Another Wrong and Dangerous, Fear

I have heard some very wrong, and dangerous, comments made online and by medical and alternative health practitioners about the “dangers” of bentonite due to “its aluminum content.”

These claims and concerns are unfounded. They are not based on experience or studies.  Beware of everything you read and hear. People are allowed to make any claim they want. Before you give these any credibility—ask the questions that you deserve to get the answers to. Where are the studies that show it is dangerous? What experience does the person writing these claims, or repeating them, have to make such a statement? You will find no studies that show bentonite is dangerous, and you will find that the people who make these false claims have zero personal experience using large amounts, and are therefore not qualified to make them.

For the last 18 years I have used bentonite and similar products with my clients. I have had hundreds of clients take amounts that are considered “massive” by the alternative and medical field. Unlike all of these other people discussing bentonite, I am qualified to comment about the safety of this product.

There might be extremely small amounts of aluminum in bentonite. But in my experience, bentonite removes far many more toxins, including heavy metals like aluminum, from the body than it adds.

My experience and testing has revealed that bentonite does not add aluminum to your body. On the contrary, it eliminates it from your body (and the symptoms and diseases associated with excess aluminum stores)!

I have never seen any harm done by the ingestion of large amounts of bentonite. On the contrary, I have seen people lose weight and keep it off, eliminate polyps, cysts, all kinds of disease, congested arteries, high cholesterol, headaches, bloating, blood sugar problems, ADD, alcoholism, etc. I have seen it heal one’s organs and greatly extend the quality and quantity of one’s life.

Testing results

In my practice, the storage of all toxins in one’s body, including heavy metals like aluminum, is measured with pH tests. I have done thousands of these with thousands of clients in the last 18 years. I have never seen these worsen with the consumption of large amounts of bentonite (as they would if the consumption of bentonite were harmful and adding aluminum to the system).

On the contrary, the larger the ingestion of bentonite, the faster these test improve. The more bentonite someone takes, the more toxins, aluminum included, that are eliminated from their body.

(I have also read about a naturopath who recommends bentonite–at much smaller amounts than I do, but of course, he was trained to treat symptoms with crutches. Nevertheless, he claims to have done extensive hair analysis testing on his patients and has never seen an increase in aluminum in the tissues of the patients who have taken it.)

It is sad that some of you are being led to be afraid of a product that can dramatically improve the quality and longevity of your life; something that modern and alternative medicine is failing to do.

So why are these inaccurate, fear-mongering comments made? I can only guess at this. Maybe it is because if everyone took large quantities of bentonite, trillions of dollars of profit would be lost yearly in the medical and alternative field? Maybe it is because bentonite is a major threat to the many people and industries that earn a very good living treating your symptoms with crutches? (I just read that the drug companies sold $20 billion dollars worth of cancer drugs alone in the year 2009–wow.)

In nature, as with humans, there is a natural tendency to react to a threat—to our safety, financial stability, etc– with an attack….

Watch the two minute video “Musical Poop Song” from the TV show “Scrubs”.

So I will provide another analogy for you, in my never-ending attempt to set you on the right road. (I suspect that I will still get many questions about how the Bowel Strength can work if it has no probiotics in it, and all I can do is keep trying to “undo” your current way of thinking…)

Bowel Strength and probiotics like acidophilus work by helping the good bacteria in your bowel grow and multiply.

If you had no money, you would die (of starvation etc). Likewise, if you had no healthy bacteria in your bowel, you would die, too. If you had $4000 in the bank, you would want it to grow and multiply. To do so, you could invest this money in real estate, gold, a money market fund, a CD, etc. These are all different investment vehicles, but they all help your money grow and multiply (well, in the good ‘ole days, but you get the point). Likewise, there are many “investment vehicles” for your good bacteria, as well. One of them is probiotics. Another is grapefruit seed extract. Another is berberine (these last two are in Bowel Strength). There is not one way to help your money grow, and there is not just one way to help your good bacteria grow and multiply, either.

The vast majority of the clients that I have seen who have rebuilt the bacterial environment in their bowels have never taken acidophilus; they have done this exclusively with Bowel Strength.

Bowel Strength and probiotics like acidophilus do the same thing. You don’t need to take both products to heal your bowel!

When you successfully heal your bowel and body, you will experience a gradual reduction in the frequency and severity of your symptoms. (On the other hand, you are given instructions for using crutches in Chapter 10 of “This Works Crutches Don’t,” and these will immediately reduce your symptoms and improve your bowel movements, but do not confuse this with healing, and do not interpret this to mean that you have quickly healed your bowel and body.)

During the healing process, your body will release stored-up acidity from your cells and dump it into your organs of elimination. This is very positive and you will experience an improvement in your health and weight as a result. When you unplug the bottom of your pipe (organs of elimination), the acidity that was stuck in the middle and top will be released into the space that was just cleared away at the bottom. This is a wonderful thing that helps save your life, as trash at the top of your pipe is very harmful and undesirable. If your body can release it into your bowel because it is healthier, it will do so.
During this process, however, you may find that a symptom that was better returns again (albeit, temporarily). This can, understandably, be confusing, upsetting, and frustrating—if you do not understand the healing process, and the actual “benefit” of this response!

To understand what is happening, imagine that you have holes all over the roof of your house.; holes over the bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen, tec. And imagine that there is a man on the roof fixing these holes. Let’s also say that there are many more holes over your bathroom than your kitchen, and even fewer over your bedroom. If this man fixes eight holes/day—over all of these rooms– the bedroom will get fixed first (as it has the fewest holes over it.) Prior to fixing these holes, if it rained, your entire house got wet. Now, when it rains, your bedroom will not get wet (because the holes over it have been fixed), but now your living room and kitchen may become wetter, as a result of the rain not dripping into your bedroom. Now, as you keep this man on the roof, eventually the holes over the kitchen and living room will get fixed too, and when it rains, these rooms won’t get wet either.

But for a period of time, they do get wetter when it rains.

To relate this to this process, you may have a lot of stored acids in your kidneys, less in your pancreas, and even fewer in your arteries. As you eliminate acids from your body with this process, your arteries will heal first, then your liver, and your kidneys will heal last, as your body heals from the “top” down (review Chapter 3 for an understanding of this).

So if it “rains,” i.e. you eat more sugar, alcohol, or a more cleansing diet of more carbohydrates and/or less protein, at some point the un-eliminated acids will no longer affect your arteries and liver, but more of them will be handled by your kidneys. This can mean that all of a sudden, your blood pressure goes up, or you retain more water (weight) than you were.
This is not a negative experience. On the contrary, during these reactions, you are becoming healthier. This can be interpreted as negative when someone experiences the initial signs of improvement, and is mentally disappointed when the improvement does not continue uninterrupted.

It is only after all of the old accumulated acidity has been eliminated from an organ that a symptom may be gone forever. It is only once all of the holes in your roof have been fixed that your house will not get wet when it rains.

You are used to crutches, and this experience can cause you to wrongly interpret these reactions and fail to heal your body. When you take a drug to lower your blood pressure, for example, and it does just that, you would rightly be concerned if at some point your blood pressure became elevated again while taking it. The medication is treating the symptom of high blood pressure and the return of that symptom means the drug may not be working anymore and may need to be increased. Your crutch is failing you.

During this process, the re-appearance of a symptom does not mean that the process is not working. Keep taking Bowel Strength or acidophilus and bentonite, and you will “move past this” onto even better health, and fewer symptoms.
Or, if you do not like your kitchen getter wetter, make sure you have a large tarp over your roof. If you do not like these reactions, make sure your stools are well-formed, that you are taking your bentonite correctly, and that you are not eating too little protein, too much fruit, or too many carbohydrates, just yet.

This is a very difficult concept to explain; yet it is a very important one to understand. Hence, I strongly urge you to watch my video, “Understanding Healing Symptoms,” available at www.YouTube.com (found by typing my name, Donna Pessin, into the search field).

2. Watch my videos. Videos that visually explain the main concepts of this program are available and can be accessed through www.YouTube.com, by typing my name, Donna Pessin, into the search field.

3. Join my mailing list for more support, specials on Bowel Strength, probiotics, bentonite, and other supplements, and notifications of new videos. You can sign up through my website or by emailing me at donna@ThisWorksCrutchesDont.com and putting “Sign me up” in the subject heading.

4. Invest in your health and happiness. The time and money you spend on this program is limited and will be significantly less than the time and money you will spend, and have already spent, on crutches.

5. Expect to get lost/frustrated/confused and/or scared. This program does not simply heall your bowel and body and eliminate your symptoms, illness, addictions, and weight struggles. Bowel Strength or probiotics, and bentonite can only do this if they are used correctly. Take the time to review the information and instructions in my book so that they are.
This is a complex process, but it is more than worth it. What you do when you are faced with fears, misunderstandings, and frustrations will determine your success. Do you run away, or resolve to fight? Only the fighters will succeed.

6. Be patient. I am never concerned about the physical condition a client is in as far as my ability to help them reverse this and heal their body; this is not limiting, except in the most imminent, life-threatening cases. The limitations in healing your bowel and body are almost entirely due to your emotional state of mind. Healing requires patience, faith, forgiveness, hard work, support, and gratitude. Finding the purpose in your current situation is also very helpful.We are very lucky to have found this road.If you do not give this program at least one measly little year to show you that it works, (nothing, compared to the decades that most of you have had unhealthy bowels and bodies!, and nothing compared to the decades you will spend with short term success but inevitable failure if you follow the crutch approaches), you will never succeed in attaining a symptom-free, addiction-free, disease-free body, free of weight struggles and obsessions. Of this I am certain. In fact, I would not blame calories, stress, genetics, laziness, carbs, or even an unhealthy bowel and body as the number one cause of obesity and death in this country—I would definitely say it is due to impatience,

7. Use crutches, because while they do not heal your body, they will help give you the patience needed to heal!
Taking an aggressive amount of Bowel Strength (or probiotics, like acidophilus), and using bentonite, is a necessity for achieving a healthy, symptom-free, addiction-free, long-living and thin body. But your bowel is home to 100 trillion bacteria, and recreating this beyond-enormous environment takes time. And eliminating billions of stored acids form you body takes a long time as well. Hence, very few of you will succeed in accomplishing this feat if you do not use crutches along the way.
Those of you who do or have used the crutches I recommend in Chapter 10 of “This Works, Crutches Don’t” have found a significant and immediate reduction in headaches, aches and pains, sugar cravings, bad Pap smears, and PMS. You have seen your skin look better right away, your energy increase, your stools dramatically improve, and your weight go down. You have begun sleeping through the night. You have gotten pregnant immediately, felt great during your pregnancy, and given birth to healthy babies. You have seen your blood tests improve, reduced fatigue and depression, and seen your cravings for alcohol, drugs, and sugar go down.

8. Don’t blame Bowel Strength, probitoics, or bentonite for your problems. In 99% of the clients I work with, the Bowel Strength or probiotics and bentonite are not too strong, and therefore do not cause any symptoms, for at least the first year of use. If you have been taking Bowel Strength or probiotics and bentonite for longer than one year and you are feeling bad and want to blame these products, call or email me so we can schedule a visit so I can help you determine if you are blaming the right thing. The difference between success and failure with this program surely lies in one’s blaming the right thing when one has problems

9. Forgive yourself. You have fallen for the quick and easy answer many times (we ALL have!). Some of you may be very angry and bitter that you were led down the wrong road, but ultimately, you made the decision to follow this road. Now, you must forgive yourself for doing so. You must decide how you are going to move forward: will you get stuck in your anger and bitterness (in which case you will never find your true health and weight potential)), or will you forgive yourself, and others, and be grateful that you have a chance to make a better decision for yourself this time, and create a better future for yourself as well?

10. If you are not getting the results that you should, this program is not failing you. You are simply lost. If this is you, contact me at www.ThisWorksCrutchesDont.com to schedule an appointment so I can help you attain the success that is possible with this program, and that you deserve.

As such, there is great benefit to finding the “right amount” of bentonite to use now, as well as great value in taking it daily and benefitting from the cumulative, healing affect of this product.

Like Bowel Strength or acidophilus, you will see greater improvements in your health, weight, symptoms, addictions, and disease as you continue with this product over time.

So, if the amount of rain that hits your roof fluctuates a lot; if your diet, and the amount of stress in your life, varies, do not get discouraged by this, and your inability to perfectly offset this on a daily basis. Bentonite is the “mop” that soaks up the rain getting into your house, but since you will be, for the most part, using the “same size mop,” or the same amount of bentonite, on a daily basis for a while, there will be days when the amount you take does not soak up all the rain, and you house gets wet. There will be days that there are more acids in your blood and bowel than the day before, and the amount of bentonite you take is not enough to eliminate all of them. And that is ok.

As you continue taking bentonite, visualize the holes in your roof getting stronger; visualize the large pile of accumulated acids in your body becoming smaller. In both cases, as time goes by, this house, with fewer holes in the roof, will get wet less often. Your body, with fewer stored acids, will less likely become overwhelmed with acids (because many of the acids in your bowel and blood in the first place came from this big pile of stored acids; as the pile gets smaller, so does your vulnerability to symptoms, weight, addictions, and disease.)

This program is much easier once your body is healthier, and your daily use of bentonite is making your body healthier.

That is the essence of this program, that one day “keeping your house dry” will be effortless. That one day, it will be effortless to look and feel great, avoid disease, and conquer your addictions. And using bentonite on a daily basis—regardless of the immediate benefits to your bowel, weight, or symptoms—will help get you to this beyond amazing place, one day.

To better understand these concepts, watch my newest video, titled “Making Bentonite Work For YOU” at www.Youtube.com (found by typing my name, Donna Pessin, into the search field. Look for all of my videos here, too!)

In my practice, cleansing refers to the release of stored acids from your organs into your blood and bowel. This creates symptoms, weight gain, and bad blood tests when your bowel is too unhealthy to completely eliminate these acids.

The consumption of a larger amount of cleansing food in your diet is, by far, the number one cause of discomfort on this program—or failure to see quick improvements in your symptoms or weight. Failure is rarely due to the Bowel Strength or bentonite.

Foods that are cleansing yield glucose or other sugars when they are digested. This glucose stimulates the movement of acids from your organs into your blood. This is only good, and valuable, if these acids can be eliminated from your body once they become released. It will take some time before you are healthy enough to eliminate a lot of acids.

If you have started his program and are not looking or feeling better, check the list of cleansing foods below and make sure you have not added more into your diet (compared to the quantity you ate before you started this program.)

Eating a more cleansing diet is by far the number one cause of discomfort, poor stools , bad blood tests, and a lack of change in your weight or symptoms while you are healing your bowel and body!

Most/Very highly cleansing foods: fruit and fruit juices, sugar and sugar-containing foods like desserts and sodas

Highly cleansing foods: carbohydrates like bread, pasta, bagels, cereal, rice and other grains

Moderately cleansing foods: dairy products (as they yield milk sugar when digested), like yogurt (fruit-flavored are much more cleansing than plain yogurt), milk, cottage cheese, cheese, and beans, including soy/tofu

Non-cleansing foods: animal protein like chicken, beef, turkey and fish; green leafy vegetables (while the “dreaded” evil veggies like carrots and potatoes are slightly cleansing); fats like nuts, butter, and avocadoes

Note: alcohol, coffee, and cigarettes are not cleansing. They are highly acidic and damaging to your body and bowel, but in the short-term they often make you feel good, not bad (hence our addictions!). Likewise, over the long run they will make it much harder for you to eliminate acids and to look and feel good. Notice that many of the diets that ultra-thin celebrities consume contain animal protein, vegetables, alcohol and coffee (they are photographed with “Starbuck” cups all the time), because they have learned how to eat in a way to stop the movement of acids into their blood, helping them become thin (at a steep price later on, of course. And note how many of these celebrities “balloon up and gain large quantities of weight in a short period of time (think Janet Jackson), when they stop this horrible diet…)

Many cleansing foods are healthy for you, but until you are healthy, eating them will make you look and feel worse!

To better understand this concept, go to www.YouTube.com, type my name, Donna Pessin, into the search field and watch the video titled “Avoid Cleansing Diets!”

Cleansing does not heal you, or lead to permanent weight loss, symptom reduction, or illness elimination as this program does

Cleanses actually remove very little, if no, toxicity/acidity from your body. Rather, during them, there is “no rain hitting your roof”—you eat no acidic foods like coffee, alcohol or sugar, etc. Or, you ingest alkaline minerals and foods, like lemon juice, green veggie juice, or supplements like Milk Thistle, which buffer—but do not eliminate—the acids in your body, again, making you look and feel better.

When you look and feel better on these programs, you wrongly assume it means you eliminated a lot of toxins/acids from your body.

There are only four ways to eliminate acids from your body—breath, sweat, urine and poop! There is very little about these diets, and nothing about these supplements, that help you breathe, sweat, urinate, or poop out more toxins/acids.
Sometimes your bowels become more frequent during one of these programs and you wrongly believe—because this is what “they” wrongly believe–that this means you are eliminating a lot of acids/toxins from your body. When your bowels move daily but your stools are not firm and very well formed, it means very little acidity is exiting your body (if I accomplish one thing before I die, I hope to get everyone to understand this concept!)

To eliminate billions of stored acids/toxins from your body, and to be able to maintain this effortlessly for many years to come, heal your bowel and body as described in my book.

(For more information on cleanses, review pages 142-145 of my book, “This Works, Crutches Don’t,” and view my video on this subject at www.YouTube.com (this can be found by searching under my name, Donna Pessin.))