Practical Wisdom on What It Takes to Maintain High Levels of Health – Q&A

Critical Aspects Required to Sustain Organ Efficiency

Factors that Impact the Health of the Spleen
Life Stress
Toxins
Mineral Balance
Cortisol, Viruses, and Immune Response Powers
Food Combining Mistakes
Organic Health Foods with Limited Nutritional Value
Potent Nutrition Sources
Summary

Q: After correcting a spleen imbalance with herbs, will a good diet and lifestyle without the herbs continue to maintain my health?

A: Born of parents, both of which suffered the effects of severe spleen imbalances throughout their entire lives, then dealing with the same myself, I've come to understand a few things about what it takes to nurture the spleen back to health (among other organs and glands affected similarly), and maintain its health through the challenges of modern life.

The answer to this question applies in general to every area of health regardless the cause. The specifics will change, but the ultimate answer will remain the same. 

Addressing specifically a spleen imbalance, from personal experience I would say, yes, once the spleen is corrected a good diet and moderate lifestyle can help maintain the health of the spleen without the herbal support – with a qualifier. 

Factors that Impact the Health of the Spleen 
The spleen is impacted by sweets, stimulants, and alcohol, and is burdened by fats, oils, extremes of all kinds – both too much and too little (including stressful life events, fasting, excessive eating, too much hot pepper, too much fruit or honey, all caffeinated beverages, nutrient deficiencies or excesses, extreme cold, excessive heat, etc.). Basically everything outside of a moderate, proper balance can impact the health of the spleen.

So, if the diet is clean of the first three, and moderate in all else, then this will do much to maintain the health of the spleen from there on.

The question is, does the ability and the willingness exist to address the diet and all other areas of life that place demands on the spleen sufficient to maintain this critical organ's efficiency?

This is where I find the greatest challenges lie to creating and maintaining organ integrity, both within myself, and within virtually every client I have ever spoken with regarding their health and recovery.

So, let's look at the most impactful demands of life, their influence on the spleen, and what it will take to maintain this organ's integrity:

Life Stress
In terms of stressful events in life, apart from becoming non-attached to life itself (including all happy and unhappy events, even the choice to live or pass from physical life), there will certainly be times when our spleen will be impacted by the stress of common life events.

The loss of a loved one, a relationship, or a job; the need to move, a geological event, an injury, etc. are often unpredictable, unsettling events. The added stress of such changes and transformation and will certainly impact the spleen (among other functions of the body like digestion, hormonal balance, immune response, sleep quality, etc.). 

Toxins
Toxins also impact the spleen because the spleen is the largest lymphatic organ in the body, and it is the lymph system that is tasked with cleansing from the body toxins that are released by the liver, the blood, and each cell positioned throughout the body – a big job which further burdens the spleen, impacting its efficiency when toxic inputs from diet, environment, or medical treatment overwhelm the lymph channels. Thus the importance of regular clay baths, the internal use of clay, daily exercise (to move the toxins through the lymph channels), and a purposeful use of fasting. 

Mineral Balance
The spleen also stores iron in reserve to prevent anemia, but if copper, sulfur, aluminum, manganese, iodine, zinc, phosphorous, or cobalt become deficient or excessive in the body, then iron can become unavailable, regardless the amount stored in the spleen. So a good diet would include a perfectly balanced mineral source created by Nature, rather than a lab. Thus the importance of clay and superfoods in this regard. 

Cortisol, Viruses, and Immune Response Powers
The spleen also recycles spent red blood cells, breaking them down into amino acids (with which new proteins can be made) and bilirubin (required by the liver for the production of bile). Yet viruses, especially Epstein-Barr, can interfere with this important function. 

Viruses tend to lay dormant in most everyone’s spleen waiting for an emotionally charged day, or stressful life event, to wake up and go after the stress hormone cortisol (which is one of its favorite food sources). These viruses are also fed by the high levels of cortisol stimulated by caffeinated beverages. 

These same viruses are fed by the consumption of nuts, peas, and any fat/oil excess, especially when derived from animal products or their byproducts (butter, ghee, cheese, etc.) (Grass fed raw milk whey seems to be an exception here since the fats are removed). Coconut oil in moderation seems to also be an exception due to the fact that it is naturally predigested, for the most part.

Vegetable oils (being concentrates) can easily be taken in excess leading to the same viral overgrowth. 

What is the connection between fats, oils, cortisol, and the herpes family of viruses?
Viruses, and their cousin mycoplasma, are tasked by Nature with the job of consuming excesses of fats & cholesterol (along with toxins, heavy metals, chemicals, and they especially love antibiotics!).

Cortisol is constructed from cholesterol, so is the protective myelin sheath around your nerves that the shingles virus loves to feed on.

Thus the reason why these viruses get out of hand when the diet includes excesses of their favorite foods (causing their numbers to multiply and then attack organs & glands, and inflame nerves). 

This viral overgrowth (herpes, shingles, and Epstein-Barr strains) is one of the prime underlying causes of chronic fatigue (more impacting by far than any Lyme bacteria).

The spleen manufactures a good portion of your antibodies, whose function is to tackle viruses of this nature. Yet the spleen can easily become depressed in its power to do so with the simple addition of sugar, or an excess of fruits in the diet, or the combination of starches or sweets with liquid oils or animal fats (which increases insulin resistance). 

Food Combining Mistakes
Trail mix and most desserts/pastries are classic examples of this food combining mistake that depresses the immune system, interferes with proper digestion, and contributes to a buildup of fat on organs, glands, and muscle. 

Organic Health Foods with Limited Nutritional Value
There are several other splenic functions that can be impacted in performance as well (listed here), yet one stands out as likely to go unnoticed: the foods we buy in our health food stores today are, more often than not, nutrient deficient due to the way the soils are being treated on most farms. 

Even organic farms tend to be reluctant to nurture their soils, its biology, and its mineral content properly. So nutrient deficiencies are prevalent in most health food diets, even if food combining is properly addressed and certain health foods that harm the body, like nuts, are removed or severely moderated.

(Consuming daily rations of nuts and nut butters is one of the fastest ways to feed the herpes/shingles strains of viruses, resulting in cold sores, herpes outbreaks, and shingles attacks. Excessive nut consumption (which becomes a sludge in the gut increasing constipation) is also a major contributing factor to the epidemic of chronic fatigue today.) 

Potent Nutrition Sources
It is for this reason I have chosen to first feed my body with green superfood blends (like Vital Cleanse & Nutrify, Earth & Sea Greens, and Sea Vegetable Blend which focus on herbs and sea vegetables that naturally hold their nutrients better than farm produce. Then I look to the bulky foods for entertainment and for an enjoyable social experience with the family.

Unless I grow the food myself (I do have an urban garden), I do not expect to get a proper complement of nutrients from my produce (purchased from the local health food store).

Unless you are growing your own food and paying close attention to the soil quality, your food will not be able to provide you with excellent health overall, certainly not with the level of life stresses typical of today’s world placing additional demands on our body's nutritional reserves.

Summary
So, in order to answer the question of whether the herbal formulas can be dispensed with, providing diet and lifestyle remain clean, it boils down to how much (and for how long) Spleen Builder might be required to rebuild your spleen, how clean the diet really is, how clean the body is of toxins, the quality of your nourishment – whether it be health foods or supplements, the amount of exercise you do, and whether you grow your own food. 

From personal experience I have found that it takes all of the above to rebuild and maintain good levels of spleen health (the principles of which apply to all other areas or physiology, given each area's unique function and needs within the body). 

If you find yourself unable to meet the demanding needs of your spleen on a daily basis, then Spleen Builder will be there to help nourish, balance and strengthen.

Many blessings of health & success,
Enjoy the simple gifts from Nature!