Shownotes
What if some of what you have been calling exhaustion or brain fog is your body carrying a load modern life keeps piling on without ever giving it a place to put down? If you eat well, move, sleep and still feel off, this conversation on toxic burden is for you.
Darci Frankel walks through the seven categories of toxins she has codified, why the skin, lymph, liver and kidneys are the four organs that matter here, and how a nervous system stuck in fight or flight quietly stalls rest, digestion and elimination. Practical, not alarmist.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Darci Frankel has spent more than 32 years in Ayurveda, detoxification and wellness. She is the founder of the Serious Cleanse Method and the managing owner of Hanalei Day Spa on Kauai, and has worked with thousands of clients trying to understand why they still feel off despite doing everything right.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Most people have never assessed their toxic burden or which exposures they actually carry.
- Her four organs of detoxification: the skin, the lymphatic system, the liver and the kidneys.
- She groups exposures into seven categories, including one for mental and emotional load.
- Negative self-talk and being gaslit sit in that emotional category, not outside it.
- Stuck in fight or flight, the body does not rest, digest or eliminate well.
- The physiological sigh is her simplest entry point: deep breath in, top it up, long exhale.
- Everyday sources she flags: laundry detergent, nicked non-stick pans, foil, antiperspirant.
- The sequence is learn, cleanse, track, then prevent. Prevention is the part people skip.
CONNECT WITH THE GUEST
Website: https://seriouscleanse.com (free Assess Your Toxic Burden quiz, three to five minutes)
Instagram: @seriouscleanse
Spa: https://hanaleidayspa.com
Telehealth consultations are available in limited numbers alongside her programmes
EPISODE CHAPTERS:
[00:00] Welcome to Wellness Reimagined: exhaustion as a load, not a personal failure (approx.)
[02:30] Why good habits are not enough if the four organs of detoxification are ignored (approx.)
[07:00] What an intoxicant actually is, and the seven categories she has codified (approx.)
[13:00] Mental and emotional toxins, and why they belong on the same list (approx.)
[16:00] The nervous system link: fight or flight versus rest, digest and cleanse (approx.)
[18:30] The physiological sigh, humming and singing as accessible daily practice (approx.)
[21:00] The toxic burden quiz, hair testing, and the household audit nobody does (approx.)
[26:00] Her five day and thirty day programmes, and where to find Darci (approx.)
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Transcripts
00:00:08 Sayan: What if some of what you have been calling exhaustion or brain fog is actually your body doing exactly what it's supposed to. Carrying a load that modern life keeps piling on without ever giving it a space to put it down.
00:00:21 Sayan: Welcome back to another episode of The Wellness Magic. I'm your host, Ian. As most of you would know. And today we are re-imagining what it really means to truly detoxify, not just really cleanse from a superficial level, but deeper and practical reset. Joining me today has some has been someone who has spent more than thirty two years in Ayurveda detoxification and wellness. She's also the founder of the Cleanse Method and owner of Hanalei Day Spa on North Shore. So meet Darci Frankel, someone who has helped thousands of clients understand why they still feel off despite doing everything right. So does he. Welcome to Wellness Reimagined. And I believe you are on the right spot today.
00:01:08 Darci Frankel: Thank you for having me, cyan.
00:01:11 Sayan: Thanks. Thanks, Darcy. So I'm excited to start this conversation of. And I think there's really something important that that we would be discussing towards the end of this conversation as well. Um, but just before we start, a little disclaimer to all of our listeners who have just tuned in today, some statements may reflect personal belief and experiences and are totally presented as individual views and not medical advice.
00:01:37 Sayan: So I recommend my listeners to please consult qualified professionals for any kind of medical condition. So with that being said, Darcy, I, I want to start with something that I think a lot of people in the wellness space feel, but haven't really, uh, they don't have a name yet. Um, which is the sense of doing all the right things at right time and, and still, you know, feeling off, feeling not quite well. So what do you think is the most misunderstood reason that people can have great habits and, you know, still feel terrible about themselves.
00:02:17 Darci Frankel: Most people haven't addressed their four organs of detoxification the skin, the lymphatic system, the liver and the kidneys. And they don't know which types of toxins that they've been exposed to. In other words, most of us have not addressed our toxic burden. So we are exposed to chemicals and toxins and toxicants from the air we breathe, from the water that we drink and shower in, and the foods that we eat, and we might not even know it. So each of us has a toxic burden. How significant it is depends on the unique individual. According to Ayurvedic medicine. As we know, Ayurveda is the science of healing from India, your mother country. And um, what happens is when we're exposed to toxins, they deposit into our bodies and stay there until we do a cleanse or until we address our toxic load and our four organs of detoxification.
00:03:22 Sayan: Right. I think, uh, that that really is a great, uh, point to really start off the conversation because, uh, you know, it's, it's really about, uh, removing that blame early on, uh, because I think so much of wellness culture implies that if you feel bad, you're doing something wrong, but that might not be, um, the case, right? It's, it's environmental. And I think in, in this case, understanding becomes the first step to actually doing something right about it. So while we'll get to that, that point where we discuss more about how to actually approach the cleansing methods, but and your frameworks as well. But Darcy, I want to understand this from, you know, a more in depth perspective, because I think when you say intoxicants, there are different kinds of intoxicants. So for example, there are intoxicants in food, like processed food. And, and so I think, organic food has become, you know, all the more, more important than it was thirty years back. Uh, I'm not saying, uh, people did not, uh, you know, really value organic food back then, but especially with all the intoxicants, uh, around the processed food and, and then, uh, you know, there's skincare, a lot of intoxicants that we really apply to our skin. Uh, whether that be shampoo, whether that be, you know, any kind of cosmetics and, and, and then I think there's intoxicants in terms of, uh, uh, in terms of what you breathe and, and intoxicants, uh, in water as well. But I think, uh, water, uh, I think we are at a point where, you know, we all have, uh, you know, installed, uh, uh, machines at machines at our home. And it, it does the job of the reverse osmosis and stuff. But curious to know how would you actually approach the awareness of these different kind of intoxicants that require different kind of prevention?
00:05:20 Darci Frankel: Yes. So you mentioned a couple of them, but there are actually seven categories of toxins that I've codified. I might be the first person to have codified these seven categories of toxins. Um, but in, in an intoxicant is a substance that alters normal mental or physical functioning, particularly affecting the brain, the nervous system, judgment, mood, perception or behavior. Um, you know, for instance, could impair cognitive function. So now the seven categories of toxins. Um, I'll name them. But before that, I think it behooves the viewer or listener to learn about the different types of toxins that we are exposed to.
00:06:05 Sayan: MM.
00:06:05 Darci Frankel: First of all, um, for instance, the seven categories we'll talk about in just a moment and then to cleanse them. And then it's important to track our progress as we go along, because what good is doing a cleanse if we don't know how we're doing? And finally, to prevent these toxins from getting into our bodies in the first place. So the seven categories of toxins. The first category. Well, before I go into that, I should say there is some overlap. And you'll see as we get into them, the first category of toxin is food toxins. These are types of toxins that we create. We can detect and we can eliminate easily ourselves. So eating before the previous, eating before the previous meal has digested, digested, or eating too many combinations of food, or eating food that doesn't serve our body mind type. Category number two is toxins in our air like mold or exhaust fumes. Things that we breathe, toxins in our air, water, food and medicine. These are not naturally occurring and there are many other toxins inside of this. I'm giving you an overview. Category number three is toxins that occur in nature also such as mycotoxins, mold, aquatic toxins, things like lectins and Lyme disease. Category number four is non-native EMF fields, um or non-native electromagnetic fields, also known as EMFs, which are, you know, right here in our phones, in our internet, even radio frequencies can interfere with the powerhouse. The powerhouse of our cells, called the mitochondria. Category number five is chemical petrochemicals and heavy metal toxins. So these are found in everyday products. They interfere with our hormones. They can sometimes mimic our natural hormone functions. Category number six is interesting. This is mental and emotional toxins um such as like negative self-talk. Or if somebody gaslights us or doesn't acknowledge our own perception, these are still toxins. Um, mental and emotional toxins. Category number seven is bacteria, virus, yeast, candida and parasites. Now all of these, everything in these categories, it's very broad, but we can detect them. We can cleanse them, track our progress, and then prevent them from getting back in our bodies in the first place, which is very important to for us to look in our lifestyle, like you said, and see our body products, see what we're consuming, the laundry detergent that touches our skin twenty four over seven because it has chemicals to stick to the clothes and to our skin. It's important we do a really good assessment and evaluation and roll up our sleeves and eliminate these and then cleanse them, of course.
00:09:13 Sayan: Well, that's, uh, that's really informative. Darcy, I really appreciate, um, you know, your, your take on, uh, the overview, I would say because indeed, uh, I mean, there are more subcategories inside of them if you look at it. So, so. I think now that we understand the different kinds of intoxicants. Um, right. Uh, since you bring together, uh, Ayurveda, lymphatic health and, you know, Detoxification in a way that feels very integrated, which covers this whole overview. We need to understand. Uh. There's this idea that nervous system regulation and detoxification are really connected, right? Um, but that's not the link that most people would usually draw. So help us understand what's actually happening there. And from then, I think then we can understand how we can apply your framework to help detoxify ourselves.
00:10:20 Darci Frankel: Yes. So if the nervous system is stuck in fight and fight or flight, then it's, it's an important system of the body to address. Because if we're stuck in fight or flight mode, we, you know, our parasympathetic system is not online. The parasympathetic system is our rest and digest. So when we're stuck in fight and flight, we. We don't rest or digest well, or cleanse or eliminate. It's a, you know, an emergency state of the body and stress can do this. So something very simple to do is breathing. Breathing activates and singing and humming activate the vagus nerve. And that helps to calm the nervous system. So something very simple you could do is, uh, what is called the physiological sigh. We could do that all together. We take a nice deep breath in through the nose, and then breathe in even a little bit more and then exhale through the mouth. And we do that several times. And this helps to relax the nervous system. Even if somebody has insomnia, you could do that as well. You just relax your nervous system and begin to entrain your nervous system so that you can deeply relax and have that flexibility in your nervous system. Because if we don't have that type of flexibility in our nervous system, what's going to happen over time is that we are not going to be able even to rest or to cleanse.
00:12:04 Sayan: Right. I think that's that's really an, you know, integrated way, I think of how we can help our bodies and that nervous system really reset to zero point zero. And I think that's, that's the practical part. Um, I think why we are having this kind of conversation here. I really appreciate you for sharing that. So, uh, I would, you know, take a minute here, uh, to kind of navigate to, I think the most practical part of this conversation about your, uh, framework that you have created. So, uh, I want to ask for all the listeners who are listening to this, um, who wants to find a more holistic way of living now, you know, there are different ways, uh, people could follow naturopathy. People could follow Ayurveda, people could follow the Chinese teachings, the Chinese medicine as well. But, uh, from your point, uh, what are some of the most accessible daily practices? Uh, like the one you shared just now, uh, that someone can really start with this week that would genuinely support their detoxification pathways regardless of, you know, uh, what kind of detoxification we're looking at because I believe, uh, from my understanding, there are different, uh, you know, initiatives for different category. So what's your take on this? And, uh, I think this, this is going to be the most critical part of the conversation.
00:13:30 Darci Frankel: Yes. It's so important to address our toxic burden. And, um, I have a few resources for the viewers. The first one is my assess your toxic burden quiz. It takes three to five minutes. Okay. It helps you to understand the types of toxins that you have been exposed to in your life. It's a great starting point. It's absolutely free and it just takes a few minutes. So we'll provide that link for you the second.
00:14:00 Sayan: What kind of what kind of questions are there? Darcy. Uh, in the questionnaire, if you can take a minute to sort of simplify that for us.
00:14:08 Darci Frankel: I can. Well, if you go back, do you remember the the seven categories of toxins?
00:14:13 Sayan: Yeah, yeah.
00:14:14 Darci Frankel: I help, I help, I drill down into those and I, I help people to discover which types of toxins that they've been exposed to. So for instance, um, we do an evaluation of your cleaning products in your home. We talk about travel because travel actually exposes us to a lot of different types of Right? Right. We talk so we talk about body products, um, uh, travel. We talk about in the, in the quiz. Um, uh, what type of even your, the, the, um, like pots and pans that you use, you know, Teflon is very, very toxic, especially if it's got a nick in it. Um, and, you know, there's, you know, microplastics, heavy metals and things like that. So I help people to assess their overall toxic load, which is very important. Now it's not a definitive test. It's a short quiz to help people get a good bird's eye view.
00:15:16 Speaker 3: Right.
00:15:17 Darci Frankel: In my other materials, there are more specific tests, like a heavy metals test that you can. You send a few strands of your hair away, and you can see which heavy metals we've been exposed to. Heavy metals displace certain important, um, elements in the body and they can be very toxic. There is no safe amount of aluminum, mercury or lead that should be in the body, for instance. So we are exposed to lead from exhaust industrial areas wearing shoes, um, outside and then wearing them inside. We're exposed to aluminum through aluminum foil. For instance, if you wrap your food in aluminum foil if you use an antiperspirant or deodorant. So these are some of the things. But you know, you'll have to do the quiz to find out more.
00:16:12 Sayan: Definitely, definitely. And, and I think, and I think, uh, for, for someone who have, you know, who has had spent three decades in this field and sort of helped summarize that into a three to five minutes quiz, right? That's, that's, I think the huge and the most difficult part of the whole process. So, um, you know, what's the next step? Uh, Darcy, once you identify the kind of, uh, toxins that your body might be, you know, your body might accumulate, what's the next step?
00:16:45 Darci Frankel: So the next step after we assess our toxic burden, so remember, is to figure out the first goal is to learn about the different types of toxins.
00:16:55 Speaker 3: To cleanse them.
00:16:57 Darci Frankel: To cleanse them, and then track our progress as we go along and prevent these toxins from getting in our bodies. So I have two cleanses. One is a body centered five day cleansing program. I help people go through your four organs of detoxification our skin, our lymphatic system, our kidney and our kidneys and our liver in. In this simple three step program, there's a gentle cleanse tea, which gently cleanse the liver and the kidneys. It gently flushes them out. No, you will not be in the bathroom. This is my common question. Then I walk through people with a very simple video tutorial on how to cleanse your skin, and there's a exfoliation gloves in there and how to move our lymphatic system manually. The lymphatic system is a very important organ of detoxification and elimination in the body. And if it's stuck or sluggish, then we are not cleansing like we need to cleanse. And there's very simple movements. Just this movement can help. And I teach people how to go through that in a video tutorial. Then the third step is to apply what I call the serious cleanse body mask to your skin. It has. It's a proprietary blend of earth, sea ingredients, herbs, and clays that draws toxins out of the body. So people do this. It takes thirty minutes each day for five days. So that's thing. That's the second step. The third step when someone wants to go deeper is my serious cleanse thirty day challenge. In this robust program, you get an email video lesson every single day about the different types of toxins. And I help you to go through and do cleanses. There's a sugar and gluten cleanse in the first week. Week two is all about the lymphatic system. We go much deeper. There's a heavy metal cleanse, emotional cleanse. There's other bonuses. It's thirty days with that combines my thirty two years of experience in Ayurvedic medicine packed into this thirty day Serious Cleanse challenge, and we'll put a link below for those that are interested. So you could start with the quiz. Do the five day body centered cleanse to get your organs of detoxification online and do the Serious Cleanse thirty day challenge. If you're really interested in rolling up your sleeve and eliminating and preventing potential causative factors to the disease process.
00:19:43 Sayan: Wow. I think hats off, Darcy, for putting all of that together. And as you were explaining the five day, you know, framework, I think that kind of felt refreshing. Um, you know, when you were talking about the, uh, exfoliating material. So I think, I think, uh, that would genuinely help someone who, you know, wants to really detoxify their own selves. And, uh, you know, it's not just about detoxifying yourself from just one category, but I think how you can sort of, you know, put that all together and then work towards the prevention, right? Rather than just focus on the cure. I think that's, uh, that's the ultimate message that I would like all the listeners to walk away from this conversation. Um, but yeah, Darcy, for all of all of the details, uh, all of the process that you mentioned. So if listeners actually want to connect with you, though, we'll put them in the show notes below. Where can listeners find you? Find the quiz, find your website, find your social media to stay connected.
00:20:44 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's.
00:20:44 Darci Frankel: All on my Instagram at serious cleanse at Instagram or my website, serious cleanse. Also, some people may want a more personalized, uh, look at everything. So a lot of people.
00:20:58 Speaker 3: Get.
00:20:58 Darci Frankel: Telehealth consultation with me during their serious cleanse thirty day challenge. So that is also available. I have a limited amount of those. And, and, the information is all there.
00:21:13 Sayan: Brilliant. So I'll link the social media and the website in the show notes. Folks, for all of you who wants to connect with Darcy. And I hope there was something informative that you all took away from this conversation. But most importantly, the, the only one thing, uh, two things, in fact, that I would like to, you know, keep up is you need to firstly understand, um, the, the categories and then focus on how you can prevent, uh, the detoxification because it's never about reaching zero percent. It's always about limiting detoxification as much as you can. And, and the second thing I would say is healing really is not any kind of a fixed destination, right? It's, it's that daily routine, that daily conversation between you and a body that is working always on your behalf. So that's all folks for today's conversation. And, uh, Darcy, thank you for your thirty two years of wisdom that I think is really changing how people
