During any acute illness, the appetite naturally diminishes, usually to the point of fasting.
FASTING
An integral part of Hygienic care is the use of fasting for the recovery of health. Fasting is an instinctive action instituted by our living body when internal toxin levels reach a threshold that threatens the survival of our body. During any acute illness, the appetite naturally diminishes, usually to the point of fasting.
Definitions
'Fasting' and/or 'Water Fasting' - consuming only pure water as needed while allowing for total rest - body, mind and senses. The express purpose is to allow the body and mind maximum opportunity to free itself of debilitating influences (aka - detoxification).
'Juice Fasting' and/or 'Juice Diet' - consuming one kind or a variety of freshly extracted juices from fruits and/or vegetables instead of solid foods. The express purpose is to significantly ease the burden of digestion, thereby freeing up energy to accelerate internal detoxification.
Our body intelligently focuses its energy stores to the task of eliminating the offensive toxins. It diverts energy from the muscles and gastrointestinal tract; this is why we feel like lying down and only drinking fluids. Our body is most effectively and efficiently "curing" the underlying problem - toxin build-up.
Forcing food and excess physical activity upon the ailing organism slows down this cleansing process. Just the same, taking any medicine (drug, poison), short-circuits this body-instituted process of healing. Drugs simply make the problem worse.
Adding more virulent poisons and toxins (drugs, medicines) to a body that is already trying to rid itself of toxic material is damaging, injurious and unnecessary. The body is already "curing" the problem. "Cures" do not come from outside the body.
Drugs simply make the problem worse.
Some basic facts concerning fasting are that:
Fasting is a highly regulated bodily process that occurs during the complete abstention from all food, supplements, protein/electrolyte drinks, etc. Only pure water is taken as desired.
Fasting begins when carbohydrate stores (mostly glycogen) are depleted. This happens within 12-24 hours. Fasting can continue as long as fat stores remain to be metabolized for fuel (ketosis). This is usually 5-6 weeks for the average person. Longer for the obese, shorter for the emaciated.
When fat stores have been metabolized past certain minimum levels, rapid autolysis of protein structures occurs. This is starvation.
Various hormones come into play during an extended fast. Significant ones include sustained increases of plasma growth hormone and adrenocorticotropin levels. These have important effects on ketosis and cellular protein conservation. Also, pancreatic release of insulin is diminished considerably.
As the body continues fasting, it scavenges any and all superfluous fat stores, abnormal tissues, adhesions, fibrous growths, etc. for autolysis and subsequent gluconeogenesis. All important organs and structures are preserved during fasting.
Growth and healing continue during the fast, but these processes slow during extended fasts.
Various "healing crises" may occur during the fast, which reflect the intelligent innate control of tissue repair and optimal healing. Our body is working at the degree and speed that it knows can best restore health.
Clear and prominent signs are given by our body before it moves into critical protein breakdown called starvation.
Fasts longer than 4 or 5 days require supervision by someone experienced with monitoring the progression and proper conclusion of extended fasts. In this way, maximum benefit can be obtained and preserved.(10)
The most difficult thing for health care practitioners is to do nothing .. intelligently
Fasting can provide the ideal context for tremendous healing to take place in our body. However, fasting is not a cure. Fasting doesn't do anything. In fact, fasting is the best way to do nothing.
The most difficult thing for health care practitioners is to do nothing but simply set the stage (context) for our body's own magnificent healing powers to take over. Yet in the vast majority of cases, intelligently doing nothing (not neglecting) is exactly the best thing to do.(11) Fasting simply provides the most favorable internal environment for the most rapid and effective healing to occur.
For those in the health professions, it is tempting to jump right in and "assist" the healing process with manipulation, bodywork, electrical modalities, colonics, supplements, etc. Yet the clinical experience gained from collectively supervising hundreds of thousands of fasts demonstrate that many of the "barriers" to healing are effectively autolyzed (eliminated) - cysts, calcium deposits, mucosal and fecal deposits, tumors, adhesions, pannus formations, and other similar scar-type tissues.
The practitioner must use his or her judgement carefully in such cases. Mild intervention may be of help, but it could just as easily hinder the healing process, forcing our body to divert precious resources prematurely to the newly-injured areas and generally squander vital energies. It is most often better to allow our body to achieve what it can during the fast and to then apply gentle supportive techniques later where warranted.
Yet the clinical experience gained from collectively supervising hundreds of thousands of fasts demonstrate that many of the "barriers" to healing are effectively autolyzed (eliminated) - cysts, tumors ...
APPROPRIATE INTERVENTION
Dr. Ronald Cridland, in an article in Health Science(12) magazine, points out where appropriate medical intervention makes good common sense:
A primary principle of Natural Hygiene is the understanding that only our body (including our mind-Ed.) can heal. Whether we have an illness or a wound, it is our body that will heal it. Even when some form of medical or surgical treatment is appropriately and successfully employed, that procedure is not going to make the cells knit together or make the function return. Only our body (vital force) is capable of doing that.
There are situations, however, when medical or surgical intervention can be of great, sometimes life saving benefit. Generally speaking, these are times when the intervention, by removing as much as possible any interfering factors, helps provide the optimum healing environment, thus allowing our body to achieve its maximum healing potential.
But occasionally, medical or surgical intervention will maximize healing potential. When is medical and surgical care necessary?
Splinting/casting of severe bone fractures.
Cardio-pulmonary emergencies.
Organ failure emergencies; liver, kidney etc.
Severe shock; hypovolemic, anaphylactic, etc.
Extended anoxia due to severe acute asthma, grand mal seizure, pneumothorax, etc.
Severe dehydration due to vomiting, diarrhea, etc.
Reconstructive surgery - cleft palate, defects or patent ductus arteriosis of the heart, other congenital defects, injuries, etc.
Elective surgery - cataracts, unstable chronic hernias, late stage prostatic hypertrophy, unresolved abscesses.
Obstetrics - life or death emergencies
Traumas/ bites/ wounds causing life or death emergencies.
We want to avoid medical and surgical treatment and hospitalization because it has serious risks. A healthy hygienic lifestyle, including fasting when appropriate, will prevent or resolve most acute and chronic illness. But occasionally, medical or surgical intervention will maximize healing potential. The medical or surgical forte is in areas of trauma or life or limb threatening emergencies where "high-tech" care improves the outcome, and this is where surgical or other intervention makes sense.
LIVING WISDOM
During these extended fasting periods, our body receives a well deserved period of physical, mental and emotional rest. During fasting, we can take time to get back in touch with the inner healing power that sustains us. It can be a very powerful experience. We have the internal somatic feeling of health returning.
There is the empowering intuitive knowledge that comes with knowing that we ourselves are achieving this return to health, not some doctor, drug, therapy, expert, etc. As Hanna proclaimed ".....And they (the clients) are utterly in command and aware of what went on." Self-empowerment is strengthened. Self-respect increases. Self-responsibility is cultivated and expanded.
Greater freedom is realized. Many of the preceding concepts on nutrition, elimination, fasting, basic needs of life, etc. seem obvious and of simple common sense.
There is the empowering intuitive knowledge that comes with knowing that we ourselves are achieving this return to health, not some doctor, drug, therapy, expert, etc.
And that is the beauty of it. Spiritual Masters throughout the ages agree that greatly simplifying our life is a first and major step toward achieving health, wisdom, peace and serenity.
INTERNAL SOMATIC AWARENESS
Another vitally important element of Natural Hygiene, indeed a defining characteristic of all life, is that of movement. Divisions include posture, tone, use, range of motion, gait, exercise and others. Fundamental to efficient and effective movement is a high level of awareness of what our bodies are doing. This sense of knowing how, where and what our bodies are doing is called our sixth sense - kinesthetic awareness. This kinesthetic sense is functioning all the time and it runs mostly on automatic pilot, allowing us to walk, run, eat, drink, etc. without really thinking about it.
Fundamental to efficient and effective movement is a high level of awareness of what our bodies are doing.
Most of our normal movement patterns are learned in infancy and early childhood. Though they may have achieved a desired goal at that time, it is very likely that these habitual movements are ineffective, inefficient and damaging to our structure as adults. Being habits, these patterns can be very difficult to break. Most healthcare practitioners completely overlook these deficiencies, especially those who should be more aware, such as osteopaths and chiropractors. Emphasis is given toward therapeutically strengthening "weak" muscles or otherwise forcefully "holding" odd postures thereby creating more habitual patterns on top of the old ones. Breaking this mold were two progressive human movement masters - F. Matthias Alexander and Thomas Hanna.
F. Matthias Alexander was a classical orator of the early 20th century who despaired of his chronic loss of voice during his performances. He developed a system for correcting his aberrant posture by observing himself carefully in several well-placed mirrors. He noticed movements he made while speaking that restricted his windpipe and his breathing. He attempted to inhibit these actions and gradually came to control and eliminate these habits.
In the process, Alexander gained valuable insight into concepts such as "body lengthening, "end-gaining and means-whereby" and "primary control" being the head/neck relationship in instigating forward movement. He, like Shelton and Hanna, realized that he was not delivering a therapy or a cure. He was educating his clients in more effective use of their bodies. His goal was to teach people how to keep improving themselves once the teacher was gone.
My personal experience with the Alexander method is limited, but I believe that a combination of Somatics and Alexander techniques can provide rapid improvements in use and function of our neuromusculoskeletal system. Alexander's work was a great leap forward for the somatic/body awareness field.
A supple, healthy body will in turn impact strongly and positively on our feelings about ourselves and what we are capable of achieving.
Somatics, as conceived and codified by Hanna, might best be thought of as a system for reawakening our mind's control of movement, flexibility and health. It employs our powers of focused concentration, careful deliberate movements and internal sensory awareness to overcome learned patterns of faulty movements and chronic muscular tension.
Somatics recognizes no mind/body split.
Current Western research is slowly coming to grips with the concept that 3rd person "objective" observation is not paramount to 1st person "subjective" feeling. In fact, they are of coequal importance for dealing with reality.
Somatics implicitly sees all life's experiences as body/mind experiences. To experience life to its fullest, we need to maintain our soma (mind/body) in peak functioning condition.
Somatics movement awareness provides a simple yet dramatic technique for preserving neuromuscular fitness. A supple, healthy body will in turn impact strongly and positively on our feelings about ourselves and what we are capable of achieving. Hanna introduces his thesis in his book Somatics(13):
"Somatics movements can change how we live our lives, how we believe that our minds and bodies interrelate, how powerful we think we are in controlling our lives, and how responsible we should be in taking care of our total being. In fact, as these discoveries relate to our conception of what humans are and can be, they have broad philosophical implications for understanding the nature of our existence.
Our sensory-motor system (which senses our environment and then carries out a movement or action response) is a mechanism fundamental to all human experience and behavior. And to understand sensory-motor amnesia is to understand one of the fundamental causes of the malfunctions we have falsely believed to be the effects of aging. The fact is that, during the course of our lives, our sensory-motor systems continually respond to daily stresses and traumas with specific muscular reflexes.
These reflexes, repeatedly triggered, create habitual muscular contractions which we cannot - voluntarily - relax. These muscular contractions have become so deeply involuntary and unconscious that, eventually, we no longer remember how to move about freely. The result is stiffness, soreness, and a restricted range of movement.
This habituated state of forgetfulness is called sensory-motor amnesia (SMA). It is a memory loss of how certain muscle groups feel and how to control them. And, because this occurs within the central nervous system, we are not aware of it, yet it affects us to our very core. Our image of who we are, what we can experience, and what we can do is profoundly diminished by sensory-motor amnesia. And it is primarily this event, and its secondary effects, that we falsely think of as growing older.
The reflexes that cause sensory-motor amnesia are very specific. There are three, and I have named them the Red Light Reflex, the Green Light Reflex, and the Trauma Reflex. They are a crucial part of SMA and round out the enormously important discoveries of Hans Selye and Moshe Feldenkrais. Before discussing the three reflexes, however, it is important that I point out the following facts:
The effects of sensory-motor amnesia can begin at any age, but usually become apparent in our thirties and forties;
SMA is an adaptive response of the nervous system; and because SMA is a learned adaptive response, it can be unlearned.
Hanna: "These muscular contractions have become so deeply involuntary and unconscious that, eventually, we no longer remember how to move about freely."
PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY
The obvious mind/body connection is central to somatics practice. Some cogent points:
Humans are psychosocial, self-organizing processes (Soma's); we are exactly that which we sense ourselves to be.
Our bodies are exactly as active (motor response) as they are receptive (sensory response).
Every emotion has a neuromusculoskeletal representation; i.e. anger demonstrates as clenched teeth, wide open eyes, fast breathing; depression results in a stooped posture, lax muscles, shallow breathing, happiness is expressed with smiles, lowered heart rate, relaxed muscles, etc.
Important research in this area has been conducted by Dr. Hans Selye and Moshe Feldenkrais.
Selye basically proved that all biological organisms proceed through several definite stages when trying to cope with stress.
He called this response the General Adaptation Syndrome. His work dealt primarily with the endocrine (hormonal) responses to stress. He noted three general physiological states that the organism successively passed through:
Alarm - where the organism elicits many specific endocrine and sympathetic nervous system processes to prepare for action;
Resistance - where the organism sustains and modulates the Alarm processes to cope with continued stressors;
Exhaustion - where the organism cannot sustain continued Alarm responses due to depletion of resources.
Moshe Feldenkrais was a physicist and engineer who applied his mechanical expertise to the function of the human system. He noticed that when muscles and joints are dysfunctional, many times it is due to chronic contractions of the involved muscles.
He believed that the best way to alleviate these habitual contractions is not to forcefully stretch them, but to slowly and consciously contract them even further. As these careful movements are completed, these muscles spontaneously release some of their tension. At the same time, an increasing degree of conscious control is gained over the actions of these muscles. Feldenkrais put most of his emphasis on the musculoskeletal complications of the startle reflex, which will be explained shortly.
Thomas Hanna saw the connections between the pioneering work of Hans Selye and Moshe Feldenkrais. He combined the problems and treatments for genetically programmed responses, including the Red Light Reflex, the Green Light Reflex and neuromusculoskeletal responses to stress/injury, including the Trauma Reflex into a somatic rehabilitation and maintenance system called Somatics.
This bodily maintenance system, if practiced regularly as part of our daily routine, will yield tremendous benefits regarding strength, tone, flexibility, coordination and efficient use of our neuromusculoskeletal system.
Though we may not be able to live "perfectly" each and every day, we do now have a reliable yardstick with which to measure our progress.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Some will argue that it is well near impossible to meet all these conditions for health each and every day. Modern day living is far removed from nature in dozens of ways, they will say. That is true. However, the superiority of the Somatic and Hygienic systems lies not only in their simple wisdom and adherence to natural laws, but that they set out ideal standards for human health, based on anatomy and physiology.
Though we may not be able to live "perfectly" each and every day, we do now have a reliable yardstick with which to measure our progress. No longer must we jerk ourselves from one "expert" opinion to another, or concern ourselves with the latest health fad, looking for the silver bullet to health. We now have a gauge with which to accurately measure our health and lifestyles.
Likewise, we can easily gauge how well all other health-care systems and ideas measure up to the simple standards that nature decrees. Logically it can be seen that all other approaches to health improvement and maintenance will be successful to the degree that they employ Natural Hygiene (natural law), knowingly or not.
Every one of us practices Natural Hygiene every day to varying degrees. And we are healthy to precisely that degree.
Natural Hygiene is the optimal health system that harmonizes with Natural Law in all respects. Man did not create the principles of Natural Hygiene - Nature did. Hygienists, through observation, trial and error and the process of elimination simply wrote down and then practiced what nature decreed. These harmonious laws of nature work as well today as they have worked for millions of years.
Therapies come and therapies go. Nature's ways of health are always there waiting for us to accept them.
The word "doctor" originally comes from a Latin word meaning teacher. The Hygienic/ Somatic/Alexander professional truly carries out their mandate - that of a teacher. Through their example, instruction, guidance, direction and support, we are continually invested with knowledge that will thereafter free us of the need for physicians, healers, analysts, experts and other authoritarians for the rest of our healthy lives. Enlightened and empowered with this knowledge, we are encouraged to share experiences and teach these experts and all others of this health-promoting and freedom-giving information. Those who may still be a bit skeptical of the claims made by teachers of Natural Hygiene, Somatics and the Alexander Method might consider this:
.. there are no tremendous profits to be made by selling therapies, drugs, etc. We just have information to sell.
Natural Hygiene, Somatics and the Alexander Method teach us knowledge and skills that we can use to maintain wonderful health of mind/body/spirit for the rest of our lives. There is no stake in placing us on endless treadmills of therapies, drugs, medications, supplements or rituals.
This being so, there are no tremendous profits to be made by selling therapies, drugs, etc. We just have information to sell.
Body awareness gained through Somatics and Alexander techniques frees us from physical enslavement to unnatural therapies, manipulations, supplements and drugs. Hygienic awareness also frees us from physical enslavement to unnatural therapies, manipulations, supplements and drugs. All three free us from destructive mental and emotional dependence on experts and authority figures for our existence.
Our emphasis is on turning helpless, frightened patients into responsible, vigorous, knowledgeable and happy non-patients - permanently. The ultimate goal of the teachers of Natural Hygiene, Somatics and the Alexander Method is that nobody needs our services any longer.
Our emphasis is on turning helpless, frightened patients into responsible, vigorous, knowledgeable and happy non-patients - permanently.
This, I believe, is what constitutes truth in the field of human health. Does the approach under consideration foster self-respect, self-reliance, independence and autonomy? Or does it promote, directly or indirectly, co-dependence, addiction, deference to higher authority and ultimate slavery to pill, potion, procedure or person?
This characteristic of increasing freedom is what separates Natural Hygiene, Somatics and the Alexander Method from all the rest.
"Let us have truth though the heavens fall."(14)
Though a Natural Hygiene/Somatic/Alexander mindset is simple, inexpensive and in agreement with common sense, it will take a tremendous degree of patience, tolerance and loving kindness to instill these effective practices into our culture. Yet, humankind and the Earth itself will take a terrible beating if we wait. As in matters of Spirit, this information must be learned and embodied individually - one person at a time. The herd mentality and majority rule just does not apply.
The challenge is for each of us to study and embrace these simple truths; to apply them to our own lives and evaluate the results. Rational action demands that we test these revolutionary concepts out personally and judge for ourselves. Nature and nature's God will reward us tenfold for our efforts. We will not only know it; we will live it. Then, and only then, may we offer ourselves as teachers for the students who are ready.
There are millions of hurting people out there who need this knowledge desperately. Those of us who have healed our lives through applying these wonderful teachings of Alexander, Hanna and Shelton must pass them on. We owe it to our selves and to our brothers and sisters. One after another, we can build a groundswell of people that have reclaimed superb health, embraced self-responsibility, savored the experience of freedom and stand ready to work toward ever greater human mental, physical and spiritual evolution.
There are millions of hurting people out there who need this knowledge desperately.
References
- Shelton, Herbert M., "Principles of Natural Hygiene", Hygienic Review, 1949.
- Hanna, Thomas, from the interview "Mind over Movement"; Mo Knaster, Massage Therapy Journal, Fall 1989.
- Gifis, Steven H., Dictionary of Legal Terms, Barron's 1983.
- Shelton, Herbert M., Human Life - Its Philosophy and Laws, 1925, condensed and edited.
- Shelton, Herbert M., compiled from various sources.
- Shelton, Herbert M., compiled from various sources and edited by Fry, T.C.
- Cinque, Ralph C., "Hygiene vs. Therapy"; Health Science, March/April 1993, p. 10-12.
- Schaef, Anne Wilson, Beyond Therapy, Beyond Science; Harper Collins, 1992, p. 128-129.
- Sidhwa, Keki, "Don't Hand Out Remedies"; Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, June 1993.
- Contact the American Natural Hygiene Society for a complete list of professionally supervised fasting establishments around the world.
- By "doing nothing", I specifically mean that the supervisor of the fast should not apply any sort of direct force to the body of the faster, whether physical, chemical, electrical, etc. Rather, provide surroundings (context) that are most conducive to regaining health - Quiet, peaceful, clean, preferably within a natural setting, and away from family, relatives, friends who are not sympathetic. Try to provide a complete physical, mental and emotional rest for the ill person.
- Cridland, Ronald G., "When Do Medical and Surgical Care Make Sense?"; Health Science, March/April 1992 p. 8-12 and May/June 1992 p. 6-9. Condensed and edited.
- Hanna, Thomas, Somatics, Addison-Wesley, 1988, p. xiv.
- This was the subtitle to Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review magazine.
Suggested Reading
- Any book by Dr. Herbert Shelton, N.D., especially The Science and Fine Art of Fasting, The Science and Fine Art of Food and Nutrition, Superior Nutrition, The Hygienic Care of Children and Human Life: Its Philosophy and Laws. Each of these are available from the American Natural Hygiene Society, P.O.Box 30630, Tampa, Fla. 33630 813-855-6607
- Any book by Thomas Hanna, Ph.D., especially Somatics, The Body of Life, Bodies in Revolt: A Primer in Somatic Thinking, available from The Somatics Society, 1516 Grant Avenue, Suite 212, Novato, Calif. 94945 415-892-0617
- Books describing the Alexander Technique: Body Awareness in Action by Frank Pierce Jones, The Alexander Technique by John Gray, and The Alexander Technique by Wilfred Barlow. Of Alexander's own books, the most highly acclaimed is The Use of the Self. These titles are available from Centerline Press, 2005 Palo Verde # 325, Long Beach, CA 90815
Dr. Robert Sniadach
robertsniadach@netscape.net
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