Cleansing Fact Number 1: Your body does need help to cleanse and take care of itself as it needs help in all body processes.

While it is true that your body is designed to cleanse and detoxify itself, this does not mean we should not do what we can to help it. Your body is also made to convert beta carotene into Vitamin A, but cannot if you don't consume foods containing real beta carotene. See how this works?

While your body is made to do many marvelous things, it needs your help. Here are some more examples. Your skin can clean itself by shedding old, dead skin cells, but you have to wash them off. Your body is designed to convert alcohol into water, but only so much at a time. In fact, if you drink too much alcohol, you get alcohol poisoning. Your body is capable of burning excess calories, unless you too many, and especially the wrong kind, on a regular basis. In that case, it stores excess proteins and toxins in fat cells, making them larger.

In all of these natural body processes, we must take action to help ourselves while being careful not to overload. Why would it be different for the body's cleansing process? As with all body systems, your body does what it can when it can. If the right nutrition is not available (like the beta carotene), or there is too much of something the body cannot process (like too much alcohol or calories) then your body has trouble.

Cleansing Fact Number 2: Your body needs real nutrients from whole, unprocessed foods so that it can cleanse or detoxify. Whole, unprocessed foods contain the type of nutrients that your body can use. The vegetables and fruits have components called phytonutrients that are necessary for your body to stimulate immunity and strengthen organs, which are both necessary for detoxification.

In addition, whole, unprocessed foods do not have chemicals and other synthetic additives that add to your body's toxic load. This means less burden on your system, freeing it up to do what it should be doing naturally, cleansing and detoxifying.

Cleansing Fact Number 3: Many people will experience side effects or cleansing effects during a program. It is usually due to toxins being dislodged then having to travel through the body on their way out. Also, during this cleansing process, your body kills off extra pathogens such as bacteria and virus due to the better nutritional intake. This means more metabolic toxins that must travel through your lymphatic system as they find their way out.

And consider this; medical treatments often require painful treatments before you get better. This includes setting a broken bone and surgeries. This does not necessarily mean it is bad for you. This is where you can apply the saying that things sometimes must get worse before they get better.

Cleansing Fact Number 4: Cleansing your body or doing a colon cleanse takes time. It can takes years for weight to be added on. It takes years for degenerative disease to set in - hence the word degenerative, meaning long, slow process as the body breaks down. In many cases, it takes years for a person to notice the effects that junk food has on their body.

So, cleansing your body will take time. One day will not be enough. Many times, we must do a program for a whole month, and then wait a couple months and do it again! This is because it takes time for your body to use the nutrition of your cleansing diet and supplements to build new, healthy cells while shedding the old, diseased ones.

Cleansing Fact Number 5: Do your research. There are literally thousands of programs you can try, some costing nothing while others can run you thousands of dollars. Know what your limitations are, what you are willing to do during a cleanse, and why you are cleansing. Read testimonials, ask around, and try them for yourself. And then have patience. Take care of your body and it can take care of you well into your golden years.