Professional Documents
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"Let me warn that fasting is a much more complicated process than generally realized,
even by some of its ardent advocates."
CORRECT OR INCORRECT FASTING - DOES IT MATTER?
Below Dr. Shelton writes about how to get the most optimal results from fasting. And that there is nothing magical about fasting.
The only way to get remarkable healing & regeneration results is to understand that fasting is just a complete body rest. Do not
interfere, instead respect the complete rest! (Avoid enemas!)
In INHS we recommend that unsupervised (water-only) fasts should be max 3 days, for safety-reasons. Follow with a green juice
diet for increased detoxification.
NEW UNDERSTANDING - NEW TOXIC DANGERS:
Why "safety-reasons"? - Because - at least in USA and other industrialized countries - today people are more toxic than ever
before, which also makes them deficient. And with too high toxicity & deficiency, we must avoid prolonged fasting. Instead we must
prepare for fasting with raw foods or raw juices. This will make the fasting safe!
EXAMPLE for new-comers: Start out with a one-day fast, and break it correctly on raw foods or raw juices, followed by a raw diet
(or almost-raw). Repeat the 1-day fast a couple of times. Then try a 2-day fast, a couple of times - then a 3-day fast. Inbetween a
mainly-raw diet (with veggies & animal foods).
THE LATEST UNDERSTANDING: Raw foods + short fasts is safer & will give better results than a long fast (for new-beginners).
Fasting is more difficult today, than during the mid-1900's!! (At least for typical Westerners, who nowadays are both too toxic &
deficient.)
CORRECT FASTING
Fasting - Nine Basic Steps
Let me warn emphatically that fasting is a much more complicated process than generally realized even by some of
its ardent advocates. It involves much more than merely going without food.
There is an art to fasting as well as a science of fasting. The uses of fasting seem, at times, almost unlimited. Its
inconveniences are not great, its dangers are few and rarely seen. Yet for the most satisfactory results it must be
conducted in accordance with a few well-ascertained rules and techniques by an experienced man.
It is not a process to be left to the guidance of anyone of meager knowledge or no experience in conducting fasts.
Paradoxically, less supervision of the fast is required in acute disease than in chronic
disease. When disease is the result of years of wrong life and if the condition of the
patient is one of grave weakness, with severe organic impairment, much skill will be
required to take the individual through a fast of sufficient duration to accomplish the
desired results.
In such situations, it would be hazardous to rely on inexperienced and untrained men. I
am aware that there are some untrained laymen attempting to conduct fasts. I believe it
is vitally important to investigate beforehand to be sure you have the best and most
experienced man available. In this connection I must point out also that, while there are
several schools of so-called healing recognized by law in this country, few of the
practitioners of any of these schools have any knowledge of and experience with fasting.
We cannot select any doctor at random, without knowing his special training, to supervise
a fast.
It is a fundamental rule of hygienic practice that all the needs of normal physiology are present in states of illness.
And in periods of abstinence they must be met according to a degree of need and functional ability, to the end that
organic and functional integrity may be preserved or restored. Let us understand this clearly: when we fast we do
not also cease to breathe or to take water. There is never an absence of need for oxygen; we continue to become
thirsty at intervals and we drink. Fasting is abstinence from food, not abstinence from all of the essentials of life. And
it is abstinence from food only in the sense that we abstain from taking in the raw materials of nutrition for a period
of time, while the body draws on its stored-up supplies. We still need and use food.
Fasting is not suspended animation. Indeed, although it is a period of greatly reduced activity, some of the processes
of life are actually accelerated during periods of abstinence. The ordinary needs of life: food, air, water, warmth,
sunshine, activity, rest, sleep, cleanliness, poise of mind. remain basic needs of the fasting organism.
This is one of the advantages of being with others. One sees and realizes that they are not starving but actually
benefiting. Fears vanish before reality.
"If you rid your mind of all fear of this perfectly normal process, you can
fast with ease."
2. REST
The techniques of fasting are based on simple physiological principles. They do not involve the need for nor the use
of any measures that are foreign to the regular needs of the living organism. Treatments, special modalities, and
forcing measures have no place in fasting. The most important technique of the fast is that of reducing activity,
mental, sensory, and physical. to a bare minimum, so that the energy of the faster may be conserved and his healing
and excretory processes may be accelerated.
The faster should bear in mind the simple rule of compensation. In order to expend on one side, nature must
conserve on the other. What he does not expend in unneeded activity is available for use in elimination and repair.
Physical rest is secured by ceasing physical activities, by resting in bed, by relaxing. Physical activities expend
considerable energy and prevent the recuperation of energy that is essential to restoration of normal nerve
energy.
Mental rest is secured by curtailing mental activities and emotional unrest. Debating highly controversial
issues is harmful. Allowing oneself to become upset or involved in trivial disputes of any nature is harmful.
Emotional poise is the secret of mental rest. It is not always easy for the faster to cease worrying or to
overcome anxiety, but everything constructive should be done to provide for tranquility.
Sensory rest is secured by retiring to a quiet place and avoiding use of the eyes in reading, viewing television,
going to the movies or similar eye-straining activities. Noise is especially destructive of poise and wasteful of
energy. Quiet, peace, and sensory inactivity provide for conservation of energy.
In using rest, however, we do not urge a state of suspended animation nor dormancy, nor a state of embryonic
passivity. What is sought here is the absence of strain, the physical sense of peace by which rest becomes possible.
Rest does not heal, but is one of the essentials of efficient healing, as well as in maintaining health. It is of great
value to the enervated and toxemic. Not tonics and stimulants, not sedation and tranquilization, nor hypnotization,
but rest is the great need of the organism that has been lashed into impotency by stimulation and excesses in food,
sex, emotional unrest, work and the various deficiencies from which man suffers.
Organs that have been lashed into impotency by overwork and stimulation may be rested into full functioning vigor.
Added stimulation, whatever its nature, only further depletes them.
3. ACTIVITY
The faster rests during the time he abstains from food for the reason that in the normal exercise of the functions of
life, feeding and activity should balance each other. There are authorities who permit their fasters to take long walks
and require them to take daily exercise of various kinds. In reducing fasts, some moderate exercise, under
supervision is permissible. For other fasts I believe even moderate exercising is a needless expenditure of energy
and a waste of reserves. Activity should be geared to the food eaten. When no food is taken, activities should be
reduced to a minimum. Rest is the need, not expenditure.
5. WATER
The faster will be thirsty at intervals, though rarely as often as when he was eating. The normal demand for water
should be met with the purest water available. Mineral waters and waters with a bad taste are not advisable:
A soft spring water,
rain water,
distilled water,
filtered water or
any water that is free of impurities is acceptable.
It should be taken only as thirst demands. There is nothing to be gained by drinking large quantities of water,
despite a lack of demand for this, on the theory that this flushes the system. It is true that the more water one
drinks the more fluid will the kidneys excrete, but this does not represent an increase of elimination of waste. Indeed
it may result in a lessening of the amount of waste excreted.
In summer, there may be a desire to drink cold water. Cool water is excellent, but very cold or ice water may slow
down and retard recovery. Hot water may be relished under certain conditions more than cold water or water at
room temperature. In some cases hot water may be sipped in moderation with the advice or permission of the
supervisor; in others its use is inadvisable.
6. BATHING
There is the same need for cleanliness while fasting as while eating. Bathing should be performed daily or as often as
needed. The bath should be of a character to cause the least amount of energy expenditure. To insure this the
following requirements should be observed.
a. The bath should be of short duration. The faster should not remain long under the shower or in the tub. The
common practice of soaking for long periods in water is enervating and should be avoided.
b. Bath water should be lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. It requires considerable energy expenditure to resist
both heat and cold. The closer the temperature of the bath water is to the temperature of the body, the less
energy expenditure will be occasioned. Bear in mind, always, that bathing is for cleanliness and not for any
alleged therapeutic effects. Bathe quickly and get out of the water.
c. If the faster is very weak and is unable to take his or her own bath, a sponge bath in bed may be given by an
assistant.
"Enemas, purges, & over-drinking enervate the faster and tend to inhibit
elimination. These techniques are harmful and should be avoided. "
7. SUNBATHING
Sunshine is an essential nutrient factor in both plant and animal nutrition and is helpful while fasting. It should not
be thought of as a cure, for it is not, but as a normal element in the regular nutritional processes of life. Its role in
calcium metabolism is especially important, but it is also important in phosphorus utilization and in assuring strength
of the muscles. Indeed, it serves several important purposes in the normal processes of life and is of far greater
importance to us than we generally realize.
Unless overdone, sunbathing results in relaxation and no measurable expenditure of energy. If the sun is too hot, if
the bath is too prolonged, if getting to and from the solarium is too taxing on the patient, any of these factors may
result in an excessive expenditure of energy. It is necessary to "temper the wind to the shorn lamb" in supervising
the sunbathing. To accomplish this, the following rules should be observed:
Take the sunbath in the early morning while it is still cool, or in the late afternoon during the summer. In mild
weather, when it is not hot at midday, a sunbath may be taken at any time of the day that the temperature is
comfortable.
Start the sunbath with five minutes of exposure for the front of the body and five minutes for the back. On
the second day this may be increased to six minutes on each side. Increase the exposure one minute a day
for each side, to a maximum of thirty minutes for each surface. It will be well to level off at this exposure
time.
If the fast is continued beyond twenty days, reduce the exposure to about eight minutes on front and eight
minutes on the rear surfaces, and continue this exposure until after the fast is broken.
At any time if the sunbath leaves the faster weak or irritated, the duration of the exposure should be reduced.
Avoid overdoing.
enemas
colonics
saline purges
too much water drinking
diuretics
sweat baths
are