# Fasting for the cure of disease/Chapter 5

​CHAPTER V
SYMPTOMS
"Every excess causes a defect; every defect, an excess. Every sweet hath its sour; every evil, its good. Every faculty which is a receiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put on its abuse. It is to ansrver for its moderation with its life."
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
​CHAPTER V.
SYMPTOMS
DISEASE symptoms are the evidences of the conditions present within the body, and they indicate with more or less accuracy the degree of functional or of organic disturbance. In addition they enable the experienced observer to localize the point of least resistance, the organ prevented from proper performance of its task. In fasting, these signs of disease, during the first days of abstinence, are seen to be exaggerated or seemingly increased in severity; but this is a logical consequence of the application of a method, the purpose of which is that of elimination of a clogging, circulating poison. The extreme process of castingout in progress during the fast uncovers the seat of disease, and exaggerates in the very cure itself its characteristic signs. To the orthodox mind this phenomenon at once suggests an increase in severity, since to it the symptom itself represents a cause. But, ​regarding disease as a unity, or as arising from a single primary source, the intellect trained in the application of natural means of treatment finds no cause for fear, but rather reason for rejoicing. Nature has entered the open avenue of assistance presented and is proceeding rapidly to effect relief and cure.
In any method for the treatment of disease nothing can be done unless nature co-operates. In some methods her means of cure, elimination, triumphs in spite of the treatment, and this is nowhere so fully displayed as in traditional orthodoxy, which is trained to look upon the symptom, or the appearance of disease, as its cause. As a result the efforts of medicine have been directed to check, to suppress, to turn into other channels, the sign manifested. The fact has been and is ignored that, thus turned aside and unremoved, disease is certain of return in redoubled force.
The whole of the human race has been educated for years along wrong curative lines. For instance, in orthodoxy if the heart action is high, a depressant drug is administered; if it is low, a stimulant is given. In either case reaction occurs, and the organ is less able to recuperate when the clogged channels of ​bodily energy finally are cleared sufficiently for function. This occurs when nature asserts herself, as she often does, in spite of the drug. When the sign of distress appears upon the surface of the skin, attempts are at once in order, not to remove the inward cause, but to eradicate the outward appearance, "to drive it in." Orthodoxy refuses to admit the unity of disease, and hence neglects to assist in the cleansing process of nature, which, recognizing the cause, ignores the symptom, or uses it solely as a guide. The thought and hope of the physician trained to heed the warnings of disease from a natural viewpoint is this that the organs of the body of his patient may prove equal to the work of elimination, and this they can accomplish only when they are structurally intact. In spite of the mildness or the severity of its manifestation, it is through bodily purification alone that disease can be cured.
Since the physiological changes involved in the application of fasting for the cure of disease need to be made gradually, the ideal method of approach to the period of abstinence is to prepare the system by a gradual lessening of the food supply; but, whether begun in this manner or without preparation, ​as is necessary in acute disease, the resultant symptoms are in general alike. When the intake of food is stopped, the stomach is naturally emptied and commences its enforced vacation. All of its energy as an organ is then applied to recuperation, to allaying with the assistance of a blood-current continually gaining in purity, inflammation that may be present in its structure, and to relieving congestion in veins and in glands. It will from time to time be disturbed in this work by its neighboring organ, the liver, which, during the fast, becomes solely an instrument of elimination, and discharges quantities of refuse into the alimentary canal. The secretion of the liver is always a waste product, but, even as such, it has its use as a digestive fluid in health. When the fast is in progress, however, this product of elimination is discharged into the intestines, and is nothing more than poisonous refuse excreted from tissue, blood, and organs, which must be at once removed from the body lest it be reabsorbed into the circulation.
When food is taken away, the bowels still proceed to collect the waste deposited in them by the blood and the liver; the kidneys, the
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R. J. Malnutrition and spinal curvature. Subject fasted twenty-eight days, taking special exercises for spinal curvature. Curvature corrected and general health remarkably improved. Photograph taken three months after completion of fast. ​elimination; and the whole sewerage system of the body centers its entire energy in an effort to clear away the impurities stored within. The stomach rests, while the involuntary absorptive functions continue their work, even upon excreted tissue waste ; and, lest harm result, the most expeditious mechanical means must be employed to remove this product from the digestive tract. The blood, following its mission, gathers the refuse from cell structure, and supplies for rebuilding purposes what it finds available. This it discovers in the reserve supply of nourishment naturally stored in the interstices of tissue. As the process of elimination or purification continues, waste grows less; the density of the blood is reduced gradually, as refuse diminishes in quantity; and the labor of the heart is thus progressively lightened.
Heart action is low in some cases of disease, and it is high in others. It is low when the blood is loaded with waste and is dense or thick in quality. It is high when fermentation of refuse in the intestines occurs, with absorption of active poison into the circulation. But, whether high or low, poisonous products are present in the blood. A ​circulating poison acting upon the nerves that control the heart may develop irregularities that seem to show organic structural defect, and these are often so diagnosed. But, following the argument of the text, it is plain that, whatever the symptom, improvement in heart action must necessarily result in the fast when elimination becomes sufficiently advanced to remove the poisonous refuse that is the cause of disease. No fear need be entertained as to the ability of the heart to perform its functions during a fast, for the organ has less work to do as each day goes by, and it is served with the increased nerve power of a system gradually purifying.
When the fast is once begun, elimination asserts its predominance. Desire for food is in many cases replaced by disgust at the thought of it, and appetite is lacking until the fast is complete. The very odor of food, and even the perfume of flowers is to some patients nauseating. When this symptom is present in aggravated form, it is an almost certain indication of organic defect that may prove fatal. In this sign, however, in both functional and organic disease, there may be variations, due more or less to the time devoted to preliminaries ; and several instances ​are of record in which neither appetite nor a semblance of it was present throughout the entire period of abstinence. Other cases have claimed the sensation of false hunger from the beginning to the end of the fast.
Another general symptom is discovered in the fact that the tongue, immediately upon the omission of food, dons, in ordinary cases, a thick yellowish-w r hite coat, which it keeps until the impurities within the body are eliminated; and the clearing of its surface is one of the important signals that indicate a complete and successful fast. When the secretions of the body are acid in character, an apparently clean tongue may develop, and in this event strict interpretation of the symptom might lead to the inference that the system is cleansed and is ready for food. But here pulse and temperature give needed guidance, and the condition of the mucus membrane of the mouth, or cankers upon the tongue are warnings sufficient for the practiced mind. The coat deposited upon the tongue is one of the simplest visible signs of an extremely foul internal state, and of the fact that elimination is rapidly taking place. In health a clean tongue, as defined medically, is seldom in evidence with a full ​stomach. Ordinarily here, food stimulation dominates elimination, for a foul tongue is only an indication of the attempt of nature to cast out impurity from the system. Except as previously stated, a clean tongue is one of the unfailing signs of a complete and successful fast, and it may take months to accomplish.
Like the tongue, the breath becomes loaded with evidences of the internal condition, and its odor is most offensive for the greater part of the fasting period. This, too, is an indicator of the progress of the cleansing process which the body is undergoing, and the termination of the fast is heralded by its becoming odorless.
One of the products of fermentation within the body is known by the chemical name of acetone. There is no doubt that acetone, the result of the decomposition of organic matter, is present to greater or less degree in many cases undergoing the fast. It is not necessarily a product of the albumen of the food, but is more probably the result of the destruction of that part of the body albumen that has come from the breaking down of the tissue cells. In other words, the producing material has served its purpose as living cell growth. In cases treated medically its ​presence is regarded with dread, and at times when it appears, as it does, in anaesthetized subjects under the surgeon's knife, operations have been abandoned because of the fear of death while the paralysis of the anaesthetic endures. Its presence in a patient undergoing the fast indicates functional derangement of more than ordinary gravity. In health there is no production of acetone, since discarded cell tissue is eliminated before fermentation can occur. Once food is denied and cell refuse is discharged into the channels of evacuation, acetone, when it is present, appears in all the excretions, and its characteristic ether-like odor is most pronounced. In fact in these instances one of the signs of the beginning of the end of the fast is found in the disappearance of acetone from urine, breath, and excreta. It is no longer formed, since the body is again in position to produce normal healthy cell structure balanced by normal elimination of waste.
In disease it is quite usual to observe unpleasant body odors. These are manifestations of an unclean interior, manifestations which nature seeks to remove through the organs of elimination, not the least of which is the skin. One experienced in the treatment ​of mental diseases becomes expert in distinguishing the marked odor attached to most lunatics. Even in the milder nervous derangements, such as hysteria, the odor of the body becomes distinctly changed, and is frequently noticed by the patient himself. Efiluvium is present in many disease symptoms other than those of the mind and of the nerves witness, for instance, the distinct odor characteristic of tuberculosis of the lungs. In the fast the one function paramount is that of elimination ; and due to this fact the body odor at this time is decidedly more noticeable than in ordinary disease when food is supplied. So true is this that the presence of a fasting patient in a closed room can at once be detected by one familiar with the treatment and its results.
In cases of acute disease and in what is known as bilious temperament, after the fast has begun, annoying symptoms may develop, dizziness on rising suddenly, spots before the eyes, and general malaise and weakness. But these signs are not found in every instance and cannot be established as guides. Some there are who may abstain from food for from thirty to forty days without any disagreeable symptoms save an offensive ​breath and coated tongue, while there are others in whom all the signs, thus far described, are in evidence in gradually diminishing intensity until the end of the fast.
The experience of the fast is often trying to those who, by high living and overfeeding, have given the liver work beyond its capacity. Bile, extracted from the circulation and stored in gall bladder and liver, is cast out in large quantities and floods the intestines to such degree that, often before it can be carried downward, the stomach finds itself a depository for the surplus, which fact is noted by nausea and vomiting. There is no absolute certainty of the appearance of this sign, but it is usually present in the subjects referred to. In extreme form this symptom indicates a liver in some stage of disintegration, and recovery is doubtful. However, in one known instance during a fast, vomiting of bile occurred for twenty-six days in succession, with later restoration to health.
For the reason that excessive vomiting of bile is a symptom that indicates the probability of organic disease of the liver or of the intestinal tract, in these cases caution is urged in the application of the protracted fast. The symptom is not to be regarded as alarming ​when the fluid raised is yellow or yellowishgreen in hue, and when nausea occurs at infrequent intervals. But, if the color changes to a vivid green or, as it does in instances of acute organic derangement, to black, the case may be considered as most serious in character and of doubtful prognosis. When nausea is present during a fast, it is far better to aid elimination in ridding the stomach of its contents through the mouth than to permit them to remain with the certainty of partial reabsorption and re-toxication. If difficulty is found in raising the contents of the stomach, titillation of the palate with the end of the finger or with a feather will cause the convulsive muscular contraction necessary; and the drinking of warm water will ease the act of retching and, at the same time, will cleanse the walls of the stomach.
There are patients with livers organically diseased who undergo the fast without the appearance of bilious vomit. Observation in post mortem examinations leads to the conclusion that these subjects are invariably effected with some stage of a cirrhosed or hardened liver, and are outwardly of an emaciated or wiry type. On the other hand, those in whom excessive vomiting occurs during ​the fast are always inclined to obesity and at death display a liver disintegrated or softened. Of the two types the chances for recovery are greater with the latter.
Bile thrown into the stomach may produce, through irritation of its walls, spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm, i. e., hiccoughs. They may also occur as the result of other abnormal stimulation of the diaphragmatic nerve, and this happens frequently in cases of any affection of the liver or of the intestines. When merely functional disturbance causes this annoying symptom, it may quickly be relieved by vomiting qr by the drinking of cold water; but, if it persists, it points to serious conditions, and in the later stages of disease, it is proof of organic defects beyond repair and heralds the approach of death.
In the earlier stages of the fast there will probably be fermentation and consequent formation of gas in the intestines, which may continue for days, depending upon the amount of solid material clinging to bowel walls, and also upon what may be termed the virulence of the bile and other waste deposited in the alimentary canal. The gas formed is often the cause of colicky pains, and is always a source of uncomfortable ​moments until removed. Manipulation of the abdomen together with hot water application's are of great assistance in this event, since they tend to reduce inflated intestines by stimulating peristalsis, and thus bring about the discharge of the gas. The enema is also of the utmost value in these circumstances and must be employed.
In all cases in the fast the evacuations from the bowels are strikingly similar. Floating in a brownish fluid that shades to black in color are old f eces more or less abundant in quantity. The latter are present for many days, and are evidence of the former statement that overworked bowels do not fully discharge their contents even when regular in action.
The more usual indication of disease as it affects body temperature is fever, but it is guite frequently the case that in anaemic subjects, shortly after the beginning of a fast, the temperature drops to a degree or so below normal. This is caused by the absence of food stimulation, for a fast never lowers temperature. The latter is always below register in instances of long-standing debility, and it is high in proportion to the severity of acute disease. The fast tends to ​restore temperature and pulse to normal, be they high or low at its inception. It is well to note that, while the average normal temperature of the body is 98 2-5 degrees, and the average normal pulse is about 72 beats to the minute, these figures are not to be regarded as normal for each and every individual. There are variations both above and below that are not to be considered as arising in every instance from disease. A case is cited in which temperature before the fast was habitually ninety-four degrees; in the fast apparently no change was made until the twentieth day, when an increase of onehalf degree was noted; average normal of ninety-eight degrees was reached ten days later. Here undoubtedly disease was the cause of low register. Many cases have been observed in which temperature at the beginning of the fast was so low as not to admit of register upon the clinical thermometer, but invariably average normal was reached before the end of abstinence. When conditions of abnormally low temperature are present during the fast, hot applications along the spinal column, and hot tub-baths are the means to be employed to assist internal elimination in restoring body heat to normal. In ​any case temperature is merely a symptom of the conditions within, and, whether high or low, it denotes that there is in progress a fight for life that has scarce need to be suppressed. No thermometer is necessary to read the severity of disease, and, if pulse and temperature are above or below normal at the beginning of the fast, they will descend or ascend to natural register when disease disappears, or perhaps while some of its symptoms are still in evidence. The general conditions described in this paragraph in connection with temperature below normal occur in the cases of almost all f asters. These are aggravated in certain temperaments, more especially in those who suffer from the wasting forms of illness, such as hardening of the liver, and mal-assimilation.
When the fast is concluded and the body has been rebuilt, it is to be noted that a vegetarian diet insures a pulse and temperature with no apparent tendency to rise above individual normal. If the dietary change has been one from flesh to vegetable, the pulse may show reduction of several beats from its former average.
One word more concerning bodily temperature in the fast : Physiology asserts and ​observation proves that there can be no digestion in the absence of digestive juices, and that there is almost no secretion of the fluids when fever is present. Why, then, feed during high temperature? Without digestion there can be no nourishment, no upbuilding of wasted tissue. Why add the burden of eliminating undigested material to the already great effort that nature is making to reduce over-stimulated heart action and abnormal body heat? The surest means to correct this condition is to withhold food, to remove the refuse, and to rest those organs that are functionally unable to cope with the labor forced upon them.
Depending upon the physical tendencies of the individual, after the beginning of the fast and during its early stages, many symptoms not specifically described in this chapter may develop. In some a rash upon the skin appears, and in others a cold with excessive nasal and bronchial discharge is the form in which the purifying process at work is displayed. But these and all other signs that occur at this time may be ascribed in part to the depression succeeding food stimulation, and in part to the exceedingly great elimination of waste that is in progress. The ​latter is, of course, responsible for the larger number of symptoms that appear here and hereafter in the fast. After the first indications vanish, in cases of purely functional disease, the patient discovers that his strength has apparently increased, and that he is, in most instances, able to attend without difficulty to ordinary labor and to approach it with brain marvelously clear. In other words, with the loss of stimulation due to food poison, disease decreases, and real strength is manifest. The patient is not less weak nor more strong than at any time during his previous diseased existence when living under stimulation. The fast has but uncovered the true state of affairs, and it has demonstrated that a sick man is not of necessity a weak man, for weakness is absence of strength due to systemic poison alone, and, in the early stages of illness, strength is only dormant. This seemingly paradoxical statement is explained by the fact that in disease all avenues for the passage of energy and vitality are so clogged by cumulative waste products as to be rendered almost useless for the expression of these forces.
The subject of food stimulation has not received the attention that it deserves in any ​system of therapeutics, for it is always an important factor in disease. After the body has become accustomed to a fixed food supply, whatever the quantity or the hours of ingestion, it strenuously rebels when denied. The system may be greatly overfed; it may be slowly poisoning itself through its own indiscretions ; yet the omission of a meal sets the stomach clamoring. Given the usual quota, matters progress comparatively smoothly until the excess proves too heavy to be carried, or some minute organism finds soil in which to increase and multiply; then nature calls a halt and attempts correction by her only remedy, disease. Opportunity occurs when the accustomed impetus, food, is removed, but the patient is plunged into the depths. Stimulation, so long a habit, now seems necessary to counteract the symptoms produced by deprivation, and here mentality must be called to the rescue, and the will must be asserted in order to overcome the disposition and the desire to resume feeding.
The kidneys, the lungs, and the skin are the main avenues through which the liquids of the body carrying with them soluble impurity are eliminated. In the fast, when any of these means of escape are clogged and ​their functions impeded because of defect in structure in themselves or in the intestines, or because of excess of waste, the salivary glands excrete in quantity, and constant expectoration of viscous, foul-smelling spittle is symptomatic of the conditions described. This symptom abates and ceases as the functions are restored, and it may be much alleviated by hot baths and by sweat-inducing fomentations.
The headaches of the fast are invariably located in the frontal portion of the brain, and are coincident with the prior stage of abstinence, when the system is accomodating itself to the physiological change of habit then in progress. As elimination proceeds this symptom disappears, and, in functional disturbances, the brain experiences more rapid relief from pain and distress than do the other organs. Connected with headache, when organic defects exist, are visual spectra and flashes of light. A muscular tremor, accompanied with a rotary motion of the eyeball, or even with crossed eyes and faulty vision, sometimes appears in the graver forms of organic disease. This peculiar variation in symptom has been observed shortly before death in the fast, and in ​extreme form it would seem to indicate approaching dissolution.
At an early stage in the fast partial deafness with humming in the ears is apt to occur. When this happens, careful and constant syringing of the outer ear with warm water discloses an excessive quantity of wax, after the removal of which, the annoying symptoms vanish. The presence of this secretion in amount above normal indicates the extreme of elimination to which the body lends itself while digestion is suspended. Cases, which, before the fast, have suffered from semi-deafness, find the symptom much aggravated until mechanical removal of the clogging mass of wax is accomplished. Every avenue of escape is utilized by nature in the process of elimination in progress during the fast, and the ears perform their part in company with the eyes, the nose, the mouth, and the eliminative organs themselves.
At the end of a fast remarkable evidences of complete renewal of the old body are displayed. The hair falls profusely; tartar deposits upon the teeth are shed ; diseased spots in dental substance are sloughed; and extreme forms of pyorrhea, those affecting the ​bone of the teeth, are wholly corrected. Finger and toe nails are sometimes replaced from beneath with complete new growth, the old horny covering being forced from position and cast off. All these indications demonstrate not only renewal of secretion and of cell-structure, but purification as well. In the rebuilding period perfect replacement occurs.
Emaciation in the fast cannot properly be regarded as a symptom. It is the result of the elimination of toxic products, together with the loss occasioned by the use by brain and nerves of the reserve food-supply stored in tissue interstices. Diminution of weight due to the latter cause is, however, very slight in comparison with that arising from elimination. Wasting of the body is greater in cases where the organs are atrophied or cirrhosed than in other forms of disease, but the loss is less in these instances than in those of functional disease or of organic hypertrophy.
Delirium in disease is not necessarily an alarming symptom. A temporary condition of mental aberration apparent in confusion of thought, incoherency of speech, and, in some instances, unconsciousness, is characteristic of certain natures, whenever the body ​temperature rises above a fixed point. This is possibly an inherited tendency, for, on the other hand, there are many temperaments whose minds retain control in any and all forms of disease, when the brain itself is not the seat of disturbance. In the treatment of functional disease by the fast, it is rarely the case that delirium occurs, and, if it does, its appearance is due to extreme auto-intoxication from excessive waste thrown into the intestines and not evacuated with sufficient rapidity. If present at all, it will be evident within a day or so after the fast begins, and it will cease when elimination has proceeded to the point of clearing the bowels from the congested mass of old f eces. This symptom need never appear in cases of purely functional derangement, if proper preparation for the fast has been observed. In instances where abstinence from food is forced and involuntary, as is the case in mine accidents and in shipwrecks, the mental strain produced by the situation causes delirium, which, together with speedily fatal results, might be obviated were knowledge of the resources of the human body more general. In organic disease, in the fast or before it, delirium may continue for some time, and, while its ​primary cause is one with that in functional troubles, its persistence is due to defects in organs that prevent elimination into the intestines, or to defects in the intestines themselves that hinder evacuation naturally or by mechanical means. If recovery be possible, these cases are most obstinate in yielding to treatment, for the process of cleansing is extremely slow and lengthy in accomplishment, while recuperation is delayed indefinitely. This class of cases requires more patience and caution than all others combined, since the patient is apt to become discouraged and to lose faith in. the power of nature to overcome the condition. Resort to food and drugs may again be had, and the outcome, doubtful before, is now inevitably fatal. The lesson to be learned when this situation confronts physician and patient is that of organic limitation. The vital organs are capable of function only within bounds, beyond which. are danger and possible death. Safety rests in natural processes alone; danger lies in tonics and in food.
A general classification of the symptoms of disease tending to limit certain signs to certain ailments can never be made with accuracy. It is true that medicine has ticketed ​and shelved all symptoms, and that it is its plan to await development of indications before diagnosis. But medicine devotes its attention entirely to the suppression of the manifestation to the neglect of its cause, and a classification thus made finds items overlapping each other in such manner as to make distinction difficult if not impossible. But an arrangement of general disease forms may be made on lines that are sharply defined.
1. Purely functional ailments that readily yield to the fast. In these cases because of accumulation of excess-food-rubbish in the digestive tract, blood, and tissue, organs are hampered in function but are not structurally defective or in themselves diseased. Gradual improvement is noted from the beginning of preparation for the fast, and recovery is always possible.
2. Organic defect in slight degree, occasioning disturbance because of work imperfectly performed by a partially disabled organ. This condition places heavier burdens upon other organs and functionally unbalances the entire system. Disagreeable symptoms are noted in these cases during the progress of the fast, and it is possible that full functioning may never be restored. ​However, if the structural defect has not reached the point that includes the case in the following class, and, if care be exercised during the period of convalescence, recovery is certain.
3. Organic defect of such degree that the functioning of a vital organ is rendered impossible. A gradual decline, beginning before treatment and continuing with a short interval of relief after entering the fast, is the characteristic indication. The relief noted may be such as to offer hope of recovery, but, if the condition is as stated, there is no possibility of cure.
In functional disease, when her laws are obeyed, nature never fails of cure. She is helpless only when organic defects exist that defy repair.
The careful study of the symptoms of disease, as they occur either while feeding or fasting is' in progress, reveals the law through which nature works to a cure. It may briefly be stated as a process of elimination, upon lines of least resistance, of the toxins produced by functions imperfectly performed. These signs of distress may often be locally relieved by mechanical means embodying heat, water, sunlight, air, and manipulation, ​but disease can never be eradicated by mere suppression of symptom. It must be removed at its source; and, despite its varied expression, there is but one cause, impaired digestion, and one remedy, elimination of resulting poison.