Dentists will tell you that genetics and “proper” dental care and fluoride treatments will result in healthy teeth and gums. However, we know that indigenous tribes who ate healthy diets enjoyed remarkably good dental health. When indigenous tribes were introduced to the Western diet, disease, including oral disease, followed.

The truth is, the most important action you can take to maintain oral health is to eat a healthy diet.  Avoid all artificial additives (flavors, colors, preservatives), GMOs, pasteurized dairy, and refined sugars. Do not consume foods laden with herbicides and preservatives (especially the “dirty dozen”) or animal protein (meat or dairy) from factory raised animals or farm raised fish. The healthiest diet consists of whole unadulterated foods, 80% of which are raw, organic vegetables and fruits (and eat more vegetables than fruit).

It is possible, through a truly healthy diet and proper oral care, to whiten and re-mineralize your teeth, to re-build your enamel, and to heal your gums.

If you have dental problems, oil pulling is a good practice to incorporate into your daily routine. In the morning, before you eat or drink anything, take a spoonful of coconut oil or sesame oil and swish it through your mouth and teeth for 15-20 minutes. Keep squeezing it through your teeth with your tongue, swishing it back and forth. This is an ancient Ayurvedic practice (from Hindu traditional medicine) that is catching on in the West with wonderful reports of how it heals and aids teeth and gums. It is also claimed that this practice pulls toxins out of the body, healing all manner of illness.

We’ve been raised to believe that eating candy creates cavities. While it is true that refined sugar will feed the bacteria in your mouth, the greater risk is the fact that the body leeches minerals such as calcium out of our bones and teeth and draws it into the bloodstream to stabilize the pH in our blood, a pH the sugar has altered.

If you are not healthy, you need to brush gently. Hard brushing will tear up your gums and strip the enamel from your teeth. If you are in good health, a more rigorous brushing will stimulate blood flow and re-mineralization.  Regardless of your health, a good, soft toothbrush is a must. Proper technique is important as well. Use a circular motion to brush teeth and gums, and don’t forget to brush the roof of your mouth and your tongue.

But what will you use on your toothbrush? Commercial toothpaste is toxic.  Fluoride is not the only ingredient to avoid. Many commercial toothpastes include saccharine or aspartame, artificial dyes, sodium lauryl sufate, and/or triclosan.

You can avoid most of these ingredients by using a ridiculously expensive natural toothpaste. But many still contain sodium laureth sulfate or other questionable ingredients such as glycerin, which prevents re-mineralization.

As I read the label on my all natural, fluoride free, SLS-free toothpaste, I saw that it did not have any of the other horrific ingredients in commercial toothpastes. It says: no sodium laurel/ laureth sulfates, no preservatives, no artificial colors, no artificial sweeteners, no saccharin, no propylene glycol.  Though the tube told me a lot about what it didn’t have, I had to go online to find the actual ingredients.  And I sure did want to know what the ingredients were because I had never noticed this warning: “Keep out of the reach of children under 6 years of age. If you accidently swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional assistance or contact Poison Control Center immediately.”  I am happy to say that I called and confirmed that the government requires toothpaste companies to place this warning on toothpaste tubes since it is not made for consumption, regardless of whether there are poisonous materials contained.

The only one ingredient that concerned me was carrageenan, which is known to promote inflammation.  The bottom line is the price. Six to seven dollars for toothpaste is just too much.

I decided it was time to make my own toothpaste.

The age-old simple homemade tooth powder is an equal amount of baking soda to salt. While this scrapes plaque off the teeth, it isn’t very tasty, and kids hate it.  I wanted something better.

Most of the online recipes start with a base of coconut oil and baking soda.  Baking soda whitens the teeth and is alkaline, a good thing, while coconut oil serves as an anti-bacterial agent (remember we use it for oil pulling) and it binds the ingredients together and makes the toothpaste creamy.

The basic recipe for homemade toothpaste is equal parts of coconut oil and baking soda. Make sure both are organic . From here, you can add other ingredients and adjust ratios if necessary.

Simple Natural Toothpaste Recipe:

• Equal parts of coconut oil and baking soda
• Add essential oil to taste
• Add stevia (if desired) to taste

For 6 tablespoons of oil to 6 tablespoons of baking soda, add 10-15 drops of essential oil. Try peppermint, eucalyptus, cinnamon, clove, lemon, orange, rosemary or any others or any combination that sound good to you. Each essential oil provides more than taste; each adds its own benefit.  Add drops of one, or experiment with combinations. Be sure to buy your essential oils from a reputable source and be sure you are getting the right genus species. Many oils come from different species and contain different properties.

• Peppermint— a powerful anti-oxidant
• Eucalyptus—antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory
• Cinnamon—antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant
• Clove—antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and an amazing antioxidant, the highest antioxidant essential oil. It is approved by the Dental Association for use as a dental anesthetic.   It’s great for killing Candida.
• Lemon—antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant
• Orange—antiseptic and antioxidant
• Rosemary—antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral
• Neem oil and tea tree oil could also be used for antibacterial qualities. Try 6-8 drops but know that neither one is a flavor enhancer.  They may help tighten up gum tissue, however.
• Your basic recipe can be changed in a variety of ways. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, sesame oil is not. You can replace as much coconut oil with sesame oil as desired to reach the consistency you prefer. But realize this will also change the taste and the color.

Your dry ingredients can also be altered. Try adding trace minerals, calcium magnesium powder, bentonite clay, and/or diatomaceous earth to the mix, removing an equal amount of baking soda and adjusting for consistency.

Trace minerals, calcium magnesium powder, and diatomaceous earth will all aid in re-mineralization, while bentonite clay will aid in drawing out impurities as it, like the aforementioned dry ingredients, adds grit.

Hydrogen peroxide is added to many home toothpastes, especially those formulated for whitening. But hydrogen peroxide is one of those ingredients you are not supposed to swallow and it can irritate the gums. It is not a good idea for kids or for anyone with sensitive, damaged, or diseased gums.

Dr. Shillington’s Tooth and Gum Formula

There is a third step in dental care for anyone who is struggling with gingivitis or wants to use a preventative treatment. Dr. Shillington’s Tooth and Gum Formula can be used as a mouthwash (one dropperful to a cup of water), on your toothbrush (8-12 drops on your toothbrush after brushing your teeth), or with a water pick (2-4 dropperful, but rinse out after use so the tee tree oil does not shorten the life of the rubber seals). After each of these methods, do not rinse; allow the ingredients to continue working.

Dr. Shillington writes, “The Echinacea in the formula deadens pain, kills germs, kicks the immune system into action, and starts working against bacteria that is deep down in the gum pockets. Bayberry and Oak Bark will tighten up the gum tissue right before your eyes.  Peppermint is a very strong disinfectant, reduces inflammation, and also increases blood circulation to carry off toxins, bring in nutrition, and generally cleanse the mouth.  Clove Oil is a great pain reducer for toothache.”

You can make your own Tooth and Gum Formula with Dr. Shillington’s recipe or purchase the Tooth and Gum Formula through Green Lifestyle Market. If you purchase and don’t like it Green Lifestyle Market will refund.

Dr. Shillington’s Tooth and Gum Formula Recipe

(Use Organic or wild-crafted ingredients whenever possible). Or you can also purchase here.

• 10 oz Echinacea Tincture
• 1/4 cup of Tea Tree Oil
• 4 oz. Bayberry Tincture
• 2 oz. Oak Gall (or 3X Oak Bark) Tincture
• 2 TBS. Cayenne Tincture
• 2 1/2 Dropperfuls of Peppermint Oil
• 2 1/2 Dropperfuls of Clove Oil

A ‘part’ is a measurement by volume.  Blend all ingredients together and make into a tincture using a 50 – 50 Blend of Alcohol and distilled water. For more, see How to Make a Tincture.

A Dropperful is considered to be about 1/2 way up the dropper from a two-ounce bottle.

Be sure to shake well before each use.

Gum disease is not only avoidable, it is, contrary to conventional opinion, completely reversible. If you try one of the recipes above, or have your own recipe, we’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Be sure to see the “Further Reading” section below.

My Protocol (as of Feb 2016)

Typically, I floss and brush twice a day with just with about a half a dropper full of the Tooth and Gum formula with a tiny bit of Earthpaste. I also chew on garlic for about 30 seconds three times a day. I used to make my own toothpaste, typically just with salt and baking soda and a squirt of the Tooth and Gum, all thrown into the mouth together, but now I’m spoiled. I work at Green Lifestyle Market. I like the Earthpaste and it’s just sitting there, waiting for my employee discount. It works well. Last but not least, your mouth health emulates your gut health, so if there are serious problems in the mouth, it’s time to address the gut.

Recommended Products:

• Shillington’s Tooth and Gum Formula
• Earthpaste Spearmint Toothpaste
• Essential Oils
• Diatomaceous Earth 

Further Reading:

• Periodontal Disease, Gum Disease – What you need to know
• 80% Raw Food Diet
• Mercury Fillings, Root Canals, Cavitations – What You Need to Know
• How to Kill Candida and Balance Your Inner Ecosystem
• Still Have Candida? How Mercury Fillings Cause Candida Overgrowth

Sources:

• Homemade Remineralizing & Whitening Toothpaste Recipe
• DIY all-natural whitening + remineralizing toothpaste
• Homemade Natural Whitening Toothpaste Recipe
• How to Whiten Teeth With Hydrogen Peroxide
• How to Make Natural Homemade Antibacterial Toothpaste

Theme sponsored by: Adderall website where you can buy Adderall online buyadderall.com and learn about how Adderall and how phentermine works. You can learn about how to buy phentermine online from USA and how phentermine works. Also find out how Modafinil works when you are planning on buying Modafinil online

To say that hormones have an incredibly powerful effect on our perception and therefore the choices we make is an understatement. Hormones are actually a part of how we see the world. We use hormones not just to sleep, to procreate, or to respond to danger, but for almost every function of the body.

Our body is designed to be ready for anything. Different circumstances require a different combination of chemicals. Fear needs adrenaline, of course. When we meet someone we like, there is a different set of hormones secreted than when we meet someone we dislike.

A poorly working, imbalanced hormonal system makes it much harder to get through life. How can it be easy when you’re receiving inaccurate messages of how the world is interacting around you. Pretty much everyone is familiar with how PMS can change a woman’s view on life. Relationships, jobs, and life in general just don’t seem to work right when our hormones are disrupted.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

What Are Hormones?

Hormones are liquid chemical messengers that regulate many activities of the body. They signal biological processes from metabolism, growth, and maturation to sexuality and reproduction (and everything in between).

The endocrine system secretes hormones directly into the bloodstream. The primary glands of this system include:

• Hypothalamus
• Pineal gland
• Pituitary gland
• Thyroid gland
• Parathyroid glands
• Adrenal glands
• Pancreas
• Ovaries
• Testes

These organs are not the only organs that secrete endocrine hormones; the digestive system, the kidneys, the liver and bone also excrete endocrine hormones. In addition, hormones are secreted by the exocrine system. Cells in the body use hormones to communicate.

The primary medical problems that we associate with hormones are sexual and reproductive problems (ovaries, testes, adrenals), a slow or overactive metabolism (thyroid gland), poor blood sugar regulation (pancreas), stress related problems (adrenals), and sleep disturbances (pineal gland).

What Is a Hormone Imbalance?

We typically think of a hormone imbalance as PMS, but other hormonal health problems include diabetes, cancer, bipolar disorder, and the other 6,000 endocrine disorders that result from hormones not functioning properly due to overproduction, underproduction or disruption in delivery or utilization.

Hormone Disruptors

Many manmade chemicals are known endocrine disruptors that can affect development, the reproductive system, the immune system, and the neurological system. They are associated with various cancers (breast, prostate, thyroid, etc.), birth defects (including deformed limbs and sexual organs), learning disabilities, ADHD, and cognitive/brain development problems including lowered IQ, and fertility/reproductive problems. The greatest damage is done in utero.

Hormone disrupting chemicals are found in many products we use on a daily basis including cosmetics, body care products (soaps, shampoos, perfumes, deodorants, sunscreens, etc.), detergents and household cleaners, plastic bottles and food containers, pesticides and herbicides, metal food cans, mercury (in food and in amalgam fillings), phthalates (used to coat medications), flame retardants, PCBs (found in many things including paints, adhesives, and caulks, and wood floor finishes), DEHP (in food packaging)–the list goes on and on.

All of the horror stories we hear about chemical exposure and subsequent damage to the body relate back to hormone disturbances and how the chemicals interfere with the body’s ability to regulate its hormones. Too much or too little of any particular hormone is going to have a significant effect on the body. And yet, knowing this, the FDA continues to allow the dairy industry to pollute the milk supply with a growth hormone (rBGH)even though it has been banned in many other countries.

Our modern world is filled with hormone disrupters in the air we breathe (especially indoors), the water we drink, the food we eat, the products we put on our bodies (which are absorbed into the skin), and the products we use on a daily basis.

What Can We Do To Reduce Exposure to Hormone Disruptors?

There are many things we can do to lower our exposure to hormone disrupters: diet, the body care products and cleaning supplies we use, and other choices which affect our environment.

Diet

Choose organic. Organic foods minimize ingestion of pesticides and herbicides and eliminate GMOs, all of which disrupt hormones. Do not eat unfermented soy. Unfermented soy has enzyme inhibitors that severely disrupt estrogen.

Related: Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included

Body Care Products

Again, choose organic. Soap, toothpaste, fragrances, shampoo, hairspray, deodorant, shaving cream, facial masks, acne treatment, sunscreen, topical medications–all can be purchased or made at home as a chemical free alternative to the commercial chemically laden products.

Cleaning Supplies

Organic or chemical free cleaners can easily be found at health food stores, but in reality what do you really need to purchase? You can clean nearly every surface in your home with vinegar or baking soda. Why buy expensive alternatives? Make sure your laundry cleaner and dish soap are chemical free as well.

Household Pollutants

Do not use chemical air fresheners. They have been linked to depression! Set out a bowl of vinegar; it will absorb odors. Or boil some orange peels on the stove. Take the time to find nontoxic paint and other home improvement items that will not poison the air. Carefully choose carpets, cabinets, upholstered furniture and last but not least–carefully choose your mattress! Open your windows and let the fresh air in!

Teeth, Vaccines, Stimulants, Birth Control and Candida

Teeth with mercury fillings, root canals, and cavitations can disrupt hormones. An overabundance of Candida in the gut disrupts hormone production. Birth control wrecks havoc on the hormonal system. Vaccines contain heavy metals and other preservatives that damage hormone production.

Related: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

How To Eliminate / Detox Endocrine Disrupters From the Body and Balance the Hormones

Again, diet is the foundation for all health and is certainly the foundation for eliminating any unwanted chemicals from the body.

Choose an organic, whole food, nutrient-rich diet with as much variety as possible. A full 80% of your diet should consist of fresh, raw, organic produce – more vegetables than fruit. Meat must be organic! No artificial colorings, flavorings, or preservatives. No MSG, trans fats, or GMOs. Avoid processed foods altogether. Eat real food. Real food does not come in a box or a package. As much as possible, avoid foods in plastic wraps. If your food is transported home in plastics, remove it. Invest in glass storage containers (glass jars work just fine!) Do not buy canned foods.

Related: How to Detox From Plastics and Other Endocrine Disruptors

Tap water has hormone-disrupting fluoride, pharmaceuticals, and a ton of stuff you don’t want in your body. The cleanest water is distilled. Yes, it is more acidic. Yes, it is devoid of minerals. Even so, given a choice of water available, it only makes since to start with distilled water for the cleanest, safest water possible. Check out What’s the Best Water for Detoxifying and for Drinking? and Inexpensive, Easy Detox – The One Gallon Challenge.

The right foods and great nutrition will continually aid the body in eliminating foreign materials, whether they are parasites, viruses, bacteria, yeast, heavy metals, or chemicals.

Green Lifestyle Market has a host of supplements that help balance the hormones depending on the health issues at hand. Most everyone can use a Candida Detox, and either Shillington’s Male Energy Formula or Shillington’s Female Formula.

Recommended Supplements:

• Shillington’s Male Energy Formula
• Shillington’s Female Balance Formula
• Formula SF722 – Thorne Research
• FloraMend – Thorne Research
• Basic B Complex – Thorne Research
• Hormones – Green Lifestyle Market

Sources:

• Endocrine Glands and Types of Hormones – Home Health Network
• Hormone imbalance – Wikipedia
• Endocrine disrupter – Wikipedia
• Endocrine system – Wikipedia 
• Endocrine Disrupters – NIH (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences)

Most people ingest too many refined, processed foods. Even us health nuts have a tendency to do this. In this fast paced world, with the body biologically programmed to desire sweets and other easy carbohydrates that are so much harder to find in nature, it’s common and totally normal to have too much Candida in our body.

If you experience this problem, and again, most people do, here are some ways you can balance your gut flora. Balancing the flora will alleviate many health issues, even little annoying ones you thought you were stuck with for the rest of your life such as itchy ear canals, body odor, and eczema.

Garlic

Most people know that garlic is antifungal, antiparasitic, antibacterial, and antiviral. It also helps with a host of other issues including the removal of toxins in the body. If I could only choose one single item to work with when it comes to healing and treatment modalities, I would choose garlic. Unfortunately, many people don’t know exactly how to use it to reap the benefits.

First and foremost, don’t cook it. It loses all its Candida fighting properties when you do. Secondly, cut it up and give it a minute before ingesting it. Or, if you’ve got a strong stomach and an even stronger mouth, chew it up for a minute with your mouth open, breathing in and out. This is also an incredibly effective treatment for tooth and gum problems, and even bad breath; though swallowing it, of course, can lead to garlic breath for many, but garlic breath is a sign of a toxic body.

Don’t use garlic from China, even if it’s organic. One way to tell, is those smaller, bright white garlic bulbs are almost always grown in China. China’s soil is just too toxic.

Essential oils

Oil of oregano has antifungal, antibacterial, and antiparasitic properties as well. Oil of oregano is exceptionally powerful and can be taken in tablet form.

Some other essential oils that kill candida include lavender, thieves, tea tree, and peppermint, though I don’t recommend taking these oils internally. They are a good solution for Candida skin rashes, though they can be painful to use. In most cases, they will not harm the skin even though you will feel a burning sensation.

Oils

Coconut oil is known for its antibacterial, antifungal, and antiparasitic properties, though it’s efficacy with Candida control is weak compared to other ingestible choices. Neem oil is an oil with similar antiparasitic properties, a bit stronger at parasitic control than coconut oil, but it should only be applied topically.

Other Candida Killers

Other notable items that are known to combat fungus include wormwood, black walnut hull, Spanish black radish, Pau d’Arco, goldenseal, coptis chinensis, ginger, cinnamon, and olive leaf extract. All of these are great to have around, and a few of them are exceptional at killing parasites, viruses, and bacterial infections (coptis chinensis, wormwood, black walnut hull, Spanish black radish) but while they are certainly antifungal, they’re not the strongest solution.

My favorite combination for eliminating excess yeast in my body is undecenoic acid (Thorne SF722) and very high quality probiotics. Combine this with Shillington’s intestinal cleanse and with big salads everyday with lots of different vegetables, and you’ve got yourself a clean colon free of excess Candida in days, often in just one day. What I love about undecenoic acid and probiotics is that they don’t kill off good bacteria. They only eliminate Candida and other fungi. If I want to knock out parasites as well, I use MicroDefense – Pure Encapsulations, which has wormwood and black walnut hulls (and other good stuff that parasites hate).

Whatever approach you take with intestinal maintenance, a diet with a diverse selection of lots of raw vegetables is the most important thing you can do for your colon and your whole body.

Recommended Supplements:

(You can take these altogether)

• Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse (kills parasites, heals the intestinal walls, sets up hospital home for healthy flora)
• Formula SF722 (undecenoic acid, kills candida and other fungal functions, does not kill beneficial flora at same rate)
• Floramend-Prime by Thorne (a strong probiotic designed to pass through the stomach acid and into the intestinal tract)
• MicroDefense – Pure Encapsulations (a parasite killer, works pretty well on Candida, but works even better on many other parasites)
• Shillington’s Intestinal Detox (This is necessary only for those with seriously damaged intestines, anyone who has recently been vaccinated, or those looking to do a thorough detox)

Further Reading:

• The Fascinating Bacteria in our Gut, and How it Affects Our Whole Lives
• How to Cure Candida
  
• After taking antibiotics, this is what you need to do to restore healthy intestinal flora
• Fermented Foods Optimize Your Health

We are host to somewhere between 300-1000 different species of bacteria, each of which has one goal—to survive and multiply. While they live and thrive in our gut, beneficial bacteria provide many necessary and health-related functions. They help us digest our food. They line our intestinal wall, providing a physical barrier against bad bacteria and fungi that may damage or inflame the tissues. Some produce vitamin K and B vitamins, while others aid in synthesizing vitamins. They produce 95% of our serotonin as well as other neurotransmitters. They make up 80% of our immune system, and more. The by-products of their lifecycle benefit us through a harmonious, symbiotic relationship.

We classify bacteria as bad bacteria when their byproducts or functions can harm our bodies.   For example, most of the E-coli bacteria strains are harmless. In fact, the harmless strains help prevent colonization of pathogenic bacteria and produce vitamin K2, whereas the pathogenic E-coli strains cause a variety of infections and may even cause death.

Related: Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease

Aside from illness, researchers are learning that specific species of bacteria exert different influences on their host bodies. One example is our metabolism. The bacterial makeup of a lean person is different than the bacterial makeup in someone who is obese.

One study showed that Enterobacter, an endotoxin-producing bacterium, taken from the gut of a morbidly obese human, induced obesity and insulin resistance in healthy mice. In a volunteer with an initial weight of 385 lbs, Enterobacter made up 35% of the gut bacterium. After 23 weeks of a diet of whole grains, traditional Chinese medicinal foods, and prebiotics, the volunteer lost 113 lbs and all traces of Enterobacter. The conclusion was that this endotoxin-producing bacterium creates inflammation that causes insulin resistance resulting in weight gain.

Another recent study showed a direct correlation between a high or low level of bacterium in the gut and the subjects’ weight. A high level of bacterium, with a high level of diversity, was linked to a healthy weight, whereas a low level of bacterium was linked to overweight individuals.

Related: Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases

The amount of bacteria in the gut relates to more than weight, it is also an indicator of overall health. Our actions affect the amount, the diversity, and the ratio of good to bad bacteria. For example, antibiotic use indiscriminately kills bacteria. Antibiotics do not just target the one pathogen causing an infection in our body; they kill off much of the bacteria in our gut as well. Not only do we need the good bacteria to do its work (including keeping the bad bacteria in check), we need to maintain the delicate balance between bacteria and fungi. Candida is opportunistic. Given a chance, it will quickly mass-produce, wreaking havoc in the digestive tract and, in time, the entire body.

As research continues to reveal that diversity in gut bacterium is essential to good health and can influence bodily functions such as serotonin production (a huge factor in depression) or metabolism (a factor in weight control), researchers are learning more about which particular bacteria are beneficial and which bacteria have an unhealthy effect on the body. The day may soon come when we choose our probiotics to manage our weight, to maintain our mental health, or to treat a variety of diseases. Until that day arrives, our diet choices can and will alter this internal balance.

We do have a basic knowledge of which foods promote beneficial bacteria and which foods and medications promote bad bacteria, and we know how to increase the beneficial organisms to crowd out those that do not serve our health.

Related: Hypothyroidism – Natural Remedies, Causes, and How To Heal the Thyroid

The first and most important step to increase health inducing bacterium in the gut, is to eat a diet rich in prebiotics—in other words, lots of raw vegetables and fruit. A large salad each day, filled with a wide variety of vegetables, provides the healthy bacterium in our gut with the food it needs to thrive. Insoluble fiber also houses good bacteria, giving it a structure upon which to multiply. Raw, whole, organic vegetables and fruits (more vegetables than fruit) should always comprise 80% of our diet.

We not only know what to feed good bacteria, we know what feeds or promotes bad bacteria: processed dead foods, acidic foods (factory raised meat and dairy), pasteurized foods, irradiated foods, sugar, antibiotics, antacids, and anti-inflammatory drugs. Choose only organic grass fed beef, organic free-range chicken, and raw dairy. Never eat farm raised fish. Avoid all GMOs, including second generation GMOs from animals raised on GMO feed.

If we were to believe the advertisements, one or two servings of sugar filled, pasteurized, yogurt (often with other ingredients added to thicken, stabilize, preserve, and/or add artificial flavor)  would provide all the beneficial bacteria we need. If any beneficial bacteria from this yogurt survived our stomach acid and made it to our intestines, the dairy and sugar content alone would negate its benefits (pasteurized dairy and sugar feed Candida and “bad” bacteria). There are better ways to include probiotics in our diet.

Related: How to Kill Candida and Balance Your Inner Ecosystem

Probiotic foods such as coconut kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, and raw, organic apple cider vinegar all increase healthy bacterium in the gut.  There are also excellent probiotic supplements formulated with very strong bacteria strains that have the ability to make it past the stomach acid before releasing the bacteria into the intestines. These probiotics are rare; most on the market are useless. But the good ones are powerful and can help reset your ecosystem. Remember, while probiotics can be very helpful, more benefit is gained from prebiotics, vegetables in particular. Conversely, if your appendix has been removed, you may need a daily probiotic supplement for the rest of your life. FloraMend Prime by Thorne Research is a very strong and stable probiotic that we highly recommend.

Every choice we make to detox, cleanse, and properly feed our bodies will affect the microbes in our gut. Though we were born with a particular balance of bacteria, it has been influenced throughout our lives by toxins, antibiotics, vaccines, and the foods we have eaten. But we do have the power to change it. We can increase the amount and the type of bacteria in our bodies primarily by the foods we choose to eat and the foods we choose to avoid.

If you want to reduce Candida and harmful bacteria in your gut be sure to check out Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases, and we recommend the following:

Recommended Supplements:

• Floramind-Prime by Thorne
• Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse
• Formula SF722
• MicroDefense – Pure Encapsulations

Further Reading:

• How to Cure Candida
  
• After taking antibiotics, this is what you need to do to restore healthy intestinal flora
• Fermented Foods Optimize Your Health
• How to Kill Candida and Balance Your Inner Ecosystem

 Sources: 

• Na Feiand Liping Zhao, An Opportunistic Pathogen Isolated from the Gut of an Obese Human Causes Obesity in Germfree Mice; The ISME Journal (2013) 7, 880–884

• Q. Aziz, J. Dore´,A. Emmanuel, F. Guarner, & E. M. M. Quigley; Gut Microbiota and Gastrointestinal Health: Current Concepts and Future Directions, Neurogastroenterol & Motility (2013) 25, 4–15

• http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/09/27/5-steps-to-kill-hidden-bad-bugs-in-your-gut-that-make-you-sick/#close

You’ve heard of the ice bucket challenge, and maybe even the Ferguson Challenge. Here’s a new challenge: the one gallon challenge. Drink a gallon of cranberry lemonade a day, sweetened with stevia, and spiced with cayenne. This is one of the best ways to detoxify and clean out your system.

There’s more.

Exercise. Sweat. Get your heart rate going. Deep, heavy breathing helps detoxify the body. Exercise vigorously for 20 minutes a day. If you have access to a sauna, especially one of a non-toxic variety, use it! A steam room is great, too, as long as the water is purified, with the fluoride and other chemicals removed.

Rebounding

There is one specific exercise that can help this detox in an unusual way—bouncing. Rebounding on a trampoline, jumping rope, or jogging while ensuring that you’re running with good form (not heel striking) all help circulate your lymph. Do one of these activities for at least 20 minutes a day. Of course, if done vigorously enough to induce heavy breathing and to work up a sweat, the bouncing activities count as the exercise for the day.

Eat. This isn’t a fast. You can detoxify without fasting. You are welcome to fast if you want to and you know your body can handle it, but it’s not necessary in order to receive amazing benefits. Eat produce, salads and fruits. A serious detox is a good time to avoid pretty much anything else and just focus on produce. If the body is very toxic or so sick that it cannot get nutrition out of food, it is a good time to juice. Otherwise, we recommend eating whole, unadulterated vegetables and fruits in order to get the fiber and many other benefits that are lost when juicing.

If the gut is out of balance, i.e. Candida overgrowth and/or an abundance of bad bacteria, eat lots of garlic with those salads, and take a high quality probiotic and some undecylenic acid or oil of oregano. (When taking oil of oregano, do not take it with probiotics as it will kill the beneficial bacteria}.

Cranberry Lemonade Recipe

• Glass gallon jar
• Safe, clean, spring water or distilled water
• 1 cup of organic cranberry juice, not from concentrate
• 3 organic fresh lemons
• A citrus juicer
• Liquid stevia
• Liquid cayenne

Fill the jar to about 85% capacity with spring water (or distilled water). Squeeze the lemons and pour the juice into the water. Add cranberry juice. Add stevia to taste and then add cayenne to taste. The amount of cayenne used is up to you, but the more the better.

If you don’t have access to a good spring water source, use other clean drinking water that does not have fluoride. If you don’t have access to organic lemons, use conventional. If there are no fresh lemons, use bottle lemon juice. If you can’t get cranberry juice that is not from concentrate, get the reconstituted kind (just don’t get any kind of cranberry juice that has any other ingredients like sweeteners or other juices). If you can’t stand cayenne, don’t use it. No glass jar? Use plastic. No excuses.

If you have powdered cayenne and/or powdered stevia, I recommend using a blender to mix some of the liquid with the powders so they don’t settle later.

Drinking a gallon of water a day makes an amazing difference to your health and your appearance (google gallon a day water before and after). Drinking this much fluid flushes the organs and the lymph nodes, hydrates the skin, and helps the body to rebuild cells and regenerate in ways that most people do not get to experience. The cranberry and the lemon help flush the liver and the kidneys even more, and in my experience it’s a lot easier to drink a gallon of cranberry lemonade than it is to drink a gallon of plain water. And cayenne has a ton of amazing health benefits. For more, check out, Cayenne – Natures Miracle Medicine.

How long should you do this for? I challenge you to ten days. But do it as long as you like. While produce should always be the staple of any healthy diet, no matter what you’re eating, your body will always benefit from this gallon of hydration a day.

Please use common sense with this. If you do not follow a healthy diet with lots of produce, the amount of liquid consumed on this regimen can deplete the body of much needed minerals. Do not attempt to drink a gallon of anything in one sitting. This has been known to kill people, even with just water. If you have kidney problems, this may be the best thing for you. On the other hand, depending on your health issues, it may overload the kidneys. I find that smaller people who weigh less than 120 pounds can see the benefits at 1/2 to 1/3 of a gallon. Your health is in your hands. Again, please use good judgment.

If you’ve got a bit of money and you’re willing to take this detox program to a whole other level, consider detoxifying the blood, killing parasites, and balancing the body’s ecosystem. Shillington’s Blood Detox, MicroDefense – Pure Encapsulations, and will detoxify the blood and kill parasites. SF722 will kill Candida (yeast). Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse will clean out the colon, and FloraMend will restore beneficial bacteria.

If Candida is an issue for you, as it is for most, check out How to Cure Candida.

Recommended Supplements:

• MicroDefense – Pure Encapsulations
• Shillington’s Blood Detox
• SF722 – Thorne 
• Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse
• FloraMend – Thorne

Further Reading:

• Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases
• How to Cure Candida
• Cheap and Easy Detox Diet Plan

With a list of common detox diets and reasons to detoxify, and what you should consider before detoxifying.

A very thorough detox can be expensive and difficult, but with today’s lifestyle, detoxifying the body thoroughly is essential for good health. That said, people have a body that efficiently expels toxins effectively when they eat very well, exercise, sweat, and breathe heavily while exercising, drink lots of water, and stay away from medications. There are bound to be some chemicals in the body that will not be expelled on their own, and a thorough detox is still a good idea, but a healthy body always is detoxifying more toxins than it takes in and produces.

Why Detoxify?

Here are just a few indications that you need to detoxify:

• Headaches
• Skin issues
• Allergies (any and all)
• Muscle soreness (not from working out)
• Muscle Spasms
• Getting sick more than once every few years
• Sluggish and groggy waking up
• Vision loss
• Hair loss
• Body odor
• Yeast infections (athlete’s foot is a yeast infection, too)
• Arthritis
• Slow healing
• Digestive issues
• Cavities
• Trouble focusing
• Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
• Back pain
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Joint pain
• Kidney stones
• Canker sores
• You get the idea. Basically, any health problem means the body is toxic. There is only one disease, and that is cell malfunction. There are only two causes, nutrition deficiencies and toxicity. And the two go hand-in-hand.

Toxins are so easy to accumulate. Here is an incomplete list of commonplace items or substances that can cause harmful toxic chemical accumulation. Some may surprise you!

It’s amazing how toxic our modern lifestyle has become. The human body becomes overwhelmed. Our bile becomes toxic. Our blood becomes toxic and sluggish. But the way one feels after detoxification is truly an amazing feeling! So alert, energized, focused, successful, intelligent, and the list goes on. Our bodies are amazing, but they are really amazing when they are not being slowed down by crap. Living with a toxic is like driving a car that needed an oil change, a new air filter, and new spark plugs about 60,000 miles ago.

Common Detox Diets

There are a few detoxification diets that you’ve probably heard about. Below are some of the pros and cons with a few of the more well known detox diets and/or weight loss diets.

One of the most commonly asked questions we receive at OLM is, “What one thing can I do to be healthier?” A diet of primarily raw fresh vegetables and fruits is the foundation for good health. If you are not as healthy as you would like to be, there is nothing more important. Even if you smoke, or don’t eat organic, and/or don’t exercise, adopting a raw food diet is still our first recommendation. We even recommend eating a raw food diet before we recommend supplements.

This takes people by surprise, especially since I own a supplement store. I have plenty of supplements on hand for acute health issues and first aid, but I only take Total Nutrition Formula, SF722, and systemic enzymes regularly.

There is a lot of controversy as to whether or not eating 100% raw is healthy. We do believe that a 100% raw food diet can be very healthy if done right with enough variety. If you are interested in eating 100% raw this article can help you get started. We also recommend you get to know Raw Chef Dan (see next article). But we recommend going at least 80% raw for practical reasons. And, if you cut out junk food completely (this includes “organic” junk food) and make sure that two of your three daily meals as well as any and all snacks are raw fresh fruits and vegetables (1:4 ratio), you will achieve a significantly higher level of health. For many people, eating this way rids the body of disease and ailments. For individuals who have led a toxic lifestyle for too long, more help is needed to restore the body to health.

People often point to the fact that there is not enough variety in a raw food diet to maintain good health. If a raw food diet to you means carrot sticks, celery and apples, then you’re right. My daily routine consists of a salad for breakfast and sometimes for lunch and/or dinner. On the days I do not have two salads, I have a smoothie. How do I get variety if I eat almost the same thing every day? Each of my salads contains at least 10 different kinds of vegetables. I get more nutrition in one salad than most people get in a whole week, maybe a month. My smoothies are nothing to scoff at, either. One salad and/or smoothie and I know I am set for the day. I must admit I do still love to eat, so I actually eat too much. Though I also work out pretty heavily on a regular basis, I imagine I could do better with about half the calories I consume.

My Daily Salad

Want to know how to make an incredible salad? Here are the main ingredients for my salad:

• Spinach
• Arugula
• Collard Greens
• Spring mix
• Dandelion
• Leeks
• Red onions
• Red cabbage
• Red bell pepper
• Rainbow chard
• Beet greens
• Grated beet root
• Graded carrots
• Graded zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Cilantro
• Pomegranate (seed)
• Raisins
• Sesame seeds
• Ground papaya seeds
• Avocado

I also throw in chick peas, a three bean salad combination, and/or some raw sheep cheese I get at my local farmers’ market. I always put two to three soft boiled eggs in my salad. Obviously I am not a vegan, but if you are, this salad is good enough without the cheese and eggs. The salad is also great with chicken or steak.

Update: Now I don’t do the cheese. I don’t do meat either. I still eat eggs, but am very considerate of where and how they are sourced. The avocado makes it so I don’t miss the cheese. But, for those who are not vegan, and concerned about getting enough calories, add what you want. Just please make sure all animal products were as humanely treated and healthy as possible.

There are tons of recipes for raw and healthy salad dressings. I love my own creation.

My Balsamic Salad Dressing Recipe

To make my salad dressing, I start with equal parts oil and vinegar (keep in mind that both olive oil and balsamic vinegar have a lot of imitators).

• 3/4 cup of flax seed oil
• 1/4 cup of coconut oil
• 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
• 6 tablespoons turmeric
• 1 table spoon basil
• Two teaspoons unrefined sea salt
• Two teaspoons fresh ground pepper
• Two tablespoons Dijon mustard

Do it all to taste if you want, but stay heavy on the turmeric; it’s very good for you, and it’s the most important ingredient to this recipe.

This salad dressing will have even the pickiest kids eating vegetables. It’s very versatile. Use it as a dip, a marinade, or whatever. It’s amazing.

Obviously this is not a 100% raw salad. But it’s mostly raw and very healthy. If you want to adopt a 100% raw food diet then find a great raw salad dressing and skip the peas, beans, eggs, and cheese. It’ll be healthier that way too.

Super Antioxidant Smoothie

I don’t have a smoothie every day. For health, nothing beats a great salad. But I do crave smoothies a few times a week.

• 1 cup apple juice
• 1 cup fresh berries
• ½ pomegranate (seeds)
• 1 raw egg (organic only!)
• ½ banana
• 1 large kale leaf
• 2 tablespoons nutrition powder (see below)
• 1 tablespoon Udo’s Oil with DHA

Nutrition Powder

Total Nutrition Formula, is the best nutritional support available. You can also make your own.  I don’t do smoothies everyday (salads are better), but when ever I do, I add my nutrition powder.

Conclusion

It takes time to adapt to a healthy lifestyle. I don’t spend much on groceries, but that’s because I’ve learned where and how to shop for the best deals. Local organic farmers’ markets are the best places to get the healthiest produce for a fraction of the cost you would spend at a conventional grocery store. It used to take me a lot of time to make smoothies and salads but I’ve learned to make them very quickly. I still spend more time than most preparing food, but health is my priority, my hobby, my most important investment. I’ll take the time.