Ambition, as much as necessity, can drive a man to overwork. The desire to make money, to
have money to spend, is a driving force in the life of many people that causes them to bum the
midnight oil. Overeating, sexual excesses, indulgence in the various poison-vices, emotional
unrest, lack of rest and sleep—these and many other enervating influences in the life of man bring
on a state of nervous fatigue. Manganese poisoning will produce tremors and there is some evidence that spinal irritation, as
seen in spinal curvature, may sometimes enter into these cases causitively. Tremor is said to have
been a common aftermath of 
encephalitis lethargica
, a disease that is very rare today, except as an
aftermath of smallpox vaccination. Medical authorities say that there is no remedy for paralysis agitans. In general, I agree with this
verdict. But I have had recoveries apart from medicines, drugs or surgery, and I have seen so many
cases make marked improvement during the course of a few weeks to a few months, that I am
convinced a majority if not all cases could recover if proper care were instituted at the first sign of
symptoms. I have never had an opportunity to care for a case from its beginning, but have received all such
cases after they were considerably advanced and had been drugged for three or more years. The
drugs employed to control the tremors undoubtedly further impair the brain and nerves. Cases following head injuries (traumatic cases) and those following 
encephalitis lethargica
 are
less favorable cases, but in non-traumatic cases, excellent results may be obtained in the great
majority of patients in a comparatively short time. But full recovery, where possible, is a matter of
months or even of years. It is not uncommon to see the cessation of all tremor in the first fast, only to have it recur when
eating is resumed. The tremor is less severe when it recurs after the fast. A second fast produces
the same results, with less tremor following this. A third fast is sometimes enough to result in a
lasting clearing up of the tremor. In some cases a fourth and even a fifth fast is required. It is impossible to say what percentage of these cases, especially in younger subjects, could
make a full recovery if they persisted long enough, but we rarely expect more than marked
improvement in men and women nearing or past seventy, who have had the disease for several
years. Eating between the fasts in these cases must be limited. The diet should be composed largely of
fresh fruits and fresh (perferably uncooked) vegetables, with nuts or an unprocessed mild cheese
for protein. Bread, animal foods, rich viands, salt, condiments, coffee, teas, cocoa, and similar
beverages should be avoided completely. All alcohol, smoking and other use of tobacco should be avoided. An abundance of rest and
sleep are specially important. Sun baths are helpful, but should not be indulged to the point of
enervation. I make it a practice of giving these patients light exercises—movements requiring skill
rather than strength in their performance—as soon as they are off their fast. 13133
Nephritis
“Your child has six weeks to live; we can do no more for her.” The voice was that of the physician
who acted as spokesman for several physicians who had taken part in a consultation. The place: a
modern hospital. The little nine-year-old girl who was the subject of the decision was suffering with nephritis. She had been in the hospital for about two weeks and was bloated from head to foot with an
accumulation of water (dropsy), a development that is characteristic of advanced stages of this
disease. As far as they were concerned she was finished—a nine-year-old nothing. The parents of the child were not willing to give up. People are like that; they cling to hope, and
do not always accept a death sentence of this kind as final. The mother suggested taking the girl
from the hospital and trying 
elsewhere. The physician said: “You are free to take her anywhere you
wish and try whatever you think may help. We can do no more.”
The girl was removed from the hospital, but no other physician was found who would take
charge of the case. Taking the child on her lap, the mother sat in the back seat of the car while the father drove a
hundred-and-twenty-five miles to a 
Hygienic
 institution. Arriving there, the father carried the child
inside and presented the hopelessness of the case to the director. “I cannot promise much,” said the 
Hygienist
, “but we’ll try.” After fully going over the history
and symptoms of the case, he told the desperate parents, “We are going to give her a chance to
recover. I believe she can.”
The suffering child was put to bed and all food withheld. Water was given in infrequent sips. Almost over night the edema began to decline. It passed out in the urine and in watery stools, and,
after a few days, some of the solid matter contained in it was expelled by means of skin eruptions. Soon wrists and ankles that were as large, or larger, than her legs were down to normal size. A
little girl who looked like a rubber baby blown up to oversize was down to “skin and bones.”
After two weeks of fasting, feeding was resumed. She was fed on fruits and vegetables at first,
with starches, sugars and proteins added after a few days of juicy fruits and leafy vegetables. From
this time forward her progress, although slow, was satisfactory. At the end of nine months the little
girl was dismissed. After the passage of several years the same little girl, now married, again visited the 
Hygienist
and was in a state of splendid health. She had developed into a beautiful young woman and was
proud of her exuberant health. There had been no more trouble with her kidneys; indeed, she never
experienced sickness of any nature and was holding down a responsible position. Can we say that this recovery is typical? No. Most cases of Bright’s disease or nephritis, are in
older men and women and the deterioration of the kidneys is greater than in the case of this young
girl, so that all patients do not recover so readily or so quickly—and some of them do not recover
at all. But this case does reveal that death is not always inevitable because the case has been
declared to be 
incurable
. It reveals the amazing things the body can do for itself in the way of restoration of structure and
function when it is given a fair opportunity. This dying child was not “treated” into good health;
she made her own spontaneous recovery without the dubious assistance of any therapeutic
132measure. Richard Bright, a British physician prominent in the first half of the nineteenth century, noted that
the last illness of many men was attended by the appearance of albumen in the urine or uremic
poisoning. He 
investigated the condition of the kidneys in these cases and discovered a
degenerated state that was responsible for the symptoms. Although this condition is technically
known as nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys) the disease has long been called Bright’s disease
after the man who first described it. Actually, from a practical point of view, we are not so much concerned about the degenerative
changes that take place in the kidneys, when albumen and granular and bloody casts appear in the
urine or when there is suppression of the urine. When we are confronted with evidences of uremic
poisoning, instead of worrying about the nature of the changes in the kidneys, we need first to think
of the living habits of the patient. Faulty, excessive practices may have caused the degeneration of
kidneys and all the other organs that are involved in the deterioration. Few chronic diseases arouse so much fear and apprehension in the patient’s mind as chronic
Bright’s disease. Yet there is no chronic disease that so quickly improves, and from which the
patient is so likely to make a full recovery as a consequence of a fast, proper feeding and general
Hygienic
 care. These simple changes, however, in the way of life must be made before the
deterioration to the kidneys has reached an irreversible stage. The reason for the terror that a diagnosis of Bright’s disease commonly causes is based on the
fact that the cause of the disease is not removed. Nephritis or Bright’s disease does not develop, neither in the acute nor in the chronic form, in
those of abstemious habits of living. It is a disease of high livers and continuous stuffers. Many
drugs produce inflammation of the kidneys and those who are always drugging themselves may
have to pay for their folly by evolving a serious degenerative change in the kidneys that will
shorten their life. It is well known in professional circles that today the possession of typically healthy kidneys is
rare in adults. Great numbers of people who die of other diseases have been made liable to these
other diseases by the impaired state of their kidneys. A fast in this condition need not always be a lengthy one. Ten days, two weeks, sometimes three
weeks, are usually enough. The condition of the kidneys quickly clears when fasting is instituted. The albumen disappears from the urine, casts and blood clear up. The symptoms of urine poisoning
—headaches, vertigo, frequent and copious urination, bed wetting, getting up frequently at night,
suppressed urine, and scanty urine—soon cease. The urine becomes normal in color and odor and
everything points to the resumption of normal excretion. The regeneration of the kidneys that takes place after the fast is broken will be more thorough,
more complete and more rapid if the diet is abstemious and composed of fresh fruits and leafy
vegetables with but moderate quantities of the heavier foods. Onions, garlic, chives, shallots, leaks, mustard, radishes, cress and other foods containing
mustard oil, which irritate the kidneys, should be omitted from the diet. Grain products are also
best omitted. Flesh, meat extracts, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, tea, coffee, cocoa and
chocolate are not to be thought of for the man whose kidneys are seriously impaired. Excessive
water drinking can serve no useful purpose. Give the kidneys a chance to repair themselves and
they will not disappoint you. 13334
Gallstones
Cholelithiasis
 is the term applied to the formation of stones in the gall bladder and bile ducts. These are derived either partly or entirely from the constituents of the bile, the principal element
being cholesterin which precipitates in crystalline form and combines with inspissated mucus. Although the stones can be a source of much discomfort, and in passing, may be the occasion for
excruciating pain their presence is frequently unrecognized and man may live for years and die of
some other disease without ever knowing he has them. They are found at autopsy in people who
never complained of symptoms that led to a suspicion of stones. Some individuals have what is termed the 
lithemic diathesis
, by which is meant that they have a
tendency to build concretions in the form of kidney or bladder stones or biliary calculi when their
health is markedly impaired. Stones may form, in fact, in almost any part of the body—in the
pancreas, in the muscles, in the eyelids, on the valves of the heart, even around the heart, and in the
arteries. Gallstones seem to be more likely to form in the obese than in thin subjects, perhaps
because there is a greater tendency of these obese individuals to overeat. What is called hepatic colic is excruciating pain in the abdomen, in the region of the liver or
gall bladder occasioned by the passage of a stone. Calculi may be so small that they easily pass
through the gall duct, in which case they are expelled without the patient ever knowing that he has
any stones. They may be too large to move into the gall duct, in which case they are not passed. Or they may
be of a size that they are passed through the duct 
with great difficulty, and cause intense pain. The
pain starts suddenly at the instant the stone begins to be passed from the gall bladder into the cystic
duct. Agonizing in character, it is transmitted to various parts of the abdomen and chest, often
being felt in the right shoulder. Or the duct may be obstructed by a stone and a few symptoms result, even jaundice being absent. Disease of the gall bladder itself may eventually result from the presence of the stone. If the
common duct is obstructed by a stone, there is persistent jaundice, paroxysms of pain, with the
occurrence of ague-like periods of chills and fever. Often called a gall-valve condition, this may
persist for months or years. Pain killing drugs and operations are the common modes of treating this condition, but neither of
these remove basic causes. To remove a gallstone and pronounce the patient 
cured
 is tantamount to
saying that the gallstone is its own cause. Failure to remove the cause results in the formation of more stones. Unfortunately, it is assumed
that the cause of gallstone is unknown, so that the operation leaves the patient still sick and still
manifesting many of his symptoms. What is wrong with the person who has gallstones? He has a general state of irritation and
inflammation of his digestive tract, involving the gallbladder and the liver, with impaired
digestion. He is enervated and toxemic. His bile is not of normal constitution and this permits the
preciptation of its mineral elements. There develops a functional impairment of the liver. This persists until there is enough alteration of the normal secretion (bile) so that the mineral
elements contained in this are not held in suspension, but are precipitated, forming gravels or
stone. Gallstones and kidney stones are basically the same. The symptoms differ as the organs in
134which the stones form differ. Organs lend individuality to symptom-complexes. Imprudent eating and heavy eating of carbohydrate foods by the enervated and toxemic, and a
lack of exercise, are chief among the causes that produce gastrointestinal and biliary irritation
leading to stone formation. They do not develop in healthy individuals, but in those who have
broken down their health by years of wrong living. Nobody would ever have gallstones from
infancy and throughout his life if he lived right. There can be but one way to restore health and this is to remove all causes of disease and
restore the liver to good health, after which normal bile will disintegrate the stones. The proper
care is to go to bed and relax, keep the feet warm and abstain from food until there is a distinct
demand for food—until the return of hunger. When eating is resumed, it should be restricted to uncooked fruits and vegetables for a week or
two weeks. The patient should be carefully restricted to proper food combinations when regular
eating is resumed. Eating proteins and starches at the same meal is a prolific source of gastro-
intestinal irritation. In my opinion there is no necessity to operate for gallstones. Normal nutrition is not restored by
removing an effect of impaired nutrition. The great and growing army of postoperative invalids
attest to the fact that operations on organs of the body do not restore health. Too many organs are
removed that could be saved by the simple expediency of draining them by means of the fast. Instead of surgically draining the gall bladder, a fast will enable the body to perform an
excellent job of drainage and do it in a way to leave the gall bladder intact and unharmed. For days
and nights, often, these patients will pass bile through the bowels and by vomiting. The patient has not been restored to health when his gallstones have been removed. The
observing individual knows that he is still sick and still manifests many of his old symptoms and
often many new ones. The purpose of correct care of the patient with gallstones is to restore
normal liver function so that bile chemistry may become normal again and cease precipitating the
mineral elements and thus end the making of stones. In a few weeks then, the normal bile will cause a disintegration of the stones already formed, the
sand will pass into the intestines and will be voided. As the liver cannot be restored to health
without restoring the whole body to health, no treatment directed at the liver will serve these ends. A general or systemic housecleaning followed by a genuine health-building program is essential. Perhaps I can do no better than end this chapter with a quotation from Geo. S. Weger, M.D.,
who had an extensive experience with gallstones, both as a regular physician and as a 
Hygienist
. He says: “Given proper assistance, the chemistry of the body can be so altered that stones soften,
disintegrate, and pass out with but slight discomfort. We have treated many cases and seldom have
we found it necessary to resort to surgery. It is a remarkable fact that this softening occurs very
rapidly on a complete fast. Frequently patients coming for treatment for different ailments develop
hepatic colic from the eighth to the tenth day of fasting. “In these, the presence of gallstones may never have been suspected. The same is true of stones
in the kidneys. In recurrent attacks there is no treatment in the intervals to equal a diet restricted to
fresh fruits, salads, and cooked non-starchy vegetables. It can be safely predicted that there will be
no recurrence in those patients who follow instructions as to diet and exercise. In most instances if
the gall stone is not larger than a small olive it will become soft and pass out without resort to
surgery and its consequent risks. The exceptions are in those run-down people who have no
reserve vitality or courage left to sustain them for a reasonable time, while nature is establishing a
normal chemical balance. 135“Extreme caution and conservatism on the part of the physician is 
necessary in determining the
proper course in a given case. The process of recovery may seem slow but it is in reality
marvelously rapid compared with the long time it takes for the stones to form. While most cases
can get well by fasting and dieting and while such treatment is always in order, it must be borne in
mind that atrophy or gall bladder disease may be the result of longstanding, unrelieved cases. Without recourse to olive oil, bile salts, and the hundred and one remedies that are generally
prescribed, our percentage of non-surgical recoveries is so high as to warrant a favorable
prognosis if the patient cooperates in the removal of first causes. It should be borne in mind that
while surgical interference is often the only recourse, this procedure does not remove the cause of
gallstones nor prevent recurrences. Therefore correct diet and other accessory health measures are
just as necessary after operation as they were before.”
13635
Tumors of the Breast
One of those rare young women, possessed of great beauty of form and features, just married and
alarmed about a growth of her left breast—a lump nearly as large as a billiard ball—had for four
months suffered considerable pain. She had not consulted a physician for fear he would pronounce
it cancer and want to remove her breast. It was 1927 and that year the country went through the first “cancer week.” New York’s
newspapers carried columns each day about cancer and urged all people to see their physicians for
a check-up. Lumps, moles, bleeding, loss of weight and other such symptoms were indicative of
possible cancer. The propaganda was deliberately designed to frighten the public. The young woman, whose home was in White Plains, New York, was duly frightened. She
consulted a physician. He told her that she had cancer and that the breast would have to be
removed immediately. She did not want to lose her breast—she did not want to be disfigured. She consulted a second physician. He made the same diagnosis and urged immediate removal of
her breast. A third physician rendered an identical verdict. A fourth was consulted with the same
outcome: “The breast must come off at once.”
But there was one paper in New York that did not carry the scare 
propaganda that was being
distributed from some central source. The New York 
Evening Graphic
, a Macfadden publication,
often assailed for many reasons, right and wrong, refused to join in the effort to frighten everybody. The present writer had a daily column in the 
Graphic
. I devoted a column to the cancer propaganda and pointed out that many people who did not have
cancer were being frightened into operations. I denounced the fear program as a crime against the
welfare and sanity of the public. The young woman read my column and came in to see me. It was eight o’clock on a Friday evening when she entered my office. I examined her breast and
decided that she did not have cancer, but that she was suffering from an enlarged gland. I advised
her to fast. She took the advice. I instructed her to return to me at the same time on the following
Monday evening. When she came in on Monday evening she was a very happy woman, her face
wreathed with smiles. I invited her to sit down and without questioning her or waiting for her to
say anything, I said, “Go ahead and tell me the story.”
It was a simple story, but it was a happy one. I have listened to similar stories many times
through the years that have since elapsed. ‘‘When I awoke this morning,” she said, “there was no
pain in my breast. There has been no pain all day. This evening at five o’clock, when I went to take
a bath, I said to my sister: ‘I would like to feel my breast to see if the lump is still there, but I’m
afraid to …’ My sister said: ‘Don’t be a child, go ahead and find out.’ I investigated nervously and
it is gone.”
I listened to the story with great satisfaction and took the note of her elation and relief. I
examined her breast and found no trace of the lump. The young woman remained under my care for
the remainder of two weeks and was discharged. I had occasional contact with this woman for thirteen years after her recovery and during this
period there was no recurrence of the “tumor.” I have been able to maintain contact with
subsequent cases for as many as twenty years and they have suffered no recurrence of their
“cancers.” Hers was one of two such “cancers” that fully recovered in three days. 137I have seen a large number recover in a week, several more to recover in two weeks, and many
to become free of their breast “cancers” in three to six weeks. I am sure that not all such cases of
“cancer” find their way to me or to my institution. There must be many thousands of them who
submit to operations every year, either for the removal of the lump or for removal of the whole
breast. I have seen enough of them to know that there is a wide difference between cancer and a
diagnosis of cancer. I am sure that these are the only kinds of “cancer” that are 
cured
 by early
surgery. I have never seen a case of undoubted cancer recover, no matter how cared for nor by whom. I
am convinced that cancer is an irreversible pathology and that the only remedy for the condition is
prevention. I am 
sure that it can be prevented and that this can be done by a well-ordered life, one
that maintains a high state of health at all times. I think that I should call attention to the fact that all four of the diagnoses in the case of the young
woman, which I have just described, were made without a biopsy, which is a procedure of taking
out some of the tissue of the lump or growth and examining it under the microscope. Each man
advised an operation upon the basis of a wild guess. The biopsy is far from infallible, often finding cancer where none exists, but it is probably far
more accurate than merely feeling of the breast, at these men did. Their diagnoses may be said to
have been made on suspicion. Or, perhaps they were merely floating with the propaganda tide. At
any rate, they all agreed without knowing the others’ diagnosis, that the young woman had cancer
of the breast and that an immediate operation was urgent. Fortunately for women, not more than one such lump out of ten thousand is cancer. Most of the
lumps will quickly clear up when the mode of living is corrected. Just as fasting causes the body to
use up its excess fat in nourishing the vital tissues so it causes the break down, by the process of
autolysis
, of growths or tumors (neoplasms) and uses the nutritive elements contained in these with
which to nourish the vital tissues. In like manner, dropsical swellings, edematous swellings, deposits and infiltrations are
absorbed and the usable portion are used as food; the non-usable portions are excreted. To understand this, it is necessary for the reader to know that tumors (new growths) are
composed of the same kinds of tissue of which the normal parts of the body are constituted. Tumors are named according to their composition. Thus a fatty tumor is called a 
lipoma
; a
muscular tumor is called a 
myoma
; a nerve tumor is called a 
neuroma
; a bone tumor is called an
ostemoma
; an 
epithelioma
 is made up of epithelial tissue; a 
fibroma
 or fibroid is composed of
fibrous tissue, etc. Being constituted of the same tissue as the normal structures of the body, when
they are broken down, they yield up the nutritive material contained in them. A woman was told that she had a fibroid tumor of the uterus about the size of a lemon, and that it
should be removed at once. This meant that her womb would be removed and that during surgery
reasons might be discovered for removing her ovaries. But this would not restore health. She would still be a sick woman. Operations remove no
causes. There would probably be a recurrence of tumor. She would also be a physiological
cripple. Cutting into the ovaries is like cutting into the brain. The patient rejected the operation and
resorted to the fast. Soon the tumor was absorbed and her organs were saved. One case that I cared for was a woman who had a uterine fibroid about the size of a medium
sized grapefruit. Complete absorption of the tumor was brought about in twenty-eight days. This
was an unusually rapid rate 
of absorption and I have never seen it take place so rapidly in another
138case. I have seen tumors in the breast, on the womb, in the abdomen, on the feet and elsewhere
absorbed while fasting, and some of these absorptions have been rapid while others have been
slow. One man who had a large tumor in the right lower abdomen, which had been diagnosed, by
means of a biopsy, as “giant cell sarcoma” (cancer) lost all of his sarcoma in seven days of
fasting. Of course he didn’t have cancer, but he did have a diagnosis. For reasons that are not yet fully understood, some tumors are not affected by the fast, but
thousands of tumors, some of them of considerable size, have been completely and permanently
removed by fasting. I have had the pleasure of saving hundreds of women from mutilating
operations for the removal of the breast, and many more from desexing operations for removal of
uterine fibroids. The process is identical with the removal of stores of fat in the tissues. There is
nothing mysterious about it. The layman who can understand how it is possible to reduce weight, losing large quantities of
fat in the process, by fasting, should have no difficulty in understanding how the body may also
free itself of other organized accumulations of structural materials while abstaining from food. Just as fat on any part of the body may be autolyzed and taken up by the lymph stream to be
mingled with the blood and used in nourishing the vital tissues of the organism while no food is
being taken, so other tissues may be digested in the same manner and used as food. Muscular
tissue, glandular tissue, and other tissues may be called upon to supply nutriment for the more vital
tissues, those that have to carry on the most essential functions of life. In like manner, the tissues that make up a tumor (neoplasm) are digested and absorbed, the
usable portions employed in nourishing the vital tissues, the non-usable portions excreted. 13936
Sterility in Women
The pattern of the case was simple and familiar: A young Italian woman had been married for five
years to a virile young man, also Italian. Both wanted children and had avoided all efforts at birth
control in the hope that pregnancy would take place. It did not. She consulted several physicians who assured her that her sterility was permanent. Her father-
in-law told her of the fast and of the possibility that it might help her. She consulted a 
Hygienist
. “Will a fast enable me to become pregnant?” she asked. It was explained to her that there are
different reasons for sterility and that some of them yield to the fast, others do not. After
interrogation, she was told that the probability was that a fast would enable her to become
pregnant. She underwent the fast. A few weeks after the fast was broken, she conceived and later bore a
bright, healthy boy. This is one case out of many of similar nature. Fasting has enabled many women to conceive
after years of sterility. Many of these women give a history of menstrual irregularities, profuse
flow, severe cramps that send them to bed each month, large clots, soreness of the breasts and
similar symptoms that indicate endocrine (ductless gland) imbalance, inflammation of the ovaries
or womb and nervous difficulties. Others give a history of metritis (inflammation of the lining of the womb) with a more or less
chronic vaginal discharge. In these latter cases, the discharge is often highly acid, sufficiently acid
to destroy the sperm. These are the types of cases that are most readily corrected and that are restored to health by a
period of physical, mental and physiological rest. Few cases of female sterility are absolute; most
of them are the outgrowth of conditions of disease and are remediable. Great numbers of women
have found the ability to conceive restored by a restoration to good health, and a large part of these
women have found the fast of inestimable value in the clearing up of conditions that prevented
conception. In passing, it may be well to mention that in those many cases of women who readily conceive,
but who abort, being unable to carry their baby to full term, a restoration of good health will
enable them to give birth to normal babies. A clearing up of the toxic state followed by greatly
improved nutrition enables them to avoid abortions. The most spectacular case of this kind that has come under the author’s observation was that of a
woman who had previously had twenty-eight spontaneous abortions. After a fast of ten days and a
period on a greatly improved diet, she became pregnant and at full term gave birth to a healthy boy. Delivery was normal. The length of fast required in cases of female sterility varies with the condition of the woman. I
recall the case of a comparatively young woman who had been married for ten years and had not
conceived, although no attempt had been made to avoid it. She suffered agonies with each
menstruation, going to bed every month and relieving her pains with drugs. A fast of ten days was sufficient to permanently end her menstrual difficulties and shortly after
the fast, she conceived for the first time, subsequently giving birth to a healthy baby boy. Another
woman much less vigorous and sick for a number of years, took several short fasts before she
140conceived. Her previous period of sterility was also of about ten years duration. The young Italian
woman whose story was recounted at the beginning of this chapter had a fast of thirty days. Absolute sterility is a comparatively rare condition in both men and women and fasting can do
nothing in such cases. When sterility is due to conditions of disease, rather than to defects of
development, there is reason to think that both men and women can almost always profit by a fast
of sufficient duration to enable the body to clear its abnormal states. 14137
Fasting in Pregnancy
When the rational mind recognizes that pregnancy is a normal biological process, it at once
realizes that it should be unaccompanied with any pain, discomfort or abnormal condition. It is
observed that animals in their natural state do not suffer with nausea and vomiting during
pregnancy. The condition is said to be unknown among so-called primitive women. Only about
half the women in civilized life so suffer. All the evidence points to the conclusion that nausea, “morning sickness” and vomiting are not
essential developments during pregnancy. Mild and evanescent in the majority of the cases, severe
and lasting in some cases, perhaps leading even to the artificial ending of pregnancy “to save the
mother’s life,” the cause is still a matter of much debate. If it can be understood that disease is the outworking of natural law, we may understand that
under certain states of the organism of woman, when pregnancy occurs, there is an urgent need to
put the physiological house in order. It is common to say that the nausea is a “reflex” and that it is a “reaction,” but these words
explain nothing. It is necessary that we understand the nature and cause of the condition that gives
rise to the “reflex” or to the “reaction.”
Nature plays no favorites, is no respecter of persons. If a woman suffers with nausea and
vomiting during pregnancy, this is because she has built her suffering by a way of life that has laid
the foundation for trouble. Her suffering is not due to the fact that she is pregnant, but to the fact
that she is toxemic. While we recognize that pregnancy is a normal physiologic state, we must 
also recognize that, in
modern life at least, there is much that is not physiologic associated with the whole reproductive
process and that these conditions of abnormality have the same general causes that are responsible
for other structural and functional abnormalities of the body. In her efforts to promote life and its highest welfare, in her never-ending effort to endow each
new form of life with the finest that can be given, nature tries to give each child that is born the
best that life affords. She is, therefore, interested in the environment of the unborn child and
especially in its nutrition. The unborn child feeds upon substances supplied by the mother. If her blood is physiologically
suitable to the highest interests of the evolving embryo her pregnancy will be comfortable and even
pleasurable. If she is toxemic, there must evolve a process designed to prepare a better source of
nutriment for the embryo. The physiological house must be put in order to the end that the embryo
may have a clean, wholesome, and well balanced habitat during its intra-uterine existence. This does not mean that the uterus alone must be made acceptable for the evolution of the new
life, but that the whole body of the mother must be made ready. For unless there is systemic
preparedness, there can be no local readiness. We observe that the general metabolism of the pregnant mother is accelerated; glands that have
been all but dormant awake to renewed activity, and, if the way of life of the mother is at all
wholesome, her health improves. Symptoms from which she has long suffered often clear up and
she appears well again. The nausea and vomiting are merely parts of this general renovating
program. 142The toxemic woman is declared to be unfit for the new being. The toxins that have been retained
and stored in the organism until its chemistry is profoundly altered must be removed. This calls for
a radical eliminating process; it demands a temporary cessation of eating. There is rebellion in the stomach; it rejects food. The liver speeds up its excretory function. Much bile is regurgitated into the stomach and is vomited. There may even develop a psychic
revulsion to food, so determined is the organism to have its way and to clean house. If we can once
understand that nature is trying to provide a clean house in which to evolve the new life, we can
understand the need to cooperate in the work and not to throw monkey wrenches into the vital
machinery. The suppression of vomiting by the administration of drugs, always of doubtful efficacy, seems
only to make matters worse and to prolong the period of nausea and vomiting. The woman who
clings to the outworn idea that she needs plenty of “good nourishing food” and persists in eating in
spite of her repugnance to food, even to the sight, odor or thought of it, only adds to her discomfort
and prolongs her suffering. The physician, called to care for a case of morning sickness, tries 
everything, seeking to satisfy
the patient’s demand for relief from symptoms, until the nausea and vomiting come to a
spontaneous end, but he fails to do her any real good. It has been said that all this discomfort and annoyance constitute a rather rude, impolite and
unpleasant way of asking a woman to stop eating. But it is more than just a command to cease
eating; it is a process of purification. It is a means of freeing the body of accumulated toxin. The
ignorant will eat in spite of the evident demand that no food be eaten, but nature gains her point in
the end; she simply throws the food back. Breakfast, noon meal or dinner, it is unwanted. When the pregnant woman feels the first faint beginning of nausea and vomiting, she should
voluntarily cease eating at once. Neither she nor the child will be hurt by ceasing to eat. A
prolonged fast might injure the baby, but a few days of abstinence in the early days of pregnancy,
such as the woman with morning sickness will have to undergo, will help her. She should go to bed and keep warm. She should throw off any fears she may have and poise her
mind. No drugs should be taken. My experience has shown that three to ten days are enough to
enable the body to put its house in order and there is no more nausea and vomiting throughout the
remainder of the pregnancy. A period of light feeding of fruits and uncooked vegetables should follow the fast for a few days
before the normal diet is resumed. By normal diet I certainly do not mean the conventional diet. Pregnant women tend to eat too much. They overeat on proteins. They need the very best of
proteins, but not in large quantities. Their greatest need, however, is for fruits and green non-
starchy vegetables. In ordinary cases of morning sickness three to four days of fasting are sufficient to restore
comfort and enable the woman to eat without distress. I have had one case that required eleven
days for comfort and digestive ability to return. There may be severe cases that will require a longer time than this; I have simply never had
such cases. But I never had a patient fail to become comfortable in a few days. There can be no
reason to abstain from fasting under such conditions and at such times. Indeed, what is to be gained
from eating when there is nausea, no desire for food, and when it is known that the food will be
ejected as soon as eaten? Fasting is the only logical procedure under such conditions. 143One Closing Word
What I have said here, in sum, is that the body has wisdom in its very cells, and can heal itself, if
we will give it the chance to heal. The fast is one way of cleansing the physical self, of giving rest
to the body’s organs, often overtaxed by our own wrong living and wrong eating and over-activity. I have said that there is wisdom in the fast, in rest, in quiet, in right living and right eating and
right thinking; wisdom in recognizing the toxic effect of over-eating, over-tension, drinking;
wisdom, indeed, in avoiding all the various poisons that so many of us put into ourselves, into our
minds and our actions. There are no medical dogmas in this book, nor is the fast itself cited as a 
cure
 for anything. It is
only a way of rest whereby the body—this complex and tremendous organism—will have a chance
to perform its self-restoration to health and well-being, without strain or interruption, in quiet and
peace and healing calm. 144Index
Abortions, 
164
Abstinence, 
63
Acids of decomposition, 
115
Adolescents, 
140–141
, 
148–149
Adrenal gland, 
126
Age and aging, 
72–77
cause, 
72–75
chicken heart, 
74
classifications, 
72–73
delayed 
73–77
rate, 
73
time and aging 
74
Air, fresh, 
80
Alcohol, 
33
, 
55
, 
110
, 
125
, 
147
, 
149
, 
154
, 
157
as medication, 
41
Allergy, 
122–124
Alvarez, Walter C., 
97
, 
138
, 
139–140
, 
146
American Journal of Clinical Medicine
, 
96
Amino Acids, 
68
, 
69
, 
110
Amoebic dysentery, 
137
Anabolism (See Metabolism)
Anemia, 
29
, 
95
, 
118
Angina pectoris, 
127–128
Animals, fasting in, 
18
, 
27–28
, 
29
, 
64
, 
75
, 
78
bears, 
27
, 
28
birds, 
18
cats, 
18
cattle, 
27
, 
30
dogs, 
18
, 
27
, 
64
, 
91
fur seal bull, 
27
horses, 
27
insects, 
75
pig, 
78
rabbits, sand, 
18
, 
27
salamanders, 
30
salmon, 
27
spiders, 
18
starfish, 
30
weasel, 
27
wolves, 
27
145Ankylosis, 
107
, 
109
Antibiotics, 
139–140
, 
149
Apoplexy
of cells, 
116
Appendicitis, 
46
Appetite, 
32
, 
34
, 
63
Appetizer, 
81
Arthritis, 
109
, 
111
, 
112
after-care, 
108
ankylosis (See Ankylosis)
builds slowly, 
109
cause, 
110
fasting in, 
112
palliation harmful, 
111
rest/exercise, 
112
secondary causes, 
111
supervision of fast, 
112
varieties of, 
109
, 
111
Arteriosclerosis, 
151
Asphyxiation of cells, 
116
Aspirin, 
108
, 
112
Assimilation and Elimination, 
37–38
, 
80
continuous process, 
37
variable emphasis, 
38
, 
46
Asthma, 
19
, 
94
, 
104–105
, 
106
bronchial, 
19
, 
104
cardiac, 
104
care and cause, 
105–106
predisposition, 
105
renal, 
104
Autolysis, 
29
, 
37
, 
162
, 
163
Autonomy, an, 
39
Autopsy, 
100
Bargen, J. A., 
140
Baths and Bathing, 
142
, 
143
, 
150
duration, 
61
purpose, 
61
sponge, 
61
sweat, 
62
temperature of water, 
61
Benign Tumors (See Tumors)
Berg, Ragnar, 
28
, 
39
146Beriberi 
29
Bile, 
57
, 
114
, 
157
, 
166
Biopsy, 
162
Bloating, 
65
Blood Pressure, 
23
, 
125
, 
126
, 
129
Bloom, Walter Lyon, 
24
, 
25
Bowel movements, 
65
, 
71
, 
84
Breaking the fast, 
30
, 
63–67
in animals, 
64
exercise, 
66
method of, 
65–67
rest after, 
66
supervision after, 
42
, 
62
, 
65–67
, 
122
Breath, 
63
bad, 
83
Bribe, 
82
Bright, Richard, 
155
Bright’s Disease (See Nephritis)
Brinkley, 
77
Broken bones, 
47
Bromine, 
142
Bronchitis, 
83
Brown-Sequard, 
77
Byrd, Mrs. Gloria Lee, 
43
Cabot, Richard C., 
137
Cachexia, 
119
Calcium metabolism, 
29
Calculi, 
157
 (See Gallstones)
Cancer, 
63
, 
96
, 
116
, 
139
cancerous growths enlarge, 
39
cancerous growths diminish, 
38–39
defined, 
39
, 
116
, 
139
, 
140
development, 
115–117
, 
140
fasting contraindicated, 
51
few cases, 
163
irreversible condition, 
161
surgery, 
139
Carcinogenic agents, 
116
Cardiac decompensation, 
131
, 
132
Carlson, Anton J., 
75
Carrell, Alexis, 
74
Carrington, Hereward, 
127
, 
128
147Case histories, 
19
, 
20–21
, 
24–25
, 
26
, 
28
, 
41
, 
42
, 
44
, 
71
, 
76
, 
81
, 
89
, 
99
, 
107–108
, 
127–128
, 
131
,
138
, 
154–155
Catabolism (See Metabolism)
Catarrh, 
94
, 
104
, 
122
Cecum, 
133
Cephalagia, 
120
Child, C. M., 
75
Children and childhood
diseases, 
83–85
enervation, 
83
excitement, 
82
fasting, 
81
, 
85
, 
89
holidays, 
84
instinctive
 fasting, 
81–85
spasms, 
84
symptoms of indigestion, 
83–85
warm water, 
85
Chocolate, 
82
Cholelithiasis (See Gallstones)
Chronic Diseases (See Diseases)
Circumcision, 
149
Cleanliness, 
142
, 
150
Cocoa, 
154
Coffee, 
67
, 
93
, 
110
, 
127
, 
147
, 
157
Cold, the, 
95
, 
96
, 
98
care, 
98
cause, 
97
drugging, 
96
, 
98
eating, 
98
fasting, 
98
poem, 
96
prevention, 
97
secondary cause, 
97–98
Colitis, 
83
, 
94
, 
133
, 
134
mucous, 
134
, 
138
spastic, 
134
ulcerative, 
140
Colon, parts, of, 
133
Common Cold (See Cold)
Comparisons and/or contrasts, 
35–36
, 
72–73
, 
124
Compensation, 
35
, 
59
, 
78
Conjunctivitis, 
94
148Constipation, 
83
Copavin, 
98
, 
139
Cortisone, 
47
, 
108
, 
112
, 
139
, 
141
Coughing, 
83
Crane, Milo, 
59
, 
65
Crisis, 
98
Cure and Curing, 
46
, 
98
baths, 
111
“climate cure,” 
104
, 
105
, 
123
diet, 
50
, 
64–66
, 
98
drugging, 
41
, 
45
, 
82–83
, 
89
, 
98
, 
110
, 
111–112
, 
117
, 
121
, 
125
manipulation, 
110
no need for, 
46–47
no real cure, 
46
search for, 
47
surgery, 
117–118
, 
125
word traced, 
46
Cystitis, 
104
, 
144
, 
125
Dagnini, Giorgio, 
131
, 
132
Darbishire, A. D., 
46
Death, 
63
, 
73
Decompensation, 
130
 (See The Heart)
Degeneration of tissues, 
30–31
Dehydration, 
31
Deihs, harold, 
95
, 
98
Depressing the nervous system, 
79
, 
121
, 
125
Deterioration, 
51
, 
155
Determination, persistence, 
113
Diabetes, 
95
Diarrhea, 
33
, 
57
, 
83–84
, 
96
, 
134
, 
137
Diathesis 
105
, 
111
, 
157
Diet, 
22
, 
117
, 
167
after fasting, 
64–67
bland, 
117
of children, 
82–83
, 
117
Digestion, 
64–65
, 
78
, 
79
Disease and Diseases, 
45–46
, 
63
, 
73
, 
83
, 
96
acute, 
33
, 
50
, 
58
, 
63
, 
83–85
, 
89–90
, 
91
, 
96
care of, 
46
, 
58
, 
90–91
basis, one; diseases many, 
68
, 
108
, 
109
, 
110
, 
111
benefited by fasting, 
45–46
cause, 
47
, 
48
, 
68
, 
107
, 
111
149children’s, 
83–85
chronic, 
50
, 
58
, 
63
, 
92
, 
93
, 
138
cure, cures, curing, 
46–47
, 
48
not needed, 
47
deficiency, 
29
degenerative, 
96
drugs in, 
41
, 
89
, 
121
, 
125
evolution of, 
96
, 
115–116
fasting in, 
93
, 
94
, 
112
 (See Fasting)
incipient, 
19
inflammatory, 
84
, 
94
, 
133–134
, 
139
, 
141
, 
144
inflammatory stage, 
84
, 
100
irreversible stage, 
75
, 
140
palliation, 
107
drugs, 
45
, 
117
, 
125
, 
166
fasting, 
147
food, 
117
manipulations, 
59
, 
60
, 
110
prevention, 
92
, 
93
recovery, 
45
, 
92
, 
93
, 
98
, 
100
, 
102
, 
113
, 
151
, 
155
recurrence, 
143
remedial nature of, 
48
, 
90
, 
98
secondary causes, 
105–111
self-limited, 
127
, 
149
spontaneous recovery, 
98
supervision, 
52
terminal stage, 
63
Diuresis, 
132
Drug addicts, 
121
Drugs, 
45
 (See Palliation)
Duncan, Garfield, 
24
Duodenal ulcer, 
115
 (See Ulcers)
Duodenitis, 
94
Dyspnea, 
104
Eating, Compulsive, 
32
Eczema, 
45
, 
143
Edema, 
57
, 
129
, 
130
Efficiency of nature, 
30
Elimination, 
38
, 
84
, 
97–98
Emaciation, 
78
, 
79
Encephalitis Lethargica, 
153
Endocarditis, 
46
150Endocrine Glands, 
164
adrenal, 
125
, 
126
imbalance of, 
164
pituitary, 
125
, 
126
thyroid, 
125
, 
126
Endurance, 
66
Enemas, 
137
Enervation, 
68
, 
83
, 
97
, 
153
Enteroptosis, 
134
Enzymes, 
29
, 
68
Epilepsy, 
46
Ergotamine, 
121
Excesses, 
125
, 
153
 (See also Satiety)
Excretion, 
37
, 
38
, 
84
Exercise, 
80
Exhilaration, 
26
, 
40
Experiments, 
75
, 
76
faulty, 
30
medication, 
95
wet clothing, drafts, 
97
Expert supervision, 
22–23
, 
26
, 
52
, 
54
, 
63–67
, 
80
, 
83
, 
85
 (See Fasting)
Fasts and fasting, 
41–42
, 
46
, 
57–58
, 
59
accomplishments, 
29
, 
30
, 
39
, 
71–72
, 
75–77
animals, 
18
 (See Animals)
assimilation/excretion, simultaneous, 
37–38
basis for, 
17
, 
21
breaking, 
63–67
 (See Breaking the Fast)
children (See Children)
contraindicated, 
51
, 
95
, 
128
crisis, 
56
death during 
43
, 
44–45
dehydration, 
24
, 
25
, 
31
, 
57
, 
60–61
temperature of water, 
61
, 
85
developments, 
53
, 
54–57
comfort, 
23–24
, 
26
, 
54
diarrhea, 
57
discomfort, 
23–24
, 
54–55
, 
56–57
, 
62
feeling of strength, 
40
, 
41
, 
56
feeling of weakness, 
40
, 
56
fever symptoms, 
55
muscle atrophy, 
31
nausea and vomiting, 
56–57
151pasty mouth, tongue, 
55
urine, 
39
, 
55
, 
130
, 
131
weakness, 
42
weight loss, 
23
, 
25
, 
30–31
, 
56
disease (See Diseases)
duration, 
28
, 
29
, 
31
, 
42
, 
52
, 
53
, 
54
, 
64
, 
79–80
, 
106
effective, 
21
, 
36
, 
37
, 
45–46
, 
49
, 
71
, 
72
, 
76–77
, 
80
, 
90
, 
94
, 
95
, 
102
, 
119
, 
120
, 
163
exercise, 
25
, 
41
, 
42
, 
60
, 
66
expert supervision, 
22–23
, 
26
, 
31
, 
42
, 
51
, 
52
, 
53
, 
58
, 
61
, 
63–67
, 
80
, 
83
, 
85
, 
95
, 
112
, 
132
fasting is, 
17
, 
18
, 
21
, 
22
, 
25
, 
26
, 
46
, 
58–60
, 
71
, 
92
fasting is not, 
17
, 
30
, 
45
, 
46
, 
48
, 
49
, 
58
, 
92
, 
126
, 
147
, 
150
fat utilized, 
30
, 
38
, 
162
, 
163
fatty cells, a storage place, 
38
, 
72
fear, 
51
, 
59
, 
81
gastric irritation, 
32
, 
34
, 
93
heroic case, 
19–21
history of, 
18–19
how? complete rest, 
28
, 
59–60
, 
127
, 
128
no interruptions, 
58
no treatments, 
60–61
hunger, 
32
disappearance, 
32
reappearance, 
63
, 
64
where felt, 
32
individualized, 
49–50
, 
80
, 
101
, 
105
, 
106
ineffectual, 
39
, 
45
, 
51
, 
72
, 
80
, 
119
, 
161
, 
165
infants and young children 
81–85
insane patients, 
93
instinctive (See Animals, Infants, Insane)
interruptions, 
53
, 
54
, 
55
, 
64
long fasts, 
53
, 
106
, 
132
misunderstood, 
13
, 
56
, 
70
muscle atrophy, 
31
nature at work, 
109
absorption, of infections, 
94
autolysis, 
29
, 
37
, 
162
 (See Autolysis)
economy, 
29
, 
30
emphasis changed, 
28
, 
58
, 
94
nine basic steps
preparation, 
52
, 
59
rest, 
59
, 
60
, 
129
152activity, 
60
warmth, 
60
water, 
60
, 
61
bathing, 
61
sunbathing, 
61
, 
62
purges, 
62
suffering, 
62
opposition, 
21
, 
52
, 
58
, 
94
plants and food scarcity, 
27
preventive, 
50
, 
76
, 
91
, 
93
, 
141
rally and relapse, 
41
reasons for
four reasons, 
35–36
, 
71–72
, 
80
physical, 
19
, 
23
, 
30–31
political, 
18
, 
76
religious, 
17
, 
18
, 
19
role, 
21
, 
46
, 
49
, 
54
, 
75
, 
76
safe, 
23
, 
24
, 
25
, 
51
, 
53
, 
167
short fasts, 
50
, 
51
, 
53
, 
54
, 
64
, 
80
, 
106
, 
122
when? 49
, 
50
, 
84
, 
92
, 
98
where? 51
, 
52
Fear, 
105
, 
118
, 
156
Feeding plan, 
65–67
Fermentation, 
84
, 
85
Feverishness, 
83
Flores, Ralph, 
26
, 
28
Food and Feeding, 
50
, 
67–70
, 
77–79
, 
81–83
acute disease into chronicity, 
50
, 
91–92
after fasting, 
65–70
carbohydrates, 
80
, 
127
cooked food, 
69
dangers of, 
89
dying patient, 
44
food vs. nutrition, 
77–79
forced feeding, 
50
, 
90
fragmented, 
68–69
fruits, 
82
hydrocarbons, 
69
minerals, 
30
, 
69
not a palliative, 
117
overeating, 
67
, 
70
, 
77
, 
80
processed, 
68
-70, 
80
153proteins, 
68
, 
69
, 
70
, 
79–80
, 
110
raw foods, 
68
, 
69
, 
80
refined, 
68
, 
69–70
synthetic, 
68
underfeeding, 
29
vegetables, 
66
, 
68–69
, 
82
vitamins, 
30
, 
70
, 
82
Frigidity, 
21
Fruit, 
65–66
, 
69
, 
82
Fungation (Cancer), 
116
Funk, 
77
Gallstones, (Cholelithiasis), 
157
cause, 
157
, 
158
fasting, 
159
surgery, 
159
, 
160
Gastric Acidity, 
118
Gastric irritation, 
118
Gastric juices (HCL and Pepsin), 
114
, 
115
Gastric ulcer, 
115
 (See Peptic ulcer)
Gastritis, 
83
, 
84
, 
94
, 
134
Gastrocolic reflex, 
65
Gastroenterostomy, 
118
Gastrointestinal putrefaction, 
111
Gastrourinary tract, 
94
Genitourinary disease, 
144
Glaucoma, 
46
Glycogen, 
28
Gonorrhea, 
148
cleanliness, 
148–150
fasting, 
148
, 
150
good behavior, 
149
water, internally and externally, 
150
Gourmandizing, 
67
Gout, 
111
Graham, Sylvester, 
37
Gross. Robert, 
47
Gruel, 
50
Habit, 
68
devitalizing, 
80
Hay Fever, 
94
, 
122
, 
123
, 
124
Headache, 
32
, 
55
, 
120
154Healing, 
47
, 
48
, 
49
, 
60
, 
140
broken bones, 
47
histogenesis, 
48
spontaneous, 
45
, 
48
Hearing, restoration, 
71
Heart, the, 
71
, 
105
, 
130
, 
131
decompensation, 
129
, 
130
diseases, 
63
, 
127
, 
131
drugging, 
41
, 
131
fasting, 
36
, 
127
, 
128–129
supervisory care, 
132
valves, 
128
Hepatic Colic, 
157
High Blood Pressure, 
124–126
drugging, 
125
explained, 
124
fasting, 
126
prevalence, 
124
Hoelzel, Frederick, 
75
Hunger,
absence, 
34
acute disease, 
33
, 
89
basic rule, 
33
chronic disease, 
63
not appetite, 
32
not irritation, 
34
where felt, 
31–32
Hunger Strike (Cork), 
127
Hunzas, 
82
Hydrochloric acid, 
114–115
Hygienic Concepts, 
33–34
, 
36
, 
45
, 
48
, 
50
, 
53
, 
54
, 
56
, 
58
, 
60–61
, 
67–70
, 
77
, 
80
, 
90
, 
91
, 
95
, 
96
,
97
, 
98
, 
105
, 
111
, 
116
, 
123
, 
126
, 
134–135
, 
141
, 
158
, 
165–166
Hygienic responsibility, 
67
Hygienists, 
21
, 
22
, 
50
, 
55
, 
89
, 
97
Hyperacidity, 
116–117
Hyperplasia, 
99
Hypertension, essential, 
124
, 
125
Hypertrophy, 
146
Ileitis, 
94
Immunization, 
67
Impotence, 
21
Indigestion, 
83–85
, 
135
155Induration, 
116
 (See Definitions)
Inflammation, 
84
, 
108
, 
112
, 
115
, 
115–117
, 
122
, 
133
, 
134
, 
139
, 
141–142
, 
144
, 
158
need for rest in, 
112
Ingelfinger, 
140
Ingenuity of nature, 
30
Inoculation, 
83
Insects, 
18
, 
74
 (See Animals)
Instinctive procedures, 
34
, 
64
, 
70
, 
93
Insulin, 
95
Internal reserve stores, 
28
, 
29
, 
30
, 
128
 (See also Fasting)
Irreducible activity, 
28
Irritation, 
34
, 
37
, 
105
, 
115
, 
116
, 
117
, 
118
, 
139
, 
142
, 
144
Jaundice, 
158
Jeferson, Joseph, 
41
Kidneys, 
155–157
Kirsner, 
140
Klaben, Helen, 
26
, 
28
Lindlahr, Henry, 
65
Lithemic diathesis, 
157
Liver, 
158
, 
159
Locomotor Ataxia, 
46
Low, Gilman, 
42
Lumbago, 
109
, 
147
Lymph, 
37
, 
38
Macfadden, Bernarr, 
42
, 
161
MacSwiney, Terence, 
127
Maintenance, of weight, 
67
Malaise, 
34
, 
91
Malignancy, 
140
Manipulation, 
110
Manganese poisoning, 
153
Marrow, bone, 
28
Maxims, 
34
, 
83
, 
103
, 
120
, 
127
, 
165
, 
166
Mayo, William J., 
113
McCarrison, 
82
Melon, 
66
Metabolic waste, 
74
Metabolism, 
72
, 
79
, 
166
anabolism, 
72
, 
79
catabolism, 
72
156Metaplasmic materials, 
72
Metritis, 
94
, 
104
Migraine (Megrim), 
120
, 
121
, 
122
, 
124
fasting, 
122
post-fast supervision, 
122
suffering, 
120
symptoms, 
120
Milk, sour, 
72
Minerals, 
29
, 
75
, 
76
, 
77
Misconceptions, 
17–18
, 
32
, 
35
, 
40
, 
41
, 
43
, 
46
, 
49
, 
51
, 
56
, 
61
, 
62
, 
69
, 
97
, 
98
, 
106
, 
114
, 
115
, 
117
,
122–123
, 
149
Mistakes of conventional treatment, 
107
allergy, 
122
, 
123
anorexia ignored, 
41
curing, 
46–47
, 
96–97
drugs, 
41
, 
47
, 
89
, 
110
, 
121
feeding, 
33
, 
117
gallstones, 
158
high blood pressure, 
125
immunity to gonorrhea, 
149
multiple sclerosis, 
101
palliation, 
107
 (See Palliaton)
peptic ulcer, 
117
 (See Peptic ulcer)
Mitral stenosis, 
131
Moderation in eating, 
69
, 
70
Mucus, 
57
, 
84
, 
89
, 
106
, 
133
, 
135
Mucous membrane, 
84
, 
94
, 
133
, 
137
Multiple sclerosis, 
99
, 
100
early care desirable, 
100
, 
101–102
improvement, 
99
, 
102
several fasts, 
102
spontaneous remissions, 
100
symptoms
early, 
100
later, 
100
Mustard oil, 
176
Myelin sheath, 
100
Myocardial sclerosis, 
157
Natural Hygiene, 
90
, 
103
opposition to, 
13
Nature at work,
economy of, 
29
, 
30
157emphasis changed, 
28
, 
58
, 
94
in fasting, 
29
internal food stores, 
29
, 
30
, 
33
, 
58
, 
163
orderliness of, 
91
Nausea, 
56
, 
83
, 
120
, 
135
, 
165
, 
166
Nephritis (Bright’s disease) 
44
, 
46
, 
110
, 
155
, 
156
Nervous energy, 
33
Nervous exhaustion/collapse, 
79
Nervous system, 
36
, 
125
Neurasthenia, 
151
Neuritis, 
46
New York Evening Graphic
, 
161
Nitrogen, 
78
balance, 
78
hunger, 
78
Noise, 
83
Normal weight, 
80
Nourishment, 
77
Nutrition, 
37
, 
79
, 
80
, 
105
, 
110
Nuts and Seeds, 
70
Nyastagmus, 
100
Oils, and fats, 
70
, 
78
Osborn, Mendel and Thomson, 
78
Oswald, Felix, 
18
, 
27
, 
36
Otitis, 
94
Overeating, 
25
, 
63
, 
68
, 
70
, 
78
, 
80
, 
82
, 
105
, 
110
, 
117
, 
145
Overweight, 
22
, 
23
, 
25
, 
71
, 
80
, 
124
cause, 
25
Overwork, 
67–68
Oxidation, 
65
Oxygen, 
20
, 
58
, 
116
deprivation, 
20
Page, Charles E., 
41
, 
42
, 
50
, 
51
Palliation, 
107
, 
110
, 
112
, 
145
, 
147
drugs, 
117
, 
145
fasting, 
147
food, 
117
surgery, 
145–146
x-rays, 
145
Pancreas, 
116
Paralysis Agitans (Parkinson’s), 
152
158cause, 
153
, 
154
sysmptoms, 
151
Parkinson, James, 
151
Pastry, 
84
Pathological evolution, 
115–116
Pellagra, 
29
Penicillin, 
148
, 
149
Pepsin, 
114
Peptic ulcer, 
114
, 
117
, 
119
causes, 
114
, 
115
, 
116
fasting, 
119
feeding, 
117
hyeracidity, 
116
surgery, 
113
Peristalsis, 
64–65
Persistence, 
113
Physiological compensation, 
35–36
Physiological rest, 
36
, 
48
, 
76
Physiology, 
70
Pituitary gland, 
125
, 
126
Plants in food scarcity, 
26
Pleurisy, 
89
Pneumonia, 
41
, 
83
, 
89
, 
90
, 
105
Poise, emotional, 
80
Pope Leo XIII, 
91
Post-fasting period
food, 
64–70
new habits, 
67–70
supervision, 
63–67
Pregnancy, 
165–167
fasting in, 
51
, 
166
, 
167
nature’s supervision, 
166
, 
167
Processes, functional, 
47
, 
48
listed, 
48
Proctitis, 
134
Progression of disease, 
96
 (See Disease, evolution of)
Prognosis, favorable, 
159–160
Prostatic disorders, 
144
cause, 
145
, 
146
effects, 
144
fasting, 
70
, 
146
, 
147
relapse, 
146
, 
147
159surgery, 
146
Prostatitis, 
146
Proteins, 
22
, 
29
, 
66
, 
68
, 
69
, 
78
, 
79
, 
80
, 
102
Psoriasis and Eczema, 
140
, 
143
bathing, 
142
, 
143
causes, 
141
dietetic errors, 
142
fast, supervised, 
140
Psychosis, depressive, 
135
Psychotics, 
135
Putrefaction, 
83
, 
111
, 
139
Pyloric inflammation, 
119
Pylorus, 
114
, 
118
, 
119
Rabogliati, A., 
21
Rally—Relapse, 
40–41
Raynaud's disease, 
46
Recovery, 
67–68
, 
113
, 
119
full, 
102
, 
153–154
partial, 
151
Recuperation, 
66
Regeneration, 
29
, 
75–76
Rejuvenation, 
29
, 
36
, 
71–72
, 
75–77
Rest, 
59–60
, 
92
mental, 
59
physical, 
36
, 
59
, 
100
physiological, 
35
, 
48
, 
80
 (See Fasting)
sensory, 
60
Rickets, 
29
Rules of hygiene, 
33
, 
50
, 
53
, 
59
, 
119
Salad, 
66
, 
69
Salt (Sodium chloride), 
129
, 
130
Satiety, 
111
, 
153
Scar tissue, 
119
Sciatica, 
110
, 
147
Sclerosis, 
100
, 
131
 (See also Multiple Sclerosis)
Scurvy, 
29
Self-control, 
22
, 
63
, 
113
Self-repair, 
73
Sex, 
71
, 
114
, 
125
sexual excesses, 
114
, 
125
, 
145
, 
153
Shelton, H. M.
160first fast, 
59
longest fast, 
19
, 
53
own fasts, 
23–24
supervisor, 
19
, 
41
, 
53
teenage anecdote, 
34
Singh, Tara, 
76
Sinusitis, 
20
, 
93
, 
94
Soft drinks, 
67
, 
82
, 
83
Spasma, 
84
Spontaneous remissions, 
100
Starvation, 
17–18
, 
30
, 
31
, 
43
, 
81
cases, 
43–45
Stasis, 
116
, 
130
renal, 
130
Steinach, 
77
Stenosis, 
146
Sterility, 
164
, 
165
absolute, 
165
overcome, 
165
Stimulation, 
60
, 
84
Stones, 
111
, 
159
 (See Calculi)
Strangury, 
146
Strength returns, 
41
 (See Fasting)
Sufferer, 
62
, 
63
, 
81
Sunbathing, 
61–62
, 
80
, 
102
, 
107
Sweet fruits, 
70
, 
82
Symptoms, 
96
, 
114
, 
120
, 
135
, 
151–152
distal, 
96
oculoplegic. 120
proximal, 
96
psychic, 
120
Systemic impairment, 
125
Systems of the body at rest, 
36
names of, 
36
Tanner, Henry S., 
16
Tea, 
110
, 
125
, 
127
, 
147
Tensions, 
125
Terminal cases, 
45
, 
63
Thyroid gland, 
125
, 
126
Tic douloureux, 
46
Tilden, John H., 
36
, 
46
, 
95
, 
96
, 
114
Tissue, fatty, 
78
161Tobacco, 
33
, 
105
, 
110
, 
125
, 
147
, 
149
, 
154
Tonsils enlarged, 
83
Toxemia, 
96
, 
106
, 
110
, 
123
Toxemic supersaturation, 
74
, 
89
, 
123
Tremors, 
151
, 
152
, 
154
, 
162
in Parkinson’s, 
151
in other diseases, 
151
Tuberculosis, 
63
, 
96
Tumor, cancerous, 
39
Tumors (neoplasms, benign), 
162
, 
163
classified, 
162
fasting, 
162
, 
163
breast, 
162
absorption, rate of, 
163
growth, 
163
Ulceration, 
114
, 
115
, 
116
Ulcers, 
113
, 
116
cause, 
115
development, 
116
fasting for, 
118–119
gastric, 
114
, 
115
other, 
115
symptoms, 
114
treatment, 
117–118
varicose, 
45
, 
115
Underfeeding, 
29
Unsolved question, 
74
Underweight, 
79
, 
81
cause, 
79
fasting, 
79–80
total hygiene for, 
80
Urticaria, 
45
Vetrano, Dr. Virginia, 
64
Vitamins, 
29
, 
68
, 
70
, 
82
, 
91
Vomiting, 
56–57
, 
83
, 
84
, 
120
, 
165
, 
166
Voronoff, 
77
Walter, Robert, 
35
Water, temperature of
bathing, 
61
, 
150
drinking, 
61
, 
84
, 
150
162Weakness
feeling of, 
40
, 
56
real, 
152
Weger, George S., 
45
, 
46
, 
94
, 
119
, 
121
, 
159
Weight gain, 
66
, 
77–80
Weight loss, 
24
, 
35
, 
56
, 
63
, 
67
exercise permitted during fast, 
25–26
experiments, 
24
rate of, 
24
seven advantages in fasting, 
23
supervision, 
22
, 
26
When, where and how to fast (See Fasting)
WHO, 
148
, 
149
Wilsons's disease, 
152
X-ray, inconclusive, 
114
Youth, protracted, 
77
163About the Author
No one was 
ever better qualified to write a book about fasting for health. Having supervised
more fasts than anyone in recent history, Herbert M. Shelton ranks among the foremost authorities
on this subject. For over fifty years, he managed his own institution where people from all parts of
the world, in varying states of health and impairment, came to fast and learn how to preserve
health. Born in 1895, Herbert M. Shelton was a persistent and uncompromising student and teacher of
Natural Hygiene. Early in life, he discovered the errors and inconsistencies of all the various
therapeutic systems and began to explore, on his own, the ramifications of the fact that health is
maintainable only by healthful living. A prolific writer, he authored innumerable articles and more than 40 books. He was both editor
and publisher of the 
Hygienic Review
 from 1939–1980. For more than 50 years he was the
director of Dr. Shelton’s Health School. Here he pursued his foremost goal of eliminating peoples’
fear and ignorance of disease and teaching them how they could help themselves to the health
which is their birthright. 164Learn how to live the healthiest, happiest life possible! Join the National Health Association! NHA Member Benefits:
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Fasting_Can_Save_Your_Life_by_Herbert_M._Shelton.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Ambition, as much as necessity, can drive a man to overwork. The desire to make money, to
have money to spend, is a driving force in the life of many people that causes them to bum the
midnight oil. Overeating, sexual excesses, indulgence in the various poison-vices, emotional
unrest, lack of rest and sleep—these and many other enervating influences in the life of man bring
on a state of nervous fatigue. Manganese poisoning will produce tremors and there is some evidence that spinal irritation, as
seen in spinal curvature, may sometimes enter into these cases causitively. Tremor is said to have
been a common aftermath of 
encephalitis lethargica
, a disease that is very rare today, except as an
aftermath of smallpox vaccination. Medical authorities say that there is no remedy for paralysis agitans. In general, I agree with this
verdict. But I have had recoveries apart from medicines, drugs or surgery, and I have seen so many
cases make marked improvement during the course of a few weeks to a few months, that I am
convinced a majority if not all cases could recover if proper care were instituted at the first sign of
symptoms. I have never had an opportunity to care for a case from its beginning, but have received all such
cases after they were considerably advanced and had been drugged for three or more years. The
drugs employed to control the tremors undoubtedly further impair the brain and nerves. Cases following head injuries (traumatic cases) and those following 
encephalitis lethargica
 are
less favorable cases, but in non-traumatic cases, excellent results may be obtained in the great
majority of patients in a comparatively short time. But full recovery, where possible, is a matter of
months or even of years. It is not uncommon to see the cessation of all tremor in the first fast, only to have it recur when
eating is resumed. The tremor is less severe when it recurs after the fast. A second fast produces
the same results, with less tremor following this. A third fast is sometimes enough to result in a
lasting clearing up of the tremor. In some cases a fourth and even a fifth fast is required. It is impossible to say what percentage of these cases, especially in younger subjects, could
make a full recovery if they persisted long enough, but we rarely expect more than marked
improvement in men and women nearing or past seventy, who have had the disease for several
years. Eating between the fasts in these cases must be limited. The diet should be composed largely of
fresh fruits and fresh (perferably uncooked) vegetables, with nuts or an unprocessed mild cheese
for protein. Bread, animal foods, rich viands, salt, condiments, coffee, teas, cocoa, and similar
beverages should be avoided completely. All alcohol, smoking and other use of tobacco should be avoided. An abundance of rest and
sleep are specially important. Sun baths are helpful, but should not be indulged to the point of
enervation. I make it a practice of giving these patients light exercises—movements requiring skill
rather than strength in their performance—as soon as they are off their fast. 13133
Nephritis
“Your child has six weeks to live; we can do no more for her. ” The voice was that of the physician
who acted as spokesman for several physicians who had taken part in a consultation. The place: a
modern hospital. The little nine-year-old girl who was the subject of the decision was suffering with nephritis. She had been in the hospital for about two weeks and was bloated from head to foot with an
accumulation of water (dropsy), a development that is characteristic of advanced stages of this
disease. As far as they were concerned she was finished—a nine-year-old nothing. The parents of the child were not willing to give up. People are like that; they cling to hope, and
do not always accept a death sentence of this kind as final. The mother suggested taking the girl
from the hospital and trying 
elsewhere. The physician said: “You are free to take her anywhere you
wish and try whatever you think may help. We can do no more. ”
The girl was removed from the hospital, but no other physician was found who would take
charge of the case. Taking the child on her lap, the mother sat in the back seat of the car while the father drove a
hundred-and-twenty-five miles to a 
Hygienic
 institution. Arriving there, the father carried the child
inside and presented the hopelessness of the case to the director. “I cannot promise much,” said the 
Hygienist
, “but we’ll try. ” After fully going over the history
and symptoms of the case, he told the desperate parents, “We are going to give her a chance to
recover. I believe she can. ”
The suffering child was put to bed and all food withheld. Water was given in infrequent sips. Almost over night the edema began to decline. It passed out in the urine and in watery stools, and,
after a few days, some of the solid matter contained in it was expelled by means of skin eruptions. Soon wrists and ankles that were as large, or larger, than her legs were down to normal size. A
little girl who looked like a rubber baby blown up to oversize was down to “skin and bones. ”
After two weeks of fasting, feeding was resumed. She was fed on fruits and vegetables at first,
with starches, sugars and proteins added after a few days of juicy fruits and leafy vegetables. From
this time forward her progress, although slow, was satisfactory. At the end of nine months the little
girl was dismissed. After the passage of several years the same little girl, now married, again visited the 
Hygienist
and was in a state of splendid health. She had developed into a beautiful young woman and was
proud of her exuberant health. There had been no more trouble with her kidneys; indeed, she never
experienced sickness of any nature and was holding down a responsible position. Can we say that this recovery is typical. No. Most cases of Bright’s disease or nephritis, are in
older men and women and the deterioration of the kidneys is greater than in the case of this young
girl, so that all patients do not recover so readily or so quickly—and some of them do not recover
at all. But this case does reveal that death is not always inevitable because the case has been
declared to be 
incurable. It reveals the amazing things the body can do for itself in the way of restoration of structure and
function when it is given a fair opportunity. This dying child was not “treated” into good health;
she made her own spontaneous recovery without the dubious assistance of any therapeutic
132measure. Richard Bright, a British physician prominent in the first half of the nineteenth century, noted that
the last illness of many men was attended by the appearance of albumen in the urine or uremic
poisoning. He 
investigated the condition of the kidneys in these cases and discovered a
degenerated state that was responsible for the symptoms. Although this condition is technically
known as nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys) the disease has long been called Bright’s disease
after the man who first described it. Actually, from a practical point of view, we are not so much concerned about the degenerative
changes that take place in the kidneys, when albumen and granular and bloody casts appear in the
urine or when there is suppression of the urine. When we are confronted with evidences of uremic
poisoning, instead of worrying about the nature of the changes in the kidneys, we need first to think
of the living habits of the patient. Faulty, excessive practices may have caused the degeneration of
kidneys and all the other organs that are involved in the deterioration. Few chronic diseases arouse so much fear and apprehension in the patient’s mind as chronic
Bright’s disease. Yet there is no chronic disease that so quickly improves, and from which the
patient is so likely to make a full recovery as a consequence of a fast, proper feeding and general
Hygienic
 care. These simple changes, however, in the way of life must be made before the
deterioration to the kidneys has reached an irreversible stage. The reason for the terror that a diagnosis of Bright’s disease commonly causes is based on the
fact that the cause of the disease is not removed. Nephritis or Bright’s disease does not develop, neither in the acute nor in the chronic form, in
those of abstemious habits of living. It is a disease of high livers and continuous stuffers. Many
drugs produce inflammation of the kidneys and those who are always drugging themselves may
have to pay for their folly by evolving a serious degenerative change in the kidneys that will
shorten their life. It is well known in professional circles that today the possession of typically healthy kidneys is
rare in adults. Great numbers of people who die of other diseases have been made liable to these
other diseases by the impaired state of their kidneys. A fast in this condition need not always be a lengthy one. Ten days, two weeks, sometimes three
weeks, are usually enough. The condition of the kidneys quickly clears when fasting is instituted. The albumen disappears from the urine, casts and blood clear up. The symptoms of urine poisoning
—headaches, vertigo, frequent and copious urination, bed wetting, getting up frequently at night,
suppressed urine, and scanty urine—soon cease. The urine becomes normal in color and odor and
everything points to the resumption of normal excretion. The regeneration of the kidneys that takes place after the fast is broken will be more thorough,
more complete and more rapid if the diet is abstemious and composed of fresh fruits and leafy
vegetables with but moderate quantities of the heavier foods. Onions, garlic, chives, shallots, leaks, mustard, radishes, cress and other foods containing
mustard oil, which irritate the kidneys, should be omitted from the diet. Grain products are also
best omitted. Flesh, meat extracts, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, tea, coffee, cocoa and
chocolate are not to be thought of for the man whose kidneys are seriously impaired. Excessive
water drinking can serve no useful purpose. Give the kidneys a chance to repair themselves and
they will not disappoint you. 13334
Gallstones
Cholelithiasis
 is the term applied to the formation of stones in the gall bladder and bile ducts. These are derived either partly or entirely from the constituents of the bile, the principal element
being cholesterin which precipitates in crystalline form and combines with inspissated mucus. Although the stones can be a source of much discomfort, and in passing, may be the occasion for
excruciating pain their presence is frequently unrecognized and man may live for years and die of
some other disease without ever knowing he has them. They are found at autopsy in people who
never complained of symptoms that led to a suspicion of stones. Some individuals have what is termed the 
lithemic diathesis
, by which is meant that they have a
tendency to build concretions in the form of kidney or bladder stones or biliary calculi when their
health is markedly impaired. Stones may form, in fact, in almost any part of the body—in the
pancreas, in the muscles, in the eyelids, on the valves of the heart, even around the heart, and in the
arteries. Gallstones seem to be more likely to form in the obese than in thin subjects, perhaps
because there is a greater tendency of these obese individuals to overeat. What is called hepatic colic is excruciating pain in the abdomen, in the region of the liver or
gall bladder occasioned by the passage of a stone. Calculi may be so small that they easily pass
through the gall duct, in which case they are expelled without the patient ever knowing that he has
any stones. They may be too large to move into the gall duct, in which case they are not passed. Or they may
be of a size that they are passed through the duct 
with great difficulty, and cause intense pain. The
pain starts suddenly at the instant the stone begins to be passed from the gall bladder into the cystic
duct. Agonizing in character, it is transmitted to various parts of the abdomen and chest, often
being felt in the right shoulder. Or the duct may be obstructed by a stone and a few symptoms result, even jaundice being absent. Disease of the gall bladder itself may eventually result from the presence of the stone. If the
common duct is obstructed by a stone, there is persistent jaundice, paroxysms of pain, with the
occurrence of ague-like periods of chills and fever. Often called a gall-valve condition, this may
persist for months or years. Pain killing drugs and operations are the common modes of treating this condition, but neither of
these remove basic causes. To remove a gallstone and pronounce the patient 
cured
 is tantamount to
saying that the gallstone is its own cause. Failure to remove the cause results in the formation of more stones. Unfortunately, it is assumed
that the cause of gallstone is unknown, so that the operation leaves the patient still sick and still
manifesting many of his symptoms. What is wrong with the person who has gallstones. He has a general state of irritation and
inflammation of his digestive tract, involving the gallbladder and the liver, with impaired
digestion. He is enervated and toxemic. His bile is not of normal constitution and this permits the
preciptation of its mineral elements. There develops a functional impairment of the liver. This persists until there is enough alteration of the normal secretion (bile) so that the mineral
elements contained in this are not held in suspension, but are precipitated, forming gravels or
stone. Gallstones and kidney stones are basically the same. The symptoms differ as the organs in
134which the stones form differ. Organs lend individuality to symptom-complexes. Imprudent eating and heavy eating of carbohydrate foods by the enervated and toxemic, and a
lack of exercise, are chief among the causes that produce gastrointestinal and biliary irritation
leading to stone formation. They do not develop in healthy individuals, but in those who have
broken down their health by years of wrong living. Nobody would ever have gallstones from
infancy and throughout his life if he lived right. There can be but one way to restore health and this is to remove all causes of disease and
restore the liver to good health, after which normal bile will disintegrate the stones. The proper
care is to go to bed and relax, keep the feet warm and abstain from food until there is a distinct
demand for food—until the return of hunger. When eating is resumed, it should be restricted to uncooked fruits and vegetables for a week or
two weeks. The patient should be carefully restricted to proper food combinations when regular
eating is resumed. Eating proteins and starches at the same meal is a prolific source of gastro-
intestinal irritation. In my opinion there is no necessity to operate for gallstones. Normal nutrition is not restored by
removing an effect of impaired nutrition. The great and growing army of postoperative invalids
attest to the fact that operations on organs of the body do not restore health. Too many organs are
removed that could be saved by the simple expediency of draining them by means of the fast. Instead of surgically draining the gall bladder, a fast will enable the body to perform an
excellent job of drainage and do it in a way to leave the gall bladder intact and unharmed. For days
and nights, often, these patients will pass bile through the bowels and by vomiting. The patient has not been restored to health when his gallstones have been removed. The
observing individual knows that he is still sick and still manifests many of his old symptoms and
often many new ones. The purpose of correct care of the patient with gallstones is to restore
normal liver function so that bile chemistry may become normal again and cease precipitating the
mineral elements and thus end the making of stones. In a few weeks then, the normal bile will cause a disintegration of the stones already formed, the
sand will pass into the intestines and will be voided. As the liver cannot be restored to health
without restoring the whole body to health, no treatment directed at the liver will serve these ends. A general or systemic housecleaning followed by a genuine health-building program is essential. Perhaps I can do no better than end this chapter with a quotation from Geo. S. Weger, M. D. ,
who had an extensive experience with gallstones, both as a regular physician and as a 
Hygienist. He says: “Given proper assistance, the chemistry of the body can be so altered that stones soften,
disintegrate, and pass out with but slight discomfort. We have treated many cases and seldom have
we found it necessary to resort to surgery. It is a remarkable fact that this softening occurs very
rapidly on a complete fast. Frequently patients coming for treatment for different ailments develop
hepatic colic from the eighth to the tenth day of fasting. “In these, the presence of gallstones may never have been suspected. The same is true of stones
in the kidneys. In recurrent attacks there is no treatment in the intervals to equal a diet restricted to
fresh fruits, salads, and cooked non-starchy vegetables. It can be safely predicted that there will be
no recurrence in those patients who follow instructions as to diet and exercise. In most instances if
the gall stone is not larger than a small olive it will become soft and pass out without resort to
surgery and its consequent risks. The exceptions are in those run-down people who have no
reserve vitality or courage left to sustain them for a reasonable time, while nature is establishing a
normal chemical balance. 135“Extreme caution and conservatism on the part of the physician is 
necessary in determining the
proper course in a given case. The process of recovery may seem slow but it is in reality
marvelously rapid compared with the long time it takes for the stones to form. While most cases
can get well by fasting and dieting and while such treatment is always in order, it must be borne in
mind that atrophy or gall bladder disease may be the result of longstanding, unrelieved cases. Without recourse to olive oil, bile salts, and the hundred and one remedies that are generally
prescribed, our percentage of non-surgical recoveries is so high as to warrant a favorable
prognosis if the patient cooperates in the removal of first causes. It should be borne in mind that
while surgical interference is often the only recourse, this procedure does not remove the cause of
gallstones nor prevent recurrences. Therefore correct diet and other accessory health measures are
just as necessary after operation as they were before. ”
13635
Tumors of the Breast
One of those rare young women, possessed of great beauty of form and features, just married and
alarmed about a growth of her left breast—a lump nearly as large as a billiard ball—had for four
months suffered considerable pain. She had not consulted a physician for fear he would pronounce
it cancer and want to remove her breast. It was 1927 and that year the country went through the first “cancer week. ” New York’s
newspapers carried columns each day about cancer and urged all people to see their physicians for
a check-up. Lumps, moles, bleeding, loss of weight and other such symptoms were indicative of
possible cancer. The propaganda was deliberately designed to frighten the public. The young woman, whose home was in White Plains, New York, was duly frightened. She
consulted a physician. He told her that she had cancer and that the breast would have to be
removed immediately. She did not want to lose her breast—she did not want to be disfigured. She consulted a second physician. He made the same diagnosis and urged immediate removal of
her breast. A third physician rendered an identical verdict. A fourth was consulted with the same
outcome: “The breast must come off at once. ”
But there was one paper in New York that did not carry the scare 
propaganda that was being
distributed from some central source. The New York 
Evening Graphic
, a Macfadden publication,
often assailed for many reasons, right and wrong, refused to join in the effort to frighten everybody. The present writer had a daily column in the 
Graphic. I devoted a column to the cancer propaganda and pointed out that many people who did not have
cancer were being frightened into operations. I denounced the fear program as a crime against the
welfare and sanity of the public. The young woman read my column and came in to see me. It was eight o’clock on a Friday evening when she entered my office. I examined her breast and
decided that she did not have cancer, but that she was suffering from an enlarged gland. I advised
her to fast. She took the advice. I instructed her to return to me at the same time on the following
Monday evening. When she came in on Monday evening she was a very happy woman, her face
wreathed with smiles. I invited her to sit down and without questioning her or waiting for her to
say anything, I said, “Go ahead and tell me the story. ”
It was a simple story, but it was a happy one. I have listened to similar stories many times
through the years that have since elapsed. ‘‘When I awoke this morning,” she said, “there was no
pain in my breast. There has been no pain all day. This evening at five o’clock, when I went to take
a bath, I said to my sister: ‘I would like to feel my breast to see if the lump is still there, but I’m
afraid to …’ My sister said: ‘Don’t be a child, go ahead and find out. ’ I investigated nervously and
it is gone. ”
I listened to the story with great satisfaction and took the note of her elation and relief. I
examined her breast and found no trace of the lump. The young woman remained under my care for
the remainder of two weeks and was discharged. I had occasional contact with this woman for thirteen years after her recovery and during this
period there was no recurrence of the “tumor. ” I have been able to maintain contact with
subsequent cases for as many as twenty years and they have suffered no recurrence of their
“cancers. ” Hers was one of two such “cancers” that fully recovered in three days. 137I have seen a large number recover in a week, several more to recover in two weeks, and many
to become free of their breast “cancers” in three to six weeks. I am sure that not all such cases of
“cancer” find their way to me or to my institution. There must be many thousands of them who
submit to operations every year, either for the removal of the lump or for removal of the whole
breast. I have seen enough of them to know that there is a wide difference between cancer and a
diagnosis of cancer. I am sure that these are the only kinds of “cancer” that are 
cured
 by early
surgery. I have never seen a case of undoubted cancer recover, no matter how cared for nor by whom. I
am convinced that cancer is an irreversible pathology and that the only remedy for the condition is
prevention. I am 
sure that it can be prevented and that this can be done by a well-ordered life, one
that maintains a high state of health at all times. I think that I should call attention to the fact that all four of the diagnoses in the case of the young
woman, which I have just described, were made without a biopsy, which is a procedure of taking
out some of the tissue of the lump or growth and examining it under the microscope. Each man
advised an operation upon the basis of a wild guess. The biopsy is far from infallible, often finding cancer where none exists, but it is probably far
more accurate than merely feeling of the breast, at these men did. Their diagnoses may be said to
have been made on suspicion. Or, perhaps they were merely floating with the propaganda tide. At
any rate, they all agreed without knowing the others’ diagnosis, that the young woman had cancer
of the breast and that an immediate operation was urgent. Fortunately for women, not more than one such lump out of ten thousand is cancer. Most of the
lumps will quickly clear up when the mode of living is corrected. Just as fasting causes the body to
use up its excess fat in nourishing the vital tissues so it causes the break down, by the process of
autolysis
, of growths or tumors (neoplasms) and uses the nutritive elements contained in these with
which to nourish the vital tissues. In like manner, dropsical swellings, edematous swellings, deposits and infiltrations are
absorbed and the usable portion are used as food; the non-usable portions are excreted. To understand this, it is necessary for the reader to know that tumors (new growths) are
composed of the same kinds of tissue of which the normal parts of the body are constituted. Tumors are named according to their composition. Thus a fatty tumor is called a 
lipoma
; a
muscular tumor is called a 
myoma
; a nerve tumor is called a 
neuroma
; a bone tumor is called an
ostemoma
; an 
epithelioma
 is made up of epithelial tissue; a 
fibroma
 or fibroid is composed of
fibrous tissue, etc. Being constituted of the same tissue as the normal structures of the body, when
they are broken down, they yield up the nutritive material contained in them. A woman was told that she had a fibroid tumor of the uterus about the size of a lemon, and that it
should be removed at once. This meant that her womb would be removed and that during surgery
reasons might be discovered for removing her ovaries. But this would not restore health. She would still be a sick woman. Operations remove no
causes. There would probably be a recurrence of tumor. She would also be a physiological
cripple. Cutting into the ovaries is like cutting into the brain. The patient rejected the operation and
resorted to the fast. Soon the tumor was absorbed and her organs were saved. One case that I cared for was a woman who had a uterine fibroid about the size of a medium
sized grapefruit. Complete absorption of the tumor was brought about in twenty-eight days. This
was an unusually rapid rate 
of absorption and I have never seen it take place so rapidly in another
138case. I have seen tumors in the breast, on the womb, in the abdomen, on the feet and elsewhere
absorbed while fasting, and some of these absorptions have been rapid while others have been
slow. One man who had a large tumor in the right lower abdomen, which had been diagnosed, by
means of a biopsy, as “giant cell sarcoma” (cancer) lost all of his sarcoma in seven days of
fasting. Of course he didn’t have cancer, but he did have a diagnosis. For reasons that are not yet fully understood, some tumors are not affected by the fast, but
thousands of tumors, some of them of considerable size, have been completely and permanently
removed by fasting. I have had the pleasure of saving hundreds of women from mutilating
operations for the removal of the breast, and many more from desexing operations for removal of
uterine fibroids. The process is identical with the removal of stores of fat in the tissues. There is
nothing mysterious about it. The layman who can understand how it is possible to reduce weight, losing large quantities of
fat in the process, by fasting, should have no difficulty in understanding how the body may also
free itself of other organized accumulations of structural materials while abstaining from food. Just as fat on any part of the body may be autolyzed and taken up by the lymph stream to be
mingled with the blood and used in nourishing the vital tissues of the organism while no food is
being taken, so other tissues may be digested in the same manner and used as food. Muscular
tissue, glandular tissue, and other tissues may be called upon to supply nutriment for the more vital
tissues, those that have to carry on the most essential functions of life. In like manner, the tissues that make up a tumor (neoplasm) are digested and absorbed, the
usable portions employed in nourishing the vital tissues, the non-usable portions excreted. 13936
Sterility in Women
The pattern of the case was simple and familiar: A young Italian woman had been married for five
years to a virile young man, also Italian. Both wanted children and had avoided all efforts at birth
control in the hope that pregnancy would take place. It did not. She consulted several physicians who assured her that her sterility was permanent. Her father-
in-law told her of the fast and of the possibility that it might help her. She consulted a 
Hygienist. “Will a fast enable me to become pregnant. ” she asked. It was explained to her that there are
different reasons for sterility and that some of them yield to the fast, others do not. After
interrogation, she was told that the probability was that a fast would enable her to become
pregnant. She underwent the fast. A few weeks after the fast was broken, she conceived and later bore a
bright, healthy boy. This is one case out of many of similar nature. Fasting has enabled many women to conceive
after years of sterility. Many of these women give a history of menstrual irregularities, profuse
flow, severe cramps that send them to bed each month, large clots, soreness of the breasts and
similar symptoms that indicate endocrine (ductless gland) imbalance, inflammation of the ovaries
or womb and nervous difficulties. Others give a history of metritis (inflammation of the lining of the womb) with a more or less
chronic vaginal discharge. In these latter cases, the discharge is often highly acid, sufficiently acid
to destroy the sperm. These are the types of cases that are most readily corrected and that are restored to health by a
period of physical, mental and physiological rest. Few cases of female sterility are absolute; most
of them are the outgrowth of conditions of disease and are remediable. Great numbers of women
have found the ability to conceive restored by a restoration to good health, and a large part of these
women have found the fast of inestimable value in the clearing up of conditions that prevented
conception. In passing, it may be well to mention that in those many cases of women who readily conceive,
but who abort, being unable to carry their baby to full term, a restoration of good health will
enable them to give birth to normal babies. A clearing up of the toxic state followed by greatly
improved nutrition enables them to avoid abortions. The most spectacular case of this kind that has come under the author’s observation was that of a
woman who had previously had twenty-eight spontaneous abortions. After a fast of ten days and a
period on a greatly improved diet, she became pregnant and at full term gave birth to a healthy boy. Delivery was normal. The length of fast required in cases of female sterility varies with the condition of the woman. I
recall the case of a comparatively young woman who had been married for ten years and had not
conceived, although no attempt had been made to avoid it. She suffered agonies with each
menstruation, going to bed every month and relieving her pains with drugs. A fast of ten days was sufficient to permanently end her menstrual difficulties and shortly after
the fast, she conceived for the first time, subsequently giving birth to a healthy baby boy. Another
woman much less vigorous and sick for a number of years, took several short fasts before she
140conceived. Her previous period of sterility was also of about ten years duration. The young Italian
woman whose story was recounted at the beginning of this chapter had a fast of thirty days. Absolute sterility is a comparatively rare condition in both men and women and fasting can do
nothing in such cases. When sterility is due to conditions of disease, rather than to defects of
development, there is reason to think that both men and women can almost always profit by a fast
of sufficient duration to enable the body to clear its abnormal states. 14137
Fasting in Pregnancy
When the rational mind recognizes that pregnancy is a normal biological process, it at once
realizes that it should be unaccompanied with any pain, discomfort or abnormal condition. It is
observed that animals in their natural state do not suffer with nausea and vomiting during
pregnancy. The condition is said to be unknown among so-called primitive women. Only about
half the women in civilized life so suffer. All the evidence points to the conclusion that nausea, “morning sickness” and vomiting are not
essential developments during pregnancy. Mild and evanescent in the majority of the cases, severe
and lasting in some cases, perhaps leading even to the artificial ending of pregnancy “to save the
mother’s life,” the cause is still a matter of much debate. If it can be understood that disease is the outworking of natural law, we may understand that
under certain states of the organism of woman, when pregnancy occurs, there is an urgent need to
put the physiological house in order. It is common to say that the nausea is a “reflex” and that it is a “reaction,” but these words
explain nothing. It is necessary that we understand the nature and cause of the condition that gives
rise to the “reflex” or to the “reaction. ”
Nature plays no favorites, is no respecter of persons. If a woman suffers with nausea and
vomiting during pregnancy, this is because she has built her suffering by a way of life that has laid
the foundation for trouble. Her suffering is not due to the fact that she is pregnant, but to the fact
that she is toxemic. While we recognize that pregnancy is a normal physiologic state, we must 
also recognize that, in
modern life at least, there is much that is not physiologic associated with the whole reproductive
process and that these conditions of abnormality have the same general causes that are responsible
for other structural and functional abnormalities of the body. In her efforts to promote life and its highest welfare, in her never-ending effort to endow each
new form of life with the finest that can be given, nature tries to give each child that is born the
best that life affords. She is, therefore, interested in the environment of the unborn child and
especially in its nutrition. The unborn child feeds upon substances supplied by the mother. If her blood is physiologically
suitable to the highest interests of the evolving embryo her pregnancy will be comfortable and even
pleasurable. If she is toxemic, there must evolve a process designed to prepare a better source of
nutriment for the embryo. The physiological house must be put in order to the end that the embryo
may have a clean, wholesome, and well balanced habitat during its intra-uterine existence. This does not mean that the uterus alone must be made acceptable for the evolution of the new
life, but that the whole body of the mother must be made ready. For unless there is systemic
preparedness, there can be no local readiness. We observe that the general metabolism of the pregnant mother is accelerated; glands that have
been all but dormant awake to renewed activity, and, if the way of life of the mother is at all
wholesome, her health improves. Symptoms from which she has long suffered often clear up and
she appears well again. The nausea and vomiting are merely parts of this general renovating
program. 142The toxemic woman is declared to be unfit for the new being. The toxins that have been retained
and stored in the organism until its chemistry is profoundly altered must be removed. This calls for
a radical eliminating process; it demands a temporary cessation of eating. There is rebellion in the stomach; it rejects food. The liver speeds up its excretory function. Much bile is regurgitated into the stomach and is vomited. There may even develop a psychic
revulsion to food, so determined is the organism to have its way and to clean house. If we can once
understand that nature is trying to provide a clean house in which to evolve the new life, we can
understand the need to cooperate in the work and not to throw monkey wrenches into the vital
machinery. The suppression of vomiting by the administration of drugs, always of doubtful efficacy, seems
only to make matters worse and to prolong the period of nausea and vomiting. The woman who
clings to the outworn idea that she needs plenty of “good nourishing food” and persists in eating in
spite of her repugnance to food, even to the sight, odor or thought of it, only adds to her discomfort
and prolongs her suffering. The physician, called to care for a case of morning sickness, tries 
everything, seeking to satisfy
the patient’s demand for relief from symptoms, until the nausea and vomiting come to a
spontaneous end, but he fails to do her any real good. It has been said that all this discomfort and annoyance constitute a rather rude, impolite and
unpleasant way of asking a woman to stop eating. But it is more than just a command to cease
eating; it is a process of purification. It is a means of freeing the body of accumulated toxin. The
ignorant will eat in spite of the evident demand that no food be eaten, but nature gains her point in
the end; she simply throws the food back. Breakfast, noon meal or dinner, it is unwanted. When the pregnant woman feels the first faint beginning of nausea and vomiting, she should
voluntarily cease eating at once. Neither she nor the child will be hurt by ceasing to eat. A
prolonged fast might injure the baby, but a few days of abstinence in the early days of pregnancy,
such as the woman with morning sickness will have to undergo, will help her. She should go to bed and keep warm. She should throw off any fears she may have and poise her
mind. No drugs should be taken. My experience has shown that three to ten days are enough to
enable the body to put its house in order and there is no more nausea and vomiting throughout the
remainder of the pregnancy. A period of light feeding of fruits and uncooked vegetables should follow the fast for a few days
before the normal diet is resumed. By normal diet I certainly do not mean the conventional diet. Pregnant women tend to eat too much. They overeat on proteins. They need the very best of
proteins, but not in large quantities. Their greatest need, however, is for fruits and green non-
starchy vegetables. In ordinary cases of morning sickness three to four days of fasting are sufficient to restore
comfort and enable the woman to eat without distress. I have had one case that required eleven
days for comfort and digestive ability to return. There may be severe cases that will require a longer time than this; I have simply never had
such cases. But I never had a patient fail to become comfortable in a few days. There can be no
reason to abstain from fasting under such conditions and at such times. Indeed, what is to be gained
from eating when there is nausea, no desire for food, and when it is known that the food will be
ejected as soon as eaten. Fasting is the only logical procedure under such conditions. 143One Closing Word
What I have said here, in sum, is that the body has wisdom in its very cells, and can heal itself, if
we will give it the chance to heal. The fast is one way of cleansing the physical self, of giving rest
to the body’s organs, often overtaxed by our own wrong living and wrong eating and over-activity. I have said that there is wisdom in the fast, in rest, in quiet, in right living and right eating and
right thinking; wisdom in recognizing the toxic effect of over-eating, over-tension, drinking;
wisdom, indeed, in avoiding all the various poisons that so many of us put into ourselves, into our
minds and our actions. There are no medical dogmas in this book, nor is the fast itself cited as a 
cure
 for anything. It is
only a way of rest whereby the body—this complex and tremendous organism—will have a chance
to perform its self-restoration to health and well-being, without strain or interruption, in quiet and
peace and healing calm. 144Index
Abortions, 
164
Abstinence, 
63
Acids of decomposition, 
115
Adolescents, 
140–141
, 
148–149
Adrenal gland, 
126
Age and aging, 
72–77
cause, 
72–75
chicken heart, 
74
classifications, 
72–73
delayed 
73–77
rate, 
73
time and aging 
74
Air, fresh, 
80
Alcohol, 
33
, 
55
, 
110
, 
125
, 
147
, 
149
, 
154
, 
157
as medication, 
41
Allergy, 
122–124
Alvarez, Walter C. , 
97
, 
138
, 
139–140
, 
146
American Journal of Clinical Medicine
, 
96
Amino Acids, 
68
, 
69
, 
110
Amoebic dysentery, 
137
Anabolism (See Metabolism)
Anemia, 
29
, 
95
, 
118
Angina pectoris, 
127–128
Animals, fasting in, 
18
, 
27–28
, 
29
, 
64
, 
75
, 
78
bears, 
27
, 
28
birds, 
18
cats, 
18
cattle, 
27
, 
30
dogs, 
18
, 
27
, 
64
, 
91
fur seal bull, 
27
horses, 
27
insects, 
75
pig, 
78
rabbits, sand, 
18
, 
27
salamanders, 
30
salmon, 
27
spiders, 
18
starfish, 
30
weasel, 
27
wolves, 
27
145Ankylosis, 
107
, 
109
Antibiotics, 
139–140
, 
149
Apoplexy
of cells, 
116
Appendicitis, 
46
Appetite, 
32
, 
34
, 
63
Appetizer, 
81
Arthritis, 
109
, 
111
, 
112
after-care, 
108
ankylosis (See Ankylosis)
builds slowly, 
109
cause, 
110
fasting in, 
112
palliation harmful, 
111
rest/exercise, 
112
secondary causes, 
111
supervision of fast, 
112
varieties of, 
109
, 
111
Arteriosclerosis, 
151
Asphyxiation of cells, 
116
Aspirin, 
108
, 
112
Assimilation and Elimination, 
37–38
, 
80
continuous process, 
37
variable emphasis, 
38
, 
46
Asthma, 
19
, 
94
, 
104–105
, 
106
bronchial, 
19
, 
104
cardiac, 
104
care and cause, 
105–106
predisposition, 
105
renal, 
104
Autolysis, 
29
, 
37
, 
162
, 
163
Autonomy, an, 
39
Autopsy, 
100
Bargen, J. A. , 
140
Baths and Bathing, 
142
, 
143
, 
150
duration, 
61
purpose, 
61
sponge, 
61
sweat, 
62
temperature of water, 
61
Benign Tumors (See Tumors)
Berg, Ragnar, 
28
, 
39
146Beriberi 
29
Bile, 
57
, 
114
, 
157
, 
166
Biopsy, 
162
Bloating, 
65
Blood Pressure, 
23
, 
125
, 
126
, 
129
Bloom, Walter Lyon, 
24
, 
25
Bowel movements, 
65
, 
71
, 
84
Breaking the fast, 
30
, 
63–67
in animals, 
64
exercise, 
66
method of, 
65–67
rest after, 
66
supervision after, 
42
, 
62
, 
65–67
, 
122
Breath, 
63
bad, 
83
Bribe, 
82
Bright, Richard, 
155
Bright’s Disease (See Nephritis)
Brinkley, 
77
Broken bones, 
47
Bromine, 
142
Bronchitis, 
83
Brown-Sequard, 
77
Byrd, Mrs. Gloria Lee, 
43
Cabot, Richard C. , 
137
Cachexia, 
119
Calcium metabolism, 
29
Calculi, 
157
 (See Gallstones)
Cancer, 
63
, 
96
, 
116
, 
139
cancerous growths enlarge, 
39
cancerous growths diminish, 
38–39
defined, 
39
, 
116
, 
139
, 
140
development, 
115–117
, 
140
fasting contraindicated, 
51
few cases, 
163
irreversible condition, 
161
surgery, 
139
Carcinogenic agents, 
116
Cardiac decompensation, 
131
, 
132
Carlson, Anton J. , 
75
Carrell, Alexis, 
74
Carrington, Hereward, 
127
, 
128
147Case histories, 
19
, 
20–21
, 
24–25
, 
26
, 
28
, 
41
, 
42
, 
44
, 
71
, 
76
, 
81
, 
89
, 
99
, 
107–108
, 
127–128
, 
131
,
138
, 
154–155
Catabolism (See Metabolism)
Catarrh, 
94
, 
104
, 
122
Cecum, 
133
Cephalagia, 
120
Child, C. M. , 
75
Children and childhood
diseases, 
83–85
enervation, 
83
excitement, 
82
fasting, 
81
, 
85
, 
89
holidays, 
84
instinctive
 fasting, 
81–85
spasms, 
84
symptoms of indigestion, 
83–85
warm water, 
85
Chocolate, 
82
Cholelithiasis (See Gallstones)
Chronic Diseases (See Diseases)
Circumcision, 
149
Cleanliness, 
142
, 
150
Cocoa, 
154
Coffee, 
67
, 
93
, 
110
, 
127
, 
147
, 
157
Cold, the, 
95
, 
96
, 
98
care, 
98
cause, 
97
drugging, 
96
, 
98
eating, 
98
fasting, 
98
poem, 
96
prevention, 
97
secondary cause, 
97–98
Colitis, 
83
, 
94
, 
133
, 
134
mucous, 
134
, 
138
spastic, 
134
ulcerative, 
140
Colon, parts, of, 
133
Common Cold (See Cold)
Comparisons and/or contrasts, 
35–36
, 
72–73
, 
124
Compensation, 
35
, 
59
, 
78
Conjunctivitis, 
94
148Constipation, 
83
Copavin, 
98
, 
139
Cortisone, 
47
, 
108
, 
112
, 
139
, 
141
Coughing, 
83
Crane, Milo, 
59
, 
65
Crisis, 
98
Cure and Curing, 
46
, 
98
baths, 
111
“climate cure,” 
104
, 
105
, 
123
diet, 
50
, 
64–66
, 
98
drugging, 
41
, 
45
, 
82–83
, 
89
, 
98
, 
110
, 
111–112
, 
117
, 
121
, 
125
manipulation, 
110
no need for, 
46–47
no real cure, 
46
search for, 
47
surgery, 
117–118
, 
125
word traced, 
46
Cystitis, 
104
, 
144
, 
125
Dagnini, Giorgio, 
131
, 
132
Darbishire, A.
The author does not agree with the medical verdict that there is no remedy for paralysis agitans, and has seen cases of recovery without medication or surgery.
What is the author's opinion on the effectiveness of medical treatment for paralysis agitans?
The author recommends a fast to clear the body of gallstones and restore liver function, and has seen cases of successful recovery.
What is the author's approach to treating gallstones?
The author believes that cancer is not always irreversible and that the body can heal itself if given the chance, and has seen cases of women recovering from breast cancer after fasting.
What is the author's stance on the treatment of breast cancer?
The author advises against medication and instead recommends a fast to clear the body of toxins and restore health, and has seen cases of women recovering from pregnancy-related symptoms.
What is the author's opinion on the treatment of pregnancy-related symptoms?
The author emphasizes the importance of fasting as a means of allowing the body to heal itself, and has seen cases of recovery from various diseases, including cancer, by means of fasting and a healthy diet.
What is the author's view on the role of fasting in treating various diseases?