MEDICAL DOCTORS PRESCRIBE FASTING IN EUROPE

Official American medicine does not recognize fasting as one of the legitimate forms of therapy. In Europe the situation is quite different. Fasting is employed there on a grand scale by reputable medical doctors. For example, at the famous Buchinger Sanatorium in Bad Pyrmont, Germany, directed by Otto H. F. Buchinger, M.D. (perhaps the world’s greatest authority on fasting), fasting is used routinely in almost every condition. Well over 70,000 fasts were supervised by medical doctors at Buchinger Clinics alone during 48 years of practice.

Another great fast specialist in Germany is Professor Werner Zabel, M.D. In several decades he has used fasting as one of the most valuable therapeutic methods in his clinic for internal diseases in Berchtesgaden, Germany. “Together with fever and optimal nutrition, fasting is man’s oldest healing method,” said Professor Zabel. Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, a world-famous medical research institution, has made experiments with fasting. Fasts up to 55 days were employed in their experiments. In Germany and Sweden, there are dozens of fasting clinics where fasting is an exclusive or the most important therapeutic measure.

These are only a few examples to show you that fasting in Europe is a respected and accepted form of therapy.

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EPSOM SALTS

The technical name for Epsom salts is magnesium sulfate and is designated by the chemical symbol, MgSO÷ It occurs as a deposit left by evaporated mineral waters.

Normal table salt is a sodium salt, sodium chloride (NaCl), but it is not the only salt in existence. There are others of which magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts) is only one. But, while sodium chloride is beneficial to the system if not consumed in excess quantities, magnesium sulfate should never be taken internally. Despite this, the most common use for Epsom salts has been as an internal dosage for purgative purposes. This is a severe and undesirable treatment which does more harm than good to the system by stimulating the organs into an over-active condition.

Because of its very unpleasant taste and harsh effects, it will be a relief to know that its use internally should be discontinued. This does not mean that it is altogether useless as an aid to health. It is a very valuable substance when correctly used, possessing the ability to draw off poisons and to replenish the loss of magnesium from the system.

A problem common to many is catarrh. This is a congestion of the sinus membranes which line the nasal passages resulting in an overflow of streams of mucous. It is a distressing ailment from which all who suffer would welcome relief. Many will be glad to know that this condition can be very effectively treated by using the Epsom salts lozenge

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SPRAINS AND BRUISES: CASE HISTORIES

Case No. 1.

Three workers in our publishing house sustained similar injuries at different times. One had the flesh stripped back to the bone on two fingers. The second had his hand crushed in the guillotine, although no bones were broken. And the third caught the first joint of his third finger in the folder and thought he had lost it. All three were in great pain, but all three dropped their work immediately and started the hot and cold treatments. None of the treatments lasted more than thirty minutes, and in no case was any further treatment necessary, apart from bandaging the torn flesh and applying healing ointment. It could be noted here that because of the extreme pain, the change from hot to cold was very quick to start with, the hot lasting, at first, for only 10 or 15 seconds. As the pain subsided, we left the injured part in hot water for longer periods with short intervals in cold.

In all three cases after the initial treatment there was no further pain, no swelling, and no throbbing. It was only a matter then of leaving nature’s healing processes to rebuild the lacerated flesh. After the treatment, all were able to return in the same day to their work.

Case No. 2.

We turn now to the case of a man who did not obtain immediate treatment. At six o’clock in the morning, he was jogging along a dirt road when he turned his ankle on a round stone. He tested the joint and, finding that it was not too painful, walked on it, thinking that he would have no further trouble with it. However, three hours later, in the midst of his daily work program, the ankle began to stiffen and swell and became extremely painful. In another hour, he was forced to stop work and could not bear to put his foot on the ground.

This man understood the method of the hot and cold treatment but was worried because he thought the long four-hour delay would have made it too late for the treatment to be effective. Nevertheless, he obtained assistance to reach home, where he immediately began the treatment by immersing the ankle first in a bucket of hot water and then plunging it into a bucket in which there was just enough water to cover the ice cubes.

After one full hour, no relief had been obtained. So, after resting for a few minutes he gave it a second hour, still with no results. His friends, who had experienced sprained ankles before, gloomily prophesied that he would be laid up for at least two weeks.

However, hope springs eternal, and persistence finally paid off. It was not until after five hours of treatment had been given that relief finally came. This is easily understood when it is remembered that for four hours congestion had been allowed to build up before treatment was begun. This edge had to be overcome, and that took time.

That night he slept with no problems. Turning in bed caused no pain, and next morning, to the astonishment of his friends, he was able to dance one-legged on the injured leg. Instead of two weeks on crutches, he was running, walking, lifting, and working normally the very next day after the injury and has suffered no ill effects from that time on.

This case illustrates the necessity of persevering with the treatment until results are obtained. The treatment will not fail provided you do not give up too soon.

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STOMACH AND INTESTINAL DISORDERS: RAW POTATO AND APPLE TREATMENT

1. Use 1/3 of a large Granny Smith apple with one medium sized potato.

’2. Using a fine grater, reduce both to a pulp and mix together.

For best results, one cupful of this mixture should be eaten before breakfast each day until the trouble is relieved. You may follow this immediately with whatever else you wish to eat, but this mixture itself should be just plain apple and potato. The treatment need not be limited to this time of day only, but may be taken whenever difficulty is experienced.

Some people find this mixture difficult to eat and so, as an alternative to the above method, the potato and apple can he juiced and drunk. The ratio must stay the same—one third apple to two thirds potato—and the total quantity of juice should be about three quarters of an eight ounce glass.

However, it has been observed that when a person is able to accept the grated form, it will give more benefit.

The effectiveness of the treatment is due to the fact that the potato mixture is highly alkaline and quickly absorbs and neutralizes the excess acid. It also acts as a cleanser to the liver and restores the chemical balance of the digestive tract. It is very effective in cases of constipation and in relieving vomiting or bilious attacks because of its mild and healing nature.

With this treatment, it is to be emphasized that one application is not sufficient. Results will be achieved only when it is continued over a period of time, four to six weeks, with four being the minimum.

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TREATMENT OF FEVERS: PERSONAL CASE HISTORY OF A MAN WITH A YEARLY FEVER.

At one time there was a young man of twenty-one living with us who developed a very high fever about eight o’clock one evening. We did not become aware of the fever until it was really raging at about 104° F. He told us that it was a regular, annual occurrence with him, and that every previous attack had cost him two weeks in bed. Accompanying the fever was a severe headache and a raging sore throat.

There was only one treatment that came to our minds, and that was the wet sheet treatment, so we proceeded as described above. The temperature was so high that within only a few minutes the first sheet was hot and had to be changed. But each following application lasted a little longer until, by midnight, his temperature was back to normal. The wet sheet treatment occupied four hours in this case, instead of the usual half an hour because we were treating a person who had not been living healthfully. It was necessary, therefore, to persist until the temperature was reduced.

When he was ready for bed, we put an onion poultice around his neck to ease the sore throat. The next morning, even though his fever was gone, he still had quite a sore throat. We had him get up and take a shower. After this he doused himself with a bucket of lukewarm water to which a cup of Epsom salts had been added. We then put a charcoal and linseed poultice around his neck and gave him a glass of pure pineapple juice squeezed from a fresh pineapple, and encouraged him to rest in bed all day. However, before the day was finished, he was up and about. In the late afternoon he even spent some time out in a light rain from which he suffered no ill effect! The usual two weeks was reduced to only an evening. The fact that his standing in the rain did not cause any trouble is clear evidence that the disease had not been suppressed but had been eradicated. Health had been restored.

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FIVE RULES FOR HEALTHY SKIN

Eat a balanced diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. A fat high diet will spoil your skin. Supplement your diet with vitamins if you think you are stressed. Vitamin A and E, and zinc are skin vitamins and minerals. Drink 10 glasses of water a day.

Dramatic weight loss over the age of 40 is very aging to the skin. If you need to lose weight, do it slowly and get daily exercise to tone your skin to the change. Baggy skin or stretch marks are the result of rapid weight changes.

The best exercise for skin is outdoor brisk walking. It stimulates the circulation, builds up a light sweat to clear the pores and leaves the skin looking pink and

healthy. If it does not suit you to walk, try swimming or cycling.

Smoking is the worst thing for skin. It gives it a yellow or grey tone, decreases circulation, builds up smelly

toxins in the skin and ages you faster than any other thing you could do to your body. Compare a smoker to a non-smoker of the same age.

Sleep is a great skin restorer. Tired people look older. Go to bed every night at the same time and get a good eight hours sleep, nine if you need it.

Use a moisturiser every day. Apply it to the dry spots such as face, neck, hands, elbows.

Take care with the sun. It dries the skin and ages it rapidly. Wear a hat, use a sunscreen and do not sun-bake at all. A light dose of sun daily is important to health but keep it off the face and neck and do not spend more than 5 minutes sitting in the sun.

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USING ST JOHN’S WORT IN SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER (SAD): HOW LONG SHOULD YOU CONTINUE TO TREAT YOUR WINTER DEPRESSION?

In general, those who recover spontaneously from their winter depressions during the summer months are able to stop their antidepressant treatments – be they light or medications – when long sunny days arrive. The same principle should apply to St John’s Wort and I would recommend that those who normally feel fine in the summer discontinue the herbal anti-depressant at that time. On the other hand, there are those who feel somewhat down all year round, only more so in the winter. These people are likely to benefit from St John’s Wort all year round.

For a further information about the effects of the seasons on mood and behaviour, and strategies to deal with the difficulties caused by the short dark days of winter or other forms of light deprivation, I refer the interested reader to my book Winter Blues (Guilford Publications, 1993), which deals with these topics in greater detail.

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CASE STUDY: BRAIN-FAG AND SEXUAL IMPOTENCE

My original brain-fag case was that of Mr. Carrington. Carrington held a position of responsibility within the United States government. His job entailed a great deal of detail work and a profound knowledge of several unusual fields. His colleagues had looked upon Carrington as a kind of human computer in the days before computers had in fact taken over such arduous tasks.

Over a period of years, Carrington noticed that his capacity for work was diminishing. He kept a special file on his desk of difficult material. He found that he could only work on this material at the most once a week, when his brain was “in full gear.” During the rest of the time he suffered from what he himself dubbed “brain-fag”—a term he had come across in his wide reading. I was startled by his use of the term brain-lag to describe his illness. When I first heard this word, I thought it was pure slang, but on looking it up in dictionaries, I found that it has been in the English language for a century. 1 have continued to use it, because it is one of the few descriptive terms which has not been “redefined” in psychiatric dictionaries.

Associated with his brain-fag was sexual impotence and malaise. He had more or less lost his sexual drive. The only way he and his wife could have intercourse was if he took two stiff bourbons on a carefully timed schedule. The bourbon would restore his libido for a short while.

Carrington was in the Library of Congress one day, searching for a clue to his “brain-fag,” when he came across the book Food Allergy, which I had co-authored with Drs. Rinkel and Zeller in 1951 and in which I had described allergic fatigue. He went straight to a phone book, called me up, and within thirty-six hours had been admitted to the hospital under my care.

Carrington turned out to be violently susceptible to corn. This did not surprise me, since he was from the South and many of his fellow Southerners are similarly susceptible. This helped explain why he was stimulated by bourbon, in which corn is a principal ingredient. When Carrington avoided corn in all its forms, as well as a few other foods to which he was found to be susceptible, he underwent a transformation. Both his work output and his sexual ability improved immediately, and he was soon leading a normal and productive life.

Brain-fag may go untreated or unrecognized in those who lead a sedentary, noncompetitive life. For those in positions of responsibility, where they must compete with other relatively well individuals, brain-fag can be a disaster. Two cases will illustrate the course of treated and untreated ecologic illness.

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THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF ALLERGIES: FOGGING FOR INSECT ABATEMENT AND WEED CONTROL

We have spoken of insecticides as a source of indoor air pollution. They are also a source of outdoor air pollution, especially in the form of insect and weed abatement programs.

Many people who know themselves to be susceptible to chemicals move to the suburbs or the countryside to escape from the source of their problem. Having moved to what they think is a safe haven, they are sometimes presented with a worse problem: insect abatement. Sometimes rural or suburban residents are “abated” in the dead of night without any prior warning. Large chemical spraying rigs move through the neighborhood, applying poisons to trees, roadsides, and ponds.

Sleeping quietly in bed with the windows open, a susceptible person’s first warning of an abatement rig may be to awake with a strangling cough or even an epilepticlike seizure. I have been called out at night on a number of occasions to resuscitate such people.

Chemically susceptible patients living in areas where these programs exist have to take rather elaborate precautions to guard against such exposures. Some contact the local agencies and ask them for advance notice when their area is to be treated with pesticide sprays. Others flee the area when spraying starts or lock themselves in their homes until the toxic chemicals disperse somewhat.

Yet others attempt to move farther into the country. Sadly, this strategy usually fails, since the abatement programs are often enthusiastically carried out in the rural districts as well. New spraying agencies are continually being formed, or else the escapee runs into trouble with farmers who are spraying for weed and insect control or with foresters spraying their trees. A few of my patients have actually moved back into the city, in order to escape the indiscriminate spraying which is now practiced in the countryside!

It is a sad commentary when people must flee to the polluted cities to escape the even worse pollution of the rural areas. Even a drive in the country is now often perilous for chemically susceptible individuals. One may suddenly encounter roadside weed control programs at any time. If this happens, you are well advised to stop, turn the car around, and escape as quickly as possible. An alternative plan is to close the car windows and breathe through an activated carbon filter, if one is available. Even driving along a recently sprayed roadside or railway right-of-way or through a country area immediately after spraying may trigger reactions.

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CHILDREN’S HEALTH: FREQUENT ILLNESSES

Parents often become concerned that their children are ill too frequently. Sometimes the parents are right, and the child does have some underlying medical problem. But, normally, having many illnesses is not due to any particular problem in the child. Usually, how often a child becomes ill depends on the number of children in the family and the number of diseases each child is exposed to.

Except for accidents and allergies, 95 percent of all illnesses are caused by germs that live exclusively in humans. Most children’s illnesses are caught from other children. Whether a child will catch a disease depends on two factors: whether the child is exposed to the germ and how strong the child’s resistance is.

If your child is frequently ill with different minor illnesses, the illnesses are usually due simply to exposure to many people. As soon as a child begins going to daycare or school, the child is exposed to other children with illnesses. The number of children in a household also is a factor. Mathematically, a four-child family could have 16 times as many childhood illnesses as a one-child family.

A child frequently ill with the same illness may have a defect of local resistance (a lowered resistance to disease in one area of the body). For example, repeated pneumonia in the same part of a lung suggests an abnormality in that area.

A child with frequent major illnesses or frequent complications of minor sicknesses may have a general lack of resistance. This occurs with immune mechanism defects, which hinder the child’s ability to fight infectious diseases. For instance, colds that always end up as croup, bronchiolitis, bronchitis, or pneumonia may indicate an underlying allergy.

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