Reversing the Diseases of Civilization

Reversing the
Diseases of
Civilization 

We are not concerned with diseases but with
mistakes . . . of living. Get rid of the mistakes
and the diseases will disappear of their own accord.
   Dr Are Waerland

   The mistakes of living built into our civilized way of life that together lead to the metabolic malfunctions we call disease have already been described in previous chapters, but as some misconceptions or doubts may still exist a little more information will not go astray, if only to counteract some of the erroneous views expounded by the various experts, for instance, that grain products are wonder foods or that wonder drugs are a boon to mankind. Misguidance abounds.

   Because of misguidance by 'experts' on nutrition, a great many health-conscious people get arthritis or even cancer (which is the reason Improving on Pritikin was written), and because of further misguidance by medical experts a lot of these health-conscious people perish. The misguidance stems from the entrenched concept of the 'five major food groups' which concept, even modified to reduce fat levels from forty per cent to thirty per cent of total food kilojoules, still guarantees lipotoxemia by way of excess fat and protein. Whereas nutritional misguidance results from the misinterpretation of information that is reasonably accurate, medical misguidance is far worse because not only does it stem from established beliefs that are entirely erroneous, not only are the so-called experts ignorant and confused about what they are supposedly expert in, not only therefore is the guidance they offer hopelessly in error, but the guidance is all the more dangerous because dressed in the dignified terms that doctors use to 'impress the natives', it is accepted with complete trust by the unsuspecting patient.

   Remember Dr Mendelsohn's advice from Chapter 11. 'There's no more dangerous activity than walking into a doctor's office, clinic, or hospital unprepared . . .'

   Steering clear of doctors when your body is not working properly does not mean you must undertake self-treatment for disease, however, because as Dr Waerland proclaimed: 'We are not concerned with diseases . . . but with mistakes of living. Get rid of the mistakes and the diseases will disappear of their own accord.' In other words: correct the mistakes, purify the milieu interieur, restore homeostasis, and there you have it--glowing health again. No tests, no drugs, no trauma, no expense.

   The many factors causing toxemia and the loss of homeostasis are listed in previous chapters, and it is according to the sort of dietary errors and to a lesser extent the other errors and their degree that the corresponding symptoms of impaired homeostasis are displayed. It is conventional of course to regard a symptom as a specific disease in its own right and to give it a name, and as there are innumerable variations in the way homeostasis can be impaired, so in the medical textbooks appear innumerable names of diseases, it being considered the peak of medical skill to diagnose correctly which is which, even though a doctor has no idea of the cause and no idea of how to 'cure' whatever it is called. But as can be seen, that while each different symptom or group of symptoms can point to the errors underlying them, the procedure of diagnosis is completely superfluous because in all cases all that needs to be done is to restore homeostasis, and once health returns who cares what name belonged to the now vanished 'disease'?

   It must be remembered that the Western diet conveys toxemia in a double-barrelled form called lipotoxemia due to the high levels of fat that enters the bloodstream, so that the milieu interieur is confounded not only chemically, but physically as well. Therefore it should be borne in mind that while homeostasis and good health may in many cases be regained simply by correcting the physical component of toxemia (ie the blood fats that make the blood sticky), for the newfound health to be complete and lasting the chemical component needs to be corrected as well. Regarding the chemical component, it should be remembered that apart from the toxemia produced from by-products of excess protein, fat, etc in the diet, toxins from other sources may contribute heavily, for instance: mercury from amalgam tooth fillings, infected teeth, fluoride, chlorine, etc in drinking water, residual hormones used in beef production, residual chemicals in food crops, air pollution and so on.

   It must also be remembered that all chemical functions in the body, both for normal metabolism and for detoxification, are entirely dependent on enzymes. The more work to be done, the more enzymes are required. To make enzymes, the body needs colloidal minerals of all kinds, the best source of which, by far, are fresh, raw fruit and vegetables.

Apparent Causes and Apparent Cures

   The body has an enormous capacity, even in old age, to maintain homeostasis in the presence of many harmful influences, and so a reasonable state of 'marginal' health can exist which is a borderline condition maybe displaying signs of impending trouble but not yet displaying recognizable symptoms. In the absence of symptoms it is usually assumed that a person is in good health when they are nowhere near it, their borderline condition making them susceptible to infection, allergy or some metabolic upset, from the first adverse influence encountered, and when sickness 'attacks' it will be that particular influence (the straw that broke the camel's back) that will get all the blame. Often a person with latent cancer will develop cancer at the site of an injury or bruise, and it is often thought that injury can cause cancer. Likewise cancer may develop following severe emotional stress, or similar stress can bring on an attack of asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes or angina, but for these 'diseases' to occur the body first must be in a highly toxic, borderline condition. It takes a lot of straws to break a camel's back and all must take their share of the blame.

   Thus, when someone with multiple sclerosis, cancer, arthritis or similar goes 'into remission' for a while only to later suffer another progression of the disease, and then with a bit of luck experience another period of 'remission', it is because the balance of factors underlying the degree of toxemia in the body is teetering first one side and then the other of the borderline of the body's capacity to maintain homeostasis. Sometimes something as simple as a little TLC (tender loving care) or confidence inspired by a caring doctor or a faith healer, or simple loss of appetite for food, will swing the balance the right way. When people take garlic, aloe vera, ginseng or something else that lowers blood viscosity (leeches and snake venom extracts can do the same), beneficial effects are experienced if the right side of borderline is regained, whereupon the 'curative' effects of these things become part of folklore and 'alternative medicine', while they are called quackery by the medical profession because they are not 'scientific'. Food allergy is another problem which is not consistent and is more severe if a person is fatigued or highly stressed, so before spending weeks testing for 'guilty' foods, the main effort should be devoted to fully restoring the body's capacity to maintain homeostasis and adequate production of digestive enzymes.

Alternative Medicine

   Under the heading of alternative medicine comes orthomolecular medicine, acupuncture, osteopathy, homeopathic medicine, faith healing, transcendental meditation, chiropractic and so on. All of these practices are forms of 'medicine' aimed therapeutically to cure some sort of health problem, and indeed they are all recorded as having achieved either relief from various conditions of disease or in some cases complete 'cures', which explains why each method is claimed by its enthusiasts to be the way to go.

   But none of these methods achieve permanent 'cures', simply because they address only part of a patient's problem without getting to the root of it--toxemia. But even if they don't get very good or lasting results, at least they are a form of medicine that does no harm and doesn't cost a small fortune at every attendance.

   Sitting crosslegged in pyramid structures, watching pendulums, or performing Oriental exercises in the open air may make a lot of people feel good but will do little to correct the toxemia within them which is due to the sort of food they eat. An interesting event happened about ten years ago, not long after the author's first book, The Health Revolution, was published. A friend of mine, an ex-Air Force pilot, had a flourishing business conducting the practice of pain relief using laserbeam acupuncture. He had a steady clientele because his pain relief treatment worked and his patients kept coming back. When my friend became enthused by the contents of The Health Revolution he began to purchase the books by the carton, insisting to his patients they should follow the advice contained therein. To make a short story even shorter, most of his patients changed their diets, lost their pains, and my friend closed up shop and went back to flying airplanes.

What We Want

   We are not interested in medicine of any kind--'allopathic' or 'alternative'. We are not interested in their mediocre achievements in partially restoring health, where patients remain forever borderline with bottles of pills always within easy reach.

   We want homeostasis, 100 per cent, with the glowing health that accompanies it, regardless of stress or cold or wind or rain. To avoid the diseases of civilization is simple: you just discard from your lifestyle the factors that cause them, and we already know what they are. To reverse the diseases of civilization is just as simple, and the procedure is exactly the same but with lesser leeway for occasional relaxing of the rules.

Fasting

   The quickest and most effective way to detoxify the body and restore complete homeostasis is to go on a fast, where for an indefinite time only pure water is consumed, the length of the fast being dependent on the degree to which the body is encumbered throughout its tissues with accumulated waste products it had been unable in the past to eliminate. In a few days much relief of symptoms is experienced because blood fats quickly diminish and circulation greatly improves, but this is only the beginning, and in some cases fasts have been extended for many weeks before complete detoxification is achieved. While the fast is in progress no hunger pangs are suffered and the body's metabolism is sustained on body fat and superfluous tissue, as the organs of elimination proceed to 'clean house'. Fasting is not starvation and although the patient may lose a lot of weight and become quite thin, no damage is caused and all systems continue to improve. The signal to end the fast is when the coating disappears from the tongue and unpleasant body odors cease while at the same time a keen appetite returns. By this time the body will have shed whatever symptoms were troubling it such as arthritis, asthma, migraine, angina, diabetes and so on because these problems do not exist in the presence of complete homeostasis.

   There are cases of course where a patient may be so depleted in reserves that a fast may be inadvisable, in which case partial fasting, taking only juices of fruits and vegetables (separately) will achieve the desired result.

   It is suggested that if a fast is contemplated the subject of fasting should be studied beforehand and the fast should be conducted under supervision in a proper sanatorium. This of course involves time and expense, so unless the situation requires such drastic measures the detoxification program can be simply incorporated into a normal lifestyle with strict attention to natural diet.

   There is no specific diet for the correction of any particular health problem you may have, because all health upsets, whatever their nature, stem from unbalanced body chemistry, and so the only object of the exercise is to correct the dietary errors that have led to this imbalance.

   The guidelines for correct eating are given in the chapters on Toxemia and Dieting for Health, and providing these guidelines are followed your diet need not be spelled out in a series of ritualistic menus, but can be as varied and interesting as you wish. To assist in preparing simple food to make it more appealing to the eye and palate, there are a number of recipe books available, such as Toni Bobbin's Anti-Cancer, Anti-Heart Attack, Cookbook, which make the transition from traditional foods to toxemia-free foods easy.

   When toxemia is eliminated and homeostasis restored within the body there is no metabolic malfunction (disease) that will not be corrected by the body's own capacity to heal itself, providing of course that this capacity has not already been irreparably damaged, and this is very rarely the case. There is only one catch to this panacea of free and lasting health, and that is it takes a certain amount of willpower to take advantage of it, because the addiction to the tantalising flavors of our traditional foods is very difficult to abandon, salt being probably the worst of them. But to repeat--there is no health problem that cannot be relieved and, in most cases, completely eliminated by getting rid of the mistakes of living.

The Mental Factor

   Just as mental acuity is affected one way or the other by the condition of the blood and general fitness of the body, so too does the reverse apply--the physical status of health can be enormously influenced, for good or for bad, by mental attitude.

   It is now fairly well understood how mental stress causes the release of hormones and fatty acids, etc into the bloodstream to cope with a potential 'fight or flight' situation, but more complex is the interaction of mind and body involving the will to live, which although normally programmed for survival can in some circumstances be reversed, and either way can vary greatly in intensity. On one hand you have the case of someone beyond all hope of survival simply refusing to die, and fighting their way up again, and on the other hand you have someone in reasonable physical health but, miserable and with nothing to live for, who just sickens and dies. A better example of how negative thoughts can kill is the way Aboriginals who have broken tribal laws can be punished by the ritual of bone pointing, after which ritual the victim simply wastes away and dies.

   The placebo effect of dummy medicines, well known in medical research circles, is put to good use by some doctors loath to inflict drugs upon their patients and who have discovered their patients do just as well taking dummy pills as they do taking real ones. The patients don't know the pills are dummies and the knowledgeable doctor knows in most cases that they will recover with or without medicine anyway, but that their belief in the 'cure' will help them do so more quickly.

   As mentioned earlier, the belief system can work both ways. It is the doctor's job to instil the belief in the patient because without the belief there can be no result, and if for some reason the patient believes that the 'medicine' will produce a harmful result, then any effect produced will indeed be harmful. For instance if a patient takes a placebo in the belief it is a drug that produced a skin rash to them in the past, or perhaps nausea, then the chemically inert placebo is capable of reproducing these same symptoms.

   At the World Health conference on Asian medicine in Canberra in 1979, a Tibetan woman doctor, Dr Losang Dolma, described how she achieved an eighty per cent success rate in treating cancer using precious stones ground up and made into pills. The director of the New South Wales Cancer Council was reluctant to comment at the time, saying it was a far-fetched notion but he was willing to learn. It is to be hoped that he did learn something, because if someone is to recover from any illness, especially cancer, their mental attitude is of paramount importance.

   The entire history of medicine is a mixture of confusion and argument about what is scientific and what is quackery. Had Losang Dolma come from a Sydney suburb instead of Tibet, she would have long before been jailed as a cancer quack.

   The many claims made over the years that various mixtures of herbs, roots, etc were effective cancer cures cannot be swept aside as unscientific because many of them achieved their purpose, according to the personal testimonies produced to support them. Homeopathy is a branch of alternative medicine based on potions containing ingredients in quantities so miniscule (sometimes in the order of a trillionth of a grain) that it seems absolutely impossible for the medicine to produce the slightest effect even on an insect. But homeopathy has many supporters, even from the ranks of medical doctors, the reason being that they have seen results beneficial to the patients so treated. Notwithstanding that herbs and so on could perhaps provide the patient's body with some nutrient it may have been lacking, it is as likely as not that the benefits when sometimes gained have been via mental pathways.

   Some patients respond to treatments better than others, and it was Sir William Osler (1849-1919), the great British physician, who is quoted as saying: 'It is more important to know what kind of patient has the disease than to know what kind of disease the patient has.'

   And well Sir William could have added: 'It is more important what kind of doctor a patient has than what kind of medicine the doctor employs.'

   In his book Getting Well Again (1978), Dr Carl Simonton described dramatic remissions of cancer in patients he had taught to visualise the white cells of their immune systems as an army attacking their cancer cells and destroying them. Dr Simonton said: 'You are more in charge of your life--and even the development and progress of a disease, such as cancer--than you may realize. You may actually, through a power within you, be able to decide whether you live or die.'

   Dr Harry A. Hoxsey, a cancer specialist from Dallas, Texas in the 1930s and 40s, said in his book You Don't Have To Die: 'Tell a victim he is hopeless (or let him discover it from his family) and the will to live becomes paralyzed. Show him a way out, strip him of fear and hysteria, give him even a forlorn hope, and the will to live is stimulated. It becomes a powerful ally in the battle against death.'

   The favorable influence of faith and positive thinking in influencing the body's metabolism to function better is called 'faith healing', and if as a result of it homeostasis is restored sufficiently for the symptoms of disease to regress, it is sometimes claimed that a miracle cure has been performed when all that has happened is a natural physiological response to a favorable mental influence. The patient has not been 'cured' at all, but merely assisted back to the right side of a borderline condition, hopefully to remain there. Of course, for the healing process to be fully accomplished the milieu interieur must be purified as well.

   Norman Cousins, a veteran journalist and author, created a great deal of awareness in the medical profession about the power of the mind affecting the course of a disease with his book Anatomy of an Illness (Bantam, 1979), in which he described how he overcame a so-called 'terminal' disease called 'ankylosing spondylitis' by removing himself from hospital, declining medical treatment, and instead spending his time watching old comedy movies, meditating, resting, and taking megadoses of vitamin C. He was on his feet again in eight days and he was able soon afterwards to resume work and play tennis and golf again. That all happened in 1964, and so impressed were some of Cousin's influential doctor friends that he ended up lecturing on the mental aspect of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

   In December 1980, Cousins, then aged sixty-five, had an almost fatal heart attack and, declining medical advice for bypass surgery, he once again decided to make a recovery by natural healing assisted by his powerful positive mental approach, exercise and modified diet. In this he succeeded, as he described in his next book The Healing Heart (1983). However, his triumph lasted only for ten years; his second heart attack was a fatal one.

   Notwithstanding that misfortune, Cousins' claims about the immense value of positive, confident optimism in recovery from illness are absolutely correct, and his books are an inspiration to anybody, sick or well.

   In Anatomy of an Illness Cousins tells of a meeting he had in Africa with Dr Albert Schweitzer, musician, physician and Nobel Prize winner. Replying to Cousins' question as to how the African tribal witchdoctors got such good results, Dr Schweitzer replied: 'It's supposed to be a professional secret, but I'll tell you anyway. The witchdoctor succeeds for the same reason all the rest of us succeed. Each patient carries his own doctor inside him. They come to us not knowing the truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work.' (Lesson 1 for all medical students.)

   Cousins used this reference to the 'doctor within' to illustrate his chapter devoted to the placebo effect--the power of the mind--and it was a good illustration, but it is doubtful that Dr Schweitzer intended people should think the power of the mind was the only consideration. Years before Schweitzer had made a complete recovery from diabetes, and his wife had made a complete recovery from tuberculosis' but this had only been possible when they had implemented the dietary advice given them by their friend, Dr Max Gerson (see Chapter 13 and 'Improving on Pritikin' in Chapter 9). They had detoxified their bodies.

   Norman Cousins did a good job beating the conventional medical odds, but he could have done better. If in addition to his mental self-conditioning he had adopted the Gerson diet, he could have completely reversed his coronary disease and still be alive today, perhaps to compare notes on physical fitness with Rolet de Castella (Chapter 16).

The Role of Physical Exercise

   That regular physical exercise conveys protection against disease is indicated by the fact that it makes people feel better, sleep better and tend to eat less, and by the fact that physically active people tend to live longer than the average. Not only that, but the records show that fit athletes in general suffer less from respiratory infections, breathing problems, diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, heart attacks, etc, and that the incidence of cancer among them is only one seventh of the average incidence.

   These comparisons of athletes with non-athletes are applicable to people in the Western countries, where typically both athletes and non-athletes all consume the traditional foods of the, Western diet, so it is clear that the health protection provided by adequate physical exercise is gained by its effect of reducing lipotoxemia, the main underlying cause of all the diseases of the Western world.

   The protective effect of sustained and reasonably vigorous exercise by people on the Western diet is multifold:

1. The 'training effect' of aerobic exercise relates to the changes that take place within the cells of exercised muscles which enable the muscles to more efficiently use blood fats as a fuel source and to more efficiently utilize the oxygen available to them.
2. With less fat in the blood, the blood is less sticky and therefore lower in viscosity, enabling it to flow better, particularly in partially blocked blood vessels, thus reducing the pumping effort required by the heart.
3. The more vigorous circulation of blood that occurs with exercise helps to keep the arteries supple and expanded, while at locations where artery blockage due to fat and cholesterol have occurred, the demands for increased circulation while exercising cause the increased development of collateral blood vessels around the blockage.
4. Not only is the vigor of blood circulation increased by exercise, but so too is the vigor of the lymph circulation so that toxemia due to a stagnant lymph is cleared and at the same time cells are better nourished.

   Thus the resultant improved condition of the blood and lymph fluid greatly enhance an improperly fed body's efforts to maintain homeostasis, with the consequent diminished likelihood of the diseases to which it would be otherwise susceptible.

   However, exercise, while enhancing general circulation, does not prevent the build-up of atherosclerosis within the arteries and so a point is reached where exercise eventually becomes dangerous. Usually warning of this danger in the form of angina (chest pains) and breathlessness upon exertion occurs, but sometimes in an extremely fit person there is no early warning at all and a massive heart attack out of the blue is the only symptom they get. As previously explained, extremely fit athletes with blocked coronary arteries have such a development of small but numerous collateral vessels, that while blood viscosity is reasonable their heart muscles are still plentifully supplied with blood, but when the blood's viscosity for some reason becomes so high it cannot pass through the fine collaterals at all, suddenly the heart muscle is so deprived of blood that is stops.

   The reason that this catastrophic event so often occurs after a period of strenuous exercise and not during the exercise is because the effect of sustained vigorous exercise is to greatly increase the number of platelets (clotting particles) in the blood, and this is a perfectly natural physiological event, but on top of blood viscosity already elevated by perhaps last night's wine and civilized dinner, the viscosity reaches disaster level. In this way many a confident sportsman has discovered physical fitness is no guarantee of long life.

   Thus the role of physical exercise in protecting against the diseases of civilization is a real but limited one which works only to partially correct harmful factors which should not be there in the first place.

   But even in the complete absence of the beforementioned harmful factors and in a state of perfect health, regular exercise, even light exercise, is highly desirable in order to ensure good lymph circulation not only to the muscles but throughout the entire body. The milieu interieur cannot remain pure if it becomes stagnant, so if someone is incapacitated and immobile it is important they be encouraged to move as much as possible, or massaged, to keep the lymph moving.

How Much Exercise is Necessary?

   Physical fitness is a factor in health and longevity but it is not the major factor. Recalling Dr de Lacy Evans' survey of people who lived for a hundred years or more, many of the centenarians were sedentary throughout their lives, and although their exercise habits, drinking habits and smoking habits varied widely, the one thing they displayed in common was that they had always partaken sparingly of food.

   The degree of physical exercise needed by any individual to maintain good health depends primarily on the degree of physical fitness required for whatever tasks are required of them, and this standard will be automatically achieved as they become competent at the tasks. Above a reasonable level of fitness there is no added health advantage to be gained (bearing in mind the facts relating to heart disease, blood viscosity, etc) and if carried to extremes physical exercise can be highly stressful and counterproductive to the intended purpose.

The Role of Sunshine, Fresh Air and Rest

   Sunshine and fresh air as health factors important to the restoration of sick people back to health have been well known for hundreds of years, and therefore no further discussion about them will be needed. It also goes without saying that rest should be adequate.

   A full dissertation on the importance of direct natural sunlight and the benefits to be derived from not excessive exposure to natural ultraviolet light energy is given in the Chapter 'Natural Light and Health' in The Health Revolution, if a deeper understanding of the physiology involved is desired.

Asthma

   Asthma is the restriction of breathing caused by the swelling of the bronchial tubes through which air is inhaled in the lungs and carbon dioxide exhaled. The swelling is due to a toxic bloodstream and is exacerbated by emotional stress in the same way as other disease conditions are exacerbated when extra fatty acids enter the bloodstream. Irritation by airborne particles such as pollen may also exacerbate the condition but, like stress, is not the primary cause of the disease.

   Asthma quickly clears once a very low-fat diet is adopted and the blood freed of lipotoxemia, and asthma is no exception to the rule--applicable to all diseases--that physical exercise is of similar benefit. Although less effective than diet, the effect of regular sustained exercise is to free the blood of fats and lower the blood viscosity. A typical example of the benefits of exercise is the report in the Australian Woman's Day on 31 December 1991. The article headed 'I took the plunge and beat Asthma' described how a lady, thin and weak with asthma at age forty-five took up swimming on her doctor's advice and is now, at the age of fifty-nine, happy and healthy although still not completely free of asthma. She could be, if she dieted properly (see Chapter 17).

Arthritis (and Rheumatism)

   Whereas arthritis is considered medically to be an auto-immune disease in which white blood cells supposedly attack the body's own tissues, it is nothing of the sort. There are two ways white cells become involved in the cause of arthritis:

1. When uric acid levels resultant of excessive protein intake become so high as to precipitate uric acid crystals in the joints, the white cells (phagocytes) endeavor to destroy the crystals but are instead themselves destroyed by the crystals, and their corrosive digestive juices which are effective against other antigens, but not uric acid, are liberated into the joints, damaging them.
2. In conditions of high blood viscosity due to lipotoxemia, oxygen levels in the synovial fluid of joints becomes so low that white cells in the area perish for want of it and their corrosive juices are, as in the uric acid case, liberated as the agent of joint damage.

   Thus arthritis is caused by either excess protein or excess fat in the diet, or both, and is exacerbated by emotional stress which as a normal physiological event leads to the release of extra fatty acids into the blood. It should be noted that the high intake of vegetable protein and fats is as capable of producing arthritis as are animal protein and fats; and that it is a mistake to consume grainn products, lentils, etc in the belief they are healthful.

   In most cases relief from arthritis is achieved in a few days once proper dietary procedures are adopted.

Cancer

   Toxemia again is the cause of this disease as has already been explained--excess fat, protein, cholesterol and salt being the main culprits together with deficiencies of fresh green vegetables and fruit. Emotional status has a great bearing on either accelerating or retarding the progress of cancer, as of course it does with any sickness.

   There are many cases on record of 'spontaneous remission' of cancer, when to the astonishment of doctors cancer mysteriously diminished and completely cleared. 'Spontaneous remissions' are regarded as medical phenomena beyond comprehension, but it is obvious they are natural events achieved by the healing powers within the body when for some reason or other homeostasis has been regained.

   Thus the immediate measures for cancer must be to eliminate from the lifestyle every single adverse factor leading to toxemia and to diminution of the immune system, and to instil confidence and determination with the goal of achieving a complete spontaneous remission. This advice should not be construed as medical advice; on the contrary, it is advice for reconstituting a healthy milieu interieur, the only basis upon which the reversal of cancer is possible (see Chapter 17). For a more detailed explanation of cancer read The Health Revolution by this author and A Cancer Therapy, Results of Fifty Cases by Dr Max Gerson.

   'Spontaneous remissions' of cancer are more numerous than is commonly believed, as is recounted in The Health Revolution, and they would be more the rule rather than the exception if patients knew what to do and were confident enough to refuse the conventional treatment which has never been proven to prolong life.

   For the achievement of recovery from cancer, the importance of a positive, determined attitude by the patient cannot be over-emphasized. Dr Paul Pearsall, in his book Super Immunity (Ebury Press, London, 1987), described the collection of 400 cases of spontaneous remissions and their review by Dr Elmer Green and his wife Dr Alyce Green, looking for explanatory factors. The one factor above all that was common in every case was that every one of the patients had changed their mental attitude to one of hope and were more positive about surviving. This point has already been covered in preceding pages but, once again, it cannot be over-emphasized (see Alfred Keane's letter in Chapter 17).

Diabetes

   As already explained in Chapter 6, in most cases the pancreas of people with diabetes is perfectly capable of producing the insulin needed for the metabolism of the body's blood sugar, in fact sometimes double the amount. The reason that diabetes occurs in the presence of adequate insulin is that an excess of blood fats (lipotoxemia) inhibits the insulin from interacting with the sugar, so that all that is needed to restore most diabetics to normal is to get rid of the fat out of their bloodstreams. It is not a coincidence that most diabetics are overweight. Diabetics suffer all sorts of circulatory problems including heart disease, hypertension, glaucoma, blindness and so on, not because they have diabetes but because of the lipotoxemia which is also the cause of their diabetes.

   Thus while diabetics can be assisted to metabolize their blood sugar by injecting them with extra insulin over and above that which they are producing themselves, the underlying cause--lipotoxemia--remains. When it is 'officially' stated that diabetes is a leading cause of death it is no such thing; the cause of death among diabetics is none other than lipotoxemia which also causes their glaucoma, blindness and other associated problems. This information, as previously mentioned, has been known, in detail, since 1936, and experiments in the 1960s demonstrated that fit young athletes could be made (temporarily) diabetic in two days simply by loading their food with fat and protein and, in fact even in two hours, if lipids (fats) were infused directly into their blood.

   The Pritikin Center in Santa Monica has demonstrated for years that most diabetics can be taken completely off their medication in just a couple of weeks on a very low-fat and low-protein diet (see The Health Revolution ), and it will also be recalled from Chapter 6 how diabetic city-dwelling Aboriginals quickly became free of diabetes when they are relocated on their tribal grounds where they resume their traditional native foods again.

Heart Disease, Stroke, Hypertension
and other Circulatory Problems

   It was shown in the 1960s that diseased arteries can clean and heal themselves when the blood is cleansed of lipotoxemia, and everybody knows that thin gravy is easier to pour than thick gravy, which means of course that thin blood is easier to pump around the body than sticky blood. Thus the greatest benefit someone can bestow on their body is to get rid of toxemia and unstick their blood. Straightaway the blood's function is improved while at the same time areas deprived of circulation regain it--one of which may be the heart muscle itself--so that the workload on the heart is lessened, the blood pressure lowered, and all systems improve, including vitality and mental acuity.

   It is important to understand that the lowering of blood viscosity is vital in cases of restricted circulation, because doing so removes the patient from immediate danger. Thus somebody with almost totally blocked coronary (or other) arteries can often proceed with normal activities, even strenuous exercise, without discomfort because of the natural bypass provided by collateral circulation around the blocked sections. Collateral circulation is provided by the growth of a great number of fine capillary vessels, which is the body's attempt to overcome the local problem, and is completely effective provided the blood is thin enough to flow through the fine vessels. But should the blood viscosity increase as the result of blood fats released into the blood by way of a fatty meal, sudden stress, or vigorous exercise, the collateral circulation suddenly can no longer function and a heart attack ensues. There are thousands of coronary bypass operations conducted every day on people who already have natural bypasses capable of doing the job providing they avoid the things that thicken up their blood. The invention of the coronary bypass was a brilliant technological achievement, a boon to surgeons and a boon (often temporary) to people who are incapable of foregoing the dietary pleasures that caused their problem in the first place. As a coronary bypass can itself block up in as short a time as a year or two, it is essential in order to ensure survival that proper dietary measures are adopted anyway. In preference to undergoing major surgery, a far better course of action in most cases would be to emulate Rolet de Castella of Melbourne and others like him. Rolet, himself a coronary bypass candidate after a stroke in 1974 and a heart attack in 1975, opted for do-it-yourself natural therapy, starting with a severe dietary change which quickly gave him the capacity to resume his sport of long distance running and to abandon all his medication. Since then he has completed over thirty marathon races, all traces of his circulatory problems having long since passed entirely.

Osteoporosis

   This has already been explained in a previous chapter, but to reiterate: osteoporosis is merely the natural reaction of the body trying to protect itself from the internal acidity caused by the intake of excessive protein, whereby calcium from the bones is sacrificed to neutralize the acid which, if not so neutralized, would cause even greater harm. Osteoporosis is therefore the lesser of two evils and completely avoidable by avoiding the excessive protein intake which is a feature of the modern diet equally contributory to toxemia as the excesses of fat and cholesterol.

Nephritis

   As it is the function of the kidneys to filter out and excrete impurities from the blood, it is not surprising that people on the Western diet, heavily encumbered with toxemia, suffer a great deal of kidney trouble sometimes to the degree of complete kidney failure. Impurities, precipitated out of solution from the blood that the kidneys are unable to cope with, often build up to form stones in the kidneys composed of residues of uric acid and calcium. While conventional medical procedure is to physically remove kidney stones, once the body is freed of toxemia the stones, just like cholesterol build-ups in the arteries, gradually dissolve and disappear of their own accord.

   Whereas the main dietary factor eventuating in kidney failure is the overconsumption of protein and condiments, more and more it is becoming evident that kidney failure is also frequently attributable to antibiotics and other medical drugs.

Gallstones

   These are another feature distinguishing people who indulge heavily in animal protein foods. The arteries are not the only tissues that are forced to accept fat and cholesterol in excess of the body's capacity to excrete. In high concentrations cholesterol precipitates into crystals, and an indication of an enthusiastic meat-eater is the whitish ring around the iris of the eye consisting of cholesterol crystals (arcus senilus). It is of such crystals that

   gallstones are principally composed in the gallbladder, but again, like kidney stones, once the condition of toxemia is removed the gallstones gradually dissolve and disappear.

Mental Aberrations

   As the brain in use consumes for its size a great deal more fuel (blood sugar) and oxygen than any other organ of the body, it is provided with a copious blood supply and, like any of the other organs, works best if the blood is pure and well oxygenated.

   Nathan Pritikin described tests with children given a number of simple arithmetic sums to do, which showed that after a while on a very low-fat diet their mental performance both in speed and accuracy improved by twenty per cent. On the other end of the scale, senile people put on the same diet regained memory and control of body functions which beforehand they had lost. This being so, it is plain to see why the top levels in school examination results are so often gained by children of Oriental migrants who have yet to a adopt the Western diet, although a recent news item reports that it doesn't take long before the children of migrants soon adopt our dietary ways and at the same time begin to exhibit the physical deterioration that distinguishes our children.

   With children at one end of the age scale and senile adults at the other, both groups demonstrating the diminished mental and physical standards that accompany a high-fat diet, it is a safe bet that just about everybody in the age groups in between are similarly affected, including of course our politicians, many of whom display disturbing signs of mental incapacity.

   Fish is often referred to as a 'brain food', but if that appears to be the case it would not be because fish contains some magical ingredient, but more because it is less likely than meat to make the blood sticky, which of course is the reason heart attacks occur with less frequency among the people in coastal fishing villages compared to farming villages not far distant inland.

   When it is known that vegetarians display happier and more placid demeanors than meat-eaters, apart from better general health, it is clear that not only can drugs affect mental processes but so too can toxemia derived from food. Behavioral problems such as hyperactvity in children, emotional outbursts and schizophrenia in adults, can all be related to toxemia and lipotoxemia derived from diet, and it is only one step further to inquire what little extra influence from alcohol or some other drug, perhaps even just stress, does it need to turn some quiet man into one of the crazy gunmen you read about?

Constipation

   Constipation, which is a major factor in the toxemia underlying most of the other common complaints, occurs for two reasons:

1. Wrong food containing too much fat and not enough vegetable fiber.
2. Incorrect posture for defecation. The natural posture for defecation is the squatting position. While standing or sitting there is a kink in the anal canal which is an effective seal which has to be overcome by extra pressure in order to expel the contents of the bowel; but when squatting the kink straightens out and the bowel movement is much easier. In Asian countries where toilet pans sit flush with the floor, and with the other advantages of a diet containing greater amounts of vegetables, constipation is not the universal problem it is in Western countries.

   The adoption of the squatting position for defecation not only soon achieves freedom from constipation but solves also the problem of urinary incontinence in women, and relief of prostate disorders in men, while at the same time allowing the natural healing of hemorrhoids.

   Squatting is also the natural position for childbirth.

   Thus it can be seen that when toxemia exists, every single function of the body is to some extent adversely affected, worsening as the years go by as the body's vital organs deteriorate and become less and less able to achieve homeostasis.

ME: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, etc

   Refer to the Afterword by Dr Gaye Keir in Chapter 17.

AIDS

   There are a great many cases of arresting the condition of AIDS and regaining stabilized good health. There is a list of books written by AIDS survivors in the Appendix, but the procedure to restore the body from AIDS (or cancer) is no different than resolving any other health problem except perhaps for one thing: and that is first and foremost to reject and totally banish from the mind that AIDS (or cancer) is irreversible and fatal. Only the cases in which the immune system is completely shattered is this so.

   The rules for recovery then are:

1. Think positive, others have done it, so can you. Remember, few doctors know the real facts about AIDS they know only what they have accepted, parrot-fashion, from the incompetent American AIDS establishment.
2. Reject all medical treatment. In ten years and having used up billions of dollars in research funds unsuccessfully trying to prove the HIV theory of AIDS, the medical establishment has not saved one life of an AIDS patient, and this is not because AIDS is fatal; it is because the medical procedures are fatal.
3. Eliminate all drugs of any kind--even aspirin--from your life, forever, including of course nicotine.
4. Adopt the dietary procedures recommended in Chapter 15: no more junk food, salt, sugar.
5. Supplement the diet with a minimum of ten grams a day of vitamin C.
6. Get fit.
7. Get adequate sleep.
8. No excesses, sexual or otherwise.
9. Get plenty of fresh air and sunshine.
10. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, go out and help somebody else, even if only to give them a smile.
11. Get your teeth fixed, but not with amalgam (mercury) fillings.
12. Others have done it, so can you. Remember, if a man thinks he can, or if he thinks he cannot, he's right either way.

Other diseases of civilization

   Premenstrual tension, migraine, schizophrenia, premature senility, Alzheimer's disease, diminished mental acuity, failing eyesight, cataracts, diminished hearing, skin problems, ulcers, kidney stones, gallstones, varicose veins, estrogen imbalance, prostate inflammation, multiple sclerosis and so on, regardless of whatever 'high-tech' names are given them, can all be arrested and in most cases completely reversed, once the body's chemical imbalance has been corrected and homeostasis restored. The only cases in which the body is incapable of regaining homeostasis and achieving subsequent healing are those in which one or more vital organs have broken down irreparably, but because such complete failure is never a certainty, hope should never be abandoned even in the most advanced stages of degeneration. Even if organs are left with only a fraction of their original capacity, when the causes of toxemia are avoided the remaining capacity of the organ may still be sufficient to permit normal body functions. The recuperative powers of the body once homeostasis is restored are almost beyond belief.