as the Creator created!!  The Ancient path in food/health.
Let me start backwards as this is how the Healing Crisis starts.  In 2010 I became very ill almost continuously.  It was awful.  I didn’t realize it at the time but I think now it had a lot to do with my husband working in Afghanistan for a while.  It was stressful for both of us but I didn’t know the extent.  I was just then finding out about fermented foods and wanted to try them but I just became too sick and it seemed like I stayed sick.  Since I didn’t have to cook for us, I took a short route most of the time and it was unhealthy.  We mended our ways in September 2011 and have been enjoying this simple lifestyle ever since.
Just recently I became VERY sick.  Sicker than I remember even in 2010!  Since we have changed our lifestyle so much in the last six months I was a bit puzzled but got out my Healing Crisis book.

“The healing crisis is a product of natural laws.  It comes only when you do the things that promote good health.  The body was programmed to function in harmony with the laws of nature to maintain optimal health.”

“Let’s say someone has been on a natural health program for six months and becomes “sick,” (this is ME!) how can you tell if it is a disease crisis or a healing crisis?  If the person has been removing toxins and diseased tissues for six months and replacing them with strong healthy cells, the body is stronger and healthier than it has been.  The channels of elimination have improved.  (kefir will do that for you!) The immune system has improved (not been sick since last year!) The person has more energy.  …the crisis he encounters is a healing crisis.”                                                Healing Crisis vs. Disease Crisis – pg 72-73 – Healing Crisis by Bruce Fife.    

                                                                                    (emphasis and parenthesis mine)                      

Also, a big clue is that the elimination comes on suddenly unlike catching a cold or sore throat which you may feel for a day or so before it actually is full blown misery.  So six months into eating and living better I woke up with a bad sore throat, runny nose, a little diarrhea and lots of vomiting…suddenly!  LOT’S!   Did I say I threw up a lot?   All of my body eliminators were working OVERTIME!   I even ran some fever (a way to eliminate through the skin).  It is interesting to note that I tried to drink a little kefir, yes a milk product with fever and vomiting and it was the only thing I could keep down!!  I didn’t push it though.  Just enough to keep my strength and good gut flora going. Did I mention I threw up a lot?

                                                                          This is my story and I am sticking to it  

“…for a healing crisis to develop, the organs have to reach a state of integrity where they can accomplish the functions for which they were designed.  Every organ has become healthier, and elimination has reached and improved level of efficiency.  (did I mention I threw up a lot?)  They may not be completely healthy yet but they are working better than they had before.  When all organs are strong enough to do the job of elimination, toxins will be purged.  You may experience several healing crisis and feel better and better after each one.”                 

                 Healing Crisis vs. Disease Crisis – pg 74-75 – Healing Crisis by Bruce Fife.

                                                                                                      (emphasis and parenthesis mine)

This crisis of mine has netted me weight loss, toxin and other yucky stuff loss and though it was tough for 8 days, I am very thankful that each time nets me greater health!! 

We were created in a glorious way to self-heal and with all we need food-wise to maintain good health.  How far have we gotten away from that path?  So today, start shopping only the perimeter of your grocery store!  Don’t go down the aisles!   Choose whole natural food as the Creator created it and eat it in the form in which it was created.

Happy detoxing!!

                                   “Let your food be your medicine and your medicine your food”  - Hippocrates




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