“Detox” and “cleansing” diets, regimens and therapies have become very popular lately. These therapies are often promoted as ways to remove toxins, lose weight or promote health.
National Center for complementary and Integrative Health (US Government) says “Some detoxification programs can be unsafe and falsely advertised.” Some the problems they say can arise:
Some Issues with Modern Detox Diets
Colon cleansing procedures may have side effects, some of which can be serious. Harmful effects are more likely in people with a history of gastrointestinal disease, colon surgery, severe hemorrhoids, kidney disease, or heart disease.
“Detoxification” programs may include laxatives, which can cause diarrhea severe enough to lead to dehydration and electrolyte imbalances.
Drinking large quantities of water and herbal tea and not eating any food for days in a row could lead to dangerous electrolyte imbalances
Tibetan medicine uses a much more holistic approach. In Tibetan medicine one looks at body type and inner energies to determine a typology and then a program is designed around that.
Sowa Rigpa recognizes three humors or nyepas and these are the foundation of Tibetan medicine. The three humors are made up from the five elements. These humors are loong derived from wind, tripa derived from fire and beken derived from earth and water. Every person has each of the three humors but each person also tends to be dominated by one or two humors. Each humor is also associated with a psychological imbalance. Loong is imbalanced by desire, tripa by anger and beken by ignorance or confusion. The basic principle of Sowa Rigpa is to create balance in the three nyepas.
Chülen is used as a way to restore vitality, boost immunity, decrease the aging process and increase sexual energy. Chü is nutritious or nourishing essence. Len is absorbing extracting or receiving. or extracting the essence.
What is the essence that is extracted? And how is it extracted? Chü of the body refers to the essence of our bodily constituents; essence of earth, essence of water; essence of fire and essence of air. The len, is a way of getting the essence externally to resupply what internally we are missing or re-balancing what is imbalanced.
This works because the inner nature and the outer nature are the same element. Outer and inner nature are inextricably linked or connected, interdependent. This is called Tendrel (རྟེན་འབྲེལ་) in Tibetan. When we are lacking an element in our body or an element is imbalanced, we resupply it from external material sources. This is the meaning and purpose of chülen.
Why Westerners Need to do Chülen “Gently, Gently”
Western lifestyle increases wind energy and people with strong wind have less reserves
Westerners are too hard on themselves and more likely to go too far
Many people in the west have lost spiritual energy
Chülen Should Include All or Some of These Essences
Five Pure Essences
· Earth minerals is shilajit, བྲག་ཞུན། brag zhun
· The essence from the trees is molasses or བུ་རམ། bu ram – good for wind
· The pure ingredient from flowers is honey སྦྲང་རྩི། sbrang rtsi. – good for Earth/Water
· Butter, མར། mar, the pure essence from plants and herbs རྩི་ཡི་དྭངས་མ་།
· Calcite, the essence of minerals རྡོ་ཡི་དྭངས་མ་ཅོང་ཞི། rdo yi dwangs ma cong zhi
The four essences of smell, རྩི་བཞི། rtsi bzhi
Juniper berries, ཤུག་པ། shug pa.
White flower of the rhododendron བ་ལུ། ba lu.
Ephedra མཚེ། mtshe, and
Artemisia མཁན་པ། mkhan pa.
The Eight Great Substances
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What Does Science Say?
Meditation & Aging
“18-year analysis of the mind of a Buddhist monk by the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found daily, intensive meditation slowed the monk's brain aging by as much as eight years when compared to a control group.”
BrainAGE and regional volumetric analysis of a Buddhist monk: a longitudinal MRI case study, Neurocase, Nagesh Adluru, Cole H. Korponay, Derek L. Norton, Robin I. Goldman & Richard J. Davidson (2020): DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2020.1731553 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13554794.2020.1731553
‘Increasing evidence, mostly based on short-term focused interventions, suggests that meditation-based activities may also have favorable effects on physical wellbeing including cellular aging.”
BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article Front. Psychol., 03 March 2022 Sec. Psychology of Aging Volume 13 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.846085
Calorie Restriction & Aging
“Eating fewer calories slows the pace of aging and increase longevity in healthy adults, first long term study supported by many shorter term studies”
Effect of long-term caloric restriction on DNA methylation measures of biological aging in healthy adults from the CALERIE trial R. Waziry, C. P. RyanD. W. Belsky Nature Aging volume 3, pages 248–257 (2023)248–257
Herbs, Spices & Aging
“clove has the highest mean antioxidant value, followed by peppermint, allspice, cinnamon, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, saffron and estragon,”
“Herbal/traditional plant medicine - This is the most antioxidant rich category in the present study”
Antioxidants (Basel). 2017 Sep; 6(3): 70. Published online 2017 Sep 15. doi: 10.3390/antiox6030070PMCID: PMC5618098 PMID: 28914764 Antioxidant Activity of Spices and Their Impact on Human Health: A Review Alexander Yashin, Yakov Yashin, Xiaoyan Xia, and Boris Nemzer
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