Podcast 008: Himalayan Crystal Salt Brine Therapy

Scott Paton: Welcome back. This is the Life Enthusiast Co-op podcast. I am your co-host Scott Paton along with Martin Pytela. Glad that you joined us today. Hey Martin, how are you doing?

Martin Pytela: It is another great day at the Life Enthusiast Co-op Scott.

Scott Paton: Great. Well, we have been talking about Detox and that sort of stuff and this past weekend, Martin, I think I was detoxing because my head was kind of spinning, I felt like I was out on Pluto. I didn’t like feel sick like I had a flu or something, but I could tell I was just really off and it was really actually kind of a funny sensation. I couldn’t concentrate the way I normally concentrate.

Martin Pytela: You know Scott people describe this feeling as spacey-ness sense of unreality.

Scott Paton: That is exactly what it was like and it was really hard to kind of Focus and concentrate on anything, so I… actually, we had talked over the weekend and took your advice, I took it easy and just…

Martin Pytela: Yes, that is what you need.

Scott Paton: Kept on going…

Martin Pytela: Scott, can you imagine that this is how people who suffer from chronic fatigue and Candida infection, that is what they feel like all the time.

Scott Paton: Oh, boy that is terrible.

Martin Pytela: Now, you probably have some empathy for the folks who say I have had Candida for 10 years and I am at the end of my rope.

Scott Paton: I will tell you if I felt like that for two weeks, I would be at the end of my rope.

Martin Pytela: Yes, this is what happens to people who suffer from auto-intoxification, self pollution. When the body is unable to get rid of the toxins that are running around in the blood that is how it affects your thinking; it is just awful.

Scott Paton: Right. Now, do those toxins also get in the lymphatic system?

Martin Pytela: That is where they start actually.

Scott Paton: That is where they start, because we had talked last time about the lymphatic system and how you have got to move around to kind of get it working right.

Martin Pytela: Now, here is what happens. You actually took some herbal preparations to cleanse your colon, right?

Scott Paton: That is right.

Martin Pytela: Things that have been set aside and parked in this undigested, putrefied, sorry to be so literal, bits of stuff that are sitting in parked little places inside your colon, they have become stirred up, they have become re-liquified, and as your body extracts water for its internal needs from the colon, this material was coming with and these are the toxins that you loosened up. So, they are actually running in your blood. The next stage what happens is, as the body tries to get rid of them, if the filtering capacity of your liver and kidneys is overwhelmed, the only place it can go is in your lymphatic system, so that is where it ended up.

Scott Paton: And that is where it ended this up. So, Yes, I made sure I went for walks and I sort of moved around because as we talked before, if you just sort to sit, it all just sits because there is no pump for the lymphatic system. Yes, and I found that really helped actually.

Martin Pytela: Absolutely, Yes. Exercise helps and of course taking foods rich in fiber you know of course something like porridge from oatmeal or taking psyllium husk or any such high fiber type of foods helps mop it up.

Scott Paton: Then that is part of the cleanse that I am doing has a lot of fiber in it. I think it is really important to kind of share these things because if our listeners end up doing, doing a cleanse or doing something and that is that same sort of experience then they know well this is what they said would probably happen in a couple of days, it will go away or whatever, which is a lot better than just being kind of surprised by it.

Martin Pytela: Oh, for sure, Yes.

Scott Paton: Which is what has happened to me…

Martin Pytela: Yes, isn’t that sad that the package that you bought didn’t really warn you strong enough that if you push your body hard and fast enough, you are going to end up in this cleanse Detox reaction.

Scott Paton: Right, well, and I think, probably if it… even if it did, I don’t know that I would have read it.

Martin Pytela: Oh, that is right, Yes. We are men. We don’t read manuals.

Scott Paton: It said take this twice a day and do this and do this and do this and I just… that is about all I read I think, so it may have actually said that Martin, but…

Martin Pytela: Okay, well, this tells you, what good the disclaimers are on any place, like the cigarette disclaimers, right?

Scott Paton: Yes.

Martin Pytela: Yes, the black box on a package; people just simply tune it out.

Scott Paton: That is right.

Martin Pytela: Oh dear.

Scott Paton: So, what are some other ways that we could Detox the body?

Martin Pytela: Well, here is an interesting one. On our website, we talk about brine therapy. Brine as in b-r-i-n-e. Brine is a solution of salt. Let me step back and explain this from a broader perspective. Salt is a very much discussed and maligned topic that the main stream medicine has made into a scapegoat because they are saying, oh, too much sodium, it is going to raise your blood pressure and you are going to be in so much trouble and don’t take salt and all of that, and they are actually right about that because refined salt, which is what we find in grocery stores, is bad for you in the same way as refined sugar is bad for you and refined, bleached flour is bad for you and anything else that you take apart with an industrial process is not good for you. Natural salt is rich in other minerals, not just sodium chloride and it also is different in a physical structural way. Life Enthusiast Co-op offers Himalayan Crystal Salt, which we think is probably the best salt available on the planet. That salt has crystallized 250 million years ago from the ancient ocean that the trilobites were swimming in. It is very pristine. I think of it as the amniotic fluid of life itself. Think of it: the primordial ocean was the womb of the planet from which all life sprang forward.

Scott Paton: That is true.

Martin Pytela: That amniotic fluid dried up in some shallow lakes or shallow bays and then later, when the Indian tectonic plate pushed itself under the Asian plate, the Himalayas rose about many million years ago. This salt was buried and compressed under mountains where it has solidified and turned itself into beautiful pink crystals. This salt is hand-mined, carefully extracted from under the ground by hand without the use of explosives or heavy machinery. Our manufacturing process includes manual extraction of large blocks that are shipped to our secondary facility, where they are hand washed in salt brine, and dried in the tropical sunlight. We then bring it to North America where it is sorted and milled in food grade facilities prior to sale to our customers. This end product is a beautiful, energy rich salt. To make the best use of it, you would take the beautiful pink crystals and dissolve them in water to turn them into brine, concentrated saturated brine. You would take a teaspoon (5 milliliters) of this saturated brine in a glass of water every morning.

If you were to take about 15 times as much, about 1-1/2 quarts of this brine, which would mean about six tall glasses of it, drink in quick succession, you would give yourself a full intestinal and colon cleanse. You would of course need to spend the next hour or two near a toilet because everything that is inside of you will be flushed out and pushed out of you, so that is the most economical traditional cleanse that has been done since time immemorial. East Indian folks have been doing it for the longest time. This is a yogic practice.

Natural salts provides your body with required trace minerals. Ingesting the natural salt brine gives your body the ability to nourish the cells with the minerals, creating the electrolytes that they need to function correctly.

Scott Paton: And those electrolytes are really important, aren’t they?

Martin Pytela: That is right because all of your nerve impulses, all cellular function is working on electrolytic changes. There is one called the sodium pump, which is sodium on one side, Potassium on the other and that is the pump that moves nutrients and toxins in and out of cells and there is the other one we probably talked about three or four podcasts ago, the Magnesium and Calcium Balance, which controls the fight-flight versus immune rebuilding, the autonomous nervous system. Minerals much needed and sodium is very important.

I read in a newspaper not long ago that there was a contest for people to win a Wii PlayStation. I don’t remember the brand, but somewhere in Texas, a young mother of three, a 28-year-old woman, took part in a contest where these people were drinking pint sized bottles of water. They were given a pint of water every 15 minutes and kept going, holding on until they could no longer hold and had to go to the washroom. This woman died the next morning because she drank too much water and upset her internal sodium-Potassium Balance and disrupted her heart function. That is also the principle behind how some executions are carried out – sodium pentothal injection. You upset their sodium-Potassium Balance and their heart stops beating. It actually goes into fibrillation that kills you.

Scott Paton: Wow. So, those electrolytes are absolutely crucial for life and for a healthy life.

Martin Pytela: Absolutely. I am just remembering another story of a marathon runner who hydrated herself so well that at the end of the Boston Marathon she collapsed and died. Drinking a lot of water without re-supplying sodium can be lethal.

Scott Paton: Right, because it is not just the water, it is the level of everything in relation to the water.

Martin Pytela: That is correct. As you sweat, you are getting rid of a lot of sodium and you need to resupply it. All people who exercise and bring their sweat rate up, should definitely supplement sodium, in the form of natural salt. We did an experiment some time ago and offered Himalayan salt brine to marathon runners. They were reported back as having a much improved recovery rate from their training, much better than drinking sugar filled sports drinks.

Scott Paton: And that is of course what Gatorade advertises right, that you need the electrolytes and you need the salts.

Martin Pytela: That is right, but unfortunately, they load you up with cheap sugars, lots of glucose, which spikes your insulin rate and causes all kinds of trouble further on. The Gatorade is one of the bad things on the planet I tell you.

Scott Paton: Okay. You talked about crystal salt for like drinking…

Martin Pytela: That is right.

Scott Paton: What… I noticed there is also a Himalayan Crystal Salt bath. Can you tell us a little bit about what… how that would affect someone?

Martin Pytela: Well, you know, we are talking about amniotic fluid again. When a baby is in the womb, the amniotic fluid it is surrounded by is the salinity of your tears, 0.9% solution of saline, of salt. If we want to create a similar environment that is soothing emotionally and physically, and that helps draw toxins out, we need to be brave and spend $20 on a single bath. Take the whole kilo, 2.2 pounds, of the salt and throw it in the bathtub and dissolve it and spend half an hour in the hot water. In order to make it effective you need to create a solution that is salty enough, 0.9 % or 1% solution. When you do that, you are getting the full benefit. If you are just trifling with the salt, it doesn’t give you the full benefit.

Many people are doing it wrong. They think, “Oh, my gosh. This is expensive stuff,” and so they try and make it last and split it in four or six ways, but they would do themselves a greater favor if they thought, “Okay, I will do this right at least once. I will take the whole kilo and put it in the tub. ”

Scott Paton: Oh, and this… Yes, I know, there are lots of spas that have things like mud bath and stuff and that costs a lot more than $20 to spend a day at a spa and have a mud bath wrapped around you right.

Martin Pytela: Sure enough.

Scott Paton: So, you really have to remember what you are comparing it to. It seems to me like pretty cheap home spa.

Martin Pytela: Yes, I am sure glad I have you here for a proper perspective.

Scott Paton: Well, Yes, I mean if you think of buying a pound of salt in the store for $2 compared to $20 dollars for the crystal salt, I mean you can say, “Woo, that is expensive.” On the other hand, if you look at what you are going to use it for compared to what it would cost say at a spa, then it is cheap, right?

Martin Pytela: Exactly. So, folks you heard it here; it is cheap.

Scott Paton: Inexpensive. High quality, right?

Martin Pytela: Absolutely. It is really, honestly I must tell you, this is the high grade material, and it works. The stories that we have on the website are from real users, praises that people sing about this method. The benefits are significant. Honestly, indulge yourselves.

Scott Paton: Yes, you deserve it. So, that is the trick. Get the bath salt poured into the bath, sit in it for half an hour. You will be amazed at the improvement in your physical and spiritual and emotional feelings.

Martin Pytela: Absolutely. It is about equivalent to a three day fast. Imagine the amount of cleansing that you can do in half an hour and it is only $20.

Scott Paton: Right. I noticed also that we have got a crystal salt tea light, too.

Martin Pytela: The crystal salt lamps are really beautiful items. They are decorative. They provide a very pleasant light, and the benefit of the heated salt is that it generates negative ions. Negative ions are responsible for the uplifting atmosphere in a forest or by the beach.

Scott Paton: After a rain?

Martin Pytela: After a rain, yes, so…

Scott Paton: That is that good feeling in the air.

Martin Pytela: Typically, the indoor air has the ion density of about 100 ions per cubic centimeter whereas in the forest, there are 2000 ions per cubic centimeter; and that makes a big difference. Indoor spaces need to be refreshed. You can do that with negative ion generators, and you can do it with natural means. A Himalayan crystal salt lamp is nice to look at, and creates a healthier ambiance.

Scott Paton: Well, I have had one for probably a couple of years now in my bedroom and I have it on all day. I don’t have it on all night because it would be hard to Sleep with, but I just love the feeling when I am in my bedroom and I get a good night’s Sleep and the room feels wonderful.

Martin Pytela: That is exactly the point. It is great.

Scott Paton: What other ways that you can use this Himalayan Crystal Salt?

Martin Pytela: We offer the salt peeling, which is also known as the salt scrubs. It is a mixture of finely ground salt with ayurvedic oil that is used for exfoliating skin, especially on thick skin places such as heels, knees and elbows, but any other part of the body will exfoliate beautifully and the oils are really very restorative to the human tissue. We also have peloid made with salt and illit paste. Illit is a mineral from the bottom of the salt mine that is very, very, very, very, very fine. We mix this black powder with powdered salt this combination is effective at pulling toxins out of the skin. People who have oily skin, acne, and clogged skin pores benefit from it greatly.

Scott Paton: Sounds like a whole new world for me anyway.

Martin Pytela: Natural salt use is a very important subject. People who have maybe gotten the idea that refined sugar is bad for them, the health aware people that are probably listening to this podcast, they will say, “Oh, Yes of course, I know that I am not supposed to take refined sugar.” They don’t know that refined salt is doing just as much damage to them and switching to natural salt will improve their life tremendously. So, folks, we have the food grade salt, fine grind, for your table salt use and coarse grind which you could put in salt mills and the big pieces, which are used for the brine therapy.

Scott Paton: Okay, thank you Martin for sharing that information about the crystal salts. It was new for me, and I am sure it was new for a lot of our listeners. If you would like to listen to some of our previous podcasts, head over to lifeenthusiast.podomatic.com and they are all there for you. Leave a comment or a question. Let us know what you thought about the podcast. We really appreciate the feedback everybody has been giving us. If you want to know more about the Himalayan Crystal Salt products, head over to life-enthusiast.com. You will be able find all about it in there. There are lots of articles and more… way more information there for you to read and Martin, thank you very much for sharing time out of your busy day with me and our listeners. We really appreciate it.

Martin Pytela: Thank you. I love doing it.

Scott Paton: So, this is the Life Enthusiast Co-op podcast restoring vitality to you and the planet. See you next time.

Martin Pytela: Goodbye.