It saddens me to think that almost everyone I talk to has been affected by cancer or known someone who has received a cancer diagnosis. We are at a time in history where almost everyone is suffering from a chronic or mystery illness. Diabetes, heart disease, anxiety, depression, thyroid disorders, and autoimmune disease are on the rise. People want answers within a health system that is designed to treat the symptoms and not the root cause of their health complaints. Meanwhile, people are getting sicker and sicker.

Like you, many people are now turning to more natural ways to increase their levels of health and heal from chronic illness. Living in the 21st century means we are regularly exposed to toxic substances such as herbicides, pesticides, radiation, and toxic heavy metals, which can have an accumulative effect and weaken our body’s innate ability to heal, causing all sorts of health problems.

If the mainstream medical industry were to look at what is causing the epidemic of chronic illness, the pharmaceutical industry would lose billions of dollars, and the chemical industry would need to be made accountable. The cold hard truth is that there is money to be made from the chronically ill and the sad thing is most doctors are not even aware of the conflict of interests that make up our health system.

We have technology that emits powerful electromagnetic frequencies that weakens our immune system and throws our energetic system out of balance. We have pharmaceutical treatments and prescription drugs that contain substances that are harmful to our health. Our food contains genetically modified organisms, and the air we breathe, the water we bathe in, and the soil we grow our food in contain toxic by-products from chemtrails. Our drinking water is filled with fluoride and chlorine, and now more than ever, there is a selection of fast-food restaurants on every street corner in every town.

Our bodies are being constantly bombarded with toxic substances, it’s no wonder we are all sick. Unfortunately, we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that we are living in a toxic world, and if we are ever going to stand a fighting chance, we must detox our bodies from these unnatural substances or succumb to illness further down the track.

When I say detox, I don’t mean adopting a 3-day juice cleanse and then going back to consuming the same unproductive foods and living the same lifestyle. We must create a detox lifestyle that is sustainable over the long term. Otherwise, our bodies won’t have the chance to get rid of what is holding it back from full health.

For over 8 years, I suffered from symptoms so debilitating they left me bedridden, and the one thing that pulled me out of poor health was cleansing. The most important thing we can do to protect ourselves from succumbing to chronic illness and disease is to cleanse. We need to be detoxing our bodies every day to remove the build-up of toxins so that we can heal and avoid becoming sick in the future.

Many people are following trendy high-protein diets. The problem with these diets is they are high in fat and protein and fat cannot be separated. A diet high in fat puts a tremendous strain on the adrenal glands, which pump out adrenaline to thin our blood. A diet high in fat also strains our liver which is most likely already overburdened with toxins, poisons, and pathogens. High protein diets create an excess amount of fat in the bloodstream, which creates suboptimal oxygen and over time, stagnant blood. Thick, stagnant blood hinders the body’s ability to eliminate pathogens and toxins and absorb nutrients, and the lack of oxygen gives pathogens an opportunity to thrive. Most of us have sluggish, overburdened, and fatty or pre-fatty livers from consuming a high fat, high protein diet and from a build-up of toxins and poisons that we are regularly exposed to.

The liver is a miraculous organ and perhaps the most overworked, misunderstood, and under-acknowledged organ in the human body. It is a key player in detoxification, and when it constantly has to process fat, it takes time away from other more important jobs like neutralizing toxins.

Stress also plays a significant role in our health and healing from chronic illness. Environmental stress from toxins weakens our immune system, which gives pathogens an opportunity to thrive, and emotional stress triggers the body to release adrenaline. Adrenaline pushes the nervous system into overdrive, and it is a number one food source for pathogens that live inside of us all like Epstein-Barr virus. The foods we consume also trigger a rush of adrenaline. Caffeine in coffee, tea, cocoa, and matcha are highly addictive, and the adrenaline highs and lows that come with consuming them send us into chronic fight or flight. Consuming fats can also send us on an adrenaline high because our adrenals have to pump out adrenaline to compensate. Over time, all this adrenaline becomes corrosive and toxic to the liver, and when the liver is underperforming, health issues can start to appear.

Eating a diet that is focused on fruits, leafy greens, vegetables, herbs, spices, and wild foods and avoiding consuming unproductive foods like eggs, dairy and gluten is the best place to start to regain your health.

There are multiple factors that need to be considered when healing chronic illness. These include our pathogen and toxin load, the health of our liver and adrenals, our elimination pathways, the lymphatic system, our diet and levels of hydration, triggers that can weaken our immune system, and lastly our emotional state.

A healing plan that does not take these factors into consideration is doomed to fail.

If you are anything like me, you have probably seen multiple health practitioners and no one knows what is causing your symptoms, or even worse; you may have been told your health problem is incurable and the only solution is surgery or long-term medication.

There is a lot of information circulating in the natural health world, however; not all of it is helpful. The truth is a lot of natural health companies circulate broken theories and mistruths because they are a part of a huge money-making machine that doesn’t have our best interests at heart. So, don’t be overwhelmed by all the conflicting health information out there.

The key to healing is to prioritize where to focus your efforts by starting with your number one most debilitating symptom first. It can be confusing knowing where to start when you have a multitude of symptoms but focusing on your number one most challenging symptom that makes life hard to live often addresses the other symptoms.

The other critical piece in the healing jigsaw puzzle is to know the real root causes behind chronic illness, mystery symptoms, and disease. These are toxins and pathogens. Toxins like toxic heavy metals, adrenaline from emotional challenges, chemical and radiation exposure, herbicides and pesticides, and pathogens like Epstein- Barr virus, Shingles, and Streptococcus.  We all have a mixture of pathogens and toxins, and the viral strains and toxic blends will determine your symptoms.

So, rest assured, you can now find comfort in knowing your body is not faulty. It is always working for you.

Pathogens and toxins are the culprits that need to be made accountable for our symptoms, not our genes, our microbiome, our hormones, or our body! The auto-immune label is yet another misguided theory that is not only disempowering to the chronically ill but believing our body is at fault damages the very fabric of who we are and holds us back from healing.

The best place to start to regain your health is to cleanse the pathogens and toxins from your body, and the gentlest approach is through your diet.

It is also important to understand that the liver is what largely determines our levels of health, and we must do everything we can to care for it. Think of it as being your biggest ally in life, your protector and caretaker. A sluggish, fatty, uncared-for liver, alongside a combination of toxins, pathogens, and chronic stress, creates the perfect environment for ill-health.

The biggest lie that we are told is that we cannot heal ourselves, however, more and more people are beginning to wake up to this mistruth. More and more people are experiencing healings outside of conventional medicine that verges on the miraculous.

My daughter and I are living proof that you can heal. After one year of following a healing protocol, my daughter’s Rheumatoid Arthritis went into complete remission much to the disbelief of the allopathic doctors who were treating her and I healed most of my debilitating symptoms including lifelong anxiety and panic attacks, painful endometriosis, recurrent attacks of debilitating vertigo and dizziness, and a host of mystery neurological symptoms which medical professionals were unable to diagnose. No matter what diagnosis you have been pigeonholed into or what the doctors tell you, you do not have to succumb to the belief that your health is out of your hands and that you are not capable of healing.

Being chronically ill and not knowing why you feel so bad is a tough place to be. The stakes are high. Your ability to work, your relationships, and your happiness are on the line. Like most people suffering from chronic health problems, you are willing to do whatever it takes to heal yourself. But not knowing what is causing your symptoms, where to start, or how to go about healing keeps you stuck. The thing is, with the right information and support—you can heal.

The human body is a miraculous organism made up of trillions of cells. It is designed to protect you and keep you alive, and it has an innate ability to maintain homeostasis. It will never turn on you, like what an autoimmune diagnosis suggests. The body does not attack itself. The medical community came up with that term because blaming the patient’s body was the easiest thing to do without having the answers.

I am not saying that medicine and doctors are inherently bad. If you have a hard time understanding this concept, I invite you to look deeper into the medical establishment. When you do, you will start to see a whole new world, a world full of misinformation that started way back before medical schools even came into existence. One that does not have our best interests at heart, one that is manipulated toward profits.

Sometimes it is hard to look at structures and systems that are ingrained into our society and etched into our belief systems with a critical eye. It’s easier to run with the status quo and believe things at face value. But I challenge you to put your beliefs aside for the time being and arm yourself with an open mind and critical eye that welcomes new information.

After decades of research, I finally understood the underlying causes of my health condition. I discovered that I, along with most of the world’s population, was infected with an underlying virus, which was creating a secret epidemic.

The Epstein-Barr virus is responsible for almost every mystery illness imaginable and over 225 million Americans have at least one of over 60 varieties of EBV.

To make things worse, EBV’s best friend is the bacterium Streptococcus. Having both pathogens taxes your immune system, and creates an array of health issues, including urinary tract infections, acne, ear infections, and sinus infections.

There is no current screening of EBV in the blood, so you can become infected by receiving blood transfusions or through bodily fluids such as kissing, sneezing, or having sex with someone infected. Babies can become infected by their mothers, and people who eat out can become infected by eating food prepared by a chef who cut their finger.

Depending on the EBV strain, it can nest for years in your organs, or it may create serious health problems after only a few months.

As soon as I learned that the anxiety, vertigo, and neurological symptoms that I had suffered with for over a decade were caused by a rogue virus that had attacked my central nervous system, along with a build-up of heavy metals and adrenaline damage from years of chronic stress, I could finally begin to heal myself.

After all, what you don’t know you can’t fix!

The mere thought of so many people suffering, yet this information was not even in alternative medicine schools, was alarming.

To regain control of your health, I recommend starting with your diet and then easing your way toward a cleanse. Cleaning up your diet alone is powerfully cleansing, and it can have a significant impact on your overall health and wellbeing.

Step 1: Eat a Low-Fat Diet Rich in Plant Foods

There are so many fad diets out there, but the truth is, a diet that works for one person might not work for another. We must be discerning and realize that diets are not one size fits all. There are many natural health companies promoting products too. Still, we need to be careful of natural health companies because some compromise quality for profit. We need to remember that food is our medicine, so whatever we put into our mouths can either create healing or disease.

While a paleo diet high in protein may suit someone, who is relatively healthy and not suffering from any chronic illness, it may worsen a chronically ill person. Because a person suffering from a chronic health condition is most likely also battling EBV and a host of other viruses and unproductive bacteria, which are causing their symptoms. Therefore, your diet needs to be tailored to your individual needs.

It is important to understand that consuming unproductive foods feeds the bugs that are robbing you of your health. Viruses love feeding on eggs, dairy, gluten, and toxic heavy metals and they release neurotoxic by-products which could be the root cause of your symptoms.

If you want to feel well and give your body the best chance to heal, I recommend focusing on eating plenty of organic plant foods such as leafy greens, fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, and wild foods.

The best grains that are easiest to digest are quinoa, millet, and gluten-free oats. If you want to eat beans and legumes eat them sparingly as beans are a source of protein and even a small amount of protein hinders your body’s ability to cleanse. If you want to eat rice, opt for organic brown rice.

The golden rule to optimize healing is to increase hydration and decrease radical fats, which is where the majority of the food’s calories are derived from fat.

Fat and protein clog up your liver and bloodstream, which makes it hard to cleanse. Every organ and system in your body is made up of trillions of cells, and those cells run on glucose and mineral salts. If your diet consists of more than 15 percent radical fat, your liver must work harder by producing bile to break down the fat so your cells can utilize glucose to support optimal organ function.

A high fat, high protein diet causes your pancreas to work harder to produce more insulin, your liver’s bile supply becomes overworked and eventually weakens, your seven different blends of stomach acid breaks-down, and your adrenal glands weaken because they have to constantly pump out adrenaline to keep you in a state of homeostasis because your cells can’t absorb enough glucose in the presence of fat.

If we consume a high protein diet for a sustained period, our stomach and intestinal tract will become clogged with old rotting protein and fat, which putrefies in the gut, creating a breeding ground for unproductive bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

The rancid and putrefied proteins and fats that sit in the linings of your stomach and intestinal tract cause ammonia gas which can seep through the intestinal walls and create ammonia permeability. This process is what leads to many gut health symptoms and chronic health issues.

When you lower your fats, your heart and brain will be protected because your brain runs off glucose not fat, and your cells can absorb glucose from fruits, and mineral salts from celery juice and leafy greens more easily. This will enable your liver to get on with performing its over 2000 chemical functions more efficiently so you can stay healthy.

If you want to consume plant protein like avocado, nuts, and seeds, it is best to consume it after midday. This will give your liver a long enough window to cleanse. Because your liver cannot cleanse in the presence of any fat or protein. If you want to consume animal protein, it is best to eat it once a day at dinner. Another thing to consider is the strength of your adrenals. Removing radical fats from your diet can increase detoxification and make you feel more tired and hungry if you have weak adrenals. This is where you need to tune into your body and listen to your intuition.

Fats to consider eliminating entirely are canola oil, eggs, dairy, and pork. Fats to consider lowering include avocados, nuts, seeds, coconut, healthier oils, and animal protein. Your body will do the most healing and cleansing if you limit your radical fats to 10-15 percent of your daily food intake. However, when undertaking a cleanse, your fat intake needs to be zero.

Step 2: Eliminate Unproductive Foods

Unproductive foods feed the bugs that you are trying to get rid of, contribute to toxicity, hinder your body’s ability to cleanse, and overburden your liver and adrenals.

These include eggs, dairy, gluten, soft drinks, pork, tuna, corn, industrial food oils, soy, lamb, fish, and seafood other than wild salmon, trout, sardines, mackerel, halibut, and haddock, vinegar including apple cider vinegar, all fermented foods, caffeine including coffee, black tea, matcha, and cacao, and depending on your health status grains except for millet and gluten-free oats. Also, be mindful of your alcohol and salt consumption, and avoid nutritional yeast, citric acid, MSG, natural and artificial flavours, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners.

If you feel overwhelmed by removing so many foods at once, start by choosing the first one or two foods mentioned above and systematically work your way down the list as you feel ready. All the foods above fall into one of four categories: bug fuel, blood thickeners, toxin contributors, and dehydrators. The key thing to remember to stay motivated is they are holding you back from healing and living life to the fullest!

Step 3: Adopt a Cleanse Lifestyle

The best and easiest way to start cleansing is to drink 16-32 oz of filtered water with the juice of half or one whole lemon or lime upon waking on an empty stomach. If you want to cleanse deeper, 15- 30 minutes later drink 16-32 oz of plain celery juice then wait another 15 to 30 minutes before eating. If you have the time, 30 minutes between each is ideal.

To give your liver the longest window to cleanse, keep fat and protein out until after midday, this includes plant-based fats such as avocado, nuts, and plant milks.

To supercharge your healing, a 28-day raw food cleanse is a powerful way to detox the body. Consuming only organic, raw fruits, herbs, wild foods, and vegetables and eating as much as you like throughout the day will give your body the vital nutrients it needs to heal. If you suffer from adrenal fatigue, you might want to start slowly, graze on adrenal snacks every one and a half to two hours, add cooked potatoes and sweet potatoes to keep your blood sugar levels balanced if you experience strong detox symptoms and eat plenty of bananas and dates.

After the cleanse avoid consuming unproductive foods and make plant foods the star of your plate.

Step 4: Detox Heavy Metals from Your Body

Now that you are armed with a healing diet, let’s dive deeper and start detoxing those toxic heavy metals that we unknowingly harbour!

Heavy metals are hidden antagonists that can find their way into our bodies. Mercury from amalgam dental fillings, vaccines, and seafood as well as aluminium from foil and copper from your water pipes are highly toxic. Over time, they can build up in the body, causing all sorts of health problems. Even worse, EBV gravitates toward bodily tissues that contain a build-up of toxins. Heavy metals together with EBV weakens the immune system and holds back healing. If you suffer from anxiety, depression, or neurological symptoms, removing the heavy metals in your body is critical.

A Heavy Metal Detox is by far the best way to remove heavy metals from your body. You can either consume all five ingredients together in a smoothie or separately every day. When consumed daily, they work synergistically as a team to pull heavy metals out of your body safely and effectively.

The Five Miracle Ingredients Are:

1. Spirulina
2. Barley Grass Juice Powder
3. Cilantro
4. Atlantic Dulse
5. Wild blueberries

As you begin to detox heavy metals, keep the unproductive foods out of your diet and continue filling your body with fruits and vegetables. These dietary changes will help with the process of drawing heavy metals out of your body.

It is also essential to drink plenty of activated living water while you detox, which helps to flush toxins out. I don’t recommend alkaline water as the digestive system has to work harder at lowering it. Water with a P.H of 7.7 is ideal, and water filters that leave the minerals in are best. Adding lemon or lime to your water revitalizes it and makes it more hydrating. The liver is the storehouse for all the toxins you have ever come into contact with and most of the time it is severely dehydrated, so, it is important that you drink at least an additional 32oz of lemon water on top of your morning lemon water throughout the day.

Step 5: Kill Pathogens

To help rid the body of EBV, and other viruses and unproductive bacteria, you can attack them directly with supplements alongside removing their food sources. Here is a list of the top 7 anti-viral supplements that I used to regain my health:

1. Cat’s claw
2. L-lysine
3. Liquid zinc sulphate
4. Vitamin B12 (as methylcobalamin and/or adenosylcobalamin)
5. Licorice root
6. Lemon balm
7. Vitamin C

There are many options for choosing a vitamin, mineral, or herbal supplement, and the companies that produce the supplements manufacture them in different ways. Some companies use inactive forms of the vitamin or very little, which means they can label it as an active form. Others add up to 10 percent of fillers to increase their profits and the mystery ingredients aren’t written on the supplement labels. Herbal products that contain alcohol should be avoided as the alcohol nullifies the therapeutic constituent in the herb, and often the alcohol is made from genetically modified corn. If in doubt, seek the advice of a qualified health practitioner when choosing supplements.

We are all deficient in vitamin B12 and zinc, therefore it is imperative to prioritize those two above the others if you are unable to purchase them all.

When you are cleansing and healing it is critical that you eat enough calories throughout the day. You should never go hungry. If you have weak adrenals, it is equally important to graze on adrenal snacks like dates, apples, and celery, which contain the right blend of glucose, sodium, and potassium, every one and a half to two hours to keep your blood glucose levels stable and avoid an adrenaline dump. Your adrenal glands produce 56 different blends of adrenaline and depending on the situation, some blends are more potent than others. A certain amount of adrenaline is natural and healthy. It is when stress becomes chronic, or continuously skipping meals, that puts a strain on your adrenals and liver.

Adrenaline surges can be triggered by dangerous cleanses that do not support your adrenals, skipping meals or not eating often enough, overstimulation, chronic stress and trauma, adrenaline-based activities, strenuous exercise, and extremes in temperatures.

If you are suffering from a chronic health condition you most likely have compromised adrenals, therefore we must protect our adrenals because our quality of life depends on it!

To continue on the healing path, it is essential to maintain a healthy diet, but decreasing stress is a crucial part of the healing process.

Living in the 21st century is undoubtedly challenging at times, and it is almost impossible to eliminate stress entirely from our lives. A small amount of stress can be useful, especially when we find ourselves in situations that require us to be alert and ready to take action.

But stress is a problem when it becomes chronic. When we consistently wake up day in and day out feeling strung out, anxious, and beaten down by life. When we go to bed at night worrying about things that keep us awake all night, or when we are so stressed and exhausted, we let our frustrations out on our kids and spouses.

Stress triggers a cascade of hormones and a wide range of physiological responses. During a fight or flight response, your heart beats faster, increasing your blood pressure, your respiratory rate increases, increasing alertness and glucose, and fats get released from temporary storage sites in your body, which flood your bloodstream, supplying energy to all parts of your body so that you can either fight or take flight.

Chronic activation of this survival mechanism weakens your immune system, which can be detrimental to all aspects of your health. Whether you are suffering from acute stress or chronic stress, your adrenal glands respond to stressful situations by releasing the hormones adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine. Stress hormones are corrosive to your liver, and they feed the bugs that are holding you hostage and keeping you unwell.

Emotional stress can come from a taxing or toxic relationship with a spouse, romantic partner, relative, friend, co-worker, boss, or in-law. Stress could manifest at work or within your chosen career or lack of a career. Stress could come from losing your job, being the boss of a company, running a business, or it could arise out of a fear of financial loss or not having enough money to survive.

Stress can also arise from unresolved past trauma, fear-based thoughts, and worries that run on automatic replay. It could arise from a change of life situation, moving to a new house or a breakup. It could come from the death of a loved one or pet. It could also come from suffering from a chronic illness or injury, experiencing a traumatic event, taking care of a family member, or being stuck in a traffic jam.

Whether it be work pressure, family difficulties, or traffic jams, it is important to know how to stay calm and relaxed when under emotional stress.

One of the best ways to tackle stress and avoid all that excess adrenaline from being released into your body is to allow yourself the time to rest if your life has become too busy by going outside, reconnecting with the earth, and soaking up the healing rays of the sun.

The body is a complex system that is continuously carrying out functions to maintain homeostasis, and it has an amazing way of telling us when something is not quite right in our external environment by creating dysfunction within the body.

Giving yourself time to rest and reflect quite often illuminates what is causing your stress and ill health so that you can take the necessary steps to create the right environment conducive to healing.

Meditation, yoga, and pranayama (breathing techniques) are great antidotes for stress, and you don’t need to be a yogi to utilize them, anyone can. Surrounding yourself with a close network of people who are supportive of your healing efforts is also a crucial step to healing.

Our bodies are the only real vehicle we have in life and if we focus on loving ourselves and taking care of it, we can free ourselves from the chains of chronic illness and live our best lives!