Steps to Ease Detox Reaction Symptoms

I dived in head-first into the Butyeko breathing exercises and rapidly increased my control pause. While this sounds great and helped me get rid of congestion and mucus. It happened a bit too quickly and I experienced a seizure in the middle of the night. I don’t think this is from the breathing exercises. I think that I had been eating way too much junk food this month…hello Halloween candy and Thanksgiving pie! So, I don’t think I’ll abandon the Buteyko breathing exercises.

I also think that I will gradually clean up my diet. I have stopped eating wheat and refined carboydrates. I’ll take butter and cheese out of my diet as well. As hard as it can be to stick with the Paleo Ketogenic diet, I’m going to add that to my health protocol.

What is a healing reaction or detox reaction?

When you adopt a new health protocol, there can be a temporary worsening of symptoms. These can be in the form of a rash, increased mucus production, a seizure for people who are susceptible to seizures, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and headaches. Some people may experience constipation, diarrhea, mood swings, anxiety, cramps, and restlessness.

How to Ease Your Detox Reactions

When going through a detox reaction, your body is working to flush the toxins out of your body. They start to circulate when they may have once been stored in fat. A key to flushing out toxins is to stay hydrated. It is recommended to drink at least 2-3 quarts of water per day. This can help you stay hydrated.

Supplement with Electrolytes

While water is integral in hydration, it can also have the opposite effect if you don’t have enough minerals. It is often recommended to take electrolytes to help your body keep the water that you drink.

Avoid Processed Foods

Another thing that you may want to do to ease your detox reaction is to avoid highly processed “white” foods. Foods that are made with white flour including bread and pasta, sugar, and starches are some of the most unhealthy foods. They often increase the number of toxins in your body and the number of symptoms that you feel. They will degrade your health.

Eliminate Dairy Products

Milk and cheese are foods that many people react to negatively. Reactions from dairy can vary from weight gain to acne and rashes. Detoxing from dairy will help you improve your health whether you are lactose intolerant or just slightly sensitive to dairy.

If you are experiencing the following symptoms, it is worth it to consider detoxing from dairy.

  • Skin rashes and acne
  • Iron-deficient anemia
  • Excess mucus and congestion
  • Headaches
  • Gas and bloating
  • Vomiting
  • Loose foamy stools
  • Diarrhea or constipation

Get Plenty of Rest

Rest is an important part of healing. Your body is going through a transition and often uses more energy to detox. If you are feeling sleepy or fatigued during a new health protocol, you could be going through a cleansing reaction and you may feel better with a bit more rest.

You may want to slowly make lifestyle changes like Buteyko breathing, exercise, and dietary changes. Slowly changing your lifestyle makes it easier for your body to adapt. The severity of the symptoms may reduce if you slowly implement changes.

Get a Massage

A good massage can help to speed up the healing process as it reduces the discomfort that you may feel. Massages can increase your blood circulation and relieve muscle aches. It is also a nice way to treat yourself when you aren’t feeling well.

Easing the cleansing reaction or detox reaction symptoms can mean taking a step back, but you will ultimately feel better. Whether you are detoxifying from drugs or junk food, there is a chance that you will experience worse symptoms at the beginning. During the first few days of quitting junk food, you may experience sadness, cravings, and tiredness. These will subside over the next month.

 

 

Clear Congestion Naturally and Quickly

No one likes to have a stuffy nose or lots of mucus in their nasal passages. It is often the first sign of a cold or seasonal allergies. The cause of nasal congestion can vary from your dietary intake to daily activities. Many people find it difficult to pinpoint the cause, so they turn to over-the-counter decongestants. 

This morning I awoke with a bit of congestion in my nose. Luckily, I had found success with clearing congestion naturally through the Buteyko Breathing exercises. I knew that yesterday I had binged on Thanksgiving leftovers and there was a possibility that I would get excess congestion and mucus from them. They were delicious and I decided it was worth the risk. 

Buteyko Breathing Exercises for Clearing Congestion Quickly

The first exercise that I did was simple breath holds. I did this right when I woke up while I was lying in bed. The steps for this exercise are simple. 

  1. Pinch your nose.
  2. Start timing your breath-hold.
  3. Wait until the first urge to breathe. 
  4. Stop the timer. 
  5. Take a break. Repeat and try to extend the breath-hold.

The first few breath-holds with a stuffy nose can be shorter and a little uncomfortable. You will notice that you have the urge to blow your nose and expel the mucus. After practicing these breath holds for about half an hour, your nose should be clear and it will be easy to breathe. 

Clearing Congestion Naturally Exercise

Keeping your congestion at bay requires some daily exercise. As a society, we have gotten very sedentary and our bodily functions have become a bit impaired. One exercise that can be done while walking is the STEPS exercise. 

These are the instructions for the STEPS exercise:

  1. Take a walk.
  2. During the walk, pinch your nose and count how many steps you can take without breathing.
  3. When you begin to feel an air hunger, unpinch your nose. 
  4. Breathe normally for about a minute. 
  5. Repeat. 

This is a simple exercise that can be done without any equipment or training. It should be done on a daily basis for 30 minutes to an hour a day. Walking provides many additional benefits in addition to clearing congestion. You may find that your circulation also improves. 

Tips for Preventing Congestion

I have found that using the principles of Buteyko Breathing have helped me prevent and eliminate congestion. As a child, I suffered a lot from asthma and allergies, but since adopting nasal breathing only, I haven’t suffered much at all from these ailments. 

The following tips can help improve your health and prevent congestion. 

  1. Avoid processed junk food. 
  2. Eat low carbohydrate foods. 
  3. Take daily walks.
  4. Breathe only through your nose with your diaphragm. 
  5. Strive for good posture. 
  6. Drink water. 

Conclusion

You can improve your health naturally and quickly with Buteyko Breathing exercises. I slacked off and stopped my Buteyko practices for awhile, but found that they worked quickly when I reinstated them and stopped the unhealthy eating habits that I had adopted over the holidays. 

To learn more about Buteyko Breathing Exercises, check out this book: 

Diving Into Buteyko Breathing Again

Buteyko Breathing requires a time commitment and that is one reason that I have struggled to stick with it. However, I have noticed that my health often aligns with the Buteyko Breathing table of health. I do have severe alopecia, but in terms of my heart rate and severity of health conditions, it lines up pretty well. 

Today, I started my day with Buteyko breath holds while I was in bed. Right now, I’m writing my blog post while I am walking on my treadmill. I do plan on using my treadmill for at least one or two hours per day. 

I’m hoping to get to the rapid healing stage. I have to take weekly Covid nasal swabs and they hurt so much! I had one two weeks ago and my nose still seems a bit sore. When you get to the super health zones, you supposedly see rapid healing. Boy am I going to need that if I keep up with these nasal swabs. 

Learning the Buteyko Method

I learned the Buteyko breathing exercises from a trained practitioner years ago, but admittedly didn’t keep up with the exercises. Life gets busy. If you are interested in learning the Buteyko breathing exercises, you can find a bunch of them on YouTube. 

There are books on the Buteyko breathing exercises that you can buy. Evelyn Somrak has a five-star rated book called the Buteyko Breathing Method. Her book contains great recommendations on how to stop runny noses, congestion, excessive mucus, and suffocation attacks. 

I have regularly been able to eliminate congestion that comes after eating too many carbohydrates with the Buteyko breathing exercises. The simple STEPS exercises and control pauses help to clear out nasal blockages. I also find that breathing exclusively through your nose can help to keep your nose clear as well. 

Keys to Correct Breathing

  1. Breathe only through your nose.
  2. Breathe with your diaphragm. (Place a hand on your chest and one on your belly to determine whether you are chest breathing or using your diaphragm. If the hand on your belly moves, you are using your diaphragm.)
  3. Make a practice of exercising at least an hour a day. 
  4. Practice Buteyko breathing exercises for at least six weeks for best results. 

Earthing Experiment Day 29

Well, I failed at my earthing experiment. I forgot to use an Earthing product while I slept last night. Nothing new was worth writing about for the last two days. I wish I had more to report. I’m still experiencing a few sneezes every day, so my seasonal allergies are still going strong. My hair hasn’t grown back at all. 

My digestion is doing well. I had a nice and smooth bowel movement this morning. So, the Earthing hasn’t destroyed my digestive tract. I can’t say that it has been perfect because there were a few days last week when I didn’t have a bowel movement. I didn’t feel uncomfortable and constipated, but I probably should have had one every day.

I have good energy. That hasn’t changed with my Earthing experiment. I sleep really well at night. I fall asleep quickly and stay asleep, so that is good. I’m still hoping to see some improvement after 90 days. I’m almost 1/3 of the way there, but nothing really significant to report. 

Today, I will be staying indoors and using the Earthing products because we have a nice August thunderstorm on the way. It is pouring out right now, and I’m not big on walking barefoot when the grass is really wet. 

Earthing Experiment Day 26

So, this is just a check-in. Nothing new has happened. My period hasn’t been uncomfortable. The bleeding seems like it is stopping, so that was really short. I didn’t have a bad reaction to eating carbohydrates over the weekend. I also didn’t have any more seizures despite eating carbohydrates. 

I don’t know if the Earthing is helping or not doing a dang thing. I’m just kind of monitoring my symptoms, which don’t seem to have changed much at all. Luckily, I don’t feel terrible. The skin rash that was on my foot seems to be going away as I have been wearing shoes. 

I have been using the universal mat under my desk and at night. I haven’t really bothered with the large body band since my seizure. Since it didn’t prevent it, I’m super skeptical about whether this experiment is doing anything for my health. 

My plan had been to do more research and share that on my blog, but now I don’t want it to bias my thinking. One thing that has noticeably improved is the varicose veins. They have gotten considerably lighter in the last month, but I don’t know if there is any correlation. 

Before


After

It is difficult to photograph this area of my leg, so the lighting could be different. The area that is showing purple veins looks smaller to me. It also seems a bit lighter and less noticeable. I’m not entirely sure when the veins showed up or why they appeared on the back of my thighs. It seems like it is mostly the left leg and not the right one too. 

I will keep monitoring it and using my Earthing products in case they are making a difference. It will be telling if I stop using the products and the veins come back. It will take a while before I stop my Earthing experiment, so we’ll just wait and see!

 

Earthing Experiment Day 25

I had spotting and a seizure prior to the weekend. This morning, I had some period blood. So, my cycle has shortened considerably. The seizure is still occurring at a point where there is more estrogen than progesterone. I tend to be susceptible to seizures in the very middle of the cycle or right before menstruation. So, it fits the pattern.

Since I was traveling with my family over the weekend, I didn’t worry about the Earthing. I abandoned my gluten-free and nightshade-free diet after realizing that I was eating meat that was seasoned with paprika and chili pepper. I’m going to get back on track and simply not worry about my day of eating junk. I think I would have tried harder to be strict if I hadn’t had a seizure prior to the trip. Getting a seizure out of the way meant that the foods probably weren’t the trigger and I wouldn’t have one from them.

Today has been a day to get back into a routine. I got up and did some Pilates and archery. I was able to do some reading and writing for work. I also took a long nap. Traveling is exhausting and quite hard on the body. I was happy to see my family members over the weekend, but I’m glad to be home!

I’m going to keep on going with my Earthing experiment and report here what my results are. Hopefully, that seizure was the last one and the Earthing mat helps to balance out my hormone levels, but we shall see. 

Earthing Day 23 -24 -Does it do anything?

On day 22, I reported that I hadn’t had any seizures. That evening, I had a seizure. My hormones are fluctuating. It has been exactly two months since the previous one. It has been 14 days since my last period, so my estrogen levels are at their highest. 

My ninety-day Earthing experiment still isn’t up. I have 66 days left. Hopefully, I will see some improvement in my alopecia during this time to make the experiment worthwhile. I was so hopeful that the explanation of draining positive excess electrons would help with seizures, but I was on my universal mat in bed when the seizure occurred. 

I haven’t been Earthing while I am on my trip as much as I had planned. I kind of lost my motivation after the seizure that preceded the road trip. When I return home tomorrow, I can go back to using the universal mat and occasionally the large body band. 

I think the big lesson is that marketing is great to convince you to do something, but that doesn’t always mean that the product will work for you. I really wish that I had seen some of the improvements that other people had reported in the book. 

Earthing Day 22 – Traveling with Earthing

I will be road-tripping with my family tomorrow. This puts my Earthing on hold just a little bit. I will be taking the large body band with me, but leaving my universal earthing mat at home. I will be in the car for eight hours, so my Earthing time will be reduced. I’ll be able to use the body band for maybe 10 hours each day during the weekend. This should be fine and not really change my results that much.

There are Earthing products for traveling in a car. I don’t know quite how they connect with the earth when a car has rubber tires and moves, but there are some products. I don’t know how they work and won’t be using them this trip as it is pretty spontaneous. 

I haven’t noticed any changes positive or negative today. No new hair growth to report, but also no seizures today which is fantastic. The varicose veins on the back of my legs seem to be much smaller since the start of this experiment, but I don’t know if that is a coincidence or not. 

I have not been walking barefoot due to the chigger bites and slight rash that I have been getting on my feet. It does seem to be clearing up, so I may attempt the barefoot walking again in a few days or weeks. I’m hoping that I will be able to incorporate it into my life again, but there are many places that you can’t walk barefoot. 

My Erthe strips are falling off my shoes again. I tried testing out the continuity again and they didn’t register continuity. It did one time, so I don’t recommend the strips anymore. I think if you want to buy Earthing shoes, that is great, but the reality is that most of the places that you wear shoes won’t be connected to the Earth and have connectivity anyway. There is carpet, wood floors, and asphalt in most of the areas that you walk anyway. 

I’m still recommending trying out Earthing since it is absolutely free, easy to do, and very natural. I like the idea of connecting to the Earth and feeling its energy. Many of my friends who hike and camp report feeling much better after sleeping on the ground and walking around barefoot. And yes, I’m still optimistic that I’ll see some dramatic benefits from Earthing. 

Stay tuned for more details on my Earthing journey. 

Earthing Day 21 – Is this working?!

This morning I woke up and went to the bathroom. I felt great. No complaints. I did notice some spotting and I freaked out. Are you kidding me? It has only been two weeks since my period ended. I thought Earthing was supposed to balance everything out and make it normal. It isn’t normal to have a period every two weeks. 

As the day progressed, I didn’t notice any other period symptoms and the spotting went away. So, I don’t know if there was anything to that. I’m hoping that it was nothing. I know some people have spotting in between their periods. 

When I went on my walk this morning, I took my shoes off and walked barefoot for awhile. One tip that I have for you is to wear flip-flops or sandals that you can easily slip on and off when you are getting started with barefoot walking and grounding. I walked about 2-3 blocks and then the sidewalk got kind of rough. The grass was wet and cold and I just wanted my feet to be comfortable, so it was nice to have the option to put my sandals on quickly. 

I have not noticed symptoms that would make me think that I am going to have a seizure. I’m hitting the two-month seizure-free mark, so that is really good. I’m keeping up with the paleo ketogenic diet in addition to the Earthing. I think it is working. 

I’m feeling empowered and healthy. My energy was great today. I got most stuff that I wanted to do today. I will admit to some procrastination and a little discouragement from some disappointing news.

Earthing is easy and simple. Try it today!

My Earthing Journey Day 20

Whew! It has almost been 3 full weeks of Earthing for at least 13 hours per day. I have also made a point to get outside for about an hour per day to walk barefoot. There were a few days that I didn’t make it a full hour, but some days I was walking barefoot for over an hour throughout the day.

The only health benefit that may be related to Earthing is an absence of seizures. I’m going on two months seizure-free, but I have been seizure-free for much longer in my lifetime. Peri-menopause hit and my seizures seemed to increase in frequency, so I’m hoping that the Earthing has helped to balance out my estrogen/progesterone levels and keep them under control.

My energy is pretty good. I have enough energy to do the things that I want. I still procrastinate a bit, but that is more of a mental than a physical thing.

Now, I can’t say for sure that the rash on my feet is due to Earthing, but it arose during the last three weeks when I was making an effort to walk barefoot for an hour in the morning. The slight rash on my feet seems to be reduced in size. It doesn’t itch. It seems to be getting better. I’m not sure if it is from barefoot walking or insect bites, but my skin did get a bit irritated for a while.

Today, I decided to listen to Earthing Live with Clint Ober as he answered questions on Earthing. I like to hear his positivity and optimism about this therapeutic intervention. It definitely makes me hopeful to hear the stories of people who have had success on it.

I’ll share the link to the video that I watched today.

Earthing Live with Clint Ober

Main things I learned: 

  • Earthing is very beneficial for Lyme disease.
  • Earthing can improve fertility.
  • Grounding quiets the nervous system.
  • Grounding improves meditation by quieting the mind.

Earthing is definitely not an overnight solution for your health. It apparently has helped many people with a variety of ailments. It may take months to see results. My experience so far is that it takes a while to start seeing results. I’m still waiting for results with a positive attitude.

The great thing about Earthing is that it is simple, easy, and free. It feels great and doesn’t really harm you, so there isn’t any reason not to try Earthing. Try it today!