The Detox Book
How To Detoxify Your Body to Improve Your Health, Stop Disease, and Reverse Aging
By Bruce Fife, N.D.
Revised Third Edition
Piccadilly Books, Ltd.
Colorado Springs, CO
Acknowledgements
Grateful acknowledgement is given to the publishers of following materials for use of information in the preparation of this book: The Well Being Journal; Understanding Normal and Clinical Nutrition, West Publishing Company; Alternative Medicine, Future Medicine Publishing; American Journal of Natural Medicine, IMPAKT Communications; Nutrition Action Healthletter, Center for Science in the Public Interest; Diet for A New America, Stillpoint Publishing; The 120-Year Diet, Simon & Schuster; Newsweek; Your Health, Your Choice, Lifetime Books; The Miracle of Fasting, Health Science; Oxygen Therapies, Energy Publications; The New Miracles of Rebound Exercise, AIR; Stress-Proofing Your Child, Bantam Books.
Cover design by Michael Donahue
Revised Third Edition
Copyright 2011, 2001, 1997, by Bruce Fife
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief reviews, without written permission from the publisher.
Piccadilly Books, Ltd.
P.O. Box 25203
Colorado Springs, CO 80936
www.piccadillybooks.com
info@piccadillybooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fife, Bruce, 1952-
The detox book: how to detoxify your body to improve your health,
stop disease, and reverse aging / Bruce Fife.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 13: 978-0-941599-89-4 (Print Edition)
1. Toxicology--Popular works. 2. Toxins. 3. Health. 4. Longevity.
I. Title.
RA1213.F48 1997
615.9--dc21 97-14627
Printed in the United States of America
Exercise May Extend the Life of Your DNA
The information in this book is provided for educational purposes. It does not replace the need for medical advice and counsel, especially in cases of serious illness.
DEGENERATIVE DISEASE: A Modern Epidemic
C arrie* was every parents dream: At 26, she was bright, energetic, and self-supporting. She was my cheerleader, says her mother, Sophie. She even taught me to swim.
In 1989, Carries future looked bright. She worked as a youth counselor in Denver, where she had scores of friends. Then one day she called home with panic in her voice.
Mom, she said, I have leukemia, and the doctor wants me to go to the hospital right away.
At that moment, says Sophie, my whole world fell apart.
Carrie was told that her only chance was to undergo a bone marrow transplant. But no one in her immediate family was a good match. Because of her Hispanic heritage, the odds that a stranger would match were 1 in 20,000. The future looked dim.
Carrie was informed that unless a donor could be found, she could die in a matter of months. A frantic search for a donor was instigated. As she waited, she was given the standard medical treatments for leukemia which included chemotherapy. Despite the side effects of these treatments she had hope that the disfigurement and pain she had to endure were only temporary.
While waiting for a donor, time ran out for Carrie. She died a few months later, bald and bloated from cancer-fighting drugs.
With everything that medical science can do, I wasnt able to save my daughter, Sophie said, choking back tears.
* Names of some of the people used in the case histories of this book have been changed to protect privacy.
Neva, 21, was pregnant with her first child when a burning feeling in her right leg began to nag her. It was centered near a rubbery lump that had formed on the front of the ankle after she bruised it some years earlier doing gymnastics. The lump had never gone away and now it was growing larger and firmer. She ignored it.
One night, soon after the baby was born, Neva was watching TV when a terrifying feeling came over her. Numbness struck her hands and arms, then traveled up her neck to her face. The room began spinning. When she tried to tell her husband what was happening to her, she couldnt form the words. He rushed her to the local hospital. Nurses there began pumping blood thinners and other medications into her, trying to bring her out of what the doctors had diagnosed as a transient ischemic attackor mini-stroke as it is sometimes described. Nevas ankle also hurt more than ever during this whole episode.
Her ankle hurt so much and was so stiff that her doctor eventually ordered a bone biopsy. The biopsy revealed cancer. To stop the spread of cancer, the doctor told her, were going to have to amputate a part of your leg, right below the knee.
Shocked, Neva asked, Isnt there something else you can do?
Im sorry, he said, but theres no other way out. It has to be done.
Neva underwent chemotherapy to kill the tumor before going in for surgery. She underwent a four-hour operation during which her entire leg below the knee was removed. More chemotherapy followed to prevent any stray cancer cells from moving to her lungs. The pathologist reported that there was no more cancer in her. Her tumor hadnt spread beyond the ankle, which increased her odds for survival. The surgery and chemotherapy were apparently successful. Everything looked bright for Neva.
She endured five months of treatment, including chemotherapy and two surgeries. Chemotherapy, however, took its toll. Nevas hair fell out in clumps, her throat became raw, and some mornings she was so nauseous that she couldnt climb out of bed. But it was a small price to pay to remove the cancer that would have killed her.
After the surgery, life went on with the hope of a brighter future. It took some time to adjust to the use of an artificial leg, but she managed and was able to spend time with her baby.
A year passed when Neva felt a nagging soreness near the middle of her back. At first, she thought she had pulled a muscle. Despite hot baths and medications the pain persisted. Breathing became labored and when she started coughing up blood, she knew something serious was wrong.
It was discovered that the cancer had returned and settled in her lungs. Over the next two years she underwent three more surgeries, removing all of one lung and portions of the other. As with many other cancer patients who survive surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, cancer often returns. Repeated chemotherapy treatments left her weak and ill. Her health gradually deteriorated.
She used to ask, Why me? But now her attitude is, Whatever happens, happens. You just learn to live with it. What other option is there?
When Rick, age 38, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he was devastated. How could this happen to me? he wondered. Im too young for this type of thing. This is something that happens to others, not to young, seemingly healthy, people. Rick had a loving wife and three healthy children. His career was successful and he was anticipating an important promotion. He and his wife were making plans for buying a new, bigger home. It seemed that Ricks lifelong dreams were being fulfilled. Cancer changed all of that.