Detoxification

“ This will give the body a chance to detoxify significantly before the water fast is started, and will make water fasting much more comfortable. Seriously, dangerously ill people should only fast with experienced guidance, so the rapidity of their detoxification process may be adjusted to a lower level if necessary. ”

“ The most effective medicine in my arsenal is water fasting followed closely in potency by other, less rigorous detoxifying diets. Colon cleansing ranks next in healing power. In fact it is difficult to separate colon cleansing from fasting because detoxification programs should always be accompanied by colon cleansing. Further down the scale of efficatiousness comes dietary reform to eliminate allergic reactions and to present the body with foods it is capable of digesting without creating toxemia. ”

“ When the body is enervated, elimination is checked. This, in turn, results in a retention of toxins in the blood--the condition which we speak of as toxemia. This state produces a crisis which is nothing more than heroic or extraordinary efforts by the body to eliminate waste or toxin from the blood. It is this crisis which we term disease. Such accumulation of toxin when once established, will continue until nerve energy has been restored to normal by removing the cause. So-called disease is nature's effort to eliminate toxin from the blood. All so-called diseases are crises of toxemia. ”

“ With these few exceptions, the disorders of the human organism will be trusted to the self-regulating tendency of nature, aided by the influence of the three natural stimulants: Fasting, Refrigeration, and Exercise. The disciples of Natural Hygiene will try to deserve the blessings which the dupes of the drug-monger attempt to buy across the counter; instead of changing their hospital or their course of medication they will change their habits, and their loss of faith in a few popular superstitions will be compensated by an abundant gain in health. ”

“ This same scenario, when viewed from a hygienist's perspective, is that almost all acute and many chronic conditions are simply the body's attempt to handle a crisis of toxemia. For two reasons the current crisis will probably go away by itself. The positive reason is that the toxic overload will be resolved: the person changes their dietary habits or the stressor that temporarily lowered their vital force and produced enervation is removed, then digestion improves and the level of self-generated toxins is reduced. ”

“ Next in importance to building up the blood on a natural basis is the elimination of waste, morbid matter and poisons from the system. This depends to a large extent upon the right (natural) diet; but it must be promoted by the different methods of eliminative treatment: fasting, hydrotherapy, massage, physical exercise, air-and sunbaths and, in the way of medicinal treatment, by homeopathic, herb and vitochemical remedies.
Foremost among the methods of purification stands fasting, which of late years has become quite popular and is regarded by many people as a panacea for all human ailments. ”

“ Nothing can be further from the truth, for, when elimination is successfully accomplished, mentality is at its highest; and, on the other hand, cases of mental aberration due to autointoxication from overfeeding are speedily restored when food is denied. In fact, autointoxication takes place more often when feeding than when fasting, and the overfed body produces poisons the effects of which upon mentality are more dread and more lasting than those of alcohol itself.
The sole explanation of the presence of toxins in the human body lies in the inability of the eliminative organs to function. ”

“ It dissolves these poisons wherever it comes in contact with them, and then as it is brought by the current of the circulation to the proper organs—the kidneys, liver, skin, lungs, and other emunctories—it is expelled from the body, still holding in solution the animal poisons which are so rapidly fatal if retained.
Cleanliness.—The skin is one of the most important depurating organs of the whole body. From each of its millions of pores constantly flows a stream laden with the poisonous products of disintegration. ”

“ The body in its wisdom will always choose to temporarily deposit overwhelming amounts of toxins somewhere harmless rather than permit the blood supply to become polluted or to use secondary elimination routes. A body will use times when the liver is less burdened to eliminate these stored toxic debris. The hygienists" paradigm asserts that the manifestation of symptoms or illness are all by themselves, absolute, unassailable proof that further storage of toxic wastes in the cells, tissues, fat deposits, and organs is not possible and that an effort toward elimination is absolutely necessary. ”

“ Disease is brought about by obstructions and inhibitions of vital processes.... The basis is chronic auto-intoxication from food poisoning. It is brought about by abusing the body in many ways ... by living wrongly in whatever way.... Bad habits of living enervate—weaken—the body, and in consequence elimination is impaired.... The inability of the organism to rid itself of waste products brings on auto-toxemia. ”

“ Many toxic substances are formed by the decomposition of food, and also in the processes of metabolism in the tissues. We are protected against these substances by certain organs which destroy them (as the thyroid, parathyroids, and liver) , and by other organs which eliminate them (as the kidneys, the skin, and the intestines) . When these organs are all working well, we may get rid of these products and not be affected by them; but in old individuals it is different, as their protective and eliminative organs have more or less degenerated. ”

“ If our diet is unbalanced, Nature has the power to convert one chemical into another—a secret yet unknown to modern science.
Injurious effects of congested waste matter
While the tendency of Nature is to maintain normality by casting the debris [414] out of the body, she demands that we obey the laws of motion and oxidation. If we do not observe these laws, the debris or matter she cannot use will accumulate, and congestion and constipation will take place. The excess of food thus actually clogs the system and generates in the intestines the poisons which cause autointoxication. ”

“ That is all right for an emergency; if you have swallowed a poison, or food which is spoiled, or if you have overeaten and are ill, get your system cleaned out by any and every device. But if you habitually swallow mild poisons, which is what all laxatives are, you weaken the intestinal tract, and you have to take more and more of these poisons, and you get less results. We may set down as positive the statement that drugs are not a remedy for constipation.
Next comes diet. Eat the rough and bulky foods, say the nature curists, and stimulate the intestinal walls to activity. ”

“ Food has very little to do with these autotoxins, and they are as likely to form on one diet as another. In fact, they form normally and in states of perfect health, and are poisonous only if retained too long. It is simply a question of burning them up, and getting rid of them quickly enough, by exercise, with its attendant deep breathing and perspiration. The lungs are great garbage-burners. Exercise every day till you puff and sweat.
A blast of cold air suddenly stops the escape of these poisons through the skin and throws them on the lungs, liver, or kidneys. ”

“ It is then the business of the cells to utilize these materials for TISSUE BUILDING and in the production of energy, in the form of work and heat. The body manufactures different kinds of products, some beneficial, others harmful. Thus for example, excessive muscular effort throws into the bloodstream fatigue products that are poisonous. A person utterly tired out is really suffering from acute poisoning. On the other hand, to resist invasion by infectious diseases, the body manufactures anti-poisons that kill the enemy germs—making in other words, its own medicine. ”

“ Clearly fasting is not for everyone, and if I recommend it to the wrong person, the result will be a bad reputation for a marvelous tool.
Given that many clients can not fast without a lot of preparation, the majority of my clients start out with a gentle detox program that takes considerably more time, but works. These gradients have been outlined under the healing programs for the chronically ill, acutely ill, etc.
To help rebuild poorly functioning organs, I sometimes use a specialized group of food supplements called protomorphogens. ”

“ This is called tissue disintegration. New cells to repair tissue waste are built up from the nutriment which the blood carries from the alimentary canal after the process of food digestion is accomplished. This is called tissue construction, or the process of assimilation. Technically, these are the metabolic, or destructive and constructive processes. Both are essential to health and life. Any substance taken into the body, which will interfere with these processes of nutrition and waste is inimical to health, and in time of disease, dangerous to life.
Alcohol is such a substance. ”

“ And, inasmuch as it is so, is it not a great detriment at least to our health to carry this mass of filth around with us, from day to day, from week to week, and from year to year—absorbing its poison back into the circulation? ”

“ Such quantities of waste products as are produced in the healthy body are excreted with ease, but it is otherwise in certain diseases. Either specially noxious substances are produced, or the usual substances are in excessive quantity and not eliminated with sufficient rapidity; in consequence the body is poisoned. Those who eat largely of flesh, introduce into their system the excretory matter contained therein, which super-added to the excretory matter resulting from the vital processes of the body puts an unusual and unnatural strain upon the liver and kidneys. ”

“ The wise cure is to detoxify the body, a step that simultaneously eliminates secondary eliminations and rebuilds the immune system.
The wise way to deal with the body's eliminative efforts is to accept that disease is an opportunity to pay the piper for past indiscretions. You should go to bed, rest, and drink nothing but water or dilute juice until the condition has passed. This allows the body to conserve its vital energy, direct this energy toward healing the disordered body part, and catch up on its waste disposal. ”

“ For the impaired function would affect other processes which are normally accomplished by that organ, and the possibilities for entrance into the general circulation of toxic substances, of intestinal putrefaction, for instance, would be increased. The liver performs a large number of oxidations and syntheses designed to keep toxic substances from reaching the body tissues, and if alcohol, in the moderate quantity which caused the increase in uric acid excretion, impairs its power in this respect, the prevalent ideas regarding the harmlessness of moderate drinking need revision. ”

“ If these secondary eliminations are suppressed with drugs (either from the medical doctor or with over the counter remedies) , if the eating or lifestyle habits that created the toxemia are not changed, or if the toxic load increases beyond the limits of this technique, the body then begins to store toxins in fat or muscle tissues or the joint cavities, overburdens the kidneys, creates cysts, fibroids, and benign tumors to store those toxins. If toxic overload continues over a longer time the body will eventually have to permit damages to vital tissues, and life-threatening conditions develop. ”

“ Its content is not poison but food. Active elimination is important not so much because delay causes autointoxication or poisoning as because too large a mass is hard to manage and irritates the intestinal wall. The problem is not so much one of toxicology as of simple mechanics. If Nature had put within the body five feet of tubing which could easily become a cesspool and a breeder of poison, it is not at all likely that she would have laid alongside an elaborate system of blood vessels leading not out to the kidneys but into the storehouse of the liver ”

“ This is the Theory of Toxemia. A healthy body struggles continually to purify itself of poisons that are inevitably produced while going about its business of digesting food, moving about, and repairing itself. The body is a marvelous creation, a carbon, oxygen combustion machine, constantly burning fuel, disposing of the waste products of combustion, and constantly rebuilding tissue by replacing worn out, dead cells with new, fresh ones. ”

“ On the Elimination of Toxic Products Through the Kidneys. In the course of this work we have frequently insisted on the fact that we are being continually poisoned during the processes of life, either by poisons coming from without into our body through food or drink, or by toxic substances being formed in our body through defective metabolism. We have a series of glands with internal secretions which have properties antagonistic to these poisons, the most important of such glands being the thyroid, parathyroid glands, adrenals and the liver, which act by destroying these injurious products. ”

“ The condition termed auto-intoxication may be induced by many different factors, among which may be mentioned the products of intestinal putrefaction (Senator [20] ) and the waste products from the processes of oxidation, such as uric acid, for example. Animal food is more apt to produce intestinal putrefaction than any of the various other foodstuffs.
There are three important organs which protect us against such a condition of auto-intoxication; these are the kidneys, liver, and thyroid, and possibly also the parathyroids. ”