Staying Healthy During ‘Cold’ Season and Start a Spring Detox with Dr. Elson Haas
Listen to the podcast and view the video at www.UnderstandingAutoimmune.com/Haas2
Dr. Elson Haas, Founder and Director of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin, one of the leading Integrative Medical Centers in the country joins us to talk about staying healthy for Spring with a spring detox.
“This is how I want to feel” so I shifted my attitude: “This is the only body I have.
SHARON: I haven’t done a spring cleanse. What is it and is it safe with autoimmune?
DR. ELSON: I do it differently. In January, I do an online detox group where people clean up their habits. It’s two weeks. You’re still eating food. You’re just getting rid of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, wheat, dairy, heavy foods such as red meat, fried foods, and etcetera. You’re eating really simply. My detox diet is mainly steamed vegetables for lunch and dinner, some fruit and grain in the morning. You’re still getting to eat three meals a day; you’re just eating different things than you might.
So that’s what I do in the colder time of the year.
Now, juice cleansing has really awakened me in my health. I do that the first time in the early to mid-spring. And this juice cleanse is called “Lemonade Master Cleanse” ─ lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, water ─ and you just drink that all day. We’ll get into that as we talk about spring cleansing.
The first time I did that, it was very dramatic for me. When I was growing up, I ate the American diet. I ate a lot of sugar and junk, a lot of red meat, fried foods, burgers, fries, sodas, milkshakes, and etcetera. I was overweight all through my childhood and even in college and medical school. And I had allergies. I called them “allergies” because I would wake up congested and I’d blow my nose. I could not sleep well because I was always congested.
I went to hear this talk by this gentleman Stanley Burroughs who wrote a little book called ‘The Master Cleanser’ and he was talking about things that I didn’t learn in medical school. I was about a couple of years out of medical school into practice. I said, “I didn’t learn any of these in medical school. I’m going to try this.”
He talked about doing a 10-day juice cleanse. I said, “Okay, what have I got to lose?” So I started it and I felt pretty crummy for a couple of days. But the third day, I remember, was a shift. I woke up clearheaded. I slept for five hours. I woke up energized and I started to feel vitality and a clarity that I hadn’t had; and I was twenty-seven years old or so.
I said, “Wow!” and I went through the next week. I started to feel clearer and lighter. My body let go of twenty pounds. I had energy all day. I slept better. I slept less and had more energy when I woke up.
I said, “This is how I want to feel” so I shifted my attitude: “This is the only body I have. I’m going to treat it well. I’m going to treat it with love.”
I started eating better. I started reading books on natural health and a lot of books on herbs. I started intensively studying herbal medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, mind-body that I call “healing from the inside out” where we really tune into the conflict that represents the diseases and the problems that we have…. I started doing a three-day detox every new moon and got myself to where I was really tuning into my habits and my overeating and all that.
That attitude has really carried with me forty-seven years later. I’ve done, at least, a 10-day juice cleanse every spring. I ‘drag ‘thirty or forty people to do it with me. It’s a fun thing and I’ve initiated thousands of people into this process. To me, it’s a good place for people to learn about what works and doesn’t work.
It works great for the right people. People who shouldn’t do juice cleansing are people who are already a little depleted, people who are weak, people who are anemic, people with low thyroid, advanced diseases, pregnant women, and nursing moms. They need some different adaptation. (Contact Dr. Hass or other health-cleansing professionals to guide you through the process.)
But there a lot of things that juice cleansing and detox programs can help benefit, and that’s any kind of inflammation, aches, and pains, digestive upset, skin rashes, headaches, allergies, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. It helps to rebalance diabetic patterns.
I’ve seen it in so many because I’ve been doing groups for forty years so I get to experience what people go through. The hardest part is getting your mindset going and getting started. And even every year, it’s like, okay, I’m starting tomorrow. I finally get into it and once I get into it ─ wow, because you feel so good, typically.
Not everybody but I would say that nine out of ten people feel better than usual in the midst of their cleansing.
SHARON: I’ve heard, though, that the first couple of days ─ and you even mentioned that the first couple of days were tough for you and that tends to stop people all of a sudden. They’re like, “Oh, man, that first day, that second day wasn’t any fun.” But that’s when the body is shifting and recalibrating, correct?
DR. ELSON: You’re also detoxifying. Typically, if you’re a coffee drinker and you stop drinking, you’re going to have a headache for a day or two. If you’re a sugar user and you stop using simple sugars or added sugars, you might feel emotionally upset for a little bit. You might feel fatigued or irritable.
But, for most people that passes pretty quickly. All these symptoms usually pass in the first couple of days. And not everybody experiences that.
I experienced that the first time but, subsequently, usually, within a few hours, I started to feel better and I felt my energy shifting to that cleansing mode. And it’s a way that I’ve kept my body in balance, I think. At seventy-one, I still feel good. I don’t take any medicines.
And if I had continued eating my family’s diet and living the lifestyle of a typical American program, I’d be on several medicines for blood pressure, cholesterol, probably early diabetes, and all that; and I think it’s because I’ve eaten wholesomely and given up certain things in my diet.
I don’t do four-legged animals. For forty years, I don’t do much dairy food; I never drink milk anymore. I grew up on that. When I was growing up, I was drinking four glasses of milk a day. And the doctors said, “Yes, that’s what you need” and you can expect to have four or five colds a year.
Guess what? When I got off of drinking milk and eating a lot of dairy, I didn’t get sick very easily anymore; I hardly ever got colds. Maybe once a year, I might get a couple of days of sniffles or something like that.
But it really changes. And what I learned is that when your body is healthy ─ and that means your body is clear and clean and a little bit more alkaline ─ you don’t get sick. Healthy bodies don’t get sick very easily. And a healthy body means healthy tissues, healthy cells.
SHARON: Thank you Dr. Haas from www.ElsonHaasMD.com for sharing your expertise and wisdom with us today. Find the complete audio and video of this interview http://www.understandingautoimmune.com/Haas2
And, thank you for coming with us on another great adventure of Q&A. Remember to join the Courage Club!
Everyone, join me next Friday for another one.
In Joy!
Sharon
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