There’s a kind of flush...

Fashion designer Jeannie Goulbourn talks about a liver and gallbladder flush like it were the runway’s latest find — you get it only by invitation and you walk out of it feeling like a million.

“Too much toxin buildup can disrupt the body’s pH balance, lower the immune system and increase the chances of disease to set in. The flush is a way to eliminate years of unprocessed fats, particularly gallstones caused by bad cholesterol,” Jeannie, a natural medicine and wellness advocate, once pointed out to me over coffee (mine, as she doesn’t take caffeine except from dark chocolate). Jeannie can talk about silk and the latest designs from Paris and New York with as much fervor as she talks about potassium juice or a carrot shake.

She proceeded to talk about the “harvest” after a flush, where one gets to see solid proof of the fat and toxin buildup in our bodies lying like stones in a strainer. After all, to see is to believe.

After months of convincing from Jeannie, and a last-minute cancellation from me that she just wouldn’t hear of, I finally underwent the flush at the Discovery Suites at the Ortigas Center. I just had to banish from my mind the fear of the unknown (as I’ve never gone through a flush before) and give up a precious weekend. If you feel you have to consult a health professional before the flush, by all means do so.

Better yet, I was able to convince my husband, laptop in tow, to join me. He was the greater skeptic between the two of us and he had every intention of escaping to The Podium across the street at the first opportunity.

* * *

So how did I feel after the flush?

You get that same feeling you get after you’ve just had a good long bath with the help of a sudsy terry wash cloth — especially after you’ve been out in the sun, mud-wrestling or something close to it. Or that refreshing feeling you get after you’ve just brushed your teeth and flossed after a hearty meal of kare-kare and bagoong.

Most of us don’t go mud-wrestling, but apparently our system wrestles with toxins every day, which, like sticky mud on our hair and face, we have to rinse off.

I do know that consuming fiber-rich foods every day cleans our system. But according to Jeannie — who is as concerned with beauty on the outside as well as on the inside — our bodies need some help with a yearly liver/gallbladder flush.

How did she discover “the flush?”

Jeannie says that last year, she went down with bronchitis that gave her high fever and cough that could not make her sleep for nights.

“I checked into hospital and got seven kinds of medication plus steroids. My system reacted so badly that I had cramps for 10 days and had depression! My fever persisted for 60 days! I traveled in a wheel chair to be with my family in a cruise and my fever shot up in Alaska.”

The cruise ship’s doctor told her that she was on too much medication and advised her to see a naturopath.  “Though she was a conventional doctor, she said too much medication killed my good bacteria,” Jeannie recalls.

When she got back to Manila, concerned friends advised her to see naturopath Dr. Christine Gonzalez of the Wellness Institute, also at the Ortigas Center. Gonzalez gave her a therapeutic wrap, tons of soups and juices, and four-and-a-half-hours later, “my temperature dropped for the first time to my normal 36.7!” claims Jeannie. After that, she went through a kidney flush and then a liver flush. She talked to patients at the Center and in the two weeks she received out-patient treatment there, Jeannie went through a catharsis that turned her life around.

She claims that in the 17 months since then, she “never, never got a cold, cough or the flu.”

“I then decided to help out as many people and spread good news that each of us is responsible for our lives. We should seek doctors who can understand and sincerely care for our body. We must ask questions. We  must ask and ask. We should check out the Internet for information. Check out side effects of drugs. We should listen to our body. I own my body. I should make the right decisions on what to eat or drink. No advertisement can confuse me. I look at small letters in each can that I buy in the supermarket. I eat fresh and healthy food. I do not buy any vitamins. No more. It is all available through food.”

Jeannie learned so much from Dale Flores, a holistic nutritionist candidate, who taught her the good that herbs, fish, vegetables and fruits can do to the body. Dale made Jeannie realize that healthy food prevents and cures many common illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, migraine and tuberculosis. A good diet cleans the digestive tract to boost the immune system. This way, more nutrients are absorbed. Jeannie says that vitamins in tablet form are only 30 percent absorbed!

After her sessions with Dale, who has worked with Dr. Christine Gonzalez for six years, Jeannie found it easy to avoid bad food and fast food.

“Today, I have the energy of a 25-year-old!” exclaims Jeannie, who gave me permission to say she is at least twice that age.

* * *

Our “flush” began with a nurse taking our weight and blood pressure. Then our group of 35 had a series of enlightening lectures, starting with a talk on the “practical approach to healing” from Dr. Ricky Soler, a psychiatrist who founded Joanne Drew, one of the first slimming salons in the country. When I asked him what we should do if we are having the blues, he said, “Go out and have some sun!” He wasn’t kidding.

We also had an informative lecture from Dr. Madeline Valera of Philhealth, who said always ask your doctors about the side effects of the drugs they are prescribing because sometimes, they could have adverse side effects when taken with other drugs. She said doctors are only human, and they make mistakes.

Chemist, consumer advocate and cancer survivor Pinky Tobiano stressed that it is our obligation to ourselves and our children to check if the food, water and even makeup we use are non-toxic. “It is every consumer’s right,” stressed Pinky.

Dale talked about nutritional therapy. According to Dale: An apple a day really keeps the doctor away. (But buy apples from countries that are near the Philippines because they are likely to have less preservatives.) An ounce of raw cabbage juice is good for those with acid reflux or indigestion. (I told him I was taught that cabbage causes flatulence. He said that once chewed, most fruits and vegetables, including cabbage, become alkaline, not acid.) Diabetics should take muscovado sugar. Papayas and pineapples (an anti-inflammatory) are good. Oranges are high in sugar. Malunggay is a wonder vegetable. And so on.

Dale’s lecture was followed by a relaxing and liberating (because it loosens you up) yoga session with Corey Wills and Raya Mananquil. You feel tranquil and discover the wonders of deep breathing.

The wellness weekend, you see, strove to rid our entire being, not just our body, of impurities, guilt feelings, stress, regrets.

* * *

And now, the flush.

The day before the flush, we were advised to avoid red meat. On the day of the flush, we had a carrot and apple shake without sugar, a fruit plate, bread and delicious pumpkin soup. Lunch was clear mushroom soup and more fruits. In fact, we had a buffet table laden with pomelo slices, papaya, pineapple, apple and honeydew melon. We were being fed almost every hour. Jeannie also stressed how important it was to hydrate.

After 2 p.m., our fast began. We couldn’t take in anything from that point onwards, not even water. We broke our fast at 6 p.m. with a strawberry-colored organic cocktail drink that contained Epsom salts and other minerals. It was quite salty we were given a chaser to help us out — an apple slice.

For Catholics, the drink was followed by Mass celebrated by Jesuit Fr. Guido Arguelles. It was uplifting and soothing. Father Arguelles (whom my husband recognized as his former teacher at the Ateneo) said it was important to forgive others (the burden of anger takes its toll on the angry one, too, he says) as well as ourselves. Worry not, he said, and shared a poem he had written, part of which goes:

Worry not over things you cannot do

lest you fail to do what can be done.

Worry not that you love so little

lest the little become even less.

Worry not that you pray so little

lest you wind up not praying at all.

Worry not in your children’s ‘morrow;

worry if they find not God today.

Father Guido asked us — whose stomachs were starting to grumble by then — to think of the millions of Filipinos who would be going hungry, not by choice, that night.

After Mass, I felt lighter — spiritually and physically.

And the “flush” had only just begun.

(To be continued next Tuesday)

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(The next wellness flush is on Nov. 24 at Discovery Suites. For inquiries, please call  843-2550 or 897-2217; 0917-8236738;0915-6739435)