EVERYBODY�S GUIDE TO NATURE CURE.
By Harry Benjamin N.D.
Compiled
and edited by Ivor Hughes
DISEASES
OF THE STOMACH AND INTESTINES (Part
1 of 3)
Acid
stomach�Appendicitis � Cancer�Cholera� Colic� Colitis �
Constipation�Diarrhoea�Dilatation of the
stomach � Dropped stomach � Duodenal ulcer � Dysentery � Dyspepsia
� Enteric fever�Fissure of anus�Fistula� Flatulence � Gastric
catarrh � Gastric ulcer�Gastritis (Acute)�Gastritis (Chronic) �
Hemorrhoids (Piles)� Heartburn �
Hyperacidity � Indigestion (Acute) � Indigestion (Chronic) �
Intestinal catarrh � Loss of appetite � Ptomaine poisoning�Typhoid.
When we consider that all the food we eat has to be dealt with in that
part of the human organism known as the alimentary canal, then the reason
for the great prevalence of diseases of the stomach and intestines will be
at once apparent, for the alimentary canal is made up principally of the
stomach, or food-bag, and the intestines. We eat primarily in order that
we may live, but the modern world has almost lost sight of this most
elementary fact. With a great number of people nowadays it is a question
of living in order that they may eat; and even if this is not actually the
case with others, the eating of food has become an habitual matter, a
matter dictated solely by routine, and bearing no relationship whatsoever
to the direct needs of the body, which it is the true and primary function
of food to sub serve.
It can be accepted as a fact that the average person to-day eats two or
three times as much food as his body really requires, especially sedentary
workers. (All this without any reference as to whether the food is really
good food, as measured by Natural-Cure standards.) The inevitable result
is that the organs most affected by this persistent influx of food�the
stomach and intestines�are perpetually at a disadvantage where normalcy
of condition and tone are concerned. They are ever on the brink of
breaking down under the continuous strain imposed upon them by their
blissfully ignorant owners, who go on eating their four or five meals a
day, year in and year out, in the fond belief�fostered by those in
medical and social authority� that the more food they eat the better is
it for their future health and strength !
This is hardly the place to enter into a full discussion of present-day
food fallacies, it has all been gone into thoroughly in the author's book
Your Diet in Health and Disease; but the upshot of modern food habits and
theories is to land the peoples of present-day civilisation with a variety
and accumulation of diseases of the organs of digestion and elimination
such as no previous period in history can equal. (The advertisements for "
cures " for indigestion and constipation that appear in
never-ending succession in every newspaper and periodical one picks hold
of more than bear out this statement, if the reader's own experience with
family and friends does not already bear it out to the full.)
Now, what steps does the medical profession take to deal with this
inordinate amount of disease of the stomach and intestinal tract
? We find that its treatment resolves itself down to one of
palliation pure and simple. No attempt is made to get down to the real
cause of the trouble�the extravagant amounts of food habitually eaten,
and in all kinds of unwise combinations�but the patient is merely given
medicine to help overcome the immediate symptoms of his complaint, and
that is all. Has any sufferer from indigestion or constipation ever been
cured�really cured�by medical treatment ?
These diseases, simple as they are, are quite incurable by orthodox
medical methods of treatment, simply because the real underlying cause of
the condition, wrong feeding, is not affected in the slightest by it.
(Dietetic treatment, of a kind, is attempted in certain cases of stomach
and bowel trouble, but this is always secondary to the drug treatment
employed, and is of no real curative value, as it is entirely unrelated to
any of the principles of rational dietetics.)
In no section of disease is the medical record so poor and ineffectual as
is its record for the treatment of diseases of the kind we are discussing
in the present section ; and conversely, in no
section of disease is the Natural-Cure record so bright and shining as is
its record for the treatment of these same diseases. Why
? Simply because in the natural treatment the real cause of the
trouble is recognised and removed ; whilst in the medical treatment the
real cause is ignored or neglected, and the regimen is turned merely
towards the end of getting rid of superficial symptoms.
The patient suffering from stomach or bowel trouble, who has been taking
medicines for years, often finds himself on the operating-table eventually
as a result thereof. And does this last desperate attempt to get rid of
his ailment cure him ? It patches him up
perhaps for a time, only to leave him all the more a chronic invalid
thereafter in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. And this because the
only factor which can really turn the scale�the food factor�is
persistently neglected all the time. Look at it in whichever way you will,
there is no possible hope for the sufferer from stomach or intestinal
trouble who leaves himself in medical hands. His symptoms may be masked
and palliated for a time ; drug treatment and
operations may lead him to think that he is getting over his trouble ; but
in the end he will have to face the blunt fact that he is definitely worse
off in health (both as regards the actual trouble he is being treated for
and general health too) than when he first came under treatment. His only
pathway to cure �to real and permanent cure�lies along natural lines.
These, and these only�as results more than prove.
Having given the sufferer from stomach or bowel trouble this assurance
that under natural treatment his health can�in whole or in great part�be
restored in the majority of cases, even if he has spent years vainly
seeking for cure at the hands of orthodox medicine, we can now proceed to
outline the actual treatments themselves. The results obtained will be
more than gratifying.
Acid
Stomach.�See Hyperacidity.
Appendicitis.
� We are all accustomed to hearing of people "
suddenly " developing appendicitis, and being rushed off to
the hospital for an immediate operation, and their lives thus saved. But
if one knows something about the inside workings of these matters, the
facts are not quite as they appear to be.
The modern medical craze for removing appendices almost rivals
that for the removal of enlarged tonsils ; and
many people accept an appendicitis operation as something more or less
inevitable, and feel quite in the fashion thereby. But if the medical
profession would delve a little more deeply into the causes of
appendicitis than it now does, and realise how inevitably appendix trouble
is linked up with bowel sluggishness and constipation, it might hesitate a
little before condemning its appendicitis patients out of hand to the
knife, and imagining that it is bringing them back to sound health
thereby. It might; but I very much doubt it even then. For the medical
outlook is so befogged by the germ theory of disease that when it comes to
a question of following out the various disease-processes through all
their various stages of cause and effect, the medical mind seems quite
incapable of the task.
Appendicitis is not something which attacks you suddenly out of thin air,
as it were, as a result of germ infection. That is merely a cock-and-bull
story invented by the medical profession to hide its own colossal and
complete ignorance as to the real causes of the trouble. No sufferer from
appendicitis caught his disease " out of
the blue." It was the direct outcome of a toxic bowel condition which
has its origins far back in the patient's medical history, and the
habitual taking of Aperient medicines has more to do with its development
than most people would care to realise.
The appendix is a small organ or structure placed at the very beginning of
the large intestine (or colon), and any extensive accumulation of waste
matter in the colon over a period of time can lead to the development of
appendicitis, which disease is nothing more than an attempt on the part of
Nature to localise and " burn up " the toxins in question.
(Inflammation of the bowel lining, due to the habitual taking of Aperient
drugs, is a most potent predisposing factor in the setting up of
appendicitis.) It is quite true that when the appendix is affected there
is germ activity present, but this is the result of the condition, not the
cause ! (Just the same as when there is an
accumulation of filth in a dustbin, all sorts of parasites seem to appear
automatically. They are not the cause of the filth surely
? They are merely developed there as the outcome of the presence of
the filth.)
When the appendicitis sufferer realises that his trouble is due to past
wrong living�for constipation and bowel sluggishness are the direct
outcome of wrong feeding habits, plus enervation of the system �he will
have made a definite step towards a correct understanding of the cause of
his condition. But he will say here, " How
is this knowledge going to help me ? Surely now that I have appendicitis
the only way to cure it is by operation ? "
The removal of the diseased appendix by means of surgical operation
is not a cure for the trouble by any means. For the original condition
which was the cause of the appendix trouble in the first place�the
chronic constipation and toxic bowel condition�has not been improved in
any way by the operation. Indeed, it has been made worse, as the
appendicitis victim finds out to his cost after the operation.
The surgical removal of appendices does nothing to cure the underlying
bowel trouble ; it does nothing to improve�in
the real sense� the patient's health. But it certainly puts fees�and
often fat fees� into the pockets of operating surgeons. Hence the
popularity of such operations among those self-same surgeons, whose advice
in these matters the public accepts with such touching and childlike trust
and confidence. Then again, if a person is in acute pain he will consent
to anything if he is promised relief from his sufferings thereby.
This is not to say that all surgeons are actuated by purely pecuniary
motives, but even in medical circles it is admitted that there is far too
great a tendency for operations in general to be advised, and most
especially where appendices and tonsils are concerned. Some medical
authorities go so far as to say that at least fifty per cent, of all
operations performed nowadays are unnecessary ;
and this from men who believe in the efficacy of operations as a means to
restored health !
The only real cure for appendicitis is fasting. The fast�Nature's safest
and most simple curative measure�is the one sure road to cure in all
appendix troubles. Why, then, does not the medical profession make use of it
? Merely another example of its steadfast and
purblind refusal to accept any curative measure�however provably
successful�that does not emanate from within its own closed circle of
ideas.
Treatment.�Many
hundreds of cases of appendicitis have been cured by Naturopaths simply
through the agency of the fast. It is very difficult for many, however, to
secure the services of a qualified Naturopath at these times, so that the
following outline of home treatment will be of the utmost service to them.
Appendicitis brings with it a state of great nervousness and fear both in
the minds of the sufferer and friends ; but if
the natural treatment to be outlined herewith is carried into operation
without delay, then no fear as to the ultimate consequences need be
maintained.
To begin with, the patient should be kept as quiet as possible, and
nothing but sips of water given to drink. Hot compresses can be .placed
over the painful area several times daily. An enema, containing about a
pint of warm water, can be given each day for the first two or three days,
to cleanse the lower bowel; but only if it can be taken with comfort by
the patient, not otherwise.
About the third day the condition should have eased sufficiently for a
full enema to be given, containing about three pints of warm water; and
this should be repeated daily thereafter until all pain and inflammation
have subsided. From the third day onwards fruit juices, as well as water,
can be given the patient.
Nothing more than the above simple treatment, sensibly applied is needed
to overcome an appendicitis attack, and as soon as convalescence develops
the all-fruit diet can be adopted. (Do not be in too great a hurry to give
food. It is better to fast the patient for a day or two longer than less
!) After a few days of this diet the full weekly dietary, can be
then gradually begun, and it should be adhered to faithfully thereafter.
If there is still a tendency towards constipation, the rules for its eradication
should be put into
operation, and the enema used on occasion as necessary. The breathing and
other exercises given in the Appendix, together with the morning dry
friction and sitz-bath or sponge, should be incorporated into the daily
regime as soon as the patient feels sufficiently recovered.
A scheme of clean and sensible living�early hours, no excesses, etc.�and
the adoption of the advice given in the foregoing paragraphs, and in a few
weeks the erstwhile sufferer from appendicitis will be a far healthier
person than for many years before; and in addition, his appendix�a most
useful little organ employed by Nature in the work of detoxifying the
colon and lubricating the faeces�will be retained in his system in as
healthy a condition as possible, instead of reposing�as in all
probability it would have been�in the specimen bottle of some operating
surgeon !*
SPECIAL NOTE RE PERITONITIS.�Where
peritonitis sets in after appendicitis, it is the operation which is to
blame, never the disease itself. Appendicitis treated along natural lines
can never develop into peritonitis.
Cancer.
� Cancer is the dread disease of to-day, the disease spoken of with
bated breath by all. It is the veritable " white
scourge " of our times, and, as statistics plainly indicate, is
steadily on the increase in all civilised countries, in spite of all the
efforts made by the medical profession to keep it in check. Despite the
expenditure of millions of pounds in research work, modern Medical Science
has not yet discovered the cause of cancer !
And it never will, even though many millions more are expended, if it
continues its researches along the same lines as now. No amount of work in
laboratories, among test-tubes or upon dumb animals, will reveal the cause
of cancer. That cause is only to be found in an
examination of the previous life-history of the sufferer from the disease
himself', in an examination of his past medical history and general habits
of living. Cancer is not the result of infection by some mythical
germ ; it is not caused by accident or chance ; it is the direct outcome
of a lifetime of wrong living�dietetic and otherwise�plus prolonged
suppressive medical treatment, by drug and knife, for one disease after
another !
If a person is suffering from cancer, then that person can rest
assured that the disease has only developed in his system as a result of
the breaking down of the body's powers of resistance as a culmination to a
prolonged and insidious attack upon the health of the organism by a
combination of all (or some) of the following health-destroying factors
:
(a)
A lifetime of wrong feeding (a more than usual subsistence upon the
demineralised and devitalised white bread, sugar, and cooked and refined
food dietary of to-day).
(b)
Chronic constipation�leading to the taking of excessive quantities of
purgative drugs.
(c)
The using up of the body's powers and forces through overwork, excessive
worry, fear, morbid and destructive thinking, indulgence in excesses of
all kinds, etc.
(d)
Previous suppressive medical treatment by knife and drug for one disease
after another.
(e)
Improper care of the body, bodily organs, and functions generally,
especially the generative organs in the case of women.
From the above combination of causes are the seeds for the development of
cancer sown within the system, and the organ finally selected for the
appearance of the disease is usually one which has been subjected to
prolonged and persistent irritation of one kind or another. (It must be
stressed again that cancer is not something which appears quite suddenly
within the organism ; it is the outcome of a
series of factors making for the gradual deterioration of the body's
powers of resistance, and is a process of gradual development, although
the actual appearance of the cancer itself at the end of the process may
seem to be quite a sudden affair.)
Cancer
only appears after the forty mark has been reached, as a general rule,
and this in itself shows how true to facts the foregoing analysis of the
origin and development of the condition really is, and how lamentably wide
of the mark the orthodox medical and lay attitude to the disease is, with
its mere looking for " germs " as the cause and its neglect of
all other factors! Editors Note: This was written 70
years ago. Nowadays cancer is appearing in infants and pre-teens. (
See Harry Benjamin,
Prophet!)
Treatment.
� Whether it be cancer of the stomach or rectum, or cancer of the liver,
etc., the genesis of the complaint is all the same ;
and medical treatment by means of operation or X-ray or radium is just
futile. Such methods do nothing to get rid of the real causes at work in
the development of the disease, and are really destructive in their
ultimate effect, however much they may appear to palliate matters for the
time being.
A most insidious feature of present-day medical methods of dealing with
cancer by operation is the removing of all lymphatic glands in the
vicinity of the area affected. This is carried out on the assumption that
these glands serve as a medium for the spread of the disease to other organs
; but the whole thing is monstrously nonsensical�yet another sign
of medical inability to understand the immensely valuable part played by
the lymphatic glands in guarding the body from auto-intoxication. All that
such treatment does is to weaken yet further a defence mechanism already
far too weak to carry out its allotted task satisfactorily.
Cancer of the breast is the only form of cancer that seems to
respond at all to operation, the patient being comparatively well
thereafter. But if the principles underlying the development of the
disease are understood, it will be realised that such treatment has done
nothing to build up the health of the individual concerned; nor has it
done anything to prevent cancer developing in any other organ at a later
date.
If the cancer patient is to be cured at all�really cured�it is only by
natural methods of treatment that this can be effected.
By the removal of causes�if such be at all possible
in any given case. It does not do to raise the hopes of the cancer
sufferer too high, for if the condition has developed at all far, a cure
is well-nigh impossible ; but in the comparatively early stages a great
deal can be done to effect a cure by thoroughly applied natural treatment.
Fasting, strict dieting, manipulation, eliminative baths, sunray
treatment, etc., will all be required, and obviously the best place for
the carrying out of this is a Nature-Cure home. Failing this, the cancer
sufferer should place himself at once under the care of a competent
Naturopath for treatment. Self-treatment, at home, is not desirable for a
number of reasons, where cancer is concerned. There are several authentic
instances on record where cancer has been cured by natural methods, but no
doubt the disease was not very far advanced in all these cases, as the
writer doubts very much whether a complete cure would have been possible
otherwise.
Cholera.
� See section on Fevers.
Colic.
� This is the name given to sharp, shooting pains in the intestines. Its
cause, most often, is the eating of incompatible or wrongly combined
foods, and the following simple treatment will be quite sufficient to set
things right in all ordinary cases.
Treatment.
� The patient should drink nothing but warm water for twenty-four hours�longer
if necessary�and the bowel should be cleansed once or twice during that
time with a warm-water enema. A hot-water bottle or hot flannels can be
placed over the painful area, and the patient rested in bed. If this is
done, any ordinary attack of colic will soon pass off, and strict
attention to diet thereafter, along the lines consistently laid down in
the present volume, will prevent the occurrence of future attacks. Where
the pain persists in spite of the above treatment, a Naturopath should be
consulted, as there will most likely be some other factor concerned in the
causation of the trouble, which only personal examination will reveal. In
any case, the safest procedure is to carry on with the water fast, using
the enema daily or twice daily meanwhile.
Colitis.
� Colitis means inflammation of the colon or large intestine, and is of
two kinds : ulcerative colitis and mucous
colitis. To understand the cause of colitis it is necessary to realise
that the lining of the colon is of sensitive mucous membrane, and only
prolonged irritation of this delicate mucous lining of the colon can
develop into colitis. The two great factors concerned in the setting up of
this continuous irritation of the lining of the colon which ultimately
leads to colitis are chronic constipation and the purgative habit.
When, through habitual wrong feeding habits, the colon can no
longer perform its function properly, and becomes sluggish, constipation
arises, and faecal deposits accumulate around
the walls of the colon and set up irritation there ;
and the purgative drugs taken to combat this condition only succeed in
making this irritation of the lining of the colon worse, in proportion to
their strength, as explained in the treatment for Constipation farther on
in the present section.
The more that meat and other flesh foods form a part of the dietary of
such a person, the more will putrefactive matter form in the colon, and
the worse therefore will be the effects on the general condition of the
colon itself. It is because of the combination of all these factors that
colitis ultimately appears, generally.
It is often assumed that the eating of foods containing "
roughage " is a prominent cause of colitis, but this is owing
to the lining of the colon being in such a devitalised state to begin
with, because of the factors previously mentioned. Foods containing a
large percentage of natural roughage, such as fruits, vegetables,
wholemeal bread, etc., can never be the cause of colitis, although if
colitis is once present they may serve to aggravate matters. As a matter
of fact, an abundance of natural foods such as fruits, vegetables,
wholemeal bread, etc., in the dietary to begin with would have effectually
prevented the appearance of colitis in after-life, because these foods are
the foods given us by Nature for the very purpose of keeping the
intestines and colon clean and healthy by virtue of the scouring that they
give to the structures named in their passage through them. The more
roughage food contains, the more will it aid in the work of the colon and
promote healthy functioning�not interfere with it, as so many believe.
Given a colon that is already in a devitalised condition, however, then
foods containing much roughage may tend to aggravate the poor condition of
the colon and increase the tendency to colitis, but only because the
colon, in its present unhealthy condition, is not in a fit position to
deal with them adequately.
Previous suppressive treatment of disease by means of drugs and operations
may tend to bring on colitis in certain cases, in conjunction with other
systemic factors already dealt with ; whilst a
general catarrhal condition of the whole system is usually an underlying
factor in all cases of colitis. (For an understanding of how a catarrhal
condition arises, the reader is referred to the treatment of Catarrh.
Once the cause and nature of colitis are understood and recognised in
their true light, then the means to be employed for the eradication of the
trouble are relatively simple. The first thing needed is to institute
treatment which will cleanse the colon and the whole intestinal tract, and
allow the inflamed mucous membrane to heal. Then a strict diet of natural
foods must be followed, and before long the erstwhile sufferer from
colitis will begin to believe that he was never afflicted with such a
painful and debilitating malady. Unfortunately for most people, it is
orthodox medical treatment which they have to adopt in their case if they
develop colitis, and the medical attitude towards the disease is such that
the trouble is more often than not aggravated rather than lessened by the
treatment.
To Medical Science colitis is a disease due to "
germ infection," and by means of bowel wash-outs with highly
suppressive drugs the medical profession seeks to cure the condition.
These methods often succeed in making the disease chronic
; but even if they appear to be successful in suppressing or
checking the trouble for the time being, they are never in the least
degree curative in the real sense. The toxic matter Nature was trying to
eliminate through the medium of the bowel lining (mucous membrane) is
forced back into the system again by such treatment, and this being so,
the colitis is always likely to break out again at some future time.
Another feature about the orthodox medical treatment for colitis
which adversely affects the patient's future health is the ruling out of
all foods containing roughage from the diet. As such foods as wholemeal
bread, fruits, and green vegetables are included under this heading, the
unfortunate colitis sufferer soon finds himself in a very mineral-starved
condition as a result of such feeding, with the possibility of acidosis in
one or other of its more serious forms as a very likely complication to
his present bowel trouble !
Treatment.
� As already pointed out, when once colitis is recognised in its true
light, then the treatment required for its cure is relatively simple,
fasting and strict dieting being the two great essentials required. Really
serious cases may need a fairly lengthy fast to begin with, to enable the
inflamed colon to regain normal tone, but ordinary cases should proceed as
follows :
Begin with a short fast for from three to five days, as directed
in the Appendix, and then continue with the full milk diet as outlined
therein, remaining on this for two to four weeks as deemed necessary. Rest
as much as possible the while. Then begin on the full weekly
dietary as given in the Appendix, but substituting stewed fruit for fresh
fruit, at first, and steamed vegetables or
vegetable broth for salads, until able to deal with these raw foods
satisfactorily. These may be included gradually in the diet later, as the
condition of the bowel improves. Further fasts and periods on the milk
diet may be necessary, at intervals of two to three months, according to
the way the case is progressing.
Sufferers must use their discretion here, of course.
During the fast, and after if necessary, the bowels should be cleansed
nightly with the warm-water enema or gravity douche ; this can be
discontinued as soon as the bowels begin to function naturally as a result
of the treatment. If it be necessary to use the enema after the first
week, it can be used every other night from then on. The dry friction and
sitz-bath detailed in the Appendix should be taken every morning in
conjunction with the scheme of general exercises also outlined therein
; and a hot Epsom-salts bath should be taken twice weekly. A hot
and cold sitz-bath should be taken every night�-except on those nights
when an Epsom-salts bath is being taken�until the trouble has quite
cleared up.
By carrying on in the manner outlined above, the sufferer from colitis
will soon be on the path to health again, but the strictest attention to
the future dietary is essential if trouble of the same nature is to be
prevented. No condiments, seasonings, or sauces of any kind are to be
taken, and the foods to be most careful of are flesh foods-meat, fish,
etc.�as these are the most putrefactive of all, and so most prone to
affect the colon and set up irritation and rekindle inflammation there.
Foods which have a detoxifying and cleansing effect upon the intestines on
their passage through�such as fruits and vegetables� are most
essential of all to the future dietary, despite the horror with which such
foods are viewed by the medical profession where colitis is concerned.
(Flesh foods can with benefit be left out of
the dietary altogether, and their place taken by eggs, nuts, or cheese.)
Sugar and all white-flour products are also extremely harmful in all cases
of colitis.
NOTE. �It is quite possible that many sufferers from colitis will
not be able to eat fruits and salads with comfort right away, but after
the initial fast and period on the milk diet they should find such foods
much easier to get on with, if eaten as directed in the diet-sheet; but
remember what has already been said on this point in the preceding
remarks. The colon should have lost most of its inflamed condition by
then, and fruits and salads will be much more easily tolerated� and even
welcomed. For cleansing the bowel, nothing but warm water should ever be
employed. No medicinal agents or drugs of any kind should be used.
Part
2
Here.
Part 3 Here