Difficulties Encountered in Fasting

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN FASTING

DRUGS CAUSE ORGANIC TROUBLES:
SCIENTISTS QUOTED ON FASTING:
AUTO-INTOXICATION

Death during a fast cannot occur unless there is organic disease, and not then unless the organ or organs affected are in such degenerated state as not to permit of repair; and it is conclusively demonstrated that in a scientifically directed fast, although death in the conditions cited cannot be averted, yet because of organic labor lessened, life is prolonged for days or weeks, and distress and pain, if present, are much alleviated.

The differentiation between starvation and fasting is made herein upon the basis that starvation occurs in consequence of food being denied to a system that is in need of sustenance, and that fasting consists in intentional abstinence from food by a system in disease, a system which in consequence of its physical unbalance is not only without desire for nutriment, but which in reality is in no need of it until its organism is purified and again in condition to perform its functions normally. The distinction stated may be admitted, yet the fact is not altered that the two processes are in essence largely identical. But it has been observed that, deposited within the body, lies a reserve store of aliment, and it is also to be observed that this reserve is not in the main utilized for tissue rebuilding, but is in most part intended at all times for the support and maintenance of the nervous system; and it is only when this supply of nerve sustenance is exhausted or prevented from serving its purpose that starvation occurs. Because of the possibility of these happenings in disease, the body may starve though it is well fed, for often in instances of overfeeding there is mal-assimilation, often an essential organ is rendered functionally incapable through congestion, in consequence of which the nervous system is hindered from consuming its necessary nourishment since the channels of supply are obstructed. Hence it should be apparent that in functional disease during a fast starvation can begin only when fasting ends--at the disappearance of disease, at the return of hunger.

Whether we regard the vital principle, the animating force of the animal body, as an entity or, as modern science would have it, as the result of chemical transformations, it must be agreed that, during a fast whatever tissue construction occurs happens in consequence of nutriment supplied from the reserve noted above, and this Dr. E. H. Dewey termed "Nature's bill of fare for the sick." Deprived of food, the subject then must subsist upon this menu, details of which have already been given in the table quoted from Yeo's Physiology, a table which shows the estimated losses of the several tissues of the body in cases of starvation. During periods of abstinence from food the organism then subsists upon itself, and loss of body weight must occur. Directly this loss is due to the elimination, first, of the waste that caused disease, and, next and continuously with the other, of the refuse produced by catabolism or cell destruction. The dominant process in action at this time is that of expulsion of diseaseproducing matter, and it is obvious that the latter is at no point available for the repair of tissue, and that, held within the system, it acts not only obstructively in the avenues of vitality, but that it also toxically vitiates function. This is true of all refuse retained in the organism at any time, for this material, because of delay in expulsion, is rendered harmful through putrefactive changes.

The points of difficulty related heretofore are in a sense technical in character, but there are objections which embody personal opinion and prejudice that at times develop into serious obstacles. While fasting for the relief of disease has been known and practiced individually in all countries of the world from prehistoric times, it was never advanced in any land to the point where it could be regarded as a distinct system of therapeutics until the decade beginning about fifty years ago. Its rise from sporadic application to the dignity of a school occurred about that time in the United States, and from then on its exponents and practitioners, persisting in the face of scientific opposition, gradually accomplished their purpose by proving their contentions, and at length have the satisfaction of seeing their conclusions accepted and adopted without apology or acknowledgment by what may be termed intellectuaI authority.

There is no form of ignorance that is so difficult to overcome and to instruct as is of the "scientific" mind. And, when the latter, as it sometimes does, obtains a conception of its error, it is extremely loth to admit, first, that it has not always been in possession of the truth, and, second, that it should render due credit to the mind responsible for its change of concept or belief. And, if the position of the individual be such that he may with authority employ the power of mere assertion, it is usually much the easier way to announce as one's own discovery that which formerly one has denied and condemned, perhaps through prejudice, but more often through sheer ignorance.

In this connection quotations are made from several articles and books recently issued by medical authors. These screeds are given with small comment, but they serve to illustrate the contemptuous attitude assumed by those of whom Louis Kuhne years ago said this: "Everywhere the new science of healing finds sympathetic acceptance, except among a few sceptics and those who believe that they know everything better than anyone else, and who generally consider it superfluous to make practical trial of any method strange to the tenets of their own."

>>Pg 5

Home | Contact Us | Site Map