Detox Diet - Preparing for the Cleanse

             This week will I complete the “Toxicity and Inflammation Quiz,” and begin to eliminate “toxins” from my diet in accordance with Dr. Hyman’s instructions in his book, The UltraSimple Diet.   Unfortunately, the toxin-bearing foods are my favorites.  No more food containing caffeine, processed carbohydrates, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, or alcohol.  The week of “preparation” will be as challenging as the cleanse itself.  I just hope my stash of cookies and junk food won’t go bad during the next two weeks.

            First, I fill out the “Toxicity and Inflammation Quiz” (you too can access the quiz and the entire diet at: http://drhyman.com/downloads/UltraSimpleCompanion.pdf ).  My score is 16.  This gives me a health status of “mild imbalance.”  This seems about right for my overall health.  Now, if it were a mental health score, I am not so sure.  According to Dr. Hyman, persons with a mild health imbalance might expect the UltraSimple Diet to lead to “improved digestion, better skin, and less nasal congestion.”  Unfortunately, none of these are current issues.  As my friends can attest, I could have used “better skin” when I was in high school, but currently, my complexion is fine.  Hopefully, I will at least see “increased energy and improved mood.”  Weight loss is also a possible benefit which I don’t need.  The areas where I score poorly are: (1) “belching and passing gas” - although I don’t see this as a problem, my wife has a different opinion.  Perhaps I have submitted her to one too many “fart tents” at night; (2) “ headaches” – which still occur with regularity, although are rarely disabling; and, (3) “ insomnia” - which I have given detailed descriptions of in prior posts.  In addition to the quiz, I record my baseline vital stats: weight- 192 lbs., waist - 36 inches, hips - 38 inches, and BMI - 24.

            In accordance with Dr. Hyman’s instructions, on Sunday, my wife and I embark on the one week “preparation” that leads up to the UltraSimple Diet.  It is difficult to resist drinking a beer while watching Sunday Night Football, but I do.  Our plan is to systematically cut out all toxin laden foods over the course of the upcoming week.  I decide to stop alcohol and caffeine cold turkey.  On Monday, I pay for my decision.  I substitute a glass of orange juice for coffee in the morning.  At 11 am, I have a crushing headache.  Work is a chore.  I eye the Coke on my colleague’s desk and consider wrestling it away from him, but somehow I persevere. The rest of the day is a headachy blur.  I tuck myself in at 9:30 pm and hope that Tuesday will be a better day.  As I reflect back on the day, I am not sure that the lack of caffeine is totally to blame.  I am also missing my normal boluses of sugar-laden food:  no Luna bar at mid-morning, no cookies with lunch, no cookies when I get home, and no cookies at night.  You get the picture.  Tuesday promises to be a better day.  I decide to substitute green tea for my usual coffee - at least this has some caffeine in it.  Not too tasty, but again, at this point, who cares about taste?  I can feel a headache threatening to break through, but at 2 pm, it has yet to take over.  We will see how the rest of the week goes and on Sunday, the UltraSimple Diet begins.

(sidenote . . . I have already lost 2 lbs. . . . I miss cookies)

Next week . . . preparation is over.  Let the UltraSimple Diet Begin.

Time to Detox

             Over the past couple of years, I tried a broad swath of alternative therapies ranging from chiropractors to hypnotists.  I also experimented with barefoot running and energy drinks.  Through it all, I avoided “detoxification therapy,” otherwise known as a “cleanse.”  Due to popular demand, the time is now, and I hope some of you will join me and my wife on this new endeavor.  What are the benefits of detoxification?  Does my body need to be detoxified?  To answer these questions, I turned to my bible, Alternative Medicine, The Definitive Guide.  The authors claim that “people now carry within their bodies a modern-day chemical cocktail derived from industrial chemicals, pesticides, food additives, heavy metals (like lead), . . . the residues of pharmaceuticals,  legal drugs (alcohol, tobacco, caffeine), and illegal drugs.”  According to Dr. Haas, author of The Detox Diet, “[D]etoxification is instrumental for maintenance of the normal function and integrity of the intestinal flora and can enhance the natural ability of the body to resist infections, allergies, and skin disorders.”  Weight loss is another potential benefit of a cleanse.

            There are so many different types of cleanses, how do I choose the one that is right for me?  A quick internet search reveals a litany of options.  According to iVillage, the “9 most popular cleanses or Detox diets”  include “The Master Cleanse” which involves six to ten glasses per day of maple syrup/lemon juice, water, cayenne pepper, lemonade, and a daily laxative.  This is a favorite of both Demi Moore and Beyonce.  Other cleanses listed are the “Juju Cleanse,” the “Candida Cleanse,” the “Clean Program,” and “Dr. Oz’s 48 hour Cleanse.”  I find the majority of these cleanses to be either revolting or having the potential to starve me.  Polling of my friends adds a few other interesting options.  My favorite is one suggested by one of my close Cleveland buddies - the “Beer Diet.”  He claims it makes him “feel very slim and healthy, is a great boost to his confidence” (everything he says is funny or important), and it makes him a better dancer at parties.  Chris, in Aspen, suggests eating only whole fruits and vegetables for seven days.  He says if I keep exercising throughout the diet, I will go into ketosis.   “Supposedly, that’s good for you” . . . if you survive.  

            Alas, after much consideration I have chosen “The UltraSimple Diet” created by Dr. Mark Hyman.  According to the cover of his book, it will: “Target your Belly Fat,” “Revitalize your Health,” and “Boost your Energy.”  My step mom suggested this diet, and it does seem to meet all my criteria:  it lasts only seven days (fourteen if you include the one week lead-in), it does not require commercial products (no Dr. Hyman shakes need be purchased), it does not include starvation, and daily enemas are not mandatory.   It has just the right balance of kookiness and commonsense.  An added bonus is that we can all do it together – even you.  The entire regimen is on-line for free at: http://drhyman.com/downloads/UltraSimpleCompanion.pdf

            Don’t worry, Dr. Hyman is not a colleague of mine, and I am not getting any kickbacks for promoting his diet (at least not yet).   My plan, and hopefully also yours, is to start off by completing his “Toxicity and Inflammation Quiz” so I can determine a before and after score.  Starting this Sunday, I will begin one week of preparation which includes cutting out caffeine, processed and refined carbohydrates, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, processed foods, and alcohol.  This sounds brutal in its own right.  I will start the “UltraSimple Diet” in earnest the following Sunday.  Please join me.  Let us suffer together.  When we come out the other end, we will be “detoxified” and much improved.  If this fails, we can always try out the Beer Diet.

Please send me your comments and feedback.  I want to know your experiences.  If you are unable to leave comments on this blog site (I have heard it is difficult) than email me at csmahan@gmail.com or leave comments on my webpage at: http://www.explorationofalternativemedicine.com/

Hypnosis: A Critical Analysis

I spent the last month visiting a hypnotist and attempting to practice both guided and self-guided hypnosis.  The office-based sessions and the guided CD hypnosis sessions led to immediate relaxation.  Unfortunately, the calm I derived from these sessions was short lived.  I continue to be plagued by restless sleep.  I fall asleep fairly quickly, but I wake frequently throughout the night despite the hypnotist’s suggesting to my subconscious that I would not be easily awakened and when I was, I would fall quickly back to sleep.  This is not the case.  With regard to my general level of anxiety and “type A –ness,” I perceive an increased level of calm when I harken back to the lessons of the hypnosis sessions.  Overall, however, I am as much of a stress monger as ever.  Hypnosis for me is akin to meditation:  when practiced, I achieve a state of deep relaxation.  I had hoped to go even deeper and be able to have my subconscious manipulated, but I don’t see this happening - not that I won’t continue to try.  Enough about me.  What proof is there that hypnosis works?  Hypnotists claim they can cure smoking addiction, relieve pain, and strip one of all inhibitions.  Where is the proof?  Following is my attempt to summarize the medical literature on the benefits of hypnosis.

            I go straight to my hypnotist’s web page to begin my investigation.  My hypnotist has solid academic credentials as a neuroscientist, and she has summarized several studies on hypnotherapy.  Smoking appears to be a popular vice for which hypnotherapy is utilized.  The website summarizes the results of six studies all addressing smoking cessation via hypnosis.  These studies found wild success in smoking cessation via hypnosis.  Rates of abstinence from tobacco reach upwards of 90%.  If true, these are impressive numbers.  Traditional western methods to stop smoking, nicotine patches, or medications such as Chantix have only shown a 15-30% cessation rate.  Any intervention with a success rate of 90% should be widely embraced; just imagine the lives that could be saved.  I do have one reservation when I review these studies:  they are all in journals I have never heard of.  Smoking cessation is a mainstream goal.  I assume that if a really convincing study had been performed and achieved a rate approaching 90%, it would be published in the New England Journal of Medicine or similarly prestigious journal, but these were published in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis and in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship.  I do a literature search of my own.  I find several studies addressing hypnotherapy for smoking cessation.  A Cochrane Database Review of the literature in 2010 finds “no evidence of a greater effect of hypnotherapy” when compared to other methods in achieving smoking cessation.  In contrast, an article in the American Journal of Medicine in 2012 suggests hypnotherapy may help smokers quit, but the confidence intervals were too broad to make a definitive conclusion. I find these results to be sobering. 

            What about hypnosis for stress and anxiety?  The benefits here are a bit harder to quantify.  With smoking cessation, it is black and white:  either you quit smoking or you don’t.  I doubt anyone can say they are ever free of anxiety.  The studies reflect this nebulousness.  Participants were classified as “significantly less anxious,” and there was “compelling evidence” that hypnosis may help manage anxiety.  Again, most of these studies were published in non-mainstream journals.  The overall finding suggested benefit, but in my mind, remain inconclusive.

            Pain management?  If you remember my past postings, my hypnotist used self-hypnosis while getting a tattoo. She reported falling asleep during the procedure.  Goodbye oxycodone, hello hypnosis. My research into this area again leaves me unsatisfied.  Similar to anxiety, studies of pain management rely on pain scales and subjective reports.  I found several articles on using hypnosis to cope with labor pain during childbirth.  Although several small studies show evidence of benefits for women receiving hypnosis regarding pain intensity, length of labor and maternal hospital stay, the overall results are inconclusive.  A large study, published in the Cochrane Database System Review, shows no difference in the use of epidural anesthesia with self-hypnosis. The moral of the story is clear . . . give me back my oxycodone.

            Hypnosis has been studied in many other realms.  One interesting study evaluates post-hypnotic suggestion as a means to improve academic performance - it didn’t.  Another evaluates hypnosis to accelerate the healing of bone fractures - it did (although the study only had 12 subjects, 6 in the hypnotherapy group and 6 in the control group).  There are a litany of other uses for hypnosis ranging from treating headaches, menopausal symptoms, and obesity to digging into our long suppressed childhood memories.  With all of these potential benefits, why have I included hypnosis in my exploration of “alternative medicine?” Clearly, it should be mainstream.  Perhaps psychiatry holds the answer. 

My Return to the Hypnotist

           Today is my second visit with the hypnotist.  After two weeks of research into the principles of hypnosis and my subsequent attempts to apply this newly found knowledge, I have a host of questions to ask my hypnotist.  I am eager to harness the untapped potential of my subconscious. Despite my eagerness, I have the nagging feeling I am coming up short.  Up to this point, I am not sure I have been successfully hypnotized.  The more I read and the more I experiment with guided hypnosis, the more confused I am regarding what hypnosis really means. This is one visit I am really looking forward to. 

            When I arrive, the receptionist immediately leads me to the hypnotherapy room.  The hypnotist sits in an upright chair at the head of a chaise longue chair.  She welcomes me and motions for me to take my place in the chaise.  After a few pleasantries, I eagerly relate the events of the past two weeks.  I then launch into my list of questions.  Foremost among the questions are: “How do I know if I am being successfully hypnotized?” and “What evidence is there that hypnotism really works?” I hope I don’t offend her.  She smiles knowingly.  Apparently, I am not the first to express these doubts.  She reminds me that she too has a strong scientific background; in fact, she spends the majority of her day synthesizing neuropeptides for clinical and basic science research.  She also refers me to her website which gives examples of clinical studies substantiating the benefits of hypnotherapy. She explains that humans, on average, only utilize twelve percent of their brains.  Hypnosis attempts to access a much larger portion of the brain via the subconscious.  She also relates two anecdotes to illustrate the potential power of hypnosis.  The first has to do with her multiple tattoos which I commented on previously.  She confides that getting a large tattoo can be extremely painful.  I nod in agreement (as if I have multiple tats hiding under my shirt).  She says when she got her first tattoos; she would take multiple breaks during their application due to intolerable pain.  Now, with the aid of self-hypnosis, she sleeps while having the tattoos drawn.  I look at her incredulously.  “But how do I know if I am capable of being hypnotized?” I ask.  She then tells me of a patient, similar to myself, who seemed to derive benefit from the hypnosis sessions, but was unsure whether she was truly being hypnotized.  By mutual consent, during the subsequent hypnosis session, the hypnotist placed a subconscious trigger to confirm to the patient she had indeed been hypnotized.  The hypnotist planted the suggestion that anytime the patient saw the color green, she would feel warm and happy.  When the patient returned for the next visit, she was ecstatic.  She claimed to never have been so happy when sitting at a stop light and then having it turn green.  I am impressed.  Am I being fooled?  Perhaps, but the hypnotist strikes me as very professional and not prone to hyperbole.

            Now, I am more excited than ever by the possibilities of hypnotism, and I am ready to begin my second hypnosis session. The hypnotist concocted a new guide specifically for insomnia, one of my original complaints.  I lie back in the chaise and close my eyes.  While background music gently plays, the hypnotist has me focus on my breathing and then leads me through progressive relaxation of all my muscle groups.  She counts backward from ten, and I find myself on a grassy knoll overlooking an idyllic beach.  I am holding a balloon in my hand which contains all my daily demands and worries.  I release the balloon, and it slowly floats over the horizon and out of sight.  She then leads me down the grassy hill to a bed lying in the shade of a stand of trees along the beach’s edge.  I lie down in the bed which is incredibly comfortable.  Feeling relaxed and carefree, I am instructed to visualize the dancing flame of a candle.  I stare into the flame.  The hypnotist implores me to sleep soundly throughout each night, unperturbed by background noise, and if I am awakened, I will be able to promptly fall back to sleep.  She mentions tapping into my subconscious mind and other instructions which I am unable to recall. She then counts backward from three, and I am awake.

            Similar to my first session, I feel very relaxed.  I struggle to stand up and reorient myself to the wakened world.  She gives me a new CD which focuses on pain management.  I suppose this might be useful in coping with my lower back pain, recurring knee pain, and occasional migraines.  I stumble out of the office.  Once again, as I drive back to work, I reflect on the hypnosis session.  I feel like I am on the cusp of being hypnotized, but have not yet reached nirvana.  Perhaps hypnosis is just a form of meditation; some people clearly benefit while others less so.  I harken back to the psychiatrist Dr. Schilder who states in his book, “Hypnosis represents the pleasure of surrender.”

Next week . . . Hypnotherapy- a critical analysis