Cleansing Questions?
 

I'm not sure where to post this, but here goes, I am hypothyroid and am interested in doing a body cleanse called first cleanse, it is supposed to cleanse 7 body organs for 15 days, but my concern is my meds and any interactions with the herbs in this cleanse. I doubt my dr can help me, as he doesn't have too much concern about the thyroid and not very informative(I think I know more than him), but any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Well, I don't pretend to have any big answers here :) and this is ONLY my opinion. However, I AM hypothryoid and take medication for it (half of my thyroid has been removed because of a tumor) so am somewhat knowledgable in that aspect of things.

First, sounds like you need a new doctor if yours is an unsupportive as you say! Regardless, in my opinion this is NOT something you should do without having good medical supervision.

I googled First Cleanse and looked at several sites. First off, most of the easily available info is very vague... and they have prominent statements on the sites indicating that their claims have not been backed up by the FDA. One might wonder why not!! In fact quite a few sites claim it is good for "stimulation of thyroid metabolism." There are even claims you should do this instead of needed surgery or medication. But again, NOT backed up or approved by the FDA! Do the words "snake oil" ring any bells? :) And if you are on thyroid meds, doesn't seem wise to take something else which claims to affect the thyroid function.

Again, this is only my opinion. But I certainly would not do it, especially with the thyroid meds. But then I wouldn't do it otherwise either. But we DO need to take our health problems into consideration and when we have a medical condition we need to be exceptionally cautious lest we take something which could interfere with the proper working of our medication. If done at all, it should be under a doctor's close supervision.

At least that is what I think. :)

thanks for your input
 

Misti
Thanks for your input and I appreciate you advice, the only problem is there are no other docs here that no any better either. I have been to an endocronologist and she is about the same and poo poos my weight concerns too. So I really feel I am on my own and just keep my fingers crossed that I never need a med change........ I was just told that if I do a cleanse it would clean the body organs out and would allow better absorbtion of meds, so I was thinking that may speed up the metabolism, and etc, right? I have lost about 2 pounds in the last 2-3 weeks and find it very frustrating somedays. I workout either cardio or weight training everyday to balance and eat properly, but just really slow lose of weight. Anyway, I guess I will research a bit more and perhaps called my dr to see if he does have an opinion on this. The problem seems to be everyone has a different take on what is best..but in the long run I don't want to screw up my meds as they seem to be fine

Hi Shirl... Yah that is hard if you don't live where there are a lot of good doctors. Thyroid problems are "poo poo'ed by a huge part of the medical community unfortunately. And of course some people DO use that as an "easy out" by saying they have thyroid problems. But some people really DO. LOL my friends and I were laughing when I had my tumor about that.. we always blame our weight on our thyroid problems; but I said I DO and I can prove it! (Huge lump on my neck) LOL And I am fortunate too in the my doctor gave a dosage and then retested later; it was too low so she increased it for six weeks... IOW experimented and kept retesting until it was right for me. And I could tell by the way I felt, before she took the last blood test, that it was going to come out right, and it didi!

Weight loss can be slow and we always want to speed it up. It's great that you are doing more research before you do this.

If you want to cleanse, eat clean for one week and see how you feel. Your body is designed to be able to detoxify on its own. By clean I mean fresh organic friuts and veggies, organic dairy etc. Cut out ALL sugar and white starches, watch your sodium, and don't eat ANY processed foods. It can be tough, but believe me you will feel like a new person in a week. (Basically you stop putting crap in your body for a while and it will eventually catch up with the detox it should do on its own)
Don't trust things sold as "cleansers" its just not necessary, and can be dangerous...i.e. upsetting your electrolyte balances from fast fluid loss.

There's ton's of good Doctor's in Winnipeg! if you don't like yours PM me and I'll give you my doctor's name and where he works! He is fantastic and knowlegable to boot!
I for 1 would really consider getting a professional opinion before doing a clense,especially with a thyriod condition!
Good Luck,
W.

I agree with pumpingiron, eat healthy, exercise and you'll be well on your way to a cleaner, leaner body. It will take longer that what they cleansers claim, but a LOT healthier...

Cleanses are just a bunch of fiber, maybe some herbs but mainly some strong laxatives (senna?? :eek: ) that just make a person poop a lot. I can see that causing electrolyte imbalances, not to mention the inconvenience of running to the toilet constantly. http://smilies.vidahost.com/otn/funny/kloguck.gif

thanks for the input
 

Wow, I am really happy that I put the question out here, I have decided not to do it and will take it back to the health store for a refund. I do eat fairly healthy and am "regular" enough, so I can see that maybe this isn't for me. I was just hoping to speed up my metabolism so I could lose weight faster, the vicious circle of trying to lose weight fast right? I was told this would restart my body up, but I am not looking to restart my meds and get optimized, that takes forever. Thanks for all your input, may have saved me a lot of hassle in the quest to lose these pounds
:dizzy:

Here is an article just about what we are talking about, diet shortcuts...

Eatting "healthy" is not eatting clean. Alot of people get that confused. Basically to eat clean you are eatting all organic foods, in as raw of form as possible. You will have to cook everything yourself, and get almost nothing from a box. Unless its organic. Read the labels. You should recognize everything on the label or almost anyways.

Also, the FDA does not approve cleanses or ANY herb because it would have to be patented and you can patent something that occurs naturally. So dont let the fact that something is not FDA approved scare you. In fact, anyone who takes a multivitamin, Im sure it says on the bottle something to the effect of its not approved by the FDA nor is it intended to treat, diagnose, or cure any disease. My vitamin E isnt approved by the FDA but thats ok, if it were I would be afraid because that would make it grown in a lab somewhere.. and thats not ok with me. Just my .02

Oh yeah, and I dont recommend doing anything when taking a prescription medication, while most bottle herbs wont hurt the average everyday person, they may have an interaction with your medication. If you want to look into herbal remedies, maybe you could talk to an herbologist, they would know the counter effects.

This can be a confusing issue. A patent just deals with who has the right to market something by staking claims first. A product does not have to be patented to be approved by the FDA, it's completely different. The reason the disclaimer is on the bottle (usually in very tiny text) is because they have to show that only the manufacturer of the product is responsible for the claims and contents of the product, not the FDA, so you should not think that the product really does what they claim. They are not required to prove the claims unless they claim to cure a disease, such as cancer. Any claims for weight loss and better health can be totally made up and usually are. The FDA only steps in and removes a product after there have been a lot of reports of health and safety issues. However, the manufacturers are not required to report any health or safety issues to the FDA so most problems go unnoticed by the FDA. Some manufacturers have reputations for paying off complaintants so they don't have to go to court or notify the FDA.

From the FDA website:


I hope that information helps :)

I do a detox every season (without supplements) for various reasons, but losing weight isn't one of them. I mean, you may lose a few pounds, but just know that it is temporary and will be back once you resume your normal diet. Also, you aren't losing fat, but water and waste. I've done my share of reading on the subject and have never once heard of it speeding up metabolism. I'm curious to know where that claim came from. If you're aprehensive about speaking with your regular MD about it, you may want to consider speaking with an Osteopath.

I see what you are saying.. its hard for me to get across exactly what I mean because I try to stay politically correct. I personally dont trust the FDA anyways, so their evaluations do not comfort me at all. HOWEVER, thats a whole other thread on a WHOLE other issue. Basically what I meant is anything thats natural with never been approved by the FDA, for various reasons. Mostly control issues, which is like a patent.