My Liver Treatment

(AKA: detox)

A little background:

In 2010 in the moldy house, I could only eat 5 foods. I had a long list of symptoms. I was bedridden and could hardly get a bath once every 10 days even with massive help. One thing that is key for people with chronic illness who want to detox is environment/avoiding mold and chemicals. I had to move 1000 miles to get away from pesticides (agriculture), outdoor mold, and pollution.

We got help building our low-tox house, and I started to get MUCH better (2016/2017). The things that helped the most besides avoidance and living in this house were heat/exercise and toxin-binding foods: mostly whole grains, nuts, some kidney beans. I don’t have access to a sauna, so I use a space heater (be careful of course). Watch your niacin, electrolytes, etc.

But then we accidently got a toxicant in here (Dec. 2017) (all signs point to DDT from old buildings).

Symptoms:

In 2021, I eventually ended up with liver pain, very low appetite, many DDT symptoms, and could hardly get out of bed even for the restroom. After we cleaned up “most” of the DDT (Sept/Oct 2021), I crashed and ended up flat on my face on liquids only for 10 days (November 2021). I threw up three times in one bath, and these experiences also put me in a longer but still fairly severe ME/CFS crash which lasted 5 months.

But I doubt that that big of a crash is going to happen for most people detoxing, who did not have the exposure I did. These include: Ohio River Valley Du Pont/PFAS in utero to age 7, DDT in utero to age 18 every summer at Grandpa’s greenhouse, dioxin from age 7 to 15–living 20 miles from worst-civilian-exposure town in USA history, living between 3 pesticide fields age 7 to 22, and DDT for 4 years here.

We believe my body finally felt safe enough to begin detoxing, because it’s extremely hard to detox a thing if you are still living in the thing (DDT). Plus I’m old LOL (52), and I think my liver damage was more than most my age.

Interestingly, just previous to this:

Around August 2021 I felt led to do as much Raw Fruitarian diet as I could. I went a little fast, lost weight too quickly, and got some really bad DDT symptoms, likely from too much DDT coming out of fat stores at once. But I was back on track within a couple weeks. Keeping up with binders (whole grains etc.) is key here.

After the crash:

After about 10 days, I could sit up again, and my husband started juicing veggies for my liver. Mostly veg, some fruit like cranberries. Don’t laugh–I could only choke down 4 oz. a day! (texture, not taste) But I also continued the Raw Fruitarian as much as I could (but I needed beef etc. and had to force myself to eat it), and I stopped self-contaminating!!!! I’ll do a post on self-contamination another day, but it’s a big deal that this stopped. When I was self-contaminating, a milk pour over skin (since many toxins are fat-soluble including DDT) and then normal bath was essential every night for a while so I could sleep. My liver pain went away, and my appetite started to increase.

After those 10 days of a liquid diet “dictated” by my body, my body wanted me to do intermittent fasting–mostly just skipping breakfast. Body-led, not “determined by me”!!!!! So I didn’t follow numbers (16, 8 or anything).

Sunlight on closed eyes for 2 minutes a day when I was at my worst was also essential. For the winter, I did it with window WIDE open, real sun hitting my face (not through glass). Thankfully the sun angle was perfect, for open window and sunlight on my bed.

I stopped juicing after 2 months, but I continued eating veggies like spinach, beets, and peas, now whole vs. juiced.

I also VERY much had to keep up with my binders (mentioned above), but this time they seemed to be even more effective with some kind of fat (eggs, butter). DDT is fat-soluble, so maybe it’s that?

I could often tell because I was getting DDT symptoms (level 8 leg pain) from detoxing internally instead of the dust in the house (and dusting the house no longer helped), and these foods would usually make it go away if I ate enough of them. I also ate a lot of asparagus and dark chocolate which I THINK both also bind! Didn’t eat together. LOL

Cautions:

If anyone tries stuff like this, Just GO SLOW and DON”T DO IT without including binders (foods I listed or other binders), or you can get some scary symptoms. Don’t lose weight too fast, either. You may need supervision of a doctor for electrolytes, potassium levels, etc.

For severe moldies/MCSers, I don’t know if this will work in a bad environment!!!!!!

Your detox journey might need a different scope, different order of events, etc. Feel free to email me (steveandchrista@yahoo.com) or comment with questions.

I should mention that prior to all this, fermented foods and bone broth helped heal my gut, keep me away from MCAS, and get me to where I could even TOLERATE all those whole, raw fruits!!!!! And NOW, fermenting our own veggies etc. is helping me continue the detox process.

Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735