FASTING.
Fasting is one of the oldest of remedial measures known to man, not only
for the ills of the body, but for those of the soul. Oriental lore and
literature make frequent reference to fasts. From the Bible we learn
that Moses, Elijah and Christ each fasted forty days, and no bad effects
are recorded.
Addison knew the value of fasting and temperance. He wrote that,
"Abstinence well-timed often kills a sickness in embryo and destroys the
seeds of a disease." Unfortunately, he did not live as well as he knew
how. Hence his brilliant mind had but a short time in which to work and
the world is the loser.
Our own great philosopher, Benjamin Franklin, had the same knowledge,
for he wrote, "Against disease known, the strongest fence is the
defensive virtue, abstinence."
There is much prejudice against fasting, because people do not
understand what fasting is and what it accomplishes. Fasting is not
starving. To fast is to go without food when the body is in such
condition that food can not be properly digested and assimilated. To
starve is to go without food when the body is in condition to digest and
assimilate food and needs nourishment.
It is quite generally believed that if food is withheld for six or seven
days the result will be fatal. Under proper conditions one can go
without food for two or three months. Perhaps most people could not do
without food for the latter period, but fasts of that duration are on
record. Fat people can live on their tissues for a long time before they
are reduced to normal weight, and slender ones can live on water for an
extended period.
Prolonged fasts should not be taken unless necessary, and then they
should be taken under the guidance of someone who has had experience and
is possessed of common sense. If a person is fearful or surrounded by
others who instill fear into him, he should not take a prolonged fast.
The gravest danger during the fast is fear. It takes many weeks to die
from lack of food, but fear is capable of killing in a few days, or even
in a few hours. The healer who undertakes to direct fasts against the
wishes of the patient's friends and relatives, who have more influence
than he has, injures himself professionally and throws doubt upon the
valuable therapeutic measure he advocates.
The indications that a fast is needed are pain and fever and acute
attacks of all kinds of diseases. Some of the more common diseases that
call for a complete cessation of eating are: The acute stage of
pneumonia, appendicitis, typhoid fever, neuralgia, sciatica,
peritonitis, cold, tonsilitis, whooping cough, croup, scarlet fever,
smallpox and all other eruptive diseases; colics of kidneys, liver or
bowels; all acute alimentary tract disturbances, whether of the stomach
or of the bowels.
Sometimes it is necessary to fast in chronic diseases, especially when
there is pain, but as a rule chronic diseases yield to proper hygienic
and dietetic treatment without a fast, provided they are curable. Here
is where many people who advocate fasting go to extremes. A fast is the
quickest way out of the trouble, but it is at times very unpleasant. By
taking longer time the result can be obtained by proper living and the
patient is being educated while he is recovering. In chronic cases it is
especially important to eat properly.
The only disease of which I know that seems to be unfavorably influenced
by fasting is pulmonary tuberculosis in well advanced stages. Such
patients quickly lose weight and strength on a fast, and they have great
difficulty in regaining either. Perhaps others have had different
experiences and have made observations that do not agree with this, for
cases of tuberculosis have been reported cured through fasting. It is
well to bear in mind that every case that is diagnosed pulmonary
tuberculosis is not tuberculosis. Many supposed-to-be cases of
tuberculosis, some of them so diagnosed by most reputable specialists,
are nothing more than lung irritation due to the absorption of gas and
acid from the digestive tract. When the indigestion is cured, the
so-called tuberculosis disappears. These are the only tubercular cases
that I have seen benefited by fasts, and the improvement is both quick
and sure.
Doubtless tuberculosis in the first stages could be cured by fasting,
followed by proper hygienic and dietetic care, for at first tuberculosis
is a localized symptom of disordered nutrition. In this stage the
disease is no more dangerous than many other maladies that are not
considered fatal. The subjects brought to the dissecting table show
plainly that a large proportion of them have at some time had pulmonary
tuberculosis, the lesions of which were healed, and they afterwards died
of some other affliction. However, if a patient is received after the
manifestation of profuse night sweats, great flushing of the cheeks,
high fever daily, emaciation, expulsion of much mucus from the lungs,
and the presence of great lassitude and weakness, the rule is that the
nutrition is so badly impaired that nothing will bring the patient back
to normal. Under such circumstances fasting hastens death. The family
and friends are not reticent about placing the blame on the healer.
Moderate feeding will prolong life and add to the comfort of the
sufferer. The customary overfeeding hastens the end.
Cancer is said to be cured by fasting, but this is very, very doubtful.
It is often difficult to differentiate between cancer and benignant
tumors at first. Benignant tumors frequently disappear on a limited
diet. I have seen many tumors disappear under rational treatment,
without resorting to the knife, but I have never seen an undoubted case
of cancer do so, though some of the tumors in question had been
diagnosed cancer. Cancers, in the advanced stages, end in the death of
the patient in spite of any kind of treatment. By being very careful
about the diet, cancer patients can escape nearly all the pain and
discomfort that generally accompany this disease. Moderation would
prevent nearly every case of cancer, and especially moderation in meat
eating. It is a disease that should be prevented, for its cure is very
doubtful.
Colds leave in a few days, with no bad after effects, if no food is
taken.
Typhoid fever treated rationally from the start generally disappears in
from one week to twelve days if nothing but water is given, and fails to
develop the severity that it attains under the giving of foods and
drugs. There are no complications.
Appendicitis is of longer duration, if it is a severe attack, lasting
from two to four weeks, but after the first few days the patient is
comfortable, under a no-food, let-alone treatment. Operation is not
necessary.
In cases of gall-stones, accompanied by jaundice and colic, it is not
necessary to operate. Fasting and bathing will bring the body back to
normal in a short time. In such cases it is necessary to give the baths
as hot as they can be borne, and prolong them until the body is relaxed.
It would be easy to enumerate many diseases, telling the benefits to be
derived from fasting, but these point the way and are sufficient.
The one unfailing symptom of a fast is the loss of weight. This loss is
natural and there is nothing alarming about it. As soon as eating is
resumed the loss of weight stops. For a while the weight may then remain
stationary, but the gain is generally prompt. In time the weight will
become normal again.
According to Chosat, the loss sustained by the various tissues in
starvation is as follows:
Fat..................... 93 per cent.
Blood................... 75 "
Spleen.................. 71 "
Pancreas................ 64 "
Liver................... 52 "
Muscles................. 43 "
Nervous tissues.......... 2 "
This table was made from animal experimentation, but agrees very well
with other observations, except in the loss of blood, which others have
found to be less than 20 per cent. It will be noticed that the highest
tissue, nervous tissue, is hardly affected, but the lowest tissue, fat,
almost disappears.
When an individual needs to fast, his body is suffering from the
ingestion of too much food and poor elimination. He overworks his
nutrition and overdraws on his nervous energies so much in other lines
that the body is unable to throw off the debris which should leave by
way of the kidneys, the bowels, the skin and the lungs. He is poisoned
by his retained excretions, suffering from what is called
autointoxication or self-poisoning. He is filthy internally and needs a
cleaning. If he has abused himself so that he lacks the power to
assimilate food and throw off waste at the same time, obviously it is
proper to stop eating until the lost power is regained. In cases of
fever it is a physical crime to eat, for the glands cease secreting the
normal juices. The mouth becomes parched for lack of saliva, and the
gastric and intestinal juices are not secreted in proper amount or
quality. Food eaten under such circumstances is not digested. The
internal temperature in fever is above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and it
does not take long for food to decay in such temperature, especially
such aliments as milk and broth, which are the favorite foods for fever
patients. These alimentary substances are excellent for growing nearly
all the germs that are found in the body in disease.
When in pain, it is harmful to eat, for the secretions are then
perverted and digestion is interfered with. All violent emotions, such
as hatred, jealousy, and anger, mean that no food should be taken until
the body has had the opportunity to relax and regain some of its tone.
Such emotions do not thrive so well in healthy individuals as among the
sick, but then perfect health is a rarity.
When going without food people are subject to various symptoms, which
depend as much on the temperament as on the physical conditions. A
hysterical woman can scare inexperienced attendants into doing her will
by her antics. She may make them believe that she is dying. On the other
hand, well balanced, fearless people can fast for weeks with very little
annoyance. Fasting is not always pleasant and there are a number of
symptoms that are often present.
The faster loses weight, at first often as much as two pounds a day.
This is mostly water. After the first ten days the loss may be but
one-half of a pound, or less, per day. The loss of weight is greatest in
heavy people and in those who have high fevers.
The tongue becomes badly coated, and the breath foul, showing that the
mucous membrane is busy throwing out waste. The tongue remains coated
until the system is clean, and then it clears off. Most people feel weak
when they attempt to walk or work, but they feel strong when resting.
Others, who are badly food-poisoned, gain strength as the system
eliminates the harmful substances from the body. For a day or two the
craving for food may be quite insistent and persistent. Then hunger
generally leaves and does not return until the tongue is clean. The mind
becomes clearer as the body becomes cleaner. This benefit to the spirit,
or the soul, has been recognized by religious organizations for
centuries.
A little discharge of blood from the bowels at first should cause no
alarm. In some cases a great deal of yellow mucus is thrown into the
lower bowel. The liver at times throws off so much bile that it makes
the patient alarmed. This should cause no uneasiness. When the bile is
forced upward into the stomach it is very disagreeable. The discharges
from the bowels are often very dark.
There is a tendency toward chilliness, especially to have cold hands and
feet. Skin eruptions and heart palpitations are occasional symptoms.
Nervous, irritable and fearful people have symptoms too numerous to
mention. The more they are sympathized with the worse they become.
Many medical men have misinterpreted the symptoms of the fast, and hence
they have condemned the procedure. They see the foul coating on the
tongue, the loss of weight and at times peculiar mental manifestations.
They can smell the foul breath and the disagreeable odor from the skin
and from the bowel discharges. These they interpret as signs of physical
deterioration and degeneration. These manifestations indicate that the
entire body is cleansing itself, throwing out impurities that have
accumulated, because the system has had so much work to do that it has
lacked the power to be self-cleansing. Nothing is needed to prove this
fact except to continue the fast until the odors disappear and the
tongue becomes clean.
The bad odors given off by the body resemble the odors in severe fevers
with much wasting, and hence they alarm those who have had little or no
experience with protracted fasts. These odors are often bad at the end
of about one week of fasting, though there is no fixed period for their
appearance. They should cause no alarm for they simply indicate that the
body is cleansing itself, and that is exactly what is desired. Under
proper conditions I have neither seen nor heard of a fatality coming
from a short fast. Those who are in such physical shape that they will
die if fasted from five to ten days would die if they were fed.
Another symptom that may alarm the attendant is the lowered blood
pressure. This is natural and should cause no anxiety. Eating and
drinking keep the blood pressure up. When the food intake is decreased,
the blood pressure is reduced. When the food intake is stopped, the
blood pressure is still further reduced. This fact should give the
intelligent healer the hint to reduce the food intake in such abnormal
conditions as arteriosclerosis and apoplexy. During prolonged fasts the
blood pressure generally becomes quite low.
Some fasting people can continue with light work, and when they are able
to do this, it is best, for it keeps them from thinking about themselves
all the time. If there is a lack of energy, dispense with work and
vigorous exercise. In acute diseases there is no choice. One is
compelled to cease laboring. In chronic diseases it depends on the
patient and the adviser.
Dismiss fear from the mind and do not discuss the fast or any of the
symptoms with anyone except the adviser. It is best not to tell any
outsiders about the fast, for the public has some queer ideas on the
subject. If you are afraid, or if you have to fight with neighbors,
friends, relatives, or perhaps with the health authorities, as sometimes
happens, it is better not to take the fast.
Drink all the water desired. At first the more one drinks the more
quickly the system cleanses itself. A glass of water every hour during
the day, or even every half hour is all right. The water may be warm or
cold, but it should not be ice-cold nor should it be hot. Both extremes
produce irritation.
In acute inflammation of the stomach, nothing should be given by mouth.
Small quantities of water may be given by rectum every two or three
hours. In appendicitis only very small quantities of water are to be
given by mouth at first, until the acute symptoms have subsided. Large
quantities of fluid may excite violent peristalsis with resulting pain.
In all eases of nausea, give nothing by mouth, not even water, until the
nausea is gone. Symptoms are nature's sign language, and when properly
interpreted they tell us what to do and what not to do.
Even though there be no thirst or desire for water, some should be
taken. If it can be taken by mouth give at least a glassful every two
hours, not necessarily all at once. Some are so sensitive that one-half
of a glass of water is all they can tolerate. If the stomach objects to
water, give it by rectum. Always do this in cases of much nausea. After
a few days the water intake may be reduced.
Take a quick sponge bath every day and if there is any inclination
toward chilliness, the water should be tepid or warm. Follow with a few
minutes of dry towel friction. People who are overweight, with good
heart and kidney action, can take prolonged hot baths, if they wish. An
olive oil rub immediately after the bath, about twice a week, is
grateful. However, this is not necessary.
The colon is to be washed out every day. No definite amount of water can
be prescribed. Occasionally enemas are taken under difficulties, for
some cramp when water is introduced into the bowel. Those who are not
accustomed to enemas should use water about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. One
quart is a small enema. Two quarts make a fairly large one. Introduce
the water, lie still for a few minutes and then allow it to pass out. If
the bowels are very foul, use two or three washings. If there is much
fermentation, use some soda in the water. Salt, about a tablespoonful to
two quarts of water, stimulates the bowels, but its disadvantage is that
it draws water from the intestinal walls, thus robbing the blood of a
part of its fluid. The same is true of glycerin. Perhaps the least
harmful ingredient that can be put into the water to stimulate action is
enough pure castile soap to render the water opaque. The soap, however,
has a tendency to wash away too much of the mucus which lubricates the
bowel. On the whole, nothing is better than plain water. If it gives
good results use nothing else.
Those who are very sensitive and weak often find that the expulsion of
water from the bowel not only further weakens them, but causes pain. In
such cases Dr. Hazzard recommends a rectal tube (not a colon tube),
which is very good, for it allows the emptying of the bowel without any
cramping. The tube is to be inserted about six inches.
To take the enema, assume either the knee-chest position (kneeling with
the shoulders close to the floor) or lie on the right side with the hips
elevated. These positions allow water to flow into colon by aid of
gravity.
When it is necessary to supply liquid to the body by rectum, simply
introduce a pint or less of plain water, moderately warm. Repeat as
often as necessary to keep away thirst, which will rarely be more than
every three hours.
Keep the body warm at all times. If it is difficult to keep warm, go to
bed and use enough covers, having the windows open enough to supply
fresh air. At night use artificial heat in the foot of the bed. If
hot-water bottles, warm bricks or stones are used, they should be quite
large; otherwise they become cold by two or three o'clock in the
morning, when heat is most needed. If a large receptacle, such as a jug,
is used to keep the water in, the bed clothes are lifted off the
patient's feet, and this is often a great relief.
No special food is suited to break all fasts on. It is necessary to
begin with plain food in moderation. Overeating or eating of
indigestible food at this time may result in sickness and even in death.
If the faster lacks self-control, the food should be brought to him in
proper quantities by the attendant.
If the fast has lasted but two or three days, no special precautions are
necessary, except that the first few meals should be smaller than usual.
As indiscretions in eating compel nearly all fasts it is necessary to do
a little better than previously, or the fast must be repeated. It is
best to live so that fasts are not necessary.
If the fast has been prolonged it is best to begin feeding liquid foods.
What shall we feed? That depends on the patient and circumstances. The
juice of the concord grape is not good for it ferments too easily. Many
of those who are compelled to fast or else die have been so
food-poisoned, and their digestive organs have been in such horrible
condition for years that they have been unable to eat acid fruits. This
is especially true of those who consume large quantities of starch.
Sometimes they are unable to eat fruit for a while after the fast. At
other times the irritability of the digestive organs disappears while
food is withheld. For such people broths and milk may be employed.
The juice of oranges, pineapples, California grapes, cherries,
blackberries or tomatoes may be given. The tomatoes may be made into
broth and strained, but nothing is to be added to this broth except
salt. Stout people should do well on fruit juices. They are not to be so
highly recommended for very thin, nervous people, for fruit juices are
both thinning and cooling. Milk is very useful, and may be given either
sweet or clabbered or in the form of buttermilk.
Thin, nervous people can safely be given broths, preferably of lamb,
mutton or chicken. Trim away all the fat, grind up the lean meat, and
allow it to simmer (not boil) until all the juices are extracted from
the meat. Strain and put away to cool. When cold, skim off the fat. Then
warm the broth and serve. This broth is not to be seasoned while it is
being cooked, but a little salt may be added when it is ready to serve.
To one pound of lean meat there should be about one quart of broth. A
teacupful to begin with is enough for a meal, and it is often necessary
to give less than this. The gravest mistake is to be in a hurry about
returning to full meals. The remarks about moderate feeding also apply
to milk and fruit juices.
Ordinarily, fasts are not broken on starchy foods, but this may be done
at times to advantage, especially in cases that have been accustomed to
large quantities of starch and but little of the fresh raw foods. The
starch must, however, be in an easily digestible state and should be in
the form of a very thin gruel made of oatmeal or whole wheatmeal. It
should be cooked four to six hours and dressed with nothing but a little
salt. A few can break the fast on a full meal without any bad results,
but most people can not do it without suffering and the results may be
fatal. So it is a safe rule to break the fast on simple liquid food,
taken in moderation.
Four or five days after breaking the fast, one should be able to eat the
ordinary foods. The following is a suggestion of the manner in which to
feed immediately after a fast of about two weeks:
First day: Tomato broth once; mutton broth twice.
Second day: Breakfast, orange juice. Lunch, buttermilk. Dinner, sliced
tomatoes.
Third day: Breakfast, buttermilk. Lunch, salad of lettuce and tomatoes,
dressed with salt. Dinner, poached egg, celery.
Fourth day: Breakfast, baked apple and milk. Lunch, toasted bread and
butter. Dinner, lamb chops, stewed green peas, celery.
If a meal causes distress, omit the next one and continue omitting meals
until comfort and ease have returned. If the digestion is very weak, or
if the illness has been protracted, do not feed solids as soon as
recommended above. In all cases it is necessary to exercise
self-control, moderation and common sense.
The meals must be moderate. Gradually increase until the amount of food
taken is sufficient to do the necessary bodily rebuilding. The longer
the fast, the more care should be exercised in the beginning. It is no
time to experiment.
If the fast is to be of permanent benefit it is necessary to learn how
to eat properly afterwards, and to put this knowledge into practice.
This is the most important part to emphasize, yet all the books I have
read on the subject have failed to pay any attention to it. In nearly
every case the fast is necessary because of repeated mistakes in eating
and drinking. Those mistakes built bodily ills in the first place and if
the faster goes back to them they will do it again. The disease does not
always take on the same type as it did in the first place, but it is the
same old disease. During a fast there is recuperation because the body
has a chance to become clean, and a clean body can not long remain
unbalanced, provided there are no organic faults. By making mistakes in
eating after the fast is over, the body again becomes foul and full of
debris and that means more disease. Perhaps it may not require more than
one-third as much abuse to cause a second break-down as it did to bring
about the first one.
Some people fast repeatedly, and are somewhat proud of it. They should
be ashamed of the fact that they must fast time after time, for it shows
either ignorance or a weak, undeveloped will power. The fast should
teach every intelligent being that it is an emergency measure, and
emergencies are but seldom encountered in a well regulated life.
Food debauches following fasts should be avoided. A little will power
properly applied will prevent them. Gross eating may compel another
fast. We must eat and it is better to eat so that we can take sustenance
regularly than to be compelled to go without food at various intervals.
He who is moderate in his eating, uses a fair degree of intelligence in
the selection of his food, is temperate in other ways and considerate
and kind in his dealings with others will not be ill.
A fast is efficacious in clearing up a brain that is unable to work well
because it is bathed in unclean blood. It is remarkable how well the
brain works when the stomach is not overworked. Overfeeding the body
causes underfeeding of the brain. On a correct diet the brain is
efficient and clear and able to bear sustained burdens.
There is no question but that a fast, followed by a light diet,
containing less of the heavily starchy and proteid foods and more of the
succulent vegetables and fresh fruits, with their cleansing juices and
health-imparting salts, would result in the recovery of over one-half of
the insane. Most of them are suffering functionally and here the outlook
is very hopeful. Christ cured a lunatic "by prayer and fasting." Proper
feeding would work wonders in prisons. It would also be very beneficial
for wayward girls and young men who are passion's slaves. St. Peter
recommended fasting as an aid to morality, which is another evidence of
the profundity of his wisdom.
How long should a fast last? Until its object has been accomplished. It
is rarely necessary to fast a month, but sometimes it is advisable to
continue the fast for forty days, or even longer. If the fast is taken
on account of pain, continue until the pain is gone. If for fever, until
there is no more fever. In chronic cases it is not always necessary to
continue the fast until the tongue is clean. When the patient is free
from pain and fever and comfortable in every way, start feeding lightly.
People who are thin and have sluggish nutrition, one symptom of which is
dirty-gray mucous membrane in mouth and throat, should not be fasted any
longer than it is absolutely necessary, for they generally react slowly
and poorly.
If people would miss a meal or two or three as soon as they begin to
feel bad, no long fasts would be necessary, because when the system
first begins to be deranged it very quickly rights itself when food is
withheld. It is impossible for a serious disease to develop in a fasting
person, unless he is in an exceptionally bad physical condition at the
beginning of the fast, for when food is withheld there is nothing for
disease to feed upon. No new disease can originate during a fast.
Fasts often bring people back to health, who can not recover through any
other means known to man, unless it be eating almost nothing--a
semi-fast. Occasionally a patient dies while on a long fast or
immediately thereafter, but please remember that millions die
prematurely on this earth every year who never missed their meals for
one day. Also remember that those who go on prolonged fasts are
generally "hopeless cases," who have been given up to die by medical
men. People who fast generally become comfortable, so why envy a few men
and women an easy departure when they are no longer able to live, and
why heap undeserved censure on those who are doing their best to ease
the sufferers by means of our most valuable therapeutic measure,
fasting?
There is much prejudice against fasting, but a calm study of the facts
will remove this. Typhoid fever, conventionally treated, often proves
fatal in 15 per cent. or more of the cases and those who survive have
to undergo a long, uncomfortable illness which often leaves them so
weakened and with such degenerated bodies that the end is frequently a
matter of a few months or years. Pneumonia and tuberculosis find a
favorable place to develop and in these cases prove very fatal. On the
other hand, cases of typhoid treated by the fast, and the other hygienic
measures necessary, recover in a short time, there are no evil sequels
and the body is in better condition than it was before the onset of the
disease. I have never seen a fatality in a properly treated case, and
the mortality is conspicuous by its absence. It is the same in curable
chronic diseases. Where feeding and medicating add to the ills, fasting
with proper living afterwards brings health.
It is also well to remember that where one individual dies while fasting
(not from the effects of fasting, but from the disease for which the
fast was begun), perhaps one hundred thousand starve because they have
too much to eat. Silly as this may sound, it is the truth, and this is s
the explanation: Overfeeding causes digestive troubles and a breakdown
of the assimilative and excretory processes. The more food that is taken
while this condition exists the less nourishment is extracted from it.
The food ferments pathologically, instead of physiologically, and
poisons the body. The more that is eaten under the circumstances, the
worse is the poisoning and at last the tired body wearily gives up the
fight for existence, perhaps after a long chronic ailment has been
suffered, or perhaps during the attack of an acute disease. The chief
cause of death is too much food.
Avicena, the great Arabian physician, treated by means of prolonged
fasts.
For the benefit of those who fear the effects of fasts of a few days'
duration a few quotations are given from various sources:
"My next marked case is a wonderful illustration of the self-feeding
power of the brain to meet an emergency, and a revelation, also, of the
possible limitations of the starvation period. This was the case of a
frail, spare boy of four years, whose stomach was so disorganized by a
drink of solution of caustic potash that not even a swallow of water
could be retained. He died on the seventy-fifth day of his fast, with
the mind clear to the last hour, and with apparently nothing of the body
left but bones, ligaments, and a thin skin; and yet the brain had lost
neither weight nor functional clearness.
"In another city a similar accident happened to a child of about the
same age, in whom it took three months for the brain to exhaust entirely
the available body-food."--Dr. E. H. Dewey.
This shows the groundlessness of the fear parents have of allowing their
children to fast when necessary. It is beneficial for even the babies
who need it. In the cases quoted above the conditions were very
unfavorable, for the children were suffering from the effects of lye
burns, yet they lived without food seventy-five and ninety days,
respectively. If necessary, deprive the children of food, and keep them
warm. Then comfort yourself with the fact that they are being treated
humanely and efficiently.
Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard, in the latest edition of her book, Fasting
for the Cure of Disease, states that she has treated almost two thousand
five hundred people by this method, the fasts varying in duration from
eight to seventy five days, many of them being over a month. Sixteen of
her patients have died while fasting and two on a light diet. This is
far from being a mortality of 1 per cent. When the fact is taken into
consideration that the people she treated were of the class for whom the
average medical man can do nothing the mortality is surprisingly small.
However, she has lost a few, and as she is a fighter for her beliefs the
prejudice against her and her method of treating disease have proved
strong enough to cause her to be imprisoned. Dr. Hazzard has perhaps the
widest experience with fasting of any mortal, living or dead. Her book
is well worth reading.
Upton Sinclair has also written a book on this subject, entitled the
Fasting Cure. He writes from the viewpoint of an intelligent layman
whose observations are not very extensive. The book contains many good
ideas. This is from page fifty-seven:
"The longest fast of which I had heard when my article was written was
seventy eight days; but that record has since been broken, by a man
named Richard Fausel. Mr. Fausel, who keeps a hotel somewhere in North
Dakota, had presumably partaken too generously of the good cheer
intended for his guests, for he found himself at the inconvenient weight
of three hundred and eighty-five pounds. He went to a sanatorium in
Battle Creek and there fasted for forty days (if my recollection serves
me), and by dint of vigorous exercise meanwhile, he got rid of one
hundred and thirty pounds. I think I never saw a funnier sight than Mr.
Fausel at the conclusion of this fast, wearing the same pair of trousers
that he had worn at the beginning of it. But the temptations of
hotel-keepers are severe, and when he went back home, he found himself
going up in weight again. This time he concluded to do the job
thoroughly, and went to Macfadden's place in Chicago, and set out upon a
fast of ninety days. That is a new record--though I sometimes wonder if
it is quite fair to call it 'fasting' when a man is simply living upon
an internal larder of fat."
Bernarr Macfadden has also written considerable about fasting. C. C.
Haskell is an advocate and director of such treatment. Many physicians
employ this healing method. Some day the entire medical profession will
realize the worth of fasting as a curative agent.
As a reminder, please allow me to repeat: When reading and studying
about the subject of fasting, do not think of it as a complete cure, for
those who return to their improper mode of living will again build
disease. After the fast, live right.
The efficient body is clean internally. An unclean skin is bad. A foul
alimentary tract is worse. But the worst of all is a foul condition of
all the tissues, including the blood-stream, a condition in which much
of the body's waste is stored up, instead of being excreted.
If such a condition can not be remedied through moderation and
simplicity in eating, the only thing that will prove of value is
temporary abstinence.
It would be an easy matter to enumerate many long fasts, such as that of
Dr. Tanner, who proved to an astonished country that fasting for a month
or more is not fatal, but on the contrary may be beneficial. Or we could
cite cases like the fasts carried on by classes under the direction of
Bernarr Macfadden. Or we could refer to the experiments of Professors
Fisher and Chittenden of Yale.
However, we will only look into one more case, that of Dr. I. J. Eales,
whose fast created considerable interest several years ago. The doctor
was too heavy, so he decided to take a fast to reduce his weight, also
for scientific purposes. For thirty days he lived on nothing but water
with an occasional glass of lemonade and one cup of coffee. At the end
of thirty days he broke his fast on a glass of malted milk.
The doctor worked hard during all this period, losing weight all the
time, being thirty pounds lighter at the end of his fast than at the
beginning. However, he did not lose strength, being able to do as much
work and lift as heavy weights at the end of the fast as at the
beginning. Anyone who is much over weight can with benefit do as the
doctor did, for the body will use the stored up fat to produce heat and
energy. This fast is fully detailed in Dr. Eales' book called
Healthology.
Fasting is the quickest way to produce internal cleanliness, which is
health. When the system is clean the cravings, longings and appetites
are not so strong as when the body is full of poisons. For this reason a
fast is the best way to destroy the cravings for tobacco, coffee, tea,
alcohol and other habit-forming drugs. If, after the fast is over, the
individual lives moderately and simply, and is fully determined not to
return to the use of these drugs, a permanent cure will be the reward.
However, it is very easy to drift back into the old habits. A permanent
cure requires that there be no compromise, no saying, "I shall do it
this time, but never again." Once the old habit is resumed, it is almost
certain to be continued.