Juice Feast-Day 56

The Jarisch-Herxheimer Reaction

I've experienced a lot of detox and healing so far on my this juice feast. It's a gift I treasure, because I know it means my body is healing. Here is some of what I've learned so far:

1. Approximately 10% of our body's energy goes toward mastication (chewing our foods) and digestion. Juice feasting frees up that 10% energy, allowing our bodies to divert it toward detoxification and rejuvenation.

If detoxification occurs too quickly while we're feasting, toxins enter the bloodstream faster than our bodies can eliminate them. Sometimes this can lead to a healing crises-also called the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, named for the Austrian and German dermatologists credited with discovering it.

2. The released toxins floating around in our system can create a buffet of physical symptoms including:

headaches
body aches
joint pain
dizziness
sweating
sore throat
nausea
vomiting
rapid pulse
excess mucus
fever
weight loss
weakness
flu-like symptoms
resurfacing of pain from old injuries
swelling
diarrhea
skin eruptions (zits, rashes, etc.)
odd food cravings
depression
emotional upsets (yeah, baby!)
Sounds fun, no?

3. A healing crisis/reaction, may also occur once the vital forces within the body build up enough strength to handle detoxification. In other words, a healing crisis manifests once the body is ready:
Once you have caught up on your rest.
Once you have stopped taking drugs/chemicals/alcohol.
Once you have eliminated toxins from your diet that are not working for you.
Once you replace old destructive eating patterns with new healthy eating patterns.
Once you have cleansed enough from your system to strengthen the nervous system or blood supply.

4. Most detox symptoms are usually subtle and short-lived while juice feasting. All of these symptoms are a good sign. It;s a signal that your body is healing.

5. Hering's Law of Cure states:
"All cure comes from within out, from the head down and in reverse order as the symptoms have appeared in the body." As we adopt right eating and living habits, our body reacts to these new behaviors. The state of health will retrace backward via the same path that led us to disease in the first place."

6. Healing happens:
From within out.
From the head to the hands to the feet.
From a more important organ to less important ones.
In the reverse order disease first appeared.
This is true for emotional healing as well. From the head to our heart and downward, we must clear out old thought patterns, attitudes, and feelings and replace them with new healthier thought patterns, attitudes and feelings.

My "Sick" History

Here's everything (starting with the most recent) that has ever went wrong with me physically since I was a little girl. (Sorry, the emotional stuff is mine, and mine to cherish alone :) Green indicates things I believe are healed or currently healing because of resurfacing pain in those areas or other signs that function is being restored. Red indicates I haven't experienced symptoms of healing crisis yet (at least I don't think so).

Injuries to both knees from snowboarding-age 36/37

Stress fractures (to both shins) from training for a marathon-age 35

Appendix out-age 35

Premature Ovarian Failure (early menopause)-age 35

Horse stomped on big toe (I was barefoot)-age 13/14

Amnesia and concussion falling off horse-age 12/13

Mononucleosis-age 12/13

Possible concussion from slap shot of hockey puck to head-age 10/11

Mononucleosis-age 8 (missed school for 3 weeks)

Sprained Ankle-age 6

Okay, so if I follow the timeline, where is my body now? If for everyday you juice feast your body goes back 120 days, here's where I am. 56 days juice feasting = the reverse of 6,720 days, or going back 18.4 years. I'm 39 now, so -18 years means my body is healing things from around the time I was 21 years old. I didn't really have any physical maladies during that time in my life, but it would seem reasonable to expect some sore throats and headaches coming my way over the next month or so!

A healing timeline like this doesn't always follow your past health events exactly. Some physical and emotional dis-eases take longer to heal than others. Still, I think this exercise is a useful tool, because it really serves as a positive reinforcement that your health is improving, and it gives you an idea of why what is happening detox-wise, is happening. I have to add that I've been experiencing A LOT of emotional release during this process, and I've also released 33 lbs of weight. (next weigh-in tomorrow). I've been pretty fortunate health-wise throughout my life so far. Most of my "big stuff" has occurred only the in past few years.

Juicy Diary-Day 56

(Today's juices & supplements)

32 oz water

4 oz orange juice + MSM + B12

64 oz green juice (kale, parsley, spinach, red lettuce, rainbow chard, spirulina (3000 mg), dandelion greens, cilantro, red bell pepper, assorted hot peppers (including Serrano, Anaheim, poblano, jalapeno), red onion, garlic, carrots, cucumber, celery, and cayenne)

32 oz water

64 oz honeydew/blueberry

Total juice = 132 oz (1.03 gallons)

Total water = 64 oz (0.50 gallons)

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Sleep & dreams: 8 hrs. Dreamt about being "in school" and taking an advanced chemistry test. Part of taking the test meant being quizzed on "learning a new language." I was taking the test with my husband. He was writing really long equations and I was writing really simple ones, but we were both coming up with the same correct answer in the end. Well known raw foodies were there and I knew the test was really about learning the new language of my "body chemistry." Pretty cool, eh?

Exercise: 2 mile hike with poochie.

Sauna: 30 minutes

Energy & mood: Elevated on all accounts.

Comments: I have my period again. Nothing for X number of years, and now twice inside a month-go figure! I'm thrilled about it, because it means my ovaries are healing (or something down there is). I'm retaining a lot of water today, too. All hormonal I suppose. No moodiness, though. Hoping the extra water doesn't affect tomorrow's weigh-in. But hey, if it does, it does....