Master Cleanse Forum - Master Cleanser Lemonade Diet

Hey Shiva! Laugh and sigh at the same time? Oh it's very possible, my boyfriend has that affect on me! I dug up a few saved articles on my own. I'm trying not to repeat anything you have written down so they can also be added to the collection:

[size=117][color=indigo]The Healing Crisis

AKA: The Cleansing Reaction, The Detox Reaction, and The Herxheimer Reaction
by Jon Barron

The Healing Crisis was originally observed while administering antibiotics during the treatment of syphilis, but was later identified during the treatment of other illness and in a wide variety of natural healing programs. It is characterized by a temporary increase in symptoms during the cleansing or detox process. Reactions may be mild or they may be severe. You should expect it and work with it. It is an indicator that the cleanse is working.

There are several causes:

The body must go through an elimination process to achieve good health. There will be ups and downs. You do not go immediately from disease to good health. This elimination process is what we call the "healing crisis." The healing crisis is the result of every body-system, in concert, working to eliminate waste products through all elimination channels and set the stage for regeneration. The end result: old tissues are replaced with new.

There are three distinct categories of Cleansing Reaction:

1. When any treatment or cleansing program causes a large scale die-off of bacteria, a significant amount of endotoxins (toxins within the bacteria itself) are released into the body. The more bacteria present, and the stronger their endotoxins, the stronger the cleansing reaction.

2. When any treatment or detox causes the organs of the body (particularly the liver, which is a storehouse of drug and poison residues) to release their stored poisons and toxins, a cleansing reaction may occur.

3. Any program, such as fasting or the use of weight loss herbs which causes a rapid breakdown of fat cells (which are a storehouse for toxins), can be accompanied by a detox reaction.
Specifically, we can now see that a variety of cleanses and/or products can initiate a detox reaction.

Category 1

- Intestinal Cleansing and Detox Programs can obviously trigger a die-off of bad bacteria in the intestinal tract and colon.

- Likewise, use of the probiotics will cause a die-off of bad intestinal bacteria (as much as 3 1/2 lbs worth) as new beneficial bacteria take their place.

- Digestive enzymes when first introduced can literally eat up colonies of bad bacteria, thereby releasing their endotoxins.

- And use of immune enhancers and pathogen destroyers can produce die-off, not only in the intestinal tract, but throughout the entire body.

Category 2

- The liver is the primary processing and storage organ for drug residues and poisons in the body. The primary purpose of the Liver/Gallbladder detox program is to flush those toxins out of the body. The bottom line is that this makes the use of this program one of THE most important for improving your Baseline of Health, but also the program most likely to cause a healing crisis.

- Use of an herbal blood cleansing program can likewise initiate a Herxheimer reaction

Category 3

- Rapid weight loss, when fasting for example, can also produce a healing crisis as toxins previously lodged in the fat cells are released into the blood stream

Symptoms:

The healing crisis will usually bring about past conditions in whatever order the body is capable of handling at that time. People often forget the diseases or injuries they have had in the past, but are usually reminded during the crisis. Reactions may include:

· Increased joint or muscle pain
· Headaches
· Diarrhea
· Extreme fatigue and/or its opposite, sleeplessness
· Nausea
· Sinus congestion
· Fever (usually low grade) and/or chills
· Frequent urination and/or urinary tract discharges
· Drop in blood pressure
· Skin eruptions, including: boils, hives, and rashes.
Note: skin eruptions are often misdiagnosed as allergic reactions, resulting in the premature cessation of the cleansing program.
· Cold or flu-like symptoms

You may think that you actually feel worse or that the treatment is not working at all during a cleanse. Do not despair. These are all signs that your treatment is working and that your body is going through the process of cleaning itself of impurities, toxins and imbalances. Such reactions are temporary and can occur immediately -- or within several days, or even several weeks, of a detox. Symptoms usually pass within 1-3 days, but on rare occasions can last several weeks.

If you are suffering from a major illness, the symptoms you experience during the healing crisis may be identical to the disease itself. A cleansing, purifying process is underway, and stored wastes are in a free-flowing state. Sometimes discomfort during the healing crisis is of greater intensity than when you were developing the chronic disease. This may explain why there may be a brief flare-up in one's condition. Often the crisis will come after you feel your very best. In fact, most people feel a surge of energy during the first few days of a cleanse. It is at that point that your body dumps toxins into the blood stream for elimination. Thus the healing crisis. Do not be upset. It means your body is eliminating the toxins. Go as slowly as your body needs to so that your elimination is gradual and comfortable.

With a more serious condition there may be many small crises to go through before the final one is possible. Everything must be considered and given its proper place in the build-up to a healing crisis. You should expect it and work with it.


The Herxheimer Reaction - Feeling worse before feeling better

The Herxheimer Reaction is a short-term (from days to a few weeks) detoxification reaction in the body. As the body detoxifies, it is not uncommon to experience flu-like symptoms including headache, joint and muscle pain, body aches, sore throat, general malaise, sweating, chills, nausea or other symptoms.

This is a normal â€â€

Dear Meso,
Thank you for posting those notes. I have experienced all of what was explained, and now I see why each day on our cleanse is drastically different. One day you feel like you have the flu, the next you feel fine. One day you have to sleep by 5PM and think you are dying and the next night you are alert til midnite. It is all healing crisis amazing healing going on within the body. YEAH!!! We are saving so much distress for ouselves that was coming for us further down the road! MC is the state of the art health care for the body. PREVENTION Rocks!

Happy New Year,
Shiva

Gearing up for another fast myself. I need to do another 21 days.

Weird isn't it? I was convinced I had the flu a couple times and quit. Never again. I can't wait to begin this fast!

Happy New Year right back at you, Shiva!

I just finished reading your notes page and all the cool responses to it. Thank you so much. I usually read my morning emails while sipping on a hot cup of coffee, but not today...today I sipped on lemonade instead. I tried the swf and was not quite able to get as much down as intended. I think tomorrow, I will try 1tsp. of sea salt with 16oz. of water and then simply repeat the process until I can wrap my brain around salt water gulping. It's just plain nasty, but according to all the posts, not only necessary but imperative for a successful MC experience. Thanks again for everything. You rock!

Blessings,
Butterfly

"Dance as if no one is watching"

Shiva is a Hindu God responsible for shedding old habits. the destroyer. represents basic goodness, truth and beauty. This is where I take my nickname to be blissed out with the God of the destruction of my old habits and standing in truth, beauty and Goodness.


"…when your lips move yeah your heart sings
but you always hesitate…
cause you're waiting to be what you already are
you're the only one left in your way...
waiting to be what you've been from the start
and you don't have to wait another day."





FASTING WITH PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS
Heart Disease
Toxins in the blood and reduced blood sugar levels may cause a weak heart to labor, taking wheatgrass with MC will help your heart tremendously. Like any other organ, the heart needs nutrients, a toxin free environment, and time to heal. Also if one has the disorder of POTS it is advisable to take salt so that the blood pressure does not get too low.

Hypoglycemia
balance the blood sugar level with MC program, not a problem. Wheatgrass with this will also be very helpful

Kidney problems
Fasting can irritate damaged kidneys due to the amount of toxins they filter. Try short juice fasts of 3 to 5 days before progressing to longer fasts.

Liver Disease
The liver can become toxic due to abuse. If the liver is badly degenerated, cleansing must be done in stages. Start with short fasts and lead to fasts over five days. Avoid heavy proteins, refined flours and fatty foods. Eat meals of fruits or vegetables between the fasts.

Age
Nobody is too old to fast - it is exactly what the body needs to feel young again. Shorter fasts are recommended to start. Assess your physical state as you proceed. If fasting becomes too intense, bananas and avocados will lessen the intensity by slowing the cleansing.

Ulcers
Fasting on MC will help significantly. It will not irritate the condition.

Healing Crisis
(The cleansing reaction, the detox reaction, or the Herxheimer reaction.)

During your fast you may enter into a healing crisis, which indicates that a deeply seated sickness is being healed, but also this means that you are going in reverse through the reactions that you went through as your sickness progressed. This is normally a good thing, because it shows that there is a major healing happening, but the downside is that it is not easy to go through because of the uncomfortable reactions that cause pain, etc. If you are feeling quite ill then you should try to determine what is going on with you.


GOING OFF YOUR FAST
"It’s a fact that eating causes a cycle of hunger. It’s only when we stop eating that we lose hunger! Think about it. All fasting experts agree that hunger sensations are usually lost on or shortly after the third day of fasting, and sometimes don’t return for weeks, but when they do return, usually very strongly, it’s the time to break the fast."

But all fasting experts point out that it is important to resume eating very lightly, and very gradually, in exact relationship to the duration of the fast. Therefore, if breaking a 40-day fast, you may want to start with only small quantities of fruit juice for several days up to a week, before actually resuming with solid food like regular fruit.
Important:
Keep the first solid meal light and simple even though the mental temptation to dive into heavier favorites will probably be high. Be gentle with your digestive system and your digestive system will not only thank you but the overall benefits of the cleanse will last much longer. coming off of MC our first day will be on juices. Your first solid meal should be fruit or raw vegetables The next meal may include heavier items such as our veggie soup.... in any case you will notice that your body is very sensitive to what you eat and you should use this period of transition to learn more about what your body likes and doesn't like you to put into it.

When waking up a slumbering digestive system, the desire to eat will be intense. The flavors and textures of food will be enhanced by super clean nasal passages. Eating will be a brand new experience. This is the time to flex your new-found muscles of discipline and self-control. As the body screams, I want more, wisdom whispers, you have had enough.

Eating small amounts of raw fruits and vegetables for the first five or six days will allow the body to gently wake up the digestive system. The body will continue to detoxify and cleanse during this period. Any toxins that have accumulated will begin to move due to the sweeping action of the soft fibers of fruits and vegetables.

For six days gradually increase the amount of raw fruits and vegetables in your diet. To break a fast and gorge on meat, bread or junk food will be disaster. Jarring the system this intensely when the digestive system is in a sensitive state can cause stomach cramps, nausea and weakness, negating much of the benefits of the fast.

Eat slowly and chew your food well. Saliva has enzymes that assist in digestion. Up to 80 percent of the starch, 30 percent of the protein and 10 percent of the fat can be digested by the enzymes in saliva.

Do not overeat! Discover the amount of food that your body needs to live a vibrant, healthy life. Discern the difference between cravings and hunger. Never feed your emotions.

When breaking a fast over ten days, the break-in period should be extended one day for every 4 days of fasting


DRINKING WHEATGRASS

Wheatgrass Juice is a wonder cleanser!!! It has been proven over many years to benefit people in numerous ways: cleansing the lymph system, building the blood, restoring balance in the body, removing toxic metals from the cells, nourishing the liver and kidneys and restoring vitality. One ounce of wheatgrass juice has the vitamin and mineral equivalent of 2.2 pounds of fresh vegetables. It contains most of the vitamins and minerals needed for human maintenance, including the elusive B12. Many of the benefits of wheatgrass juice stem from the fact that it is a living food, which is a complete protein with about 30 enzymes and is approximately 70% crude chlorophyll. I would never think of fasting without adding it to my program. On days I forget or run out, I feel so tired, and with it inside me, I feel incredible!!! I am now on Day 32, and believe me I would have never made it here without it.

To detoxify my blood and to maintain my excellent health and vitality I drink daily 6 to 8 ounces of freshly pressed wheatgrass, while I am fasting on Master Cleanser program. I grow my own wheatgrass in flats by my windows. Wheatgrass played a major role in my health recovery of arthritis during this cleanse and did so in the first 20 days. I use the Wheeteana electric wheatgrass juicer. Easy to buy used on ebay. I drink 6 to 8 ounces everyday to detoxify my blood and to maintain optimum health and vitality.

The only side effect is that if you drink too much you can detox too heavily. So start on day one with one ounce. Day Two on two and stay there for a few days. By the end of your first week you should do 2 ounces twice a day. If you go long term, you build up your tolerance to 4 ounces twice a day. It's awesome. My body just loves it.


Humans live on one-quarter of what they eat; on the other three-quarters lives their doctor."--Egyptian pyramid inscription, 3800 B.C.

"Life is slow suicide. Nine humans in ten are suicides."--Ben Franklin

"Very few people know what real health is, because most are occupied with killing themselves slowly."--Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Prize winner.


Fasting's greatest benefit is awakening to our true nature. Twenty-five centuries ago, at the end of a six-year journey into the human interior, or search for truth, Prince Siddhartha Gautama, 36, sat down under a fig, or Bodhi, tree in Bodhgaya, India. There, he fasted 49 days, achieving Enlightenment, or the Awakened State, during the process. ('Buddha' is Sanskrit for 'Awake'.)

Five-hundred years later, Christ, after disappearing without a trace during his most formative years--13 to 30, when he emerged from obscurity, asked John to baptize him, fasted 40 days and began his three-year ministry by proclaiming: "The Father and I are One!"--promised us we can be, also, by seeking the "Kingdom within".


Certain times and occurrences within each life transform that life forever. This 40 fast has been that occurrence for me, it has been a very challenging event, that has not only healed my physical body, but my mental, emotional and spiritual bodies as well. I am now at day 36, and can honestly say that I am in the midst of a total transformational phase in my life, all thanks to Master Cleanser, and this forum, for getting the support I needed to stay the distance. I have experienced a complete rebirth here on day 36, and I still have 3 more to go on the lemonade, and then there is the 20 day period coming up of the rebuilding phase. My first week of this will be a juice fast. So my body will still be in detox. Detox doesn’t stop until the gears go back to digest. So its really a 47 day cleanse for me… then onto raw foods for the rest of the summer and hopefully for life. I can’t get over how it feels to be in this clean of a body. Even my personality has changed. I am much lighter and soft, and full of joy, feeling deeply peaceful, and balanced. I am renewed right down to a cellular level. I forgot how good it felt to be like this. I think the last time must have been when I was a child. I am barely drinking the lemonade all day, have no hunger at all, but energy through the roof. So amazing how well MC works. I really just need to acknowledge the progress I have made in my life from doing this program and going the full 40 days. To honor the place I now stand. This has been a shamanic journey for me, a path of initiation. I am now at place where I have never dreamed possible. I am reborn into a whole new reality. Aum!!! From this vantage point 36 days into the program I can tell you, it is sure worth the challenges that lie before you to get here. What an amazing gift I have given myself. I have a brand new body, mind, and spirit. Rebirth, Progress, Freedom, Transformation. All these words describe this path. I encourage you to keep paddling out to the deeper waters… its amazingly beautiful out here!!!!!! This is an inward journey and you are responsible for the outcome. I feel like a space craft moving over open waters, with complete freedom and liberation. The healing that has happened for me is beyond measure, and you can have this gift too. If you act from a place of clear intention and listen to the wisdom of your heart. It will change the face of your life. It has erased the pain that I was carrying inside of me, and that has been one of the most amazing gifts of this process. The detox and healing is so much more than just a physical one. There is spiritual rebirth awaiting those who do the longer fasts. I strongly encourage those of you who really need a new lease on life, to accept this challenge, and stay the distance, the healing you will experience is beyond measure. Infinitely, it will change you forever. You will never be the same, not ever, ever, never.
_________________

HOW LONG SHOULD I FAST?

Ordinary fasting lasts from 1 day to a few months. This mostly depends on amount of accumulated fat you want to get rid of. For burning 2 1/2 pounds of fat, one needs to fast from 2 to 4 days. So, if one is 45 pounds overweight, he/she can prolong the fasting by 40 to 80 days. The main heal fasting takes from 1 to 40 days. Generally, the longer the fasting the better the results. In most non-overweight cases fasting shorter then 2 weeks may not give lasting results. In case of an overweight person, more time for losing the excess weight should be added to the main heal fasting time.

Your first fasting can be done at any time, make it just for 24 hours. After a week or so, you can fast for 3 days and nights. Next fasting, after taking a break for some time, can last for 5 days and nights or for a week. Later, having already so much self-confidence and experience, you can easily fast for 10 days or (better) for 2 weeks. Having experienced fasting for 2 weeks, you can easily and confidently fast for a few weeks. From a biological point of view, for the average (not under- and not over-weight) person, 40 days fast often causes miracles. It certainly did for me!!!!!! It deeply biologically rejuvenates our body. (it's visually and clinically proved fact), eliminates almost all diseases (some illnesses like old cancer needs 2 or 3 fasts), removes wrinkles, and makes the hair darken and/or grow anew, not to mention advantages resulting from the loss of excess fat.


It should be understood that the fast itself is an important diagnostic tool in determining duration. The signs and symptoms that occur during the fast provide faster with important information about the nature of the underlying conditions.

Although an experienced master cleanser faster can estimate the length of a fast needed, none of us have crystal balls. It is important to go into the fast with a willingness to allow the body to tell us what is indicated. The idea is to fast as briefly as possible, but as long as necessary to allow the body to generate and resolve any possible healing crises that might result.

In the past, the concept of fasting “to completionâ€Â

Thanks again Shiva, you are resourceful, helpful and an inspiration to us all!

Wow, thanks for posting all this information. I only had time to scan it this morn but what I read was great. This is the first extended fast I have ever done (I'm on day 11). I started fasting once a week as a teen but over the years my habits have become toxic. This fast has definately reawakened bodily feelings that I had attributed to my youth but am now realizing they were due to regular fasting. I will appreciate a thorough read of all this infomation later.
-lady

The Herxheimer Reaction - Feeling worse before feeling better

The Herxheimer Reaction is a short-term (from days to a few weeks) detoxification reaction in the body. As the body detoxifies, it is not uncommon to experience flu-like symptoms including headache, joint and muscle pain, body aches, sore throat, general malaise, sweating, chills, nausea or other symptoms.

This is a normal â€â€

Shiva, I am always amazed by the plethora of information your mind contains regarding not only this process, but juicing, healing, and detoxing alike. You should write a book Thanks for the valuable information yet again!

WHY IS THIS POST NOT STICKIED!!!?

I'm on day 9 of my first MC and Fast ever... things are going great... but would have loved to have found this information earlier.

Thanks!

Thanks Shiva ... this is a great motivator! I may try wheat grass on the fast. I love it ... but I'm worried that it will make me hungry. Does it?