BTG’s or Basic Therapeutic Guidelines are guidelines to help maintain and create better health. And it you practise these your overall stress level will be lower and energy will be higher. When your energy is highest your immune system is functioning to its full capacity and your ability to ward of viral infections or infections in general will be much greater. So I will list below what the guidelines are with a brief summary about each one.
- Sleep: Getting enough sleep and good quality sleep is paramount for liver detoxification and stress reduction. There are many causes of sleep issues, make sure you get help so that the cause can be addressed. Go to bed when you are tired and get at least 8 to 10 hours per night. Get some adaptogen herbs from your natural health practitioner to help you if you are a person who travels a lot or works shift work, the herbs will help your body adapt to the strange schedule you keep. Here is a “sleep hygiene” check list of actions you can take to improve your sleep.
- Diet: If you have chronic health issues or you just want to maintain good health use your Blood Type Diet, it is the easiest to follow and you are likely eating some of the foods on it anyway so there will likely not be too much to change. If you have an auto-immune condition, then use the Auto-Immune Paleo diet for up to a year to help your gut heal. Regardless of what diet you are on, it should be low in refined foods or none at all, Ie. white flour, white sugar, corn starch, white rice, deep-fried foods, just to name a few. (Remember eating white sugar disables your white cell activity for several hours depending on how much you have eaten, see the research for yourself.) You want plenty of veggies, ie plate should be 3/4 veggies, plenty of good protein & fats and whole grains. Make sure the diet is the one suitable to you.
- Water: Drink only purified water as tap water not only contains Chloride, but also drug residue that people pee into their toilets! Yuck! So find a way to get the water you can afford, do your research. And no, the bottled water from the grocery store is a waste of money since it is basically tap water in a bottle. Drink 15 to 30 mL per Kg of body weight per day between meals.
- Body Mindfulness: There are many Body Mind Meditations and they are basically to help you tune into your needs so that you can take action for yourself so that you do not let stressors build up and create burn out. Here is a link that is very good at explaining this in detail, click on the link for more detail: BodyMindMeditations.
- Essential Fatty Acids: Take the oil that is right for you. Ie. Flax oil, Borage oil, Evening Primrose Oil, Fish Oil or a combination. Make sure you get a brand that tests for heavy metals like; Genestra, Nordic Naturals, Professional Health Products to name a few. And most adults need at least 3000 to 6000 mg per day. Growing children & teens need 1000 mg right up to the 6000 mg mark for teenagers since their brains need it for development. If you suffer from depression you could need up to 10,000 mg per day. It is important for your gut lining, your nervous system your skin, blood, Ie. think cardiovascular health…stroke prevention, heart attack prevention since it naturally keeps the blood fluid and thin.
- Vitamin D: Every adult needs at least 5000 iu per day up to 10000 iu per day depending on the person’s skin type and how much they are outside. It is considered a hormone and helps prevent depression as well it keeps your immune system up and running. You can buy the Vitamin D spot test so that you can determine at what level you are before beginning. Kids need from 500 iu up to adult dosages for teenagers. Here is a good webpage for information on Vitamin D and another good article is written here.
- Exercise: Do at least 30 minutes of cardio 3x per week in some form. Make sure you break into a sweat, as this has been proven to reduce stress levels. Also, do something you enjoy so that you will want to do it regularly!
- Probiotics & Naturally Fermented Foods: Your gut produces many vitamins, digests your food, eliminates waste, absorbs minerals, fats and has serotonin receptor sites. It is important to keep your waste levels low by eliminating at least 1x for every time you eat a full meal in order to keep the liver less toxic as doing so will keep up your mood and energy. Did you know that 80% of the waste you eliminate via the bowel is bacteria? There are only a few good brands of Probiotics, so don’t waste your time buying cheap brands as it will be a complete waste of money. The brands I use are Genestra HMF series & Cytomatrix Multistrain series. And it is important that you find a fermented food that you can eat daily to help the probiotics stay in your gut…or set up “house” as it were, since they will become your defence against offending bacteria that may make it through your stomach acid. Water kefir is easy to make and inexpensive. Kombucha is also good and easy to make. Here are 2 links from my blog with recipes for both: Water Kefir Kombucha. You can also try your hand at fermented vegetables or if you can have dairy then try eating yogurt or kefir. (Coconut milk can also be made into yogurt or kefir as well.)
Ultimately, by doing all of the above lowers the “inflammation” in your body so that your immune system can spend its energy in helping you fight off foreign invaders like viruses etc.