Natural Healing
JUICE FASTING
ROYAL ROAD TO HEALTH AND LONG LIFE
JUICE FASTING - - ROYAL ROAD TO HEALTH AND LONG LIFE
The main causes of disease and aging are to be found in biochemical suffocation, the systematic disorder that interferers with the normal process of cell metabolism and cell regeneration. As the famous Canadian ‘stress doctor’, Hans Sale, said, “Life, the biological chain that holds our parts together, is only as strong as the weakest first link.”, the cell. You are as healthy and as young as your smallest links, the cells are. Disease and aging begins when the normal process of cell regeneration and rebuilding slows down. This slowdown is caused by the accumulation of waste products in the tissues, which interferes with the nourishment and oxygenation of cells.
Each cell of your body is a complete living entity with its own metabolism. It needs a constant supply of oxygen and adequate nourishment in the form of all the known nutritive substances, such as proteins, minerals, fatty acc ids, trace elements, etc. When nutritional deficiencies, sluggish metabolism, sedentary life, lack of fresh air and water, overeating and consequent poor digestion and assimilation of food cause our cells to be deprived of the nourishment they need hey start to degenerate and break down. The normal process of cell replacement and rebuilding slows down and your body starts to grow old. Its resistance to diseases will diminish and various ills will start to appear. This may happen at any age.
Only about half of all your cells are in the peak of development and working condition. One fourth are usually in the process of growth and the other fourth in the process of dying and replacement. It is of vital importance that the dying cells are decomposed and eliminated from the system as efficiently as possible. Quick and effective elimination of dead cells stimulates the building and growth of new cells.
Here's where juice comes in as the most effective way to restore health and rejuvenate the body. During the juice fast, the process of elimination of the dead and dying cells is speeded up, and the new building of cells is accelerated and stimulated. At the same time, the toxic waste products that interfere with the nourishment of the cells are effectively eliminated and the normal metabolic rate and cell oxygenation is restored.
Why fasting is so effective
Here’s why:
1. During a prolonged fast (after the first three days), your body will live on its own substance. When it is deprived of needed nutrition, particularly of proteins and fast, it will burn and digest its own tissues by the process of autolysins, or self-digestion. But your body will not do it indiscriminately! In its wisdom - and here lies the secret of the extraordinary effectiveness of fasting as curative and rejuvenates therapy! - your body will just decompose and burn those cells and tissues which are diseased, damaged, aged or dead. In fasting, your body feeds itself on the most impure and inferior materials, such as dead cells and morbid accumulations, tumours, abscesses, fat deposits, etc. Dr. Otto Buchinger, M.D., perhaps the greatest fasting authority in the world (and, I aim proud to say, one of my fasting teachers), calls fasting - very pertinently - a “refuse disposal”, a “burning of rubbish.” the essential tissues and vital organs, the glands, the nervous system and the brain and not damaged or digested in fasting.
2. During fasting, while the old cells and diseased tissues re decomposed and burned, the building of new, healthy cells is speeded up. This may seem unbelievable, since no nourishment, or only a limited amount of nourishment during a juice fast, is supplied. But this is nevertheless a physiological fact. During the famous Swedish fast marches, when first 11 and then 19 men walked from Gothenburg to Stockholm, a distance of over 325 miles, in 10 days while on a total fast, it was observed that the protein level of the blood (serum albumin reading) of the fasting people remained constant and normal (blood sugar levels also remained normal!) throughout the fasting period, in spite of the fact that no protein was consumed. The reason for this is that proteins in your body are in the so-called dynamic state being constantly decomposed and resynthesized and re-used for various needs within the body. When the old or diseased cells are decomposed, the amino acids are not wasted, but are released and used again in the process of new-building of young, vital cells.
3. During a juice fast, the eliminative and cleansing capacity of the eliminating organs - lungs, liver, kidneys and the skin - is greatly increased, and masses of accumulated metabolic wastes and toxins are quickly expelled. For example, during fasting, the concentration of toxins in the urine can be ten times higher than normal. This is due to the fact that the alimentary canal, lived and kidney are relieved from
The usual burden of digesting foods and eliminating the resultant wastes and toxins such as uric acid, pureness, etc., from the tissues This eliminative process is evidenced by the following typical symptoms of fasting, offensive breath, dark urine, continuous and generous discharge from the colon with enema, skin eruptions, excessive perspiration and catarrhal elimination of mucus.
4. Fasting affords a physiological rest to the digestive, assimilative and protective organs. After fasting, the digestion of food and the utilization of nutrients is greatly improved, and sluggishness and further waste retention are prevented.
5. Finally, the fast exerts a normalizing, stabilizing and remunerative effect on all the vital physiological, nervous and mental functions. The nervous system is rejuvenated, mental powers are improved, glandular chemistry and hormonal secretions ad stimulated and increased; the biochemical and mineral balance of the tissues is normalized.
It is easy to see from the above why fasting if such an effective health restoring and regulative measure
Medical science re-discovers fasting.
Fasting is the oldest therapeutic method known to man. Even before the advent of healing arts, man instinctively stopped eating when feeling ill and abstained from food until his health was restored. Perhaps he learned this from animals, which always fast when not feeling well.
Throughout medical history, fasting has been regarded as one of the most dependable curative methods. Hippocrates, Galen, Paracelsus and many other "greats" of medicine prescribed fasting.
But with the advent of modern, drug-oriented medicine, fasting has fallen into disregard in the types of the orthodox practices. All kinds of reducing diets - yes; but the total abstinence from food - the best form of reducing as well as healing - is seldom tried.
Happily, things are beginning to change. Many scientific studies are now being made around the world, particularly in Europe, to determine the prophylactic, therapeutic and rejuvenate effects of fasting.
The Karolinski Institute in Stockholm, a world famous medical research institution, has made clinical studies of fasting up to 55 days under Drs. Pr. Reizenstein and J. Kellberg. Studies demonstrated that fasting is not only a perfectly safe measure, but that is also has a definite beneficial healing effect.
The famous Swedish fast marches, led by Dr. Lennarrt Edren, proved to the world the great potential of fasting as well as its safety. Although the fasting participants were under an extremely sever stress walking 34 miles a day for 10 days, their health condition only improved and "they felt stronger and had more vigour and vitality after the fast than before it", as expressed by Dr. Karl-Otto Aly, M.D., one of the participants of the fast march.
In Germany, fasting is now used in hundreds of biological clinics operated by medical doctors. One doctor, Otto Buchinger, Jr., has supervised over 90,000 successful fasts. In German and Swedish clinics fasting is now routinely used to treat virtually every disease - therapeutic, conditions, digestive disorders, skin conditions, cardio- vascular disorders, etc.
In Russia, doctors have used fasting experimentally for 23 years and report excellent results. The latest report from Russia shows that controlled fasting was found to be the most effective treatment for schizophrenia. 64% of the patients had improved mentally after 20-30 days of controlled fasting.
Some recent animal studies in the United States have shown that periodic fasting can increase the life span considerably. IN one study, fasting worms periodically - every other day - caused them to live 50 times as long as usual! Larger animals or man may not do as well, but the Cornell University studies with rats showed that keeping them from overeating and starving them systematically increased their life span 2 1/3 times!
How safe is fasting?
This actually happened in England. A broken-hearted 50 year-old man, whose wife left him for a younger lover, decided to end it all by starving himself to death. He ran away into high mountains, abstained from all eating, contemplating his broken marriage and occasionally sipping fresh water from the mountain springs. He expected to expire in a few days. But to his surprise, the desired death would just not come. In fact, he noticed with dismay, that as the days went by, he felt better and stronger.
The end of the store is that in due time - after 74 days in the wilderness without food - the man finally changed his mind (fasting does improve mental capacity and contributes to a logical and clear thinking!), feeling that she wasn't worth killing himself for, after all, that certainly there must be other women in the world. He returned to civilization and lived happily for another 30 years - with a new wife!
I know personally of a young man of 27 in Sweden who faster 143 days. No, it wasn't an anti-Vietnam demonstration, but to "cleanse, regenerate and rejuvenate his body and mind" (as many great philosophers, in including Plato and Socrates, did in the past). And he lived to tell about his experience in a book called "Man Who Ate His Muscles."
One 54-year old Scottish woman fasted 249 days on juices and not only did she not harm herself, but also she lost 74 pounds and got rid of her painful arthritis, as a pleasant side effect!
I have supervised hundreds of fasts in Europe, the U.S., Canada and Mexico and have seen most remarkable results in recovery from a great variety of ills. Many of my patients fasted up to 40 days and, almost without exception, all have told me that they felt stronger and had more vitality after the fast than before it - in addition to the fact that most of their symptoms of ill health had completely vanish during the fast.
Miss B. B. fasted for her heart condition and many vague but persistent symptoms of aging - she was well over 70. She amazed the whole Spa by increasing her daily walking distance, until at the end of her 40 day fast (she called it “40 days and 40 nights”) she walked 5 miles a day. Although she did experience a few so-called fasting crises during her long fast (caused by accelerated elimination off accumulated wastes from her body) she felt healthier and stronger on the 40th day than she did on the 1st day of fasting. And you should have heard the ovation she received from the Spa guests when she finally broke her fast.
I could fill a book with actual cases of successful fasts, which I supervised. Those who are interested in studying fasting in more detail, reading of many cases and perhaps trying to fast for themselves, should by the book, “HOW TO KEEP SLIM, HEALTHY AND YOUNG WITH JUICE FASTING. *
So, to answer the question “Is fasting safe?” I can truthfully say - after studying fasting for 30 years with some of the greatest fasting specialists in the world (Dr. Are Waerland, Dr. Ragnar Berg, Dr. Otto Buchinger, Jr., etc.) and evaluating their results as well as my own experience with hundreds of patients - that fasting is not only the most effective healing method know to man, but also the safest.
The best way to fast
The best, safest and most effective method of fasting is juice fasting, Although the old, classic from of fasting was a pure water fast, all the leading fasting authorities today agree that juice fasting is far superior to a water fast. Perhaps, if the effective way of making raw vegetable and fruit juices was known before, the healers of the past would have used them too. I have supervised both types of fasting and I agree with Dr. Otto Buchinger, Jr., who has supervised more fasts than any other doctor, that fasting on both raw juices of fruits and vegetable, plus vegetable broths and herb teas, results in much faster recovery from disease and an more effective cleansing and rejuvenation of the tissues than does the traditional water fast. It is too bad that some old American practitioners are still using the antiquated water fast method. The water fast exerts severe physical and emotional stress on the patient and therefore results are often unsuccessful. Perhaps this is the reason why fasting is hardly ever used any more in the United States, while in Europe it is practiced on a grand scale. There are hundreds of clinics in Germany alone where fasting is a number one method of healing. And all of them use juice fasting exclusively.
Here’s what Dr. Ragner Beerg, world-famous authority on nutrition and biochemistry, says about the superiority of juice fasting to waste fasting.
“During fasting the body burns up and excretes huge amounts of accumulated wastes. We can help this cleansing process by drinking alkaline juices instead of water while fasting. I have supervised many fasts and made extensive examinations and tests of fasting patients, and I am convinced that drinking alkali-forming fruit and vegetable juices, instead of water, during fasting will increase the healing effect of fasting.
Elimination of uric acid and other inorganic acids will be accelerated. And sugars in juices will strengthen the heart . . . Juice fasting is, therefore, the best from of fasting.”
* Paavo O. Airola, HOW TO KEEP SLIM, HEALTHY, AND YOUNG WITH JUICE FASTING, HEALTH PLUS Publishers, P.O. Box 22001, Phoenix, Arizona, 85028. Price $3.00. Also available at health food stores.
Vitamins, minerals, enzymes, trace elements and natural colouring of fresh, raw vegetable and fruit juices are extremely beneficial in normalizing all the body processes, supplying needed elements for the body’s own healing activity and cell regeneration, and, thus, speeding the recovery. These juices require no digestion and are easily assimilated directly into the bloodstream - thus, they do not disrupt the healing and rejuvenating process of autolusis, or self-digestion, as suggested by some water fast proponents.
Mineral imbalance in the tissues is one of the main causes of diminished oxygenation, and consequent disease and premature aging. Generous amounts of minerals in the juices help to restore the biochemical and mineral balance in the tissues and cells.
Also, according to Dr. Ralph Bircher, raw juices contain an as yet unidentified factor, which stimulates what he calls a micro-electric tension in the body and is responsible for the cells’ ability to absorb nutrients from the blood stream and effectively excrete metabolic wastes.
In PART ONE of this book, we list specific juices, which can be used in the treatment of various diseases. These juices, which possess specific medicinal properties, should be used both during the juice fasting, and/or when the patient is on a specific therapeutic diet, even if he does not fast.
How do you fast?
It is advisable to prepare yourself for fasting by a short cleansing diet. For 2 or 3 days, eat nothing but raw fruits and vegetables - one meal a day of any available fruit, the other of fresh vegetable salad.
Fasting usually beings with an effective bowel cleansing with the help of purgatives, such as Glauber’s salts or castor oil. Dr. Buchinger uses an ounce and half of Glauber’s salts in one and a quarter pints of warm water on the morning of the first day of fasting. Since the Glauber’s salt will cause repeated and powerful evacuations and cleanse your bowels thoroughly. Some European clinics use castor oil for the same purpose. On the first day of fasting, one or two hours before an enema, 2 tbsp. of pure castor oil is taken in a glass of water to which the juice of half a lemon has been added. Of course, you can begin your fasting without a purgative, just by taking a double enema. First take 1 pint of plain water and let it out. Then repeat with a full quart of water, into which camomile tea or a few drops of lemon juice have been added.
` The next day, and each following day of the fast, you follow this program:
UPON ARRIVING: Enema
Drink plain lukewarm water, or mineral water, when thirsty. The total juice and broth volume during the day should be between 1 1/2 pints and 1 1/2 quarts. Never dilute fresh juices with vegetable broth, only with pure water. The total liquid intake should be approximately 6 to 8 glasses - but don’t hesitate to drink more, if thirsty.
I suggest that a therapeutic fast be supervised by a doctor or by someone who is well initiated in it. Under expert supervision, such a fast could be undertaken at home up to 30 days, if necessary. If you suffer from some illness and are under your doctor’s care, you may wish to show him this book or my fasting book and the fasting instructions, and ask him to supervise your fasting and examine your condition as the fast progresses. With expert supervision I would not advise fasting longer than one week to 10 days at a time. After a few weeks on a Optimum health-building diet, your fasting program may be repeated.
If you decide to fast on your own, I strongly urge that you acquire my fasting book, *, which contains all the detailed instructions fore do-it-yourself fasting. When you fast, you should be well informed on all the details and phases of fasting, and thoroughly convinced of its safety and superior healing potential.
How the fast is broken
Whether your fast will turn out to be a success or a failure will depend largely on how you break your fast. Breaking a fast is the most significant phase of it. The beneficial effect of fasting could be totally undone if the fast is broken incorrectly. As Dr. Otto H. F. Buchinger says, “Even a fool can fast, but only a wise man knows how to break the fast properly and to build up properly after the fast!”
The main rules for breaking the fast are:
First Day: Eat one a half apple in the morning and a very small bowl of fresh vegetable soup at lunch, addition to the usual juice and broth menu.
Second Day: A few soaked prunes or figs (with soaking water) for breakfast. Small bowl of fresh vegetable salad for lunch. Vegetable soup made without salt at dinner. Two apples between meals. All this in addition to the usual juices and broths.
Third Day: Same as the second day, but add a glass of yoghurt and 5-6 raw nuts (finely ground in a seed grinder) for breakfast. Increase the salad portion at lunch, and add a boiled or baked potato. A slice of whole grain bread with butter and a slice of cheese with soup at evening.
Fourth day: You may start eating normally, adhering to a cleansing Airola Diet, as recommended in Directions: 1. If you faster longer than 10 days, the break-in period should be extended one day for every 4 days of fasting.
In order to benefit from fasting to the greatest possible extent, it is of paramount importance that
after fasting, a build-up diet of vital natural foods be maintained. Such a diet will supply the healing and regenerative forces of your body with all the needed elements, so what the cleansing, regenerative, rejuvenate and healing processes, initiated by the body during fasting, can be continued.
But first and foremost, always keep in mind the first rule of breaking the fast, do not overeat! This rule also happens to be the first rule of keeping healthy and staying younger longer.
Some important tips on fasting
1. Enema. During fasting, a huger amount of morbid matter, dead cells and diseased tissues are burned, and the toxic wasters which have been accumulated in the tissues for years, causing disease and premature aging, are loosed and expelled from the system. These wastes are eliminated from the system by way of kidneys, bowels, skin and lungs. But the alimentary canal, the bowels, is the main road by which these toxins are thrown out of the body. Since, during fasting, the natural bowel movements cease to take place, the toxic wastes would have no way of leaving the system, except with the help of enemas. If you fast without enemas, those toxins remain in your colon and are re-absorbed into the system, poisoning our whole body. Your body will try to get them out through other eliminative organs, particularly through the kidneys, which, ass a result, will often be overloaded and even damaged.
This is why enemas during fasting are an absolute must. Enemas during fasting will assist the body in its cleansing and detoxifying effort by washing out all the toxic wasters from the alimentary canal.
Enemas should be taken at least once, but preferably twice a day; the first thing in the morning and the last thing before going to bed. One pint to one quart of lukewarm water is sufficient. Enema bags are available in any drugstore.
2. Drugs. As a rule a complete withdrawal of drugs is advised during fasting. Exceptions are digitalis in heart disease, insulin in diabetes, and cortisone in arthritis - if these drugs have been taken previously for prolonged periods of time. Those who are on any kind of drugs would be wise to have their fast supervised by an experienced practitioner.
3. Vitamins. During fasting, the intake of vitamins and food supplements should be discontinued completely. Three exceptions: a) in serious heart cases, vitamin E should be taken while fasting, b)Very Sick persons can be given extra Vitamin C (up to 3,000 mg a day) with fruit juices; c) Very Weak Persons can be given 1 or 2 tsp. of natural honey, possibly as a sweetener in herb teas.
4. Smoking and Drinking. No smoking, no alcohol, and no coffee, of course. Incidentally, fasting is the best way to quit smoking and drinking. After about two weeks of fasting, all the desire for smoking or alcohol will be gone, as testified by hundreds of fasting patients. (See sections on Smoking and Alcoholims in Part One).
5. Contra-indications. In advanced cases of diabetes, active tuberculosis, active malignancies, mental diseases and weak hearts in older patients, fasting is not recommended. Where there is any kind of disease, do not attempt fasting without consulting your doctor and abiding by his decision on the advisability of undertaking a fast in your situation.
6. Juices. All juices should be made fresh immediately before drinking. Do not use canned or frozen juices. This meant that if you fast on your own, you have to have your own juicer (see Directions: 2). Canned or frozen juice can be used sparingly, only in an emergency situation when fresh juices are not available.
7. Herb Teas. The best herb teas to drink during fasting are peppermint, rose hips and camomile; but you may drink any of your favorites. Your health food store has a good supply of these and many other herb teas (see Directions: 6). When fasting for the purpose of healing, use specific herbs for specific conditions as suggested in Part One.
8. Work. Must you discontinue your regular work and rest or stay in bed while fasting? Not at all! On the contrary, staying in bed while fasting is definitely harmful, except for sleeping at night and for an afternoon siesta. You may live your normal life and do your regular work while you fast. You will have plenty of strength to do it, to - unless you are a ditch digger, of course, in which case we advise you to take it easy.
9/. Exercise. Your body needs lots of assistance in the form of fresh air, motion, and exercise, in order to accomplish a thorough cleansing of the blood and tissues and effectively regenerate and revitalize all the body functions. Therefore, you should do lots of walking and mild exercising in the fresh air - especially deep breathing exercises - in addition to sunbathing, Always sleep with the windows open.
10. Daily baths. About one third of all body impurities and wastes are eliminated through your skin. Since the internal cleansing and speedy elimination of toxic wasters is a prime purpose of fasting, it is important to keep the skin pores wide open and the elimination through the skin as efficient as possible. Daily showers, especially in connection with dry brush massages (see Directions 4) are recommended. If the heart and circulation are good (your doctor must determine this) then hot baths, sauna, and hot and cold showers should be taken frequently.
11. Drinking Water. The fasting program, as suggested in this chapter, will give you 6 glasses of juices, broth and herb teas during 24 hours. If you still feel thirsty, you may drink additional regular water: pure, uncontaminated water, of course. Avoid chlorinated or fluoridated water. Natural, hard water is better than distilled water.
12. Hunger. Will you feel hungry while fasting? Yes, naturally, but only during the first 3 or 4 days. After that, the unbelievable will happen - the longer you fast, the less hungry you will feel, until the time when the body has completed it cleansing work, at which time you will suddenly feel an excruciating hunger - a reliable signal that it is time to break the fast and start eating.
13. Positive Attitude. Mental attitude during fasting is of paramount importance. Avoid negative influences or thoughts. Don’t listen to the terrified relatives and “friends” and their “warnings”. Have total confidence in what you are doing. Remember that hundreds of thousands of people have done it successfully before you. Perhaps thinking that you are on a juice diet instead of juice fast will make you feel safer!
14. Diet after the fast. The wonderful results achieved by fasting will be nullified in a very short time if fasting is followed by the improper diet that created the undesirable condition of ill health in the first place - a condition that fasting corrected so successfully. The regenerative, remunerative and healing processes initiated by your body during fasting must continue after the fast it broken.
Therefore, fasting should be followed by the Airola Diet - following the Airola Diet for optimum health after your fasting will insure that you are building upon - not tearing down - the good results that fasting accomplished.