In the Name of Health
We’ve explored weird “treatments” before when I shared the story of the time I accepted the invitation to brain surf an unlicensed healer who insisted her method of rubbing electrodes over the body would cure my hip and shoulder pains.
I experienced no relief after suffering through five sessions.
But that was before I understood the bare minimum certifications and licenses that healers carry, or don’t as was the case in that story, and how that varies from state to state.
Today, I want to share another weird thing I’ve done in the name of health.
Quick reminder and caveat before we proceed: today’s missive is an invitation to do your own research. This is a memoir of my experiences and journey toward robust health, not medical advice!
This treatment came into my awareness when it was highly recommended by my own licensed medical doctor. I plan to more thoroughly review Dr. Fong’s Cleanbody Health program, but for now, let’s cut right to the dramatic crescendo. All the expensive tests, supplements, ways of eating, and ways of detoxing over her four month program prepares her patients to execute her version of THE AMAZING LIVER AND GALLBLADDER FLUSH.
What Goes Up Must Come Down, But What Goes In May Not Come Out
The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush is a book authored by Andreas Moritz. But I didn’t know about the book when I did my first three of four flushes. If I had only discovered the book, I don’t think I would have completed even one.
Why? Because the book is not well organized and its tone is definitely of the woo woo persuasion. Plus, many of the steps the reader is invited to follow are extreme.
Extreme in the style of Fear Factor: demanding the drinking of a large quantity of unpleasant liquids.
Dr. Fong, by comparison, has done the flush many times herself and has now monitored hundreds of her patients through the process. She tinkered with the method, swapping as many liquids for pills as possible to still achieve the same results. She is also not very woo woo. She consistently tries to teach her patients the scientific processes of the body.
At its root, both Moritz and Fong claim that modern foods and modern life tax the liver and gallbladder.
It turns out gallbladder removals are one of the most common surgeries in the US with 1.2 million performed per year. When a Standard American Lifestyle unfolds over a lifetime, it’s not serving these particular organs.
The liver and gallbladder are a team. The liver produces bile and the gall bladder stores it and releases it whenever we eat a meal including fat. Bile is necessary to break down fats in the diet.
When a diet has a lot of saturated fat and little fiber, gall stones can develop. And we may never feel them forming. Many folks may not connect their eczema, irritable bowl syndrome, or migraines to over-taxed organs.
But how do we “clean” organs that already have self-cleaning modes? Moritz and Fong suggest we flush them.
How to Fawoosh a Gallbladder
Both my partner and I have experienced eczema. Once mine started showing up on my face, I bought into the Cleanbody Health program because Dr. Fong had had eczema herself and had been free of it for over a decade. I was committed to trying almost anything Dr. Fong suggested.
So here’s what I did.
First off, I was prepared for the flush with two months of regimens to support my gut, kidneys, and liver. Many of these lifestyle changes did have a positive impact, and I’ve shared many through Project 100. The things I haven’t yet shared boil down to eating predominantly vegetarian, food combining, and consuming about 20 pills of supplements per day, at different times of day.
Second, there is a preparation stage where you test the new supplements that the flush requires. Whenever a new supplement was introduced, Dr. Fong recommended taking level one and proceeding each day to the higher dose until I reached optimal dosing without any adverse reactions.
For the flush, taking epsom salts is required.
“Level one” of epsom salts is five capsules. The goal is to achieve a bowel movement an hour or so after ingesting the salts. If you don’t have one connected with five capsules, the next evening you take 10 and see what happens. For me it was nothing, and on day three I tested 15. Still nothing happened. So 15 was my number.
This is the first place Dr. Fong’s method differs with Moritz’s: the book insists you dilute this amount of epsom salt into water and drink it. Dr. Fong says no need to suffer in this particular manner, take pills.
The second way they differ? In taking malic acid. Malic acid occurs naturally in apples and cherries, though it’s more concentrated in the latter. Thus Mortiz’s method includes prepping for the flush with three days of ingesting large quantities of cherry juice or even larger quantities of apple juice. I tested the malic acid, too. No adverse reaction happened.
The last tests were two Cleanbody branded supplements called Tox Bind and Gut Restore. All clear and ready to proceed.
Once all the testing is done, a flush is a nine day process. No animal protein is meant to be consumed through these nine days.
Days 1, 2, and 3: the bile ducts are opened by taking the malic acid.
Then the real magic happens on Days 4 and 5.
On the morning of Day 4, Dr. Fong encourages patients to have a professional colonic. If it’s not available, she encourages a do-it-yourself enema. Her method also encourages eating lightly this day, including a morning drink of lemon juice and flax oil, a fruit smoothie, and a pureed beet, carrot, celery, and potato soup. Or she offers that you might not eat at all and only consume a green juice or lemon and water. If you eat food, you stop at 2pm that day. You can still drink water.
At 6pm, you consume one set of epsom salts (yours might be 5 or 10, mine was 15).
At 8pm, you consume the next set of epsom salts (another 15!).
At 9:45pm, you consume half a cup of lemon juice mixed with half a cup of olive oil. This is the hardest part of the flush in my opinion. I held my nose and used a straw.
Next, you lie down in bed on your right side (the side of the body where the liver is located) for 30 minutes.
You then can go to the bathroom if needed and off to bed. No fireworks at this stage.
You must wake between 6 and 8am on Day 5 and CONSUME ONE MORE SET OF EPSOM SALTS (yes, you’re counting correctly, I downed 45 pills!).
You will start to feel grumblies in your tumblies.
And then you will urgently need the bathroom for a long stretch of the day.
If you’re so inclined, you can find photos and YouTube videos of folks sharing their graphic experiences. I’m not going to share any photos here.
But I have to describe what comes out!
It’s wild.
From pea-sized to golf ball-sized. Hundreds come out.
From tan to alien green.
What comes out is cholesterol, chaff, and early stage gall stones.
It’s amazing AND gross.
You hold off eating on Day 5 until noon. Again keeping it light once you eat again. Dr. Fong introduces the Tox Bind supplement to help remove as many heavy metals and other taxing substances each evening, through to day 9.
Day 6, Dr. Fong encourages another colonic or enema. You can return to eating more food, but keeping it vegan through Day 9.
And that completes one flush.
Remember, I’ve done this four times.
Why?
Because I felt a boost of energy each time I did it.
Will I do it again?
I believe I will, however, I went away to Mexico and focused only on this program for two months.
Fitting a flush into regular life is TOUGH. There is no leaving the house on day 5, for example, and beyond needing to be immediately next to a bathroom, detoxing is rough. I did not feel up to doing much while going through this process.
But if you read the testimonials of the people who leave reviews of the book or watch those available on YouTube, they are quite persuasive as to the benefits.
Dr. Fong recommends continuing with one flush per month until your symptoms are gone and then twice a year for maintenance.
Am I the only Project 100 member who has come across this method? Curious to hear comments if you, too, have done a flush like this.