"How Your Body Heals Itself" by Donna F. Smith, C.C.N., C.N.

OVERVIEW OF PART I - III:
     Part I provided the "Seven Causes of the Health Breakdown Process." To know the true causes of illness and dis-ease is the first step to preventing it.
     Part II provided the "Four Stages of the Health Breakdown Process." - this means the four identifiable stages of the process from health to dis-ease. You are not simply healthy one day and dis-eased the next, your body progresses through four stages before it breaks down. Part II helps you identify which stage you are in.
     Part II also provided information on the "Point of No Return." The "Point of No Return" is that stage at which it is truly too late to improve your health. My experience is that many people think they are already at the "point of no return" and some have even been told this by previous, well-meaning healthcare specialists. However, to their surprise and delight, they experienced improved health through clinical nutrition.
     Part III provides the "Four Phases of the Healing Process." In other words, the four phases the body progresses through as it reverses the health breakdown process and heals itself. These four phases explain the key processes in cellular repair, regeneration and recovery as the body returns to homeostasis, i.e., Health. Part III shares two personal responsibilities each of us have in respect to the care of our body. Our neglect in taking responsibility inhibits the body's ability to maintain health and dis-ease eventually manifests. Part III also explains how to interpret symptoms so that you do not sabotage your own healing.

Part I:  Seven Causes of the Health Breakdown Process

HOW THE BODY HEALS ITSELF

     Each person has their own biological healing response. However, there are specific biochemical and physiological principles of healing. Your body cleanses and repairs itself from the head down, from the inside out and in reverse order from which it began to breakdown. (The "health breakdown" process will be explained in this article.) In other words, the brain, sinuses or other head areas heal before your feet and legs (head down) and internal organs and glands before your "external" skin (inside out). To understand how the body heals in reverse order, think of someone who has suffered from first chest cold, later bronchitis and then lung cancer. In other words, over the course of their life time their lungs have progressively weakened. Once reversing this processes, the person will notice lung cancer is healed first, then the person will have a one or more bouts of bronchitis, then chest colds until optimum healing occurs. The reverse order of healing, fortunately, does not take as much time as the health breakdown process. Optimum healing is usually experienced within one to five years, depending upon many factors: age, internal resistance, inherent constitution, and the severity of the health breakdown state at the time the person began following their clinical nutrition support program.
     Your body cleanses, repairs and rebuilds itself slowly in order for you to have the least amount of discomfort and allow the time necessary for healing. For some people, one to five years seems slow for optimum healing, though the health breakdown process may have taken 10-20 years. It is important to consider that it took months, even years, to accumulate the toxic poisons and nutrient insufficiencies prior to experiencing the symptoms associated with them, and in some cases, it may take months, even years, to eliminate that build-up as well as re-nourish the cells and tissues of the body with sufficient nutrients.
     Through the Science of Homeopathy, we have learned that an average estimated time for the body to heal itself is a minimum of three months, plus one month for every year of illness.
     Some body organs, glands, or systems must go through all four seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter) one or two times before total or optimum healing occurs. It takes a minimum of 3-6 months to regenerate (grow) new healthy cells. Though, for most, health improvement is evident by fewer to no symptoms by the end of the first three months. Some people become symptom free as early as three days to three weeks after beginning their nutritional protocol. Each clinical nutrition program is based upon the findings from a clinical nutrition analysis of blood and other tissues. At first health improvement may be subtle. You may even think you are imagining the improvement. However, soon your health improvement will be quite definite and clear to you.
     To know how the body heals itself, you must understand the health breakdown process and the phases the body goes through in its process of healing. You will receive this information by reading all three articles in this three-part series on how the body heals itself. When you understand the causes, which are presented in this article, the first of the three articles, you will know the dynamics involved in the body's healing efforts and be able to use this information to prevent illness and disease.

HEALTH BREAKDOWN

     The body progresses through several stages toward the break down of your health. As your health continues to break down, these stages are observed as the "health breakdown" process. Health breakdown leads to dysfunctional body organs, glands and systems and this progresses to degeneration and disease. From here, the body can break down more rapidly, until the body disintegrates (dies) and is returned to the soil of the earth through a burial service. The term "disintegration" means the body has returned to the soil and is recycled as physical matter on earth, just as nature recycles dead leaves of a tree or insects.
     From the moment of birth, your body is in a process of maintaining its health. It does this by receiving first from its care-giver, and then from yourself, the materials it needs to heal and repair itself, that is pure water, air, food, and sufficient sleep, exercise, companionship, etc. These materials build its resistance to environmental stress. Environmental stress is seen as exposures to impure water, air and food, as well as mental, emotional and physical trauma or injury.
     Understanding how to design a healthy lifestyle within the dynamics of your current environmental stresses is life's challenge. You can succeed in living a healthy life when you understand and adhere to the biochemical and physical laws or principles governing the health of human mind and body. A lack of understanding and adherence to these laws result in illness or injury - physically, mentally and emotionally.
     Your health potential, depends upon your daily choices in diet, lifestyle, environmental exposures being in alignment with the biochemical and physical laws. It also depends on how well you can adapt or respond to other stresses which you may not have immediate control. If you are unable to adapt (de-stress) to that which negatively affects your health, your body's internal resistance is weakened and it begins the process of breaking down. Once in the health breakdown process, if not reversed before the point of no return, disease, then pre-mature death will result.
     The first teachings on the biochemical and physiological laws governing the healthy function of mind and body is presented here, that is, the causes of the health breakdown process. Obtaining a clinical nutrition analysis of your health will identify exactly where you are in this process and provide the guidelines you need to reverse this process and maintain or improve your health.
     Below is a brief explanation of the seven causes which lead to health breakdown. Part II, of this three-part article on how the body heals itself, will provide the stages your body goes through as it breaks down after experiencing one or more of the following causes. Some causes may be insignificant if occurring once or occasionally in your life. However, it is the continual exposure or reoccurrence that eventually inhibits the body's ability to maintain health or heal itself.

CAUSES OF HEALTH BREAKDOWN

     According to Dr. Mark Percival, D.C., N.D., there are three main causes for dysfunction and inflammation: trauma, toxicity and insufficiency. Dysfunction and inflammation precedes all pain and suffering. The seven causes of the health breakdown process include the three causes of dysfunction and inflammation. Of the seven causes, the first two represent 5% of the causes leading to the breakdown of your health; the remaining five represent 95% of the causes, according to Dr. Yozwick of the Clayton School of Natural Healing, Doctor of Naturopathy Degree Program.

No. 1 - INHERENT WEAKNESS OR CONGENITAL DEFORMITY.
     The overall body strength or weakness at birth determines your "constitution". Health may begin to breakdown due to weaknesses or deformities with which one was born. The human body is systematic; when one organ or gland is inherently weak, it causes other organs or glands in its system to work harder to compensate. This can cause a type of chain reaction, thus causing breakdown in parts of the body which were strong at birth. Remember the old adage: "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link." The right clinically-formulated nutrients can support inherent weaknesses, thereby reducing stress or injury to its stronger systematic organs and glands, as well as supporting the weaker, inherent parts of the body. This is a very important step toward preventing further breakdown in your blood line.

No. 2 - INJURY OR TRAUMA.
     Injury or trauma may occur for a variety of reasons in a variety of ways. Injury or trauma may occur from neglect, unsafe conditions, loss of focus or attention on the task at hand or from abuse.
     In the event of an accident, physical injury or trauma occurs. To assist in a speedy recovery, nutrients, such as specific herbs and vitamins, are used to apply an external poultice for sprained or broken bones and taken internally. In this way, nutrients are used to assist healing inside and outside the body. An example I recall, was one client who injured her ankle and was hospitalized following surgery. While in her semi-private room with a woman who had, surprisingly, injured her ankle in the same place on the same foot and had the same doctor perform the same surgery. My client healed in over half the time as her semi-private roommate, and to the surprise of her physician, my client was able to exercise with foot weights much heavier and sooner than expected.
     As mentioned previously, one of the causes of illness and disease is "inherent weaknesses," however, you may also experience "acquired" weaknesses. This is a weakness that has been acquired in the course of your lifetime. In other words, you were not born with it, you acquired a weakness in part of the body because of poor lifestyle habits or an accident or injury. Because of benefits of clinical nutrition, the good news to report is that I have observed clients over forty years of age recover from acquired weaknesses, such as, athletic injuries that occurred in their teens or twenties. So even if you have been suffering for a long time from old injuries or recurrent illnesses, may not be too late to do something to assist your body in healing itself.

     Injury and Trauma includes not only physical accidents, but mental and emotional injury and trauma as well. (Refer to Cause #7) Trauma may also include the environmental affect of electromagnetic interference from electrical appliances, cables or wiring. External electrical exposures can interfere with the proper working of your body's internal electrical system. (Refer to Cause #6)

No. 3 - TOXICITY - TOXICOSIS - TOXIC POISONING OR AUTO-INTOXICATION.
     Health experts agree that the greatest challenge which our physiology (body) faces is the effective management of toxins--chemical or microbial. Toxicity is defined by Dr. Mark Percival as: 1) the quality of being poisonous, or 2) the degree of virulence of a toxic microbe (germ) or chemical substance. Besides the obvious exposure to germs which affects most people, we are also being exposed to toxic, chemical poisons from our environment through food, water, and air:

FOOD:
     If you have eaten foods or drank beverages which have been commercially canned, packaged, boxed or bottled, you have received toxins in the form of food additives, sugar, artificial sweeteners, salt, preservatives, artificial colorings, (like Yellow No. 5 or 6, Red No. 40). Because of the growing concern about ingesting toxins through our foods and beverages, a number of companies are now providing packaged foods without harmful additives. Become a Label Reader.
     Some people may wonder how foods and beverages can be sold when they have toxic additives. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USDA) approves commercial food and beverage products with chemical additives because the level is "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS). In other words, the amount of toxicity in the chemicals are minimal according to their GRAS requirements and thus considered acceptable to market.
     Here is the real problem. Let's say, for instance, your shopping cart contains 25 boxes, packages or cans. Each contains food coloring, dyes, additives, or preservatives. However, because the additives in "each" container is within the USDA minimal toxicity range (GRAS), the USDA and you, the consumer, thinks there is no health risk. You may have purchased 25 individual containers with a minimal amount of chemicals, but collectively, you have consumed an excessive amount of chemical additives. In other words, in the course of a day or week, your body has ingested 25 times the amount acceptable on the USDA GRAS List. In the United States, we allow over 10,000 chemical additives in our food supply and the average American consumes 14 pounds of additives per year, according the 1976 study by the University of Alabama. If this study was updated, do you think it would be better or worse?

TAP WATER:
     "Many people are unaware that the finest efforts put forth by municipal water companies across the U.S. today are producing water that is best used for washing, not for drinking and cooking. Why? Because it is now impossible to purify millions of gallons per day through a single water purification plant with the degree of purity that you need for your personal drinking water," according to leading analytical chemists. Yes, it is now the time in history when each individual must take responsibility for the purification of their own water, including well water. A help tip about water: filters filter and purifiers purify. Your body needs "pure" water. A filter filters or removes some larger chemical molecules but miss the smaller ones. At this writing, there are only two forms of pure water - distilled or reverse osmosis purified. For more information, contact wsnqas@aol.com.

AIR:
     Most people are currently aware of outside air pollution, yet our greatest air pollutant factor is within the home. If you currently use chemicals to cleanse and deodorize your home, you are breathing a concentrated amount of toxic poisons. Use home and office cleansers that are biodegradable and non-toxic. One easy way to tell if you use toxic chemicals is that if you can't handle the smell or you cough when you spray the contents.

No. 4 - NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES OR INSUFFICIENCIES.
     Because of the increasing amount of information on vitamins and minerals, most people are aware of nutritional deficiencies or insufficiencies as being a cause of health breakdown. Most people are nutrient "insufficient," i.e., they lack sufficient nutrients required by the body to maintain homeostasis. For example, if you have Vitamin C deficiency, you have the nutrition-related disease, called "scurvy." However, if you have Vitamin C insufficiency, you suffer from slow healing wounds and broken bones, your body is unable to absorb iron so you are often tired; or you may be getting early signs of aging, like face wrinkles.. The result of either type of nutrient depletion (insufficiency or deficiency) is malnutrition. Malnutrition speeds up the health breakdown process and can lead to early death and disintegration. After all, without food, the human body can not survive. In testing body composition, I have yet to find a new client who was not malnourished.
     The challenge in maintaining health is in knowing what your body needs and giving it no more or less than what it can metabolize. Unless you have spent years studying micro-nutrients and clinical nutrition, have access to clinically formulated vitamins and minerals which can only be obtained through licensed healthcare professions and have a method of testing your nutritional needs, you will waste a lot of time and money trying to maintain and improve your health today without professional guidance.
     Gone are the days when health was maintained by eating foods fresh from the farm and getting regular exercise. To be healthy today and in the 21st Century, you must have your health assessed through the clinical nutrition analysis of your blood and/or other tissues from a licensed, board certified clinical nutritionist (C.C.N.) to identify the various factors which comprise your health. Your lifestyle may reflect other factors which produce insufficiencies, such as insufficient rest, exercise, pure air, pure water, and sunlight. All of which further perpetuate the health breakdown process, taking you closer and closer to dysfunction to disease to disintegration (death).

No. 5 - BIOCHEMICAL OR METABOLIC IMBALANCES.
     The metabolism is the "chemical and physical processes" going on within the human body to digest and absorb nutrients from foods. From these nutrients, the metabolism is able to produce energy for mobility and to supply all the body organs, glands and systems with the nutrients necessary to function properly. To understand body chemistry in simple terms, think of one aspect of body chemistry as it relates to the proper acid and alkaline pH balance. Whether the body is too acid or alkaline, each has its own set of effects which may lead to health breakdown.
     Just as an imbalance in any structural system a carpenter creates effects the life span and durability of the structure, likewise, your body chemistry and ability to metabolize nutrients, affects your life span and ability to resist health breakdown.
     Nutrient imbalances (decrease or increase) in levels of A, C, Calcium, B-Vitamins, Taurine, Glutamine, or any other vitamin, mineral, amino acid, may lead to metabolic and biochemical imbalances. A Clinical Nutritionist (C.C.N.) interprets and utilizes laboratory tests or other evaluation techniques to assess "clinical and subclinical nutrient insufficiencies and deficiencies, then provides recommendations to raise or lower nutrient levels to reach nutrient sufficiency. If insufficiencies, deficiencies and/or imbalances are not corrected early, the human body continues to experience further "health breakdown."     

No. 6 - ENERGY-NERVE BLOCKAGES.
     Pinched Nerves, subluxations, dislocated bones, and weakened muscle tone affects the nerve and energy flow of the body. They restrict, limit, damage or block energy and nerve flow which can result in discomfort and pain and perpetuate the health breakdown process. When functional process of the nervous system and energy meridians become blocked and messages from the brain are interrupted or disconnected to and/or from the body organs, glands and systems, the entire metabolic system slows down. Think of this in terms of a radio that has a short in one of its wires, the message is unclear or terminates.
     Energy or nerve interference or blockages can occur from too much exposure to external electrical systems, such as the electrical appliances and equipment used within and outside of our home or office. This external electricity interferes with the body's electromagnetic (electrical) system and can perpetuate health breakdown.
     Therapies which work with enhancing energy flow and releasing nerve blockages are: chiropractic, acupuncture, acupressure, foot and hand reflexology, osteopathy, massage and physical therapy. When adding clinical nutrition therapy with any other therapy, the improvement experienced by the patient or client is multiplied dramatically. Clinical nutrition enhances the effectiveness of all other therapies.

No. 7 - MENTAL, EMOTIONAL OR SPIRITUAL IMBALANCES OR STRESS.
     Most people are now aware of the effects of stress on the physical body. The typical story is that of the workaholic who has an ulcer from too much work-related stress. It is also important to note that Health Breakdown Causes #1-6 can also affect brain function, thus depression, anxiety, nervousness and other mental-emotional imbalances can occur. Some people think there is something wrong with them mentally or emotionally, when in many cases it is a chemical imbalance - getting too much of the bad chemicals (toxins through air, food and water) and the body's inability to produce the good chemicals (growth hormones, serotonin, melatonin, etc.) A clinical nutrition analysis identifies what is interfering with and lacking in your body's ability to heal itself from both physical and mental/emotional traumas. Once identified, symptoms of depression, anxiety, or any mental/emotional imbalances can be improved and their cause eliminated or corrected.
     The mental/emotional trauma we may be subjected to due to our relationships with people of lower mental or emotional states can negatively affect our physiology. Thus it is important to review the affect your family, friends, co-workers, and church members have on your mind and emotions and maintain only those relationships which are supportive, accepting and nurturing to you.

     This concludes Part I of this three-part series on "How The Body Heals Itself.." Part II will provide four identifiable stages of the health breakdown process, from health to disease, and assist you in identifying the stage you are in. It also includes information on the "Point of No Return," where it is truly too late to improve your health. This series concludes with Part III, which reveals how the body reverses the health breakdown process and its process of returning to Health.

     If you suspect your health is being compromised by one or more of the causes of health breakdown or if you suspect that you are currently in the health breakdown process, you can identify the causes and reverse this breakdown process by obtaining a clinical nutrition analysis of your current health status. The recommendations from your analysis will guide you in eliminating the causes of health breakdown and assist your body's ability to heal itself. In doing this, you will soon enjoy excellent health and maintain it for the rest of your life.
    For information, contact wsnqas@aol.com.

Part II:  Four Stages of The Health Breakdown Process

     The seven causes of the health breakdown process, provided in Part I of this three-part series on "How Your Body Heals Itself," progresses through four stages before their damage becomes irreversible. To improve and maintain your health, it is important to understand how to reverse the health breakdown process before it's too late. Dr. Bernard Jensen, Ph.D., introduced this concept to me through his seminars I attended and his textbooks. Dr. Jensen referred to the four stages as the acute, subacute, chronic and degeneration stages. Later, after meeting and studying under Dr. Mark Percival, D.C., N.D., I learned he referred to the four stages as a three stage process: excretion, deposition and dysfunctional.
     I have combined their teachings in this article so that you may have a more complete understanding of the stages the body progresses through as it breaks down.
     The body's greatest challenge is the effective management of toxins. Toxins occur from exposures to chemicals and microbials (parasites, germs, etc.), as well as being a result of metabolic waste. Nutritional deficiencies also lead to a dysfunctional metabolism, which can produce toxins.
     Therefore, these four stages of the health breakdown process reflect how our body was designed to manage toxins. It is our responsibility to assist, not suppress, this natural biological process.

Stage 1 - ACUTE (Occurs from Birth to 10 years of Age), also called, the Elimination or Excretion Stage.
The Acute stage is the first stage of toxic settlement or build-up in the body. Think of it this way, the fresh, clean smell of newborn baby is a sign that this little body has few toxins. However, as the baby grows, he or she is fed impure water from the tap, food from cans, bottles and packages containing preservatives and food additives, and breathes air full of chemicals from home cleansers, dust, germ air spores, etc. Over time, the baby or toddler begins to experience its first stage of toxic settlement. When the human body had accumulated more toxins than it can handle or your life would be threatened by them, in its natural defense of anything harmful to it, it attempts its first healing response. Some people may call it the "common cold." However, what is actually happening is the process of internal body cleansing or detoxification. This is also called the Acute, Elimination or Excretion Stage, depending upon which authority you are quoting.
     When your body is overloaded with toxins, it must force them out or they will remain in the body and dysfunction or death will eventually occur. The only way toxins can released is through body openings (the eyes, nose, ears, rectum and urinary tract). When you have a common cold, you observe the mucus, pus, fluids coming out of every opening in the body. This fluid, mucus and/or pus contains toxic poisons, bacteria, dead or damaged cells and tissues, etc. A sore throat can result from toxins draining from the head and nasal passages down to the throat. A cough is a reflex action one has when these toxins are blocking the esophagus or breathing passages. The reflex action of coughing causes the toxins to be dislodged so breathing is easier. Now that you understand what the common cold is, you can understand why there will never be a cure for it. The common cold is not an illness or disease, it is a biological cleansing process of nature.
     Traditionally, we have been taught to suppress this healing response by manipulating our symptoms with the use of over-the-counter and some prescription drugs. However, through these articles and your clinical nutrition program, you will learn how to assist your body's healing process. Nutritional supplements can assist in the cleansing process so that toxins can be released from the body rapidly, thereby, reducing discomfort and promoting a faster healing response.
     An important note regarding toxic build-up from microbials (germs, such as virus, yeast, bacteria, etc.): Though these microbes may enter your body, they would normally pass through the body and would not stay long enough to settle in the tissue, but be expelled through the eliminating organs and glands (kidneys/bladder, intestines, skin, etc.). This is called, "Eubiosis." However, if the internal environment of your body is a conducive habitat for germs (dysbiosis), they will settle in the cells and tissue. Here they will feed on the nutrients you provide your body and prevent the nutrients from being utilized properly. They will also feed on waste, debris and dead cells being sloughed off by your body. Nutrients and waste is all they need to thrive and multiple inside the body. Soon, illness will follow.
     To prevent toxic settlement due to microbials, it is important to establish a healthy internal environment (eubiosis). We provide Microbial Immune Kits for our clients to assist them in strengthening their immune system and the internal cleansing of microbials, in addition to clinical nutrition programs to re-establish Eubiosis..
     Without proper elimination or excretion in the first stage of toxic settlement or build-up, the body continues to progress toward the Subacute or Deposition Stage.

Stage 2 - SUBACUTE (10 years to 28 years), also called the Deposition Stage.
     If toxins were suppressed and not allowed to be eliminated from the body during Stage 1, the body then begins to absorb the toxins. In other words, the toxins go deep into the cells and tissues, are lodged there, and then begin to either cause damage to or irritate the normal functioning of your cells, tissues, organs, glands and body systems. This can lead to further cellular contamination and lowering (or slowing down) of your metabolic processes. When this occurs, your digestive system is slowed down and symptoms of indigestion, bloating, heartburn, etc., can occur frequently. Your intestinal system is slowed down and bowel eliminations are reduced from once after every meal to once a day or less. Even if you eliminated more frequently during the day, the amount eliminated is reduced. If you do not have a bowel movement following each meal, you will benefit by learning more about bowel cleansing. Intestinal Dysbiosis, the leaky gut syndrome, also occurs at this stage. Your clinical nutrition analysis addresses intestinal dysbiosis when test results indicate.

     Internal cleansing or detoxification is accomplished primarily through taking nutritional supplements designed for this purpose. Other methods of internal cleansing comes from exercise and saunas, which produce perspiration. One of the functions of perspiration is to cleanse toxins through the skin. The more odorous the perspiration, the more toxic the body. Each of these play an important role in Stages 1 and 2 as they assist in cleansing toxins from cells and tissue. If this is not accomplished, the body progresses to Stage 3, the Chronic or Dysfunctional stage.

Stage 3 - CHRONIC (28 Years to Physical Death), also called the Dysfunctional Stage.
     During this stage, heavy accumulations of toxic poisons are now interfering with cellular activity and normal body functioning. Food and environmental sensitivities are evident, such as allergies to foods, dust, grass, hay, etc.
     It is in Stage 3 that nutrient deficiencies causing biochemical and metabolic imbalances require immediate attention in order to reestablish internal equilibrium or homeostasis. If immediate attention is not given to reverse this dis-ease process and return to homeostasis, health continues to break down, moving toward Degeneration and Disintegration, Stage 4.
Though in Stage 3, it is possible through clinical nutrition to support the body's innate healing response and reverse the health breakdown process to achieve optimum health, for some people, Stage 3 is too late.
      At the endpoint of Stage 3, 80% of diseases are detectable by medical examination. If nutrient deficiencies were not corrected and internal detoxification suppressed during Stage 1, 2 and 3, the health breakdown continues leading to disease.
      In the event of disease, it is very important to use clinical nutrition in support of medical therapy for optimum health results. Pharmaceutical experts will agree than many drugs, whether prescribed or over-the-counter, deplete the body of essential and non-essential nutrients. Additional nutritional deficiencies caused by medical treatment will further complicate and delay your body's innate healing process. Nutrition is a key factor in the growth and repair of cells and tissue. Nutrition is, also, vital to fully recover after any surgical procedure.

     If proper attention has not be given to reversing Stages 1, 2, and 3 of the Health Breakdown process, this process continues to progress towards Degeneration, Stage 4.

Stage 4 - DEGENERATION (Any Age to Physical Death)
     At Stage 4, cellular and tissue decay is occurring. This is when environmental and food sensitivities are at their worst.
     Medical science offers the services of removing the decayed organ or gland surgically, in the hopes that the person's life may be continued. There are some organs or glands, however, the body cannot live without, thus the doctor may prescribe drugs to reduce pain or manipulate metabolic processes to slow down disintegration. In these cases, death generally follows within months or a few years.
     Degeneration can occur at any age due to accidents or exposures. For instance, the media has covered incidents where industrial waste has polluted city water and caused health breakdown or disease in the young and old almost instantly. In some cases, death followed.
     Degeneration leads to Disintegration (physical death) and biological recycling. Biological recycling is where the body is returned to the earth to become part of nature again.
     Clinical nutrition can support the body's innate healing process so that it may grow and regenerate (the opposite of degenerate) new cells and tissue. Some people think that when they receive a diagnosis that they have a degenerative disease or degenerative part of the body, that there is nothing that can be done. This may be true in some cases, but not in others.
     Whether you have been recently diagnosed with a disease or have been suffering for years with one or more diseases, it may not be too late to grow healthy cells and tissue through the use of clinical nutrition. Your body has an amazing innate healing potential when you provide what it needs to heal itself and you remove all the interferences to its healing. More on this in Part III of this three-part article series on "How The Body Heals Itself."

POINT OF NO RETURN

     Somewhere within or at the end of Stage 4, think of an imaginary line called, "The Point of No Return." In other words, because of a lack of knowledge, belief or follow-through in the steps to reverse the health breakdown process and improve health, the person passes the point where the body no longer has the ability to heal itself. This is where decaying cells die in one or more body organ, gland or system. Disintegration and death follows within a few weeks, months or years.
     For those clients who are truly at the point of no return, where it is too late for your body to heal itself, clinical nutrition support of the other organs and glands within the body system can reduce the affects the decayed area would have on the healthier parts of the body or slow down the decaying process of the affected area. Clinical nutrition can enhance medical therapy making it more effective. This can mean reduced pain or fewer symptoms in the last weeks or years of their life. Many clients are very grateful for this.
     I recall one gentleman, that had reached the point of no return when I was called in on his case. He had been diagnosed with liver and pancreatic cancer with three weeks to live. He had been dismissed by his doctors as there was nothing more they could do for him.
     His son, who lived in California, was very aware of the benefits of clinical nutrition and knew if it were not too late, his father could turn this around. His son called me and requested that I make a house call to assess his father nutritionally. When I arrived at the patient's home, I observed that he was lying on his bed, unresponsive. He had to have assistance to eat, drink, and to eliminate. His eyes had no focus and he could not talk. He was lying like a vegetable upon his bed.
     His family rallied to follow-through on the nutritional protocol I recommended following my analysis. Within two weeks, he was eating and drinking for himself, going to the bathroom on his own, engaging in conversation with his loved ones, and sitting up watching television. He did not die in three weeks, he died in six weeks. His family was grateful that he was able to leave this earth with a quality of life that he did not have prior to starting his clinical nutrition program. He was able to say his good-byes and hear the good-byes of his loved ones. This would not have been possible in the state he was in when I met him. He left this earth in a functioning capacity vs. a dysfunctional one. His family also acknowledged that had they started clinical nutrition earlier on, he may still be living.
     This case history demonstrates what I was saying earlier about the importance of clinical nutrition support even if you are truly at that point of no return. Just as this patient and his family learned, the quality of death is as important as the quality of life.

Very Important Message
     Since 1981, I have assisted many clients and patients in reversing the health breakdown process and to improve and maintain optimum health, even though when I first saw them they thought they were at the point of no return. Some thought this because they were so ill when we met. Others had been told that nerves were damaged or dead, or some organ or gland was beyond repair or they only had a few months to live. It was not that their well-meaning health practitioner were inaccurate in their diagnosis, had these clients/patients not sought clinical nutrition, this would have been their outcome. Medical science has proven that unless you do something to reverse the health breakdown process and grow and regenerate cells, the cells and tissue will continue to decay until death ensues. Unfortunately, this is still the experience of people and physicians who are not aware of the benefits of clinical nutrition.
     Therefore, my important message to you is this: No matter what your health challenges, before making any decision about whether it is too late for your body to heal itself, seek first a clinical nutrition analysis from a licensed, board certified clinical nutritionist (C.C.N.), and follow the recommended nutritional protocol for a least six months.

Conclusion
     It is possible to assist the body's innate healing response so that either total or optimal healing may be reached, if you act before reaching the point of no return. (Total or optimum healing will be defined in Part III). Though some people have thought they were at the point of no return, a clinical nutrition analysis and subsequent program revealed that their body had more healing potential than they could ever have imagined.
     If you suspect you are currently in one of the stages of health breakdown, it is important to obtain a clinical nutrition analysis and follow a clinical nutrition program to assist your body's innate healing process so that you may improve and maintain optimum health. To request information on how to receive a Microbial Immune Kit, a dysbiosis assessment or a clinical nutrition analysis, contact: wsnqas@aol.com.

Part III:  The Four Phases of The Healing Process

YOUR BODY KNOWS HOW TO HEAL ITSELF
     To heal successfully, your mind and body require two things from you .....

     Observe the healing process after cutting your hand with a piece of glass. You do not command your body to heal the cut, your body has an innate, creative intelligence which knows how to heal itself. However, to heal successfully and fully, your hand does require some assistance from its environment, that is, you.

Your Two Personal Responsibilities:

1. First, you must remove all interferences to the healing process, e.g., the glass, then

2. You must cleanse and nourish the wound, e.g., cleanse, apply antiseptic, provide nutrients to promote tissue repair.

     This same principle or intelligence of healing a cut or wound externally, which you can see, is actively at work healing and repairing your illnesses and injuries internally, which you cannot see.

     No matter what your illness or dis-ease, your body knows how to heal it. You will know when your body is receiving proper assistance from you when you observe your mind and body healing itself.
     You may review again Part I of this three-part series regarding the "Health Breakdown" process to familiarize yourself with the various types of interferences which you must be aware to avoid or remove and this article will provide additional information on the cleansing and nourishing processes of healing the body.
     It is essential (in fact, your life depends upon it), that you learn how you may assist the body's innate healing process, both in identifying and supplying what your body needs from the environment and removing the causes or interferences to your body's ability to heal. Obtaining a clinical nutrition analysis of your blood and/or other tissues is the most accurate method for learning what you must do to assist your body's healing process.

SYMPTOMS - THE BODY'S COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

     Symptoms are signals from the communication system of the brain to and from other parts of the body whenever there is distress or dis-ease. Symptoms generally are a result of biochemical dis-ease. This dis-ease can be caused by vitamin deficiencies, germ overgrowth or toxins, bio-electrical dis-ease from blocked energy, or structural dis-ease from subluxations, sprains or bone fractures.
     This innate intelligent communication system is the body's way of alerting and motivating you to investigate the cause of the symptoms and to either remove the interference(s) to healing or provide what is lacking so the body may return to its proper function and homeostasis. Your initial response to a symptom should be to "remove the cause, not remove the symptom." To remove the symptom without first investigating and correcting the cause would be like turning off a fire alarm and not locating and putting out the fire. Therefore, symptoms, your body's innate alarm system, are "signals for change."
     Due to a lack of understanding the body's innate communication system, many people misinterpret their symptoms, thinking that if they are "symptom free" they are "healthy." Whereas, health is determined by optimum test results, not a lack of symptoms, such as, optimum test results received from biochemical, bio-electrical and structural analysis.
     To determine your biochemical state of health requires a clinical nutrition analysis of laboratory testing of blood, urine, saliva or other specimens, just as determining your state of dis-ease, requires a medical analysis of laboratory tests. Biochemical health is indicated by sufficient or optimal nutrient levels, i.e., biochemical homeostasis.
     Bio-electrical health is determined by Contact Reflex Analysis and achieved when all reflexes become and remain strong. Structural health can be determined by a chiropractic examination and achieved by adjusting subluxations, by physical therapy or by medical examination when casting a fractured bone.
     Traditionally, we have viewed a lack of symptoms as a sign of health. However, a lack of symptoms is not a reliable sign of health. Why? Because once you begin to supply your body with the nutrients it requires or release the flow of energy and remove the interferences to healing, your symptoms begin to leave. Just like the fire alarm is turned off after locating the fire.
     Thus, your body is truly healed and health is achieved only after completing all phases of healing. The cause, effect and recovery from a fire is an excellent analogy in understanding the four phases of healing which your body must go through in order to truly become healthy.

THE FOUR PHASES OF HEALING

     An unhealthy lifestyle, injury and distress of any kind that affects the healthy function of the mind and body can lead to nutritional deficiencies. Nutritional deficiencies then causes biochemical and metabolic imbalances, which then lead to organ or gland dysfunction and/or dis-ease. That is, unless your "symptoms", the signals for change, are understood and responded to appropriately by completing all four phases of healing, in addition to maintaining health, once achieved.

Phase I - The Fire Alarm: Properly Interpreting Your Symptoms
     The first phase of healing is being alerted through symptoms that distress or dis-ease has occurred. After reading the previous section of this article regarding, "Symptoms - The Body's Communication System," you can now understand Phase I of the Healing Process.

Phase II - Locating the Fire: Identifying and Locating the Cause through Testing and Analysis
     The second phase of healing is identifying the cause of the distress or dis-ease. This is done through having the appropriate tests and analysis performed - biochemical, bio-electrical and structural. After having the cause identified, the interferences removed and a few weeks of the appropriate therapy, the symptoms begin to leave, as when the fire alarm is turned off once the plan of action for handling the fire is underway. Though the symptoms may begin to leave in the second phase, this is not an indication that the body is healed. It is simply an indication that the changes you are making are taking you in the right direction.

Phase III - Clearing the debris, ashes, and waste resulting from the Fire: Internal Detoxification or Cleansing and Removing Interferences
     The third phase of healing is the internal cleansing and detoxifying of all toxins, germs, waste, foreign matter or debris interfering with nutrient absorption and healing or releasing blocked energy, removing the glass from a cut, etc.
     The following is a list of toxins that must be avoided and, when exposed, removed (cleansed/detoxified) from the body. Otherwise, interference to healing occurs. Some toxins are ingested and others are produced as metabolic by-products. Some examples of toxins are: alcohol, allergens, bacteria, chemicals, some dental solutions, food additives, free radicals, fungi/yeast, metals, nematodes, parasites, radiation, rickettsia, tobacco, coal tar, viruses, air and environmental pollution. Other toxins include excessive mucus, fluids, fecal impactions or blockages, calcium deposits, excess cholesterol, and solid masses, such as, cysts, tumors, warts, moles, bunions, spurs, etc.
     Internal detoxification or cleansing is accomplished through saunas, exercise, pure water, fruit and vegetable juices, and nutritional supplements. The regular uses of a sauna and exercise, alone, is not sufficient to accomplish internal body cleansing, nutrients and pure water must be utilized also. Some toxins are so deeply imbedded in the cells and tissue, that only nutritional supplements clinically formulated for the specific purpose of detoxification can successfully cleanse the body of these toxins. These are available through licensed health care professionals, specializing in clinical nutrition, such as C.C.N., N.D., and some doctors, who have completed postgraduate studies in clinical nutrition.
     Phase III usually takes a minimum of 3-6 months. In takes longer for those who are highly toxic or have a long-term accumulation of toxins. The accumulated toxins of a child is minimal compared to the amount of toxic build-up in the body systems of people who have lived for over 40 years. In the latter cases, Phase III may take 1-2 years. Once Phase III is complete, Phase IV begins automatically because the body is now better able to absorb nutrients.
     In clinical nutrition, we find that sometimes a person is too weak to begin Phase III (Cleansing) alone without the help of Phase IV (Rebuilding), therefore, their clinical nutrition program may include nutrients for both internal body cleansing and rebuilding.

Phase IV - Rebuilding the fire-damaged structure: Rebuilding, Regenerating and Rejuvenating Cells and Tissue
     The fourth phase of healing is the period in which you re-nourish the body so it can grow and regenerate healthy cells. Phase IV focuses on improving biochemical and metabolic imbalances, nutrient insufficiencies or deficiencies, and rebuilding, repairing, regenerating and rejuvenating cells and tissues. This is done with specific nutritional supplements and a food chemistry-based diet targeted to regenerate cells, to promote strong organs, glands, muscles, tissues and to improve overall health. In the case of structural health, this is when subluxated vertebrae are realigned, broken bones are casted, and so on.
     It can take a minimum of 3-6 months to grow new cells and new cell growth precedes and defines the body's ability for total or optimum healing. Therefore, Phase IV can take a minimum of 3-6 months or an average of 12-24 months. The length of time depends which stage of the health breakdown process the person was in when first beginning Phase I of the Healing Process.

Four Phases of the Healing Process - Conclusion
     Generally, the client or patient becomes symptom free during or just after Phase III. This may be experienced within a few days or weeks after beginning the appropriate therapy. However, healing is not complete until test results are in homeostasis.
     People who do not fully understand the phases of healing may discontinue their therapy when their symptoms leave, only to experience the symptoms returning within a few weeks or months, just like the fire would continue to burn if only the alarm was turned off and the fire was not completely extinguished.
     A lack of understanding the phases of healing and the true purpose of symptoms can result in a lack of adherence to their therapeutic diet, stopping their targeted nutritional supplements too soon, canceling appointments for testing to monitor their nutritional healing process or for chiropractic adjustments, medical treatment, etc. When this occurs, the person sabotages their own healing, and later must reinvest the time, money and effort again if they truly desire to become healthy.
     Those who understand the phases of healing, realize that updated analyses of biochemical, bio-electrical or structural tests are essential to monitoring the healing process and it is the updated analysis that is the true indication of health improvement when symptoms can no longer be used to gauge progress. During this phase of healing, your motivation to continue the appropriate therapies comes from seeing your improvements in the updated test results, not from the way you feel. Remember, by this time in the healing process, you have been feeling well for many weeks.

TOTAL OR OPTIMUM HEALING

     At the conclusion of the four phases of healing, you can expect to reach either total or optimum healing.

Total or Complete Healing
     People, who are in Stage 1 or 2 of Health Breakdown when beginning the "Four Phases of Healing," have an excellent opportunity to assist the body's innate healing process to achieve total or complete health improvement. This means that imbalances and deficiencies are in homeostasis, bio-electrical imbalances are corrected, broken bones are healed physically and nutritionally and all vertebrae are in alignment.

Optimum Healing
     People, who are in Stage 3 or 4 of Health Breakdown and have not yet reached the point of no return, may not be able to achieve total or complete healing due to the severity of their health when they began the four phases of healing. However, they are very pleased to achieve optimum health improvement. Optimum healing brings freedom from discomfort, increased energy, mobility and strength, etc. Others may still have a residual amount of discomfort, however, it much less intense or frequent and they are now experiencing increased energy, mobility, and their overall health is considerably improved. When continued nutritional support is provided for weaker organs and glands, the person is often considered healthy by many health and medical standards.
     It is also possible to have total or complete healing in one area of the body and optimum healing in another.

HEALTH MAINTENANCE AND PREVENTION OF DIS-EASE

     After completing the four phases of healing, it is important to understand how to maintain the total or optimum health you have achieved and how to prevent future distress and dis-ease. In clinical nutrition, once total or optimum health has been achieved, a health maintenance program is designed and a Nutritional Wellness Analysis is scheduled at intervals of 6-12 months to evaluate how well health has been maintained. Annual internal detoxification programs are designed to periodically cleanse the liver and other elimination pathways to support optimal function of the body's own natural detoxification systems.
     Preventive health care is not just understanding the proper interpretation of symptoms and acting upon them appropriately by completing all four phases of healing, it is acting before you have symptoms. This is accomplished by having an annual or bi-annual Wellness Analysis to assess:

1. your current health status.
2. how well you have maintained total or optimum healing.
3. how well you have been able to maintain your health under work and living conditions that may be beyond your control, yet have an impact on your health, such as, air pollution and vitamin deficiencies from emotional stress, etc.
4. and then to correct nutritional deficiencies or subluxations as they occur in the normal course of living, instead of waiting for "symptoms" to alert you.

     If the annual Wellness Analysis indicates imbalances or deficiencies, the four phases of healing is engaged to bring the person back to optimum health as soon as possible. Often, at this stage, it only takes a few days or weeks to re-balance the body chemistry and metabolism. Minimal cleansing and nourishing the body is needed to re-establish optimum health values. The time, money and effort invested in maintenance and an annual Wellness Analysis is quite minimal considering the investment required to restore health once a person has entered one of the stages of the health breakdown process.
     The condition of your health affects the condition or quality of your life. It has a positive or negative impact on your relationships, your work and your community. Therefore, because health is your most precious asset, it is important to take responsibility for your own health and be willing to do whatever the body requires of you to assist in its healing and health maintenance, once achieved.

CONCLUSION OF PART III, "HOW YOUR BODY HEALS ITSELF"
     In conclusion, I have provided information on the body's communication system (symptoms), the four phases of healing, health maintenance, total/optimum healing and new insights in preventive health care. After reading Part I, II, and III of "How Your Body Heals Itself," you should have confidence that it is possible for your body to heal itself no matter what your current health challenge. Though the process of healing is complex, obtaining a clinical nutrition analysis will save you time, money and effort in determining the interferences to your healing and what your body requires to heal. You may request information on how to obtain a clinical nutrition analysis by e-mailing your request to wsnqas@aol.com.

Copyright 1999 Donna F. Smith