Sunday 5 February 2012

How Important Is Diagnosis? - Stanley Bass


Stanley S. Bass:
How Important is Diagnosis?

CAUSE OF DISEASES
Barring injury, emergencies, or complications resulting from injury, such as hemorrhaging, broken bones, etc.., let us begin with conditions that are classified as diseases.
Generally speaking, diseases are caused by any or all of 3 factors - namely enervation, toxemia or deficiency.
TOXEMIA - TOXIC SUBSTANCES IN THE BODY
There are 2 sources of toxemia:
  (a)  Toxemia which is caused by the ingestion and accumulation of substances which are foreign to the body and toxic in nature, such as chemicals, drugs, etc. These produce irritation, inflammation and pathology in bodily organs and systems.
  (b)  Toxemia which is due to the accumulation of toxic wastes resulting from the food and beverages we eat and drink; unnatural food or natural food in excess beyond what the body can use at the moment. Retention of this excess leads to decomposition of the food and the production of irritating and toxic chemical wastes, which provide a fertile field for the growth of microbes and various species of bacteria, which further increase the toxic state.

DEFICIENCIES
Deficiencies: The insufficiency of necessary food substances, such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, vitamins, enzymes etc., lead to breakdown of cells, tissues and organs which is given names of diseases, according to its location.

ENERVATION AND TOXEMIA CYCLE
John Henry Tilden, M.D., formulated a theory of the cause of disease as due to a recurring cycle of enervation and toxemia.
Enervation is the reduction or loss of energy occasioned by the lack of rest or sleep, or the excessive use of emotion, negative thoughts, worry, stress, or the overdoing of physical actions, overeating etc. Enervation leads to a reduction of the body's ability to digest, absorb, assimilate and excrete body wastes - thus leading to a retention of wastes in the cells and tissues and thereby causing disease.
Disease, in turn, causes a depletion of the body's energies, requiring more energy to maintain the normal state of homeostasis than ordinarily needed. This excess expenditure of power leads to a slowdown in bodily function, which is followed by an increased retention of bodily toxins in a cycle as follows:

toxemia cycle

This ingenious cycle of enervation and toxemia as being the cause of all diseases (barring accidents or trauma) may be regarded as absolutely true if you add the additional factor of deficiencies (which is omitted in the theory).
FUNCTION OF THE BLOOD AND LYMPH
The next important thing to be understood is this - the function of the blood and its circulation. Related to this is the understanding of the lymph circulation, the collateral circulatory system.
All food and beverages which are consumed finally enter the bloodstream and are circulated in an endless flow to all bodily parts. All the food nutrients are supplied to every cell and all cellular wastes are removed in this unceasing dual function.

WEAKEST ORGAN BREAKS DOWN FIRST
Now, if disease occurs in one bodily organ or part from the presence of toxins or food excesses or uneliminated cellular wastes and excretions, you may be certain that these same wastes are being carried to all bodily organs and cells by this same bloodstream.
The weakest organ breaks down first manifesting disease. In time, the next weakest or overworked organ indicates malfunction, and is given a name of disease. The important thing to remember is that all bodily parts and cells are affected at the same time, with the weakest part manifesting first, followed by the next weakest.

DETOXIFICATION
Likewise, in the reverse manner, when you detoxicate the body by reducing the amount of food ingested, either partially (by a restricted diet or juice program), or totally, (by fasting or abstaining from all food except for the use of water), the blood removes all excessive wastes from all bodily parts and cells at the same time, a certain amount each day.
NAMES OF DISEASES CREATE ILLUSION
Diseases are named according to the organ or part that they manifest in, creating the illusion that one disease is different from an other. For example, if an inflammation, called "itis," affects the bronchial tubes, the disease is called "bronchitis". If a nerve is inflamed, it is called "neuritis" etc., yet the same cause,the irritating toxins manifesting in different parts are given different names. If you were to give the same putrified food to many different peopIe, some would vomit; some would have diarrhea; others would get headaches or fever or rashes or colds, each symptom depending upon which parts of each person were most sensitive. The point here is that the same cause would produce different and individualized symptoms in each person.

REMOVING CAUSE OF DISEASE
The important thing to understand here is that whenever you remove all causes of disease, beginning with what a person eats and drinks, which is usually the most important and basic cause of all diseases, the body begins to heal itself, no matter where the disease is located.

EXAMPLE OF PATIENT
When I began a study of disease for about 20 years at the age of 16, after which I practiced for an additional 40 years as a chiropractor and nutritionist, when taking a case history of all the problems a patient has ever had up to the present, I would write all this down at the first visit.
For example, a patient would say, "I have arthritis in my fingers with deformity, and I also have hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure and frequent headaches." After evaluating the lifestyle and diet, I would remove the undesirable foods from the diet and give a much higher quality diet, with proper food-combining, sequence of feeding, and amounts. In periodic visits, I would continue upgrading the quality of the diet progressively.

ARTHRITIS EXAMPLE
In the case of a 55-year-old woman who had arthritis with deformed and crooked fingers, after 8 months I noticed that the fingers were straight and all knots were gone. I was puzzled and asked her, "Weren't your fingers crooked when I first saw you 8 months ago?" She replied, "Yes, and I just had an examination by our family doctor, and I forgot to tell you, my colitis and hemorrhoids a also cured along with the arthritis." She had forgotten to mention these to me any of the visits. While healing the arthritis and reversing the crooked fingers, the body equally healed all other problems present at the same time, using the same bloodstream and lymph circulation.

This was called "The Unity of All Disease" by the early Hygienic medical practitioners of the 19th century, who formulated the basic principles of what is today called "Natural Hygiene."
RARE DISEASES HEAL AUTOMATICALLY
Dr. Herbert M. Shelton, who gathered together the best teachings of the early practitioners of Natural Hygiene and brilliantly formulated it into a cohesive, practical system, once said that diagnosis is really the least important part of getting well.
What is really important is to know the basic principles and laws of life, to know what the body needs to get well and stay well foodwise, and to provide these needs, and magically, the body takes care of all the rest. All you have to know is what foods and amounts are best for the body, and to provide the proper conditions of rest, and the body heals itself.

Even if a person has a baffling, rare disease and the diagnosis is unknown, if he or she eats properly, or fasts if necessary in addition, the body will surely heal itself, as long as sufficient vitality is present.

Diagnosis is a man-made art which the body intelligence is not concerned with. All the body needs is the right materials (foods) and conditions (rest, proper state of mind, such as absence of fear, etc.) and it knows what to do to get well, unfailingly.

NATURE'S HEALING INTELLIGENCE
Given that your father and mother contributed the sperm cell and ovum, or eggcell, and they united together and in 9 months produced the miracle which is you, all done by Nature without the conscious direction of your parents or yourself, you can trust absolutely that Nature has the amazing healing intelligence to make you well again. The Power that made you has the Power to heal you.
The best doctor is the one who understands this and assists Nature in this miraculous process by recommending the best foods your body needs, as well as the proper conditions of rest and non-interference, and to get out of the way - to step aside and allow Nature to proceed with her work, undisturbed by pills or potions.
Many times in my practice patients have forgotten to tell me about other health problems than the one they came in for, and with the elimination of that one, all the others improved or disappeared too.

ALL BODIES HAVE SAME REQUIREMENTS
There is one bloodstream which both nourishes the body and removes all diseases. There is one Nature, one life-force and all bodies have the same requirements - good food, proper rest and sleep, some sunlight, a moderate amount of exercise, and proper thought. If you provide these requirements, Nature (which is God manifesting on the material plane) will unfailingly heal you. "All the rest is jazz," as the expression goes - all the rest is secondary in importance.
All living creatures know this intuitively, and it's time that we, as intelligent humans, become aware of it consciously.
INACCURACY OF DIAGNOSIS
There are so many systems of diagnosis - medical, Oriental (ayurvedic), Chinese (meridians),zone therapy, iridiagnosis, sclerotic diagnosis, reflexes, Naturopathy, x-ray, applied kinesiology, pulse and tongue diagnosis, germ theory, virus theory, genetics, etc., etc.
The Mayo Clinic, one of the most prestigious in the world, admits that their diagnosis is 50% accurate at best, and 50% inaccurate in the rest. This is followed by their prognosis or prediction of the possible outcome, which is equally inaccurate. They are completely unable to state the healing possibilities of non-medical or natural approaches to disease since they have never studied or used them and find them completely unknown.
What is there to be said about lesser institutions than the Mayo Clinic, where the diagnosis is even less accurate, even with the most expensive machinery as the MRI etc., which have their percentage of inaccuracies also?

TREATING SYMPTOMS
In all diagnostic systems there is never total accuracy, but a varying percentage at best. While there may be some value in each of the systems after the diagnosis is made, especially by the leading medical institutions, after the pronouncements and names of disease are given, what will they tell you to do to get well?
They haven't the slightest idea, and, according to the most authoritative medical textbooks on Symptomatology and Pathology, the majority of diseases listed are stated to have causes which are "unknown." So all they can do is what they have been trained to do - to treat symptoms, to use drugs, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, etc. None of these are aimed at removing causes, but rather directed at removing bodily parts and consigning them to surgical garbage pails.
EASY REVERSAL OF ILLNESS
Once the truth of how to live is understood, the process of illness can be reversed more or less painlessly by intelligent living, and good health can then be easily maintained by persistence in good habits.

UNDERSTANDING BASIC PRINCIPLES OF DISEASE AND HEALTH
As Dr. Shelton said, once the basic principles of disease and health are understood, diagnosis takes a position of secondary importance. Once we know what the body requires for good health, if symptoms of illness arise, you know where to begin and what to do, and the healing power of Nature takes over and does the rest.
Many times in my personal life symptoms appeared which were baffling, but I would always begin with physical and physiological rest (fasting or a juice program) and I always became well.

In my many years of practice, there were times that the symptoms presented by patients were so contradictory and baffling, but trusting nature, I would advise bed rest and reduction or cessation of food during acute phases, and after a few days improvement would follow. And most of these patients had come from medical treatments which hadn't helped them. There are emergencies due to injuries which require medical and hospital care, also conditions requiring hormones, such as diabetes, etc., but, barring these emergencies, the great majority of symptoms will respond to a simple, natural approach, one known to primitive races and cultures.

DIET ADVICE RESPONSE
About 18 years ago, I wrote a booklet entitled, "Achieving Superior Nutrition through Progressive Weekly Diets." This was written for beginners in nutrition coming from a conventional diet. I designed 7 progressive weekly diets, beginning with moderate changes in diet for the first week. Each successive week was more advanced, and by the 7th week they were on a high-quality maintenance diet, laid out in proper food-combining and sequence.
The book had a wide circulation, was translated into French by the Canadian Natural Hygiene Society, and into Hebrew and Greek by Natural Hygienists. After several months, I began to receive letters stating how conditions of arthritis and high blood pressure cleared up and became normal, how acne and psoriasis improved, weight loss, energy increase, disappearance of infections, tumors decreasing in size, reversal of glaucoma and changes occurring in a wide variety of conditions and diseases.
Now these were people I had never seen, diagnosed, or consulted with. All these changes had occurred just by upgrading their diets - by following a booklet I had written. To repeat, without any diagnosis available to me, from people unknown to me, all these remarkable changes occurred just by improving their diets.
FASTER HEALING IF CHEERFUL
What price diagnosis? How important is it if you know how to eat properly? The true key to understanding health and disease is to know what food substances and amounts the body needs for optimal health, and once known, healing is only a matter of time and energy available.
The greater the energy, the quicker the healing - the more cheerful the state of mind, the more energy is conserved and utilized for healing. In Chinese literature, there is a saying that, "The art of the Healer is to amuse the patient while Nature does the healing."
BEST WAY TO TREAT PATIENTS
So what is the conclusion to all this? The best way to treat patients is to use whatever diagnostic knowledge is available, but not to be overly concerned with the accuracy of it.
Next, to reduce drugs slowly by increments as the patient improves by the removal of poor quality food and replacing it with the best quality available. Organic food should be used if available, and the meals should contain all the important and necessary proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, etc.
The total daily amount of food consumed should be the minimal amount the appetite can be happy with (to avoid toxic accumulation and energy loss) for maximum longevity.
Luigi Cornaro, who lived in Padua, Italy in the 1400's, who was dying at 35 years of age, reduced his food to a total of 12 ounces per day, divided into 2 meals of 6 oz each, and 7 ounces of grape juice. In one year's time, he was completely recovered from all illness and lived in vigorous health to 102. When he died, he fell asleep in his rocking chair and painlessly left his body, in a state of total peace.

MOST KNOWLEDGE IS STILL UNDISCOVERED
The final factor to consider is this - all the knowledge we have of the human body from most ancient times to the present represents but a tiny amount compared to that which is unknown, mysterious and undiscovered.
Most of what we know is based upon experiments conducted on cells and tissues studied in a laboratory, in a dying state, far removed from what happens in the living state in which the Life Force is active with thousands of enzymes constantly being manufactured, constantly affecting each cell. This is not seen in the laboratory.
Finally, all our discoveries are theories which every few years become obsolete and have to become revised, showing how far we are from final truths.

TRUST IN NATURE
Isn't it much wiser to trust in the best intelligence present in Nature, who has mastered and successfully used all the principles of Life and used them successfully to maintain all life forms from the beginning of time?
An attitude of humility and openness is clearly indicated if we are to learn how to live more intelligently, hopefully and joyfully, so that we may fulfill our destiny and evolution in accordance with Nature's grand plan for man's highest happiness.

1 fl. oz.=30 ml

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