The cellular metabolism becomes 
sluggish, repair and growth are delayed and the ability to elimina te waste materials is lowered. The cells, instead of being alive and 
active, become dead and inactive. This process results in a decline in tissue and organ functional ability. Dr. Alexis Carrell, at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, took sm all pieces of heart tissue from a chicken embyro to 
produce one of the most remarkable experiments in medical history. He attempted to demonstrate that under suitable conditions , 
the living cell could live a very long time, perhaps indefinitely. The heart tissue was immersed in a nutrient solution from which it 
obtained its food. Likewise, waste material was secreted by the heart tissue into this same solution. Everyday the solution w as 
changed, taking away waste substances and providing fresh nutrients. It  is amazing to report that this chicken heart tissue lived for 
29 years in this fashion. It died one day when the assistant forgot to change the metabolized polluted fluid! In other words,  
autointoxication claimed this great masterpiece of experimental sci entific investigation. Said Carrell of this experience, “The cell is 
immortal. It is merely the fluid in which it floats which degenerates. Renew this fluid at intervals, give the cell something  upon 
which to feed and, so far as we know, the pulsation of l ife may go on forever.”  
 
The primary causes of constipation can be summarized as follows: faulty nutrition, ignoring the call to eliminate, lack of ph ysical 
activity, emotional and mental distress, extrinsic poisons and medications and lack of adequate amo unts of water. Faulty nutrition, 
as we have already seen, is a major underlying factor in constipation. Processed, devitalized foods low in fiber or bulk are not 
suitable substances to promote health and well -being. Ignoring the call to eliminate feces or urine contribute greatly to cellular 
congestion, autointoxication and eliminative organ distress. The lack of physical exercise makes weak and flaccid muscle tone  
incapable of holding up under the demands of poor diets and extra eliminative duty. Emotional  and mental strain and tension 
produce unfavorable conditions in the digestive and eliminative organs, causing them to become tense and underactive. These a lso 
cause chemical imbalances and abnormal secretions to occur, generally upsetting the whole organi sm. Extrinsic poisons, such as 
tobacco, coffee, alcohol, chocolate and sugar, have unfavorable effects upon digestion and elimination by upsetting gastric 
secretions and nerve responses. Medications have a very upsetting effect upon these life -giving funct ions. They cause many  
afflictions in the bowel. Antibiotics, such as penicillin and sulfa, can completely eliminate the favorable intestinal flora,  leaving the 
opportunity for reinfestation by harmful bacteria and virus. Laxatives are irritating to the bow el and are dangerous if used 
frequently. Most people also do not drink enough water; they are chronically dehydrated. This causes all body tissues and fluids to becom e 
thicker and more viscid. The mucous lining in the colon changes in consistency, failin g to provide a slick lubrication for the 
movement of feces. Poor living habits contribute a great deal to poor bowel function. Not following a good program denies the  
body regularity and consistency. It never knows what’s coming next and can’t depend upon a regular routine. It is always on the 
defensive. This situation results in a depletion of vital nerve force and undermines the body’s ability to set periods of res t and  
activity. Today, there are more than 45,000 laxative and cathartic remedies being manu factured and used by Americans alone. Even when used sparingly and in an emergency, these substances should be used with great caution, if at all. The mechanism of  
elimination is very delicate and easily upset. Once disturbed, it will often require weeks, maybe months, before it becomes  
regular again. These substances, in order to evacuate the colon, are essentially poisons and irritants. They contribute nothi ng to 
restore normal or natural processes of defecation. The poisoned colon tries to evacuate the offending substance as quickly as 
possible, and pushes everything out including the compacted feces. Oftentimes, these harsh poisonous substances are absorbed 
through the lymph and blood vessels and find their way to all parts of the body. This situation c ontributes to addiction and  
overuse of these substances. Dependency upon laxative compounds will in time, permanently destroy the normal ability of the 
bowel to eliminate naturally on its own accord. Laxatives tire out the bowel muscle by keeping it consta ntly working. Without rest, 
it will soon fail and produce some of the conditions I will discuss in the next chapter. The only stimulation that the body s hould 
have is through exercise. Any time we artificially stimulate the bowel, there is an opposite effe ct that manifests in which there is a 
lack of tone in the muscle producing a weakness in that muscle structure. It is becoming increasingly clear that bowel troubl es 
have a reflex effect upon specific organs in the body. For example, Sir Arbuthnot Lane, who was a surgeon for the King of England, spent many years specializing in bowel problems. He was an expert at removing sections of the bowel and stitching it back together. He taught this work to other doctors and g ained 
an international reputation for h is efficiency. During the years of this work, he began to notice a peculiar phenomenon. During the 
course of recovery from colonic surgery, some of his patients experienced remarkable cures of diseases that had no apparent 
connection with his surgery. For instance, a young boy who had arthritis for many years was in a wheel chair at the time of 
surgery. Six months later, this boy had recovered entirely from the disease. Another case involved a woman with a goiter. Whe n a 
specific section of the bowel was re moved in surgery, there ensued a definite remission of the goiter within six months. These and 
similar experiences impressed him so much because he saw the relationship between the toxic bowel and the functioning of 
various organs in the body. After much t hought about this relationship, he became very interested in changing the bowel through 
dietetic methods and spent the last 25 years of his life teaching people how to care for the bowel through nutrition and not surgery. Sir Lane has said, “All maladies a re due to the tack of certain food principles, such as mineral salts or vitamins, or to the absence 
of the normal defenses of the body, such as the natural protective flora. When this occurs, toxic bacteria invade the lower 
alimentary canal, and the poison s thus generated pollute the bloodstream and gradually deteriorate and destroy every tissue, gland 
and organ of the body.”  
 
I am absolutely sure that what Dr. Lane discovered through his surgical explorations is in -deed an accurate description of how the 
bowel functions in relation to the other organs in the body. We know that every organ and tissue is dependent upon the healthy  
well-being of every other organ and tissue in order for there to be a total well -being. When one tissue or organ fails, it affects  the 
whole body. If there is faulty functioning in the bowel, this deficiency is passed along to the rest of the body. We could ca ll this the 
intestinal domino effect. The frequency or quantity of fecal elimination is not an indication of the lack of cons tipation in the bowel. I know of cases that had 
three and four movements a day and yet the bowel was quite encrusted and very constipated. Most people don’t know the 
condition of their bowel. Unfortunately those who are not aware of their bowel function or  condition are sometimes the ones who 
are developing the worst cases of bowel troubles. I find that constipation is usually going along with those bowels that have  
diverticulosis. Very few people eat in an organized way, and for this reason, they have loos e bowels one day, stiff bowels the next 
day, a smelly bowel one day, and so on. When regularity is absent in the diet, there is chaos in the bowel. In most cases, si mply 
changing the diet and eating habits will alleviate many bowel problems without surgery . WHAT GOES IN DOESN’T ALWAYS COME OUT  
I am convinced that the bowel holds onto waste materials longer than anyone realizes. When we clean out the bowel and release  all 
this old, rotting material, there will be a lessening of the gas, pain and autointoxic ation taking place. I believe that this toxic 
material decaying away in the sigmoid colon is a good place for degenerative diseases to get started. Starches that haven’t b een 
digested properly by the pancreatic secretions are not readily taken up by the bo dy and made into good tissue. These, in turn, can 
come back to the colon and keep the body from having the proper colonic tone because of a lack of proper chemical development . In addition, drugs can settle in the tissues of the body and it is the colon th at catches a good deal of these. By way of the mucus 
membrane, the colon is used as an eliminative channel. When the membrane does not function properly, these drug deposits 
accumulate in the bowel indefinitely and can produce a time -bomb effect; irritatio ns, inflammations and ulcerations. Here again, 
food is very, very important to recognize because this is the one thing that brings back a chemical reserve and gives the pow er and 
chemical structure to have good healthy tissue. The dietary program that I h ave developed is probably one of the most important things I can give to you. It has proven itself well 
in 30 years of sanitarium experience and has helped many people to regain their health. It takes care of the bulk, it takes c are of the 
fiber, it takes care of the natural mucus membrane through proper chemical replacements. This program, coupled with an exercise  
routine, will produce very good results for those afflicted with bowel disturbances. THE FUNCTIONING OF THE BOWEL  
We have to stop and think tha t when we eat there is peristaltic action in the bowel which moves the food down to the last part of 
our elimination system, the large colon. Whenever we have three meals a day and a bowel movement once in five days, we’re 
fifteen meals behind. Normally it  takes eighteen hours for food to go through the body and be eliminated. What is required to 
move it along on time? Good bowel tone gives the power to the intestinal tract to move waste materials properly through the 
system. If we don’t have good bowel ton e, we have to have an inciting measure, and one way of doing this is by using laxatives. But we find that 95% of all laxatives are irritating to the bowel, and this is what forces the peristaltic action. It is caus ed by 
irritation. Wouldn’t it be better to  have a bowel that could move along because you have the right power and bowel tone? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bowel wall that has all the potassium and all the right chemical elements to work normally? We find there are other factors involved here, s uch as the liver activity. We have to have enough bile coming from the gall bladder 
and the liver to give the bowel its natural incentive to produce bowel movements. The bowel is dependent upon other organs to o. There is also the thyroid gland which is imp ortant to the body’s metabolism. The thyroid regulates a number of organ functions 
and keeps them normal by releasing thyroxin into the body. The adrenal glands may be underactive. A person can feel so tired and 
fatigued that he won’t exercise. You have to  feel lively to move and get going. An underactive thyroid can bring on low blood 
pressure and anemia can keep us from a healthy level of physical activity. If the blood is anemic, the body tissue is anemic and 
cannot do its job. We are tired “all over,” s o to speak. CLEANING UP THE PAST  
Above all, we now have to make amends for some of the things that happened in the past. I think accumulations in the bowel ha ve 
to be looked after. The bowel is underactive. It hasn’t been fed properly. The bowel itself is  probably the most abused organ in the 
human body. The reason I say this is if you ever go through a cleansing program, you will see things you’ll find hard to beli eve. You don’t realize what can come out of the bowel. After just one cleansing treatment, I ’ve seen as much as three gallons of hard 
toxic material come from a person. How is it possible? I know, for instance, of one woman who said she had five bowel 
movements a day; but after she passed away, it was found that there was only room enough for a p encil to pass through  
parts of her bowel. Her bowel was 9 inches across. We found that it had an extreme accumulation of hard toxic material encrus ted 
on the bowel lining. Constipation is a serious menace to health and vitality as I have discussed with yo u. The consequences of this 
common but subtle malady are becoming more and more prevalent in our society. It is a root cause for many troubles in the bod y. It is also a symptom of a larger picture that many doctors haven’t taken into consideration as yet. The following illustrations show 
how food moves through the gastrointestinal tract in a 24 -hour period and what happens when the bowel doesn’t eliminate on time:  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER 5  
IMBALANCES OF THE LARGE INTESTINE  
Structural, functional and metabolic imbalances of the colon are manifested in various forms. We will mention a few of the more 
common abnormalities of the colon to illustrate the effects of autointoxication and constipation. These are: adhesions, ballo oning, 
colitis, diverticulitis, mucosal dysfunction, spastic bowel, strictures and ulceration. Adhesions in the colon are caused by 
inflammations and irritations to the bowel wall. When the mucus membrane breaks down, tissue becomes exposed, open and 
irritated. The raw surfaces begin to stick to gether as the result of glue -like substance secreted from the tissue. This is a serious 
condition and requires delicate treatment to correct. Ballooning of the colon occurs as a consequence of backed up feces. For  
various reasons, feces can accumulate and stretch the bowel wall into enormous proportions. This often occurs in the sigmoid 
colon as the result of a narrowing of the bowel lumen below the ballooning. This narrowing can be caused by adhesions, spasm or 
colic conditions. When this occurs, constipat ion can become quite severe and painful and has a damaging effect upon the bowel 
structure and function. Colitis is an irritable bowel condition that is highly associated with Psychological distress. Few pe ople truly 
realize the benefits of a calm and peac eful lifestyle. They are often unaware of the mind’s ability to sink into the body’s 
functioning ability and upset normal tissue activities. Fear, anger, depression, stress, tension, worries and obsessions can all upset 
delicate processes in the body, and in particular, those of digestion and elimination. Sometimes what we need is a good cerebral 
laxative to rid the mind of emotional autointoxication and constipation. Diverticular disease of the colon is occurring at an  ever-
increasing rate. It is a serious  bowel disturbance leading to many difficulties and must be avoided. When the diet is lacking in bulk 
or fiber, the colonic muscle must work extremely hard to force feces through the organ. Where there is weakness in muscle fib ers a 
hernia occurs, producin g a small pouch or sac -like protrudence in the tissue. It looks like a blister on the side of a tire where the air 
is forcing its way to the surface through a weak spot in the tire wall. These sacs, or diverticula, are blind in one end. The refore 
feces acc umulate within them and hold morbid matter in which a variety of very unfavorable organisms can begin to breed. They become sources of infection, inflammation and degenerative conditions. They are also the host for the production of 
powerful toxins, adding  to an already over -burdened and toxic body. I have seen X -rays of the colon in which there were 142 of 
these little sacs on one bowel. When these diverticula become inflamed and irritated, we have a case of diverticulitis. Shoul d any 
one of these festerin g sacs produce a rupture, then we have a grave situation in which life is threatened by the release of these very 
poisonous substances into the abdominal cavity of the body where infection can spread quite rapidly. Mucosal dysfunction occurs when the inte stinal mucus lining becomes stagnant and putrefactive. It begins to develop many 
unfavorable conditions. No longer does it serve the function of facilitating elimination of fecal material. Instead it degene rates in 
several ways. It can become abcessed, in which case irritations, abrasions, ulcerations and bleeding can occur. Food passage  
can be very painful. Mucus can dehydrate and accumulate due to increased viscid consistency. This causes layer upon layer to be 
built up until extreme constipation occurs. This old material becomes a source of infection and toxic absorption, holding many 
otherwise excreted products. It also greatly inhibits the absorption of nutrients and water, adding to nutritional crisis. A spastic 
bowel is often associated with colitis. The point I want to stress is that when bowel muscle or any muscle is overworked, tense and 
not given an opportunity to rest, it will go into a spasm. Muscle spasm is a chronic tightening of the fibers due to hyperact ivity in 
the nerve impulses controlling  muscle action. The symptoms frequently manifest as constipation, alternating with diarrhea. Mental 
and emotional stresses are high on the list of contributing factors, coupled with chronic toxemia and poor diet. A stricture of the bowel usually occurs af ter an inflammatory disease such as colitis has damaged the tissue. It is a chronic 
narrowing of the passageway that often results in a backup of feces that are unable to pass through. The feces accumulate in front 
of the stricture, causing ballooning, whi le the segment just past the stricture collapses. Ulceration of the bowel occurs due to 
irritations, abrasions, infections and toxic concentrations settling in or on muscle tissue. This results in open sores, blee ding and 
much pain as is common in hemorrho ids, etc. The sigmoid and rectum are the sites for most of these troubles. Again, 
autointoxication and constipation are the root causes. THE FOLLOWING DRAWINGS ILLUSTRATE THE VARIOUS ABNORMAL SHAPES OF THE BOWEL IN COMPARISON 
TO A NORMAL BOWEL. There should be no doubt about the relation between health of the intestinal tract and health in the rest of the body. Intest inal 
management probably is the most important thing a person can learn in a health -building routine. Some of the most important 
functions of life take place in the intestines. Through it worn out cells are eliminated and new cell structures have their be ginning. At the Battle Creek Sanitarium I heard Dr. John Harvey Kellogg say he knew of many cases in which operations were prevent ed 
by cleansing and revitalizing the bowel. He maintained that 90% of the diseases of civilization are due to improper functioni ng of 
the colon. Sir Arbuthnot Lane (M.D.) of London has shown the relation between bowel stasis and disease. He left no doubt a s to 
how seriously he regarded the effects of intestinal intoxication when he said, “The lower end of the intestine is of the size  that 
requires emptying every six hours, but by habit we retain its contents twenty -four hours. The result is ulcers and cance r.” 
Besides these world -renowned exponents of intestinal sanitation, other authorities have given recognition to the belief that 
cleanliness of the colon is necessary to good health. It is believed that disorders such as appendicitis, infected tonsils, l iver and 
gall-bladder infections, dysfunction of the heart and blood vessels, sinusitis, arthritis and rheumatism, etc., no doubt have thei r 
origin in a sluggish colon. There is also an increasing number of morbid conditions in the various parts of the colon , involving the 
flexures, the rectum and the anus. Consider the amount of surgery and various therapies of hemorrhoids, fistulas, prostate 
disturbances and malignancies. While I attended the National College in Chicago  many years ago, autopsies were performed on 300 persons. According to the 
history of these persons, 285 had claimed they were not constipated and had normal movements, and only 15 had admitted they 
were constipated. The autopsies showed the opposite to be  the case, however, and only 15 were found not to have been 
constipated, while 285 were found to have been constipated. Some of the histories of these 285 persons stated they had had as  
many as 5 or 6 bowel movements daily, yet autopsies revealed that in s ome of them the bowels were 12 inches in diameter. The 
bowel walls were encrusted with material (in one case peanuts) which had been lodged there for a very long time. Thus we see that 
the average patient coming to a doctor’s office does not know whether o r not he is constipated. Some of my patients believe that if 
they have three bowel movements a day they have diarrhea, and that a couple of movements a week is normal. An example of the 
latter was a lady patient I had who assured me that she had normal mov ements; that her bowels moved regularly, every Tuesday 
and Friday morning. Most people have not been properly educated in their childhood to realize the importance of adequate dail y 
elimination and to heed nature’s call to evacuate the rectum. This indiffe rence to the natural urge to evacuate the bowels may be 
the beginning of constipation. Doctor John Harvey Kellogg, who gave us so much of his philosophy and practical experience, lived to the age of 91. Since he did 
more work in connection with intestinal  sanitation than anyone in this country, his advice should be worth listening to. It was his 
opinion that we should eliminate the residue of each meal 15 to 18 hours after eating it. Babies, savages, birds and animals 
evacuate a short time after each meal. Observe from the following statistics published by the Register General of England that no  
group has contributed more to the death rate from intestinal diseases than doctors. “Comparative Mortality from Diseases of the Digestive System.”  
Physicians, sur geons 50  
Inn-keepers 45  
Barristers, solicitors 44  
Seamen 43  
Clergymen, priests, ministers 34  
Butchers 30  
Car men, carriers 28  
Farmers 25  
Gardeners 22  
Railway guards, porters 20  
Agricultural labourers 19  
Average among all workers 28  
 
As shown by the above s tatistics, the death rate of doctors is 31 points higher than that of agricultural laborers, and 22 points 
higher than that of the average death rate of all workers who die of diseases of the digestive system. Is there a way that th ese 
troubles can be avoi ded? Yes there is. Early detection will help in many cases, but the real remedy is found in changing the diet 
and ways of living. In the meantime, there is only one way that we can do this and that is by making sure that everyone has a n X-
ray to see if the se conditions actually exist. We believe that practically everyone has bowel troubles in the civilized world today 
due in part to the way we are eating. We can’t usually sense these things because the nerve supply to the bowel is so poor th at we 
don’t know  we have a serious problem until we have pain. Any time there is pain in the bowel, it is a serious condition. Whenever 
there is gas, and it cannot be taken care of through the ordinary food routine or through ordinary treatments, then we know i t is 
very s erious indeed. I believe that long before any of these symptoms appear in the body there are preconditions in the bowel and 
we should be able to see how to take care of these things before symptoms appear. If a person is going to check up on the pre sence 
of diverticula, possibly the best way is through the barium enema X -ray. This is one of the finest ways of doing it. There should 
always be two X -rays; one when the bowel is full of the barium meal and one taken after it is emptied. Years ago, I was very 
astounded when I took a picture of the bowel. We could see that there was some of the barium meal in a little pouch or 
diverticulum. A week later, another X -ray was taken of the same patient for a gall bladder scan. Upon examination of the negative 
we were a ble to see the barium meal still settled in various diverticula throughout the colon. If barium meal can stay there for a 
week, what happens when food stays there? There is no food that should stay in the colon constantly and over a period of a we ek’s 
time. We find through the work in iridology that most diverticula have settled in the sigmoid colon. We feel that this is the logic al place 
due to the fact that the patient hasn’t answered nature’s call in the past. Bowel accumulations from not only one, two but from ten 
even fifteen meals have backed up because many people are that much behind in getting rid of the toxic wastes that develop fr om 
the food they eat. We find that many patients are having only one bowel movement a week; some two bowel movements a  week. I 
had a patient who had a bowel movement every eighteen days and was still consuming three meals a day. The driest part of any 
stool is always in the sigmoid colon. Because of this condition, the sigmoid colon has to withstand the greatest amount of  pressure 
in trying to get rid of this dry stool. With the toilet designed the way it is, it becomes even a greater strain on the sigmo id than on 
any other part of the intestinal tract. It is here that we find the driest material working the greatest hards hip on the mucosa of the 
bowel wall itself. Further we find that the kinds of foods that man is eating today are excessive in meats and the putrefacti ve 
materials —the heavy additives cause greater irritation. In addition, there are the spices, especially b lack pepper, which are 
considered quite an irritant to the colon and to the liver. Many of the coal tar additives develop into drug accumulations as a result of ingesting into our bodies the various nostrums that 
are so readily taken from the drugstore without prescription. We find that the sigmoid colon is the greatest place in the bowel for 
these things to settle. Further, we do not bring children up to realize that bowel movements are the most important thing to take 
care of in the body. We get busy; we let things slide - we put things aside; we “cannot take care of it now.” The refining of 
carbohydrates has removed the lecithin, oils and vitamin E from these foods. These act as a lubrication when present. The 
lubrication is not sufficient in refined f oods to keep the feces moving for proper elimination. I believe that diverticulosis is a 
civilized disease. It is a disease that has come about by our wrong living habits. It isn’t a matter of not having enough fib er one or 
two days, it is a matter of not having it over a period of many years that can produce this diverticulitis. We find that fast living - 
not chewing our foods properly; going to the quick -snack shops and eating foods that lack bran (the hull or outside coating), and 
taking the skins from p otatoes, apples, pears, peaches and vegetables deprives the bowel of adequate bulk and fiber. We are 
eliminating the fiber that we would naturally have to eat and which could well be the basis of giving the bowel wall all the exercise 
that would be necessa ry to keep it from forming a diverticulum. People have gone from the smooth diet of pancakes, pasta and many of the other soft foods that we have today to those of extr eme 
roughage and have caused many disturbances. We believe that by taking our time and slowly changing over from the soft diet to a 
more rough diet, we can eventually diminish and remove the effects of the diverticula that have been built over many years of  
wrong eating habits. FLATULENCE OR BOWEL GASES  
Certain chemical processes in the col on produce various gases as by -products of normal bowel function. Some are odorless like 
carbon dioxide, while others are very odorous such as hydrogen sulfide. Bowel gases are of no consequence in a healthy colon. This isn’t true in a diseased colon, howe ver. Excessive gas is an indication of bowel disturbances and can be very serious in its  
consequences. For example, when there is a bowel stricture or obstruction due to constipation, the gaseous products may becom e 
trapped, not being able to exit the anus. Extreme pressure may develop, causing pain, swelling and other symptoms to appear. Gas production does not always come from a normal metabolic process. In fact most gaseous wastes are the result of abnormal 
conditions in the bowel. They are the produ cts of inferior processes at work in the body. Specifically, they are the result of 
putrefactive fermentations. When undigested proteins find their way into the colon, they provide nourishment for unfavorable 
bacterial growths. These undesirable bacteria a nd virus are responsible for the breaking down of organic compounds by way of a 
putrefactive process. This process is undesirable specifically due to the fact that these organisms produce toxic, poisonous,  disease -
producing (morbid) by -products as a result  of their metabolic functions. The waste materials they produce are injurious to body 
tissues. These organisms were not intended to inhabit the human body. Those that are beneficial and indeed necessary for good  
health cannot live in an environment which i s dirty, toxic and constipated. When there are pockets, diverticula and ballooning in 
the bowel, there is non -moving waste accumulating in the colon. These conditions are ripe for putrefactive fermentation to occur 
and result in considerable flatulence, di scomfort and seepage of toxins into the body. A healthy colon produces little to no 
flatulence. Taking care of gases in the bowel has been one of the most difficult problems to handle from a nutritional standp oint. When we start changing the diet and go in to the natural fibered foods that nature has given us, and leave off any man -handling, we 
find that we have more of a gas condition. It is like the stirring up of a dirty basement and as we brush it clean, there is a lot of dust 
that has formed. The one unusual thing I observed in taking care of people with a lot of gas is that they could go to town and eat the worst diet 
possible and they would be free of gas. You could put them on coffee and donuts and nothing but that for 2 or 3 days and they  
report no  gas whatsoever. And. when we put them on a natural fiber diet. as prescribed in our diet advice, then we have gas to 
contend with. However, they began to say they were passing off the gas easier - their stools became softer; they did not have to 
force the  bowel movement; they did not have to cause pressure: the feces moved easier through the bowel and they no longer were 
having problems with constipation. However, the gas still persisted, but it seemed to get less and less and, over a period of  three 
month s, we found that it came down to a minimal amount. Once a bowel has diverticula, it will never become totally free of gas. There are very few people who can say they have no ga s 
|whatsoever. To get the gas out completely is almost an impossibility in this  day and age because we cannot live the way of life 
necessary to accomplish that task, but I do think it can come down to a minimum and will cause no disturbance – no distress. THE EFFECT OF GRAVITY ON THE BOWEL  
An important thing to realize is that we ha ve pressure, both mechanical and chemical, to take care of as far as the bowel is 
concerned. On the chemical side, we have the effects of the acidophilus bacteria, acids and putrefactions. On the mechanical side. we have peristaltic action and the ever -present downward pull of gravity. Gravity, we must realize, brings on more problems than 
most people can possibly imagine. Do you remember the historic landings of American astronauts on the moon? Were you  
watching television when it showed them on the moon’s  surface, easily jumping 10 -12 feet high? When they walked, you could 
see them bounce with each step. They looked like they were bouncing on a trampoline, because gravity on the moon is much less  
than here on earth. Gravity on earth is very harsh on our bo dies. When we walk or stand, our body is pulled down toward the earth. We have to live with this constant tugging on our vital organs. We find that the intervertebral disks are being pressed down. I’m 
sure we would have few disk problems if everyone lived on the moon. Because there wouldn’t be enough pressure from its gravity 
to cause disk problems. On earth we have gravity problems, especially when we are tired. I have said before that tiredness is  the 
beginning of every disease; that is when gravity has i ts greatest effect on the body. When we are tired, we begin to lose muscle 
tone, so we find that internal organs are more easily pulled downward. When gravity takes its effect, our shoulders begin to droop: 
we can have scoliosis or we can develop curvature  of the spine. The softest tissue in the body is the transverse colon, and it is the  
only tissue in the body that goes completely from the right side to the left side of the body. If it was made of bone, it wou ld stay in 
position; but since the colon is ma de of very soft tissue, a prolapsus or dropped transverse colon can happen as a result of 
gravitational pull. There is a new disease coming: it’s called gravitosis. The symptoms are as follows. PROLAPSUS OF THE TRANSVERSE COLON  
When we have prolapsus, all  the organs above the transverse colon are going to fall as well and those below it will suffer the 
effects of pressure. When the transverse colon comes down, for exam pie, bladder pressure develops. The uterus can develop 
flexions and retroflexions and co uld double over the bowel causing constipation. We sometimes find that there is pressure on the 
fallopian tubes or the ovaries. Many times the egg from the ovary cannot pass into the uterus properly and this can cause ste rility. Still further, we find that  women have more cysts on the ovaries than on any other organ in the body. There are more hysterec -
tomies given to women than any other operation; and I believe it is because a good deal of pressure is against the tubes, pre ssure 
which does not allow prope r circulation of blood or the removal of toxic material. But women are not the only ones subject to 
pressure -caused troubles; a man with a prolapsus experiences prostate gland pressure. The urethra, through which urine flows from 
the bladder, passes throug h the center of the prostate gland. When there is pressure on the prostate gland, urination is difficult. There will be retention of urine, which is one of the liquids we can absorb back into the body. This can mark the beginning o f 
arthritis and joint tro ubles, especially as we grow older. So we find we can have prostate gland and bladder troubles, uterine and 
ovarian disturbances, all because of prolapsus caused by gravity. Many doctors and gastro -intestinal specialists are making their living treating  hemorrhoids and other anal, rectal and bowel 
problems caused mainly by pressure from the transverse colon and various organs involved while we are eliminating at the toil et. I 
think the toilet is the most abominable device ever invented in our civilizatio n. We find that the Indians never had any rectal 
troubles; they had no hemorrhoid troubles whatsoever. Why? They squatted to defecate. If you go to France, Italy or South 
America, you will find that the toilet is often a hole in the floor and you have to s quat. This is the normal eliminating position, the 
one in which all of our internal organs are held in the proper position. When this position is habitually used for eliminatio n, no 
veins will protrude from the rectum. Now to add to the problem, we may hav e gas or we may have a hard stool. There is pressure against the rectum whenever we have 
hard fecal material or excessive gas. These problems are aggravated by fatigue and by the gravitational pull. It is well that  you 
know this so you can learn to overcom e these things. To overcome the problem of gravity when and if you must sit on the toilet, 
one thing to remember is to keep your hands over your head. You’Il find when you push down, the force is really against the r ectal 
tissues and the rectal areas, so t o overcome this keep your hands above your head. That’s the way it should be done anyway, if 
you’re going to use the regular toilet seat. In fact, in our sanitarium we had a little rope above and off to the side of the  toilet to 
hold when there was a bowel  movement, which kept the hands above the head. IRIDOLOGY AND THE BOWEL  
In looking at the bowel from the standpoint of iridology. the first thing we have found is always a black area in that portio n of the 
ins corresponding to the bowel. The condition of the transverse colon (which comes across the top of the bowel) is indicated by 
signs near the top of the iris at from 10 o’clock to about 12 o’clock, within what is called the autonomic nerve wreath. We s tart 
down the descending colon, represented in the i ris from 12 to 5 o’clock, then the sigmoid colon from 5 to 7 o’clock, until we come 
to the rectal area about 7 o’clock. This is only one side of the body. I don’t want to give a lesson in iridology but I would  like to 
take you on a little learning trip bec ause the ins has much to teach us about the condition of the bowel. In the iris of the eye, 
various conditions show up as black areas, which I call “bowel pockets,” where the autonomic wreath makes a definite break. I  
have found that the black area represe nts underactivity, an inherent weakness and a toxic material settlement. Over the years, I 
went after these three things in my work with patients. I found that an inherent weakness in the bowel quickly leads to probl ems in 
bowel function unless the body ha s all the power and energy it needs to work with. When the body is tired, an inherent weakness 
in the bowel leads to hypoactivity. So, I had to take care of the energies of my patients. I had to take care of enervation. I had to get  
rid of tiredness. I had  to help patients get rid of what I call “vitality wasters.” Every sick person is fatigued and rundown. They are 
burned out. They want to lie down. Some of them don’t even have the energy to walk. All they want to do is to go bed. They do n’t 
have enough en ergy or spirit to really do things, and I found that while taking care of these people, having them rest and change 
their diets, I began to see certain healing signs come into those black areas in the irides. These correlations between bowel  
condition and the appearance of the iris were confirmed repeatedly over the years. There is much cynicism among medical doctors over the value of iridology, but I believe this will change. It takes three mont hs to 
demonstrate healing signs in the eye and the average  medical doctor seems to be unwilling to take the time for this kind of 
systematic follow -up. I can prove what I have presented here, but it does take three months. The average doctor wants to see it 
right now; he makes one test and that’s it. If it isn’t there in a week, it doesn’t exist. Iridology deals with tissue changes. When we 
examine the iris, we are “reading” tissue condition. We do not directly read toxic material settlements in the bowel. When we  
examine the iris, we are reading the bowel wall. W hen the healing signs appear, they are called calcium luteum lines. Improvement 
in the bowel wall takes care of toxic materials in the body; it moves them along a little quicker. We may quicken elimination  of the 
acids by using foods containing potassium a nd sodium. We find that magnesium relaxes the bowel for those who have tension. Of course, we often resort to using milk of magnesia for this, but we can also use the magnesium which is found in our foods,  of 
which yellow cornmeal contains the most. Magnes ium is also found in all vegetables. Using the proper foods to bring about physical changes is slower than drug therapy; it is the natural way. We find no “undesi rable 
side effects” here. When I first began seeing these changes come about in the irides of my patients’ eyes, I actually didn’t know I 
was doing anything unusual. I was simply putting my patients on a right -living regime. But I then started to have X -rays taken, 
because I wanted to confirm what I suspected was going on. I spent time at the Ba ttle Creek Sanitarium and began to see how the 
X-rays verified what I was finding through iridology. When my iris reading indicated a bowel pocket at 3 o’clock, I found on th e 
X-ray that there was a diverticulum in the bowel. I found there was a ballooned condition where the toxic materials were not being 
eliminated as they should. At that time, I studied with Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who was a master of taking care of the bowel . He 
wrote on colon hygiene and also did a great deal of work with diet. One thi ng I learned was that we have “friendly” bacteria in the 
bowel. These friendly bacteria keep the bowel clean from putrefaction and fermentation which produce excess gas and bad odors . Dr. Kellogg taught that the bowel should be about 85% acidophilus bacter ia and 15% bacillus coli, or those which produce gas. This, he stated was the right bacterial balance for a healthy bowel. I wanted to test my patients for this bacteria balance, so I sent 
fecal samples from 500 of my patients to a medical laboratory to fi nd out about the relative amounts of acidophilus, bacillus  
coli and acid -fast bacteria. I wanted to know the effect of the pH (acidity/alkalinity value) and to find out all I could about the 
intestinal flora. The lab results averaged 85% bacillus coli, or detrimental bacteria, as compared to 15% of the acidophilus. It was 
just the opposite of what it should be to be healthy! These were the results for 500 of the patients who had come to my offic e.  
 
Obviously, the bowel of the average patient was not what i s should be. I have taken care of bowel problems through colonics. I 
have recommended colonics frequently to my patients, but you see, this alone doesn’t bring healing lines into the eyes, becau se 
healing signs come when there is a new chemical balance in the tissue. I deal in tissue, and when I see various bowel conditions 
indicated from the eyes, I can’t tell you that the problem is always diverticula. It could be diverticula and I would say 9 t imes out 
of 10 it is, because X -rays I have examined have dem onstrated it as such. It is so important to mention that through iridology I have found reflex conditions from problems in the bowel. There is a de finite 
relation between certain organ conditions and the bowel conditions as indicated in the eye. For ins tance, I examined a lady who 
had torticollis (a wry neck) and when I told her I would have to adjust her neck, she refused because she’d had several adjus tments 
to her neck and it only seemed to become worse each time. She just couldn’t stand to have anybo dy touch it again. Well, I’m a 
chiropractor and I’m supposed to do adjustments. I was just starting in iridology but I had to do something, so I checked her  eyes 
and found a black pocket. When I asked if she had ever had bowel trouble, she said she’d had i t for years ever since her neck 
trouble began. Lately, the bowel problem had become worse. I prescribed an enema right away. She had three enemas and in one 
hour’s time while I was still there, she obtained complete relief from the stiff neck problem. I wa lked out of there and I hadn’t 
touched her neck. I only took care of the bowel. This was quite an experience and I will never forget it. Another patient came to see me some months later who had a large abscess on his neck, and in looking into the iris of his eye, I 
saw a large black hole with the most beautiful healing signs coming into it. I know you cannot have healing signs unless ther e is a 
change in diet. It is very necessary to talk about food. He said he had been driving behind a citrus truck which overturned and 
spilled oranges all over the road. When he stopped to help, the truck driver told him to pick up as many as he wanted, so he filled 
the trunk of his car and drank orange juice for 45 days. This certainly was an extreme elimination diet, but he couldn’t get rid of 
the accumulated toxic material in his body fast enough through normal elimination because he wasn’t doing enough in taking  
care of the bowel. The overload of toxic material being eliminated produced the abscess on his neck. INHERENT  WEAKNESSES  
Inherent weaknesses are areas of the body where toxic materials finally accumulate. It is in these organs that infection deve lops. We can have an infection in the lung, we can have abscessed teeth, we can have these problems in various parts of  the body, and 
invariably, these infections come originally from the bowel. I have found a striking correlation in my iridology studies over  the last 
45 years, confirming that there is a definite relationship between conditions in sections of the bowel and  conditions in other 
specific parts of the body. When a patient complains of a breast condition, there is a certain place in the bowel that I susp ect 
harbors a low -grade infection which is affecting the breast area; or, other areas of the body nay have pro blems that can be traced to 
the bowel. Why separately treat any organ in the body if we find that the source of the problem is in the bowel? Look again t o John 
Wayne. Is it possible that he should have been treated in the bowel area before the stomach and lung? I wonder also about the 
famous comedian, Jack Benny, who had a perfect examination just two months before he died of cancer. Could his death have 
been prevented? In one instance, a boy came to me with left leg problems. He had been treated for three  years with massage, mechanical and 
chemical treatments. Examining the iris of his eye, I found a section of the sigmoid colon, the last part of the colon before  it goes 
to the rectal area, I that was quite black. Since we cannot identify a disease from th e iris, I refused to treat him until he had an X -
ray. He had not had an X -ray until that time. It was discovered that he had cancer of the sigmoid colon and this boy died six 
months later. I believe this tumor was causing the reflex conditions in his leg, but he had been treated only for the leg problem. We 
had many experiences in which black areas in patients’ irides showed specific troubles in various organs in the body, and I’v e been 
able to verify these in thousands of cases. I have seen many good resu lts from caring for the bowel. I haven’t confirmed complete relief coming only from colonics. I’ve seen 
relief, but if you don’t change the diet, I don’t believe colonics are worth anything. If you don’t take care of your marriag e 
problems or financial dis turbances, I believe you can create more acids, more mucus problems and more disturbances with 
distressed bowels, colitis and ulcers. With all the technical treatments available today, I believe we have to consider a com plete 
cleansing that’s physical, men tal and spiritual. At the Battle Creek Sanitarium, they showed that you have to have a sufficient amount of the acidophilus bacteria, the friend ly 
bacteria, as compared to the bacillus coli or the gas -producing bacteria. There are certain foods that produ ce and help to develop 
friendly bacteria and there are certain foods that break down friendly bacteria. Meat can break down friendly bacteria when y ou 
consume too much, especially when you have a static bowel or a lazy colon. We find that coffee destroys t he friendly bacteria in 
the bowel more readily than anything. Chocolate also breaks down the friendly bacteria, as do over -cooked foods. We should  
be working toward cleansing the body through better nutrition, more exercise, by changing our life habits and  go in a direction that 
will be good for our whole body. Someone will ask, I’m sure, why we use coffee enemas if coffee breaks down the acidophilus? If one is in need of a coffee ene ma, 
chances are that the acidophilus is already gone, and the benefits ob tained by its stimulation of elimination are very worthwhile. We re -establish the flora with implants after the cleansing. This takes courage, determination, perseverance and faith in the 
ultimate, unseen outcome. Yet, by following the right path, by looki ng to nature as our model, we realize that our choice has the 
best potential for health and happiness. It calls for a commitment to give up the old familiar, easy, toxic habits and take u p the  
new, unknown, seemingly difficult unfamiliar ones. Changing hab its is the hardest task in the world to accomplish. It’s as if we 
were made of quick -setting jelly, fresh and pliable right out of the jar, but soon to turn hard and brittle. There is a fear factor 
involved in giving up an old habit. Even though it’s bad f or us to keep it there is still the comfortable feeling in knowing it. A bird 
in the hand is worth two in the bush - but if the bird in the hand is a vulture, it may end up eating you some day. Don’t commit 
intellectual suicide by closing yourself off to a lternative possibilities, for after all, if what you know and do now is killing you, 
then you are suffering from a lack of knowledge and wisdom and the saving answer to your problem is to be found in the new,  
unfamiliar territories. Alvin Toffler in Futur e Shock aptly states that man’s current and future task for survival is in his ability to adopt new ideas and 
habits very quickly, in fact. much more quickly than he has ever managed in the past. Is he up to it’? Can he let go of the l ife-
snuffing old ways  quickly enough to recover from past and present mistakes in order to grab hold of a correct and viable  
alternative? No one knows. We are in the midst of finding out. We should not accept anything that is not in balance with natu re 
into our bodies. We cann ot improve upon God’s perfect order. It is suicide to try. It serves no good purpose and is destructive in all 
ways. Whole, natural and raw is the absolute perfection that our bodies require and respond to best. Anything else is a cheat  and a 
robber. Proce ssed, white sugar, for example, literally leaches out of the body certain substances. It requires energy and metabolic 
substances pulled from the body’s bank account of nutrients to deal with it once ingested. In return, the sugar gives an incr edible 
nothi ng. That’s correct, ‘nothing.’ In fact. it takes more to get rid of it than it gives and is therefore a thief of potent propo rtions. CHEMICAL IMBALANCES  
When the body begins to lose its balance in any sector, there is a reverberation throughout the whole organism that feels that 
vibration of imbalance. Illness and disease are states of disharmony in the body. One of the subtlest forms of imbalance in t he body 
that I know of is a chemical or nutritional imbalance. It’s like not seeing the forest for the tre es. We live in it, on it, and by it, 
immersed in it to the point of non -recognition, especially if it is a chronic condition as it so often is. Chemical deficiencies and 
imbalances are at the root of many ills. W e can even say that the imbalances extend i nto the atomic level and even on into the 
electromagnetic levels of cellular function. Why is radiation so dangerous? Because of the disturbance it causes in the tissues on an atomic level. The chemical processes  are 
upset and influenced disharmoniously. The natural, God -given, peaceful, beneficial order is broken. When we have toxic 
substances in the colon seeping into body tissues, it’s like having a time -release poison in your bowel. It works slowly, 
imperceptibly wearing down the vitality, resistance a nd health of body tissues and organs. It’s sort of like having our own personal 
chemical dump that we carry around with us all the time. It’s always working as long as the toxins are present, serving out i ts 
lethal microdoses. Never before has man been in such a toxic, poisonous environment. The air, water, food, soil, clothing and 
everything he touches has potential or real toxic substances that eventually find their way into the body. People are more toxic today than ever in known history. The levels of it and the extent of it are becoming a nightmare as illness 
walks the land. The need to detoxify and cleanse the body has never been greater than right now. Nearly all the patients I se e have 
a toxicity problem that has to be cared for first. Restoring bal ance, peace and harmony is the physician’s job. That is the task he 
has chosen to do. It cannot be done effectively or lastingly in a body that is breaking down due to an accumulation of toxic 
materials in the body: i.e., autointoxication. When the bowel f ails, the whole body goes into a nutritional crisis. Metabolic shock 
waves flow to every cell and tissue. It’s often said that you are what you eat. I say that you are what you absorb. You can eat the finest foods and still starve to death if 
the digestiv e and absorptive processes are not functioning properly. When we cleanse and remove the toxic debris, feed the body 
good, healthy, vital foods and stop poisoning ourselves, the body will respond with healing and reversal of disease processes . We find that  the bowel wall needs sodium, which neutralizes acid The average person produces much acid in the body and this 
draws sodium out of the body, through the tissues of the bowel and stomach. Furthermore, we know that potassium is very 
necessary, because it is  a muscle element. The average person does not realize that potassium neutralizes acids. To neutralize acids 
in the body, potassium is taken from the bowel wall. I believe that the bowel wall is the most maltreated tissue of the body,  
functioning in a cons tant state of semi -starvation for chemicals which are consumed in day -to-day living, The most important 
elements found in the bowel wall must be kept in constant supply or we will suffer the consequences. In addition to the blood  and 
chemical elements, we must discuss some of the foods we put into the body. Bran is very popular now in this country. We should 
have been using bran all along. Why did we give it up? We have thought a great deal about “junk foods,” and we talk a lot abo ut 
them. We talk about sch ool lunches; we talk about hospital snacks that are available while you’re trying to get well. We find that 
so many of the sweetening materials in drinks today rob the body of the vital health producing elements that are stored in th e 
bowel. CARE FOR THE MUCOUS LINING  
The bowel wall has a mucous lining, and this mucous lining throws off toxic material, acids and catarrh. In order to get rid of the 
catarrh, the mucous lining has to come off along with it. In most cases, it does not. We find that the mucous lining is not moving 
out the accumulations as it should, and in fact, it clings to the bowel wall itself. We find that we have to take care of tha t mucous 
lining. The bowel wall may also have an inherent weakness. When I say that I’ve never found a patient  who didn’t have an 
inherent weakness in the bowel itself, I’m not saying that the whole bowel has an inherent weakness, but only sections of it. This 
shows up as slow and underactive functional ability. If we have food that does not go through our system as fast as it should, we 
find that it will go still slower and be even more underactive in moving through an inherently weak section of the bowel. CHEMICAL STRUCTUREA healthy bowel contains sodium, potassium and magnesium for proper functioning. These thr ee 
chemical elements are lacking in our civilized foods more than anything else. Sodium is a chemical element that neutralizes  
 
acids and it is found in the lymphatic system. It is required in tissue that is pliable, active and movable; i.e., joints, li gaments and 
tendons. Potassium is the great alkalizer in the body and found more in the muscle structure than anywhere else. Potassium is  
found in our bitter vegetables, which so few people ever eat anymore. Sodium and potassium are found more in salad vegeta bles 
than anywhere else. Salads have been left out more and more in our food intake in recent years and the soft foods taken in th eir 
place have increased. Could this occurrence be partially responsible for much of our diverticular and bowel problems today ? We find that magnesium is the relaxer in the bowel; it is also the element most necessary to have good bowel movements. Milk of 
Magnesia, which is probably one of the most prominent of all drugs being used today, is a good peristaltic stimulator; howeve r, we 
are using a drug that only gives symptomatic relief. I do not believe that the magnesium used in its drug form is particularl y 
favorable to remaking and rebuilding the bowel structure. It is the magnesium in our foods that can do the greatest amount of good. Magnesium is found a good deal in salad vegetables. It is found heaviest and most abundantly in yellow corn. Cornmeal is one of 
the foods that has been milled and refined so much that it no longer has the roughage from the kernel that makes it one  of the great 
laxatives and one of the great bowel toners we can take into the body. In spite of this shortcoming, I believe that everyone should 
have yellow cornmeal cereal at least two mornings every week. As we work with eliminating the encrusted mucou s lining, we must also consider nourishing the new cells below it. We use 
flaxseed and psyllium seed as a lubricant and bulk. These seeds, along with sunflower seeds and other seed oils, contain vita min F, 
which is used to rebuild the mucous lining, especi ally in the bowel. Thus, we are getting triple benefit from these substances. MENTAL ATTITUDE  
There is a mental side to physical health. The mind can cause tension. We know that it can cause contraction in the bowel wal l. We 
might say that colitis begins in the head. Inflammation of the bowel can be caused by nerves and stress. Many people have much 
better bowel movements when free of emotional pains and aches and when free from money worries. Good companionship, 
relaxation and music can be conducive to go od bowel movements. What I’m pointing out is simply that the bowel has to be taken 
care of through the wholistic healing art, rather than by some drug, adjustment, reflex therapy treatment or even by taking c are of 
the diet. Each of these will bring some i mprovement, but we must realize that the bowel will not function right until we know how 
to live properly. There is a way of right living, and it isn’t just food or diet. We find that it is important to get along w ith people, 
because the problem isn’t alwa ys what is wrong with you; it may be who is wrong with you. I do not wish to give the impression 
that I have become one -sided in my emphasis upon the importance of a healthy, clean intestinal tract, but evidence has been 
coming to me for a long time which indicates that people do not realize that constipation is at the root of most of our diseases 
today. I feel that people are not regarding poor health as seriously as they should. They place their health problems seconda ry to all 
their other problems - financial, domestic, real and invented - while the health of an individual or a nation should at all times have 
first place on the list of duties and responsibilities. Without health there is little that one can truly enjoy. The road to health is the 
one that begins with an understanding and commitment to cleanse and detoxify the body, to restore balance, peace and harmony. We must be willing to rise above selfish habits, realizing that the path of cleansing has implications for the intellect, emo tions and  
spirit. We need to accept our personal responsibility on this path. CHAPTER 6  
INTESTINAL FLORA AND BOWEL GARDENING  
Too few people in or culture experience the benefits of proper bowel function. Too few people live in a manner that enables t hem 
to maintain the  natural balance of the body. Therefore, if we are going to live unnaturally, it would be wise to learn what is 
necessary to counteract some of the maladies that we create in our personal environment. Sometimes I wonder if a person can e ver 
be truly happy or healthy while living in a city where natural processes are so disturbed, and often absent altogether. Are we trying 
to keep people well against all odds? The medical arts today spend much time and money patching up the effects of an 
environment that is actually toxic and hazardous to health. Most of today’s doctors are treating people for ailments that are direct 
results of “civilized” living. These “environmental ailments” are ‘ reaching epidemic proportions, and rather than eliminate the 
cause of the d isturbance, it is a case of keeping people going while they continue to addictively tear themselves down. True, lasting 
and abiding health is the result of conscious discipline in cleanliness of body, mind and spirit. All else is a compromise. When the bo dy becomes polluted with toxic substances, those forces that maintain health and vitality diminish in proportion to the 
extent of the invasion. As they diminish, the morbid (disease producing) substances flourish. Such is the case with intestina l flora. Intestinal flora are those micro organisms which live in the bowels of man. There is a great variety of these microscopic life forms 
and they play a very important role in health and disease. Where health and vitality are found, we invariably find the friend ly and 
beneficial microbes. Where there is decay and disease we find the organisms that perform this function. There is no aspect of  
earthly life in which these life forms do not have an important role to play. They are everywhere; we literally live in an ocean of 
them. They work unceasingly to bring about the transformations that they are designed to produce. To a large extent the flora  in 
the bowel determines the state of health in an individual. The large bowel is in fact a mobile compost heap, constantl y giving up 
finished compost and taking on new materials for treatment. As everyone knows, a compost heap is a very special thing. Here i s 
where the waste products of living things, both animal and vegetable, | are collected for the purpose of promoting a process of 
decay and breakdown. When the process is completed, we have the finest beginnings for new life to get started. Out of the old  and 
dead, comes the new and alive. What is at the interface of this paradoxical phenomenon? Bacterial and micro life fo rms. They are the recyclers, the transformers. They are nature’s labor force, accomplishing some of the most complex chemical reactions known to man. We are constantly 
trying to copy or somehow utilize the processes they are capable of producing. Some of t he deadliest substances in existence are 
produced as metabolites of these bacteria. All life upon the planet is affected by their presence. It has been determined tha t the 
colon contains not only 400 to 500 varieties of bacteria, fungi, yeast and virus, bu t that the populations vary from the center of the 
colon to those living in the mucous lining; from those inhabiting the right side to those that inhabit the left side of the b owel. Research has found evidence which indicates that the mucus secreted by th e intestine very much determines the kind of bacteria 
that will grow there. In addition, it has been found that it takes more than a year on the average for a new diet to produce any 
noticeable change in the flora. Of those things that greatly alter the ba cterial life in the colon, drugs are the most powerful. In 
particular are the “broad spectrum” antibiotics. It has been found that antibiotic -treated animals have higher blood cholesterol 
levels. Those bacteria which help control cholesterol levels are kil led off by the drug. These drugs can also cause inflammation of 
the intestinal wall. Antibiotics will, as a rule, wreak havoc in the intestinal ecology, and should, if possible, be avoided. In 
addition, there is an immunity reaction that can occur in which  the body develops an inability to utilize the drug, therefore putting 
the beneficial qualities of it out of reach. Overuse develops this syndrome and makes it ineffective in many cases. Penicilli n is one 
in particular that has seen much abuse and in a tim e of great need, may prove to be powerless in many people. WHAT CONSTITUTES POOR INTESTINAL FLORA? Those things which man loathes most, morbid substances, are the same things provided by bacteria that can and do live in man’ s 
intestines. I believe the pre ponderance of unfriendly bacteria in the average American bowel would reach as high as 85%.
Tissue_Cleansing.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        The cellular metabolism becomes 
sluggish, repair and growth are delayed and the ability to elimina te waste materials is lowered. The cells, instead of being alive and 
active, become dead and inactive. This process results in a decline in tissue and organ functional ability. Dr. Alexis Carrell, at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, took sm all pieces of heart tissue from a chicken embyro to 
produce one of the most remarkable experiments in medical history. He attempted to demonstrate that under suitable conditions, 
the living cell could live a very long time, perhaps indefinitely. The heart tissue was immersed in a nutrient solution from which it 
obtained its food. Likewise, waste material was secreted by the heart tissue into this same solution. Everyday the solution w as 
changed, taking away waste substances and providing fresh nutrients. It  is amazing to report that this chicken heart tissue lived for 
29 years in this fashion. It died one day when the assistant forgot to change the metabolized polluted fluid. In other words,  
autointoxication claimed this great masterpiece of experimental sci entific investigation. Said Carrell of this experience, “The cell is 
immortal. It is merely the fluid in which it floats which degenerates. Renew this fluid at intervals, give the cell something  upon 
which to feed and, so far as we know, the pulsation of l ife may go on forever. ”  
 
The primary causes of constipation can be summarized as follows: faulty nutrition, ignoring the call to eliminate, lack of ph ysical 
activity, emotional and mental distress, extrinsic poisons and medications and lack of adequate amo unts of water. Faulty nutrition, 
as we have already seen, is a major underlying factor in constipation. Processed, devitalized foods low in fiber or bulk are not 
suitable substances to promote health and well -being. Ignoring the call to eliminate feces or urine contribute greatly to cellular 
congestion, autointoxication and eliminative organ distress. The lack of physical exercise makes weak and flaccid muscle tone  
incapable of holding up under the demands of poor diets and extra eliminative duty. Emotional  and mental strain and tension 
produce unfavorable conditions in the digestive and eliminative organs, causing them to become tense and underactive. These a lso 
cause chemical imbalances and abnormal secretions to occur, generally upsetting the whole organi sm. Extrinsic poisons, such as 
tobacco, coffee, alcohol, chocolate and sugar, have unfavorable effects upon digestion and elimination by upsetting gastric 
secretions and nerve responses. Medications have a very upsetting effect upon these life -giving funct ions. They cause many  
afflictions in the bowel. Antibiotics, such as penicillin and sulfa, can completely eliminate the favorable intestinal flora,  leaving the 
opportunity for reinfestation by harmful bacteria and virus. Laxatives are irritating to the bow el and are dangerous if used 
frequently. Most people also do not drink enough water; they are chronically dehydrated. This causes all body tissues and fluids to becom e 
thicker and more viscid. The mucous lining in the colon changes in consistency, failin g to provide a slick lubrication for the 
movement of feces. Poor living habits contribute a great deal to poor bowel function. Not following a good program denies the  
body regularity and consistency. It never knows what’s coming next and can’t depend upon a regular routine. It is always on the 
defensive. This situation results in a depletion of vital nerve force and undermines the body’s ability to set periods of res t and  
activity. Today, there are more than 45,000 laxative and cathartic remedies being manu factured and used by Americans alone. Even when used sparingly and in an emergency, these substances should be used with great caution, if at all. The mechanism of  
elimination is very delicate and easily upset. Once disturbed, it will often require weeks, maybe months, before it becomes  
regular again. These substances, in order to evacuate the colon, are essentially poisons and irritants. They contribute nothi ng to 
restore normal or natural processes of defecation. The poisoned colon tries to evacuate the offending substance as quickly as 
possible, and pushes everything out including the compacted feces. Oftentimes, these harsh poisonous substances are absorbed 
through the lymph and blood vessels and find their way to all parts of the body. This situation c ontributes to addiction and  
overuse of these substances. Dependency upon laxative compounds will in time, permanently destroy the normal ability of the 
bowel to eliminate naturally on its own accord. Laxatives tire out the bowel muscle by keeping it consta ntly working. Without rest, 
it will soon fail and produce some of the conditions I will discuss in the next chapter. The only stimulation that the body s hould 
have is through exercise. Any time we artificially stimulate the bowel, there is an opposite effe ct that manifests in which there is a 
lack of tone in the muscle producing a weakness in that muscle structure. It is becoming increasingly clear that bowel troubl es 
have a reflex effect upon specific organs in the body. For example, Sir Arbuthnot Lane, who was a surgeon for the King of England, spent many years specializing in bowel problems. He was an expert at removing sections of the bowel and stitching it back together. He taught this work to other doctors and g ained 
an international reputation for h is efficiency. During the years of this work, he began to notice a peculiar phenomenon. During the 
course of recovery from colonic surgery, some of his patients experienced remarkable cures of diseases that had no apparent 
connection with his surgery. For instance, a young boy who had arthritis for many years was in a wheel chair at the time of 
surgery. Six months later, this boy had recovered entirely from the disease. Another case involved a woman with a goiter. Whe n a 
specific section of the bowel was re moved in surgery, there ensued a definite remission of the goiter within six months. These and 
similar experiences impressed him so much because he saw the relationship between the toxic bowel and the functioning of 
various organs in the body. After much t hought about this relationship, he became very interested in changing the bowel through 
dietetic methods and spent the last 25 years of his life teaching people how to care for the bowel through nutrition and not surgery. Sir Lane has said, “All maladies a re due to the tack of certain food principles, such as mineral salts or vitamins, or to the absence 
of the normal defenses of the body, such as the natural protective flora. When this occurs, toxic bacteria invade the lower 
alimentary canal, and the poison s thus generated pollute the bloodstream and gradually deteriorate and destroy every tissue, gland 
and organ of the body. ”  
 
I am absolutely sure that what Dr. Lane discovered through his surgical explorations is in -deed an accurate description of how the 
bowel functions in relation to the other organs in the body. We know that every organ and tissue is dependent upon the healthy  
well-being of every other organ and tissue in order for there to be a total well -being. When one tissue or organ fails, it affects  the 
whole body. If there is faulty functioning in the bowel, this deficiency is passed along to the rest of the body. We could ca ll this the 
intestinal domino effect. The frequency or quantity of fecal elimination is not an indication of the lack of cons tipation in the bowel. I know of cases that had 
three and four movements a day and yet the bowel was quite encrusted and very constipated. Most people don’t know the 
condition of their bowel. Unfortunately those who are not aware of their bowel function or  condition are sometimes the ones who 
are developing the worst cases of bowel troubles. I find that constipation is usually going along with those bowels that have  
diverticulosis. Very few people eat in an organized way, and for this reason, they have loos e bowels one day, stiff bowels the next 
day, a smelly bowel one day, and so on. When regularity is absent in the diet, there is chaos in the bowel. In most cases, si mply 
changing the diet and eating habits will alleviate many bowel problems without surgery. WHAT GOES IN DOESN’T ALWAYS COME OUT  
I am convinced that the bowel holds onto waste materials longer than anyone realizes. When we clean out the bowel and release  all 
this old, rotting material, there will be a lessening of the gas, pain and autointoxic ation taking place. I believe that this toxic 
material decaying away in the sigmoid colon is a good place for degenerative diseases to get started. Starches that haven’t b een 
digested properly by the pancreatic secretions are not readily taken up by the bo dy and made into good tissue. These, in turn, can 
come back to the colon and keep the body from having the proper colonic tone because of a lack of proper chemical development. In addition, drugs can settle in the tissues of the body and it is the colon th at catches a good deal of these. By way of the mucus 
membrane, the colon is used as an eliminative channel. When the membrane does not function properly, these drug deposits 
accumulate in the bowel indefinitely and can produce a time -bomb effect; irritatio ns, inflammations and ulcerations. Here again, 
food is very, very important to recognize because this is the one thing that brings back a chemical reserve and gives the pow er and 
chemical structure to have good healthy tissue. The dietary program that I h ave developed is probably one of the most important things I can give to you. It has proven itself well 
in 30 years of sanitarium experience and has helped many people to regain their health. It takes care of the bulk, it takes c are of the 
fiber, it takes care of the natural mucus membrane through proper chemical replacements. This program, coupled with an exercise  
routine, will produce very good results for those afflicted with bowel disturbances. THE FUNCTIONING OF THE BOWEL  
We have to stop and think tha t when we eat there is peristaltic action in the bowel which moves the food down to the last part of 
our elimination system, the large colon. Whenever we have three meals a day and a bowel movement once in five days, we’re 
fifteen meals behind. Normally it  takes eighteen hours for food to go through the body and be eliminated. What is required to 
move it along on time. Good bowel tone gives the power to the intestinal tract to move waste materials properly through the 
system. If we don’t have good bowel ton e, we have to have an inciting measure, and one way of doing this is by using laxatives. But we find that 95% of all laxatives are irritating to the bowel, and this is what forces the peristaltic action. It is caus ed by 
irritation. Wouldn’t it be better to  have a bowel that could move along because you have the right power and bowel tone. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bowel wall that has all the potassium and all the right chemical elements to work normally. We find there are other factors involved here, s uch as the liver activity. We have to have enough bile coming from the gall bladder 
and the liver to give the bowel its natural incentive to produce bowel movements. The bowel is dependent upon other organs to o. There is also the thyroid gland which is imp ortant to the body’s metabolism. The thyroid regulates a number of organ functions 
and keeps them normal by releasing thyroxin into the body. The adrenal glands may be underactive. A person can feel so tired and 
fatigued that he won’t exercise. You have to  feel lively to move and get going. An underactive thyroid can bring on low blood 
pressure and anemia can keep us from a healthy level of physical activity. If the blood is anemic, the body tissue is anemic and 
cannot do its job. We are tired “all over,” s o to speak. CLEANING UP THE PAST  
Above all, we now have to make amends for some of the things that happened in the past. I think accumulations in the bowel ha ve 
to be looked after. The bowel is underactive. It hasn’t been fed properly. The bowel itself is  probably the most abused organ in the 
human body. The reason I say this is if you ever go through a cleansing program, you will see things you’ll find hard to beli eve. You don’t realize what can come out of the bowel. After just one cleansing treatment, I ’ve seen as much as three gallons of hard 
toxic material come from a person. How is it possible. I know, for instance, of one woman who said she had five bowel 
movements a day; but after she passed away, it was found that there was only room enough for a p encil to pass through  
parts of her bowel. Her bowel was 9 inches across. We found that it had an extreme accumulation of hard toxic material encrus ted 
on the bowel lining. Constipation is a serious menace to health and vitality as I have discussed with yo u. The consequences of this 
common but subtle malady are becoming more and more prevalent in our society. It is a root cause for many troubles in the bod y. It is also a symptom of a larger picture that many doctors haven’t taken into consideration as yet. The following illustrations show 
how food moves through the gastrointestinal tract in a 24 -hour period and what happens when the bowel doesn’t eliminate on time:  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER 5  
IMBALANCES OF THE LARGE INTESTINE  
Structural, functional and metabolic imbalances of the colon are manifested in various forms. We will mention a few of the more 
common abnormalities of the colon to illustrate the effects of autointoxication and constipation. These are: adhesions, ballo oning, 
colitis, diverticulitis, mucosal dysfunction, spastic bowel, strictures and ulceration. Adhesions in the colon are caused by 
inflammations and irritations to the bowel wall. When the mucus membrane breaks down, tissue becomes exposed, open and 
irritated. The raw surfaces begin to stick to gether as the result of glue -like substance secreted from the tissue. This is a serious 
condition and requires delicate treatment to correct. Ballooning of the colon occurs as a consequence of backed up feces. For  
various reasons, feces can accumulate and stretch the bowel wall into enormous proportions. This often occurs in the sigmoid 
colon as the result of a narrowing of the bowel lumen below the ballooning. This narrowing can be caused by adhesions, spasm or 
colic conditions. When this occurs, constipat ion can become quite severe and painful and has a damaging effect upon the bowel 
structure and function. Colitis is an irritable bowel condition that is highly associated with Psychological distress. Few pe ople truly 
realize the benefits of a calm and peac eful lifestyle. They are often unaware of the mind’s ability to sink into the body’s 
functioning ability and upset normal tissue activities. Fear, anger, depression, stress, tension, worries and obsessions can all upset 
delicate processes in the body, and in particular, those of digestion and elimination. Sometimes what we need is a good cerebral 
laxative to rid the mind of emotional autointoxication and constipation. Diverticular disease of the colon is occurring at an  ever-
increasing rate. It is a serious  bowel disturbance leading to many difficulties and must be avoided. When the diet is lacking in bulk 
or fiber, the colonic muscle must work extremely hard to force feces through the organ. Where there is weakness in muscle fib ers a 
hernia occurs, producin g a small pouch or sac -like protrudence in the tissue. It looks like a blister on the side of a tire where the air 
is forcing its way to the surface through a weak spot in the tire wall. These sacs, or diverticula, are blind in one end. The refore 
feces acc umulate within them and hold morbid matter in which a variety of very unfavorable organisms can begin to breed. They become sources of infection, inflammation and degenerative conditions. They are also the host for the production of 
powerful toxins, adding  to an already over -burdened and toxic body. I have seen X -rays of the colon in which there were 142 of 
these little sacs on one bowel. When these diverticula become inflamed and irritated, we have a case of diverticulitis. Shoul d any 
one of these festerin g sacs produce a rupture, then we have a grave situation in which life is threatened by the release of these very 
poisonous substances into the abdominal cavity of the body where infection can spread quite rapidly. Mucosal dysfunction occurs when the inte stinal mucus lining becomes stagnant and putrefactive. It begins to develop many 
unfavorable conditions. No longer does it serve the function of facilitating elimination of fecal material. Instead it degene rates in 
several ways. It can become abcessed, in which case irritations, abrasions, ulcerations and bleeding can occur. Food passage  
can be very painful. Mucus can dehydrate and accumulate due to increased viscid consistency. This causes layer upon layer to be 
built up until extreme constipation occurs. This old material becomes a source of infection and toxic absorption, holding many 
otherwise excreted products. It also greatly inhibits the absorption of nutrients and water, adding to nutritional crisis. A spastic 
bowel is often associated with colitis. The point I want to stress is that when bowel muscle or any muscle is overworked, tense and 
not given an opportunity to rest, it will go into a spasm. Muscle spasm is a chronic tightening of the fibers due to hyperact ivity in 
the nerve impulses controlling  muscle action. The symptoms frequently manifest as constipation, alternating with diarrhea. Mental 
and emotional stresses are high on the list of contributing factors, coupled with chronic toxemia and poor diet. A stricture of the bowel usually occurs af ter an inflammatory disease such as colitis has damaged the tissue. It is a chronic 
narrowing of the passageway that often results in a backup of feces that are unable to pass through. The feces accumulate in front 
of the stricture, causing ballooning, whi le the segment just past the stricture collapses. Ulceration of the bowel occurs due to 
irritations, abrasions, infections and toxic concentrations settling in or on muscle tissue. This results in open sores, blee ding and 
much pain as is common in hemorrho ids, etc. The sigmoid and rectum are the sites for most of these troubles. Again, 
autointoxication and constipation are the root causes. THE FOLLOWING DRAWINGS ILLUSTRATE THE VARIOUS ABNORMAL SHAPES OF THE BOWEL IN COMPARISON 
TO A NORMAL BOWEL. There should be no doubt about the relation between health of the intestinal tract and health in the rest of the body. Intest inal 
management probably is the most important thing a person can learn in a health -building routine. Some of the most important 
functions of life take place in the intestines. Through it worn out cells are eliminated and new cell structures have their be ginning. At the Battle Creek Sanitarium I heard Dr. John Harvey Kellogg say he knew of many cases in which operations were prevent ed 
by cleansing and revitalizing the bowel. He maintained that 90% of the diseases of civilization are due to improper functioni ng of 
the colon. Sir Arbuthnot Lane (M. D. ) of London has shown the relation between bowel stasis and disease. He left no doubt a s to 
how seriously he regarded the effects of intestinal intoxication when he said, “The lower end of the intestine is of the size  that 
requires emptying every six hours, but by habit we retain its contents twenty -four hours. The result is ulcers and cance r. ” 
Besides these world -renowned exponents of intestinal sanitation, other authorities have given recognition to the belief that 
cleanliness of the colon is necessary to good health. It is believed that disorders such as appendicitis, infected tonsils, l iver and 
gall-bladder infections, dysfunction of the heart and blood vessels, sinusitis, arthritis and rheumatism, etc. , no doubt have thei r 
origin in a sluggish colon. There is also an increasing number of morbid conditions in the various parts of the colon, involving the 
flexures, the rectum and the anus. Consider the amount of surgery and various therapies of hemorrhoids, fistulas, prostate 
disturbances and malignancies. While I attended the National College in Chicago  many years ago, autopsies were performed on 300 persons. According to the 
history of these persons, 285 had claimed they were not constipated and had normal movements, and only 15 had admitted they 
were constipated. The autopsies showed the opposite to be  the case, however, and only 15 were found not to have been 
constipated, while 285 were found to have been constipated. Some of the histories of these 285 persons stated they had had as  
many as 5 or 6 bowel movements daily, yet autopsies revealed that in s ome of them the bowels were 12 inches in diameter. The 
bowel walls were encrusted with material (in one case peanuts) which had been lodged there for a very long time. Thus we see that 
the average patient coming to a doctor’s office does not know whether o r not he is constipated. Some of my patients believe that if 
they have three bowel movements a day they have diarrhea, and that a couple of movements a week is normal. An example of the 
latter was a lady patient I had who assured me that she had normal mov ements; that her bowels moved regularly, every Tuesday 
and Friday morning. Most people have not been properly educated in their childhood to realize the importance of adequate dail y 
elimination and to heed nature’s call to evacuate the rectum. This indiffe rence to the natural urge to evacuate the bowels may be 
the beginning of constipation. Doctor John Harvey Kellogg, who gave us so much of his philosophy and practical experience, lived to the age of 91. Since he did 
more work in connection with intestinal  sanitation than anyone in this country, his advice should be worth listening to. It was his 
opinion that we should eliminate the residue of each meal 15 to 18 hours after eating it. Babies, savages, birds and animals 
evacuate a short time after each meal. Observe from the following statistics published by the Register General of England that no  
group has contributed more to the death rate from intestinal diseases than doctors. “Comparative Mortality from Diseases of the Digestive System. ”  
Physicians, sur geons 50  
Inn-keepers 45  
Barristers, solicitors 44  
Seamen 43  
Clergymen, priests, ministers 34  
Butchers 30  
Car men, carriers 28  
Farmers 25  
Gardeners 22  
Railway guards, porters 20  
Agricultural labourers 19  
Average among all workers 28  
 
As shown by the above s tatistics, the death rate of doctors is 31 points higher than that of agricultural laborers, and 22 points 
higher than that of the average death rate of all workers who die of diseases of the digestive system. Is there a way that th ese 
troubles can be avoi ded. Yes there is. Early detection will help in many cases, but the real remedy is found in changing the diet 
and ways of living. In the meantime, there is only one way that we can do this and that is by making sure that everyone has a n X-
ray to see if the se conditions actually exist. We believe that practically everyone has bowel troubles in the civilized world today 
due in part to the way we are eating. We can’t usually sense these things because the nerve supply to the bowel is so poor th at we 
don’t know  we have a serious problem until we have pain. Any time there is pain in the bowel, it is a serious condition. Whenever 
there is gas, and it cannot be taken care of through the ordinary food routine or through ordinary treatments, then we know i t is 
very s erious indeed. I believe that long before any of these symptoms appear in the body there are preconditions in the bowel and 
we should be able to see how to take care of these things before symptoms appear. If a person is going to check up on the pre sence 
of diverticula, possibly the best way is through the barium enema X -ray. This is one of the finest ways of doing it. There should 
always be two X -rays; one when the bowel is full of the barium meal and one taken after it is emptied. Years ago, I was very 
astounded when I took a picture of the bowel. We could see that there was some of the barium meal in a little pouch or 
diverticulum. A week later, another X -ray was taken of the same patient for a gall bladder scan. Upon examination of the negative 
we were a ble to see the barium meal still settled in various diverticula throughout the colon. If barium meal can stay there for a 
week, what happens when food stays there. There is no food that should stay in the colon constantly and over a period of a we ek’s 
time. We find through the work in iridology that most diverticula have settled in the sigmoid colon. We feel that this is the logic al place 
due to the fact that the patient hasn’t answered nature’s call in the past. Bowel accumulations from not only one, two but from ten 
even fifteen meals have backed up because many people are that much behind in getting rid of the toxic wastes that develop fr om 
the food they eat. We find that many patients are having only one bowel movement a week; some two bowel movements a  week. I 
had a patient who had a bowel movement every eighteen days and was still consuming three meals a day. The driest part of any 
stool is always in the sigmoid colon. Because of this condition, the sigmoid colon has to withstand the greatest amount of  pressure 
in trying to get rid of this dry stool. With the toilet designed the way it is, it becomes even a greater strain on the sigmo id than on 
any other part of the intestinal tract. It is here that we find the driest material working the greatest hards hip on the mucosa of the 
bowel wall itself. Further we find that the kinds of foods that man is eating today are excessive in meats and the putrefacti ve 
materials —the heavy additives cause greater irritation. In addition, there are the spices, especially b lack pepper, which are 
considered quite an irritant to the colon and to the liver. Many of the coal tar additives develop into drug accumulations as a result of ingesting into our bodies the various nostrums that 
are so readily taken from the drugstore without prescription. We find that the sigmoid colon is the greatest place in the bowel for 
these things to settle. Further, we do not bring children up to realize that bowel movements are the most important thing to take 
care of in the body. We get busy; we let things slide - we put things aside; we “cannot take care of it now. ” The refining of 
carbohydrates has removed the lecithin, oils and vitamin E from these foods. These act as a lubrication when present. The 
lubrication is not sufficient in refined f oods to keep the feces moving for proper elimination. I believe that diverticulosis is a 
civilized disease. It is a disease that has come about by our wrong living habits. It isn’t a matter of not having enough fib er one or 
two days, it is a matter of not having it over a period of many years that can produce this diverticulitis. We find that fast living - 
not chewing our foods properly; going to the quick -snack shops and eating foods that lack bran (the hull or outside coating), and 
taking the skins from p otatoes, apples, pears, peaches and vegetables deprives the bowel of adequate bulk and fiber. We are 
eliminating the fiber that we would naturally have to eat and which could well be the basis of giving the bowel wall all the exercise 
that would be necessa ry to keep it from forming a diverticulum. People have gone from the smooth diet of pancakes, pasta and many of the other soft foods that we have today to those of extr eme 
roughage and have caused many disturbances. We believe that by taking our time and slowly changing over from the soft diet to a 
more rough diet, we can eventually diminish and remove the effects of the diverticula that have been built over many years of  
wrong eating habits. FLATULENCE OR BOWEL GASES  
Certain chemical processes in the col on produce various gases as by -products of normal bowel function. Some are odorless like 
carbon dioxide, while others are very odorous such as hydrogen sulfide. Bowel gases are of no consequence in a healthy colon. This isn’t true in a diseased colon, howe ver. Excessive gas is an indication of bowel disturbances and can be very serious in its  
consequences. For example, when there is a bowel stricture or obstruction due to constipation, the gaseous products may becom e 
trapped, not being able to exit the anus. Extreme pressure may develop, causing pain, swelling and other symptoms to appear. Gas production does not always come from a normal metabolic process. In fact most gaseous wastes are the result of abnormal 
conditions in the bowel. They are the produ cts of inferior processes at work in the body. Specifically, they are the result of 
putrefactive fermentations. When undigested proteins find their way into the colon, they provide nourishment for unfavorable 
bacterial growths. These undesirable bacteria a nd virus are responsible for the breaking down of organic compounds by way of a 
putrefactive process. This process is undesirable specifically due to the fact that these organisms produce toxic, poisonous,  disease -
producing (morbid) by -products as a result  of their metabolic functions. The waste materials they produce are injurious to body 
tissues. These organisms were not intended to inhabit the human body. Those that are beneficial and indeed necessary for good  
health cannot live in an environment which i s dirty, toxic and constipated. When there are pockets, diverticula and ballooning in 
the bowel, there is non -moving waste accumulating in the colon. These conditions are ripe for putrefactive fermentation to occur 
and result in considerable flatulence, di scomfort and seepage of toxins into the body. A healthy colon produces little to no 
flatulence. Taking care of gases in the bowel has been one of the most difficult problems to handle from a nutritional standp oint. When we start changing the diet and go in to the natural fibered foods that nature has given us, and leave off any man -handling, we 
find that we have more of a gas condition. It is like the stirring up of a dirty basement and as we brush it clean, there is a lot of dust 
that has formed. The one unusual thing I observed in taking care of people with a lot of gas is that they could go to town and eat the worst diet 
possible and they would be free of gas. You could put them on coffee and donuts and nothing but that for 2 or 3 days and they  
report no  gas whatsoever. And. when we put them on a natural fiber diet. as prescribed in our diet advice, then we have gas to 
contend with. However, they began to say they were passing off the gas easier - their stools became softer; they did not have to 
force the  bowel movement; they did not have to cause pressure: the feces moved easier through the bowel and they no longer were 
having problems with constipation. However, the gas still persisted, but it seemed to get less and less and, over a period of  three 
month s, we found that it came down to a minimal amount. Once a bowel has diverticula, it will never become totally free of gas. There are very few people who can say they have no ga s 
|whatsoever. To get the gas out completely is almost an impossibility in this  day and age because we cannot live the way of life 
necessary to accomplish that task, but I do think it can come down to a minimum and will cause no disturbance – no distress. THE EFFECT OF GRAVITY ON THE BOWEL  
An important thing to realize is that we ha ve pressure, both mechanical and chemical, to take care of as far as the bowel is 
concerned. On the chemical side, we have the effects of the acidophilus bacteria, acids and putrefactions. On the mechanical side. we have peristaltic action and the ever -present downward pull of gravity. Gravity, we must realize, brings on more problems than 
most people can possibly imagine. Do you remember the historic landings of American astronauts on the moon. Were you  
watching television when it showed them on the moon’s  surface, easily jumping 10 -12 feet high. When they walked, you could 
see them bounce with each step. They looked like they were bouncing on a trampoline, because gravity on the moon is much less  
than here on earth. Gravity on earth is very harsh on our bo dies. When we walk or stand, our body is pulled down toward the earth. We have to live with this constant tugging on our vital organs. We find that the intervertebral disks are being pressed down. I’m 
sure we would have few disk problems if everyone lived on the moon. Because there wouldn’t be enough pressure from its gravity 
to cause disk problems. On earth we have gravity problems, especially when we are tired. I have said before that tiredness is  the 
beginning of every disease; that is when gravity has i ts greatest effect on the body. When we are tired, we begin to lose muscle 
tone, so we find that internal organs are more easily pulled downward. When gravity takes its effect, our shoulders begin to droop: 
we can have scoliosis or we can develop curvature  of the spine. The softest tissue in the body is the transverse colon, and it is the  
only tissue in the body that goes completely from the right side to the left side of the body. If it was made of bone, it wou ld stay in 
position; but since the colon is ma de of very soft tissue, a prolapsus or dropped transverse colon can happen as a result of 
gravitational pull. There is a new disease coming: it’s called gravitosis. The symptoms are as follows. PROLAPSUS OF THE TRANSVERSE COLON  
When we have prolapsus, all  the organs above the transverse colon are going to fall as well and those below it will suffer the 
effects of pressure. When the transverse colon comes down, for exam pie, bladder pressure develops. The uterus can develop 
flexions and retroflexions and co uld double over the bowel causing constipation. We sometimes find that there is pressure on the 
fallopian tubes or the ovaries. Many times the egg from the ovary cannot pass into the uterus properly and this can cause ste rility. Still further, we find that  women have more cysts on the ovaries than on any other organ in the body. There are more hysterec -
tomies given to women than any other operation; and I believe it is because a good deal of pressure is against the tubes, pre ssure 
which does not allow prope r circulation of blood or the removal of toxic material. But women are not the only ones subject to 
pressure -caused troubles; a man with a prolapsus experiences prostate gland pressure. The urethra, through which urine flows from 
the bladder, passes throug h the center of the prostate gland. When there is pressure on the prostate gland, urination is difficult. There will be retention of urine, which is one of the liquids we can absorb back into the body. This can mark the beginning o f 
arthritis and joint tro ubles, especially as we grow older. So we find we can have prostate gland and bladder troubles, uterine and 
ovarian disturbances, all because of prolapsus caused by gravity. Many doctors and gastro -intestinal specialists are making their living treating  hemorrhoids and other anal, rectal and bowel 
problems caused mainly by pressure from the transverse colon and various organs involved while we are eliminating at the toil et. I 
think the toilet is the most abominable device ever invented in our civilizatio n. We find that the Indians never had any rectal 
troubles; they had no hemorrhoid troubles whatsoever. Why. They squatted to defecate. If you go to France, Italy or South 
America, you will find that the toilet is often a hole in the floor and you have to s quat. This is the normal eliminating position, the 
one in which all of our internal organs are held in the proper position. When this position is habitually used for eliminatio n, no 
veins will protrude from the rectum. Now to add to the problem, we may hav e gas or we may have a hard stool. There is pressure against the rectum whenever we have 
hard fecal material or excessive gas. These problems are aggravated by fatigue and by the gravitational pull. It is well that  you 
know this so you can learn to overcom e these things. To overcome the problem of gravity when and if you must sit on the toilet, 
one thing to remember is to keep your hands over your head. You’Il find when you push down, the force is really against the r ectal 
tissues and the rectal areas, so t o overcome this keep your hands above your head. That’s the way it should be done anyway, if 
you’re going to use the regular toilet seat. In fact, in our sanitarium we had a little rope above and off to the side of the  toilet to 
hold when there was a bowel  movement, which kept the hands above the head. IRIDOLOGY AND THE BOWEL  
In looking at the bowel from the standpoint of iridology. the first thing we have found is always a black area in that portio n of the 
ins corresponding to the bowel. The condition of the transverse colon (which comes across the top of the bowel) is indicated by 
signs near the top of the iris at from 10 o’clock to about 12 o’clock, within what is called the autonomic nerve wreath. We s tart 
down the descending colon, represented in the i ris from 12 to 5 o’clock, then the sigmoid colon from 5 to 7 o’clock, until we come 
to the rectal area about 7 o’clock. This is only one side of the body. I don’t want to give a lesson in iridology but I would  like to 
take you on a little learning trip bec ause the ins has much to teach us about the condition of the bowel. In the iris of the eye, 
various conditions show up as black areas, which I call “bowel pockets,” where the autonomic wreath makes a definite break. I  
have found that the black area represe nts underactivity, an inherent weakness and a toxic material settlement. Over the years, I 
went after these three things in my work with patients. I found that an inherent weakness in the bowel quickly leads to probl ems in 
bowel function unless the body ha s all the power and energy it needs to work with. When the body is tired, an inherent weakness 
in the bowel leads to hypoactivity. So, I had to take care of the energies of my patients. I had to take care of enervation. I had to get  
rid of tiredness. I had  to help patients get rid of what I call “vitality wasters. ” Every sick person is fatigued and rundown. They are 
burned out. They want to lie down. Some of them don’t even have the energy to walk. All they want to do is to go bed. They do n’t 
have enough en ergy or spirit to really do things, and I found that while taking care of these people, having them rest and change 
their diets, I began to see certain healing signs come into those black areas in the irides. These correlations between bowel  
condition and the appearance of the iris were confirmed repeatedly over the years. There is much cynicism among medical doctors over the value of iridology, but I believe this will change. It takes three mont hs to 
demonstrate healing signs in the eye and the average  medical doctor seems to be unwilling to take the time for this kind of 
systematic follow -up. I can prove what I have presented here, but it does take three months. The average doctor wants to see it 
right now; he makes one test and that’s it. If it isn’t there in a week, it doesn’t exist. Iridology deals with tissue changes. When we 
examine the iris, we are “reading” tissue condition. We do not directly read toxic material settlements in the bowel. When we  
examine the iris, we are reading the bowel wall. W hen the healing signs appear, they are called calcium luteum lines. Improvement 
in the bowel wall takes care of toxic materials in the body; it moves them along a little quicker. We may quicken elimination  of the 
acids by using foods containing potassium a nd sodium. We find that magnesium relaxes the bowel for those who have tension. Of course, we often resort to using milk of magnesia for this, but we can also use the magnesium which is found in our foods,  of 
which yellow cornmeal contains the most. Magnes ium is also found in all vegetables. Using the proper foods to bring about physical changes is slower than drug therapy; it is the natural way. We find no “undesi rable 
side effects” here. When I first began seeing these changes come about in the irides of my patients’ eyes, I actually didn’t know I 
was doing anything unusual. I was simply putting my patients on a right -living regime. But I then started to have X -rays taken, 
because I wanted to confirm what I suspected was going on. I spent time at the Ba ttle Creek Sanitarium and began to see how the 
X-rays verified what I was finding through iridology. When my iris reading indicated a bowel pocket at 3 o’clock, I found on th e 
X-ray that there was a diverticulum in the bowel. I found there was a ballooned condition where the toxic materials were not being 
eliminated as they should. At that time, I studied with Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who was a master of taking care of the bowel. He 
wrote on colon hygiene and also did a great deal of work with diet. One thi ng I learned was that we have “friendly” bacteria in the 
bowel. These friendly bacteria keep the bowel clean from putrefaction and fermentation which produce excess gas and bad odors.
A poor diet can lead to a decline in tissue and organ function, and the body's ability to eliminate waste materials is lowered, causing the cells to become dead and inactive.
What is the effect of a poor diet on the body?
Dr. Lane states that constipation is a result of a lack of certain food principles, such as mineral salts or vitamins, or the absence of the natural defenses of the body, which allows toxic bacteria to invade the body.
What is the primary cause of constipation, according to Dr. Lane?
The sigmoid colon is a critical area, as it is the site where toxic materials accumulate, and its proper functioning is essential for overall health.
What is the significance of the sigmoid colon in the body?
Gravity has a significant impact on the body, causing pressure on vital organs, which can lead to a range of health issues, including constipation and disease.
What is the importance of gravity on the body?
The thyroid gland plays a crucial role in the body, as it regulates various organ functions and keeps them normal by releasing thyroxin into the body.
What is the role of the thyroid gland in the body?