I met Dr. Deanna Minich last summer when she spoke at the American Association of Naturopathic Physician’s annual conference, and she accepted my invitation to give a presentation for NUHS students for a second time over lunch in collaboration with the Homeopathy Club, NUHS-Naturopathic Medical Student Association, and Nu Delta Sigma.

Dr. Deanna spoke about her Whole Detox Protocol that focuses on seven colors, organs, toxins, and aspects of detoxification. Unlike most detoxes, which focus solely on food, the Whole Detox looks at nutrition, emotions, thoughts, movement, affirmations, visualizations, and meditations. Each element is connected to an endocrine gland and color.

The seven main toxins she sees are:

1. Food-based chemicals
2. Emotional baggage
3. Limiting thoughts
4. Physical stagnation
5. not speaking truth
6. Lack of vision
7. Lack of purpose and meaning

Detoxes that focus only on what foods to remove often fail, because people not only need the tools to replace the bad with the good, but also need to address the mental/emotional/spiritual aspects of life which may be out of balance.

A great analogy Dr. Deanna used was the ripple effect. When finishing a detox, if a person can continue just one aspect of it into their everyday lives it will have a ripple effect on the overall being. For example, if someone were to keep eating one serving more of vegetable post-detox than they ate pre-detox, the increase in nutrients may cause them to be more energetic. Increased energy may make it possible for them to be more active. Being more active may increase the levels of feel-good hormones in the brain, and so on and so forth.

I think this explanation fits in nicely with lifestyle modification in general. Sometimes, myself included, when we try and change too many drastic behaviors and habits at once, it’s easy to feel discouraged and discontinue all efforts, leading to a “re-tox.” 

I enjoy being part of clubs on campus because I’m able to enhance my education by attending talks such as these. The more information I gather, the clearer the path becomes that I am meant to follow.