Iron Overload

It is my experience that iron overload is indeed a disturbing contributor to menopausal symptoms and major disease conditions, such as hot flashes, stress, heaviness, exhaustion, muscle tightness poor digestion and cellulite. Iron overload can cause fibromyalgia, depressed and heavy emotional states, foggy brain, repressed immune system, skin rashes, constipation, headaches, sluggish liver, back pain, heart disease, cancer and lack of sex drive.

There are several immediate and long term alternative health practices I would like to share that have helped me tremendously during menopause. Here are four that focus on cleansing the liver and intestinal tract.

Fasting - While giving the body a rest from digestion the body uses energy to burn up poisons—going into a cleansing mode the immune system is stimulated.

Psyllium husk – This is a fiber that is possibly high in the phytic acid IP6 or inosital hexaphosphate that chelates iron. While fasting or while eating a healthy diet (as discussed in Bill Sardi’s TLDP July 2005 article, “Iron, Cancer, Chelator and Rice Bran”) this fiber is able to bond with and eliminate intestinal iron containing bile.

Colonic Irrigation – Colonic irrigation eliminates excess bile and most toxins in the intestinal tract.

Milk Thistle Seed – For cleansing excess bile and other poisons from the liver. (I am sure there are other herbs but this one is the most known and possibly available)

BILE

Synthesized in the liver (www.everything2.com), bile is an essential fluid for fat digestion (www.everything2.com) and is the major waste product of the liver.

Bile consists primarily of water (www.everything2.com), cholesterol (www.everything2.com), hormones including steroids - endogenous and exogenous, broken down fatty acids, also old antibodies, lecithin (www.everything2.com), poisons including drugs, inorganic salts (www.everything2.com), bile salts (www.everything2.com) and bile pigments made from old broken down red blood cells.

The bile salts are comprised of cholesterol derived acids which are synthesized in the liver. The bile pigments are hemoglobin metabolites (www.everything2.com). The two major bile pigments are biliverdin (www.everything2.com and bilirubin (.everything2.com). These pigments are the iron rich hemoglobin found in red blood cells.Bile has several important detailed functions:

First, because of its strong alkalinity (www.everything2.com), it is important in the final stages of digestion to neutralize the strong gastric acids (www.everything2.com).

Second, the bile salts are able to disperse fat (www.everything2.com) and lipid (www.everything2.com) soluble vitamins (www.everything2.com) for easy digestion and transport through the blood. Because bile salts are amphipathic (www.everything2.com), they can bind the non-water soluble material while staying in solution themselves.

Third, the bile carries some of the water insoluble waste lipid substances that are removed from the bloodstream by the liver such as hemoglobin pigments, cholesterol, steroids (www.everything2.com), other hormones and various drugs. These are then expelled along with the remaining digestive waste or added to the bile.

ATTENTION WOMEN

Women at menopausal age, who stop menstruating, also stop the monthly cleanse of iron rich red blood cells.

It is known that excessive amounts of RBCs are a major contributor to cancer. This is stated in Bill Sardi’s 2005 article. Women of menstruating age have a monthly elimination of iron as they eliminate the blood containing pigments. Those who stop menstruating don’t.

I have found a regular practice of self-administered or professionally administered colonics to be one of the simplest and best methods for eliminating excess iron found in the bile, that is no longer eliminated during menstruation and that can be reabsorbed into the liver and circulation if there is a blockage in the liver, gall bladder or a leaky small intestines—a common occurrence.

Colonic irrigation along with periodic fasting is even more beneficial and more than a form of eliminating symptoms, it can cure any reoccurring major conditions, such as cancer, Type II diabetes, heart disease and arthritis if practiced properly.Women would feel a lot less symptoms before, during and after menopause and protect themselves from cancer, if they did a self-administered colonic on themselves a few times per week or did one with a colon therapist once or twice a month. To practice these two procedures together: fasting and colonic irrigation, before, during and after the time of the menopause women would free themselves of menopausal related symptoms and major diseases.Colonic irrigation and fasting not only eliminate excess iron in the way of bile but also acid wastes, old fecal and mucoid material, parasites, rancid lipids, unfriendly and (friendly as well, which can be reintroduced quite easily) fermented yeasts, fungus and free radicals. Taking milk thistle and psyllium husk together during cleansing furthers the benefits and more bile rich mucoid material is eliminated.

Carrying all of these toxic substances year in and year out can get in the way of us feeling really good about ourselves and living our lives in the healthiest manner possible during the best time of our lives.

Hillary Adrian Hitt
Dharma Healing Center
www.dharmahealingintl.com