As some of you may know, my mum was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. The journey since Feb 21 2014, the day of diagnosis, is a story for another time. Long story short, the Singapore oncologists gave her 6 months to live without treatment, 2-3 years with indefinite chemotherapy.

Ironically, even though they only gave my mum 6 months to live without treatment, they also said we could go for 1-2 months holiday before starting conventional chemotherapy treatment. After a lot of prayers and consideration, we decided to use the 1-2 months “holiday” to bring her overseas for some alternative natural treatments. It has been only 1 week since the natural treatments started, but she already feels more energetic after a lot of detox-ing. In fact, her week 1 CEA cancer markers after 5 days of treatment dropped from 16.5 to 13.9! Praise God!

2 of the therapies my mum will be undergoing for detox are Electro-Lymphatic Therapy and Colon HydroTherapy (Colonics), which I decided to give a try myself on my own detox Journey to Healthy Living, which I already started with baby steps in Singapore by wearing negative ion clothes since mid March 2014. Negative Ion clothes deserves another entry in itself which I will write in due time. I started experiencing some detox reactions (pimples, rash) on my right which is where I usually tend to ache more.  2 weeks after I started wearing only 2 pieces of negative ion clothes, I was surprised I had zero menstrual cramps! So I was very keen to try the Electro-Lymphatic Therapy and Colon HydroTherapy (Colonics) for further detox because I have now learnt the hard way that prevention is truly better than cure when it comes to health!

And given so many of you readers love to EAT, I decided to write this entry to encourage all of you to also DETOX, so we can keep healthy to enjoy more food, travels and have the energy to help others! This entry will cover Electro-lymphatic and Colonics will be another entry.

Our Lymphatic System

I don’t know about you, but I knew nothing about the lymphatic system before this journey, except it was called the lymphatic system 😛 So, I will first give an introduction on our body’s lymphatic system before going into my Electro-Lymphatic Therapy experience. Most of the information on this post has been kindly provided by Ms. Brandi Owens, who is the super-expert in the lymph system and the electro-lymphatic. Glad I got to meet her here in Asia when she was here for only a week to train the local staff.

Here are some fun facts on probably the most ignored system in our bodies – did you know that:

• The lymphatic system is a large network of one-way vessels that follow closely with our blood circulatory system?
• Our key lymphatic organs include the spleen, tonsils, thymus, bone marrow?
• We have somewhere between 600-700 lymph nodes in your body?
• There is 2 -3 times more lymphatic fluid in your body than blood? Interstitial fluid (the fluid spaces of your body), representing 70% of lymphatic fluid, touches nearly every cell in your body?
• There is no pump to move the lymphatic system, that your skeletal muscle movement and deep breathing exercises are primarily how lymph fluid is moved?
• The infection fighting cells of the body are called lymphocytes. And there are <1% of lymphocytes found in the blood, that the majority of lymphocytes are found primarily within the lymphatic organs and tissues? 

Therefore, our lymphatic system IS our immune system, and it is how our body defends against bacteria, toxins and waste. Almost all chronic diseases are linked to inflammation, which is directly related to an impaired lymphatic system.

I have always been falling sick easily since I was young, with tonsil infections and sore throats especially when I don’t get sufficient sleep, so thinking back, I am surprised none of my doctors ever told me to look into my lymphatic system that influences the immune system!

And if this is too much health talk for you, for you beautiful ladies out there who beauty conscious and/or if you have always struggled with higher than healthy body weight (like me), did you know that the only way to move fatty acids through the body is through the blood/lymphatic system? And our most hated “cellulite” is primarily blocked fat cells full of lymph fluid with metabolic and toxic waste.

 

So even for relatively healthy people, I now believe it is important to maintain a lymphatic system for upkeep our immunity When functioning properly it effectively cleanses our tissues, aids in cellular repair and eliminates toxins. Our body knows how to protect, heal and function at its best with an optimal functioning lymphatic system.

Quoting Ms. Brandi Owens, imagine a large jar filled with marbles, and fill the remaining space with water. With a lid on you can tip the jar and see the water move effortlessly around the marbles. When you apply this picture to your body, this is what a healthy interstitial space looks like, free flowing movement of water/interstitial fluid moving around the cells. When inflammation sets in the fluid in the jar becomes thick and sticky, sluggishly trying to get around the marbles.

Imagine this happening in your body: how is food supposed to get in and waste get out? The congestion becomes an environment that alters healthy growth and allows waste to gather, restricting oxygen and nutrition delivery to the cells therefore allowing disease to happen. This is the definition of inflammation, the waste and toxic build up that gathers around the cells in the thick, stagnant water of the lymphatic system (also causes the undulation under the skin which we know as “cellulite”). When we speak of decongesting the lymphatic system, we are talking about decongesting the terrain or tissues of your body to enable optimal body health.

Possible causes of lymphatic congestion (I am so guilty of many):

• Lack of exercise
• Poor food choices. Eating lots of processed foods void of nutrition e.g. high sugary foods/drinks
• Chemicals such as pesticides and heavy metals, poor water quality.
• Environment, such as pollution, EMFs, radiation from cell phones.
• STRESS, and shallow breathing that usually accompanies stress
• Poor management of emotions such as anger, resentment, guilt, fear
• Tight fitting clothes
• Illness, surgery or injury

What does an impaired lymphatic system look like?

•  Fatigue and sluggishness, lack of motivation
• Unexplained aches and joint pains
• Swelling or puffiness in areas of your body, or maybe your entire body
• Trouble sleeping
• Brain fog and poor concentration
• Frequent colds and flu, recurrent sinus infections
• Fibrocystic, or tender breasts, enlarged prostate issues

My Electro Lymphatic Therapy Experience

Electro Lymphatic Therapy (ELT) uses the Lymph Drainage XP2 inert gas ionization instrument, a therapeutic treatment device using energy medicine in the form of light waves, sound harmonics and inert gas ionization to painlessly break down congestion throughout our body. It felt like a massage session! Although relatively unknown, this therapy has been in practice in the U.S. for more than 15 years now.  This therapy can be thought of like a full body tissue Detox. Electro Lymphatic Therapy uses this energy medicine created in 2 glass tubes directly on the skin, to break up the congestion within the body to premove thick, stagnant lymph that is holding onto metabolic and toxic waste.  ELT utilizes a very subtle yet powerful negative ion energy field that is delivered 15cm into the body allowing this energy to reach all tissue levels to remove inflammation, remove toxic waste and improve the overall function of the immune system.

At the start of my therapy, there is this evident loud buzzing sound from the 2 glass tubes mentioned above. The therapist then rolls these 2 glass tubes through my face and neck. As it passes through areas where the lymphatic system is more congested, I can hear the buzzing get louder, as the energy is jammed and cannot pass through the tissue. For me, the buzzing gets louder on my neck to the right (I always get tonsil infections there!) and under my right arm (I ache on the shoulders on the right). The therapist also worked on the usual muscles I ache at to bring down any inflammation. Where I had aches or usual inflammations, the glass tubes felt “sticky’ over my skin, whereas it passed smoothly over healthier areas. Overall, it is a very relaxing process like a massage and I almost fell asleep!

I was warned that as lymphatic fluid is broken down by the energy, it becomes thinner in nature and is moved along the lymphatic channels and out of the body via the vascular system just above the heart. The body then eliminates the waste through respective detox organs like the liver, kidneys and skin. As such, I was highly warned that after ELT therapy, I might feel tired as the toxins that were stored in my lymph nodes will be released into the body and as my liver worked hard to process them, the liver cannot process all at one go so I might feel tired from the sudden release of toxins. And true enough, I was so EXHAUSTED a few hours after the therapy I had to take a nap. And despite drinking close to 4l of water that day, I peed out some stinky stuff through the next 48 hours, which was also an effect they warned me about as the toxins are being flushed out through my kidneys. But the day after my ELT, I feel so energetic when I woke up, something I haven’t felt in a long time. Of course, I have already booked my next therapy.

Update: On my second ELT a week later, I could hear the buzzing sound a lot more consistently, and the glass tubes were “sticky” in fewer areas. The therapist said I had less congestion in my lymphatic system compared my first session. Yay! Looking forward to fully activating my immune system. I also peed 3 times within the 2 hours of the therapy à body is detoxing the lymph nodes and dumping waste into kidney to flush out. So it is extremely important to keep hydrated.

P.S.: Electro-lymphatic therapy is meant to re-train our immune system to recognize how to flush out toxins. So long as we are eating healthily (and that I have learnt is eating RAW vegan diet), we only need 10-12 sessions of this. We are not meant to become dependent on this treatment. Only people with chronic illnesses will need ~monthly sessions for maintenance.

If I got you curious enough on these detox regimes, do check out my other entry on Colon HydroTherapy!

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Only if you are like me and curious about how the machine works, these are the technical details, furnished by Ms. Brandi Owens, as no other sites seem to give me a comprehensive and understandable explanation of how the therapy works!

1. Electro-lymphatic therapy works by producing an energy field that is applied to the surface of the skin, affecting the underlying interstitium (the fluid spaces of your body), which has become clogged or sluggish.
2. This energy moves through the tissue and knocks electrons off the proteins and cells giving them a negative ion charge which allows them to flow freely through blood and lymph. The energy field created has the ability to flush pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi from the interstitial spaces into the lymph channels.
   • A healthy person’s red blood cells already have this negative charge on the outside of their cells allowing them to smoothly move through the body. With increased blood acidity from our diets, numerous electrical and digital devices used etc, we tend to lose this protective negative ion.
3. The relaxation of muscles and expansion created by this new energy field allows fluids to flow freely. Improving the pressure differential between the blood and lymph allows nutrients, hormones and other necessary substances to flow from the blood into the cell bed.
4. Blood and lymph flow are interdependent. So whatever helps the lymph to flow will also help blood flow and vice versa

• • Disruption of the normal flow of fluids occurs by the obstructive effect of clumped red blood cells. This interferes with oxygen being delivered to the organs and tissues of the body, which in turn can cause various pathologies to occur.

Everytime I post on a topic, some people will write to me privately asking if that post was the “magic bullet” for my mum’s cancer.  Just want to clarify my mum is also undergoing other complementary treatments (I will slowly write about each one as mum recovers!):

1. Raw Diet, Vegan Diet and Juice Fast
2. Electro Lymphatic Therapy (ELT)
3. Colon Hydrotherapy (Colonics)
4. Nefful Negative Ion Clothings from Japan
5. Saline Flush, Coffee Enema, Wheatgrass Implant, Probiotic Implant
6. Vitamin C High Dose IV
7. Vitamin B17
8. Ozone Therapy
9. Insulin Potentiated Therapy (IPT)
10. Exercise with Oxygen Therapy (EWOT)
11. Breathing and Pilates

PS: We finally have a physician in Singapore offering this electro-lymphatic therapy! Here is her contact and I am so glad all of you can now enjoy the amazing therapy effects!

Physician Leong Weizhen
Oriental Remedies Inc
Address: 253 Jurong East St 24 #01-227, Singapore 600253
Contact: +65 90669088
FB: www.facebook.com/sinseh.sg

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