Constructive Phases of the Fast

Hygienic Review
Vol. XXXIV November, 1972 No. 3
Constructive Phases of the Fast
Herbert M. Shelton

It is customary to think that all the changes that take place in the
body during a fast are of a destructive nature and that this
destruction begins with the omission of the first meal and
continues at an accelerated rate throughout the whole of the fast.
Few mistakes could be more glaring than this one, as a hurried
consideration of a number of facts bearing on the subject will
quickly reveal.

A fasting man may be quite active during the day and come to the
evening tired and weary. He may go to bed and sleep through the
night and awaken in the morning refreshed, reinvigorated and
ready for another day of activity just as though his tissues have
been duly nourished during the hours of repose. Indeed his
tissues are nourished as truly as if he had three meals the
preceding day. The processes of nutrition are carried on during a
fast almost as vigorously as when feeding. Almost all the losses
that occur during a fast represent reserves and expendables that
are employed in nourishing the more vital tissues of the body.
These reserves and expendables may be used not only in making
good the daily wear and tear of the body, but also, as materials of
growth. Strange as this may appear to the uninformed reader
growth may go on during the fast. Indeed, some growth seems not
to occur except during the fast.

A classical example of growth while fasting is that of the growth of

the tail of the salamander that has been deprived of its tail and

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that is compelled to fast following its loss. It is, perhaps, generally
known that if the salamander loses its tail, it grows a new one.
What is probably not so generally known, is that the salamander
grows a new tail, whether fasting or fed. The growth is slightly
more rapid if the animal is fed than when it is forced to fast.
Numerous instances of this kind are observed in nature. There are
large numbers of lower forms of life that are capable of
regenerating lost parts—tails, legs, stomachs, eyes, even whole
heads and in many of these cases the nature of the loss
automatically compels the animal to fast.

A process of growth that takes place only during a fast and which
does not take place if the animal continues to eat is that of the
metamorphosis of the tadpole into a frog. Simultaneously with the
absorption of the tail of the tadpole, the materials of which are
used as food, the tadpole grows legs. The tail is digested
(autolized) and the proteins and other nutritive materials contained
in it are absorbed and utilized in the construction of new tissues.
Metamorphosis is part of the reproductive process in frogs, insects
and some other forms of life. It is significant that fasting is
frequently associated with reproduction.

Another example of the association of fasting with reproduction is

seen in the long fasts of salmon during the mating season. A
remarkable growth of new tissue takes place in the fasting
salmon. There is a luxuriant growth of the gonads of both sexes,
with the production of thousands of ova by the female ovaries and
millions of sperm by the male testicles. The materials for this
growth are derived from the reserve stores and expendables
carried within the body of the salmon.

The Hawaiian monk seal gives birth to one young weighing about
forty pounds. Within fifteen days this weight has doubled. By the

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twenty-sixth day its weight has trippled. By the thirty-fifth day its
weight has quadrupled to more than one hundred forty pounds.
The mother fasts throughout the whole of the nursing period and
supplies from her own tissues materials for the growth and
fattening of her cub. At the end of thirty-five days she deserts the
young glutton and swims away, leaving him to fend for himself.

Somewhat similar to the female monk seal is the female bear.

When she enters her long winter fast she is both pregnant and
loaded with fat. The evolving young bears (two in number) in her
womb develop and grow and are born and are nursed subsequent
to birth while the mother continues her long fast. The cubs are
born nude (that is, devoid of hair) and the fasting mother must
provide adequate heat to keep both herself and her two cubs
warm.

The female seal and bear, providing nutriment for their offspring
while fasting, must draw upon their own tissues for the materials
to meet the needs of their young. Her own nutritive reserves and
expendables must contain adequacies of protein, sugar, fat,
mineral salts and vitamins to supply not only their own needs but
those of their growing offspring. It is generally assumed that the
animal organism and especially the human organism does not
store vitamin C. It is even asserted by supposed authorities that
man cannot go for more than fifteen days without a supply of
vitamin C. Not only fasting experiences among animals but in man
also indicate that this is a mistaken assumption. Fasts in man of
more than a hundred days, without taking any vitamins of any kind
with no deficiency diseases arising, indicate that in man, as in
animals, the stored vitamin is fully adequate to carry man safely
through an extended period without food.

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Some of the most remarkable examples of constructive work
during a period of fasting is provided us by metamorphosing
insects. One example must suffice. The caterpillar eats everything
in sight and stores up a lot of fat and other nutrients in its tissues.
Then it wraps itself in a cocoon and undergoes a complete
transformation, emerging after a time as a butterfly. It does not
taste food from the time it begins the work of wrapping itself in the
cocoon until it emerges therefrom. All this tearing down of old
structure and building of new ones is achieved in the fasting
stage. It is possible that, as in the case of the tadpole, the fast is
essential to the metamorphosis of the insect. I need hardly
emphasize the fact that all the nutrients including vitamins,
needed in the construction of the butterfly are contained in the
body of the matured caterpillar.

Experiments have shown that calves, when forced to fast,

continue to grow. Although losing weight and becoming gaunt,
they continue to increase in size, drawing upon their reserves and
expendables for the nutrient materials and vitamins necessary to
sustain growth in those portions of its organism that are growing at
that stage of its existence. Many more such examples of
constructive work being carried on during a fast could be given,
but this is enough to demonstrate how false is the common
notion that fasting gives rise to destructive changes only. A
more detailed study of the metabolism of the fasting organism
demonstrates that the changes that occur during a fast are orderly
and constructive. The vital tissues are protected from injury and
only the reserves and expendables are sacrificed. These are
quickly replenished when the fast is broken. In man, wounds
(scratches, cuts, bruises and more formidable wounds) heal and
broken bones are knit during a fast. Healing is as much a process
of life as digestion, circulation, respiration and excretion. The
processes of healing are in continuous operation. Minor accidents

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such as scratches, shallow cuts, and minor bruises, often heal so
quickly and attract so little attention that we do not notice their
existence. More formidable injuries heal by the same process,
longer time being required for the accomplishment of the work. All
of this healing work proceeds in an orderly and efficient manner
during a fast. Ulcers and old sores that frequently have persisted
for years heal with astonishing rapidity during a fast.

I know of no studies made upon fasting babies to show that the

human infant will continue to grow during a fast, but I know of no
reason why the human infant should be an exception to the
general rule that fasting young continue to grow. Both in the young
and in the aged, hair and nails continue to grow during a fast. A
remarkable phenomenon associated with fasting is seen in the
many instances in which tumors, even tumors of considerable
size, are autolized and completely disappear during a fast.
Undoubtedly the nutritive materials of which the tumor is
composed are utilized with which to nourish essential tissue, while
the non usable portions are cast out. In a similar manner the extra
materials contained in hypertrophied (enlarged) structures and in
dropsical or edematous swellings are utilized as nutrient materials
with which to sustain the vital tissues of the fasting body.

The fasting organism draws upon every possible eternal source

for nutrients with which to sustain its essential tissues and
functions, safeguarding the integrity of such structures and
functions throughout an extended period of abstinence. No vital
organ is permitted to suffer damage as a consequence of the
nutritive stringency so long as its stored reserves and
expendables are collectively capable of meeting the requirements
of life. That it may meet these requirements for long periods, even
in the face of great expenditure is seen in the cases of the
Alaskan fur seal bull, the fasting salmon and the lactating bear.

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We live in a world in which food is not always abundant. Indeed, in
wild nature food is often in short supply. In every prolonged
drought many deer die from lack of food and water. This is typical
of life in the wild. Not only droughts, but floods and blizzards as
well as insect invasion cut short the food supply of many animals.
In a world in which food shortage is so common, nature has made
provisions for animals to store up reserve food stores within their
own tissues, during the periods of plenty, upon which the animal
may draw for sustenance during periods of scarcity or under those
circumstances in which, although food may be available, it cannot
be appropriated.

Herbert M. Shelton
from Karl Anderson's collection

Fasting "Cures" Stomach Diseases

Hygienic Review
Vol. XXVII April, 1967 No. 8
Fasting "Cures" Stomach Diseases
Herbert M. Shelton

"Prolonged fasting can cure stomach diseases. In fact, certain

tribal people are following the method as a cure." This view was
expressed by professor Joseph Harold Burckhalter, M. D., head of
the pharmacy research department in the University of Michigan,
U. S. delegate to the Pharmaceutical Congress, held in Bombay,
India, as reported in the Sunday Standard (Sunday edition of the
Indian Express), on Jan. 1, 1967. Speaking on the preceding

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Friday, Burckhalter found it necessary to conjure into existence
"tribal people, " among whom stomach diseases are very rare, to
support his view that prolonged fasting will cure diseases of the
stomach.

He lives in the United States where fasting has been employed on

an extensive scale for more than 145 years and where, it is safe to
say, more than a million fasts have been conducted, great
numbers of them in diseases of the stomach; and he is reduced
by the ethics of his profession, to conjure up from out of the void,
tribes of uncultured people to validate his statement.

Great numbers of the fasts conducted in America have been

supervised by regularly trained and licensed physicians of his own
school, who abandoned drugging practices and adopted nature's
own methods of Hygiene. But to the professor and the regular
members of his profession these men are "quacks" and their
observations and testimony are not to be received. Better the
testimony of unlettered tribesmen than that of scientifically
educated men who have lost their standing in the medical
community.

Burckhalter has developed drugs for malaria and stomach

diseases and has conducted guided research in cancer. This
certifies to his "regularity" so that we may be sure that when he
credits prolonged fasting with the cure of stomach diseases, his
statement is not the utterance of a "quack!"

He expressed sorrow over the obvious fact that "The world-wide

researches in cancer, despite the tremendous amount of money
spent on them, were still inadequate to conquer the disease.
Perhaps, if he would do a little basic thinking on the subject, this
man, whose researches have developed drugs for stomach

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diseases and who, yet, finds it necessary to fall back upon fasting
in these diseases, will realize that cancer research, like his own
research that led to drugs for stomach diseases, is headed in the
wrong direction.

Does or can prolonged fasting cure stomach diseases? To cure

disease is to restore health without the necessity of removing or
correcting the causes that have impaired health and are
maintaining the impairment. It is like sobering up a drunk man
while he continues to drink.

Recovery from diseases of the stomach, to be genuine and

lasting, can follow only upon the removal or correction of the
causes that are responsible for the diseases. Can fasting remove
these causes? Unless we can answer this question in the
affirmative, we are not justified in crediting prolonged fasting with
recovery from diseases of the stomach.

It is quite true that when one goes on a fast, one automatically

ceases most of the practices that lead to diseases of the stomach.
One discontinues overeating, imprudent eating, eating wrong
combinations of foods, eating under emotional, physical, and
physiological conditions when food should not be taken, eating
condiments; and, usually, one discontinues coffee, alcohol, ant-
acids, analgesics and other drugs, including tobacco. With the rest
afforded the stomach by the fast and the cessation of abuses the
stomach is given an opportunity to repair its structures, restore its
functions, replenish its substances and recuperate its functioning
capacities. A genuine restoration of health takes place.

But, if when the fast is broken, the individual returns to his prior
habits, he builds again the trouble from which he has recovered.
Lasting recovery can result only from lasting correction of the

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ways of life. Fasting should be not as a one shot remedy that
restores one to health for all time to come. Only vaccines and
serums are claimed to make man disease-proof. Stomach
diseases, ranging from simple indigestion through gastritis, gastric
ulcer, pyloric, hypertrophy, to gastric cancer, grow out of modes of
living and modes of eating that impair the functions of the stomach
and keep it in a state of chronic irritation. Overwork, lack of rest
and sleep, emotional stresses, sexual over-indulgence, and many
other factors that contribute to producing and maintaining
enervation help to impair digestive function and produce stomach
diseases. In seeking to remove the cause of stomach diseases it
is necessary that we correct and remove all factors that contribute
to the impairment of the general health, and not think exclusively
of those factors that affect the stomach directly and immediately.

Herbert M. Shelton
from Karl Anderson's collection

Living without Eating

Living without Eating

Chapter 3
Fasting Can Save Your Life
Herbert M. Shelton

In March, 1963, newspapers around the world described the

almost incredible story of the seven weeks deprivation of food and
the survival of Ralph Flores, a forty-two year old pilot of San
Bruno, California, and twenty-one-year old Helen Klaben, a co-ed
of Brooklyn, New York, following a plane crash on a mountain side

9
in Northern British Columbia. The couple was rescued March 25,
1963, after forty-nine days in the wilderness in the dead of whiter,
over thirty days of this time without any food at all.

By means of a fire, a lean-to and heavy clothes in which they

wrapped themselves, they managed to withstand the bitter cold.
During the first four days after the crash, Helen Klaben ate four
tins of sardines, two tins of fruit and some crackers. Twenty days
after the crash, the pair took their last "food"—two tubes of
toothpaste. Melted snow became their diet, for breakfast, lunch
and the evening meal. "For the last six weeks," she explained, "we
lived on water. We drank it three ways: hot, cold and boiled."
Varying it in this way helped reduce the monotony of their single
item menu of snow.

Miss Klaben who was "pleasingly plump" at the time of the plane
crash, was happily surprised, at the ordeal's end, to learn that her
weight loss totalled thirty pounds.

Flores, who was more active during their enforced fast, had lost
forty pounds. Physicians who examined them after the rescue,
found them to be in "remarkably good" condition.

Many thousands of men and women have gone without food for
much longer periods, not only without harm, but with positive
benefits. Periods of abstinence under such taxing conditions as
the ones these two people endured and survived are extremely
rare.

Whatever our view of the origins of life, we must all recognize the
fact that nature provides for need, including provision for plants
and animals over periods of food scarcity. Famine is more
frequent in nature than we commonly realize. Winter, floods,

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periods of drought, often leave wild animals less well fed and
watered than domestic animals who can generally depend upon
their masters to store food for continuous food supplies. In the wild
state, both herbivorous and carnivorous animals often subsist on
reduced food supplies. Most wild dogs are gaunt: like the dogs,
lean, hungry wolves whose skeletons have shrunk with their
bowels, are common; "half-starved" wild cattle and horses were
once common. What happens to these creatures under such
stringent conditions? Do they die of starvation? The answer is
they rarely do.

In his Zoological Sketches, Dr. Felix L. Oswald writes: "In a

sparsely settled country, animal refugees soon accustom
themselves to the vicissitudes of their wild life. The ten months'
drought back in 1877, which almost exterminated the domestic
cattle of southern Brazil, was braved by the pampa cows, whom
experience had taught to derive their water supply from bulbous
roots, cactus leaves, and excavations in the moist river-sand.
Solid food is only a secondary requirement.

"The Syrian Khamr dogs manage to eke out a living in regions

where no human hunter would discover a trace of game and
where water is as scarce as in the eternal abodes of Dives; nay,
they multiply, for the Khamr bitch, like other poor mothers, is
generally over-blest with progeny; six youngsters is said to be the
minimum.

"A sausage-maker would probably decline to invest in Khamr

dogs: the word leanness does not begin to describe their physical
condition; strappedness would be more to the purpose, if an
Arkansas adjective admits of that suffix—skin and sinews tightly
stretched over a framework of bones. I saw their relatives in
Dalmatia, and often wondered that they did not rattle when they

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ran; but Dalmatia is still a country of vineyards and sand rabbits,
while the Syrian desert has ceased to produce thorn-berries.
Without moisture not even a curse can bear fruit."

That animals do survive such conditions and go on generation

after generation is a fact of utmost significance. A weasel hiding in
a closed room will survive for days without food and seek food
when released. The hibernating bear, taking no food for prolonged
periods, will give birth to her cub, and secrete milk upon which it
feeds. The fasting salmon and fur seal bull are very active while
abstaining from food. These few examples of activity while fasting
suffice to reveal that

the fasting body does have means of meeting its energy

requirements, even if these are at a low ebb and this is far from
being true in the case of the salmon and the seal.

One of Sweden's distinguished biochemists, Dr. Ragnar Berg, a

Nobel Prize winner, and an authority on nutrition, says, "One can
fast a long time; we know of fasts of over a hundred days duration,
so we have no need of fearing that we will die of hunger."

The actual time period of abstinence forced upon Mr. Flores and
Miss Klaben was of relatively moderate duration. The question is
not how long man can fast, but what are the provisions of nature
that enable him to do so.

Wear and waste, repair and replenishment, are continuous and

almost simultaneous processes in all living structures, and none of
these processes halt during a fast. The hibernating animal in the
far north must produce sufficient heat to maintain body warmth.
Both man and animal, while fasting, must breathe and the heart
must continue to pulsate. The blood must continue to flow and the

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organs of elimination must continue their work of freeing the
tissues of waste. The vital functions of life must be carried on,
even if at a slightly reduced rate. Cells must be replenished,
wounds must be healed. All of this, as I know from years of
observations, goes on during a fast, moreover, and I will cite
examples of this fact later, physical development and growth may
take place, even while no food is being taken.

All manifestations of life—movement, secretion, digestion, and

similar processes—depend upon the use of the materials of the
body. If an organ is to work, it must be supplied with the materials
with which to work. In the absence of fresh supplies with which to
replace those that have been used up the organ wastes and
weakens. If life is to continue, a basic irreducible level of activity is
imperative. Even the hibernating and aestivating animal, with
activities reduced to a bare minimum consistent with continued
life, must breathe and the heart must pulsate.

In the case of the bear that gives birth to a cub while hibernating
and suckles it, with milk produced during hibernation, for this
purpose, we have a significant example of the possibilities of the
fasting animal meeting the needs of its functioning tissues from
sources other than the food eaten daily. All of these activities
require food, which must be supplied from some source while the
animal is fasting.

An understanding of the process by which the body nourishes its

vital tissues and sustains its essential functions during prolonged
abstinence, and the sources upon which it draws, will help us
understand how the body can survive periods when outside food
is not available or cannot be digested.

The normal body provides itself with a store of nutritive materials

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that are put away in the form of fat, bone marrow, glycogen,
muscle juices, lacteal fluids, minerals and vitamins. Always the
healthy body maintains in store adequate nutritive reserves to tide
it over several days, weeks or even over two or three months of
lack of food. This remains true whether fasting is enforced, as in
the case of a plane crash, or of entombed miners, or is brought on
by illness where one cannot swallow or digest food, or by free
choice as in voluntary fasting to lose weight. When food is not
taken, the body draws upon its reserves with which to nourish its
functioning tissues. As this reserve is used up, weight is lost.

Basic in the fasting process is the fact that our "built-in pantries"
contain sufficient nutriment to hold out, in most instances, for
prolonged periods, especially if they are conserved and not
wasted. In the blood and lymph, in the bones, and especially in
the marrow of the bones, in the fat of the body, in the liver and
other glands, and even in the individual cells that make up the
body, are stores of protein, fat, sugar, minerals, and vitamins
which may be drawn upon during periods of scarcity or when food
is not usable.

Neither animal nor man can survive prolonged abstinence from

food unless he carries within himself a store of reserve food on
which the body can call in emergencies. The fasting organism will
not be harmed by abstinence so long as the stored reserves are
adequate to meet the nutritive requirements of its functioning
tissues. Even thin individuals carry a reserve of food in their
tissues, to tide them over periods of abstinence. These people
too, may safely fast for varying periods.

By a process known technically as autolysis, achieved by

enzymes in the tissues, these stored reserves are made available
for use by the vital tissues to which they are carried by the blood

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and lymph as required. Glycogen or animal starch, stored in the
liver, is converted to sugar and distributed, as needed, to the
tissues. It is significant that, even in prolonged fasts, no beri beri,
pellagra, rickets, scurvy or other "deficiency disease" ever
develops, thus showing that the reserves of the body are generally
well balanced.

Fasting has been shown to improve rickets and calcium

metabolism. In anemia, the number of red blood cells are
increased during a fast. I have observed benefits in pellagra
during a fast. The bio-chemical balance may be maintained and
even restored while fasting. It is important to know this, for if it
were not so, the fast would prove to be deleterious.

Numerous animal experiments have shown that underfeeding, as

contrasted with overfeeding, tends to prolong life and to provide
for better health. Other experiments involving fasting rather than
underfeeding, have shown that fasting not only prolongs life, but
results in a marked degree of regeneration and rejuvenation.

Thousands of observations of both man and animals have

established the fact that when the physical organism goes without
food, the tissues are called upon in the inverse order of their
importance to the organism. Thus fat is the first tissue to go. The
stored reserves are used up before any of the functioning tissues
of the body are called upon to supply nutrients for the more vital
tissues such as the brain and nerves, the heart and lungs. As it
feels among its supplies for proteins, sugars, fats, minerals, and
vitamins, and redistributes, utilizes and conserves these stores,
the fasting organism exercises an ingenuity that seems almost
superhuman.

The aggregate of tissues of the organism may be regarded as a

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reservoir of nutriment which it may call in any direction or to any
part as needed. But these tissues are not sacrificed
indiscriminately. On the contrary, wastage of those organs that are
primarily essential to life is repaired by withdrawal from less
essential organs of materials required by the more important ones.
Many of the necessary nutritive constituents, and this is especially
true of certain minerals, are vigorously retained.

Studies made on men and animals to determine losses of various

tissues and organs in prolonged abstinence from food have
almost all been made on organisms that have died of starvation.
Starvation and fasting are two totally different stages of
abstinence. It should be quite obvious that the extreme losses
seen at the starvation stage of abstinence are far greater than
they are in a fast of reasonable length. Extreme weight losses are
not experienced in any normal fast. Where they occur, the fast
should be broken.

One must differentiate between fasting and starving. To fast is to

abstain from food while one possesses adequate reserves to
nourish his vital tissues; to starve is to abstain from food after his
reserves have been exhausted so that vital tissues are sacrificed.
We are not left unwarned as to when the reserves are nearing
exhaustion. Hunger returns with an intensity that drives one to
seek food, although during the fast proper, there is no desire for
food. This differentiation between fasting and starving should help
to dispel any notion that starvation sets in with the omission of the
first meal.

Contrary to popular and even professional opinion, the vital

tissues of a fasting organism, those tissues doing the actual work
of life, do not begin to break down the instant a fast is instituted.
The fasting body does lose weight, but this loss, for an extended

16
period, is one of reserves and not of organized tissues. There are
numerous examples in nature of continued growth while fasting,
both of the organism as a whole and of parts that have been lost.
Experiments have" shown that calves continue to grow while
fasting. The starfish may grow a new stomach, new tube feet, and
new arms while fasting. The fasting salamander that had lost a
tail, will grow a new tail while taking no food. Such facts bear out
dramatically the underlying truth: the process of fasting does not
suspend the constructive processes of life, but that these continue
in a remarkable manner.

The efficiency of the living organism in regulating the expenditure

of its resources during a fast is one of the marvels of life.

In periods of abstinence, the less important organs of the human

being although they waste consequent upon the withdrawal of
substance from them with which to nourish the more vital tissues,
do not undergo degeneration until the starvation phase of the
period of abstinence is reached. The atrophy of muscles may be
no greater than that seen to occur from a lengthy period of
physical inactivity, while there is no loss of muscle cells. The cells
grow smaller, the fat is removed from the muscles, but the muscle
retains its integrity and a surprising amount of strength.

Loss of weight varies according to the character and quality of the

tissues of the individual, the amount of physical and emotional
activity engaged in, and the temperature surrounding the faster.
Physical activity, emotional stress, cold and poor tissues all
provide for more rapid loss. Fat is lost faster than any of the other
tissues of the body.

Bodily condition is, perhaps, the chief determiner of how long one
may safely fast. In the case of the two who survived the plane

17
crash, and went four weeks without food, for example, they had
snow which is water and this kept them from the danger of
dehydration. They could live without food; the lack of water would
have been fatal. Voluntary or involuntary, the faster must have
water.

It is clear then that fasting must be carried out intelligently, with

proper precaution, and with common sense.

Precisely as a novice swimmer would seek expert guidance and

advice before starting on a long swim, so the inexperienced faster
must obtain reliable guidance as a precautionary measure before
launching upon a fast of any extended duration.

Herbert M. Shelton

from Karl Anderson's collection

Fasting in Chronic Disease

A Chapter from "Fasting Can Save Your Life"

Herbert M. Shelton
Natural Hygiene Press 1964
Fasting in Chronic Disease

"I have lost my appetite."

"Nothing tastes good to me any more. I eat only as a matter of
routine."
"I suffer with distress after every meal."

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These are some of the complaints of patients who suffer with
some chronic form of disease, such as colitis, chronic gastritis,
hay fever, asthma, arthritis, nervousness, stomach ulcer or
cancer.

These people eat, only because they honestly think that they must
eat—regularly, every day, three times a day—to stay alive. Some
of them are overweight, but great numbers of them are thin and
remain so, although they may be overeating.
Another class of chronic sufferers are, as they put it, "always
hungry." They eat at all hours of the day and night. They habitually
overeat, whipping up their jaded sense of taste with condiments,
strong flavors, and in other ways. Often they suffer after each
meal but they don't cut down on their intake. Then there are those
among this class who suffer almost as much when they do not eat
as when they do.

"Hunger" here, as we have seen in other cases, is not hunger at

all, in a true sense, but a morbid sensation or set of sensations
mistaken for hunger. It may be a "gnawing" in the stomach, pain in
the stomach or some other symptom of gastric irritation. This is
the reason the sensation cannot be satisfied. The fact that eating
palliates the discomfort for a few moments, does not prove that
food was actually needed, any more than the need for a cup of
coffee is proven when it temporarily relieves a coffee addict's
headache. The surest, simplest way for those who are "always
hungry" to overcome their supposed hunger is to fast.

Man tends to abstain from food when under great emotional

distress. Rejection of food is frequent among the insane. Although
it is the present practice to use force to feed mentally ill patients, it
is doubtful if such enforced feeding is proper. Man instinctively
fasts under certain conditions, as do the lower animals, and the

19
rejection of food by the mentally ill is probably an instinctive act
that will, if not interrupted, prove very beneficial. Indeed, my
experience with such patients has convinced me that this is true.

The most important feature about fasting in chronic disease is the

marked acceleration of elimination that it occasions, thus speedily
freeing the body of its accumulated toxic load. The disappearance
of symptoms, sometimes of years standing, when one fasts, is
often dramatic. Fasting provides opportunity for the body to do for
itself what it is unable to do under conditions of surfeit. Surfeit
makes impossible the cleaning of the fluids and tissues in a
physiological housecleaning.

A properly conducted fast will enable the chronically ill body to

excrete the toxic load that is responsible for the trouble, after
which a corrected mode of living enables the individual to evolve
into a vigorous state of health.
It should not be thought that eating must be continued so long as
the body does not vigorously rebel against food. When there is
functional impairment, symptoms of impairment, sluggishness and
unease, then is the time to institute what may be described as a
preventive fast, A fast at this point need not be long. Improvement
often is swift—preventing an evolution of serious sickness. When
we observe the eyes become brighter, the skin fairer, and the
breath sweeter while fasting, or when we see a poor complexion
clear up, or other symptoms fade and vigor return—we can be
certain that the fast has enabled the body to carry out a preventive
housecleaning.

It is a mistake to expect one fast, even a long one, to be sufficient

to enable the body to free itself of the whole of its accumulated
debris. A lifetime of piling up toxins cannot be corrected in the
span of a few weeks. In such diseases as paralysis agitans,

20
arthritis, a large tumor, and other conditions that require so much
time to build, three or more fasts are often needed to obtain all the
improvement possible in a particular case.

Sinusitis is inflammation of the nasal sinuses. It would have been

called a catarrhal condition by our fathers and mothers, but the
tendency today is to discontinue the use of a general term like
catarrh and to use so-called specific terms.
Sinusitis may be either acute or chronic. Most people have some
inflammation in one or more parts of the mucous membranes of
the body—that is to say, they have one or more "catarrhs."

Names of catarrhal inflammations vary with the different locations,

but it is all the same disease with the same general cause. The
practice of classifying each local inflammation by a different name
and giving each an individuality, confuses both the patient and the
physician. This keeps alive the delusion that there are many
diseases,
Replying to the charge that fasting lowers resistance to disease,
Dr. Weger says: "I have seen many cases of infection of different
kinds recover completely on a fast. Take for example an advanced
case of sinusitis after five or six painful operations—frontal,
ethomoidal, and antrum—with surgical drainage and irrigations
two or three times a week, continued over a period of two to five
years, with no relief or amelioration of symptoms. After almost
unendurable suffering, such patients are as a rule, thin, and
physically and mentally depressed. When they make complete
recoveries after a prolonged fast, as the great majority of them do,
is this not sufficient proof that fasting somehow or other raises the
power of the organism to overcome infection, rather than fasting
renders them more susceptible? What is true of sinusitis is equally
true of other infections—even those so situated anatomically that
they cannot be surgically drained, and must therefore be

21
absorbed."

What is here said of recovery from sinusitis is equally true of

recovery from other inflammations in the respiratory, digestive,
genito-urinary tracts and other regions of the body that are lined
with mucous membrane.
Thus otitis, conjunctivitis, gastritis, doudenitis, ileitis, colitis,
metritis—all have been known to clear up during the course of a
lengthy fast. Only in comparatively rare instances are two fasts
required. Hay fever and asthma, both belonging to this same
group of "diseases," are remedied by the forces of the organism
during a fast.

Extensive experience with fasting in a wide variety of diseases,

running over a period of more than a hundred and thirty years and
involving the work of hundreds of men and women caring for
many thousands of patients, has demonstrated that when the load
is lifted from the digestive organs by fasting, all of the energy of
the body is transferred to the organs of excretion, permitting full
use of these organs in freeing the body of an accumulated load of
toxin.

What the body can do for itself in the way of restoring normal
function and full vigor when the toxic load is lifted has to be seen
to be fully appreciated.
Speaking of pernicious anemia, Tilden says: "A fast of two weeks,
without anything at all except water, will improve anemia condition
by increasing the blood-corpuscles sometimes by five hundred
thousand in that length of time." There is poisoning from the
digestive tract in all of these cases and it seems most likely that
this befoulment of the blood with sepsis from this source is the
cause of the failure of the blood-making organs.
A similar septic befoulment seems to exist in cancer, causing

22
anemia in this condition. It should be emphasized strongly that no
person suffering with anemia should undertake a fast, except
under competent supervision.

There is an equal need for experienced supervision of the diabetic

who fasts. The diabetic may safely and profitably fast, particularly
if he carries considerable weight. If insulin has been taken over an
extended period of time, fasting is rarely recommended.
The sufferer with Bright's disease may also fast with great benefit.
In both these conditions and all similar "diseases," more important
than the fast is the correction of the total way of life. It is
imperative that these patients be taught how to eat and that they
learn their individual limitations and to respect these. They may
evolve into good health—continually improved health—if all
enervating habits are discontinued and the patient learns the laws
of proper eating.

Herbert M. Shelton

from Karl Anderson's collection

(Note that INHS nowadays would regard deficiency as a common

cause of MS and other nerve degeneration - especially animal
fat/protein deficiency - and in those cases fasting must not be
used since it would worsen the deficiency, webmaster.)

Fasting and MS - Herbert M Shelton

23
Fasting Can Save Your Life
by Herbert M. Shelton
20 - Multiple Sclerosis

Widespread fund-raising campaigns to fight the crippling effects of

this disease, and to perform research into its cause and treatment,
have made multiple sclerosis familiar to the public. Yet there may
be some basic causes already known in terms of diet and
activities of the individual and even possible avenues of recovery
in the fast.

I recall a case of an optometrist whose condition became so bad

that he had to give up his work and turn his office over to
someone else. For a few years he had been under the care of
several of the best neurologists of the East and, as they had
warned him at the outset, had grown progressively worse. They
had frankly told him that they had no cure for multiple sclerosis.

They were telling him the truth, yet after seven weeks in a
Hygienic institution, he walked out under his own power, returned
home and resumed his professional activities.

He was not a well man at the end of seven weeks. It is too much
to expect a full recovery in such a short time. But he had made
such great improvement that he felt justified in returning home and
getting back to work. This is often a wrong position to take,
especially with a condition like multiple sclerosis, but it is a
mistake that the sick frequently make.

Many patients seem to be satisfied to stop their efforts in

recovering health when they have been freed of their most
annoying symptoms. They are often unwilling to go on to full
health, and are convinced they can take care of themselves. After

24
having made a certain amount of initial improvement they expect
to take charge and they feel they can carry on, from that point, as
well as their professional adviser. In a few cases it works out;
generally they fail.

In cases watched and controlled, results of fasting can be

established.

Sclerosis means induration or hardening. It has special reference

to hardening of a part due to inflammation. In the nervous system
the term denotes an overgrowth of connective tissue (hyperplasia
of connective tissue) in the nerve tissue.

Multiple sclerosis—also called disseminated sclerosis and

sometimes known as Charcot's disease—is characterized by
hardening (sclerosis) occurring in sporadic patches through the
brain and spinal cord or both. These hardened patches range from
the size of a pin head to that of a pea and are scattered irregularly
through the brain and cord.

At autopsy, it is found that the insulating sheath of the nerves is

broken down and the nerve cells and fibers have fused together. I
have emphasized that this is what is found at autopsy for the
reason that the trouble does not start as a sclerosis (hardening),
but as an inflammation.

A man dies after suffering with multiple sclerosis for fifteen or

twenty years and an autopsy is performed. His brain and nervous
system are subjected to the closest scrutiny and certain
pathological changes are found. But this is the end-point. What
was the condition of his nerves five years, ten years or fifteen
years prior to death? It is reasonable to think that if the condition
of the nerves was the same five years or ten years prior to death

25
that they are found to be in at death, he would have died five to
ten years earlier.

The disease is said to be "incurable." It may last for years before

the patient dies. The end-point, as found at death, is certainly
irreversible, but can we be sure that the earlier stages of the
disease are irreversible? The very progress of the disease would
seem to negate such an assumption. In the inflammatory stage of
the disease it would certainly seem to be remediable.

Indeed, spontaneous remissions are known that may last for

weeks or even years. Once the hardening has occurred, there
would seem to be no possibility that the disease could intermit, or
that recovery could be effected.

A fatty insulating material called the myelin sheath, which

surrounds the nerves, is lost and this is said to cause abnormal
nerve behavior. Some of the nerves work energetically, some
work very weakly and others fail to work at all.

No two cases are alike because in no two cases are the same
parts of the brain and nervous system affected. The development
of the hardening does not progress at the same rate in each case,
and does not take place at the same rate at all points in the body
of the same patient. For the reason that no two cases are
identical, no description of the disease will fit any particular case.

Among the leading symptoms of the disease are weakness,

strong jerky movements, incoordination of the extremities that is
often more marked in the arms than in the legs, and
amemomania, which is a form of insanity with agreeable
hallucinations. Also other abnormal mental exaltations, scanning
speech and an involuntary rapid movement of the eyes, called

26
nyastagmus are evident. The tremor is jerky, is increased by
voluntary efforts to restrain it, and is entirely absent during
complete rest and sleep, returning when movements are resumed.

The nature of the symptoms in each case will depend on the

locations and severity of the changes in the nervous tissues. A
sudden loss of vision in one eye or a period of double vision may
be an early symptom. The eye symptoms usually clear up in a
short time and they may not recur for months or years. The patient
may develop peculiar feelings, with tingling and numbness in
various parts of the limbs and body.

Weakness in the legs and difficulty in walking may later develop.

There may be trembling, jerking of the legs, difficulty in talking, a
hand may become clumsy or useless. Tremor of the hand may
develop when the individual attempts to pick up something.
Trouble with the rectum and the urinary bladder may also develop.

These symptoms may remain mild for a number of years or they

may clear up and not recur for long periods. It is this remission of
symptoms that indicates that

in the early stages of the disease the developments are not

irreversible. About half of these patients are still able to work after
twenty-five years, a fact which indicates the slowness of the
development of the disease. This certainly provides ample time for
something constructive to be done.

Many cases are so mild and the symptoms so evanescent that

they are not diagnosed as sclerosis for years. The tendency of the
symptoms to cease for periods of time is said to be one of the

27
basic characteristics of the disease, the other being the scattered
character of the symptomatic developments, as the hardening is
scattered.

I have previously pointed out that no two cases are alike in their
symptoms or in their development, each patient lending his own
individuality to the disease; but this is no more true of multiple
sclerosis than of any other disease.

No germ or virus has been found upon which to lay the blame for
the development of the disease and it is freely confessed that "the
cause is unknown. " It is, however, thought to be "probably of
infectious origin. "

No treatment has proved satisfactory. This is true in so many

diseases that it is almost the rule. How can there be satisfactory
treatment of a disease the cause of which is unrecognized?
Standard works on the disease say: "The cause of the disease is
entirely unknown... there is no specific or really effective
treatment... always a long-standing disease, total recovery from it
is very doubtful. "

Certainly we cannot expect total recovery if the cause is

unrecognized. The failure to recognize the general impairing
influences in the life and environment of the patient as the true
cause of functional and organic deterioration blinds us to the
causes of disease.

The search for specific causes has about reached its end. The
time has arrived when we must find in wrong living habits the
cause of the failures of the organism and the evolution of its
diseases. When these are recognized and removed, there is a
possibility of recovery in thousands of individuals who are now

28
regarded as hopelessly incurable.

I have never had opportunity to care for a case of multiple

sclerosis in the early stages, hence I can only suggest that if these
cases were given Hygienic care at the outset of their trouble, the
percentage of recoveries would be high.

All of the cases I have had the privilege of caring for have been in
advanced stages and I do not consider these favorable cases.

The fact that I have been able to return some of these, even in
helpless conditions, to a state of usefulness speaks volumes for
the efficiency of the Hygienic program in restoring normal tissue
and functional condition.

Let us review the general picture of the fasting experience, as

applied to a multiple sclerosis case. The first fast brings about
remarkable improvement in the general health of the individual
with considerable increase in his control and use of his limbs,
often enabling the bed-ridden patient to get up and walk about. He
manages to hold this improvement and not infrequently to add to
it, while eating a carefully planned diet and taking regular exercise
and sun baths following the fast.

A second fast adds to his control and use of his limbs. I have
employed as many as three fasts in these cases. Each fast has
resulted in increased control of the limbs and has made it possible
for them to be used with greater ease.

I continue the rest in bed following the fast, adding a period or two
of daily light exercise of a type that requires increasing skill in their
performance. The purpose of the exercise in these cases is not so
much that of increasing the size and strength of the muscles as to

29
increase the individual's skill in their use. Heavier exercise may
come later if desired.

I am convinced that daily sunbathing in these cases is especially

helpful in furthering the evolution of nerve health. The diet is one
of fresh fruits and vegetables with only moderate quantities of fats,
sugars, starches and proteins.

I prefer the vegetable proteins—nuts and sunflower seeds are

good in these cases.

The important thing for us to remember is that the sclerosis does

not belong to the initial stages of the disease. In these early
stages recovery is most likely to take place, providing only that all
impairing influences are removed from the life of the individual and
his blood and flesh are freed of their toxic load.

It is in the initial stage that full recovery is or should be possible,

not in the advanced stages when irreversible changes in the nerve
structures have taken place. The ancient adage: "A stitch in
time"—in this case, action in time, can make the difference.

Herbert M. Shelton

from Karl Anderson's collection

Bowel Action During Fasting

Bowel Action During Fasting

Hygienic System  Vol. III,
Second Revised Edition 1942

30
Herbert M. Shelton

After the digestion of the last meal prior to the fast, the bowels
practically cease to function. They take a rest. Dr. Oswald says:
"The colon contracts, and the smaller intestines retain all but the
most irritating ingesta." Sometimes they will continue to move
regularly for the first three or four days of the fast. In rare cases a
diarrhea will develop even after fifteen or more days of fasting.
Mark Twain describes cases of starving shipwrecked men whose
bowels had not moved for twenty and thirty days. For this reason
most advocates of fasting insist upon the daily use of the enema. I
feel that the enema is a distinct evil and should not be employed.

Kellogg quotes Von Noorden as saying: "in fasting, the stools

were highly putrid and 'similar in appearance to the feces passed
when the diet is mainly composed of meat." Kellogg and Von
Noorden should both conduct a few hundred fasts and then write
about the matter. This mistake is based on the notion that the
fasting patient is on a meat diet and should have the stools of a
meat eater. It is an assumption, not a fact. They have merely read
into the matter false facts which conform to their mistaken theories
even though they are at variance with the real facts.

The stomach, intestines and colon are given a complete rest by

the fast and are enabled to repair damaged structures. Piles,
proctitis, colitis, appendicitis, enteritis, enteric fever (typhoid),
gastritis, etc., speedily recover under the fast. The alimentary tract
becomes practically free of bacteria during a fast. The small
intestines become sterile. But a week of fasting is required to
result in a complete disappearance of all germs from the stomach.
The quickest means of remedying bacterial decomposition in the
digestive tract is fasting. Dr. Tilden says:" The fact that the
hibernating bear loses its colon bacilli is not acted upon, and a fast

31
recommended when disease results from overeating, bacterial
decomposition and toxin poisoning."

Bowel action is necessarily more or less absent during a fast.

There may be two or three actions during the course of a
comparatively short fast, or no action at all during a most
prolonged fast. The use of the enema during the fast, so much
advocated in many quarters, is both unnecessary and pernicious.
How unnecessary it is will be shown by the following cases:

Dr. Dewey tells of placing a dyspeptic, with feeble body and very
low mental state, who had been under the care of physicians for
ten years, on one meal a day. He says, (The Fasting Cure, P.
196) "The constipated bowels were permitted their own time for
action." Further on he adds (Page 107): "My patient's bowels gave
no hint of their locality until the eighteenth day, when they acted
with little effort; on the twenty-fourth day again in a perfect way,
and daily thereafter."

It has been said that Dr. Dewey's fasting cases would have
recovered more promptly had he employed the enema. But I find
no satisfactory evidence that his cases,- as a whole, were any
longer recovering than the cases of those who employ the enema.
Where they do appear to be longer in recovering, I think this may
be accounted for more satisfactorily by the fact that in many of his
cases he employed certain drugs, especially drugs to deaden
sensation (relieve pain), and by the further fact that his limited
knowledge of diet and his prejudices against fruit, which he had
brought over with him from his medical training, did not give his
patients the best after-care. But I think the best answer to this
charge against Dewey's practice is the fact that patients who are
placed on a fast today and who are not given the enema recover
sooner and more satisfactorily than those who do get enemas.

32
The enervating effect of the enema is indisputable and no one of
experience will deny that i!
  t is a trying ordeal for most patients to go through. In many cases
it leaves an immediate weakness which lasts, often, for hours.

Dr. Eales' bowels moved at least once a day during the first week
of his fast; with a slight movement about once a week thereafter.
He records movements 6n the eleventh, and seventeenth days.
He employed one enema a week and had both an enema and a
spontaneous movement on the seventeenth day. His bowels
began moving within twelve hours after breaking the fast and
moved twice a day thereafter.

I cared for a case in my institution in February and March, 1929 in

which the patient had a small bowel movement on the second day
of an absolute fast, another on the fourth day, a copious
movement on the ninth day and medium sized movements on the
eleventh and thirteenth days. No enema was employed at any
time during the fast, which lasted sixteen days.

I had another case of a young man who had a bowel movement

on the second day of his fast, a small movement on the morning
of the sixth day and a large movement on the evening of the same
day. Again on the ninth day he had a small evacuation and a very
copious movement the afternoon of the twelfth day, and a small
movement in the evening of the same day. This man had suffered
with acne vulgaris for several years and his face was thickly
covered with eruptions when he began the fast. There was
nothing of these except the discoloration by the end of the tenth
day. Recently a lady fasted nine days under my direction, and had
a good bowel movement on each of the seventh and eighth days.

Two ladies fasted here in the institution at the same time; one for

33
eight days, the other for nine days. In both cases regular bowel
action began on the third day after breaking the fast and has since
continued. Both of these women made rapid progress and did not
suffer during or after the fast. There was not at any time any
evidence of poisoning in either case.

A patient took an enema contrary to my instructions for the first

three days of the fast, but abandoned them thereafter because of
the discomfort and sickness which they produced. On the twenty-
third day of the fast she had two spontaneous movements of the
bowels-one at 5 a. m., the other at 11 a. m. On the morning of the
twenty-fourth day there was another movement.

A lady arrived at my place on January 4, 1932, after having fasted

since the morning of December 12, 1931. During the whole of her
fast before reaching my place she had had a daily enema. I
stopped the use of the enema and her bowels acted
spontaneously on January 8th. There were no more bowel actions
during the rest of the fast. The fast was broken on January 21,
and the bowels acted immediately.

Another lady whose bowel action had not been good was placed
upon a fast as a mean's of overcoming arthritis. Her bowels
moved twice on the fifth day, once on the eighth day and again on
the twelfth day of her fast. Another case, that of a man, with brain
tumor, had bowel actions on the fourth and ninth days and two
actions on the eighteenth day of his fast. A woman who fasted
under my direction in February, 1932, had a bowel movement on
each of the fourth, tenth and fifteenth days of her fast. Another
woman's bowels acted on the fourth, fifth and seventh days of her
fast.

In Dec. 1932 and Jan. 1933 a patient fasted 31 days in my Health

34
School. His bowels moved on the 2nd, 6th, 7th, 13th and 20th
days of the fast. Another patient who took a short fast in
December 1932 had a bowel movement on each of the 4th, 8th
and 9th days. This patient then took a longer fast in Jan. 1933 with
bowel movements on the 1st, 3rd and 9th days, there being a
diarrhea on the 9th day. Another case was that of a young lady
who had a bowel movement on the 21st day of her fast.

On July 21, 1933 a woman, aged 68 began a fast in my Health

School. The fast was broken on the evening of the thirteenth day.
She had a bowel movement on the first and second days of the
fast, on the third and fourth days there were loose stools; there
was no movement on the fifth day; on the sixth day there was one
movement and a small movement, only one small piece of feces
passing, on the seventh day. This woman had orange juice all day
on the fourteenth day, six oranges on the fifteenth day and a good
bowel movement followed on the morning of the sixteenth day.

On the same day the above woman began her fast another
woman, age 37, was placed on a fast. For a period of' twelve days
or more, this woman had suffered with a persistent diarrhea. The
fast lasted for a period of twenty-eight days and the bowels did not
move once throughout the whole of the fast after the first day. The
fast was uneventful, there were no crises and no signs of
poisoning, but a steady improvement in health.

Contrast these with the case of a young woman, age 25, who was
placed on a fast on Feb. 24, 1933 in my Health School and whose
bowels moved on the twenty-first day of the fast. In this case there
were no crises, none of the symptoms "re-absorption of toxins" is
said to cause, but a steady gain in health.

These few cases out of many prove that the bowels will move

35
when there is need for a movement; also they show, as do
hundreds of others, that there is no injury from waiting upon the
bowels. These cases particularly refute the notion entertained in
some quarters that a prolonged fast paralyzes the bowels. This
notion finds lodgement in the minds of some who know nothing
about fasting, and one usually finds that they do not want to know
anything about it. The above cases all fasted before the first
edition of this volume was published. Since that time hundreds of
similar experiences have been observed here at the Health
School.

In these days when we live for our bowel movements and are
miserable if they fail to move by the time we are ready to go to
work in the morning, the truth about our bowels is hard to get into
our heads. We have been well trained by those who have
constipation "cures" to sell.

Dr. Tanner, during and after his first fast, had no bowel movement
from the 15th of July to the 31st of August, a period of forty-seven
days. In commenting upon this fact, Dr. Hazzard declares, "To
carry out a fast today in this manner would be deemed a bid for
disaster."

Why a "bid for disaster?" Both Dr. Tanner and Dr. Dewey
repudiated the enema, and to quote Dr. Hazzard, "preferred and
insisted upon waiting upon the bowels to act 'naturally' as he
(Dewey) termed it." Jennings did not employ the enema, nor did
Page. In my own practice I have not employed it for seventeen
years. I had one patient to go for over fifty days without an
evacuation and no disaster befell him.

Levanzin reports of his fast, of 31 days that, "during my whole fast

I had no defecations. I had a bowel movement just before I started

36
the fast, and the next was thirty-two days afterward, when I broke
it."

Professor Benedict writes of Levanzin that "when discussing the

question of defecation he stated that in some of his long fasts he
had defecated only once or twice, often he did this shortly after the
beginning of the fast, and then not again until after the fast was
over, but after beginning eating he was quite normal."

Dr. Jennings reported cases in which the bowels did not act for
weeks. I had one man to fast for thirty-six days in my institution
without a bowel movement, the bowels acting for the first time on
the third day after the fast was broken. Another man fasted forty-
nine days with no bowel action during the time. His bowels also
acted on the third day after breaking the fast.

One young lady began a fast under my direction on Dec. 3, 1929,

and ended it on Dec. 28th. Her bowels did not act during the
whole of this period, acting the first time on Jan. 4, 1930; a period
of thirty-three days from one bowel action to the next. This lady
suffered with the worst case of psoriasis I have ever seen. Her
whole body, face, neck and limbs included, being covered. The
skin cleared up rapidly and beautifully during the fast.

Shortly after the above case came to me, a young man suffering
with constipation, digestive troubles and "nervousness" began a
fast in my place. He fasted twelve days, during which time his
bowels did not act. They acted first on the fifth day after breaking
the fast. During these seventeen days without a bowel movement
the patient made great improvement.

No harm ever came from waiting upon the bowels. They may be
depended on to function if there is a need for action. If no need

37
exists, there can be no gain from forcing them to act. We should
learn to distinguish between the forcing and the actual need for
bowel action.

It has been noted that dogs and other animals do have bowel
actions during a fast. In my own practice I have noticed that the
stronger and more vigorous are more apt to have bowel
evacuations. The weak, those who suffer with lowered gastro-
intestinal tone or with visceroptosis are least likely to have an
action of the colon while fasting. In any case no harm results from
letting the colon alone and forgetting that it exists.

Dr. Harry Finkle makes the absurd claim that fasting paralyzes the
colon. It does nothing of the kind, but improves colonic function in
every instance. However, the enemas, colonic irrigations, purges,
etc., almost do what he says the fast does. The great difficulties
many men have with fasting arise out of the fact that they have not
observed the effects of fasting, but fasting plus a lot of therapeutic
measures. They think they are observing the effects of fasting,
when they are merely watching the effects of something else.
They insist upon treating their fasting patients with all of the
harmful cure-alls which chance to be in fashion, and then attribute
any evil results to the fast, although such evils are frequent results
of these treatments when applied to non-fasters.

Fasting animals, whether hibernating, aestivating, fasting during

the mating season, fasting during illness, or fasting because of a
lack of something to eat, do not have and do not need enemas.
Some of these animals fast for much longer periods than is
possible for any man and do not die of or suffer from the much-
feared poisoning by absorption from the colon. I can find no proof
that poisons are ever absorbed from the colon; but, assuming that
they sometimes are, the absorption of a very small fraction of what

38
was thrown into the colon can certainly produce none of the evils
attributed to it. If it could, the whole of the material thrown into the
colon would have killed the patient before it was thrown therein.

Herbert M. Shelton

Also read Observations of Nature by Dr. Shelton

and What is Normal Bowel Activity? by Dr. Shelton

from Karl Anderson's collection

Here are the first chapters in Arnold DeVries classic fasting book
from 1963, that has always been very popular with fasting
institutions.

Therapeutic Fasting
by Arnold DeVries, 1963

I
Forms of Fasting

THE TERM, fasting, implies total or partial abstinence from food or

water for any of a number of reasons. Thus one may refer to fruit
fasts, vegetable fasts, milk fasts, water fasts and many other
types. As the different reasons for fasting are considered, other
divisions may be given — viz, religious fasting, professional
fasting, physiological fasting, pathological fasting and accidental
or experimental fasting. A fruit fast is abstinence from fruit; a
vegetable fast is abstinence from vegetables; a milk fast is

39
abstinence from milk; a water fast is abstinence from water, and
similar fasts may be defined accordingly. Religious fasting is
abstinence to develop spiritual thought or fulfill a religious rite.
Professional fasting is abstinence for purposes of notoriety and
publicity. Physiological fasting is normal inanition in nature, such
as the hibernation and seasonal abstinence of certain animals.
Pathological fasting is associated with organic derangements
which make one unable to take or retain food. Accidental or
experimental fasting is forced inanition among man or animals for
purposes of scientific investigation.

These are the recognized forms of fasting. Yet, there is another,

and perhaps much more important, classification which is seldom
given mention or even known about. This is therapeutic fasting —
total abstinence from all food, but not water. The purpose of
therapeutic fasting is the promotion and restoration of health. It is
associated with experimental and physiological fasting in the
sense that studies of the latter provide the knowledge and
information which make therapeutic fasting possible. Therapeutic
fasting is not the result of any particular new scientific discovery,
but rather has proceeded to its present development as the result
of centuries of experimentation, observation and study. It is today
the culmination of a large number of scientific investigations and
discoveries which have reached their climax during the past
century. Fasting for therapeutic purposes is thus an important,
though in popular conception, almost unknown, phase of the
modern science of medicine, and as such it is the subject of our
present inquiry and analysis.

II
A Short History of Fasting

THE ORIGIN OF FASTING for illness perhaps dates back the

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development of the present forms of animal life. Among
undomesticated animals it is a common practice to fast when ill,
though this is of course an instinctive procedure rather than a
planned therapeutic measure. The first records of human fasting
for the remedy of disease go back to the ancient civilizations of
Greece and the Near East. Both Plato and Socrates are said to
have fasted for 10 days at a time to "attain mental and physical
efficiency." Pythagoras fasted for 40 days before taking his
examination at the University of Alexandria, and then he also
required his pupils to fast before they could enter his class. The
ancient Egyptians were said to treat syphilis with their fasting
cures, and the great Greek physician, Hippocrates, prescribed
fasting during the critical periods of disease. Asclepiades and
Thessalus employed fasting; Celsus is said to have used it in the
treatment of jaundice and epilepsy, and the Arab physician,
Avicenna, prescribed fasting for three to five weeks at a time.
Later Tertullian wrote of fasting, and Plutarch said: "Instead of
using medicine better fast a day."

During the sixteenth century, the renowned Swiss physician,

Paracelsus claimed that, "Fasting is the greatest remedy." In the
seventeenth century, Dr. Hoffman wrote a book entitled,
Description of the Magnificent Results Obtained Through Fasting
in All Diseases. Dr. Anton Nikolai followed in the next century with
recommendations of fasting instead of food for those who were ill.
Later Dr. Von Seeland, of Russia, wrote: "As a result of
experiments I have come to the conclusion that fasting is not only
a therapeutic of the highest degree possible but also deserves
consideration educationally." In Germany, Dr. Adolph Mayer
asserted that "fasting is the most efficient means of correcting any
disease," and Dr. Moeller wrote that "fasting is the only natural
evolutionary method whereby through a systemic cleansing you
can restore yourself by degrees to physiologic normality."

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It has been during the past century that the greater portion of
scientific data has been gathered. Both Europe (in particular,
Germany) and America have contributed heavily to the research
on experimental and physiological fasting. Hundreds of
publications have been the result of this work and they provide
thorough and exact knowledge regarding many phases of fasting.
Among the best known research scientists who studied fasting
were: Sergius Morgulis, Professor of Biochemistry at the
University of Nebraska College of Medicine; Professor Child, of
the University of Chicago; Herbert Sidney Langfield, of Harvard
University; Dr. Frederick M. Allen, of the Rockefeller Institute;
Francis Gano Benedict and Ernest G. Ritzman, of the Carnegie
Institute; Luigi Luciani, Professor of Physiology at the University of
Rome; and Victor Pashutin, Director of the Imperial Military
Medical Academy of pre-revolutionary Russia. Other scientific
studies of fasting have been made by N. Pyaskovski, W
Skorczewski,, N. J. Sands, A. Cleghorn, N. Morozov, P B. Hawk,
P F. Howe, O. S. Soltz, C. A. Stewart, S. R. Wreath, C. M.
Jackson, L. H. Hyman, N. Zuntz, Roger et Josue, Miescher,
Mansfield, Rosenfeld and many others. All told, during the past
century, hundreds of scientific workers in many countries have
added to our knowledge of the biological importance of fasting.

In contrast to these scientists, who were concerned primarily with

developing laboratory data from studies of experimental and
physiological fasting, chiefly among animals and to a lesser extent
among humans, we have the other men of science who were
concerned with the clinical and therapeutic phases of fasting.
They supervised tens of thousands of fasts, and as a result
discovered the exact effectiveness of fasting as a remedy for
specific diseases. Among these physicians were many of the
nineteenth century, in addition to those now practicing. They

42
include, among others: Dr. Isaac Jennings, Dr. Joel Shew, Dr.
Russell Thacker Trall, Dr. Robert Walter, Dr. Henry S. Tanner,
and Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey. The experience of these men was
followed in the twentieth century by that of Dr. Linda Burfield
Hazzard; Dr. Hereward Harrington; Dr. Eugene A. Bergholtz, of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Dr. John M. Tilden, of Denver, Colorado;
Dr. William Howard Hay, of Mount Pocana, Pennsylvania, and Dr.
George S. Weger, of Redlands, California. Today Dr. Herbert
Shelton, of San Antonio, Texas, carries on the important work,
and Doctors Esser, Benesh, McEachen, Gross, and Scott are also
making important contributions.

History thus affords evidence of the considerable amount scientific

and clinical work done to determine the effects fasting. The
therapeutic measure is not a new and untried method, but on the
contrary has been recognized for centuries and has been studied
by some of the most brilliant minds in the science of medicine and
related fields. The importance of these studies may be readily
seen upon examination of the unique record of fasting, as regards
its curative influence in the case of many specific diseases. A
careful scientific appraisal of therapeutic fasting may then be of
significance to both the physician and layman.

III
Physiological Reactions to Fasting

THE DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTION of the forms of human

pathology are governed by the physiological and chemical
reactions that are taking place. Anything that induces such
reactions plays a role in determining the state of human health.
Whenever food is withheld from consumption beyond the usual
period in the case of man or other animals there are certain
changes in the function, chemical reactions and life processes of

43
the cells and tissues. It is these changes which give fasting its
therapeutic properties. By considering the physiological reactions
to fasting we can thus gain an understanding of the reasons which
determine its therapeutic value. Of great importance among the
physiological effects of fasting is rejuvenescence — the acquiring
of fresh vitality and renewal of youthful characteristics to the cells
and tissues of the body. Evidence of such regeneration comes
from many quarters and is particularly impressing with respect to
experimental work done with the various forms of lower animal
life. Such work may then be given first consideration.

The British scientist, Prof. Huxley, has carried out experiments

with young planaria, more commonly known as earthworms. He
fed an entire colony of these worms their usual foods. One of the
worms was isolated from the rest and fasted at periodic intervals.
In all other respects its diet and mode of life were similar to those
of the other worms. The isolated worm lived while 19 generations
of worms in the colony lived and passed away.

Prof. Child, of the University of Chicago, likewise has used worms

to determine the effects of fasting. He took a group of small flat
worms which had grown old and infirm and fasted them for
months, until they had been reduced to a minimum size. Then he
started feeding them again, and as they grew back to their normal
size, they were just as young, from a physiological standpoint, as
they ever were. In his Senescence and Rejuvenescence, Prof.
Child remarks: "Partial starvation inhibits senescence. The
starveling is brought back from an advanced age to the beginning
of postembryonic life; it is almost reborn."

Other experiments, conducted by F. Schultz, have shown that

hydra are rejuvenated by fasting, the animals reverting back to an
embryonic state. At the University of Chicago, one insect, the

44
normal life span of which is one day, was fasted and lived for 15
days. There are some species of lower animal life which normally
pass through their life span in three or four weeks, but when,
because of lack of food, they are forced to fast at intervals, they
often remain young and active for three years.

Prof. Sergius Morgulis, in his experimental work with animals, has

noted the relation between fasting and rejuvenation. He states:
"Laboratory as well as clinical experiments corroborated the
rejuvenating effects of inanition. If it is not too prolonged it is
distinctly beneficent and may well be used in overcoming
somnolence and lassitude as well as in improving the fundamental
organic functions (circulation, respiration), muscular strength, or
the acuity of the senses…

Biologically speaking, though the organism acquires no new

assets it becomes stronger by ridding itself of liabilities. In the
foregoing it has been pointed out that the cell-nucleus changes in
such a manner as to increase the preponderance of the nucleus.
Morphologically, therefore, the cells composing the entire
organism assume a more youthful condition. They resemble more
the embryonic cells in this respect, and this may account for the
expansive growth which they display under the proper nutritive
regime."

One of the characteristics of old age is a decrease in the

metabolic rate. It is interesting to note, in this connection, that
fasting produces rejuvenation by inducing a permanent increase in
the metabolic rate. In experiments conducted at the Hull Biological
Laboratory of the University of Chicago, both dogs and humans
were fasted for extended periods. In fasts of from 30 to 40 days a
five to six per cent increase in the metabolic rate was observed.

45
Of course rejuvenation does not occur in man to the extent that it
does in the lowest forms of animal life. However, the effects of
rejuvenescence are nevertheless very noticeable in the case of
human fasting. Dr. Carlson and Dr. Kunde, of the Department of
Physiology in the University of Chicago, placed a 40 year old man
on a 14 days fast. At the end of the fast his tissues were in the
same physiological condition as those of a 17 year old youth. In
reference to fasting Dr. Kunde remarks: "It is evident that where
the initial weight was reduced by 45 per cent, and subsequently
restored by normal diet, approximately one-half of the restored
body is made up of new protoplasm. In this there is
rejuvenescence." It may also be pointed out that quite possibly
much of the remaining part of the body not lost in weight may also
undergo significant changes of rejuvenescence as a result of
fasting.

Mention may also be given to the case of the late Mahatma

Gandhi, who was well known for his numerous fasts. On May 18,
1933, when Gandhi was in the tenth day of fasting, he was
examined by his physicians. One of the physicians stated that
"despite his 64 years, from a physiological point of view the Indian
leader was as healthy as a man of forty."

The outward manifestations of regeneration are quite noticeable in

many cases of fasting. The rejuvenating effect upon the skin in
particular is important. Lines and wrinkles become less apparent,
and blotches, discolorations and pimples tend to disappear. In the
words of Dr. Shelton: "The skin becomes more youthful, acquires
a better color and better texture. The eyes clear up and become
brighter. One looks younger. The visible rejuvenation in the skin is
matched by manifest evidences of similar but invisible
rejuvenescence throughout the body."

46
Literally the word, autolysis, means self-loosing. In physiology it is
used to denote the process of digestion or disintegration of animal
tissue by ferments and enzymes which are generated by the body
cells themselves. Thus it is a process of self-digestion or
intracellular digestion.

Autolysis forms a normal part of the physiological activities of the

body. The action of enzymes upon such substances in the body
as glycogen, fatty tissue and bone marrow, in preparing these
materials for entry into the blood stream, is normal autolysis.
Likewise when an abscess "points" to the surface of the body to
empty its contents, autolysis was involved when the flesh between
the abscess and the surface was digested by enzymes.

While recognizing the existence of autolysis as a common fact of

everyday life, it has been generally believed that the process
could not be made subject to human control and put to practical
use. Though it has been understood that abnormal growths in the
body might be absorbed through self-disintegration, the profound
change in metabolism necessary to bring about such autolysis has
been thought to result only in very rare cases following such
conditions as extreme cachexia, the puerperium, or menopause.
Such conditions, not always being within the realm of voluntary
control, and only occcasionally producing the changes in question,
offer no method whereby autolysis can be instituted at will and put
under control.

A complete revolution in such orthodox concepts necessarily

follows consideration of fasting. The fact is that fasting, in
producing a profound change in metabolism, serves as an
immediate inducement to the development of autolysis and can
thus act as a control of this process. This is no new discovery in
physiology, but has been recognized for over a century by those

47
who employed fasting. In the early part of the nineteenth century,
Sylvester Graham wrote that "it is a general law of the vital
economy" that "the decomposing absorbents always first lay hold
of and remove those substances which are of least use to the
economy; and hence, all morbid accumulations, such as wens,
tumors, abscesses, etc., are rapidly diminished and often wholly
removed under severe and protracted abstinence and fasting."

During the fast, the body has the opportunity to redistribute its
nutritive supplies — the surpluses and non-vital supplies being
consumed and utilized first. The absorption of normal muscles and
tissues on a fast is readily observable, and the flesh, blood and
bone of a tumor, being less important to the needs of the body,
are absorbed much more rapidly, with the essential tissues being
utilized in nourishment and the remainder permanently removed.

On the fast the assimilative powers of the body are increased.

This is shown both in the improvement of the blood during the fast
and the rapid assimilation of food after the fast. Patients who
suffer from conditions such as anemia, with either an insufficiency
of red blood cells or an excess of white cells, are generally
normalized by fasting. In some cases fasting has brought about an
increase in the number of erythrocytes from only one million to the
normal five million count. The explanation lies in the improvement
in assimilation which the fast affords. The iron and other elements
which are stored in the body are taken up by the blood and used.
Prior to fasting, general physiological inefficiency prevented this.
Perhaps this also explains why dental decay is often arrested
during the fast. In some cases teeth that were loose become firmly
fixed in their sockets while fasting, and swollen, inflamed and
bleeding gums are also restored to health. The improvement in
assimilation during the fast actually brings about recovery of
certain "deficiency" diseases.

48
Assimilation after the fast is at the highest possible level. Kagan
observed that after rabbits were fasted 17 days they gained 56 per
cent in weight on a diet which, under usual conditions, would
barely be sufficient to maintain a state of equilibrium. People who
are chronically underweight in spite of eating very heavily, often
gain weight to the normal level after a fast, even though large
quantities of food are not taken. The improved assimilation
enables the body to utilize more of its food intake.

It may be mentioned that it is really a normalization of assimilation

which occurs on a fast. Patients who fast to rid themselves of
excessive weight may gain weight to normal after the fast, but that
is usually where the gain ends if nutrition is proper. Thus both
people who assimilate too much of food intake, and those who
assimilate too little, are helped by fasting.

Fasting affords the organs of the body the closest possible

approach to a complete physiological rest. Many organs are
overworked and overstimulated, and hence weakened, rough the
constant use of defective foods and excessive quantities of foods.
During a fast, the necessary work done by the organs is reduced
to the lowest possible minimum. As there is no further intake of
food, assimilation in the body only involves the redistribution of the
elements already stored there. Thus the organs are given a
chance to recuperate and restore their vital powers. Repair of
damaged structures may take place. Broken bones, wounds and
open sores heal much more rapidly. If inflammation is present it
tends to subside. The body undergoes a general healing process.

Associated with physiological rest of an organ is increased

elimination. This, according to some observers, is the most
important advantage of fasting. Part of the energy which ould

49
norm ally be devoted to the work of assimilation may, during a
fast, be used to expell the accumulations of waste and toxins.
Decomposing food in the digestive tract, which is often an
important source of toxins, is quickly eliminated. The entire
alimentary canal becomes almost free from bacteria. The
nourishment of cells on a fast is first derived from the less
essential tissues and portions of impaired and diseased tissue.
The surplus material on hand is utilized first. The effusions,
dropsical swellings, fat, infiltrations, etc., are absorbed with great
rapidity on a fast. The body thus gradually releases itself from a
former burden of superfluous and waste material.

Increased elimination of toxins is noted on the very first days of

the fast. The breath becomes very offensive, and the skin may
also emit an offensive odor, possibly because of greater
eliminative effort on the part of both the lungs and skin. Catarrhal
eliminations usually increase during the early days of the fast, until
towards the end of the fast elimination is completed and recovery
occurs. The toxicity of the urine is increased, perhaps due to
greater elimination via the kidneys. In some cases, considerable
waste material is lost through the process of vomiting. Of course
each of these symptoms does not occur in all cases, but there is
always some outward indication of increased elimination. The
primary elimination, however, brought about simply by internal
absorption and autolysis, is not apparent in outward reactions,
except perhaps the loss of weight and general weakness.

A marked improvement in nervous and mental function occurs on

the fast. Max Nordau declared that "Pessimism has a
physiological basis;" and it may also be said that even the most
severe forms of mental aberration usually have a physiological
basis. Under the usual circumstances of civilized life, with its
nutritive inadequacies and its inclusion of chemical stimulants and

50
depressants, both in the food supply and as drugs for the
treatment of disease, there is a tendency to the reduction of nerve
energy, or enervation as it is called. The capacity of the brain is
also impaired, giving rise to an assortment of nervous and mental
diseases. While fasting, all enervating influences are discontinued
and the entire nervous system and brain undergoes the same
physiological rest that the balance of the body experiences. Nerve
forces are restored and mental powers are improved. The ability
to reason is increased. The powers of attention and association
are quickened while memory of past events is often recovered. Dr.
Tanner and others even testified to the development of psychic
powers during the fast, which Dr. Tanner felt explained "why the
old prophets and seers so often resorted to fasting as a means of
spiritual illumination."

Fasting thus serves many purposes in terms of physiology and

chemistry. It produces rejuvenation of tissues, induces autolysis of
abnormal growths, improves the powers of digestion and
assimilation, reestablishes normal chemistry and secretion,
affords the organs of the body a physiological rest, increases
elimination, promotes nerve energy recuperation, strengthens the
mind, and perhaps improves function in various ways which we do
not yet understand. Obviously these factors are of considerable
importance in determining the physical condition of the body. They
may mean the difference between strength and weakness, health
and disease, and perhaps even life and death.

by Arnold DeVries

Here is a list of the chapters in Therapeutic Fasting:

i. Forms of Fasting

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ii. A Short History of Fasting
iii. Physiological Reactions to Fasting
iv. Efficiency of Fasting
v. The Complete Fast
vi. Safety of the Fast
vii. Symptoms of the Fast
viii. Supervising the Fast
ix. Breaking the Fast
x. Living after the Fast
Bibliography

Go to http://soilandhealth.org (Health Library) to read the rest of

this book by Arnold DeVries.

Go to INTRODUCTION TO FASTING - some articles.

For more articles by Dr. Shelton mentioning fasting click here.

For more Shelton articles click here.
For various articles by Dr. Gian-Cursio click here.

About Dr. Bass first fast, including a spiritual experience - click

here.

Find more fasting articles in the INHS magazine

NATURAL HEALTH & ENERGY ----- INHS Hygienic Review

LINKS
Dr. Shelton writes about many diseases and fasting, in his
Orthopathy - "disease encyclopedia"

52
http://drbass.com/orthopathy/index.html

For a (water) fasting support group - go to

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/WaterFasting/

Click here for fasting retreats internationally -- use the website

links to find more articles about fasting.
"Fasting is a good tool - but a poor master." Dr. John
Fielder
Note - It is INHS recommendation that all extended fasts beyond 3
days be carried out with supervision !

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