Symptoms Occurring During Fasting

SYMPTOMS OCCURRING DURING FASTING

WHAT SYMPTOMS MEAN:
VARIETY OF SYMPTOMS PRODUCED BY ELIMINATION

More extended discussion of this phenomenon will later be given, for upon it is based a most interesting question in pathology. It suffices here to say that, when the intestinal walls are about freed of old feces, and are in the relaxed condition that results from the processes in operation during the fast, bowel excretion takes the form of an exudation of pathogen from the blood, and this waste is deposited in the form of mucus upon the walls of the intestines. The mucus membrane of the latter in its relaxed state will usually freely slough this coating, especially if peristalsis is stimulated by manipulation of the abdomen and the enema is properly employed. The deposit is discharged, often in formed bodies. An instance recurs in which there came away a mass tubular in shape, eight feet in length, a replica of a portion of the intestinal tract. And often shorter formed sections are discovered. This mucus is viscous, glue-like, in consistency, and, when it disappears, systemic cleansing is near its end.

The more usual indication of disease as it affects body temperature is fever, but in cases of differing temperament, quite frequently after the beginning of a fast, temperature drops a degree or so below normal. This is the result of the absence of food stimulation, for there is nothing inherent in the fast itself that occasions this phenomenon. Even when food is being ingested in cases of long-standing debility temperature is often below register, and in other instances it rises above normal in proportion to the severity of disease. Abstinence from food tends to restore both temperature and pulse to normal, be they high or low at its inception. While the average register of body heat is given at about 98-2/5 degrees Farenheit, and the average pulse at about 72 beats to the minute, these figures are not to be regarded as the normal for every organism. There are variations both above and below the standards given that cannot in every instance be considered as arising from disease. A fasting case is here cited in whom, when abstinence was initiated, temperature was constantly at ninety-four degrees; no change was noted until the twentieth day, when an increase of nearly a degree occurred; and average individual normal of ninety-seven degrees was reached ten days later and was thereafter maintained. Here undoubtedly disease was the cause of the abnormally low register observed before the fast, but the norm of the patient in health was subsequently perceived to be slightly below the standard commonly accepted. In a few subjects temperature at the beginning of a fast was so low as not to admit of register upon a clinical thermometer, but invariably normal individual average was reached before the end of treatment Adjustment to standard is likewise attained when fever is a symptom in evidence, and here the change is more rapidly accomplished than when temperature is sub-normal. Body heat, as is seen, has its established tabular measure, and, when it habitually fails by several degrees to reach the common average, the conclusion must be that vitality is deficient. And accompanying sub-normal temperature is always the slow and sluggish pulse, while fever with its raised degrees of heat carries a super-normal heart beat. Of the two pathological states, prognosis in the former is the more favorable. When a condition of extremely low temperature is encountered, hot applications over the spinal column and hot therapeutic baths frequently administered greatly assist in restoring and conserving body heat.

Abnormal temperature and abnormal pulse as well are but symptoms of a pathological condition, and, whether they be high or low, they denote that there is in progress a struggle for life that has little need to be suppressed. If pulse and temperature, either or both, are above or below normal at the beginning of a fast, they will descend or ascend to natural register when disease disappears, or perhaps while some of its symptoms are still displayed. Due to the removal of food stimulation, as has been said, in many instances both temperature and pulse may drop to register slightly below the average shortly after entering upon a fast. And the author lists a few cases with pulse at the beginning of abstinence at about fifty beats to the minute, while one is recorded with the very low rate of twenty-eight. Temperature in these subjects was not, however, sufficiently sub-normal to occasion surprise. While the rates noted in these cases were chronic and most exceptional, they gradually rose to standard for the individuals as the fast progressed to completion.

When the fast is concluded and the body is in the process of rebuilding, a properly balanced vegetarian dietary assures a temperature and pulse with no apparent tendency to rise or fall above individual normal. If, however, the dietetic change has been one from a regimen that formerly included flesh foods to one that is wholly vegetarian in character, pulse register will very probably show a reduction of several counts from its former average.

Several references have heretofore been made to the known absence of hunger in disease. This truth should be self-evident. But additional confirmation is offered in connection with changes of body heat as observed in health and in illness. Physiology asserts and scientific investigation proves that there can be no digestion in the absence of digestive juices, and that there is virtually no secretion of these fluids when body temperature is above normal. Why, then, feed during fever? Without digestion, there can be no nutrition, no upbuilding of tissue structure. Why add the burden of eliminating matter that is not digested, that is useless and noxious excess, to the already extreme effort that nature is making in order to reduce over-stimulated heart action and super-normal body heats To correct this condition the only effective measures are to withhold food, to remove the fermenting waste that is causing disease, and to rest those organs that have been functionally unable to cope with tasks beyond their ability to perform. A fever is really a blessing in disguise; it indicates organic activity, which means vitality in reserve. It should never be suppressed, since it is the result of a struggle between the forces of health and disease in which the vital organs will prove the victors if they are correctly, and this means naturally, assisted. Habitually low temperature, on the other hand, predicates organic inactivity, small reserve vitality, a condition that is usually chronic in character, and yet one that admits of improvement under treatment with perhaps surer prospect of correction than do febrile crises in their more extreme forms. But because sub-normal temperature and lowered pulse rate are ordinarily confined to chronic illness, duration of treatment is correspondingly more extended than in those in whom fever and heightened pulse denote acute disease.

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