Firstly, I'd like to clarify what the Purification Rundown is, this is a quote from Martin Hunt's from The ARS Acronym/Terminology FAQ v3.5:

--quote--

A cleansing process, intended to remove drugs supposedly stored in body fat through running, taking megadoses of vitamins and minerals, and sweating in a sauna for hours every day. The Purif costs roughly $1,500, and takes about two weeks to do. There is no scientific evidence to back up the cult of Scientology's claims about the supposed benefits of the Purif.

--/quote--
http://www.xenu-directory.net/glossary/glossary_p.htm

Clear Body, Clear Mind's recommendation of the use of "Niacin" (which can help decrease the amount of oil in the skin, reduce 'bad' cholesterol and increase 'good' cholesterol and break down fatty acids) is 100 mg. The recommended medical dosage is 15 mg and Clear Body, Clear Mind's program increases the 100 mg of Niacin to 5,000 mg. However, what is worse is what Clear Body, Clear Mind say the symptoms actually mean:

--quote--

The participant is told to expect toxic symptoms due to the release of poisons or radiation from their body fat. Thus the effects of Niacin overdose, which include skin irritation, flushing, dizziness and headache, are interpreted as a positive effect of the rundown.

--/quote--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purification_Rundown#Process

However, one study by Dr David Root and two others has proven the Purification Rundown to be beneficial, by improving the number of days a person works and even a person's IQ by 15 points. The use of Niacin though in tests is proven to be seriously damaging to one health:

--quote--

In a case study that appeared in April's edition of the Annals of Emergency Medicine, Mittal reported on two adults and two adolescents who suffered serious side effects from taking large amounts of niacin as a vitamin supplement. Both adult patients suffered skin irritation, while both adolescents had potentially fatal reactions to niacin—including liver toxicity and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) as well as nausea, vomiting and dizziness. One of the teens even experienced heart palpitations. All four patients recovered after treatment.

--/quote
http://www.nypress.com/article-16488-the-rundown-on-scientologys-purification-rundown.html
Source(s):
http://www.xenu-directory.net/practices/purif1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niacin#Lipid_modifying_effects
http://www.nypress.com/article-16488-the-rundown-on-scientologys-purificati...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purification_Rundown
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Purification_Rundown/id/551538
http://www.rickross.com/reference/scientology/scien457.html

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The Purification Rundown Diet, aliases: purif or The Hubbard Way:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purification_Rundown

The diet is specifically supposed to help with toxin exposure and drug abuse or use to rid the body of the toxins built up from the environment or from using chemicals/drugs.

The two big components of the diet are long-term sauna exposure of hours per day and mega doses of B3 vitamins, commonly known as Niacin.

The Scientology Organization's website says this about the Purification Rundown Diet:

----Quote:
"The Purification Rundown is a carefully designed combination of exercise, vitamins, nutrition and sauna use which dislodges drug residues and other toxins from the fatty tissues so that these substances can then be eliminated from the body."
-----/Quote

AND

------Quote:
" The Purification Rundown is a tightly supervised regimen of exercise, sauna, nutrition and a properly ordered schedule which includes sufficient rest. All of this together results in the elimination of drug residues and other toxins from the body’s fatty tissues."
------/Quote

AND this rather bold (In my opinion) claim:

"A secularized adaptation of the Purification Rundown is delivered in Narconon drug rehabilitation centers worldwide. The Narconon program is supported by the Church and by Scientologists internationally."

http://faq.scientology.org/page11c.htm

..................................

David Hogg, MD, did a critical analysis of the Purification Rundown Diet, which you can see here on "Narconon Exposed".
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/sources/reports/hogg.htm

I had to laugh when reading this, since it quotes page 8 of the book about the Purification Rundown Diet as L. Ron Hubbard stating, "There's no such thing as a fat cell." Which is erroneous and to me, hilarious. Trust me, I WISH there weren't fat cells...LOL

This website:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/sources/reports/hogg.htm

Indicates that no clinical research studies have been performed by reputable sources to determine if the Purification Rundown Diet is safe. It appears, according to Dr. Hogg, that no one has researched the diet because the claims by L. Ron Hubbard are so absurd, there is no need to research the diet, since the majority of the premises used to support the diet are false.

These absurd premises include: 'there are not fat cells'; the body naturally contains chemicals that are the same as drugs, such as LSD and marijuana and stores them in the body (he claims there are LSD crystals that are stored in the body); encouraging people to eat oil to break add to body fat that the body breaks down during the diet; and encouraging mega doses of vitamin supplements, mostly Niacin, Calcium, Magnesium and strangely, vinegar.

In connection with this Purification Rundown Diet, this website contains the transcript of an affidavit of Dr. Stephen Kent, from the University of Alberta stating this about a supplement that was high in Niacin:

----Quote:
"US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seized and destroyed 21,000 tablets of a compound known as Dianazene, marketed by an agency associated with the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, the Distribution Center, claiming that they were falsely labeled as a preventative and treatment of 'radiation sickness' (Wallis, 1976: 190)"
----/Quote
http://www.lermanet.com/kent.htm

In the 70s and 80s, L. Ron Hubbard was reported to have told Scientologists in the United States the nuclear war was imminent and that only those who followed the Purification Rundown Diet would survive the heavy fallout when it came. (paraphrased from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purification_Rundown )

...........

According to the Mayo Clinic, Niacin overdose can cause the following:

* Rapid heartbeat
* Skin flushing combined with dizziness
* Itching
* Nausea and vomiting
* Abdominal pain
* Diarrhea
* Severe liver damage (hepatoxicity)

According to that same website, the daily recommended supplemental dose of Niacin is 2mg per day for children up to 18mg per day for adults, unless the person has pellagra, which is a Niacin deficiency, then a doctor may prescribe 100-500mg per day of niacin.

Anything more than that runs the risk of Niacin overdose. The Purification Rundown diet recommends nearly 10 times the amount of Niacin recommended and enough that many medical professionals state it can cause liver damage.

Lastly, I'll leave you with this dieting review site, that lists the following:

Cons for the Purification Rundown Diet:
* Associated with causing a number of serious health conditions
* Criticized by the medical and health profession
* Has no scientific or medical evidence to support its healing claims
* Administration of extreme doses of niacin may be very dangerous
* Notion that sweating out fatty toxins is rejected by the medical profession

http://www.dietsinreview.com/diets/purification-rundown/

This is NOT a safe diet.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purification_Rundown
http://faq.scientology.org/page11c.htm
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/sources/reports/hogg.htm
http://www.lermanet.com/kent.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/niacin-overdose/AN01644
http://www.dietsinreview.com/diets/purification-rundown/


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I agree with the other answers here that the diet is not safe. As far as studies done in regards to it. The best source I found was in regards to Narconon.

Quote-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is a crucial connection between Scientology theory and Narconon practice. The drills and exercises outlined in the Narconon manuals were first developed by Hubbard in the 1950s as part of Scientology."
End Quote-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From what I'm reading the Narconon program is the same thing as the purification diet but used as a drug rehab program.

Quote------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Medical literature for and against Narconon is very scarce. The United States National Institute on Drug Abuse, based in Maryland, does not know of a single peer reviewed piece scientific literature to support the program. The only generally-known report to substantially address the medical validity of Narconon's theories appears to be that produced by the Board of Mental Health, State of Oklahoma in December 1991. Its findings do not express much support for Narconon:"
End Quote-------------------------------------------------------------------

Some quotes from their findings which can be seen in full at this link:

http://www.xenu.net/archive/oca/narconon/medical.html

Quotes-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"No scientifically well-controlled independent, long-term outcome studies were found that directly and clearly establish the effectiveness of the Narconon program for the treatment of chemical dependency and the more credible evidence establishes Narconon's program is not effective. The Board determines that the Narconon Program is not effective in the treatment of chemical dependency"

"Large doses of niacin are administered to patients during the Narconon program to rid the body of radiation. There is no credible scientific evidence that niacin in any way gets radiation out of the patient's body. Rather, the more credible medical evidence supports the existence of potential medical risks to persons receiving high doses of niacin."

End Quotes---------------------------------------------------------------------------

(I hope I'm, doing this quote thing correctly. Mahalo's copy paste rules are sort of new to me.)

The link sourced covers more than I ever wanted to know about Scientology's purification rundown diet and Narconon. Hopefully it will be of use to you.
Source(s):
http://www.xenu.net/archive/oca/narconon/narconon.html

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Has anyone ever taken Niacin? I believe it's the blood thinner given to heart patients. Isn't it the one that makes you turn bright red while your heart pounds and what not? This, alone, would have to be administered very carefully. In tandem with the rest, sounds like it could kill you if you did not already possess a strong constitution!!
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It looks like Michelle has taken quite a big bite out of the question from a researchers point of view. I'd like to give you my view from a medical and higher general perspective.

Take it or leave it for what it is. (And sorry about the formatting)

First only to say that I think that this interview (which I watched parts of) was without a doubt overly dramatized.

Notice they are including many media portions from highly publicized celebrities like _TC_.... and using Martin Bashir as there point man for interviewing high ranking "church" officials and unwavering fans. ...*cough*..*cough* disciples.

When they could have used almost anyone else at their disposal to conduct this interview, and could have easily singled out anyone besides Tom that have had a large vested interest in the TOS or its new interests.

Yeah just a little over the top if you ask me.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:QWvp9H0uePasRM:http://www.artsboard.sk.ca/story/links/drama_assoc.jpg

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Niacin....

Well, lets talk about Niacin....

For instance, what foods is Niacin found in ?

It's found in fish, (Like catfish and scrod) ,
it's also found in whole grain foods, simply put whole grain bread.

Elaborating for a moment on common knowledge and whats interesting to me is not the amount of people who really don't know all or some of the vitamins found in foods. But the amount of people who don't know how many different types of toxins are in some of the foods we consume on a everyday bases. While all are harmless in such small quantities, and everything in moderation is good. For instance would it surprise anyone if they knew that peach pits contain small traces of a compound that produces cyanide ?

What it comes down to is simply to much of anything is not good for you, this includes Niacin.

There are just to many snake oil remedies out there to actually disseminate all of these "homeopathic" church science remedies. Personally I have heard some of the craziest things from pastors of all different religious types. One had even gone as far to say you shouldn't eat lobster because it looks like a giant cockroach. When we have sound scientific evidence that seafood is high in all different vitamin B 's and omega 3. ...(Which promotes better brain and cognitive memory functions by the way)
lol....To this day I won't go near a lobster just because of this statement, and somewhere in the back of my mind is a image of just that , ....A giant cockroach lobster. O.O
Anyways ...The lists of things go on.

Here's a short video compilation of different things that have been collected over the years on things the bible had supposedly already realized.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdhR9hXXi1M

_

_

Detoxification programs.....

Who's heard these before? .................think hard now.

" Its hard for me to describe because of the graphic detail " ....
&
"I'm sorry for being so graphic" .....

Where have you heard these before ?! A certain infomercial perhaps ?

Just how many different ways are there to help me take a crap?
No really ?!??? (geeesh ....1 Apple , .......im good to go.. .)
Colan cleansing programs, feet detox pads, sweat spas,....
I even saw usher stick a tube up his rectum and pump his lower intestines full of vitamins.
(I'll save you guys that video) (which was also from Nightline by the way)

Anyways..
.....Want to know what you are really doing ?

You're sending your liver into over drive!
The liver can only take so much, and that goes for the heart too.

....

What does work ?
*Healthy diet and exercise.*

Want to make your skin .........."glow" ?
Look years younger ? Have a better love life ?

Hate to say it but, get up and get out .
Limit your time online to administrative work as much as possible.
It's really not that hard. If you are like some (even me) (A ..."bull in a china shop") , do what I did one year, buy or rent a john dear lawn mower and cut peoples lawns and mulch up leaves for whats left of the fall. If one is available (and no doubt it probably isn't) ...get a second part time job.
I even see people in there 90's doing work.....
Come to think ...my grandmother who survived _a_ holocaust, and saw her mother and father murdered still works, she's going to be 100 next January.
Start small, do things you love to do. Play sports, even if its just for a few minutes a day. ..Hey, Its a start.

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And as for Nightline goes, so sorry to say it but I just have 3 words for Martin Bashir.

Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.

REGARDS,
@XDS

_
PS: By the way, I don't want anyone to think that I am a atheist or something like that. What is god or what is science ?

To me they are just both time well spent.
Source(s):
LIFE!


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If you're not feeling well, and you think it's because at one time you did a lot drugs, and now Scientologists telling that a Purification Rundown will make you feel better, then there's some things you need to know.

First, recreational drugs don't hang out in your body for very long. The longest is THC, from marijuana, which can park in fat cells for a few weeks because it is a fat-soluble molecule, but THC doesn't hurt anything, especially when it's just sitting there in a fat cell.

There's two recreational drugs that can leave permanent damage.

One is MPPP - a synthetic opiate - that was poorly synthesized, such that it is contaminated with a lot of MPTP, which will kill neurons in the substantia nigra part of the brain. Substantia nigra neurons produce dopamine, and without them you get Parkinson's disease... and if you've Parkinson's disease, you'll know it, and no amount of detoxification is going to to help.

The second is methamphetamine, which causes accelerated aging, mostly because won't eat properly when they're hooked on it.

If you really want to give your body tissues a purge, then you just have to know that the one of the main long-term accumulated tissue contaminants is heavy metals.

The bad ones are lead, mercury, and tin... don't forget the tin... it's just as bad as lead if it gets into your tissues as a metal.

Once heavy metals get in your tissue they mess up everything, and no cell has any good enzymatic system for getting rid of the things, but there is something you can do to leach them out.

If you does yourself up with large amounts of calcium and magnesium, like... a glass of milk-of-magnesia with about a dozen tums mixed in with it, drink it, wait about 40 minutes, and then go into a sweat sauna and sweat yourself silly, then you can leach out the heavy metals.

It works because calcium and magnesium are what's known as chelating agents. Chelating comes from some foreign word for crab, which has two claws... calcium and magnesium can form these funny angular double bonds reaching in the same direction that look like a crab reaching forward, and they are especially attracted to heavy metal atoms.

But chelating agents are also known to sweat glands, such that if you're sweating, and the sweat gland sees a calcium or a magnesium drifting by, it will grab it pump it out with all the other salts that are being sweated out with the water.

If you make a discipline out of it, the half-life of heavy-metal levels in your body is seven weeks.

That means after seven weeks of daily sweating you can have your heavy metals down to half of what they were. In another seven weeks, one quarter of what was there. In another seven weeks, one eighth of the heavy metals you were dealing with, etc.

By maintaining a Swedish-Finnish style discipline of sweating after having consumed a lot of magnesium and calcium to keep the heavy metals down, you can knock out about 70% of the symptoms of decrepitness normally associated with aging.

And that how that part of the Scientologists' Purification Rundown involving sweat is working. If someone's body is loaded with heavy metals, and they do the Scientologists' Purification Rundown, they will feel better, but not because they're getting rid of long-gone street drugs...

... rather because they've probably been living in a part of the world that burned a lot of leaded gas, and where they used to use stannous fluoride (tin-florine salt) in toothpaste to get their floride, and where mercury salts were used to protect crop seeds from fungus, or if you are/were a smoker, which has a lot of heavy metals in it...

So... arrange it with a spa for you to be able to do a regular sweat every day, and get yourself a good supply of milk of magnesia and tums, and load yourself up and sweat it out 40 minutes later (might as well exercise while waiting, since you're in a spa... and that helps the sweating)...

... and keep that up for about seven weeks, to the point where you should have your heavy metals down to half of what they were, and *then* see if the Scientologists' Purification Rundown looks like anything special.

You'll see that the Purification Rundown could have seemed miraculous to many of the Scientologist who would have been recruited from that heavy-meal hell... LA.

As for the Niacin overdosing... it's as bunk as most any other mega-vitamin therapy, but if you want to go for mega-doses of water-soluble vitamins, of which niacin is one, then go ahead, but don't go overboard, and *make sure you up the levels of all the other water-soluble vitamins to maintain the same ratio of their levels with respect to each other*. If you're going to double the niacin, then double the vitamin c, and the riboflavin, and the B6, and they folicinic acid, etc. etc. (but not the fat solubles... A, D, E... keep those the same).

Because water-soluble vitamins are water soluble, they'll be getting sweated out with the chelated heavy metals if you do a sweat regime, so it's actually not a bad idea to up your water-soluble vitamin intake if you're on a sweat regime... but not to the idiotic levels suggested by the Scientologists, and *make sure* to keep the *ratios* of all the water-soluble vitamins constant with respect to each other.
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