By Ilana Sowter Posted on

Spring Cleanse

Spring Detox Season

You live a crazy, busy life entailing long hours, lots of chemicals & toxins in our food. Not to mention the environment, alcohol, caffeine, drugs to poor nutrition and so on. In Chinese Medicine, it is your Liver energy that is bogged down with the stress, toxins  of your body experiences. A Spring Cleanse could help with this.

Hayfever In Spring

This is why it is so common for people to have hay fever in spring. It’s not just the excess pollen in the air, because not everyone reacts to it! If you suffer from hayfever, then your Liver energy needs a good cleanse. It needs lots of greens and goodies so that is stops reacting to things in your environment.

Liver Qi Stagnation

The Liver energy processes our hormones and has an important role in blood circulation for fertility. In Chinese Medicine, when your Liver energy becomes it’s called Qi Stagnation. This is a very common pattern that people in Melbourne have. This is why a Spring Cleanse comes in handy.

Spring Cleanse: Why Gallbladder?

When your Liver energy is consistently stagnant, sediment can settle out of the bile and form accumulations that resemble stones, sand, or mud in the Gallbladder. Since this organ stores and secretes bile, it becomes less efficient when it is clogged, and acute problems result when the stones become lodged.

Symptoms Of Sediment In The Gallbladder Include:

  • indigestion

  • flatulence

  • periodic pain below the right front side of the rib cage

  • tension in the back of the shoulders near the neck

  • bitter taste in the mouth

  • chest pain

Benefits of Gallbladder Cleansing

A spring cleanse is a great way to physically remove toxins from your body, it can also be emotionally cleansing. When you detox, subconscious emotional baggage may arise. After a gallbladder cleanse you may feel tired, but soon after you should notice improved digestion, some weight loss, less bloating, improved energy and sleep. Generally of course, feeling better!

Attention: Always cleanse with the support of a qualified, experienced and registered Health Practitioner.

Gradual Gallbladder Cleanse (The Gentle Option)

This diet includes specific stone-dissolving foods and herbs that are usually sufficient to move all sediment. This kind of diet will gradually clear and cleanse your gallbladder. The specific stone-dissolving foods and herbs are usually sufficient to move all sediment. In cases of known, large stones which cannot be flushed through the bile duct, this cleanse is better than the next. During this process:
1. Avoid foods rich in saturated fats and cholesterol – heavy meats, processed meats, dairy and eggs. Also avoid peanuts and eat other nuts and seeds sparingly, if at all.
2. Eat primarily unrefined grains (e.g. brown rice, quinoa, wholeoats, dark rye sourdough, essene bread), vegetables, fruits and legumes.
3. Pears, parsnips, seaweeds, lemons, limes, organic green apples and the spice turmeric hasten gallstone removal and can be emphasised in your diet while doing this cleanse.
4. For 21 days, eat one to two radishes a day between meals. Radish supposedly removes deposits and stones.
5. Drink three cups of cleavers (Galium aparine) or five cups of chammomile tea (Anthemis nobilis) every day. Chammomile is a yellow herb and clears heat from the body.
6. Pour five teaspoons of fresh, cold-pressed flax oil over food at one meal of the day, or use this amount at two daily meals. Take this six days a week for two months.

Spring Cleanse Liver Energy TCM

Gall Bladder Flush 

One can often quickly purge the gall bladder of stones and other sediment with a one-day ritual commonly called the “Gallbladder Flush”. There are many variations on this, but one of the simplest and most effective is the following:
1. From the morning you wake up to throughout the day, eat only apples, preferably organic, as many as desired, but at least four or five. Green apples are best, although all apples will help soften the stones. You can also drink water, herbal tea and/or freshly juiced apple. If it is Melbourne winter or you have poor digestion, you can also cook the apples with water and spices (nutmeg, mixed spice, cinnamon, ginger etc.), as it is cold!
2. At bedtime, warm up a shot of extra-virgin olive oil to body temperature and mix in a half shot of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Slowly sip the entire mixture, and then immediately go to bed, lying on your right side, with the right leg drawn up. In the morning the stones should pass in the stool. This flush should be done in conjunction with acupuncture and potentially herbs, in the guidance of an experienced health practitioner.
According to Pitchford (Healing With Wholefoods), this remedy has undoubtedly made gallbladder operations unnecessary in thousands of likely canditates. An added benefit is that gallbladder cleansing clears residues of excess from the liver as well.

I am not advocating you to do this or recommending it either. This is for information only.

The Mild Gall Bladder Flush

For five consecutive days, ingest on an empty stomach two tablespoons of olive oil followed by two tablespoons of lemon juice.

A Metaphysical Perspective On The Liver & Gallbladder

Getting to the root of the liver & gall bladder imbalances can be related to too many desires, whether for sex, fame, power, security, money, love or rich-tasting foods and can stimulate a person to eat excessively. Obviously it is also diet related, and emotions themselves when driven by the desire-complex of greed, anger and resentment gradually damage liver function. In Chinese medicine, it is important to process your emotions and if you feel angry release it. A good boxing class or hitting the pillows can do wonders.
Unresolved emotional issues are stored physically as residues of excess in the liver, while emotional clarification unlocks and releases these residues. Therefore if you do a Spring Cleanse, it is necessary to liberate emotional obstructions by acting on what comes up, meditating, or talking to someone about this.

This information was taken from pp.322-325 of Paul Pitchford’s, Healing with Wholefoods.

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