Introduction to A Healing Crisis
An increasing number of people today are trying alternative healing methods to cleanse and detoxify their bodies. Simple methods such as switching to a natural food diet, juicing to increase nutrition, or fasting are used to cleanse the body of stored toxins in the hopes of naturally addressing long-standing symptoms such as chronic headaches, adult acne, allergies or arthritis. More intensive methods may be used to perform cleansing of the bodys elimination organs: colon, kidney and liver. However, many people trying these and other alternative health cleansing methods discontinue them when they experience new symptoms of ill health. Generally, these new symptoms are in actuality not a new disease or malady affecting the body, but rather a healing crisis.

Healing Crisis Defined
A healing crisis is when symptoms from diseases and toxins that are released during a detoxification process manifest themselves. Also known as "Herxheimer Reaction", a healing crisis occurs when toxins stored in the body are released at a faster rate than can be properly eliminated. The more toxic one's body is, the more severe the detoxification and the more intense the reaction.

A healing crisis is characterized by a temporary increase in symptoms during a cleansing or detoxification process. Such symptoms may be mild or severe, depending on the bodys original toxicity, but are definitely temporary. They can occur immediately, within several days, or even several weeks of a cleansing program.

Reverse Order
What is not immediately intuitive is that symptoms are experienced in the reverse order of when the body was originally exposed to their cause. This simple explanation may help demonstrate the reason.

Assume that every year you painted your walls a different color. As time went on, you layered color upon color. Finally after 30 years, you found that the newest paint was not sticking properly because layers of paint underneath were cracking and coming off. So you decided to strip all of the paint off the walls and give it a fresh coat of paint. As you started stripping off paint, you saw earlier layers. In the process of cleaning and stripping the walls, you got glimpses of what your walls were like and what they went through in prior years.

Believe it or not, human bodies work in a similar fashion. As bodies store fat, the chemistry of the fat reflects the internal body conditions at the time the fat was stored. Each year, a residue of the viruses, bacteria and toxins you were exposed to were stored in fatty deposits.

Similar to the paint stripping analogy, as a body is cleansed, stored toxins, bacteria, and viruses are released. As they are released, symptoms experienced with the particular malady or event associated with the toxin are re-experienced albeit in a milder form.

Possible Symptoms
A healing crisis can have a variety of possible symptoms, depending on what the body underwent during the initial toxic encounter. Symptoms can include:

• muscle cramps or pain
• arthritic flair ups
• diarrhea
• extreme fatigue
• restlessness
• headaches
• insomnia
• sinus congestion
• fever
• skin eruptions
• strong emotions or mood swings

• Drinking plenty of fresh water helps the body eliminate released toxins.
• Increasing fiber intake and taking supplements to cleanse the colon and kidneys will also help to accelerate the elimination of toxins.
• If fatigued, give the body rest
• Meditation can help to manage symptoms such as strong emotions and mood swings