CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
PHYSICAL EXERCISE
"Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise
will sooner or later have to find time for illness." 
Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby 
(from Conduct of Life, address to Liverpool College, 20 December, 1873)
We are seeking perfect health--a fit, active, vigorous bodywith a highly efficient cardiovascular system, keen faculties, strong sex drive,disease-free, resistant to effects of heat and cold, stress, germs and viruses, withgood digestion, elimination and stamina, and which will stay in that condition fora hundred years or so.
Some people, despite a sedentary lifestyle, have lived healthy,long and productive lives, having maintained the integrity of their bodies' tissuesand vital organs by prudent eating and other sensible lifestyle habits. Others toohave lived long, healthy and productive lives despite poor dietary habits, the integrityof their bodies having been maintained pretty well by a lifetime of regular physicalactivity. The longest lived people studied in the world are usually found to be thosewhose way of life has provided them with simple food, regular outdoor exercise, andfreedom from stress.
While it is now common knowledge that physical exercise cannotprevent artery disease, and indeed may even precipitate a heart attack in those withblocked arteries, there is no doubt that regular exercise, by improving the circulationof the heart and the rest of the body, and by improving the general metabolism, particularlythe metabolism of blood fats, will enhance health and provide strong protectionagainst all disease.
The desired standard of physical fitness is brought about bywhat is called the "Training Effect" and the body is said to be "incondition". While some people's day-to-day activity maintains this standard,most will need to deliberately increase their physical activity in order to achieveit.

Types of exercise and exercise programs
There are different ways in which a person can exercise, whichare given specific names.
1.	Isometrics is when muscles are contracted without producing movement; this does not require much oxygen. Muscle can be developed this way as in body-building, and when used by bedridden patients, wasting of muscles can be prevented. Isometrics do not achieve the training effect. 
2.	Isotonics contract muscles and produce movement, such as calisthenics or weightlifting. The oxygen requirements are low and training effect is negligible. 
3.	Anaerobics produce movement but are either not vigorous enough or too brief in duration, and not much oxygen is processed. Walking short distances or sprinting for brief periods are forms of anaerobics. Training effect is negligible. 
4.	Aerobics are a form of continuous exercise which demands oxygen but not to the extent of forcing the participant to stop. He can go on and on with the lungs supplying all the oxygen needed. This is known as "endurance" exercise and this is what we need to produce the "training effect" in our bodies. This is what we want.
The type and level of activity you should undertake dependson your physical condition at the outset. There are a number of books on the subjectand as with books on diet, they vary considerably in their advice. The reason thatthey vary is because the authors have different conceptions of what fitness is. Hereis one definition:
"Fitness is a condition of the body (and mind) which enablesit to perform its assignments efficiently without undue strain or fatigue, with adequatereserves."
What are the assignments? What do we want? Some people thinkfitness is having a lean body. A lot of nutrition-minded people think that way. Othersconsider a well-proportioned muscular body as fitness. Reasonable diet and isometricexercise for a few minutes a day can achieve this. To others a further requirementis a certain degree of agility and skill. Isotonics will produce this. A furtherrequirement again may be sprinting or jumping ability--anaerobics.
We are getting closer, but read again the opening paragraphsof this chapter. That is what we desire, and the surest way of achieving such a highlevel of fitness is a program Of regular fairly extended exercise--aerobic or enduranceexercise.
In 1958 the Canadian Air Force produced the famous 5BX exerciseprogram. It is based mainly on calisthenics which when performed together with stationaryrunning in an eleven-minute time limit will improve the fitness of a sedentary personto a reasonable standard. Done property it becomes aerobic exercise and three timesper week is claimed to be sufficient.
My brother, at age 42, said 5BX was wonderful as it enabledhim to surf three hours straight, several times a week. I pointed out to him hissurfing activity was aerobics and in itself produced his high fitness level. He dropped5BX and surfs and walks instead, still fit at 70.
A recent bestseller, Total Fitness in 30 Minutes a Week(1975) by Professor L. Morehouse, Professor of Exercise Physiology and Founding Directorof the Human Performance Laboratory, University of California, claims that three10-minute sessions per week of not very vigorous exercise will achieve fitness. Theopening page says:
"Our thanks to those men and women who voluntarily exercisedto exhaustion in physiology laboratories to establish that a desirable level of fitnesscan be achieved without strain or sweat."
That sounds pretty good, but what is a desirable level? ProfessorMorehouse says we need a certain amount of muscle strength and endurance in orderto live well and carry out our daily activities effectively and without fatigue.A good definition?
Yes, but is it good enough?
The standard of physical fitness described by Professor Morehousein his book as being desirable may be high compared to the average level among thepopulation, but is not up to the standard we are seeking.
The proof of any pudding is in the eating. The only proof inthe world in the field of longevity is to be seen by the study of those centenariansaround the world still enjoying happy and vigorous life. There are many of them andmost follow a lifestyle containing two common denominators:
1.	Simple wholesome food habits. 
2.	A lifetime of regular exercise, whether at work or at play.
"Fitness is a desirable state for anyone who wants to leada zestful and productive life and realize his full potential." So says Lt. GeneralR. L. Bohannon (USAF ret.) in the introduction to Kenneth Coopers' Aerobics,first published in 1968 with many reprints since.
Aerobics (the word means sustaining life by the burningof oxygen) describes the relationship of endurance exercise with fitness and freedomfrom disease. In that book Cooper coined the term "Training Effect".
Copper, while in the US Air Force, was the first to scientificallyevaluate the effects of aerobic exercise on over 15,000 people. Leaving the Air Forcehe established a clinic and research center at Dallas, where he has since evaluatedand instructed many thousands more.
The physical training must be regular (at least four times aweek), sustained and reasonably vigorous. We must burn oxygen with our effort, requiringthe lungs and heart to maintain a high output. The heart deepens its stroke and increasesits rate, blood and lymph circulation is boosted. Long vigorous walks, jogging, cycling,swimming or other such endurance exercise, preferably daily, are best. It shouldbe carefully graduated initially because not only may the heart overload, but creakingknees and ankles must be strengthened as well.
It is the extended processing of oxygen for muscular energyand the rate of oxygen consumption which produce the training effect.
Major (later Colonel) Cooper devised a point system based onevaluating oxygen consumption with different forms of exercise related to time. Itis all in the book. Thirty points a week are required to maintain a good standardand those points can be picked up in any number of combinations of different exercises.For instance, 1 mile walked or run in under 14.5 minutes gets 2 points, in under12 minutes gets 3 points, in under 10 minutes, 4 points and so on. By comparison,swimming 500 yards in under 12.5 minutes gets 4 points. A popular workout for joggersis to run 1.5 miles in 12 minutes or less for 7.5 points. Four times a week give30 points in 48 minutes total running time. Incidentally, 1.5 miles in 12 minutesis the pass rate in the Air Force test.
Less is demanded of women (1.35 miles) and less with age. After50 a man passes with 1.25 miles and a woman with 1.05 miles in 12 minutes. Thereare lots of men over 50 who can make 1.75 miles, the excellent rating for young men.When you get into shape you will find at 12 minutes you are just warming up.
Nathan Pritikin called his exercise system "roving".Roving is essentially aerobic or endurance exercise but it is not done on a strictlycalculated basis. You walk or run as you feel, starting perhaps with a couple ofblocks, and with improved condition, extend to 6-10 miles. Many patients at the LongevityCenter who at first could walk only a few yards, have improved over a four week periodto accomplish 10 miles a day. It is never too late to start.
The 10 fundamentals of roving are.
1.	Distance is important, time is not. 
2.	Select a distance to suit yourself. 
3.	Rove that distance four or five times a week. 
4.	Start slowly to warm up. 
5.	Increase your distance only when you are ready. 
6.	Use the heart recovery test as a gauge to slow down or speed up. 
7.	Give yourself variety. 
8.	Don't strain or compete against people or time. 
9.	Always enjoy your roving. 
10.	The program is for everyone, young, old, male or female.
Thus, the roving program is not very demanding, it is strictlyon the safe side having been designed around people in pretty poor condition.

Heart recovery rate
After exercise the heart rate gradually slows down to its normalrate. The quicker it returns to its resting rate, the better is the fitness level.If the rate remains elevated too long it indicates the exercise has been too strenuous.You can check your heart recovery quite simply.
At the completion of the exercise--
1.	Sit and rest for one minute. 
2.	Take pulse rate. Count for 30 seconds and double that count. 
3.	If more than 130 the exercise was too strenuous.
A count of 100 indicates a good level of fitness.
For "high risk" patients, jogging is not recommendedbecause of the possibility of plaque breaking loose within an artery. This is possiblewith jarring or exaggerated movement and is thought to have precipitated Bing Crosby'sheart attack while playing golf.
The roving program suggests working up the distance to 6 miles.If you took 1 hour 50 minutes for 6 miles which is very easy walking, you earn 6aerobic points. So if you did that 5 times a week you would get 30 points and itwould take a total of 9 hours.
The two systems seem to agree, and their results are thoroughlyproven. They are based on facts documented years ago by physiologists such as DrWilhem Raab in his book The Prevention of Ischemic Heart Disease (Chas. Thomas,Springfield, Illinois, 1966) and by Professor Thomas Cureton, University of IllinoisPhysical Fitness Research Laboratory, in his book The Physiological Effects ofExercise Programs on Adults (Chas. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 1969).
When the physiological effects of exercise are understood, itcan be seen that the main advantage of the training effect is that fat metabolismis more efficient both at rest as well as when exercising.
Even when not actively exercising, a fit person burns more fatin his body and his basal metabolism is high compared to an unfit person. Such peoplerequire less clothing to keep warm even though they have less body fat. Kenneth Cooper,while in the Air Force, conducted an experiment with two groups of men, one groupphysically trained, the other untrained, to observe their metabolism of fat. Allthe men consumed 1.5 pints of cream for breakfast, nothing else, and through theday blood tests were made. All the men's blood became infested with fat dropletsbut the trained men's blood cleared in four hours whereas the blood of the unconditionedmen took up to 10 hours to clear.
On the other hand, vegetarians, without the high levels of fatand cholesterol in their blood do not need to the same extent, the protection ofthe training effect.
This then raises the point--what is the ideal amount of exercise?
Our object is to achieve optimum health through optimum bodychemistry. We want our body cells perfectly nourished and cleansed, because it isat that level that health is determined. With healthy nourished cells supplied withlots of oxygen, there can be no disease.
This ideal condition can only be achieved with a pure, healthybloodstream. This is the vital factor.
A low fat, vegetarian diet achieves this pretty well by avoidingtoxins and high fat levels to begin with. Aerobic exercise helps to achieve thisby burning excess blood fats for fuel.
Live cells can be kept in glass jars in laboratories in healthycondition providing the fluid medium in which they reside is kept pure and providesthe cells with all their nutritional requirements, oxygen, and freedom from toxins.It is feasible then that a diet may be possible allowing perfect body chemistry withoutmuch exercise but it is very obvious that the more "improper" a person'sliving habits may be, the more vital physical exercise becomes.
Assuming you are a typical American or European having alwaysconsumed a Western type diet, your arteries will not be in good condition, so notonly do you have to clean your blood, you must clean the linings of your arteriesas well. The more carefully graduated endurance exercise you get, in conjunctionwith a low fat/cholesterol diet, the faster will this be accomplished. In the absenceof excess fat in the blood, the fatty atheroma choking the artery walls is graduallyreabsorbed and used as fuel.
It should be remembered too, that the incidence of cancer amongathletes is only one-seventh that of the general population.
So the answer to what is the ideal amount of exercise couldvary greatly, depending on a person's overall lifestyle. It will be recalled thatsome of the centenarians studied by Dr de Lacy Evans had sedentary lives. The author,who spends most of his life reading and writing, maintains a good level of fitnessby long hours of outdoor manual work on his steep Mountainside fruit orchard. Thisis in contrast to the 40 miles a week I used to run, and which for my purposes wasprobably excessive. The fittest I have ever felt has been on the occasions in mylife when I have indulged in extended periods of hard manual outdoor work.
What we do know is that many people suffer from a lack of exerciseand that rarely do people suffer from an excess of it.
Perhaps hours of "roving" may be the ideal if youhave the time and the inclination, but on the other hand the more vigorous Cooperaerobic system works very well for those with less time to spare.

Physiology of exercise
Energy for muscular exercise is supplied by fat and carbohydrateoxidized in the muscle tissues. Fat is stored throughout the body in convenient placesand in body cells as well, whereas carbohydrate is stored in the liver and muscletissues as glycogen derived from blood sugar (glucose). Fat is a much more compactfuel than glycogen as it contains twice the amount of potential energy as glycogen.
Thus body fat is the main form of stored energy, and for levelsof normal activity it supplies the bulk of the body's muscular energy, together withsome carbohydrate. So much energy is contained in fat that even lean people havesufficient for days of activity even when deprived of food.
Blood sugar contributes to energy production by the musclesand continually enters the bloodstream from the intestines while there is food beingdigested. That which is excess to normal blood levels is stored by the liver, andwhat cannot be stored converts to fat. The primary use of blood glucose is for fuelingthe cells of the brain and nervous system, which use glucose exclusively, and relyentirely on the level available in the blood. When glucose is not available fromthe digestion of food, the liver maintains the correct level in the blood by convertingglycogen back to glucose and releasing it.
The ratio of fat and carbohydrate used by the muscles varieswith the intensity and duration of the exercise performed.
The purpose of muscle glycogen stores is--
1.	Glycogen can provide bursts of maximum energy quickly, without using inhaled oxygen (anaerobic exercise). These bursts must be of only brief duration because with insufficient oxygen for complete combustion, lactic acid is formed which prevents further muscle activity. Pain may occur, but the lactic acid quickly clears when the exercise is reduced. 
2.	Glycogen, containing some oxygen itself, can provide more aerobic energy for a given amount of inhaled oxygen that can fat. Aerobic exercise at low and medium levels can be sustained mainly by fat but as the exercise intensity increases, the oxygen available becomes limiting, and more glycogen is called upon. With intense sustained exercise, glycogen becomes the major energy source but the effort can be sustained only until the glycogen runs out.
Thus for our purpose of achieving a clean bloodstream and cleanarteries and optimum health, it can be seen that moderate aerobic exercise is idealbecause we are concerned with fat metabolism, particularly if not maintaining properdietary habits.
Two well-built people can stand side by side, both in apparentlygood physical condition, and yet one may be dreadfully unfit and the other capableof running a marathon. Somewhere inside their bodies they are very different, andrecent findings from several Scandinavian sources explain what this difference is.
Dr J. P. Clauson and Dr Bengt Saltin took physically untrainedsubjects and on each one selectively trained different limbs, leaving other limbsuntrained. When tested for cardiovascular function, the subjects revealed impressiveimprovement when the test involved the use of the trained limbs, and little improvementif the test involved use of untrained limbs.
Thus it was shown that most of the improvement in general metabolicfunction, i.e. training effect, is specific to those muscles which have been exercisedby the training.
Two other experimenters, Dr P. Anderson and Dr Henriksson, demonstratedthat the muscle tissue changes with training. Biopsies taken after eight weeks trainingshowed in the muscle tissue an increased level of enzymes which play a part in theutilization of substrates and the release of energy. At the same time, the contentof energy substrates in the muscle cells and the density of the capillaries supplyingthe muscles with blood had increased.
Comparison of the responses when testing a subject with one"trained" leg and the other "untrained", demonstrated some ofthe metabolic consequences of training. At rest or when exercising there is an increasein the amount of fat oxidized by the trained muscles and a corresponding reductionin the amount of carbohydrate oxidized. Thus glycogen is conserved and exercise potentialincreased. The untrained muscles release lactic acid which indicates incomplete combustiondue to insufficient oxygen, and are more prone to discomfort or pain.
Thus the primary changes in training are improvements in thechemistry of the muscle cells and in the capillarity of the vascular bed--the bloodsupply--of the muscle. These adaptations ensure that the cells of trained musclescan extract oxygen from the circulating blood more completely--removing say, two-thirdsto the available oxygen instead of half. These metabolic improvements also reducethe local concentration of certain intermediary metabolites. It is this concentrationwhich determines the calibre of the blood vessels supplying the muscles and hencethe volume of blood they receive. Accordingly, the muscles need and receive a smallerblood flow than before training, and therefore place less demand upon the heart.
The main aspect which affects a person's muscular endurancefor vigorous exercise is the amount of glycogen (carbohydrate) stored in the muscletissue. This varies not only with training but is greatly dependent on diet. It wasdescribed in Chapter 15 how athletes on a high complex carbohydrate diet displayedthree times the endurance as athletes on a high protein and fat diet. All championathletes of the present day require the high natural carbohydrate diet to attaintheir performance.
Although fat alone provides energy, when a runner's leg musclesrun out of glycogen he can no longer run. Similarly, when a boxer's arms run outof glycogen he may scarcely be able to raise them although his legs are still okay.
Sometimes an athlete will run out of liver-stored glycogen aswell, resulting in an immediate drop in blood sugar and consequent irrational behavior.The blood sugar level can be almost immediately restored by eating some food, butthe glycogen stores may take hours and several meals to replenish. Depleted muscleglycogen stores may take from 10 hours to several days to replenish.
Exhaustion of glycogen stores occurs only when exercise is takento extreme limits and rarely happens to ordinary people on a reasonable fitness program.
In summary then, the training effect--:
1.	Increases the capacity of the trained muscles to store glycogen. 
2.	Increases the efficiency of fuel combustion. 
3.	Increases the capacity of the muscle to utilize fat, thus sparing glycogen and increasing maximum potential. 
4.	Increases oxygen available for fuel combustion by way of improved blood supply.
This information explains a few anomalies. Such as why a swimmerwith a high degree of cardiovascular fitness may not indicate that degree of fitnessif tested by the 12-minute running test or a treadmill test. It explains why somethin and wiry people are stronger than others with bulging muscles. Also explainedis how Cooper's trained men metabolized the heavy cream in four hours. The lowerblood pressure of trained individuals results not only by virtue of better circulationand lower blood viscosity but also because less blood flow is required.
It becomes apparent that for optimum fitness, all muscles shouldbe trained, for instance swimming and running may be better than just one or theother.
Sometimes physical training causes false symptoms of disease:
1.	Athletes generally have greater numbers of red blood cells in their bodies but because their total blood volume is greater as well, the concentration of red cells in the blood is lower (ie lower than what is considered normal)--Because of this lower concentration they may be mistakenly assessed as anemic. 
2.	Sometimes hepatitis is mistakenly diagnosed when blood enzymes levels are elevated following vigorous exercise. 
3.	When blood sometimes appears in the urine of athletes after strenuous exercise, kidney disease is suspected. This is not uncommon and usually disappears within two days. 
4.	It was described in Chapter 12 that 25% of athletes over 40 display heart irregularities when tested on a stress ECG. Whereas these irregularities are considered sometimes as false symptoms, it is very likely that on the wrong diet, no matter how fit, a person will have some degree of coronary artery blockage. Thus I suggest such irregularities should not be regarded as a false symptom and that proper steps are taken to correct the situation while at the same time extremes of exercise are avoided.
Overtraining by zealous athletes can be highly stressful andoccasionally cause debility and fatigue and they become susceptible to infection.On rarer occasions runners collapse and sometimes die of cardiac fibrillation whenattempting strenuous feats of endurance. They are usually men approaching middleage subsequently found to have cardiovascular disease. Such men have the misapprehensionthat strenuous exercise conveys. Immunity to heart attacks, whereas a correct dietand a much less strenuous exercise program would have achieves their purpose.

General discussion
Neither 5BX nor Total Fitness in 30 Minutes a Week mentiondiet and its relationship to heart disease.
Professor Morehouse includes a chapter titled "Why CardiologistsExercise", In the first paragraph he says: "cardiologists theorize thata well conditioned heart will have more capillaries to take over if and when there'sa stoppage of blood vessel". I would like to point out that this is not a theory.Collateral circulation has been shown over and over again to develop as a resultof exercise. It will develop without exercise to some extent to help a blocking artery,but exercise brings about a vast improvement.
To what extent a person living all his life on a low fat, vegetariandiet needs to exercise for best results I do not know. We do know that the fittestoldest people in the world eat simple food and exercise a lot.
Whereas, in our civilization, women outlive men on the averageby about five years (due probably to the more debilitating lifestyles of our mengenerally), in Hunza and among the primitive Eskimos, the men (who are more physicallyactive) outlive the women by about five years.
Getting back to ordinary folk. Regardless of what they haveappreciated from the chapter on nutrition, I somehow doubt that many people, unlessthey have been frightened already, will at once relinquish their favorite foods.That is their business, but it should be registered very clearly that aerobic exerciseis the second line of defense against degenerative diseases, and therefore shouldnot be skimped. I think it is a rule of life that you get a reward only commensuratewith your effort in the long run.
Quoting from Aerobics Major Cooper says:
"This program has been tested to exhaustion, by the mostmodern means available, both in the field, and in the laboratory. And it has beenproven several thousand times over in the only place it really counts--in the humanbody. There's only one problem remaining. I can give you the program, but I can'tdo it for you. You have to do the rest. It isn't easy, but it works. Keep this inmind whenever you think about quitting: it's medically sound and it works."
It works all right, as anyone who has seriously tried it knows.The writer checked his medical records back to 1945 and sure enough with passingyears the blood pressure figures showed the "normal" increase. From thecommencement of training in 1969 the trend reversed and blood pressure soon fellto 114/70, resting pulse rate 42, same as at age 2 1.
There are many intent people who mistakenly consider themselvesin good shape but are nowhere near it, and confusion arises when occasionally oneof them keels over. Sometimes it may be someone jogging or playing squash, Unlessa good standard has been attained and a prudent diet followed, such exercise couldbe dangerous. Playing squash requires a high fitness level, and the amount of squashplayed by most people is insufficient to achieve or maintain such a level.
Gadgets, weightlifting, touching toes, social tennis, golf,sailing and gardening may make you look fit on the outside, are beneficial to someextent, as indulged in by most people, but they may not achieve the desired trainingeffect.
Side benefits of exercise accrue gradually too. Toned up posturalmuscles prevent back strain and "slipped discs" and many common ailmentsaccepted by most people as normal, just do not happen any more, eg. indigestion,constipation, colds, fatigue etc. and although exercise may take up an average sayof 30 minutes a day, fit people have more spare time because they need only six orseven hours' sleep.
Cooper also described many more dramatic recoveries from diseasesuch as ulcers, glaucoma and emphysema achieved by endurance training--one USAF fighterpilot who was finally reinstated to operational flying status, having been groundedwith heart trouble.
There are many recorded cases of recovery from heart troubleachieved by physical training. The most spectacular, in Australia anyway, must bethat of Norman Cutter of Adelaide, who suffered a severe coronary attack at age 47,and who, completely fed up with being a permanent invalid, embarked on his own trainingprogram. Some years later he demonstrated his renewed self in a non-stop ascent (bystairs) of the AMP Building in Sydney, and later in a non-stop ascent of the EmpireState Building in New York. At the age of 59, he raced a 21-year-old Adelaide footballplayer up the tallest building there (22 floors), beat him by one floor. He saysit is a good idea to avoid heart attacks; they are not much fun.
The effect of training on heart and circulation and its importance in preventive cardiologySystolic blood pressure in or, average population as compared with that of well-trained sportsmen (5) (Courtesy of Dr D. Steinkopff, Darmstadt, 1956)
Exercise, training and cardiac stroke forceThree series of ball istocardiograms consecutively recorded: (1) from 10 untrained students aged 18 to 2 1; (2) from 10 NCAA championship finalists in middle and long distance races in Austin Texas, 1958; and (3) from 10 middle-aged ex-athletes who eight and more years ago had performed on a level comparable to that of the men whose tracings are shown in (2).
Note: the rapid weak action of the students' hearts compared withthe slow powerful action of the athletes'. The heart action of the middle-aged ex-athletesshown here is extremely poor, but nevertheless, by graduated training, good heartcondition can be restored to such people (see reference Norman Currer). Do not confusethis ballistocardiogram with electrocardiogram.
Results--one year later

Death rate by degree of exercise and age group during period of approximately one year after last survey. For example, in the age group 60-64, 1 per cent (1/100) of the men in the heavy exercise category died,whereas 5 per cent of those in the no-exercise group died during the follow-up year. (Adapted from Hammond [226])
In September 1974, the University of NSW Medical Foundationheld a seminar on Executive Health. Dr Cooper presented two lectures--clear cut data,not speculation. His data clearly demonstrates the direct beneficial effects of fitnesson each of the following factors:
Depression, hypochondria, absenteeism, obesity, ulcers, pulmonarydisease, general susceptibility, arrhythmia, abnormal ECG, work performance, efficiency,body shape, ability to handle stress, vital capacity, condition of heart tissuesand blood supply, resting heart rate, maximal heart rate, blood pressure, blood cholesteroland triglycerides, fasting blood sugar, recovery from heart disease.
For those loafers who derive comfort having read occasionalreports of joggers dropping dead, check this one paragraph out of 31 close-typedfoolscap pages of his lectures. An evaluation of 13,763 Austrian (not Australian)men (aged 29-30 years) versus 6,712 American men (aged 19-20). The Austrians hadover 80% pass in the 1.5 mile in 12-minute test as against the American 39%, andthe American subjects were 10 years younger, only 19-20!
Compare Austria and USA in this statistic--death from heartattacks in different countries, young men per 100,000 population. Japan 18.5, Austria36.2, Australia 66.3, USA 90.6--young men.
On the brighter side, rehabilitation: 25 heart attack patientsof Dr J. Scaff, cardiologist, Honolulu, competed in the Rimner Pacific Marathon,15 December, 1974. A marathon is 26 miles. In 1973 and 1974 there were 13 people,ex-heart-attack patients, who finished in the famous Boston Marathon. Ever sincethen recovered heart patients have become commonplace as marathon competitors.
For someone embarking on a fitness program they would be welladvised to start with walking. Do not undertake a program beyond your actual standardand never force yourself to extremes, as this is where the only danger lies. Manyelderly Longevity Center patients comfortably manage 10 miles a day by the end ofthe four-week session at the Pritikin Center, usually split up into two or threeseparate walks.
It is a good idea to have a proper check-up first to note allthe figures, basal pulse rate, blood pressure, weight, cholesterol, triglycerides,blood chemistry etc, and then observe the improvements as you progress.
Elaborate "gear" is unnecessary. Those flash tracksuitsare only to keep you warm while you are loafing. Sweating is not the object, it isjust a byproduct, and is only a temporary loss of water while the body is tryingto cool itself. Overheating can be dangerous, resulting in fainting, even suddendeath. To lose fat you must burn it as fuel by activity.
If running, at the completion of each session walk for aboutfive minutes as most of the blood will have been circulating in the lower part ofthe body, and walking will keep assisting its return upwards until circulation isrearranged. Running on grass or firm sand, barefooted, is less strain on feet andankles and shins. They are painful enough at first.

Note well
Having read of the wonderful benefits of endurance exerciseyou can see it would be easy to accept aerobics as a "cure all". By improvingoxygen transport, it benefits all functions and the improvements are rapidly felt;they are measurable and impressive--BUT--
Remember heart attacks may occur during strenuous exercise andit is important to ensure adequate circulation by first lowering the blood viscosity.This can only be accomplished after several days on a very lowfat, low-cholesterol,low-sugar diet. And remember too that unless such a diet is permanently adopted,atherosclerosis will not reverse but will continue to increase relentlessly.
In case any misconceptions still remain, remember:
1.	Protein is a poor energy source. Natural carbohydrate is the best energy source. Protein metabolism requires copious amounts of water and water lost in flushing the kidneys can lead to dehydration. It is unnecessary to consume animal protein to provide the body with protein. 
2.	The body gets all the salt it requires from natural food. It should not be added to food, and salt tablets are unnecessary and harmful even with exercise and perspiration. Excess salt, by virtue of the urination it induces, can cause dehydration. Endurance athletes avoid it. 
3.	Dietary fat is unnecessary and harmful when derived from animal sources. The best source of body fat is natural carbohydrate foods: vegetables, cereals and fruit. Concentrated vegetable fat such as margarine and oils is not desirable. 
4.	Sugar and sweets are harmful. The best source of blood sugar is the high natural carbohydrate diet. 
5.	It is perfectly safe to drink moderate amounts of water while exercising to replace that lost by perspiration.
The faculties of keen eyesight, good hearing, clear thinking,efficient body functions and so on, can only be gained with completely clear bloodvessels. And until runners ensure the freedom of their arteries, the occasions where,now and again, some of them are stricken with fibrillation, will continue. The "carteblanche" for superbly fit people to eat and drink as they please, and whichmade me smug for years, never existed. Remember too, that if exercise is discontinued,the training effect will be lost in a few weeks.
This recent statement by Dr Dintenfas correlates perfectly."Studies of athletes, normal individuals and patients with cardiac and renaldiseases show a progression from a low blood viscosity with a high flow velocityamong athletes, to an elevated viscosity and low flow velocity among patients. Furthermore,my colleagues and I have found time and again an elevation of blood viscosity amongapparently healthy individuals who later developed symptoms of heart disease andcancer."
In a nutshell, that means physically fit people have free-flowingblood, and with free-flowing blood they are strongly insured against degenerativediseases.
By chase our fathers earned their food,
Toil strung their hearts and purified their blood, 
But we their sons, a pampered race of men, 
Are dwindled down to three-score years and ten, 
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought, 
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught, 
The wise for cure on exercise depend, 
God never made his work for man to mend.
John Dryden, 1680
CHAPTER TEN
THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM
LIPOTOXEMIA AND
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE*
*Cardiovascular disease as it specifically affects the coronary arteries of the heart is sometimes called Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). It should be understood that heart disease is a condition developed over a long period, not to be confused with a heart attack which is an event, occurring usually as a result of severe CHD.
A man is as old as his arteries.
Thomas Sydenham, 17th Century physician
A man's arteries are as old as he makes them.
Robert Bell MD, 19th Century physician
While true that a man is "as old as his arteries",equally true is that his health is only as good as the health of his blood. The bloodstreamis known as the "river of life", and it is the purity of this river whichdetermines, almost entirely, the health--mental and physical--of the individual.
If the condition of the blood declines, so will health decline--allthe way from vague "indisposition" and head colds, to eventual heart diseaseand cancer.
Blood is a complex fluid which performs many functions. Apartfrom nourishing and cleansing the billions of cells of which our bodies are made,and providing them with oxygen, it conveys hormones and other vital substances, transportsprotective white cells of the immune system, initiates the healing of wounds, coolsactive muscles and provides water for perspiration. Its composition constantly changesto meet the demands of the body.
The word "cardio" relates of course to the heart,and "vascular" relates to blood vessels. The entire system is sometimessimply referred to as the "circulation".
The heart is often referred to as "the pump". In factit comprises two pumps, side by side, the chambers of which are rhythmically squeezedby muscle tissue surrounding them to provide the pumping action. The pressure chamberswhich propel the blood are called the ventricles.
The left-hand pump is more powerful than the right and its jobis to receive blood from the lungs, freshly charged with oxygen, and eject it intothe main arteries for its journey to supply every part of the body with oxygen andnutrients.
The heart muscle gets its supply of blood directly from theleft ventricle via the aorta and the coronary arteries which surmount the heart fromthe top like a crown, thus deriving the name coronary.
The artery system branches off to all parts of the body, splittinginto smaller and smaller tributaries, into tiny arterioles, and finally into theminute capillaries, which are so fine (1/50,000 of an inch) and so numerous thattheir total length in an adult has been estimated at 60,000 miles.
The walls of all these blood vessels incorporate muscle tissuewhich automatically contract or dilate the vessels to control the blood flow accordingto varying requirements in different parts of the body. As the blood passes throughthe capillaries it transfers oxygen and nutrients to the cells, and at the same time,picks up waste products for elimination, carbon dioxide to be eliminated by the lungs,and other wastes by the liver, the kidneys and the urine.
When it leaves the heart the blood is bright red in color, buton its return it is rather a dark red as it is no longer as rich in oxygen. For protection,the arteries are located deep in the body tissue, but the veins which carry the returningblood at very low pressure lie near the surface and you can see them in your armsand hands. They took dark in color because venous blood is dark. The veins connecttheir branches and carry the "used" blood back to the heart again, thistime to the smaller pump, which pumps it through the lungs where it unloads its carbondioxide and picks up more oxygen. Then back it goes to the big pump again for anothertrip around the body.
With every beat, a small portion of the entire blood supplyis sent on its way and the entire ten pints or so keep constantly circulating. Thearteries flex with the passage of each little "wave" and this can be feltin the neck or wrist as the "pulse". If the heartbeat is irregular, fastor slow, so then will be the pulse. The flexing of the arteries smooths out the flowof blood so that by the time it reaches the tiny vessels, the flow is constant andcomparatively slow.
On its way around the body, the blood picks up nutrients fromthe intestines and the liver, hormones from the glands, and drops off waste productsfor elimination as mentioned.
The initial blood pressure is barely sufficient to propel theblood all the way around the circuit and back to the heart again, especially backfrom the lower limbs. The return of blood from the lower extremities is ensured bythe veins themselves acting as pumps. The veins incorporate numerous tiny valveswhich allow the blood to flow only one way--upwards, back to the heart. Movementof adjacent muscles squeezes against the veins and propels the blood along. Similarsqueezing occurs from adjacent arteries as they expand with each "pulse"of arterial blood. Sometimes guardsmen, standing motionless on parade, will faintwhen a large quantity of blood pools in their legs so that the heart is short ofblood to supply the brain. Blood return from the lower body is further assisted bymovement of the diaphragm which is in constant motion as you breathe. These additionalpumping accessories are particularly important during vigorous exercise.
Blood pressure is measured from an inflated pad wrapped aroundthe upper arm because it is convenient and close to the heart. The pressure becomesless and less as the vessels become smaller. Pressure is maintained all the way aroundbut is nearly zero by the time the blood returns to the heart. Blood pressure ismeasured in millimetres of mercury, and is expressed as two figures, eg 120/80 (agood reading). The higher figure (systolic) is the pressure attained as the heartpumps, the lower (diastolic) is the minimum pressure between beats. The reading shouldbe made with the subject rested and relaxed because ordinary mild activity or eatingwill cause an increase and give a misleading impression.
"Normal" standards allow for gradual increase as onegets older. It is commonly believed that an acceptable systolic pressure is "100plus your age". This figure indeed is almost the general standard because, unfortunately,everybody on a typical Western diet, in blissful ignorance, has blood of high viscosityand slowly blocking arteries, and the heart must pump at a higher pressure to circulatethe blood. Generally, a figure below 140/90 is accepted as normal. These figuresare unrealistically high. A really physically fit person will maintain the optimumpressure throughout life.
As the body's activity changes, so blood supply requirementsof cells in the different parts of the body change. The muscular walls of tiny arteries,the arterioles, expand and contract as required, directed automatically by the nervoussystem. Not all are open at one time. Control of blood flow also accomplishes dissipationof excess heat generated by the muscles by directing flow through the skin.

The lymphatic system
Not all of the blood returns from the capillaries by way ofthe veins. Blood plasma is the clear liquid portion of the blood and some of thisleaves the blood through the capillary walls and circulates around the cells, transferringnutrients to them and receiving their wastes. This fluid is called lymph.
The red blood cells which carry the oxygen do not leave thecapillaries. Most of the lymph re-enters the capillaries and rejoins the bloodstream,but the remainder returns in a different network of vessels altogether. This networkis called the lymphatic system and flows one way only. The lymph's function is tocleanse, and at intervals along the lymph vessels are lymph glands which producewhite cells to destroy bacteria, abnormal cells or other foreign substances. Thelymph glands or "nodes" also filter harmful substances from the lymph fluidand supply it with the protective white blood cells.
As the lymph vessels are not directly connected with the maincirculation, the only pressure available to propel the lymph in its flow is thatprovided by the pulsations of adjacent arteries and by various muscular movementswhich provide a squeezing action. The lymph vessels are just like veins and havethe same system of valves which ensures the one-way flow of lymph back to the heart.
The main lymphatic vessels connect to the main veins at thebase of the neck and so the lymph re-enters the bloodstream to become part of theblood again before it re-enters the heart.
The lymphatic system is involved with the digestion of fatsand this is described in the chapter on nutrition, Chapter 15.

Cardiovascular disease
Good health and a good life expectancy depend on an efficientcardiovascular system. The basic essentials are:
1.	A strong healthy heart. 
2.	Clean, free-flowing blood. 
3.	Clean, flexible blood vessels.
The heart: The heart has a nervous system of its ownwhich co-ordinates the muscle contractions to provide the pumping action. Over-ridingthis systern is the body's central nervous system which directs not only the heartrate, but the depth of stroke as well. The depth of stroke means the quantity ofblood ejected at each stroke. Thus the output is adjusted to provide the demandsof the body. These vary widely from the requirements when asleep, to a maximum ofextreme physical exertion. just to digest a meal requires a substantial blood supplyto the digestive organs. Mental effort or stress calls for more blood.
The constant work of the heart is no strain upon it, it remainsstrong and works uncomplainingly as long as its arteries continue to supply it sufficientlywith blood.
The condition of the blood: The second factor determiningthe efficiency of the cardiovascular system is the condition of the blood. Toxemiais a condition of the blood when it contains undesirable amounts of toxic substances,and when toxemia is accompanied by high levels of fat and cholesterol, the conditionis called lipotoxemia. (Lipids are fats.)
Viscosity means the degree of stickiness of a liquid. The viscosityof healthy blood is low, permitting it to flow freely.
The condition of the blood is affected by the following factors:
1.	Excess cholesterol and fat, together with various waste products due mainly to wrong diet, circulate in the bloodstream like sludge and gradually deposit in the artery walls. Fat causes the red cells to aggregate or clump together, seriously reducing their oxygen-carrying capacity. Tiny particles called platelets whose function is to clot the blood in the event of injury, also stick together. The effect of this clumping is to increase the blood viscosity, it becomes thick and sluggish and cannot flow freely, particularly in constricted vessels. This often causes drowsiness after heavy meals or perhaps angina or heart attack. Angina pain is frequently mistaken for indigestion. When red cells bunch together and block capillary vessels, clear fluid of the blood is forced out of the capillary walls and causes the tissues to swell. This condition is called "edema". 
2.	Toxins produced in the colon from putrefying food residues when constipation exists enter the bloodstream from the bile circulation, the condition being known as "auto-intoxication". 
3.	Alcohol also causes red corpuscles to clump together, and immobilizes certain enzymes preventing oxygen exchange to cells. After eight hours' sleep following a "binge", not only is the heart pounding, but the rate is elevated by 20 beats a minute or more. Alcohol elevates blood triglycerides, destroys valuable nutrients, and immobilizes enzymes. 
4.	Hypoglycemia--low blood sugar. This is caused mainly by eating excess protein and refined carbohydrates such as sugar, sweets, soft drinks etc. and results in chronic fatigue. Hypoglycemia is described in Chapter 21. 
5.	Smoking. Apart from the adverse effect on the lungs and nervous system, the worst harm from smoking is due to carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas, which is picked up by the red corpuscles, displacing oxygen in the bloodstream. Dr Eliot of Florida reported that smoking can reduce the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity by up to 20%. It also destroys Vitamin C which is important in oxygen transport. Nicotine affects the nervous system causing free fatty acids to be released into the blood. At the same time it causes arteries to constrict and the heart rate steps up. Thus nicotine has a similar effect to stress. More red blood cells enter the blood from the body's reserves to compensate for the ones that are poisoned and this further increases the blood viscosity. 
6.	Stress. A reasonable degree of stress is normal in day-to-day activities. It has the effect of increasing blood pressure and the levels of certain hormones and fatty acids in the blood to provide for the anticipated activity associated in nature with stress. If the bloodstream is already thick and turbid, the viscosity will further increase, in which case this perfectly normal process can be dangerous. 
7.	Thyroid deficiency. An underactive thyroid due perhaps to a deficiency of iodine or Vitamin B1 (sugar can deplete this vitamin) reduces the metabolism of fat, thus increasing blood fat levels and also increasing blood cholesterol. Excess protein in the diet can also deplete the body of thyroxine. 
8.	Physical fitness. Although subject to the foregoing adverse factors of an incorrect lifestyle, the blood of a fit person does not suffer the degree of toxemia as that of an unfit person, because of the better metabolism of a physically fit body. Blood viscosity is always measurably less in athletes, regardless of diet. 
9.	Sunlight. Direct exposure to sunlight has an effect similar to that of physical exercise; blood fats and cholesterol reduce, blood viscosity lessens and oxygen levels increase, in addition to which hormone production improves and general metabolism becomes more efficient.
Considering these factors, it does not take much imaginationto realize how vital they are to a person with arteries almost closed with atherosclerosis.
The condition of the arteries: Whereas the conditionof the blood can vary from day to day, and if bad, can be rapidly rectified, thedegeneration of the vascular system is a long process usually commencing in earlychildhood and continuing at a rate determined by living habits, primarily diet.
The disease affects vessels throughout the body, and the earlysymptoms, which are plain to see, cause no great distress and indeed are considerednormal. These may be in the form of "mildly" elevated blood pressure, gradualloss of high frequency hearing, or the requirement to wear reading glasses. Whenthe arteries of the heart are affected specifically, the condition is called heartdisease or coronary heart disease.
Hardening of the arteries was once the most common form of cardiovasculardisease, and is called arteriosclerosis. The hardening is caused by deposits of calciumand other insoluble minerals absorbed into the artery walls so that elasticity islost and the artery gradually blocks, closing off the flow of blood. This conditioncan eventuate from a diet containing little or no cholesterol but excessive amountsof vegetable protein, mineral salts and fat, contained in cereals and nuts.
To a lesser extent, arteriosclerosis can he caused by changesin blood composition brought about by excessive adrenal secretions. Such excessivesecretions are caused by stress and the stress effects of nicotine, alcohol and sugar.
The most common form of artery disease today is different. Insteadof the long-term hardening process once synonymous with old age, a more rapid processcalled atherosclerosis occurs, affecting people much earlier in life. The name derivesfrom the word atheroma, the Greek word for porridge, which describes the build-upof fat, cholesterol and fibrin in the artery lining which occurs with or withoutcalcium and other minerals.
Thyroid deficiency, as mentioned, can adversely affect fat metabolismand lead to artery degeneration. Dr Broda Barnes, MD, PhD, author of Solved: TheRiddle of Heart Attacks (Robinson Press, Fort Collins, Colorado, 1976), contendsthat thyroid deficiency is the prime cause of atherosclerosis. He points out thatremoval of the thyroid gland in animals or humans soon leads to atherosclerosis andthat administration of thyroid hormone will retard or prevent this process. Dr Barnescontends also that thyroid deficiency is far more common than is suspected and toa large extent is due to the demands placed upon the body by a high protein diet.
The fact remains that one way or another, artery disease aswe know it today is caused by our high protein, high cholesterol, high fat Westerndiet.
The arteries become diseased more often where there is a bendor a branch, and there are a number of such points in particular where blockagescommonly occur (see Fig. 10.1). As the disease progresses, the body degenerates furtherand more serious symptoms such as kidney failure, strokes, angina or heart attackmay occur.

The disease process is gradual and insidious, beginning at firstas creamy streaks on the artery walls as cholesterol and fat begin to be depositedin the cells. The arteries' inner lining and the muscle layer next to it have nocapillaries of their own and rely on oxygen transferred directly from the main bloodstreamthrough the lining. With continuing high levels of dietary fat and cholesterol inthe blood, more and more are absorbed into the artery walls.
The process originates more frequently in places where deteriorationhas occurred in the artery walls, and research has indicated that such deteriorationmay be caused by a deficiency of Vitamin C resulting in lessened integrity of thecollagen binding the artery's cells together. Smoking, by destroying Vitamin C, isnot only deleterious to the blood but also to the condition of the arteries. Thecells eventually become engorged and begin to burst. As the body attempts to healthe damaged area, new cell growth occurs, and together with fibrous tissue, a plaqueis formed in the artery wall. With further deposits, the artery gradually closes,restricting the blood flow. The blood pressure increases in order to keep up an adequateflow of blood.
As the condition worsens, the artery may lose elasticity, furtherincreasing resistance to the blood flow. Sometimes calcium forms part of the depositsand the artery hardens like a clay pipe. This effect can result from excess proteinin the diet which causes leaching of calcium from the bones. It also results fromsmoking.
The plaques, like little abscesses, protrude from the arterywalls interfering further with the blood flow. They may be isolated or numerous,affecting the artery in varying degrees.
When the heart's own coronary arteries become badly blocked,perhaps 90-95% closed, severe coronary insufficiency occurs. In this precarious condition,relatively minor factors affecting blood viscosity can easily trigger a heart attack.Some heart attacks are caused by a piece of plaque becoming detached causing a blockagedownstream from the diseased area.
The fantastic ability of the body to adapt and protect itselfenables tiny new vessels to grow around the obstructions in the artery and keep alimited blood flow going. This is called collateral circulation and has enabled peopleto survive even with their three coronary arteries totally blocked. A surgical meansto alleviate distress caused by blocked arteries is to take a vein from another partof the body and graft it to each side of a blocked section to form what is calleda by-pass.* Some people have a "triple by-pass" which means one on eachof the main coronary arteries, and so the supply to the heart is restored. Unfortunately,about 8% of patients die within 30 days, and on an unchanged diet the new vesselsacquire atherosclerosis much faster than natural arteries. Twenty per cent closein 12 months. With the by-pass working, the main artery closes completely and sodoes its collateral circulation at that point. Although initial relief is gained,unless strict dietary corrections are adopted survival rates are not much better.Another means of alleviating a blocked section of an artery has recently been demonstratedby Dr Andrea Gruentzig of Zurich University. A tiny plastic device is inserted intothe artery and positioned where the plaque is blocking it, stretching the arterywider to permit the blood to flow.
*Collateral circulation assists trouble spots other than the heart and so too do surgical bypasses.
Heart transplants have also been done in an attempt to rescuepeople with severe heart disease. Dr Phillip Blaiberg, at one time the longest survivingheart transplant patient, died after 19 months. He did not die because of tissuerejection as was at first thought, he died of a heart attack. The doctor who assistedDr Christian Barnard, the surgeon, examined Blaiberg's second heart after death andfound his arteries choked with atherosclerosis. The same doctor had examined it beforethe transplant when the arteries were healthy and clean. The diet that destroyedhis first heart had destroyed his second heart. His cholesterol level had been over300 mg% (7.7 mm/l) constantly, an extremely dangerous level for anybody.
Smoking, by its effect on the nervous system, tends to constrictvessels. Long periods of inactivity cause the automatic operation of the capillariesto become sluggish in some parts of the body, resulting in circulation impairmentand increased blood pressure. Alcohol immobilizes enzymes in tissues for long periods,preventing release of oxygen to the cells.
Obesity: Excess body tissue in overweight people depletesthe efficiency of the cardiovascular system for the following reasons:
1.	Useless tissue must be supplied with blood, adding to the heart's workload. 
2.	"Deadweight" equivalent to carrying a load of bricks everywhere adds further to the heart's workload and discourages physical exercise which is vitally important. 
3.	Excess fat is readily released into the bloodstream. 
4.	Sagging of vital organs hinders circulation and impairs the function of the lungs.
General signs of advancing cardiovascular disease
Premature aging, blotchy skin.
Florid face.
Arcus senilus (a lightly colored ring around the iris of the eye).
Deteriorating eyesight, loss of peripheral vision.
Deteriorating hearing, loss of high frequency range.
Slowing reactions, vagueness, lack of stamina.
Low resistance to infection, colds.
Drowsiness after eating.
Dizziness on exertion.
Poor circulation, sensitivity to cold.
Shortness of breath.
Swollen tissues.
Leg pains.
Angina (pain in chest, perhaps in arms, after meals or on exertionbut sometimes at rest).
Sweating for no apparent reason.
High resting pulse rate.
Increased thirst and appetite and rapid loss of body water (diabeticsymptoms).
Do not take these signs lightly just because they may not beregarded as clinical symptoms, and note well this remark of Dr Kenneth Cooper: "youhave to keep in mind that the most common first symptom of severe underlying heartdisease is sudden death. For a lot of people that's the only symptom they will everhave".

The causes of cardiovascular disease summarized
Cardiovascular disease is caused by lipotoxemia which is a conditionof the blood involving high blood fat and cholesterol levels. The viscosity of theblood increases, the oxygen-carrying capability decreases, and blood pressure increases.Cholesterol, fats, fibrin and sometimes calcium permeate the artery walls, as thedeposits build up, the artery closes off blocking the flow of blood. The fatty substanceis called atheroma, and the condition is atherosclerosis.
The condition arises from improper diet but is enhanced by smoking,alcohol, lack of exercise and to a lesser extent caffeine, unremitting stress andlack of rest.
The dietary substances most to blame are meat and other fleshfoods, eggs and dairy products, all of which contain excessive amounts of fat, cholesteroland protein. A full description is given in Chapter 15.

Hypertension and heredity
Hypertension: Note that high blood pressure (hypertension)has not been listed as a cause of cardiovascular disease. It is often a symptom (particularlywhen the kidneys are affected) as will be explained later. High blood pressure mayoccur without the presence of atherosclerosis, and atherosclerosis may occur withouthigh blood pressure.
The Japanese have the highest hypertension rate in the world,thought to be due to their heavy intake of salt, but have a low incidence of heartdisease.
Heredity: It is easy to see why heredity sometimes appearsto be a factor in cardiovascular disease. But all degenerative diseases stem frompoor living habits, and bad dietary habits are passed from generation to generation.They can be disastrous to a family, but they are not inherited. When people leavetheir family, migrate and adopt a different lifestyle, then regardless of their familyback in Ireland, Japan, Yemen or the New Guinea Highlands, they, just like McCarrison'srats and laboratory monkeys, acquire the characteristic effects of their new lifestyle.
However, as described in Chapter 8, heredity can influence thechance of a heart attack once a person has advanced cardiovascular disease and isall "set up" for one. This is by virtue of their personality which is inherited.
Heredity appeared to be a factor in the case of my wife's heartdisease which was described in Chapter 2. All her four brothers had heart attacks,three fatal. Of her two sisters one died of heart disease and stroke and the otherof cancer. All occurred between the ages of 37 and 58.
Notwithstanding such a disastrous family history and her failureto adopt an exercise program, she is now in better health than ever before and herphysician's report substantiates this fact. She has changed her lifestyle. If shehad inherited a stronger will she could have made better progress as she will notrigidly follow her program.

The protective effect of raw food
The high consumption of meat and dairy products is undoubtedlythe major cause of atherosclerosis in modern times. However, long research by DrEdward Howell indicates that the animal protein, fat and cholesterol contained inmeat and dairy products are far less harmful if these foods are consumed raw.
Raw meat contains the proteolytic enzyme cathepsin and the fat-digestingenzyme adipose lipase. All animal fats, raw, contain lipase. When animal proteinor fat is consumed raw, the enzymes accomplish a certain amount of predigestion inthe cardiac (upper) stomach before being inactivated by the stomach acid furtherdown, and so the final digestion of these substances in the intestine is more completeand they are assimilated in a relatively harmless form.
It has always perplexed nutritionists how primitive Eskimosand Masai natives could maintain good health as long as they do on diets consistingof almost lethal quantities of animal protein and fat. The answer to that puzzle,according to Dr Howell, is that apart from other lifestyle factors in their favor,these people, like the wild carnivorous animals, eat most of their food raw. (Thename Eskimo is derived from the Cree Indian expression: "he eats meat raw".)
Dr Howell blames the cooking of food for practically every diseaseknown to man. He points out that raw milk, containing 35 different enzymes, is anentirely different substance to the pasteurized dairy products of today, which areknown to contribute to atherosclerosis. In his paper, "Lipase versus Cholesterol"(1983), Dr Howell says:
"Lipase is destroyed by cooking. Could it be that the badreputation of cholesterol starts in the human digestive tract when fat, divorcedfrom its lipase companion, is forced to remain idle and unaltered in the stomachduring the period of 2 or 3 or more hours after it is swallowed? While ptyalin andthen pepsin digest carbohydrate and protein in the stomach, lipase is absent andfat cannot be digested. But when fat is eaten raw, with its lipase undamaged by heat,it also can be digested in the upper stomach prior to the time the acidity becomesstrong enough to prevent further action.
"When unaltered fat, deprived of its lipase companion,must confront strong hydrochloric acid in the human stomach, it faces a new and harshexperience. It may be left with a structural defect, or impairment with some undesirabletrademark that prevents it from being properly digested in the intestine and henceimproperly metabolized when it reaches the body tissues later. It must be rememberedthat in both animals and humans, it is impossible to prevent fat plus lipase fromengaging in initial digestion during the first hour in the stomach.
"It has been shown that even ptyalin, which is more effectiveon starch near neutral pH, digests in the cardiac and fundic portion of the stomachfor a period approaching an hour. The lipase associated with fat, in common withother food enzymes, has a pH optimum further down on the acid side of the pH scale,and therefore can be expected to digest fat in the upper stomach (the food-enzymestomach) for a period at least as long as ptyalin can work on starch. This happensevery day in the stomachs of millions of wild animals, and for epochal periods beforethe cooking era, evolution contrived to make it a regular scheduled event in thehuman stomach. It appears, therefore, that fat is being denied its traditional digestiverites during its passage along the digestive tract. And this may well be the reasonthat animals and humans, eating raw fat with its lipase, are immune to cardiovasculardisease. Thus a strong reason emerges why research to explore this promising areais long overdue and merits top priority for allocation of research funds."
To conclude on cardiovascular disease, here are two extractsfrom Lifestyles, Major Risk Factors, Proof and Public Policy by Jeremiah StamlerMD in his George Lyman Duff Memorial Lecture, 1977:*
*The paper originates from the department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, North-western Medical School, Chicago, and appears in Circulation, Vol. 58, No. 11 July 1978.
1.	"An additional comparison has recently become available, with data on mortality, for three groups of Californian Seventh Day Adventists (nonvegetarian, lacto-ovo-vegetarians-- vegetarians who eat milk, cheese and eggs--and pure vegetarian) compared with the Californian general population. Seventh Day Adventists have lower mean serum cholesterol levels than Americans generally. For 47,000 Seventh Day Adventist men aged 35 and over, age-sex-standardized, mortality rates were 34 per cent lower for non-vegetarians, 57 per cent lower for the lacto-ovovegetarians and 77 per cent lower for the pure vegetarians compared to the general population. Seventh Day Adventists differ from the general population in other respects as well, eg. abstinence from both alcohol and tobacco." 
2.	"Since the data from both animal and human studies indicate that high blood pressure and cigarette smoking are minimally significant for atherogenesis in the absence of the nutritional metabolic prerequisites, it is further reasonable and sound to designate 'rich' diet as a PRIMARY, ESSENTIAL, NECESSARY CAUSE of the current epidemic of premature atherosclerotic disease raging in the Western industrialized countries. Cigarette smoking and hypertension are important secondary or complementary causes."

HOME HYGIENELIBRARY CATALOG CHAPTER 11 
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DIET AND NUTRITION
Unless the doctors of today become the dieticians of tomorrow,
the dieticians of today will become the doctors of tomorrow.
Alexis Carrel, Nobel Prize Winner--Man the Unknown (1935)
So versatile is the human digestive system that people can livein apparent good health on many different kinds of diets derived from a wide varietyof sources throughout the entire world. The diets may vary from being almost totallycarnivorous to being totally vegetarian with or without dairy products.
It is obvious that all these diets must contain the minimumrequired amounts of the basic components--protein, carbohydrate and fats as wellas the necessary vitamins and minerals--but getting these is not our main problem.
Notwithstanding that different diets appear to maintain goodhealth, some do so at considerable strain on vital organs which eventually becomediseased, and when vital organs fail as eventually must happen, the person dies,unless sustained by some artificial method.
There are some commonly held and very dangerous misconceptionsabout what constitutes a "balanced diet" which have set many nutrition-consciouspeople on the wrong track, causing them a great deal of harm.
We must adopt a diet that does not overstrain the digestivesystem or produce toxic substances which damage nerves, arteries, joints and vitalorgans. The excessive intake of grain products as encouraged by the Pritikin dietand the Macrobiotic diet is an example of bad effects accompanying good. Some weight-losingdiets, such as the Dr Atkins diet and the Scarsdale diet, while achieving weightloss in fact are damaging in the long term.
It must be made clear at the outset--the dietary problem ofthe modern world stems very little from deficiencies of nutrients in the food, theyare caused by three distinct faults:
1.	The cooking of food. 
2.	Excess of dangerous substances in the food. 
3.	Excess of total food consumed regardless of its quality.
As described in the chapter on degeneration, Dr de Lacey Evans'observations of 2,000 centenarians showed that for the attainment of long life theamount of food was more critical than the type of food consumed. Be that as it may,I shall repeat a paragraph from Dr Jeremiah Stamler's George Lyman Duff MemorialLecture 1977:--"An additional comparison has just become available, with dataon mortality, for three groups of Californian Seventh Day Adventists (non-vegetarian,lacto-ovo-vegetarian and pure vegetarian) compared with the Californian general population.Seventh Day Adventists have lower mean serum cholesterol levels than Americans generally.For 47,000 Adventist men aged 35 and over, age-sex -standardized, mortality rateswere 34% lower for the non-vegetarians, 57% lower for the lacto-ovo-vegetarians,and 77% lower for the pure vegetarians, compared to the general population."<fontsize="4"</fontsize="4"
Upon examination it is easy to see why a pure vegetarian dietconveys health and long life.
To remove some common misconceptions, I intend to explain, amongother things::
1.	The average person consumes protein and fat in harmful quantities. 
2.	That animal protein (including dairy products), especially when cooked, is not a desirable source of body protein, and is a poor source of energy. 
3.	That animal fat or concentrated vegetable fat, especially when heated, is not a desirable source of body fat. 
4.	That refined sugar or sugar extracts are undesirable as a source of blood sugar, whether for quick energy or not. 
5.	That salt added to food is harmful and totally unnecessary. 
6.	That cooking is harmful to food, not only depleting its nourishment, but at the same time causing pathological changes.
Let us now look at the different components of food and howthey are utilized in the body.

Protein
The body, which is made of many different kinds of protein,manufactures the new protein it requires from a variety of about 20 amino acids incountless complex combinations. There are eight amino acids from which the body canmanufacture all the others. These eight are called the essential amino acids andmust be present in our food.
Foods such as meat, eggs, milk and cheese are animal proteinfoods and because they consist largely of protein, are commonly considered to bevery important. However, it is now well known that all natural vegetable foods containprotein in small but adequate amounts.
it is a popular misconception that animal protein foods areessential to good health and many dieticians emphasize this continually. This misconception,plus the palatability of these foods when cooked, results in enormous excesses ofprotein in the diet, with very harmful results. Protein as eaten, first must be brokendown chemically into the separate amino acids before being reassembled as new protein.Protein cannot be stored. The body can only use what it needs, and the excess mustbe converted into carbohydrate and fats for energy requirements or stored as fat.This process results in toxic by-products which must be eliminated from the body.If these levels are high the body cannot cope, and toxins such as uric acid and ammoniaremain in the bloodstream causing inflammation in sensitive areas and increasingthe risk of arthritis, kidney and liver damage, artery calcification, cancer andother metabolic upsets. Animal protein foods contain high levels of cholesterol andfat as well.
Pure vegetarians who do not use even dairy products get adequatesupplies of amino acids from cereals, fruit and vegetables eaten in reasonable proportions.A diet of pure fruit alone provides adequate protein and fat.
"One of the biggest fallacies ever perpetrated," saidDr Alfred Harper, Chairman of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin,Madison, and of the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council, "isthat there is any need for so-called complete protein. Some proteins provide morelimited amounts of some amino acids than others. But it has been recognized fromthe start of this century that if you increase the quantity, you don't have to worryabout the quality. We have shown that adults can remain in protein balance on a dietof wheat, even flour".
It has also been a popular misconception for years that athletesand manual laborers need large amounts of protein foods. Tests on laboratory animalsand with human athletes show this to be an utter fallacy. A group of athletes weretested for physical endurance after periods on different diets. On the high protein/fatdiet their physical work endurance was 60 minutes, on a mixed diet 120 minutes, andon the high complex carbohydrate diet, 180 minutes.
Compared to carbohydrate, the digestion of protein requiresseven times the amount of water, for the urination necessary to flush out ammoniaproduced in the body. Dr Nathan Smith, Professor of Sports Medicine at the Universityof Washington, Seattle, said:
"To be excreted in urine, nitrogen byproducts require water,and this can lead to dehydration. Every year a significant number of deaths occur,especially in high school football practice, where athletes are trying to build themselvesup on protein. They lose water, this prevents them from dissipating body heat, andthey get heat stroke."
Cow's milk, which contains twice the amount of protein as humanmilk, can cause hypernatremic dehydration in bottle-fed babies because large amountsof water are needed to flush from the body the waste products which result from proteinconsumption. This type of dehydration is very dangerous and can lead to brain damage,shut-down of the kidneys and death within hours.
Together with inactivity, high protein intake causes osteoporosis--weakand porous bones. When protein intake exceeds about 95 grams per day, the body goesinto negative mineral balance because of high acidity. With an intake of 140 gm,there is a mean loss of 60 mg of calcium per day, regardless of the amount of calciumingested. In the UK, tests have shown that vegetarians aged 70 have bones equal toor of greater density than the bones of meat-eaters aged 50. Calcium compounds, notexcreted from the body, build up in various locations and can cause calcificationof the aorta (main artery). Calcium supplements can cause this as well. This formof hardening of the arteries can occur in the absence of cholesterol (ie. on a vegetariandiet too high in protein).
Studies of primitive Eskimos in the late 1800s and early 1900srevealed no evident cancer or heart disease among them. These robust and happy people,living in their natural state, existed almost entirely on animal protein and fat,and so impressed were some of the observers, they adopted all-meat diets themselves.
What these people overlooked was that the Eskimos' vigoroushealth was enjoyed only by the young, and that by middle age, when their vital organsbegan to break down, the Eskimo aged rapidly, and suffered severe osteoporosis. Atthe same time, the Eskimos had a very low resistance to infectious diseases wheneverexposed to them. Dr Samuel Hutton, one of the observers (1902-1913) in his book HealthConditions and Disease Incidence Among the Eskimos of Labrador, confirmed thefact that cancer and other diseases of civilization were not evident among the Eskimosbut had this to say about their life expectancy:
"Old age sets in at fifty and its signs are strongly markedat sixty. In the years beyond sixty, the Eskimo is aged and feeble. Comparativelyfew live beyond sixty and only a very few reach seventy. Those who live to such anage have spent a life of great activity, feeding on Eskimo foods and engaging incharacteristically Eskimo pursuits . . . Careful records have been left by the missionariesfor more than a hundred years.
"Perhaps the most striking of the peculiarities of theEskimo constitution is the tendency to hemorrhage.* Young and old alike are subjectto nose bleeding and these sometimes continue for as much as three days and reducethe patient to a condition of collapse."
*The reason for this hemorrhaging is the large quantities of EPA in the fats of the Eskimo diet, as described in Chapter 10. EPA, and the improved circulation it affords, accounts also, to a great extent, for the Eskimos' freedom from cancer and heart attack.
Vilhjalmur Stephansson spent many years among the primitiveEskimos around the turn of the century, observing them specifically for signs ofcancer. He wrote the book Cancer, a Disease of Civilization and erroneouslyconcluded that an all-animal diet was the key to their health. Later under the auspicesof the US meat industry, Stephansson adopted an all-meat diet. His blood cholesterolrose to over 600 mg% and he developed serious cardiovascular disease.*
*The Eskimos consumed most of their food (including large amounts of fat) uncooked, and thereby to a great degree were protected from hypercholesterolemia as explained in the discussion on raw food.
Dr W. H. Hay, Director of the East Aurora Sanitorium, writingon cardiac-vascular-renal disease (degeneration of the heart, arteries and kidneys)said: "In close observation of many hundreds of cases of blood pressure, hardeningarteries, degenerating kidneys, dilating hearts, in a private sanitorium practiceof the past 30 years, I have not seen one single exception to the rule that an excessof protein is behind every case, the average being well over ten times as much proteinas Chittenden says is necessary to repair body waste".
Hypothyroidism, a condition associated with artery degeneration,diabetes, cancer and numerous metabolic upsets, often results from a diet high inprotein even in areas where iodine is plentiful in food supplies. In his book Hypothyroidism,The Unsuspected Illness (1976), Dr Broda Barnes cites medical research since1933 to show that hypothyroidism is the most frequent but at the same time the mostoverlooked condition in the USA. Whilst the condition can be rectified by thyroidhormone therapy, obviously the correct solution to the problem is to correct thediet. Another related effect of eating excess protein is hyperinsulinemia, the productionof excess insulin which in turn can reduce blood sugar levels down to hypoglycemiclevels. In animal tests, elevated levels of insulin have stimulated cholesterol synthesisin the arterial wall resulting in atherosclerotic plaques.
Hyperinsulinemia, sometimes called insulinoma, leading to severehypoglycemia can cause the patient to display neurological and psychiatric disorderssuch as coma, confusion and other impaired faculties.
A recent report in the Sydney Morning Herald said thatin US Government tests, 200 rats were put on high protein diets similar to thoseblamed for the deaths of 16 women. Within a month, 189 rats died.
Dr Gary Williams, Chief of Experimental Pathologyat Westchester's Naylor Dana Institute for Disease Prevention said: "All peopleon the high meat/fat diets have the same metabolic profiles as those associated withincreased cancer risk in experimental animals. And protein has been shown to increasetumors in the high risk animals".
When, in the 60s, I was imbued with the "High Protein"belief, reading Adelle Davis, Gayelord Hauser and Lelord Kordel, I read a book, HealthSecrets from Hunza by Renee Taylor. (I referred to Hunza earlier. It is a communityin a valley where the Hindu-Kush and the Kara Korum Ranges meet at the western endof the Himalayas, near where the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia and Chinaconverge.) I later met Mulford Nobbs of New York, publisher and cosmetics manufacturer,who was a member of the same expedition as Renee Taylor. He scree ned his color slidesof Hunza for me with a first-hand description. Another book, The Wheel of Health,by Dr G. T. Wrench of London (1938) also described the Hunza diet. I was confusedbecause it seemed to me at the time that the Hunza hardly ate any protein. How thenwere they such fine specimens with fantastic vigor and endurance into old age?
A little later again when my first wife spent some weeks atthe Hopewood Health Center at Wallacia and was wonderfully improved in health, Irealized that the diet there was virtually identical to the Hunza diet. So I abandonedthe "High Protein" diet to an almost vegetarian diet which (as most vegetariandiets do) still contained a lot of fat from dairy products, nuts and oil. I feltno different but I figured it was better anyway, and when eventually the Pritikindiet came to light, I could instantly understand and accept it.
Here are some assessments of daily protein requirements foraverage adults:
US National Academy of Science            34 gmDr Rayner Berg, Swedish Nutritionist      30 gmDr V. 0. Siven, Finnish Scientist         30 gmDr R. Chittenden, USA                     30 gmDr D. M. Hegsted, Harvard University      27 gmDr W. C. Rose                             20 gmUS Food & Nutrition Board                 34 gmCanadian Board of Nutrition               34 gmFood & Agricultural Organization, UN      34 gm
Even on a vegetarian diet without dairy products, it is difficultto reduce protein to this level, and the inclusion of nuts and beans in a vegetariandiet to provide protein is completely unnecessary and in the long run, harmful.
Most vegetarians still include cereals in their diet as a sourceof protein and energy but even cereals are superfluous because fruit and vegetablesalone can provide sufficient protein. The problem with a diet of just fruit and vegetables,if a person leads a very active life, is not protein, but getting sufficient calories,and it becomes necessary to eat frequently throughout the day. Such a diet is lowin fat, and people on it are always lean and healthy. The utter fallacy of the Westernhigh protein diet, containing perhaps 20% total calories in protein, is obvious whenit is considered that the most natural food possible--mother's milk, on which aninfant can double its weight in three to six months--contains only 6% protein, measuredas a percentage of total calories, and this amount reduces to about half after sixmonths. The diet of healthy West New Guinea Highlanders examined in 1969 containedonly 3% protein.
Here are two menus for a day--protein in grams:
No. 1 -- High ProteinBreakfast     Orange juice (3), 2 fried eggs (14),     1 slice bacon (15), 2 slices toast (4)        36 gmLunch     Baked flounder (100), fried potatoes (5),     beans (2), fruit (3)&#9;&#9;110 gmDinner     400 gm T-bone Steak (100), potato (5),     vegetables (5), fruit (3)                   113 gm                                           Total--259 gmNo. 2 -- Low ProteinBreakfast     1 glass fresh orange juice (3),     muesli ( 12),fruit (3)                        18 gmLunch     Fresh salad (5), wholegrain bread (2),      fruit (6)                                     13 gmDinner     Lightly cooked vegetables (5), raw salad     vegetables (5), fruit (6)                     16 gm                                            Total--47 gm
This low-protein menu is a typical strict vegetarian diet.Most dieticians would faint at the low protein level and yet it contains, even withoutnuts and lentils, almost double the required amount of complete protein. There aremany healthy vegetarians around who eat less protein and have done so for years.
Protein is essential for life, but far more people die becauseof excess of it than because of too little.

Carbohydrates
Most of the calories contained in food, regardless of the kindof diet, go to provide energy. Any excess, after energy and protein requirementsare met, are stored as glycogen in limited amounts in the liver and muscle tissues,and the rest as fat, in unlimited amounts all over the body.
To provide the body with energy, the bloodstream requires aconstant supply of carbohydrate in the form of glucose (blood sugar), and fat inthe form of free fatty acids, so it can deliver them to all body cells. The brainand nervous system use glucose exclusively and the muscles use both fat and carbohydratein proportions which vary with the intensity and duration of work.
The sort of food which best provides these fuels is a diet offruit, vegetables and cereals. Fruit and vegetables are best eaten raw and providea desirable alkaline condition to the blood. Cereals require cooking to facilitatedigestion, and because their starch is a more complex type of carbohydrate, the digestionmay take longer.* Cereals also contain a good deal of protein, and in one form oranother form the basis of sustenance for most of humanity. With the exception ofmillet and buckwheat, cereals are acid forming and should be eaten sparingly. Riceperhaps is the best because it is digested much easier than the other cereals andis less acid forming.
*This statement may not be true of all cereals. For instance, it has recently been discovered that wholewheat bread, pasta and some cooked vegetables such as carrots and parsnips, release glucose into the bloodstream at an undesirably rapid rate. (See Cereals.) See also statement by Dr. Howell in Chapter 21.
Natural carbohydrate foods as they are digested provide a steadysupply of glucose into the bloodstream, and when the carbohydrate is metabolized,the only byproducts formed are carbon dioxide and water, natural substances and completelyharmless. The blood sugar level remains constant and the body feels good, the brainalert.
Carbohydrates may be classified as starches (complex), or sugars(simple); some foods contain both. Whereas starch is composed of complex moleculeswhich are more difficult to digest, sugar is a simple molecule carbohydrate and israpidly digested. Refined or cooked carbohydrates of any kind can cause temporaryexcesses in blood sugar levels which the body converts to triglycerides (see Chapter21). This effect, if exaggerated, is undesirable, it increases blood viscosity andmay result in low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).
There are different kinds of sugar in all food, and naturalsugars in raw fruit and vegetables taken in moderate quantities are ideal nourishment,and do not cause big excursions in blood sugar. Fructose (fruit sugar) and galactose(milk sugar) taken in raw fruit and raw milk are accompanied with complex carbohydrateand natural enzymes and do not overtax the body. Nevertheless, fruit is better eatenat spaced intervals rather than large amounts all at once, and eaten whole ratherthan juiced. Ripe fruit contains more sugar than green fruit, because the ripeningprocess converts the more complex starches to natural sugar. Dried fruits are nourishingbut very concentrated so should be eaten in small quantities. As mentioned earlier,a properly selected mixed fruit diet contains small but sufficient amounts of proteinas well as small but sufficient amounts of fat.
Any food refined for commercial purposes is depleted in nourishmentand is harmful for a number of reasons. White flour is not only poor in nourishmentand capable of upsetting body chemistry to the extent of causing arthritis, but atthe same time is devoid of natural fiber and therefore tends also to cause constipation.
Ordinary white sugar or brown sugar is sucrose, a combinationof two simpler sugars, glucose and fructose, and is derived from the sap of plantsbut without the plant's nourishing properties. Because the glucose and fructose arechemically bonded together in sucrose, they are not available for use in the bodyuntil digestive enzymes split them apart, whereas in nature both sugars as foundin fruit, honey and nectar are already apart and enter the bloodstream without effortor excursion. Honey is a derivative of plant nectar and consists largely of fructoseand glucose unbonded, and when found in natural beehives and not heated or processed,contains sufficient mineral salts and other nutrients together with natural enzymesto make it a nourishing food.
All refined carbohydrates, including raw sugar, treacle, molassesand processed honey, whether in drinks, cakes, confectionery or other forms, cancause disruption to normal blood chemistry with adverse physical and mental effectssuch as hypogtycemia, headaches, depression, hyperactivity, irrational or violentbehavior, high blood viscosity, angina etc.
Refined carbohydrate, devoid of vitamins itself, still requiresVitamin B1 to be metabolized in the body. Thus it will utilizebody stores of Vitamin B1 and this can lead to chronic deficiencyof the vitamin. A Vitamin B1 deficiency causes underactivityof the thyroid gland (which controls cholesterol production in the body) resultingin elevated blood cholesterol, triglycerides and lessened body metabolism and vitality.
No wonder Professor John Yudkin of London called his book Sweetand Deadly. In Britain, he says, sugar intake is 25 times the amount that itwas a couple of centuries ago. Natural Health, Sugar and the Criminal Mindby J. I. Rodale describes how criminal and vicious tendencies are induced by highsugar consumption. And yet the sugar industry still tries to "con" thepublic that their sugar is good for you!
You cannot eliminate sugar from your diet without making somedrastic changes in the type of food you eat. The Consumers Union of the USA has analyzeda number of common food products and found that some of them contained more sugarthan candy, ice cream and soft drinks. Heinz Tomato Ketchup, for example, had moresugar in it (23.9%) than Sealtest Chocolate Ice Cream (21.4%). Wishbone Russian Dressingwas 30.2% sugar, and Coffee Mate, a substitute for cream, was 65.4% sugar comparedto 51.4% for Hershey's milk chocolate. Cherry flavored Jell-O contained 82.6% sugar.Quaker 100% Natural Cereal contained 23.9% sugar and Hamburger Helper 23%.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, 27% of refinedsugar consumed in the USA in 1977 was in beverages, mostly soft drinks. The remainderwas consumed as follows:
Retail sugar packages                 25%Bakery and cereal products            17%Confectionery                         10%Conned or frozen fruits and  vegetables, jellies and preserves    8%Dairy products                         6%Public eating places                   3%Institutions                           1%
At a NSW Education Department organized seminar on nutritionfor school children, it was reported that popular brands of breakfast cereal containabout 50% sugar, even All Bran had 18%. The Vitamin C drink, Tang, had 94%. Ice cream,flavored milk and yoghurt can contain large quantities of sugar. Practically allcanned and packaged food contains large quantities of sugar or salt or both, evensome brands of bread.
Sugar contents of some breakfast cereals*                                  % Sugar                                  Content        Product                  by weightKellogg's Honey Smacks              52.2Kellogg's Froot Flavored Loops      51.7Kellogg's Strawberry Pops           46.0Kellogg's Frosties                  44.2Kellogg's Nutri-Grain               43.7Kellogg's Coco Pops                 40.9Kellogg's Sultana Bran              33.4Kellogg's Bran Buds                 29.7Sanitarium Honey Weets              28.0Sanitarium Weeta Puffs              25.8White Wings Original Bran Crunch    25.4Sanitarium Crunchy Granola          24.9Sanitarium San-Bran                 24.1Kellogg's All-Bran                  18.1Sanitarium Golden O's               16.9Kellogg's Special K                 16.7Nabisco Extra G                     15.9Kellogg's Bran Flakes               12.0Sanitarium Popped Rice              11.4Nabisco Crispies                     9.6Sanitarium Skippy Corn Flakes        9.4Kellogg's Rice Bubbles               8.8Sanitarium Mini Weet-Bix             8.3Kellogg's Corn Flakes                7.4Sanitarium Weet-Bix                  4.0Nabisco Vita Brits                   3.3Sanitarium Puffed Wheat              3.2Kellogg's Ready Wheats               2.9Nabisco Weeties                      2.9Nabisco Shredded Wheat               2.2*Total sugars after hydrolisis.                            Choice, 1979
Health food confectionery substitutes and "energy"bars etc. are practically all sugar of some kind. And if the bulk of your food comesout of a supermarket then you are getting lots of sugar, salt and fat whether youlike it or not. Sugar addiction in this country is one of the greatest menaces tothe health of our population.
Alcohol is a refined carbohydrate and should be avoided. Itis common for doctors to allow heart patients to drink a little whisky, and someeven advise it because they believe it dilates the arteries and allows better circulation.In fact, the only vessels which dilate are those in the skin, and because alcoholelevates blood triglycerides and impairs oxygen respiration of the tissues, its useserves no good purpose.

Fats
The main function of fat in our bodies is to provide muscularenergy. Where stored in the body it acts as padding and insulation. It is not necessaryto eat it, the body can convert protein and carbohydrate into all the fat it needswith the exception of "essential" linoleic acid. The amount of linoleicacid required is so small that any diet of adequate calories must provide ample.Even lettuce has a fat content of about 9% of total calories.
The worst fault with the Western diet is that it contains concentratedfats far in excess of the body's capability to safely handle, and whether saturated,unsaturated or polyunsaturated, is the most singularly dangerous factor involvedin every one of the so-called degenerative/metabolic diseases, including cancer.However, the danger of dietary fat is far less if it is consumed raw as in raw milkor raw blubber as eaten by Eskimos. The reason for this is explained in the discussionon raw food.
When a typical meal is digested, the fat content is mainly absorbedinto the lymph vessels and only a small part, glycerol and short chain fatty acids,are taken up by the intestinal capillaries. Thus most of the fat at first completelyby-passes the liver and enters the bloodstream via the neck veins, Now the liveris the largest gland in the body, capable of over 500 complex functions, and yetit receives these fats not from the intestine with the rest of the nutrients, butvia the main bloodstream in a manner and quantity not intended by Nature.
On a high fat diet with insufficient carbohydrate, the bodymust rely on fat and protein to provide its energy needs. In this process compoundscalled ketones are produced which in high concentrations can produce kidney damage.The efficiency of fat metabolism depends on the degree of physical fitness and isfurther discussed in Chapter 17.
Fats are a natural component of vegetable foods, and consumedthat way, they are beneficial. All evidence points to animal fats as being dangerous,correlating directly with high cholesterol levels and the incidence of heart disease.Its correlation to cholesterol is unavoidable as animal fat itself as well as animalprotein, contains cholesterol. Consumption of polyunsaturated vegetable fats andoils does not correlate with the incidence of heart disease, but it does correlatewith the incidence of cancer and can precipitate heart attacks in people with heartdisease. It was found, about twenty odd years ago, that when polyunsaturated vegetablefats were substituted in the diet for saturated fats, blood cholesterol decreasedand here is where dangerous confusion arises. Because of this confusion, followingthe advice of the National Heart Foundation, I nearly killed my wife with the bestquality cold-pressed safflower oil and polyunsaturated margarine.
The reason the cholesterol level falls is because the saturatedfat, which contains cholesterol, has been removed from the diet and because polyunsaturatedfat causes cholesterol to be deposited from the blood directly into the body tissuesincluding the walls of the arteries. The cholesterol reduction occurs whether polyunsaturatedfat is present or not present. Messrs M. L. Armstrong and M. G. Megan in 1972 demonstratedthis with two groups of monkeys, one fed a diet containing 4% of the calories asfat and the other a diet containing 40% polyunsaturated corn oil. Both diets producedthe same degree of regression of atherosclerosis with substantially decreased cholesterolin the blood and in the artery walls. A more recent study by Messrs Chakravarti,Kumar and Nair in 1977 using 40% safflower oil showed the same results.
It is a different story if cholesterol is added to such diets.When groups of monkeys were fed diets containing 50% fat with the addition of 2%cholesterol, regardless of the type of fat--peanut oil, corn oil or butter oil--themonkeys all developed cardiovascular disease, the peanut oil being the worst. Becauseof its apparent effect of lowering blood cholesterol, polyunsaturated fat was assumedto be beneficial to people with cardiovascular disease. When in fact it was the veryopposite.
It is most important to understand that the acquisition of coronaryheart disease is one thing, and that the factors triggering off angina or a heartattack after having acquired advanced heart disease, is another thing altogether,and polyunsaturated fat such as margarine or oil in the diet can trigger off anginaand heart attacks in susceptible people like nobody's business. Not only has concentratedpolyunsaturated fat been shown to have no beneficial effect on diseased arteries,it causes cholesterol to concentrate in the liver, causing gallstones. It has alsobeen shown to depress Vitamin B synthesis by the intestinal bacteria, to increasethe requirement for Vitamin E, and to depress calcium absorption.
The ingestion of free polyunsaturated fat causes severe redblood cell aggregation, reducing the blood's oxygen capacity and increasing its viscosityto a greater extent even than saturated fat. High intake of polyunsaturated fat isassociated with an increased incidence of cancer, partly because of this effect onthe blood.
In a test at the V A Hospital in Los Angeles, polyunsaturatedfats were largely substituted for saturated fats in the diets of 422 men, and a controlgroup of 424 men remained on the typical American diet. The test group sustained5% less deaths from heart attacks, but the incidence of gallstones and cancer increasedand the total deaths were the same.
Dr Meyer Friedman, co-author of Type 'A Behavior and YourHeart noted that in tests on 44 firemen comparing the effects of butterfat andsafflower oil on the bloodstream, the safflower oil caused the same degree of redcell aggregation as did the butterfat cream. But worse, the safflower oil drink elevatedtriglycerides to a higher level and whereas the butterfat triglyceride level returnedto normal after nine hours, the safflower level at nine hours had not even startedto fall.
But popular beliefs are hard to shift. J. I. Rodale, a dedicatedproponent of natural living and author of several books about it, and who was founderof Prevention magazine available worldwide, died of a heart attack in hisearly seventies while being interviewed on TV. He advocated in his book Rodale'sSystem for Mental Power and Natural Health, the inclusion in the diet of plentyof meat, fish and eggs, safflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, oliveoil and honey. The books of Lelord Kordel, Gayelord Hauser and Adelle Davis are similarin that they advocate diets containing excess protein, cholesterol and fat.
Adelle Davis died of cancer, and more recently Gayelord Hauserdied of heart disease.
We must judge by results. Wherever in the world you look, Finland,USA, Africa or New Guinea, people on high fat/cholesterol diets get clogged up arteriesand cancer, and people on low fat diets do not.

Salt
It is totally unnecessary to add salt to food. It is a harmfulirritant conducive to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, kidney damage,edema, arthritis, migraine and cancer. Perhaps the main danger from salt is its effectof inhibiting enzymes, which is the reason it works as a food preservative. Sea saltand monosodiumglutamate are equally harmful, and various salt substitutes shouldbe avoided. Adequate organic sodium is provided in fruit and vegetables.
Salt is expelled by the body in the urine and perspiration,and thirst is induced to replace the water lost thereby. Unless the water is replaced,dehydration may occur which of course increases the blood viscosity. At the sametime salt retained in body tissues extracts water into those tissues where it maybe retained to cause swelling known as edema. The swelling not only restricts oxygentransfer to the tissue cells but exerts pressure on the capillary vessels furtherimpeding the circulation.
Even before it is absorbed by digestion, salt is a harmful irritantin the digestive tract. Damage can be caused to the stomach lining by osmotic pressurewhich is the property of a substance to absorb water to itself. Salt (and to a lesserextent sugar) taken in large amounts on an empty stomach can be observed througha gastroscope to inflame the stomach lining as cells shrivel when the water is robbedfrom them. Japanese have a high incidence of stomach cancer which is thought to beassociated with their high salt intake. It has been observed in Japan that such inflammationmay persist for two weeks after the intake of salt has been stopped. The Japanesealso have the highest rate of hypertension in the world, which is undoubtedly dueto their high salt intake. Also associated with dietary salt is the retention ofuric acid in the body.
It is a fallacy that salt should be taken to counter that lostby perspiration. It is expelled by perspiration because the body wants to get ridof it. Once in Singapore I got bushed in jungle behind the Bukit Tima Reservoir.I hiked for five hours, lost a gallon (10 lbs) of water from my body in the middayheat and although desperately thirsty, not once felt tired or cramp.
As more knowledge is acquired throughout the world, many fallaciesare being dispelled. One of these fallacies is that endurance athletes require extrasalt, particularly in hot weather. It has been shown repeatedly that regardless oftemperature, long distance runners perform best on diets free of added salt.
Salt and Premenstrual Tension: "Up to 90% of womensuffer needlessly from premenstrual tension during their childbearing years,"said Dr Niels Laverson, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at CornellUniversity. "By simply giving up or severely restricting the amount of saltin their diet many of them can cut out the aggravating feeling of moodiness, depressionand bloatedness." Dr Laverson is the co-author of It's Your Body--A Woman'sGuide to Gynecology. He explained: "The week before a woman has her period,there is a build up in her body of two hormones--progesterone and estrogen. Estrogenbinds salt to the body and salts bind water. The result is a build-up of water whichcauses pre-menstrual tension, excess fluid in the brain causes headaches. Fluid inother parts of the body causes fatigue". (See Menstrual problems, Chapter 21.)

Meat
All animal protein foods tend to be harmful in a number of ways.They introduce too much protein into the diet, they contain too much fat and theycontain cholesterol. When cooked they produce cancer-inducing chemicals and are devoidof enzymes. They are also devoid of fiber and therefore cause constipation.
When beef is raised in stalls and especially fattened by theuse of hormones and overfeeding, the fat content of the meat is increased enormously,but long before this practice was adopted by meat producers, observant medical menalways have noted the markedly adverse effects of eating meat.
Dr Arnold Lorand of Austria in his book, Old Age Deferred(1910) devoted an entire chapter to the "Dangers of an Abundant Meat Diet".He had observed, and he quoted a number of other medical researchers who had observedthe following facts:
1.	After eating much meat, nervous disorders are far more frequent. 
2.	There are many more instances of neurasthenia and hysteria among meat eaters than vegetarians. 
3.	In the treatment of many nervous disorders, far better results are obtained after excluding meat from the diet. 
4.	The symptoms of Graves disease and myxoedema are aggravated after partaking of meat. 
5.	Meat produces high levels of toxins in the system which impose a strain on the vital organs. 
6.	The thyroid gland, liver, kidneys, pancreas and other ductless glands become altered and finally damaged on a high meat diet. 
7.	The thyroid enhances the catabolism of fat, and if the thyroid function is impaired, atheroma of the aorta may follow. 
8.	A diet high in meat causes gout and arteriosclerosis. 
9.	A diet high in meat often results in cancer. 
10.	Diabetes sometimes results from a diet high in meat and if already present will be exacerbated. 
11.	The viscosity of the blood is increased and circulation reduced. 
12.	Meat produces acids in the system which can, to a great extent, be counteracted by eating lots of fruit and vegetables. 
13.	Meat does not stimulate peristaltic movements of the intestine and the intestinal transit is slow with resulting putrefaction and constipation. 
14.	Resorption of toxins from the constipated bowel inflicts further strain on the kidneys.
Dr Lorand further observed that white meats and fish (exceptsalmon, carp or red fleshed fish) are more easily tolerated by body.
Having described the special function of the thyroid gland,working together with other glands, in destroying toxins produced in the body frommeat, Dr Lorand explained how meat could be rendered much less harmful by boilingit instead of roasting. Boiling removed certain harmful substances which he did notdefine, but the proof he furnished is as follows:
Dr Leo Breisacher of Detroit demonstrated that when dogs weredeprived of their thyroid they could survive for a long time on a diet of milk buton meat they died in a few days. Similarly, dogs without a thyroid could survivea long time if fed boiled meat, but died if fed the bouillon made from meat.*
*Dr de Lacy Evans, quoted earlier, before devoting his career to natural medicine, was a surgeon in a cancer hospital. He said, "When meat is given, it should be boiled, and the liquid broth, soup or beef tea, thrown away. It contains the irritating constituents of flesh which encourage the growth of cancer".
Dr Lorand said: "Every physician can observe daily, aswe have, that when patients suffering from disorders of the liver take meat, theygradually get worse, but when they gave up meat they soon got better," and finally:
"When we study the nature of the diet enjoyed by personswho have lived over 100, we find, indeed, exceedingly few who are great meat eaters;very many are persons who eat no meat at all; and in many cases, also, the originalmeat diet was subsequently abandoned in advanced age. According to the report ofthe Collective Investigation Committee of the British Medical Association, the 55centenarians whose cases they examined, were for the most part, small meat eaters."
The International Agency for Research on Cancer in 1977 reportedthat although total fat consumption in Copenhagen is lower than in rural Finland,the meat consumption is higher, and so is the rate of colon cancer, which is fourtimes higher in Copenhagen.
Meat, Of course, not only contributes protein, fat and cholesterol,but as inferred, appears to contain substances which are specifically carcinogenic,at the same time being conducive to the condition of constipation.

Poultry
The meat of fowls contains fat and cholesterol, and thereforethe same objections as against meat are held, but to a lesser degree, against it.Apart from these objections it should be remembered that a great variety of chemicalsis used in chicken feed to promote the growth of the chickens as well as certainpreservatives in the feed itself, the harmful effect of which is passed on to whoevercats the chicken.

Fish
Fish from unpolluted waters is the least toxin-producing ofthe animal Protein foods. It can be eaten raw. If fish is marinated in lemon juiceand then warmed a little before eating, its texture and taste is the same as if itwas cooked. Ocean fish provides a better source of minerals.
The advantages of fish as a food, particularly if consumed uncooked,have already been explained and are further discussed under "The Value of RawFood".

Cereals
Cereals of one kind or another provide the bulk of the energyin the diets of most people world wide, and for many they also provide the bulk ofthe protein. However, they cannot be said to be a natural food for humans becausethey do not abundantly occur in nature, having only comparatively recently been developedby man as a crop food.
Despite their nutritional qualities, cereals do not providebalanced nourishment, and in some ways are quite harmful if eaten in large quantities.The fact alone that cereals contain absolutely no Vitamin C is enough to disqualifythem as a highly suitable food for humans. (See discussion on Vitamin C.) With theexception of millet and buckwheat, they are acid forming in the body, and even whencooked are comparatively difficult to digest and produce flatulence. In food allergytests, after eggs (33%), wheat products excite the greatest percentage of reactions(30%) in those tested. Cereals are known to exacerbate arthritis and diabetes insome people, and populations which consume them in great quantities are not longlived.
Studies made by various medical researchers in the 1800s describedby Dr Emmet Densmore of England in his book, How Nature Cures, incriminatecereals, wheat in particular, in causing deposits of calcium salts in the tissues,and hardening of the arteries. Similar tissue degeneration was noted in Indian peoplewhose diet consisted mainly of rice.
Furthermore, bread and other cereal-starch foods are the primecause of the acids formed in the mouth which attack and decay teeth.
World Wars I and II in Europe provided valuable informationon nutrition, but this has been misinterpreted and wrong conclusions have been formedabout cereals. As mentioned earlier, autopsies of concentration camp victims fedon meager scraps showed complete clearance of fat deposits in their arteries. InAustria, where all civilian deaths require a full autopsy, statistics showed thatbetween 1939 and 1945 heart attacks decreased by 75%. Does this mean that the wartimeAustrian diet, dependent on potatoes and cereals, likewise cleared their arteriesof atherosclerosis? It certainly would appear so, but that is not the case.
In his book Solved: The Riddle of Heart Attacks, (RobinsonPress, Fort Collins, Colorado 1976), Dr Broda Barnes MD, PhD, related:
"I have personally reviewed 70,000 autopsy protocols atGraz, Austria, carried out between the years 1930-1970. At Graz, heart attacks dropped75% between 1939 and 1945, and it is true that people were not eating cholesterolfoods during the war. However, the low cholesterol diet did not protect their arteriesfrom hardening. A look at the arteries of the entire series of 2,000 autopsies in1945 revealed that the number of individuals with damage to their coronary arterieswas approximately doubled in 1945 compared to 1939, and the degree of damage to eachone affected was about twice as great. In other words, the low cholesterol diet hadnot only failed to protect the arteries, but the damage was increased four-fold."
Why then did heart attack deaths fall when the heart diseaserate increased? Dr Barnes says tuberculosis killed the people before they could havetheir heart attack, but the disparity in numbers is too great for that to be themajor reason. It is far more likely that the heart attack rates fell because of thedrastically decreased fat in the diet which would result in lower blood viscosityand better circulation even in worsened arteries.
Dr Edward Howell, formerly of Chicago, (see Chapter 6) in hisbook The Status of Food Enzymes in Digestion and Metabolism (1946), describedextensive clinical research which among many other things revealed that Malays andFilipinos, who subsist mainly on rice, develop marked hypertrophy of the pancreas.The pancreas is the organ which produces essential digestive enzymes in additionto its job of producing insulin. Hypertrophy of an organ indicates it is being overworked.Compared to the average not-overweight American (who, the studies showed, also hadan enlarged pancreas), the Malays and Filipinos pancreas' were, in proportion tototal body weight, 50% larger. Compared to herviborous animals, the rice-eaters pancreaswere 300% larger. (See discussion on raw food.)
Damage to the intestinal lining and subsequent impairment ofthe digestion is called coeliac disease, characterized by the inability to digestcereals containing gluten (eg. wheat, rye, barley and oats) with relatively poorabsorption of other nutrients as well. Coeliac disease is caused by the feeding ofcereals to infants before their intestines are developed sufficiently to withstandtheir damaging effect. Thus the condition is permanent and is exhibited as a lifetimeallergy to cereals.
Recent experiments by Dr E. W. Williams, University Collegeof North Wales, UK, showed that wheat protein is antigenic to rats. It causes hyperactivityto rats not used to them, and increased activity in those that are. In addition,Dr Williams found that the intestinal villi of the rats whose diet included wheatprotein changed in shape from long and slender to shorter and blunt. Similar villousatrophy has been observed in humans, he said.
Dr Herbert Shelton, one of the best-known and most experiencedresearchers in nutrition of the 20th Century, said of cereals: "Of all starchfoods eaten by man, cereals, along with legumes, are the least fitted to the capacitiesof his digestive organs and are also least well-fitted to meet the nutritive needsof his body".
As a staple food, rice is far preferable to wheat, or oats.It contains a lower, more desirable level of protein, is less acid forming, morenourishing, and leaves less toxins and residues for the body to dispose of. To offsetthe undesirable properties of cereals, they should be accompanied by fresh fruitand vegetables.
Notwithstanding their disadvantages, cereals, as the basis ofmost national diets, and in combination with vegetables and fruit, sustain peoplein good health for many years. The health-promoting qualities of the Pritikin dietwhich relies heavily on cereals, are indisputable, and even healthy athletes whochange to it from the conventional diet experience improved mental and physical performance.
However, the same or better performance can be gained withoutcereals. For instance, in 1978 John Marino of Santa Monica, set a new USA cross-countrybicycle record of 13 days, 1 hour and 20 minutes. In 1979, on a diet high in riceand wheat, he tried to better that record but could not complete the ride due todizziness and fatigue, and later found he was allergic to these foods. In 1980, ona diet of fruit, vegetables, beans and fish, he knocked over 21 hours off his 1978record to create a new one of 12 days, 3 hours and 41 minutes, and said he felt hecould have continued riding, perhaps even back to Santa Monica.
My reservations about cereals began not long after I adoptedthe Pritikin diet in 1976, and started eating lots of oatmeal and wholegrain bread.*I started getting twinges of arthritis in my right elbow and occasional symptomsof hypoglycemia. When I cut right down on bread and ate more fruit these problemsvanished. Then I noticed that although some people on the Pritikin diet were rapidlyclear of arthritis, others still had it in varying degrees and could only gain reliefby eliminating wheat products and oats. Other people complained of dry skin. Anotherquery arose from a 55-year-old acquaintance who benefited greatly in health fromthe Pritikin diet but after two years was still experiencing prostate trouble andhad developed a fibrous cyst which was removed surgically. His prostate problem waseliminated after he cut out eating cereal products and replaced them with raw fruit.
*In Radiant Health Digest, July 1936, Dr Howell reported tests from the University of Tennessee which showed that contrary to long accepted opinion, the carbohydrate from wholewheat bread is digested and absorbed very rapidly into the bloodstream, as is also the starch of cooked potato. These facts have been rediscovered by Dr David Jenkins of the University of Toronto, who measured the 'glycemic ratings' of different foods. His findings, released in 1983, showed that wholewheat bread, pasta, cooked carrots, and other unsuspected complex carbohydrates, instead of releasing glucose slowly into the bloodstream, did so at a rate faster than did table sugar or ice cream. This means that some so-called unrefined carbohydrate foods, once cooked, no longer are protective against excursions of blood sugar and triglycerides, but instead are capable of causing such excursions. (See Hypoglycemia, in Chapter 21.)
My studies of the effects of various diets on achieving remissionsof cancer led me further to dispute the value of cereals and cooked food and thespecific reasons I have described elsewhere in this book. Additionally, it is significantthat the primitive people upon whose diets the Pritikin diet is modelled, althoughnot heirs to the diseases of civilization, at the same time are not renowned fortheir longevity. I was eventually forced to the conclusion arrived at by Dr de LacyEvans, Dr Densmore, Dr Howell and others, many years ago, that although cereal-baseddiets are far preferable to a diet based on animal protein foods, the benefits gainedcome not from the cereals, but from the exclusion of animal protein, fat and cholesterol,and that greater benefit still can be gained by displacing cereals from the dietwith fruit and vegetables. This conclusion was not shaken when in May 1983 Dr PaavoAirola, one of the most widely read nutritionists in the world, whose books promotedcereals above all other foods, died of a stroke at the age of 65.

Sprouted cereals
Seeds which have sprouted form a completely different foodstuffaltogether. They are very nutritious in that the enzymes are no longer inhibited,starch is converted to easily digested natural sugars, and various vitamins becomeavailable. Eaten in this form cereals are a desirable food substance. Even seed-eatingbirds are only able to digest seeds after germination has begun; they are equippedwith a crop in which the seeds remain after swallowing until ready for digestion.

Nuts
Nuts are similar to cereals inasmuch as they are seeds and assuch contain enzyme inhibitors which make them hard to digest. Like cereals, theyare more easily digested after roasting because this deactivates the enzyme inhibitors.Despite cooking, they are still difficult to digest, and because they contain highlevels of fat and protein, nuts cannot be considered a desirable source of nourishment,regardless of whatever nutritional virtues they do have.
Although it is generally believed that nuts are a natural foodfor man, Dr Edward Howell's studies show that the wild primates eat them only beforethey are fully grown, i.e. before the enzyme inhibitors are formed. Squirrels keepnuts in their cheek pouches sometimes, and at other times store nuts in a damp place,presumably in both cases to render them more edible.
In 1927, Dr Howell, as a young man, adopted an all raw fooddiet composed to a very large extent of raw nuts. He soon became ill with troubleddigestion and general malaise and was forced to abandon the diet, which left himwith permanently impaired digestion. At that time nothing was known about the enzymeinhibitors in seeds (nuts are seeds), but it can now be seen why raw cereals andnuts present digestive problems and why these foods are more easily digested cooked.Pritikin bans nuts on the score of fat alone.

Milk
Milk, when it is provided from the mother's breast, is a perfectfood for a baby, providing of course that the mother herself is healthy and on anutritious diet.
Because in the past many undernourished children have benefitedfrom cow's milk given them at school, milk has gained a reputation as being essentialfor growing children.
Milk is not a natural food for any species of animal exceptfor the very young fed by their own mother. Mothers' milk is structured exactly tothe requirements of the infant, changing slightly as the child grows. According toDr Steven Gross of Duke University, even when a child is born prematurely, the milkof the mother at that time has different concentrations of protein, sodium and chloride,suited specifically for the premature infant's needs. It was important, said Dr Gross,that premature babies be fed milk from the natural mother and not other human milkor milk formula because milk other than from the baby's own mother could not be properlytolerated. Even after normal births the mother's milk continued to change in proteincontent etc. to suit the needs of the baby as it grew. Apart from nutritional aspects,the natural mother's milk contained immunological substances which convey protectionagainst infection until the infant's own immune system developed.
And because in early life babies do not manufacture in theirbodies sufficient enzymes for normal body metabolism, they are dependent on the naturalenzymes furnished in their mothers' milk. The danger of feeding babies formula orpasteurized milk, devoid of enzymes, can be seen to be a major factor in the cotdeath problem (see Chapter 21).
Cow's milk is responsible for more allergies than any othersubstance (see the section on allergies later in this chapter and also Chapter 19).British studies, reported in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, found thatup to 40% of children were sensitive to it. Another study, in Denmark, showed therehas been a dramatic fall in the incidence of childhood diabetes since breast-feedinghas come back into vogue.
Cow's milk contains a fair amount of fat and cholesterol, ispractically devoid of Vitamin C, and has three times the amount of sodium comparedto human milk. As already mentioned, cows' milk contains over twice the amount ofprotein as human milk and can cause hypernatremic dehydration in bottle-fed babiesbecause of the large amounts of water required to flush from the body the waste productsof protein metabolism. Thus cow's milk causes the problem of bed-wetting, 90-95%of all cases being attributable to it.
Even when it is necessary to wean a baby early, there is nonecessity to give the child cow's milk. Tests have shown that whether cow's milk,a mixed diet, or a vegetarian diet is given, the growth rate is the same.
Milk cannot be considered a good food, particularly pasteurized,and together with other dairy products should be avoided, except perhaps for smallquantities of raw milk and non-fat milk products. Although raw milk contains valuablenutrients in addition to its harmful ones, much of these are destroyed if the milkis pasteurized.
A medical paper, The Effect of Heat Processed Foods and MetabolizedVitamin D Milk on the Dentofacial Structures of Experimental Animals by Dr FrancisPottenger (1946) described tests on cats where one group was fed raw milk, anothergroup pasteurized milk, and a third group evaporated milk and condensed milk. Theexperiment was continued for four generations of cats.
All generations on the raw milk group thrived. The other twogroups deteriorated from the start. They suffered a lowered condition and the secondgeneration was depleted by stillbirth, miscarriage, spontaneous abortion, or resorptionin the uterus. The survivors had many defects which included eczema, calcificationof tissues, anatomical defects, neuroses and abnormalities in neuromuscular co-ordination.Anatomical differences between the sexes became less apparent and homosexuality appeared.
The third generation was greatly depleted and there was no fourthgeneration at all; there was not even an attempt at reproduction by the third generation.
In another paper by Dr Maurice Bowerman of Beaverton, Oregon,titled "Milk and Thought Disorder" (Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry, Vol 9, No 4, 1980), Dr Bowerman described the damaging effect of milk on five ofhis psychiatric patients who had suffered for years from confusion, detachment, poormemory, poor mental efficiency, and paranoid thinking, all accompanied by fatigue.Two had been hospitalized. When milk was removed from their diets four patients becamesymptom-free and the fifth improved.
Dr Howell points out that once upon a time people maintainedvigorous health and achieved long life on diets containing large amounts of dairyfoods. But this was before the era of pasteurization.
One reason for the harmful effect of pasteurized milk, accordingto Dr Howell, is the destruction of the natural enzymes present in raw milk whichare at least 35 in number, without which enzymes milk cannot be properly digested.No wonder infants develop allergies to milk and dairy products. One of the most importantenzymes in raw milk is lipase, the enzyme which breaks down fat, says Dr Howell.Thus raw dairy products do not result in high cholesterol levels and the rapid onsetof atherosclerosis.

Yoghurt
Yoghurt has for a long while been accepted as a health promotingfood, and the evidence usually quoted to support this belief is the supposed longevityof people in Bulgaria who regularly consume yoghurt.
Investigating this belief, experiments by American and Frenchdoctors in the 1890s and early 1900s on both animals and humans, showed that lacticbacillus cultures from yoghurt included in the diet brought about a diminution ofintestinal putrefaction caused by harmful anaerobic bacteria which accompanies meatin the diet. Thus yoghurt taken with the Western high fat/meat diet must convey somebenefit at least if the yoghurt is unpasteurized. Although yoghurt is consideredto be a dairy product, the fact that it has been "reprocessed" by the yoghurtbacteria into a more digestible form than milk makes it a far more preferable formof food.

Dietary fiber
It has always been considered beneficial to eat foods containing"bulk". It was not thought essential, but desirable, as it helped eliminationand prevented constipation.
Dietary fiber does not contribute directly to nourishment. Itsfunction is to add volume and water to the fecal matter which not only ensures easyelimination, but reduces the entire transit time between eating and elimination toabout one day instead of up to three which a traditional diet takes.
It was observed by Dr Denis Burkitt and by Dr Hugh Trowell whoboth spent 25 years working in Africa, that among natives living on the "ruralAfrican diet", almost entirely vegetarian and high in fiber, the following diseaseswere unknown: cancer of the bowel and rectum; diverticulosis, diverticulitis, constipation,hemorrhoids (piles); varicose veins; phlebitis (thrombophlebitis); appendicitis;hernia; hiatus hernia.
In the intestine, fiber absorbs about eight times its own volumeof water and causes nearly 30% more bile (which is two-thirds cholesterol) to beexcreted. Some researchers claim that a high fiber diet can reduce blood cholesterolby 22%. Other tests showed that fiber by itself has no effect. (Dr Thomas Raymond,University of Oregon, 1976). As a natural high fiber diet is low in fat, cholesterol,protein and refined carbohydrate, on such a diet a reduction in body cholesterolis inevitable anyhow. A low fat, low cholesterol, high fiber diet helps the livermaintain the correct level of the hormone estrogen which can be undesirably highon the Western diet. High levels of estrogen are associated with premature sexualdevelopment in girls, and breast cancer.
Fiber is found only in plant foods. It is a type of complexcarbohydrate and contains cellulose, hemi-cellulose, lignin and pectin, which passthrough the intestines without being broken down by the digestive enzymes. Fruitand vegetable fibers are not as coarse as cereal fiber, particularly if cooked, butare adequate for good elimination. Processed foods, which contain nourishment inverselyproportional to the price, such as polished rice, most packaged cereals and instantpotatoes, have most of the fiber removed. Stone-ground flour contains more fiberand Vitamin E than ordinary flour which is steel-roller ground. Even stonegroundwholemeal bread is not high in fiber as the outer coating of the kernel of the grainis most lost in the milling.

Fruit (whole) vs fruit juice
(See Fruit, the natural food of primates)
It is far better to eat fruit whole for two reasons. Firstly,advantage is derived from the fiber and secondly, the nourishment is absorbed naturallyinstead of in concentrated form. The composition of commercially produced fruit juiceis always suspect anyway, and in the true sense cannot be regarded as fresh.

Onions and garlic
Onions, tabasco and garlic contain some factor which tends toreduce the tendency of blood to clot. Dr Menon demonstrated this effect with onions,served cooked or raw, at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, England.
I have read where European farmers who keep their cows indoorsduring winter feed them onions. The cows' circulation, impaired by inactivity, isprotected thereby from blood clotting. One entire book titled Garlic describedthe medicinal benefits of garlic as recorded by every civilization that ever leftrecords.
Garlic juice has been demonstrated to be a potent antiseptic,and two studies published in the British Medical Journal, Lancet in 1973,showed that garlic could reduce blood sugar in diabetes patients and reduce cholesterol.Its action therefore must be to reduce fat levels in the blood somehow, because diabetesis caused by high blood fat levels. (See Platelet Adhesiveness Index, Chapter 10.)
Taken in large quantities, garlic can cause irritation to thedigestive tract. Garlic contains allicin, which according to Japanese research findings,can destroy the membranes of red blood cells and inflame the gastrointestinal tract.

Health food restaurants
These are usually run by well-meaning people intent on supplyingtheir patrons with health-giving food. Unfortunately, most of their dishes are cookedand contain a high proportion of fat in the form of vegetable oils, nuts and cheese.

Health food stores
Health food stores sell some of the food you need unprocessedand in bulk. On the other hand, they sell a lot of stuff loaded with fat and sugarsuch as "health" cookies and sweets, chocolate substitutes, processed driedfruits high in sugar, vegetable oils, whether cold-pressed or not, and a great assortmentof nuts.
Some health enthusiasts spend a lot of money not only on vitaminsbut on food supplements such as lecithin, protein meal, protein powder, yeast, carob,ginseng, distilled water, and so on. There are salt substitutes which are sea saltmixed with vegetable powder.
Now while some foods are more nutritious than others, thereis no such thing as "magic" food which can promote radiant health. Mostailing people are not under-nourished, and radiant health is possible for them bymerely eliminating from their diet the type of foods that, throughout their life,have been polluting their blood.

Tea and coffee
Tea and coffee contain caffeine as do cocoa, cola drinks andchocolate. These beverages cause stress to the nervous system, increase uric acidproduction and can lead to kidney damage. Researchers at Boston University MedicalCenter consider coffee intake to be associated with heart attack and cancer, as itincreases blood clotting factors. Used with sugar these beverages are even more harmful.
Tea contains less caffeine than coffee but also contains tannin.The caffeine in tea dissolves quickly in boiling water but tannin takes longer. Teais therefore less harmful if taken weak and poured soon after making and preferablywith the addition of milk which renders the tannin innocuous.
The addiction to these drinks stems from the caffeine whichis a stimulating drug. It should be pointed out that hot or cold drinks can damagethe delicate membranes of the digestive tract. Very hot food or drink can eventuallypermanently destroy many of the tiny villi of the intestine walls and so reduce digestivecapability.

Beer
Beer and other forms of alcohol are refined carbohydrates andtherefore to a degree poisonous in the body. It has recently been shown after testsat Birmingham Hospital, England, that as little as three pints of mild ale per daywas enough to maintain a level of blood fats and increased blood viscosity sufficientto greatly increase blood pressure, particularly in coronary prone patients. Thisincreased blood viscosity was sufficient to significantly increase the risk of heartattack. The link between beer consumption and cancer already suggested by the reportfrom a British
Regional Heart Study recently, in which it was found heavy beerdrinkers had 30% more lead in their systems than teetotallers, is not surprising,particularly in view of the increased blood-fat effect.

Spices
Many spices are irritants to the digestive tract and adverselyaffect the kidneys and liver if regularly consumed. Some are considered to be carcinogenic(cancer producing).
Dr J. R. Johnson, Nephrologist at Sydney's Royal Prince AlfredHospital and Dr 0. Holmes, a surgeon at Lautoka Hospital, Fiji, reported their studyon Fijian Indians in the Australian Medical Journal. They postulated that"Curry Kidney" is akin to "Worcestershire Sauce Kidney" as describedby researchers in England and Australia, and which promotes susceptibility to kidneystones.
Scientists at the University of Texas report that common seasoningssuch as cayenne pepper, paprika and particularly turmeric (the main ingredient incurry powder) can alter body cells permanently by disorganizing chromosomes.

Distilled water and mineral water
Notwithstanding commercial sales talk, there is no evidencethat mineral water or spring water is in any degree superior to the plain tap wateravailable in most areas, except perhaps that it contains no fluoride or chlorine.On the other hand, there is strong evidence to the contrary in that some mineralwaters contain undesirably high levels of sodium and other salts capable of causingeventual harm.
Distilled water, pure rainwater or the water in fruit and vegetablesis desirable for normal body functions, and in addition, because it is capable oftaking minerals into solution instead of depositing them, it is beneficial as a bodycleanser. On a low protein, vegetarian diet, drinking water to allay thirst is hardlyever required.

Vitamins, enzymes and minerals
Vitamins and enzymes are catalysts which enable body chemistryto function rapidly. (See Enzymes, Chapter 6.)
Vitamins derive their name because they are essential to life,but unlike enzymes, also essential, they cannot be manufactured from other chemicalswithin the body, they must be present in food. To make enzymes the body must be providedof course with the proper vitamins, minerals and amino acids.
Minerals are inert, and the body requires a wide range of themin its make-up. Apart from places here and there with soil deficiencies, adequatevitamins and minerals are to be found in natural food. Properly grown, organicallygrown foods could well be of higher quality than those grown with chemical fertilizersbut the latter sustain people satisfactorily.
Food suffers depletion in nutrient value when cooked, processedor refined. When a processed food is described as "enriched" it merelymeans that having been almost destroyed in food value, some synthetic vitamins orminerals have been added to the remnants. Nutritional value lessens as food goesstale; best nutrition is gained by consuming food fresh and uncooked. Speaking onthe subject of cancer, and referring specifically to the efficiency of the immunesystem, Dr Herbert Boynton of San Diego said in 1979 that by merely substitutingproper food in place of fat, refined carbohydrate and excess protein, micro-nutrientintake can be increased 300-400%. As such fabulous results using no supplementaryvitamins or minerals at all can be achieved merely by the elimination of the mostdangerous food substances, and as in various dirty and poverty-stricken areas inthe world the children run and play, bright-eyed and with flashing white teeth, itis apparent that the main threat of malnutrition to the world stems from the increasingadoption of Western dietary habits. And as we do not intend in future to subsiston cornflakes, coco-pops, meat pies, hamburgers and so on, I shall not carry on atlength about vitamins except to mention a few that are harder to get or more easilydestroyed.

Vitamin E
Blood fats, particularly polyunsaturated fats, become oxidizedin the bloodstream and deplete blood oxygen. Vitamin E tends to prevent this processand many medical research doctors recommend large intakes of the vitamin becauseof the beneficial results they have observed.
Dr Wilfred Shute of Canada has propounded the therapeutic valueof Vitamin E for over 30 years and has written several convincing books about it.
Drs Manfred Steiner and John Anatase in the Journal of ClinicalInvestigation, March 1976, describe how doses of Vitamin E up to a maximum of1800 iu per day reduced blood platelet aggregation by 40-50%. This subject was discussedin Chapter 10.
Dr Alton Ochsner, a leading US surgeon, recommends the use ofVitamin E and no longer uses anti-coagulants. Professor Cureton of the Universityof Illinois long ago demonstrated improved oxygen utilization by using wheatgermoil.
Dr Lotz in the Medical Journal of Australia, 11 June1977, described the alleviation of leg cramps by using Vitamin E.
These doctors describe results successful to different degrees,having used dosages sometimes varying enormously. However, all that their patientsneeded was to have the condition of their blood corrected by proper diet. Once thiswas done, the modest levels of Vitamin E (and other vitamins) available in naturalfood becomes entirely adequate.

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
Vitamin C is probably the most talked about of all the vitamins,and probably the most critical in the lives of civilized people. Like Vitamin E,it is important to the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, acts as a detoxifierof poisonous substances, and is essential to the integrity of the Protein substance,Collagen, which supports and holds together the cells of the various tissues. VitaminC is essential to the function of the brain and nervous system and is needed in greatlyincreased amounts in conditions of any kind of stress, including illness.
It has been shown that a deficiency of Vitamin C renders thebody more prone to atherosclerosis, cancer and all other metabolic diseases. Twoof the obvious factors relating Vitamin C deficiency to atherosclerosis and cancerare the diminished integrity of the tissues of artery walls and other organs, inaddition to diminished oxygen utilization in the body. Vitamin C neutralizes sodiumnitrate and sodium nitrite contained in some kinds of processed meats, which chemicalshave been shown to be potent carcinogens (cancer-causing agents). Vitamin C alsofacilitates the absorption of various essential minerals.
It is interesting that ascorbic acid is not a vitamin for mostanimals, because their bodies have the capacity to constantly manufacture it in varyingamounts according to their current needs. Humans and the other primates, guinea pigsand certain fruit-eating bats, lack this capability and must rely on their diet forVitamin C. Thus, in our "civilized" environment, and deprived of the VitaminC-rich tropical fruits available to the more primitive primates (living instead onsupermarket foods and cold-storage fruit and vegetables), it becomes apparent mostpeople must be deficient in Vitamin C all the time, and it is doubtful whether andto what extent this deficiency can be made up by taking artificial supplements.
Vitamin C in food is perishable and becomes destroyed in longcold storage or when food is cooked, and to make things harder, it cannot be storedin the body, so must be always available in the diet.
There has been a great deal of confusion about the requirementsfor Vitamin C, much of it stemming from experiments aimed at the elimination of scurvy,whereby it was demonstrated that very small amounts only were needed to reverse orprevent the disease. Upon these findings it was concluded that only small amountsare needed for good health, and the authorities laid down the minimum daily requirementat only 60 mg.
In the light of what is now known of other body functions, itis clear that far greater amounts are required and that most people are suffering(albeit in apparent good health) a sub-clinical deficiency leading eventually topremature degeneration.
Comparing the amounts of Vitamin C found in the body tissuesand blood of various animals, many researchers have concluded that adult humans requireideally up to 10,000 mg per day and when under stress perhaps even more. Their argumentsare supported by quoting cases of dramatic improvements in very sick people who havebeen administered, sometimes by injection, large amounts of synthetic Vitamin C.
The writer once attempted to figure out the proper intake ofVitamin C for an adult on the basis of that contained in human milk, assuming thatthe milk of a well-nourished mother would contain optimal amounts. The informationavailable varied widely. The British publication The Composition of Foods(H.M. Stationery Office) gives the Vitamin C content of human milk as only 3.7 mgper 100 gms, but this would appear a minimal amount. According to Dr Archie Kalokerinos,a world authority, much higher levels are desirable. He says: "If a nursingmother is deficient in Vitamin C her breast milk will be deficient. If the motherhas plenty of Vitamin C then her breast milk will contain plenty. However, aftera certain level (about 20 mg per 100 gs of milk) is reached, further increases inintake by the mother does not result in a proportional increase in the breast milk".
If it can be assumed that this latter figure is ideal, and ifa baby's requirements are any indication of an adult's requirements, then it canbe calculated that an adult diet of 2,070 calories should contain 600 mg of VitaminC. However, this argument does not hold in the light of the fact I discovered, thata baby's requirements for Vitamin C are minimal because the physical activity ofa young baby and the stress levels to which it may be subjected are minimal anywayand therefore not a good indication at all.
Whilst the official requirement for adults has been laid downby the US Food and Nutrition Board at 60 mg per day, it is interesting that the "NutritionalRequirements of Laboratory Animals" (National Academy of Science Committee onAnimal Nutrition) recommends for monkeys 55 mg of ascorbic acid per kilogram of bodyweight per day, which equates to 3830 mg for the average adult human. The publicationgives two diets for guinea pigs, one which allows a guinea pig 12.5 mg per day andanother which gives 50 mg per day. Using a weight of 300 gs for a guinea pig and70 kg for a human adult, these amounts equate to 2,900 mg and 11,700 mg for adulthumans.
Dr Geoffrey Bourne, of the Yerkes Regional Primate ResearchCenter in Atlanta, stated that an adult gorilla in the wild consumes about 4,500mg of ascorbic acid a day, and Dr Linus Pauling, probably the most informed personon the subject in the world, having taken all these arguments into consideration,concluded the optimal daily intake for human adults to be in the range between 2,300mg and 9,000 mg, depending on levels of activity and stress.
Dr Pauling tested the amount of Vitamin C contained in overone hundred natural plant foods and deduced that a 2,500 calorie diet of an averagecross-section of these foods would provide 2,300 mg of Vitamin C. If the foods richestin Vitamin C were chosen, then 9,400 mg would be provided.
Thus it can be seen that whereas the other vitamins don't presentmuch of a problem, how do you know whether your diet is adequate in Vitamin C' Howdo you know if an orange was properly grown or how old it is? In fact comparisontables show that even good oranges don't contain great amounts of Vitamin C. Certaintropical fruits such as Acerola cherries, Peruvian camu camu and guavas, may containup to 30 times more Vitamin C than good oranges, whereas pineapples, mangoes andbananas contain relatively little. From the foods available in temperate climatesthe best sources of Vitamin C are leafy green vegetables, tomatoes, berries, peppers,strawberries, cauliflower and citrus fruits, preferably, of course, eaten raw.
It is significant that the tropical fruits as a rule containthe highest levels of Vitamin C and that in temperate climates the summer fruitssuch as blackcurrants, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries and tomatoes are thebest available sources. Potatoes contain a little, but if sufficient of them areconsumed, reasonable amounts of the vitamin are available. Cherries, plums, grapes,pears, apples, carrots, lettuce and celery contain very little Vitamin C.
Supplementary Vitamin C. It would seem advisable, unless extremecare is taken in selecting food, that benefit would be gained by people in temperateto cold climates in taking supplementary ascorbic acid. Always remember however,that in Nature all nutrients are accompanied by many others, such as the bioflavinoids,and that any artificial food substance can be regarded, at best, as second-rate.
Incidentally, Irwin Stone, who felt that synthetic Vitamin Cwas superior (there is no doubt he observed it achieve much good), and who took largeamounts of it for many years, died recently, aged 75, of a heart attack. He had alwaysindulged in the Western diet, claiming that Vitamin C fully protected him. Like DrWilfred Shute, who placed similar reliance on the protective powers of Vitamin E,he paid the standard price for his ignorance of Nature's eternal laws.

Vitamin B12
Herbivorous animals produce Vitamin B12in their bodies and it is commonly thought that the human diet should include atleast a little animal protein to supply this vitamin. Only minute amounts (one millionthof one gram per day) are required, and normal body stores are adequate for at leastfive years. It appears that Vitamin B12 can be synthesizedin the human digestive tract as in other animals, but one way or another there isample evidence that pure vegetarians maintain normal levels and good health indefinitelyon a diet apparently devoid of Vitamin B12.
Dr Richard Bargen (USA) in his book The Vegetarian's Self-DefenseManual (1979) says: "After careful review of all the literature often quotedas demonstrating 'pure' vegetarians often suffer Vitamin B12deficiency because of inadequate dietary intake, not one solitary case was foundwherein a vegan consuming an adequate, purely plant food diet suffered any ill healthdue to Vitamin B12 deficiency or any other deficiency. Thisfinding contradicts the statements made in virtually every textbook of medicine andnutrition I've ever come across".
Pernicious anemia can afflict meat-eaters as well as vegetariansand the disease may be corrected by Vitamin B12 injections.Thus it is shown that the anemia is caused not by lack of B12in the diet, but by the body's inability to utilize it, the problem sometimes arisingfrom deficiencies of other nutrients such as folacin, iron and Vitamin B6.

Vitamin supplements and megavitamin therapy
Similar observations can be made of other vitamins and minerals.Obviously if a person's diet is deficient in them, he will benefit by proper amountstaken supplementarily. A friend of mine swears by the efficacy of large doses ofB complex vitamins taken before, during and after a big night out to replace thosedestroyed by alcohol. All refined carbohydrates use body stores of Vitamin B<fontsize="2"1 (thiamine) and many people are doubtless deficient in it a lotof the time with consequent thyroid malfunction.</fontsize="2"
It is recognized that there probably are many vital foods factorsstill to be identified, and that in order to ensure we are not deprived of them,it is advisable to consume natural foods preferably uncooked and unprocessed.
Administering large does of vitamins in excess of normal requirementsin an effort to improve a sick person's condition is called "megavitamin therapy".
The book Supernutrition by Richard Passwater insiststhat large doses of certain vitamins and minerals will lead to optimum levels ofbody chemistry. I don't doubt that they sometimes help, but there is evidence thatin some cases some supplements cause actual harm in the body.
Selling synthetic vitamins is profitable and is big business,and it is very dubious whether the consumer in most cases achieves anything otherthan processing very expensive urine. Choice magazine in Australia reportedin May 1984 that most vitamin preparations available were extremely overpriced andmany consisted of between 50% and 71 % sugar. They were colored with artificial chemicalsand some contained undesirable levels of sodium.
Optimum levels of body chemistry can be achieved only by firsteliminating poisoning factors from the diet. Vitamins by the cartload cannot rectifythe condition of "lipotoxemia". So in all cases the remedy is to clearthe toxic condition of the blood and permit the body chemistry to return to normalof its own accord, nourished by a wholesome natural diet.

Supplementary enzymes
All natural foods contain enzymes in quantities proportionalto the calorific content of the food. Although the enzymes exist for other naturalpurposes, when an organic substance is consumed as food, its enzymes become availableto assist in its digestion. However, as most of the food eaten by humans has beencooked, the digestive process must rely almost entirely on enzymes produced by thebody.
People with defective digestion due to pancreatic deficiencycan achieve normal digestion by taking suitable supplementary enzymes in tablet form.In fact it is highly probable that people who eat most of their food cooked wouldalso benefit greatly by taking supplementary enzymes with their meals.

Herbs and herbal extracts
There are literally hundreds of herbs which are claimed to behealth-giving when used in addition to ordinary foods. Many books have been writtenon this subject, indeed entire books have been devoted to acclaiming the propertiesof just one single herb. A sort of cult of "herb worshippers" exists similarto the cult of vitamin worshippers.
I am not opposed to people using supplementary vitamins andherbal extracts, because these products seem to do no harm, and in many cases appearto do good. Sometimes as with medicine, the good influence may be achieved by theplacebo effect, i.e. via mental pathways.
There is no doubt however, that herbs such as aloe vera, ginsengand so on, can help to purify or "de-fat" the bloodstream and improve circulationand general metabolism, thereby achieving in some cases a diminution of some diseasesymptoms. A study by J. B. Michaelson PhD, of the Applied Biological Sciences Laboratory,using rabbits fed on very high fat diets showed that when 2% Tienchi Ginseng wasadded to the diet of one group, the rabbits remained slender with clear arteries,Whereas the other group became obese, with arteries clogged with fat deposits.
It is obviously a far better idea, however, to shun a diet highin fat and cholesterol in the first place.

Fad diets
There are grape diets, macrobiotic diets based on brown rice,raw vegetable diets, fruit diets, juice diets, high fiber diets etc., each proclaimedto rapidly restore vital health. And they do, inasmuch as they all eliminate mostof the substances which have been causing the harm. This allows the bloodstream toclear and carry oxygen better. They also allow the body to free itself of poisons.
There is no "magical" nutrient in grapes or in brownrice of anything else. Some extreme diets could, if maintained, lead to deficiencies--theyare in fact what could be called partial fasting.

Fasting
Fasting has been known for hundreds of years to enable an ailingbody to rapidly return itself to health. It is perfectly safe except for people sufferingfrom nutritional deficiencies.
A fast can be one day long or vary, according to the requirement,to over one hundred days. A long fast must be carefully conducted by an experiencednaturopath as complex changes in body chemistry must be monitored. The principleof fasting is that the body is relieved of the effort of digesting foods, harmfulsubstances are excluded from the body, and the body detoxifies itself by consuming,for fuel, fat and various noxious substances stored in the tissues. At the same timetoxins are eliminated through the urine, breath and perspiration, the evidence ofwhich becomes apparent in the form of severe body odor. Weight loss is obviouslyachieved by fasting and if the fast is extended, some lean body tissue (protein)will be lost as well as fat, because when carbohydrate stores are gone, protein isused by the body to make glucose. However, the loss of protein is not severe becauseafter a few days the brain and nervous system adapt to using ketone substances, derivedfrom fat, for the major proportion of their energy needs. Only when the body's fatreserves are gone does emaciation of lean tissue occur.

Special diets
Special diets can generally be considered to be in two classes,those to eliminate illness and promote health, and those designed for the purposeof slimming. A properly designed diet will cover both requirements automatically.The reason "traditional" health diets, evolved from traditional conceptssuch as taught by Adelle Davis, Lelord Kordel, Gayelord Hauser and others, fail inboth requirements, is that they are wrongly composed, containing too much proteinand fat, and do not satisfy the appetite in time to prevent the tendency to overeat.The weight-reducing diets based on high protein, high cholesterol food, such as theAtkins diet, Scarsdale diet and Stillman diet, may cause outright harm; they achieveweight loss but they cause dehydration and loss of muscle tissue as well as stresson all vital organs.
People can be indefinitely sustained even on synthetic chemicaldiets. Intravenous glucose is commonly used in hospitals but can provide only 600calories per day. People with seriously impaired digestive organs can be maintainedin good health on a synthetic liquid mixture of nutrients constantly fed into theirveins by a small portable pump. The long-term effects of such a diet are not known.
The value of any dietary regime can only be assessed over atong period, perhaps even a lifetime, because a special diet which may effect greatinitial benefit may end up causing long-term degeneration. Any diet at all whichdrastically reduces fat intake will produce impressive improvements initially justby unsticking the blood, as of course, does fasting. Over a hundred years ago, DrJ.H. Salisbury of New York achieved fame in the USA and Europe because of his successin achieving cures for all kinds of illnesses by dietary means. The Salisbury regimenconsisted simply of four pints of hot water taken daily and a diet of plain groundbeef. The minced meat was taken in three meals spaced five hours apart, each onepreceded one hour beforehand by a pint of hot water with the last pint before retiringat night. The meat was dry broiled or boiled in water to remove the fat. The patientsall suffered a constant craving for something sweet but rapidly improved in health.The immediate benefit of this diet obviously came about by the reduction of fat inthe blood and the curtailment of total food intake. However, after a time these benefitswould be offset by malnutrition in other areas.
The popular Weight Watchers diet is an improvement on the conventionalWestern diet but is not recommended because it still permits too much protein, aswell as fats, oil, mayonnaise, cheese, eggs, salt and pepper.
Of the various popular diets, the three best known for theirhealth promoting effects are the macrobiotic diet, the Pritikin diet and the Gersondiet. These diets have good track records, their claims having been substantiatedby many medical case histories and testimonials. The macrobiotic diet, based on brownrice, contains too much cooked food and salt and insufficient fruit to achieve thebest long-term results. The Pritikin diet is better, but because the Pritikin guidelinesare fairly flexible, it is possible for two people, both keeping within the guidelinesto experience different results. This can happen because individual food preferencesmay lead one to consume a preponderance of cereal food and cooked vegetables whereasthe other may favor raw salads and fruit, the latter course being much more preferable.For instance within the Pritikin guidelines better circulation is achieved simplyby the drastic reduction of fat, but an excessive intake of grain products may atthe same time exacerbate arthritis and eventually result in cancer. If the diet isbased on raw fruit and vegetables this danger is not presented.
The Gerson diet (see Chapter 20) is more to be recommended:it is a very strict regimen having been designed for cancer patients in view of theirprecarious state of body chemistry.
To repeat, the main objections to the Pritikin diet and themacrobiotic diet is their preponderance of grain products, the effect of which isto unbalance body chemistry, and introduce new problems and exacerbate others.
Remember, the object of all this enquiry is not just to tookgood on the beach while we are young, not just to avoid a heart attack or cancerin middle age, but to extend a happy and vigorous life far into the future.

The value of raw food
There is no doubt that the cooking of food is an unnatural processinvented by man comparatively recently in his evolutionary development. Althoughcooking may render certain foods, such as cereals, more readily assimilable to humandigestion, and render some foods more palatable, generally it is a destructive processwhich seriously depletes the nutritive value of food.
Dr Herbert Shelton, referred to earlier, in his book SuperiorNutrition, said: "Cooking destroys in part, if not wholly, the oxidizablefactors of foods. This simply means that cooking 'bums' those portions of foods thatthe body ordinarily oxidizes. Once these substances have been oxidized, they cannotagain be oxidized in the body, hence they are useless as food. Heat, by speedingup oxidization, turns food into ashes before it is eaten. For example, certain ofthe amino acids, lysine and glutamine are destroyed by the cooking process. The lossesthat are produced by cooking may not result in serious trouble until later in lifeand all of their effects do not show up for two or three generations".
Consider the following points:
1.	When the nutritive value of food is decreased, more food must be eaten to achieve satisfaction of the appetite, and because the culinary art of cooking is designed to artificially stimulate the appetite, over-eating naturally follows. 
2.	All foods, particularly if cooked, to a greater or lesser extent introduce toxic substances into the body, which must be eliminated. Some toxins come directly from the food when digested and others are formed as by-products of the body metabolism. The more food eaten, the more toxins are produced, and the faster will be the degeneration of the body's vital organs. 
3.	Apart from wear and tear on the vital organs, toxins and mineral wastes above the capacity of the body to eliminate, gradually accumulate in the arteries and other body tissues. This process is greatest when cooked food is eaten, and least with raw food. 
4.	Natural enzymes in fresh food are destroyed at temperatures above 48°C (118°F). While some authorities argue that this does not matter because enzymes are destroyed anyhow by the acid in the stomach, there is much evidence to prove that not only do food enzymes achieve a significant degree of pre-digestion of food in the upper part of the stomach before being neutralized by stomach acid, but also sufficient enzymes survive to reach the intestine and are absorbed for use in the body. 
5.	When food or drink is heated above about 82°C (180°F) a further damaging effect occurs which increases in severity with the degree of heat. When the cooled food is eaten, the body suffers a pathological challenge which is indicated by a sudden increase in the white cells in the blood, known as leucocytosis. Some highly processed meats for instance, may cause a while cell increase of 300%.
Although the reasons were not understood, the harmful effectsof cooked food have long been known. In 1829, Vincent Priessnitz of Silesia describedthe "inflamed and brittle" flesh of a pig which had been fed on cookedfood all its life and compared it with the "firm and healthy" flesh ofpigs fed on raw food. A diet of raw fruit and vegetables formed the basis of treatmentat Louis Kuhne's celebrated clinic in Leipzig, Germany, 100 years ago, and has eversince been the basis of treatment in the many other famed sanatoriums of the world.
The importance of enzymes in food is not only that a load istaken off the pancreas, but possibly more important, the food is more completelybroken down before assimilation from the intestine, so improving the entire metabolicprocesses within the body. The observations of researchers, J. M. Rabinowitch, J.A. Urquhart and others, described in the paper, Lipase versus Cholesterol (1983)by Dr Howell, demonstrate this fact.
The value of enzymes in raw fruit and vegetables is well known,but just as important are the enzymes in foods of animal origin. Animal protein,raw, contains the proteolytic enzyme cathepsin, and animal fat, raw, contains adiposelipase. All these food enzymes work to pre-digest their particular food componentin the upper (cardiac) section of the stomach before being inactivated by the acidin the lower stomach. The research shows that the resultant more thorough breakdownof these foods in the intestine enables the body to more efficiently metabolize theprotein, fat and cholesterol, thereby reducing the tendency to atherosclerosis.
It is preferable that food should be eaten at about body temperature;if food is eaten cold, digestive action cannot proceed until the food has been warmedin the stomach. Hot food can damage cells lining the digestive tract.
If raw food is allowed to "ripen" before eating, suchas when meat is hung for several days, it becomes actually partially pre-digestedby its own enzymes. In 1935, Dr Urquhart, in the Canadian Medical AssociationJournal, described how Eskimos did not cut up caribou meat until the animal hadbeen dead for a few days. Similarly, freshly caught fish were buried to be latereaten uncooked in a partly decomposed state. The Eskimos gained a health benefitfrom this practice, said Dr Urquhart who described from his own experience how hard-workingsled dogs could maintain top condition on such food whereas on a diet of fresh fishthey weakened and lost weight after two weeks.
Further evidence that natural enzymes in uncooked food playa significant part in the digestive process is the fact that herbivorous animalsalthough requiring large quantities of digestive enzymes, have very little in theirsaliva and have a pancreas of less than half the size compared with their body weight,than humans, who eat mainly cooked food. This shows that the digestive enzymes requiredby the animals must be furnished mainly by their food.
Allowing for differences in anatomy and so on, that this comparisonis still valid is indicated by the fact that hypertrophy of the pancreas of animalsoccurs when the diet is changed to heat-denatured, enzyme-deficient food. Experimentsby Dr Jackson, Department of Anatomy, University of Minnesota, showed that on sucha diet, otherwise properly balanced, in a period of 155 days the pancreas and submaxillaryglands of rats increased in weight by 20-30%, while the pituitary and suprarenalsdecreased in weight.
Accompanying the enlargement of the pancreas brought about inthe digestion of cooked food are changes in the gonads, adrenals, pituitary and otherductless glands. A study of people killed accidentally showed that all those overfifty had a defective pituitary gland, the master gland of the body.
As already mentioned, the destruction of enzymes is not theonly harm caused by heating food. Japanese experiments with baby mice showed thatwhen fed milk which had previously been heated, the mice did not survive. Using milkpreviously heated to 80°C (176°F) for half an hour, mice survived onlythree weeks. The higher the temperature to which the milk was heated the shorterwas the survival time--120°C (248°F) caused death in one week, and 140°C(284°F) caused death in three to five days. The famous Pottenger experiment(see Milk, this chapter) throws further light on this subject in view of the factthat raw meat was included in the cats' diet. The most significant fact revealedby this experiment, apart from the lethal effects on the experimental cats, was thatthe the excrement of these cats was poisonous to the ground, rendering it sterileand unsupportive of plant life, whereas in the pens of the healthy cats the groundwas fertilized and supported flourishing vegetation.
Possibly the best examples of the harmful effects of cookedfood are the studies of animals in the Philadelphia Zoo by Dr H. Fox, described inhis book Disease in Captive Wild Animals and Birds (1923). For many yearsthe mortality of animals kept in captivity was very high and attempts to breed themwere not very successful. When it was realized that it was false economy to feedanimals cheap food such as restaurant scraps etc, and their diets were changed tonatural raw foods, straight away the animals' health improved and the mortality ratedropped to very low levels, while at the same time the animals began to breed normally.
It was mentioned earlier that Vilhjalmur Stephansson adoptedan all-meat diet with disastrous results, all the worse because of consuming themeat cooked. A more recent study of Angmagsalik Eskimos, a community of about 1,000on the east coast of Greenland, showed an average life span of only 27.5 years, mainlydue to premature degeneration of adults. Their diet consisted of 95% flesh food.The study was by Hoygaard and Pedersen, Copenhagen 1941. This short life span appearsto be worse than in the earlier reports on Eskimos elsewhere, and the writer speculateswhether the Angmagsalik Eskimos had adopted the practice of cooking their food.
There is an association between the cooking and processing offood and the incidence of cancer, and conversely, it is a fact that cancer patientsmake the best recoveries on completely raw vegetarian food. In some cases, the reversionto even a partly cooked diet allowed the cancer to reappear.
This shows that when vital organs are at their lowest stateof function, only raw foods make it possible for them to provide the proper bodychemistry to maintain health. It follows then, that if raw food permits an otherwiseruined body to restore itself to health, so must raw food provide the maximum benefitto anybody--sick or well.
Dr Max Garten in his book The Health Secrets of a NaturopathicDoctor (1967) described how his health had not much improved by becoming a vegetarian,and how this led him to try a completely raw food regimen. He said: "The resultswere electrifying; within a few days I felt much stronger with a return of my formerenthusiasm. Many of my patients whom I had been able to convert to this new dietalso reported similar results". Dr Garten observed that putrefactive bacteriain the colon increased not only with the eating of meat but also with the degreeof heat used in cooking all food, and with this increase so also did the odiferousnessof the stool increase along with the appearance of aches and pains. He said: "Itcould only he deduced that certain agents in the diet were either missing or hadbeen altered by the heat.
"The respective protein content of the vegetarian diethad also been found to be indicative of changes in the intestinal flora, legumessuch as beans, lentils, peas etc. equally contributing to the display of putrefactivechanges."
Thus, although vegetarians usually are healthier and outlivemeat-eaters, they may not maintain very good health or live to a very advanced ageif they continually cook their food.

Raw fruit, the natural food of primates
People become vegetarians to improve their health and extendtheir lives. Some vegetarians go a step further and consume their food mainly uncooked,while others go even further and limit their diet to fruit, which they claim to bethe natural food of man.
Their argument is sound for a number of reasons, but one wayor the other, it is a fact that, in reasonable variation, fruit can provide the fullcomplement of all required nutrients in adequate quantities, remembering that therequirements for protein and fat are much lower than generally believed, Therefore,instead of being considered merely an accessory to conventional meals, fruit shouldbe considered in its own right as a staple food. The advantages of a fruitarian dietare:
1.	It provides complete nourishment with the minimum of extraneous substances capable of "sitting" up the tissues. 
2.	It is most easily digested, minimizing the energy required for digestion (which is substantial) thereby minimizing total food (calorie) requirements. 
3.	It is palatable. 
4.	It is easily obtained and easily prepared. 
5.	It satisfies the appetite when sufficient has been eaten--fruitarians are always lean. 
6.	Minimum but adequate protein is provided, 
7.	Minimum but adequate essential fats are provided. 
8.	Maximum energy is available from what is eaten, with only carbon dioxide and water, which are entirely non-toxic, as the byproducts. 
9.	It provides the body with adequate amounts of pure water. 
10.	It results in a favorable alkaline internal state. 
11.	Favorable intestinal flora predominate in the bowel. 
12.	No constipation occurs. 
13.	No auto-intoxication occurs. 
14.	The body de-toxifies itself. 
15.	The blood is clean and low viscosity, there is good circulation with low blood pressure. 
16.	There is the least wear and tear and the least "silting up" of all the body organs and tissues. 
17.	It is less expensive than a diet based on animal protein.
That it is the only single food substance which alone can sustainhuman life, even without drinking water, indicates that fruit is indeed man's naturalfood. Further substantiation of this view is that there are about forty distinctanatomical, physiological and biological features of humans which show unquestionablythat the human body is designed mainly for a fruit diet, notwithstanding the factthat, like all animals, they can survive less successfully on a wide variety of foods.These features range from natural fondness for sweet foods, jaw and teeth structure,salivary secretion, length of digestive tract, size of pancreas, stereo color visionand so on. In fact in all these respects, humans are practically identical todaywith the more primitive primates in the wild which, whenever possible, live on fruit.
Evidence of the suitability of fruit as a staple food and notjust as an accessory to the conventional diet is to be seen by observing fruitarianswho live entirely on a wide variety of fresh fruit, and who display lean, youthfulbodies, low blood pressure, clear vision and unimpaired faculties, even with advancingyears.
A well-known human peculiarity never before connected with thisargument but which provides almost conclusive evidence, is that humans, like allprimates, are incapable of making Vitamin C in their bodies whereas other animalscan (excepting guinea pigs and fruit-eating bats). Basing their argument on thisfact, it is strongly advocated by many authorities that people should take largeamounts of supplementary Vitamin C to compensate for this "error of Nature"which they put down to an unfavorable mutation in our evolutionary past some millionsof years ago. To prove this argument completely wrong, and at the same time provethat man is a natural fruit-eater, consider:
1.	The only mutations which persist to become a universal feature of a species are favorable ones. Unfavorable mutations can not possibly do so. 
2.	A genetic change preventing the synthesis of Vitamin C in the body, to become universal to an entire species, must therefore have been, at the time, a favorable change. 
3.	The only possibility of such a genetic change being favorable is for the species to have been already getting more than adequate Vitamin C, and that any more was undesirable. 
4.	The only source of "excess" Vitamin C in Nature is a diet of raw fruit. (Only certain tropical fruits contain such high levels of Vitamin C; many fruits contain only small amounts.)
Therefore it is clear that the human diet ideally, should bebased mainly on fresh fruit, and that past errors which have led to widespread VitaminC deficiencies are dietary--not genetic--errors.
Obviously some fruits are more nutritious than others, and qualitywill vary according to the quality of the soil in which they are grown. Commerciallygrown fruit may contain various levels of insecticide poisons, in which case thefruit should be carefully washed or peeled. At the time of this fifth edition, theauthor has subsisted almost entirely on commercially grown fruit for 15 years, allthe while working long hours seven days a week, and has maintained excellent health.I have chosen the fruit at random with a preference for tropical fruits, and includeddried fruits from time to time without any attempt at being scientific about it.It is claimed by some people that such a diet will eventuate in high blood triglyceridesand this is why Nathan Pritikin limited fruit. The increase in triglycerides is supposedto follow elevated levels of blood sugar after eating fruit, but this does not occurwith eating raw fruit, particularly eaten at whim throughout the day rather thanin three large meals. An objection to acid fruits such as citrus and pineapples,particularly if unripe, is that eaten in excess, the acid may cause erosion in theenamel of the teeth. It is interesting to note here that with good body chemistryand a clean mouth, teeth, like bones, are self repairable. With half my teeth jammedwith fillings, maybe they are beyond self repair, but at my regular pilot medicalcheck-ups, I enjoy being told by my doctor I have the arteries and blood pressureof a schoolboy. That makes fruit taste better still, even on a winter's day.
A convert to fruitarianism was the Indian philosopher and statesmanMahatma Gandhi, who after experiencing poor health throughout his youth became astudent of nature cure at the age of 32. First he became a vegetarian and then afruitarian. After six months as a fruitarian, he said (quoted from his book TheHealth Guide):
"A period of six months is all too short to arrive at anydefinite conclusions on such a vital matter as a complete change of diet. This, however,I can say, that, during this period, I have been able to keep well where others havebeen attacked by disease, and my physical as well as mental powers are now greaterthan before. I may not be able to lift heavy loads, but I can do hard labor for amuch longer time without fatigue. I can also do more mental work, and with betterpersistence and resoluteness. I have tried a fruit diet on many sickly people, invariablywith great advantage. My own experience, as well as my study of the subject, hasconfirmed me in the conviction that a fruit diet is the best one for us."
An interesting personality is champion weightlifter, Wiley Brooks,of Venice, California. Most unconventional, Wiley, 6 feet tall and weighing 135 lbs,at age 45 could, from a squat rack, lift 935 lbs. He eats only raw fruit and fruitjuice.
Dr de Lacy Evans, who devoted most of his professional lifeto the study of patients, populations, and the factors involved in the aging process,said of fruit:
"There is, therefore, a simplicity, a reason, a wonderfulphilosophy in the first command given to man--Man may live entirely upon fruits inbetter health than the majority of mankind now enjoy. Good, sound, ripe fruits arenever the cause of disease, but the vegetable acids, as we have before stated, lowerthe temperature of the body., decrease the process of combustion or oxidation--thereforethe waste of the system--less sleep is requited, activity is increased, fatigue orthirst is hardly experienced: still the body is well nourished, and as a comparativelysmall quantity of earthy salts are taken into the system, the cause of old age isin some degree removed, the effect is delayed, and life is prolonged to a periodfar beyond our 'threescore and ten'."

Frequency of meals
Apart from the sort of food that you eat, the way in which itis eaten is a health factor in itself.
When food is consumed more frequently but in smaller amountsie. frequent snacks instead of three full meals, the level of blood sugar (glucose)remains steady. If the same amount of food is eaten in large amounts widely spaced,the blood sugar may rise too much after eating each meal resulting in an increasein triglycerides and possibly a degree of hypoglycemia as the sugar level subsequentlyslumps.
At the Longevity Center, small main meals are served interspersedwith four snacks throughout the day. The snacks are perhaps soup, fruit, salad ora baked potato.
Experiments by Dr Grant Gwinup, University of California, Irvine,and by Dr Pavel Fabry of Prague, Czechoslovakia, with human subjects, and by Dr ClarenceCohn at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago with animals, demonstrated that spreadingfood intake by frequent snacks throughout the day caused lower cholesterol and triglyceridelevels than when the same food was taken in three meals. When taken in one largemeal a day, cholesterol and triglyceride levels increased. Dr Fabry, whose studycovered 1,133 men aged 60-64, provided data showing that those men eating three mealsor less per day had a significantly higher incidence of CVD symptoms than those eatingthe same rations in five or more meals.

Pregnant women and growing children
Everybody agrees that pregnant women and growing children shouldbe properly nourished even if no one else is. Advice abounds on how this should beaccomplished, and for some reason or other the various "authorities" saythat extra protein is needed, milk should be guzzled to get calcium, and so on. "Ifsuch special measures are not necessary," the question is asked by concernedmothers, "will a simple natural vegetarian diet provide adequate nutrition?"And the answer is: of course it will. A diet which enables a feeble invalid to healulcers, strengthen porous bones, build new muscle, repair lung tissue and then gorunning for miles outdoors is certainly adequate for pregnant or nursing mothers,and has been demonstrated to produce optimum health and growth in children once theyare weaned, which should never be in less than a year.

Food allergies
As the importance of nutritional factors in health and diseasebecomes more and more apparent, there is a tendency to disregard the basic fundamentalsof balanced nutrition and to go searching for "super nutritional" substancesor "missing" vitamins and minerals to overcome the inadequacy of the conventionaldiet. A new branch of medicine known as orthomolecular medicine concentrates on thisaspect but at the same time tries to ascertain if a specific substance or substancesin the patient's diet may he causing illness. If a person constantly reacts unfavorablyto a dietary substance they are said to be allergic to it. Proper correction of thediet automatically eliminates many allergies because the most common allergies arefoods which should be avoided by everybody anyway.
The symptoms of food allergy are caused by certain incompletelydigested food substances entering the bloodstream or lymph from the intestine andcausing chemical reactions in the body. Such entry of undigested food particles intothe circulation is possible in normal people without causing an allergic reactionbecause enzymes in the blood serum complete the breakdown of the food, or it willbe digested by the body's white cells.
The most common allergies occur because of a confused responseby the white cells due to a built-in immune system defect originating from wrongfeeding as an infant. Nature intended infants to be breast-fed. A baby's digestivesystem cannot properly cope with any other kinds of food; not only does mother'smilk provide perfect nutrition for the child, it provides immunological substancesto protect against infection until the child's own immune system is completely developed.Foods other than mother's milk fed to the child in infancy not only cause digestiveupsets, but the entry of undigested food into the bloodstream confuses the complicatedprogramming of the still developing immune system. Allergies have been traced backeven to substances eaten by the mother in pregnancy. Such an allergy may appear atfirst sight to be inherited, but is not. Food allergies are most common in youngchildren who in many cases outgrow them after the age of five years.
Allergic reactions occur more readily when the health is indifferentor in chronic illness when enzyme levels and general metabolism are low. Quotingfrom the book The Status of Food Enzymes in Digestion and Metabolism by DrEdward Howell: "Oelgoetz believes that the presence of a proper level of serumenzymes is an effective protection against food allergy occasioned by absorptionof whole proteins, and that a low serum enzymes level induces allergy. Accordingto the experience of Oelgoetz and associates, when doses of pancreatic enzymes largerthan the official doses are administered to patients having symptoms of allergy accompaniedby a low serum enzymes level, the serum enzymes level returns to normal and the symptomsof allergy subside".
Dr Rob Krakovitz, MD, of Marina del Rey, California, says thatto treat allergies naturally it is necessary to improve digestion, and advises patients:
1.	Eat only when hungry. 
2.	Do not eat when tired, under stress, or sick. 
3.	Eat in a tranquil atmosphere. 
4.	Eat slowly and chew foods well. 
5.	Eat smaller, more frequent meals. 
6.	Don't drink with meals.
This advice of course revolves around obtaining the most favorableenzyme activity in the digestive tract.
It is significant that the foods found to be most commonly causativeof allergies are cow's milk, wheat, corn and eggs, which foods in one form or anotherare often fed to babies upon weaning. Whether your digestive system can handle themor not, these substances are not desirable in the diet anyway.
It should be noted too that the Cytotoxic Food Test now in commonuse for testing food allergies has been found to give inconsistent results and alarge number of false-positive reactions (Leiberman et at, JAMA February 17,1975).

Food for thought
Sponsored by the National Geographic, Dr Alexander Leaf visitedthe three localities in the world renowned for the health, vigor and longevity ofthe people--Vilcabamba, Hunza and the Caucasus. The trip was written up in the January1973 edition. Later Dr Leaf wrote the book Youth in Old Age and in the book quotedthese figures:
Average daily intake     Calories   Fats   Proteins   Carbohydrates                            (g)     (g)      (g)Americans--all ages       3,300     157      100     380 (mostly refined)Hunza--adult males        1,923      36       50        354 (complex)Vilcabamba--elderly       1,200      16       38        230 (complex)Caucasus--over 80         1,800      50       80            N/A
These different diets are shown in the next table with the constituentsas percentages of the total calories. Other diets are shown as well. The Australiandiet is similar to the American.
Average daily intake           Fat    Proteins    CarbohydrateAmerican--all ages           40-45%    15-20%     40-45% (mostly refined)Hunza--adult males            17%       10%         73% (unrefined)Vilcabamba--elderly           12%       12%         76% (unrefined)Caucasus--over 80             25%       18%         57% (unrefined)PNG West Highlands             3%        3%         94% (unrefined)Pritikin Longevity Center     5-10%    10-15%       60% (unrefined)World Health Organization    recommendation             20%     20-30%      50-60% (not defined)US Senate Select Committee    recommendation             30%     10-15%      55-60% (15% refined)American Heart Association     30%       15%         55%American Diabetic Association  30%       15%         55%National Cancer Institute    Recommendation             30%       15%         55%
The excess total calorie intake of the Western diet, which resultsin so much obesity, is not because European races are any greedier than other people.The reason is the imbalance of the constituents and the fearful amounts of fat andrefined carbohydrate. These figures check out closely with the table shown in Chapter7 and show that compared to the poorer populations in the world, "civilized"people consume up to seven times as much fat, six times and as much sugar, and doublethe protein, with accordingly higher incidence of degenerative diseases.
Consistently it has been shown that native populations on verylow fat, low cholesterol diets do not show signs of heart disease or diabetes. Astudy of 800 New Guinea natives--"Primitive Life Keeps Tribesmen's Hearts Strong,"(JAMA 210:1687, 1969 by P. E Sinnott), described the fat content of theirdiet to be 3%, with 3% protein and 94% complex carbohydrate, mainly sweet potato.They were adequately nourished and fitter physically than Americans. There was noevidence of diabetes or hypertension or heart disease among them; there was no risein blood pressure with age.
At the US Navy Center for Prisoner of War studies in San Diego,California, John A. Plag, who directed the study, compared 78 ex-POWs of the VietnamWar with other navy contemporaries, each matched in rank, marital status, years ofschooling, flying experience etc. Contrary to previous studies after other wars,the ex-POWs from Vietnam were healthier for their imprisonment, with a lower incidenceof cardiovascular disease. They had suffered no malnutrition. Many had been overweightwhen captured but on the Vietnamese low fat and cholesterol diet of rice and vegetables,had dropped to the ideal weight.
Dr Michele Bremer in Ecology of Food and Nutrition describedher study of the effects on rats and mice of the average "processed" humandiet compared with a natural food diet. In her selection of breakfast foods she tooka group of children to the supermarket and let them pick their five favorite cereals.She bought these and had them analyzed. Sugar was first or second ingredient in eachand the highest protein was 5%. These cereals were not used in the experiment, sheused the five best-selling ones instead which were somewhat better. Analysis of bothdiets found no deficiencies of any of the major nutrients.
While the animals on the natural diet remained sleek and healthy,the "supermarket group" were nervous and bit people handling them, andmany of them grew to twice the size in girth. Later all the mice were given theirunrestricted choice of both diets and the researchers were surprised when all themice showed preference for the supermarket diet and ate twice as much of it as theother. The healthy mice soon took on the appearance of "supermarket" miceand developed skin diseases as had the others. This experiment of course again bearsout exactly what Sir Robert McCarrison had found in India in 1927.

Food addiction
As responsible citizens we are concerned with the degree ofalcoholism and drug addiction which cause so much misery and death.
It may be well to consider that far more sickness, misery anddeath is caused by our national addiction to "Western" food.
Many a righteous person who is appalled by drugs and alcohol,could be classified as a "food-aholic" and many such people end up as chronicinvalids just as much a burden to society as are alcoholics.
In conclusion to this chapter here is a comment on an articlewhich appeared in the National Times, July 14, 1979 called "The SurprisingFacts About Fast Foods" which was a report of an investigation conducted bythe School of Food Technology, University of NSW.
The article commenced: "A National Times investigationhas found that the so called 'junk foods' from the three largest take-out food chainscompare well with home-cooked steak and vegetables as part of a varied diet. In manydietary aspects they are superior to the home-cooked meal.
"The foods analzyed were: McDonald's Big Mac and largeFrench fries; Kentucky Fried Chicken Dinner Box; Pizza Hut regular size Ham and PineapplePizza; and a home-cooked meal of steak, peas, potatoes, and carrots.
"Evaluations were made on the basis of dietary standardslaid down by the National Health and Medical Research Council, The Australian Academyof Science, The National Heart Foundation and US Dietary Goals. There are too manycomponents of a good diet to allow us to say categorically that any one meal wasbetter than another."
The article went on to discuss comparisons of the various dietarycomponents, and ended with this table of comparisons.
What was in each meal?
Component               Home   Kentucky   McDonalds   Pizza                       Cooked   Fried                  Hut                        Meal   ChickenEnergy, kilojoules     1,878     4,206     3,702      4,349Calories                 453     1,020       904      1,062Protein, grams            45        61        35         65Fat, grams                22        63        51         38Available carbohydrate,   grams                  19        52        76        115Fiber, grams              14         7         6         11P/S ratio              0.6:1     0.9:1     0.4:1      0.7:1Cholesterol, milligrams   98       256       140         82Vitamin C, milligrams     42        17        34         15Vitamin B1, milligrams  0.42      0.22      0.35       0.72Sodium, grams            0.7       2.7       1.1        3.4
How do meals compare with US dietary goals?
Component        Goal   Home-   Kentucky   McDonalds    Pizza                       Cooked    Fried                   Hut                        Meal    ChickenProtein energy   12%    41%       25%        16%         26%Fat energy       30%    43%       55%        51%         32%Carbohydrate   Energy        58%    16%       20%        33%         42%P/S ratio        1:1  O.6:1     0.9:1      0.4:1       0.7:1Sodium, grams     2*    0.7       2.7        1.1         3.4Cholesterol,    Milligrams    300                  **     98       256        140          82*Less than 2 grams per day.**Less than 300 milligrams per day.
A lot of people consume three meals like that a day, so youcan see why our national health problem is so monumental.
1.	The experts lay down standards which are woefully in error. 
2.	The misinformed public ignore these standards and consume a diet even more woeful. 
3.	The fast-food "take over" gains momentum, selling food nothing short of catastrophic yet receiving almost a commendation from the experts. The mind boggles!
STOP PRESS
How Western can the Western diet get?
Coke joke
The Coca-Cola company has turned to cookery books to win the hearts (and tummies) of school children. Along with promotional material claiming that Coke may ease the day's tensions (somewhat unlikely as a can contains around 35 mg of caffeine to pep up a child), the company forwards a small recipe book titled International Cooking with Coca-Cola as part of its school project material.
What Italians might think about the addition of one cup of Coke to minestrone defies imagining; what imprecations the chefs of France might utter were they to see Coke poured into French onion soup. Apart from these and other similar abominations--Coke in Indian curry, Hungarian goulash and so forth--the ingredients listed take little heed of nutrition. Lashings of salt are suggested (3 teaspoons for the minestrone) and canned and frozen foods are used in abundance.
Choice, September 1984 	
To further assist people break their bad eating habits, TheHealth Revolution Anti-Cancer, Anti-Heart Attack Cookbook, is now available withrecipes for both the Pritikin and Gerson diets.

HOME HYGIENELIBRARY CATALOG CHAPTER 16 
CHAPTER TWENTY
CANCER--A DISEASE
OF CIVILIZATION
"The major cancers of our time are diet-caused, mainly by fat and cholesterol."
Dr Ernst Wynder, American Health Foundation, addressing the US Senate Select Committeeon Nutrition and Human Needs
Cancer is a state of cellular growth which occurs when somenormal cells of a plant or an animal become abnormal and continue to grow abnormally.It is characterized by the ability of the abnormal cells to subdivide and grow outsideof the constraints which automatically limit the subdivision and growth of normalcells. It is uncommon in nature. It does not occur in properly nourished and vigorouslyhealthy humans.
Cancer, in the many forms we know it, is a disease of civilization,and is practically unknown among primitive people properly nourished on a simplenatural diet. Whether such people live in the Arctic or in Africa, and whether theyeat fish and whale meat, or mashed corn and bananas, cancer as it afflicts our society,is unknown. The book Cancer--a Disease of Civilization by Vilhjalmur Stephansson,describes studies of Eskimos* in the late 1800s and early 1900's specifically lookingfor cancer among them, and how not one case could be found. The only Eskimos to everdevelop cancer were those who came to live in white man's settlements and who adoptedwhite man's dietary and other living habits. Similar observations have been madeby doctors in other primitive natural areas of the world.
*The name Eskimo is derived from a Cree Indian expression meaning "he eats meat raw". Although the primitive Eskimo diet comprised mainly animal protein and fat, most of it was consumed raw, thus providing enzymes favorable for the more efficient metabolism of these substances, as previously described, The Eskimo had no refined foods at all, and did not use salt. In addition, the large amounts of ecosapentaenoic acid (EPA) contained in the diet ensured a non-sticky, free-flowing bloodstream. At the same time, the Eskimos' life was simple and stress-free and they got plenty of outdoor exercise.
In his book The Cradle of the World and Cancer--A Diseaseof Civilization (1927), Dr E.H. Tipper said: "Cancer has been suspectedof being a disease of civilization. judging from my experience in general practicein London, twenty years in West Africa, and again in rural England, I am convincedthat this is true. It is due to the conventionalism and bad feeding of civilization,and is an exact index of the degree to which the alimentary tract has deviated fromits natural and normal state of health". And referring to the practice of nativeseating only natural foods he said: "There is no such thing as constipation--thereis no cancer. At the first dawn of civilization amongst them this disease makes itsappearance; where civilization is advanced it is rife".
Dr Roger Williams in 1898, writing in Lancet, blamedenvironmental factors of the alarming increase in cancer during the preceding 50years, and noted the death rate in England had increased from 17 per 10,000 per yearto 88. Dr Williams attributed the increase to the fact that meat consumption haddoubled, and he advocated eating more vegetables and getting more fresh air and exercise.However, since then the very opposite to Dr Williams' advice has been adopted, andaccordingly, cancer as a cause of death is now second only to cardiovascular disease,and continues to increase.
The most common form of cancer in affluent Western countriesis cancer of the bowel which includes cancer of the colon and rectum. The third NationalCancer Survey by the US National Cancer Institute showed that this form of cancernow causes more deaths than any other. Previously, breast cancer caused more deathsamong women, and lung cancer among men. The incidence of cancer is much lower amongvegetarians, particularly those who consume no dairy products.
Cancer growths are called tumors or neoplasms and may occurin many different forms and in different parts of the body. Arising from cells inoriginally normal tissue, the initial growth is called a primary tumor. Primary tumorsusually occur in tissues which in their day-to-day function have a constant wearingout and renewal of cells--tissues such as the skin and the lining of the digestivetract, the respiratory tract and the female genital canal. Primary tumors also occurat locations in which there is cell renewal due to irritation or injury. Primarycancer rarely occurs in muscle or nerve tissue in which tissue the cells do not normallysubdivide and renew, but these tissues are capable of supporting the growth of secondarytumors originating from stray cancer cells from a primary cancer elsewhere.
Although they vary greatly in appearance and function, all cellsof the body are basically the same, having developed from the same primitive cellsof the early developing fetus after conception. Having developed into different specializedcells of the various body tissues, they are said to be differentiated. To becomecancer cells, normal cells change in degrees to a primitive form capable of the unrestrainedreproduction characteristic of primitive undifferentiated cells. The degree to whichcells become de-differentiated determines the degree of malignancy of the cancer.If a tumor is composed of cells which are only slightly abnormal and grow slowlywith near-normal cell division without spreading, it is considered benign, presentingno immediate threat to life.
Tumors consist both of cancer cells and cells which are apparentlynormal, the latter sometimes making up 90% of the total, as if the body was attemptingto contain the cancer cells by surrounding them with normal cells. Malignant cellsfrequently detach from the primary tumor and circulate in the lymph and bloodstream.Usually they are apprehended in the lymph nodes adjacent to the primary tumor anddestroyed by the white cells. However, in cancer patients the immune system is defectivein varying degrees, and the migrating cancer cells may not only survive in the lymphnodes, but proceed further to colonize elsewhere in the body as a secondary tumor.This process is called metastasis.
Few people die from the primary tumor, but once the cancer hasmetastasized the condition is usually regarded in orthodox circles as "terminal".
When cancer grows or metastasizes, it does not "infect"adjacent cells but grows as an entity, still reproducing abnormal cells the sameas itself. For instance, if breast cancer metastasizes to the lung, the secondarytumor in the lung will be composed of cancerous breast cells.
Whereas in the past, malignancy has been considered as a virtualdeath sentence, this is no longer the case. Many people have recovered naturallyfrom "terminal" cancer and there now is sufficient knowledge of cancerto help others do the same. (See Spontaneous Remission of Cancer.) With this knowledgethe complete avoidance of cancer is simple and easy.
Some body organs such as the liver and the adrenal gland, havingbeen substantially damaged, can regenerate to almost full capacity. Nerve cells andmuscle cells, when destroyed, do not regenerate, but nor do they commonly becomecancerous.
A medical definition of cancer which may assist the reader'sunderstanding and acceptance of the detailed explanation which then follows is givenby Professor Otto Neunhoeffer of Hamburg, Germany:
"The malignant disease is a syndrome characterizing resultsarising from abnormal biochemical reactions, which if not interrupted or reversed,result in a tumor, which then in itself becomes a very active source for abnormalprimary reactions, thus accelerating the entire process.
"It is an accepted fact that a malignant tumor developsonly after an average eight-year period of pre-cancer. To understand this preliminaryperiod when the condition actually existed, even though undetected, it is necessaryto distinguish between biochemically malignant disease, and a malignant tumor."
Whereas cancer patients usually die of cachexia, which is thewasting away of the body as its vital processes progressively fail, and whereas itis clear that the growth of diseased cells is only part of this degenerative process,it is obvious that the prevention and reversal of the disease depend not upon destructionof cancer cells with vicious medical procedures, but in correcting the underlyingdefects in body chemistry which initiated the whole process in the first place.

How cancer starts
The general medical viewpoint of cancer being a cellular upsetinitiated by some quirk of nature, and localized somewhere within an otherwise healthybody, is absolutely untenable to anyone possessing an enquiring mind and reasonablepower of observation. Based solely on the existence of the localized symptom (ie.the cancer growth) and completely inconsistent with most of the known facts, thisviewpoint, as a basis for cancer treatment and research, has prevented and continuesto prevent any chance of solution to the cancer problem.
Although the "novel" concept of cancer being a constitutionaldisease primarily of dietary origin has been in existence at least since 1809 whenDr Richard Lambe of London wrote a treatise on the cure of cancer using a diet ofraw fruit and vegetables, only recently has the cancer "establishment"started to seriously investigate this possibility, having in the past ruthlesslysuppressed such notions and all those who held them.
Among the many independent physicians who over the years haveused dietary methods in researching and treating cancer, are four of the 20th Century'sgreatest men of medicine, selected here because their descriptions of the cancerprocess most adequately explain the subject.
1.	Dr Otto Warburg, double Nobel Prize winner and Director of the Max Planck Institute of Cell Physiology, Germany. The holder of many international honors, Dr Warburg was considered by Dr Dean Burk, head of the National Cancer Institute at the time, to be the world's greatest bio-chemist. 
2.	Dr Max Gerson, of Germany, friend and confidant of Dr Albert Schweitzer, who described Gerson as a medical genius. 
3.	Dr William F. Koch of USA, BA, MA, PhD, MD, described by Dr Willard Dow, founder of the Dow Chemical Company, to be the greatest bio-chemist of his time and so far ahead of his contemporaries they could not understand him.:
Compassionate men and competent authors, typically "aheadof their time", these doctors between them had over 200 years experience inresearching and successfully treating cancer in all its stages.
Because the opinions of these great doctors on the causes ofcancer essentially agree, and because their achieved successes prove their commontheory in the absence of any other tenable hypothesis, the explanation which followsis a composite of their theories and observations.

The cancer milieu
Although individually only a tiny component of the body, everysingle cell is a living organism in its own right, and needs to be constantly suppliedwith nutrients, fuel and oxygen, at the same time needing to be cleansed and itswaste products to be removed. Responsible for this care is the extracellular fluid(lymph) surrounding the cell which derives from the bloodstream and is continuallychanging. The quality of this fluid is, of course, dependent on the quality of theblood which is in turn dependent on the quality of the diet and the efficiency ofthe liver. Not only must the liver supply the bloodstream with the proper nutrients,it must at the same time keep it as free as possible from toxins.
The Western diet and other civilized indiscretions result ina toxic, fat-clogged bloodstream and eventual liver impairment, responsible for thedeterioration of the cellular environment to that known as the "cancer milieu".

Oxygen
In 1947 Dr F. Windesch of Germany demonstrated that by intermittentwithholding of oxygen, normal body cells could be changed into cancer cells. Thisdiscovery was confirmed in 1953 by Drs Goldblatt and Cameron (Experimental Medicine,97, 525, 1953).
Dr Otto Warburg, the Director of the Max Planck Institute ofCell Physiology, in Germany, stated in 1955 that a lifetime of research had convincedhim that cancer was caused by oxygen deprivation to the cells.
Dr H.A. Schweigart, another German, found that cancerous tissuealways is depleted in oxygen.
Dr W. Spencer Way of Florida, writing on the importance of oxygen(Journal of the American Association of Physicians, December, 1951) said:"This confirms the finding of Fischer who kept cancerous mice under a pressureof two atmospheres for 14 hours and cured their cancer. If agents acting as catalyzerswere used, the results were even better".

The role of blood viscosity and circulation
As described in Chapter 11, the degree of viscosity of the bloodstreamis a key factor in all disease, more so than ever with cancer. Apart from anythingelse, the freedom of the blood to flow is a crucial factor alone. As we have seen,the degree of freedom to flow is determined mainly by the viscosity of the blood.
The connection between high blood viscosity and poor oxygensupply with cancer is clear. Referring again to Dr Dintenfas' paper on blood viscosity:
"Wardle in 1967 suggested that it is the increased bloodviscosity in the small digital arteries which is responsible for the common symptomof malignancy. Red cell aggregation, platelet aggregation and hypercoagulabilitycan contribute to this syndrome. Crenated red cells, raised fibrinogen, increasedplatelet stickiness are all common features of malignancy."
It is commonly known that the ESR (red cell sedimentation rate,see Chapter 10) of cancer patients is always high. Dr Melvin Knisely stated in 1947:
"Thus far, completely unagglutinated blood has been foundonly in strictly healthy animals and men. No severely ill person has yet been seenwho did not have intravascular agglutination of the blood and visibly pathologicvessel walls." (From the paper, "Sludged Blood," by Melvin H. Knisely,Edward H. Bloch, Theodore S. Eliot and Louise Warner, Hall Laboratory of Anatomy,University of Chicago, Department of Zoophysiology, University of Copenhagen, andDepartments of Anatomy and Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee, Science,Nov 7, 1947.)
It appears that in tissues provided with reasonable circulation,primary cancer does not readily occur, and furthermore, should it have already started,there will be no metastasis in tissues where free circulation is maintained. Thefollowing extracts from Dr Leopold Dintenfas' book, Rheology of Blood in Diagnosticand Preventive Medicine (1976) explain why:
"Olwyn (1971) in his editorial, reviewed the effect ofanticoagulants on tumor metastasis and noted that a number of investigators founda significant protection from metastasis by the application of heparin, plasmin,warfarin or decoumarol. In an informal survey of 200 patients with a history of myocardialinfarction or cerebral arterial insufficiency, receiving heparin daily or every secondday for periods of two to 22 years, Griffith (1971) found no instance of malignanttumor. Michaels (1971), who reviewed 540 patients on oral anticoagulant therapy forthromboembolic disorders) found presence of metastasis reduced eightfold againststatistical expectation."
A similar study by Dr Bjorn Stinkvist, University Hospital,Upsala, Sweden, on women maintained on digitalis for cardiac problems, showed thatspreading breast cancer was only one-tenth of the rate experienced by women not ondigitalis, and even when it occurred the cancer was less aggressive.
Impairment of free circulation can also be caused mechanicallyby tight clothing or plain inactivity. In a number of cases tight-fitting brassiereshave been suspected as a factor in breast cancer, particularly in overweight women.

Pre-cancer and de-differentiation
Normal body cells will degenerate if for some reason their oxygenrespiration is impaired, and if the impairment is severe enough, of course they willdie. As their respiration becomes reduced, the cells, in an effort to survive, graduallychange over to a process of fermentation for their energy needs. This is an inefficientprocess, but capable of sustaining life. Lactic acid is produced as a byproduct insteadof carbon dioxide.
As the changeover progresses, the cells in stages come to resembleprimitive forms similar to embryonic cells, although still identifiable with thetissue of their origin. This change is called de-differentiation.
According to the degree of de-differentiation, the cells lookand behave less and less like normal cells and more and more like primitive cells--capableof subdivision and growth outside of normal body control. Such unrestrained growthis cancer, and as there are varying degrees of de-differentiation, so there are varyingdegrees of cancer. In other words, the degree of malignancy (ie. uncontrollabilityand rate of growth) is proportional to the degree of de-differentiation and fermentation.
It is significant that in pre-cancerous tissue, the processof unrestrained growth does not seem to commence until triggered by the call fornew cell growth in a location where some form of irritation or injury has occurred.Because of this, the belief has widely been held that cancer can be caused simplyby irritation or injury.
And because the mere restoration of plentiful oxygen does notalone return cancer cells to normal, another widely held belief is that the processof de-differentiation is irreversible, and this would indeed be the case if cancerwas caused by a mutation as is commonly believed. Contrary to this belief, Dr Kochalways held that if the correct chemistry was provided, it was possible for the cells'respiratory cycle to be restored.
Another interesting fact is that in all body cells, even thoseof a newborn baby, there exists a virus-like organism which always multiplies inconditions of disease. This proliferation occurs as a natural event, and so numerousdo these organisms become in pre-cancerous cells and cancer cells that at one timeit was generally believed that they were the actual cause of cancer. The virus theoryof cancer is still believed by some researchers, who have unsuccessfully attemptedfor years to produce a vaccine against them.
As cancer growth increases, so too do the levels of lactic acidand other toxic wastes which further worsen the cancer milieu so that a vicious circleensues. The cancer, relying on fermentation for energy (fermentation is only one-fifteenthas efficient as respiration) demands more nutritional sustenance than the body canafford, and so the body, overloaded with toxins, wastes away. This is cachexia, whichleads to death, usually by pneumonia or heart failure.
The local swelling which occurs with cancer is enhanced dueto the fact that cancer cells contain up to 90% of their mass as water compared to66% for normal cells, according to Dr Raymond Damadian, the inventor of the FONAR*diagnostic scanner. The increased water is due to the high levels of sodium in thecells.
*FONAR is an electronic scanner which can detect cancer cells by interpreting their differently structured water content. The name FONAR is derived from the words, Field Focussing Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. FONAR is expected to replace the currently used CAT scanner and is described in the Journal of the American Medical Association (January 8, 1982) as characterizing "a new wave of medicine"
Whereas it has been demonstrated in the laboratory that theintermittent withholding of oxygen from a cell can alone cause it to become cancerous,this condition does not appear to occur in the body to the extent of, by itself,causing cancer. Although high blood viscosity, reduced circulation and low oxygensupply are always involved, further nutritional or chemical impairment to the oxygenrespiratory cycle within the cell is necessary. In fact, the latter influence alone,if pronounced enough, can initiate the cancer process even if adequate oxygen isavailable to the cell. In this case the cell is deprived of oxygen because it isdeprived of the enzymes necessary to use the oxygen. This depends on nutritionalfactors, the presence of carcinogens, and the state of the vital organs, the liverin particular.
Dr Warburg considered the breakdown of cell respiration to bedue primarily to the absence of what he called "active respiratory substances"inadequately supplied in the diet, and to a lesser extent, poor oxygen supply inthe circulation. He thought in some cases carcinogens were implicated by their effectof inhibiting the action of the active respiratory substances. The active respiratorysubstances included iron salts Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Thiamin(Vitamin B1) Pantothenic Acid, Nicotinamide and Cobalamin (VitaminB12).
Dr Koch said that clinical observations disclosed the persistenceof toxemia over a period of as long as twenty years previous to the advent of thegrowth. The eventual breakdown in the cells' respiratory cycle occurred when varioustoxic amines deactivated the key respiratory component of the cell called the "functionalcarbonyl group (FCG)". Oxygen transport from the blood was reduced by poor circulationand gellation of tissue colloids, he said, but this alone, without the deactivationof the FCG was not sufficient to cause cancer. Evidence of subsequent fermentationwas the large elimination of lactic acid even when the lungs were well ventilated(from the Survival Factor in Neoplastic and Viral Disease --William F. KochMD).
Dr Gerson divided the cancer process into two components, thegeneral component and the local component. "The general component," hesaid, "comprises mainly of the deterioration of the essential organs of thedigestive tract, chiefly the liver. There the damage is done by a permanent dailypoisoning brought about by our modern civilization". The subsequent change incells from normal to embryonic form, using fermentation--ie. the local component--heascribed to an inadequacy of oxidizing enzymes and the presence in the cell of sodiumexcess and potassium shortage.
Dr Moerman observed that cancer only appeared in tissues thatwere chronically sick, and said, "In perfectly sound tissues cancer has neveryet, to my knowledge, come into being". He said the factor which finally causedthe breakdown in cell respiration was injury to the oxygenating power of the celldue to the absence of nutritional substances such as Vitamins A, B complex, C andE, together with citric acid, iron, iodine, sulphur and others, together with anadverse sodium-potassium ratio. Dr Moerman said, "It is no longer a theory thatcancer is a disease of the body as a whole, it has been incontestably proved. Eachcancer patient shows a great number of clinical symptoms which have not been provedto be a consequence of the local tumor, but have been proved to be caused by an abnormalmetabolism. To support this opinion I need only to point out the increasing emaciationof the body, which symptom we call cachexy, followed by death. We all know that thisemaciation followed by death, occurs repeatedly, whereas on examination it appearsthat the cancer tumor is no larger than a chicken's egg. It is a fact the emaciation,followed death can never be explained by this tumor somewhere in the body; it canbe explained by an abnormal condition of the metabolism. The cancer patient definitelydoes not die from the tumor in such a case, he dies from the disease of the bodyas a whole. This disease--and not the tumor exclusively--is cancer.
"The symptoms that occur with cancer--namely general symptoms,cachexy, multiplication of the virus and the mortal growth of the tumor tissue--areresults of disturbed metabolism." (From A Solution to the Cancer Problem--Cornelius Moerman, MD.)
The "disturbed metabolism" (ie. the cancer milieu)referred to by Dr Moerman, is capable of causing varying degrees of cell de-differentiationbut apparently not always to the extent of causing actual cancer--maybe benign tumorgrowth but not a malignant one. Malignancy requires a greater degree of de-differentiation,and this is where tissue irritation or injury comes in:
When normal healthy tissue is injured, before healing growthcan commence the cells in the injured area must first de-differentiate into nearembryonic form in order to multiply rapidly. When the healing is complete, the cellsbecome differentiated again and growth ceases. In pre-cancerous tissue, however,containing cells already partially de-differentiated, the further de-differentiationcalled for by the attempted healing at the site of irritation or injury may besufficient to convert some of the cells into cancer cells.
An illustration of this process is supplied by laboratory experimentsin which the powerful carcinogen, coal tar, is applied to patches of skin on micein order to produce cancer. In properly fed and exercised (ie. very healthy) mice,cancer does not eventuate, but in "normal" laboratory mice cancer usuallyappears after varying lengths of time. However, if before the appearance of the anticipatedcancer, injury such as a cut* is caused in tissue remote from the patch of coal tar,cancer will appear not where the coal tar is, but at the site of the injury. Thiswas demonstrated over sixty years ago by Dr H.T. Deelman of Groningen, Germany. Beforethat, in 1925, in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Drs Murphy and Sturmreported: "It has not been an unusual observation in our experience that mice,failing to develop skin cancer as the result of the application of tar, are foundto have tumors of the lungs".
*See Medical treatment of cancer, danger of biopsy and surgery.
This shows clearly that the coal tar causes cancer essentiallyby its poisoning effect of the bloodstream and subsequent breakdown of the body'sdetoxifying capability, and that the local irritation at the site of the patch ofcoal tar is only a secondary cause.
In humans the breakdown of the body's detoxifying capabilitymay take many years, with the gradual deterioration of the liver, kidneys, and othervital organs, depending on the nature of the abuse they have been subjected to.
It is held by most authorities that the process of cell de-differentiationis irreversible, and for the conventionally held mutation theory to be true thiswould have to be the case. However, Dr Koch long ago demonstrated how the oxygenrespiration cycle could be restored in some cases and the cancer cells returned tonormal. More recently, reversions of cancer cells to normal have been again reportedand are described in the report of the National Research Council, titled, Diet,Nutrition and Cancer (1982). In one of the cases, cultured cells reverted tonormal after the application of ascorbic acid, and in another, cancer cells revertedto normal of their own accord when, in an experiment, they were relocated to theirlocation of origin in the body. One of the leaders in this sort of research is DrLeo Sachs of Israel, who reported to the 13th International Cancer Congress in Seattlein 1982 how he had changed leukemia cells and sarcoma cells in laboratory animalsback to normal differentiated cells, either by the injection of certain protein substancesor by agents which caused the cell to produce these substances.
Epithelial tissues such as the skin and lining of the digestivetract etc., which in a normal healthy body are being constantly renewed by continuousreplication of cells and at the same time are exposed to varying degrees of irritation,*are therefore more prone to cancer. For this reason, cancer of the skin and at variouslocations along the digestive tract and respiratory system are by far the most commonand account for the majority of cancer deaths. Cells capable of rapid growth wheninfluenced by certain hormones, such as cells of the female breast, are also moreprone in some circumstances to cancer. The most common stimulus to such cell growthis the excessive production of estrogen which occurs on a high fat diet. Such cancersare known as hormone-dependent cancers, but in all cases of common cancers, however,it can be shown that poor blood and reduced circulation are the primary factors.
*Irritation of the mouth and upper digestive tract, including the stomach, may be caused by highly salted or heavily spiced food, very hot food or drink, and the heavy use of alcohol or smoking. Constant pipe-smoking may irritate the lip, sufficiently to trigger lip cancer. Asbestos dust and cigarette smoke are irritants to the lungs, and talcum powder to the female genital tract. As such these are secondary, not primary, factors in producing cancer.
For many years it has been believed by some doctors that canceris caused by local irritation alone, so often has cancer been observed to appearat such sites (eg. cancer of the lip among pipe-smokers). It can easily be seen,however, that the irritation is not the prime cause of the cancer but merely thetrigger action which by calling for a healing process has instigated the criticalde-differentiation of cells.
Although the intestine lining has a rapid turnover of cells,cancer of the intestine or duodenum is extremely rare. As can be seen from Fig. 20.1,there are four common cancer sites in the digestive tract ahead of the intestineor duodenum and six common cancer sites after it, while the intestine itself appearsto be immune. Why is this? The explanation is that the first four sites are exposedto direct damage from irritants contained in food, such as spices, condiments, salt,various chemicals and excessive heat and cold. Once food enters the intestine however,it is no longer too hot or cold and the harmful irritants are neutralized by theenzymes of the digestive juices, and even though there is a high turnover of epithelialcells in the intestine, there is no direct tissue damage and therefore no subsequentcancer. Following the intestine is the bowel (colon) with its six common cancer sites.These are explainable by the toxic process and chemicals produced in the bowel itself,described under the heading "The Role of Diet".
Figure 20.1 Common Cancer sites in the intestines

There is strong medical support for the belief that many cancers might be prevented by eliminating chemical irritants from food. Malignant growths of the human digestive tract tend to appear in the "narrows' of that tract where food slows down its passage and rubs against the intestinal linings most forcefully. These "narrows" are shaded spots in, the above sketch, marked with numbers: 1. the larynx; 2. the tracheal bifurcation; 3. the entrance to the cardiac stomach; 4. the pre-pyloric stomach; 5. the ileo-cecal valve; 6. the cecum; 7. the right colonic flexure; 8. the left colonic flexure; 9, the sigmoid colon; and 10. the rectum. Occurrence of cancers at these point is significant when one notes how relatively long are the cancer-free portions of the intestine. (Source: Natural Food and Farming,  Atlanta, Texas.)
Primary tumors rarely, if ever, occur in nerve or muscle tissue,because although capable of healing when injured, they are made of cells which donot replicate.
That the entire constitution is involved in the cancer processis evident by the fact that, preceding cancer there are many general signs of degeneration.Dr Moerman listed these as:
•	Dry, cracked, scaly or horny skin 
•	Changes in mucous membranes 
•	Unhealthy color of tongue and inside lips 
•	Rhagades at comer of mouth 
•	Scaly rings around the rings of the nose 
•	Nails hard and crumbly with line formations 
•	Hair dry and dead looking 
•	Signs of edema on inside lower leg 
•	Low vitality 
•	Bleeding gums (Vitamin C deficiency) 
•	Easy bruising (Vitamin C deficiency) 
•	Slow healing of wounds 
•	Symptoms of anemia, alkalosis, poor blood 
•	Poor appetite, loss of weight
Singly, these signs were not pathognomonic of cancer, Dr Moermansaid, but in combination they were.
Another sign which often precedes the appearance of cancer,cirrhosis and kidney failure, is body-wide itching. This finding was made after astudy of generalized pruritis (itching) in elderly patients by Drs Gary Kantor andDonald Lookinghill of the Milton Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania.
Dr R. Stoeger, of Germany, in his book, To Age--But WithoutCancer, describes his observations of cancer patients which indicated that theypreviously had displayed low thyroid activity and lowered immune responses. Morerecently, studies at St John's Naturopathic Center, Portland, Oregon, reported inthe Cancer News Journal, Vol 15, No 4, Winter, 1981, quote:
"100% of all (cancer) patients had below normal temperatures(96.8-97.8°), but simultaneously with measurable immune response and the patients'increased sense of wellbeing, body temperatures returned to the normal range (98.0-98.6°).And, even more interesting, those patients who continued to improve, stabilized at98.6°. This included the high percentage of patients who had always had a lowtemperature. "
These observations fit in with those of Dr Edward Howell thatin well established cancer and other chronic disease conditions, enzyme levels andactivity in the body were below normal.
Food aversions are yet another sign of cancer. It is commonfor cancer patients to develop aversions to certain food substances such as meat,chocolate and caffeine, which are known to be cancer causing. Such aversions areobviously a defense reaction by the body. In the book, Human Nutrition and Dieteticsby Davidson, Passmore, Brock and Truswell, the authors state: "Doctors and dieticiansshould be constantly aware of the diagnostic significance of loss of weight, anorexiaand food aversions as early signs of malignant disease".
Notwithstanding the many general signs which precede the onsetof cancer, it is difficult for conventional researchers to recognize the constitutionalnature of the disease because they study only the biological process of the diseasein its final stage. In their experiments with animals they apply a powerful chemicalto the animals and observe cancer appear as a result. To the observer, a single chemicalhas caused the cancer, even though he knows that dietary factors can influence theonset and course of the disease. The confusion in the medical outlook is unavoidablewhile cancer is viewed as a local cellular disease. Researchers concentrate on lookingonly for what Dr Gerson called the local component. They should read Dr Gerson'sbook which, in referring to experiments on animals shows that whatever chemical assaultis necessary to cause cancer in them, the cancer never commences until after theliver has been damaged "together with pathological changes in the kidneys, spleenand lymphatic apparatus". Further enlightenment would follow after reading thedescription of Dr Gerson's experiment in which he completely eliminated cancer ina rat simply by interconnecting* its blood circulation with that of a healthy ratwith a fully functioning liver.
*This is possible with inbred strains of animals which, like identical twins, are fully compatible.
However, the constitutional nature of cancer--a point of medicalcontention for nearly two hundred years--is gradually being realized in conventionalcircles. It is now recognized that cancer occurs in stages and references are madein medical reports to conditions of pre-cancer. A fairly recent news item is significant,headed:
"Cancer Detected Before It Begins" (Sydney DailyTelegraph, September 2, 1980) "A unique technique detecting the onset ofbreast cancer before it appears is being developed by a Sydney biophysicist. Dr VeronicaJames is working at the University of NSW on an x-ray technique to pick up changesin breast tissue which might herald a cancerous tumor. Changes occur in the elasticsubstance collagen of the breast before even a minute cancer appears, according toDr James."
It must soon become obvious to everyone that cancer does notsuddenly originate from a mutation in the nucleus of a healthy cell.
Once the biological sequence necessary for cancer is complete,and cancer cells have actually formed, cancer growth will still not eventuate ifthe immune system has reasonable function. Many people live apparently cancer-freebecause of this protection. Therefore, although not a cause of cancer, failure orpartial failure of the immune system is a necessary prerequisite for developmentof cancer growth.
In his book, Cancer--The Facts (Oxford University Press,1979), Sir Ronald Bodley Scott says: "In the majority of cases there is a preliminaryperiod of vague ill-health rapidly succeeded by a phase in which the symptoms arethose of the primary tumor".
Thus the cancerous growth or tumor is really only a symptomof the real disease which is lipotoxemia and the subsequent tissue degeneration andimmune system weakness which follow. A world famous cancer specialist, Dr D.W. Smithersin his paper "Cancer, an Attack on Cytologism" (Lancet: 493, 1962)said: "overgrowth and de-differentiation (of cells) are effects of disorganization--repercussions,not driving forces. Cancer is no more a disease of cells than a traffic jam is adisease of cars".
Metastasis
Secondary tumors are formed by cells of the primary growth detachingand colonizing elsewhere in the body. As mentioned, most circulating cancer cellsdo not survive; for such cells to establish as secondary growths they need to bestationary in contact with tissue in a location favorable to them, such as withina blocked vessel or stationary blood clot. As mentioned in The Role of Blood Viscosity,metastasis does not occur when the bloodstream is kept free-flowing, either by properdiet or the use of blood thinning drugs. Once established, the growth of secondariesmay be comparatively rapid compared to that of the primary tumor and is usually considered,in the orthodox view, as a "terminal" condition.
The more rapid growth of metastasized cancer in some cases maybe explained by the fact that. while in their original location cancer cells arestill partially responsive to normal growth restraint, while in the distant locationthere is no restraint. To illustrate this, experiments have shown that it is possiblefor certain cancer cells to become normal when returned to their original tissue.
One such case is described as follows: "Certain cancerscan be produced simply by transplanting cells to novel sites in the body where theycan multiply without the usual restraint or by placing them next to inert solid surfacessuch as plastic or metal. It seems unlikely that mutation plays any part in theseprocesses, especially since certain of the cancers produced in this way will recovertheir normal restrained behavior when they are returned to their normal location"(from Diet, Nutrition and Cancer, US National Research Council, 1982).

Cancer tests
By the time you have read this chapter, it will be appreciated(or perhaps not appreciated) there is a strong likelihood that the average person,if they have not already developed cancer, is probably well on the way to doing so.Autopsies of people who have died from various other causes than cancer have showedthat unsuspected pre-cancer or cancer was present inside the majority. Cancer testsare not exact, and even well developed cancer may not be revealed. Tissue biopsiesand exploratory surgery, whatever they may reveal, are damaging and more likely toaccelerate the development and spread of cancer anyhow.
Kasper Blond, MD, FICS, world famed cancer specialist, says:"Certain liver function tests are a more reliable indication of pre-cancerousand cancerous conditions than biopsies. These tests indicating a disordered functionof the liver are not specific for cancer and are present in all chronic nutritionaldisorders as well. . . An increase of the fasting blood sugar over 90 mg% is alwaysa sign of a pre-cancerous disorder. The number of tests indicating that cancer isa general disease is constantly increasing and no scientist today can seriously considercancer as a local disease.
If a patient has less than 10 mg% of Vitamin C in his blood,one is justified in suspecting cancer.
"Supporters of the early diagnosis of cancer do not realizethat the appearance of a local tumor occurs at a very late phase in the course ofthe cancer disease.
"Anyone who has studied the results of correct feedingof the cancer patient must be impressed by the number of chemical blood-changes inthe course of the disease."
So when all is said and done, what really is the point of medicaltests? Non-invasive tests are open to doubt, invasive tests cause harm and are likelyto worsen the situation. Whatever medical treatment which follows is innocuous anyhow.
No matter what the tests reveal, there is only one sensiblecourse of action to start with, and that is to stop doing the things which causecancer.

The role of diet
A study conducted at Loma Linda University, California, on 100,000Californian Seventh Day Adventists, with emphasis on diet showed that their cancerrate (all kinds) is half that of the national average.
The Australian, June 10, 1975 reported: "Accordingto a survey of 800 Adventists in Sydney, incidence of common malignant diseases suchas lung cancer and stomach cancer is only one-third that of the rest of the community.Incidence of abnormal blood pressure and high cholesterol levels was about 10% ofthat of the rest of the community".
Upon investigation, the connection between bad diet and cancerbecomes just as obvious as its implication with the other degenerative diseases.
The pollution and oxygen deprivation in the fluids of the bodywhich form the environment surrounding the cells of all tissues is directly attributableto bad diet, and the factors causing lipotoxemia have already been fully described.In the cancers common in industrial countries, once again fat appears to be the mainvillain (see Figs 20.2, 20.3, 20.5), followed by cholesterol and excess protein.Apart from its contribution to lipotoxemia, fat adds further to the cancer risk,as already mentioned, by causing increased production of the growth stimulating hormone,estrogen. As previously explained, red cell aggregation, platelet stickiness andhigh blood viscosity invariably accompany a diet high in these substances, and aremade worse by sugar, alcohol, tea, coffee, salt, and the rest of the tasty junk withwhich our bodies are assaulted.
Fig 19.2 Breast cancer mortality rates
Breast cancer mortality (age adjusted) vs per capita consumption of animal fat. Compare this group with Fig. 19.5. Italy, Israel and Malta, with low animal fatintake, still have high cancer mortality. This is accountable to the high intake of vegetable oils by these people.
Fig 19.3 Colon cancer mortality rates
Colon cancer mortality (age adjusted) vs per capital consumption of total dietary fat, both animal and vegetable.
Moreover, the Western diet, as discussed earlier, is very deficientin Vitamin C due to inadequate amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. Vitamin Cis essential for building and maintaining collagen, the protein substance which bindsthe tissue cells together; it is necessary for proper utilization of oxygen by thecells, for the integrity of the immune system, and for detoxifying the body. Allvitamins and minerals of course are essential, especially Vitamins A and E, in preventingcancer, but Vitamin C is the most difficult to obtain from normal food sources inadequate amounts.
Dr F.W. Forbes Ross of England, in his book Cancer: Its Genesisand Treatment (published in 1912) emphasized the paramount importance of potassiumin the diet in the prevention and reversal of the cancer process. He ensured allhis regular patients maintained an adequate intake of potassium and claimed thatnot one of them ever developed cancer, notwithstanding that many had come to himwith an obscure internal disease which he suspected may have been cancer. Dr ForbesRoss also claimed a high success rate in treating patients who came to him with cancer,by supplementing their diets with bicarbonate of potash.
On a good diet it is unnecessary to use supplementary vitaminsor minerals (with perhaps the exception of Vitamin C, as previously discussed) andit should be noted that both potassium and magnesium are inadequately provided inmeat, eggs, cheese, fat, sugar and grains.
The chemical circumstances which directly influence the behaviorof body cells is determined, moreover, not only by the substances of which the foodis formed, but also by whether they are cooked or raw and by the way in which theyare digested and assimilated and the wastes eliminated.
Constipation: For over a hundred years it has been observedby doctors that the most common factor associated with all forms of cancer is thecondition of constipation. Not only does the Western diet cause blood pollution andhigh blood viscosity, it is guaranteed also to cause constipation. In most respectablehomes can be found, along with all the other patent medicines, some form or otherof bowel-opening preparation, and perhaps one or two magazines in the bathroom.
Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, the famous British surgeon,* repeatedlyemphasized that he had never known a single case of cancer which had not been precededby prolonged intestinal stasis. Professor Aviles of the Biochemistry of Cancer Department,Guadalajara, Mexico, in an article entitled "The Anti-cancerous Properties ofVitamin F" (Let's Live, September 1954), said that out of 7,715 cancerpatients examined over a 15 year period, 99% had suffered from constipation and thatthe degree of malignancy was parallel to the degree of constipation.
*Sir Arbuthnot Lane considered the large intestine (colon) to be the seat of many diseases and at one time specialized in completely removing this organ. This drastic measure worked inasmuch as metabolic disorders such as arthritis symptoms, gall bladder "involvements", thyroid difficulties etc. would disappear in a few days following the operation. (See The Health Secrets of a Naturopathic Doctor, M. 0. Garten, 1967.)
Dr Denis Burkitt and Dr Hugh Trowell of England both spent 25years as doctors in areas of rural Africa. These doctors observed over that timethat constipation in these areas was virtually non-existent, and so too was cancer.Dr Burkitt noted that the rural Africans passed about one pound of fecal matter perday, about four times the amount of English people and that the Africans' feces weresoft, bulky and almost odorless.
Investigation showed another significant thing. The transittime from eating to elimination was for the African about 24 hours whereas with theEnglish it was three days or more. This meant that, even with a daily bowel movement,the wastes of food eaten by the English remained within them three times as long.
The obvious cause of these differences was the sort of foodeaten. The average African villager ate mainly cornmeal, beans, bananas and potatoes.This diet was low in fat and animal protein, devoid of refined carbohydrate, andcontained about three times the amount of vegetable fiber of the English diet.
The researchers analyzed countless medical records, and thisis what became evident:
1.	Cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in Western countries, was virtually unknown in rural Africa. 
2.	The cancers of civilized populations were also virtually unknown. 
3.	So too were diabetes, hypertension, appendicitis, hemorrhoids, diverticulosis, varicose veins, phlebitis, obesity and hernia.
The "civilized" Western diet not only causes lipotoxemiaand high blood viscosity by virtue of excess fat, cholesterol, protein and so onentering the system from the digestion, but in addition causes autointoxication whenunexpelled wastes putrefy in the colon (large bowel). The digestive process involvesbile from the liver and the action of bacteria normal to the colon. These bacteriacomprise 20-30% of the bulk of the feces. There are different types of colon bacteria.Healthy people have a type which requires oxygen to live, called aerobic bacteria.With the putrefying remains of a high fat, high protein, low fiber diet, the bacteriachange to a form called anaerobic bacteria, which take over the colon, and thesereact with acids in the bite to form poisons, which include apcholic acid and deoxycholicacid which are carcinogenic. Not only is the colon therefore constantly exposed tothese carcinogens in an oxygenless situation, but at the same time the toxins aretaken up by the bile fluid which circulates back to the liver, and so enter the alreadytoxic bloodstream to exert their carcinogenic effect throughout the entire body.
The Western diet is further conducive to cancer in that it lacksnot only the necessary fiber but lacks also the anti-carcinogenic substances containedin the missing raw fruit and vegetables.
On the other hand, with a low fat, high fiber diet, normal aerobicbacteria operate free of toxins, the high fiber feces contain a much higher proportionof intact bile, and the fecal matter stays in the colon less than 18 hours. Thisstudy was described by Dr M.G. Hall of the Bacterial Metabolism Research Laboratory,London, in the papers, "Fecal Bile Acids and Clostridea in Patients with Cancerof the Large Bowel" (Lancet, March 8, 1975) and "Steroid NuclearDehydration and Colon Cancer" (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,December 27, 1974)
Appendicitis is caused by poisons and harmful bacteria of thecolon. As described by Dr Norman Walker in his book, Colon Health, the appendixsecretes a powerful germicidal fluid into the cecum, which is located between thesmall intestine and the colon. This germicide acts as a barrier protecting the intestinefrom the entry of colon bacteria and likewise protecting the colon from any harmfulsubstance entering it from the intestine. So constant sometimes is the demand uponthe appendix that it may lose function and become inflamed. This is appendicitis.
At the end of his long medical career, Dr Ernest Tipper (referredto at the start of this chapter) stated explicitly: "In the case of cancer,constipation and excessive meat eating should be the two suspects; when they arepresent cancer is rife, where absent there is none".
High protein: Correlations between dietary fatand cancer have been evident for many years, and similar correlations exist withhigh protein intake. When dietary tests are conducted with animals, the "test"animals are compared with animals on a standard diet which are called the "controls".Both groups are subjected to chemicals known to cause cancer and the two groups arecompared. In a test using the virulent carcinogen aflatoxin, rats on a diet containing20% protein all developed cancer, but those on a 5% protein diet developed no cancerat all. A similar test in which large amounts of sugar were added to the diets ofboth groups was described by Dr M. H. Ross ("Proteins, Calories and Life Expectancy",Federation Proceedings, 18:1190, 1959): "40% of the rats still aliveafter one year, whose intake of both milk protein and sugar was high, developed spontaneoustumors of all kinds throughout their bodies. In contrast, only 20% of the rats onlow protein, high sugar intake developed tumors. Further, coronary arterial athermatoidlesions and unusually high blood levels of cholesterol were found in rats maintainedon high protein diets, even without extra fat. And after one year, 75% of the ratson high protein developed kidney disease".
Cooked protein is difficult to digest, and when incompletelydigested protein enters the colon it putrefies and ammonia is formed.
Dr Willard Visek, Professor of Clinical Sciences, Universityof Illinois Medical School, said recently: "In the digestion of proteins, weare constantly exposed to large amounts of ammonia in our intestinal tract. Ammoniabehaves like chemicals that cause cancer or promote its growth. It kills cells, itincreases virus infection, it affects the rate at which cells divide, and it increasesthe mass of the lining of the intestines. What is intriguing is that within the colon,the incidence of cancer parallels the concentration of ammonia".
Dr Broda Barnes (mentioned earlier for his studies of heartdisease) ascribes the association of high protein diet with cancer as being due mainlyto hypothyroidism brought about by the demands of protein metabolism upon the thyroid.(See Hypothyroidism. )
Meat: Consumption of meat is strongly suspectedto be conducive to cancer. Dr John Berg and associates of the US National CancerInstitute and Tohoku University School of Medicine (Japan), studied 179 colon cancerpatients and 357 non-cancer patients, all Japanese of varying origin and background,and found that consumption of beef was the only factor common to all the cancer patients.Dr Raymond Shamberger of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation told the American Associationfor Cancer Research annual meeting in San Diego in May, 1975, that he has identifiedin beef, and to a lesser degree in pork, chicken and fish, the potent carcinogenmalonaldehyde. This chemical begins to form in flesh soon after death. Leftover foodcontains more of it than fresh. The measurement of malonaldehyde content has beenused in the food industry for years to determine if food is stale or rancid, butwas not known to be carcinogenic.
As described in Chapter 15, cooked meat causes damage to allvital organs, and it must be clearly understood that in order to prevent cancer orreverse it, these organs must be capable of reasonable function.
One hundred years ago, Dr Charles de Lacy Evans, who had beena surgeon in an English cancer hospital before devoting his career to natural medicine,described the cancer inducing properties of meat. He added: "When meat is given,it should be boiled, and the liquid broth, soup or beef tea, thrown away. It containsthe irritating constituents of the flesh which encourage the growth of cancer".
In 1977, the International Agency for Research on Cancer reporteda comparison between Copenhagen and rural Finland. In Copenhagen the consumptionof meat was very, high compared to Finland whereas the Finns consumed a great dealmore fat. However, despite the much lower consumption of fat in Copenhagen the incidenceof colon cancer there was four times higher than in Finland. A comparison betweenNew York and Finland revealed the same situation.*
*Other factors to be taken into account in this comparison are: 1. The Finnish diet is much higher in fiber. 2. The consumption of beer has been related to colon cancer and in both Copenhagen and New York the beer consumption is much higher than in Finland. 3. The stress factor in cities is much greater than in rural areas.
Meat not only contributes large amounts of fat, cholesterol,protein and substances known to be carcinogenic, at the same time it contains nofiber and therefore causes constipation. In addition, growth hormones given to beefcattle to make them grow faster can have the same artificial stimulating effect withinthe body of someone who eventually eats the beef. Furthermore, it has also been recentlydemonstrated that dietary cholesterol specifically inhibits the anti-cancer actionof macrophages, the large white cells of the body's immune system.
An animal experiment reported in Nature, December 1978,showed that dietary cholesterol paralyzes the macrophages. Two groups of animalswere fed a synthetic diet containing 8.5% protein and only 1% fat, the same dietwhich has been shown to support healthy growth in children. Cholesterol, the equivalentof two eggs a day (600mg) for a human, was added to the diet of the test group andboth groups were given a carcinogen to promote cancer. At the end of one year, 100%of the cholesterol group had cancer with 90% deaths, whereas the other group sufferedonly a 20% incidence, all of which died; however, the remaining 80% remained perfectlyhealthy and free of cancer.
Most human studies comparing the incidence of cancer with bloodcholesterol levels have shown the expected positive relationship. However, the Framinghamstudy, in the case of males, showed an inverse relationship in which colon cancerincidence was 2.7 times higher at blood cholesterol levels below 190 mg%, and becauseof this observation some health authorities have recommended that levels above 190be maintained. This advice is wrong, because the Framingham conclusion did not takeall factors into account. The error is explained in a paper titled "Diet andColon Cancer", from the Pritikin Research Foundation, May 1982. In the Framinghamcases, says Pritikin, the cancers are still related to the intake of cholesterolalthough not to the level of cholesterol in the blood. The blood cholesterol levelis relatively low only because it is being used up to produce the large amounts ofbile acids needed to process the large amount of fat in the diet, and it is the excessof bile acids in the colon that increases the cancer risk.
Processed starch and sugar: In a 43-country surveyby the British Cancer Institute, sugar featured as the primary dietary factor inbreast cancer, fat second and protein third.
Dr Victor Bagnall, writing in "Nutrition: Its Relationto Cancer" (Cancer News Journal ), showed sugar consumption to be correlatedto breast, prostatic, ovarian, bladder, intestinal and rectal cancer. Dr Joseph Isselsof Germany also has made this correlation.
Processed starch food taken in large quantities is associatedwith stomach cancer. An Israel study described in You Can Fight Cancer and Winby Jane Brody and Arthur Holleb (1977), showed that stomach cancer incidence wasgreater among people consuming high levels of bread, noodles, cereals, beans andnuts.
Salt: As mentioned in Chapter 14, salt is a powerfulirritant and a strong inhibitor of enzymes, as well as interfering with circulationby causing fluid retention in the tissues. Even in small quantities, salt has beenobserved to increase the rate of cancer growth.
Dr E. D. Robinson of the National Biochemical Laboratory, MountVernon, New York, considered common salt "the most active cancer cause amonginorganic agents". Dr Albert Schweitzer, when he went to work in Africa in 1913,said he knew of no cancer there among natives and put this down to their diet. "Themost significant difference," he said, "was that natives 200 miles fromthe coast consumed no salt. Later, when these natives started using salt, we haveseen cases of cancer in growing numbers on our region . . . Salt is the chemicalenemy of potassium, and can cause body chemical imbalance."
Raw food vs cooked food (refer to Chapter15 ): The main factor underlying the disease called cancer is the cooking offood--not just because of the deleterious effects on the food--but chiefly becausecooking renders palatable the animal protein and fats which cause most of the harm.Foods which in their natural uncooked state would be rejected by humans, are madeedible and tasty by cooking and flavoring.
As long ago as 1829, Vincent Priessnitz of Silesia discoveredthe adverse effects of eating cooked food. He fed two pigs on experimental diets--oneon cold raw foods, the other on hot cooked foods. When he killed them, he discoveredthat the pig fed on the raw food had firm healthy flesh but the flesh of the pigfed on cooked food was inflamed and brittle.
Not only does the cooking of any food deplete its nutritionalvalue and tend to produce pathogenic substances, it also destroys natural enzymeswhich normally assist in the digestive process. Whereas a healthy person can supplyfrom body sources the necessary enzymes in adequate amounts regardless of whetherenzymes are contained in the food or not, ailing people or the elderly may to a varyingextent lack this capability. In this latter case, eating cooked food may depleteenzyme reserves to the detriment of proper metabolism elsewhere in the body.
In addition to the depletion or destruction of enzymes, vitaminsand minerals, other pathological changes occur in food when it is cooked and thisis indicated by the excited reaction of the immune system when the food is eaten.The white blood cell count of the healthy person increases to a level proportionalto the degree to which the food has been heated or processed, and may double or eventreble. This effect, already described, is called leucocytosis.
The greatest demand on the digestive organs is the digestionof cooked food, particularly meat and cereals, and it will be remembered that theconstant consumption of cooked food produces marked hypertrophy of the pancreas.
Dr Edward Howell of Chicago pointed out over fifty years agothat the hypertrophy of organs consequential to excessive function often proceedsto the atrophy of exhaustion, and that atrophy of the pancreas occurs in many terminalwasting disease.
Vitamin, mineral, enzyme deficiencies: Most peoplein Western countries, mainly by virtue of the fact that most of the food they eatis cooked or processed in some way, are likely to be marginally supplied with manyvitamins and minerals. At the same time their enzyme systems will be overtaxed, oftento the extent of damaging the pancreas, and it is not surprising that patients withchronic disease conditions usually display a number of deficiencies. As already mentioned,cancer patients usually have low enzyme levels and low body temperatures. Drs A.Goth and I. Littmann in a paper entitled "Ascorbic Acid Content in Human CancerTissue" (Cancer Research, Vol 8, 1948) described how cancer most frequentlyoriginates in organs whose ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) levels are below 4.5 mg% andrarely grows in organs containing ascorbic acid above this concentration.
Other deficiencies most commonly associated with cancer arethose of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and the minerals iodine, selenium magnesium, potassiumand germanium, and many people as a protection take these substances in syntheticform. As already discussed, it is far better to follow proper dietary rules ratherthan work with the guesswork associated with synthetic products.

Anti-cancer diets
As a person with cancer, or developing the early stages of cancer,has already defective blood chemistry, with marginal function of vital organs anddiminished enzyme activity, it is imperative that only the simplest, purest, mosteasily digestible foods such as fresh ripe fruit be eaten. Ripe fruit is virtuallypre-digested and its digestion demands very little enzyme activity.
The principles of correct dietary procedures have been usedin the prevention and correction of cancer and other conditions for at least as farback as 1809, and probably throughout history. There are today probably hundredsof special diets designed to promote good health, and by this stage the reader shouldbe qualified to assess them.
The Gerson diet: The Gerson diet, based on raw fruitand vegetables, low in sodium and high in potassium, has proven most effective inthe restoration of cancer patients and patients with all manner of other metabolicdiseases. Although, as mentioned, similar diets have been used successfully sincethe early 1800s to restore cancer patients, Dr Gerson's diet, which includes supplementaryenzymes,* was developed more scientifically in the light of 20th Century researchover many years of successful cancer treatment, and today forms the basis of allsuccessful cancer therapy.
*Dr Gerson provided his patients with supplementary enzymes by giving them raw calves' liver juice to drink. Enzymes of many kinds derived from both plant and animal sources are now available in powdered or tablet form.
Sir Arbuthnot Lane summed it up over fifty years ago, thus:
"What we should do then if we would avoid cancer is toeat wholewheat bread and raw fruit and vegetables, shunning all meat. First thatwe may be better nourished, second that we may more easily eliminate waste productsand thus adequately drain the house in which our cells live. * Whoever will correcthis diet to a reasonable extent, take reasonable exercise, and keep his digestivetract absolutely clean, need have no fear of cancer."
*Dr A Garten in his book The Health Secrets of a Naturopathic Doctor, described how Dr Senator founded the concept of autointoxication in 1888 and how Dr Melke in 1897 observed that a dietary change from meat to bread, fruits and vegetables resulted in a complete alteration in the intestinal bacteria and the disappearance of poisonous substances.
Vegetables and herbs: Early in 1984 the National CancerInstitute reported a study in North Carolina which showed that women who ate lessthan two servings of fresh fruit or vegetables a day were three times more likelyto develop cancer as women who ate four or more servings a day.
It is recognized that all the many nutrients, some of them stillpossibly undiscovered, play a part in the chemistry of every cell. Dr Leo Wattenberg,working at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, discovered that rats feda balanced, highly purified diet containing all know vitamins and nutrients werenot able to make certain enzymes (biological catalysts) in the liver which inactivatecancer-causing chemicals. However, when the rats were fed a crude diet containingalfalfa (known in Australia as lucerne) they were able to produce the enzymes. Andwhen alfalfa alone was added to the purified diet, this caused the enzyme to be made.Other experiments showed that this enzyme increased protection against cancer evenwhen cancer-causing chemicals were added to their diet. Dr Wattenberg found thatcabbage, Brussels sprouts, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, dill and celerycaused the enzyme to be made but varied in effectiveness according to their freshnessand the soil in which they were grown.
Dr Wattenberg identified the actual chemicals in the vegetableswhich cause the protective enzymes to be formed. They belong to a well-known familyof organic chemicals called indoles. He also found that citrus fruits contain chemicalscalled flavones which have the same effect as indoles. Beans and seeds are rich inplant proteins called lectins which have been found to protect animals against cancerin laboratory experiments.
In other experiments by Dr M. R. Mainlow at the Oregon PrimateResearch Center, alfalfa, when added to experimental diets had been shown to lowerassimilation of cholesterol from food. In tests on monkeys and rabbits, assimilationwas reduced from 76% to 47%. The active substances in alfalfa are known as saponins,a type of glycoside found 'in plants. Saponins lower the surface tension of water,and historically have been used as wetting agents for cleaning purposes. Cast intorivers, saponins kill fish without rendering them poisonous to eat. They are hemolyticif injected into the bloodstream, but are not absorbed into the bloodstream fromthe intestines. It would appear these substances dissolve fat and thereby lower bloodviscosity.
As indoles derive also from glycosides, the protective actionsof alfalfa and other vegetables may be related in a similar manner to those of ginsengand eleuthococcus. (See Relief of Stress. )
Amygdalin is a substance contained in many kinds of plants andis claimed by many people in the field of cancer treatment to be capable of inhibitingor destroying cancer cells. Amygdalin is also known as Laetrile or Vitamin B<fontsize="2"17, and is in common use by unorthodox practitioners as a primaryanti-cancer agent. The results obtained from its use have varied widely and havebeen inconsistent and inconclusive, and there has been great controversy in medicalcircles about it. Some amygdalin proponents claim it works as a vitamin (usuallydeficient in the diet), while others say that its anti-cancer action is brought aboutby cyanide released specifically only in cancer cells triggered by a substance inthe cell, and therefore harmless to normal cells.</fontsize="2"
It is evident, however, that when good results have been obtainedusing amygdalin it has always been in conjunction with modified diet usually supportedby supplementary digestive enzymes, as well as in association with other lifestylechanges.
In addition to amygdalin, there are countless other herbs andherbal extracts claimed over hundreds of years in folk medicine to inhibit and sometimescure cancer. Many of these are currently being investigated by medical researchers.
There is no question that many complete remissions of cancerhave been achieved by herbal medicines taken internally and in some cases applieddirectly to external cancers. The famous Hoxsey Clinic in Texas successfully employedthis form of treatment for many years, but although an independent investigationin 1954 by ten senior physicians from different states certified to the superiorityof Dr Hoxsey's methods, the AMA eventually had his clinic closed.
Apart from inhibiting or reversing the growth of cancer, herbalmixtures have been reported to alleviate angina and reduce symptoms of diabetes,in which cases it is clear that fat metabolism and blood viscosity must be favorablyinfluenced.
Obviously the correction of any errors, be they deficienciesor excesses, must favorably affect cellular chemistry. This may explain why, in thehistory of folk medicine, an enormous variety of herbal substances and extracts,used singly or in combinations, have been shown to favorably influence the courseof various diseases, often effecting cures. There are far too many reports and claimsof this kind, from all over the world, to be disregarded.
However, what works in one case may not work in another, andwith so many variables involved in the processes of cell chemistry leading to cancer,consistent results cannot be expected unless all factors are optimised.

The role of carcinogens
Diseased teeth: In his book Prevention andCure of Cancer, Dr Mulhim Hassan of Lebanon insists that a prime cause of canceris the poisoning of the bloodstream by diseased and infected teeth, and his bookis illustrated with many photographs showing the healing of various cancers and eyeinfections subsequent to removal of the infection source. Dr Joseph Issels of Germany(referred to later) has for over forty years asserted the causal connection of oralinfections with cancer, and the removal of infected teeth is considered by him tobe absolutely essential as part of the cancer therapy. Dr Max Garten, also of Germany,said in agreement with Issels: "This is one phase in the cancer treatment thatrequires adamant and uncompromising attention".
Food additives as carcinogens: In July 1976,specialists from the US National Cancer Institute, American Health Federation, HarvardUniversity, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Wistar Institute of Philadelphia,testified before the US Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs to theeffect that the potential of food additives for causing cancer had been grossly exaggerated,but that the "Standard American Diet" itself, high in fat, protein, highly-refinedcarbohydrates and low in "roughage", is possibly a causative factor andcertainly a predisposing factor in hundreds of thousands of cancer cases each year.
The liver is the body's first line of defense against harmfulorganisms and substances ingested in food. If the major cause of cancers were indeedcarcinogens in the food, surely cancer of the liver would be most common. But itis not.
Denmark has very strict prohibition against most food additivesbut has a cancer death rate 20% higher than Norway and Sweden which have far fewerrestrictions on additives. In Cancer Research, Vol 35, page 3379 (K. Carroll),the dietary fat intake per capita in Denmark was reported as 158 gm per day and inNorway and Sweden as 132 gm per day, a difference of 20%. Again the cancer rate correlatesexactly with the fat intake.
All the observations and animal tests over and over reveal thatwith or without carcinogens, high fat levels constitute the greatest danger.
Saccharin: In tests where rats were fed saccharinthe equivalent for humans of 800 12 oz bottles of saccharin-sweetened soft drinkper day cancer occurred in about 14% of the second generation rats. So it, was bannedby the US Food and Drug Administration even though it was never shown to cause cancerin humans. Thus many people reverted back to sugar which has indeed been shown toincrease human mortality.
Fluoride and chlorine: Fluoride is an insidious,cumulative poison strongly suppressive to the immune system. There have been a numberof occasions where the concentration of fluoride in water has inadvertently reachedhigh levels, resulting in serious sickness through poisoning. Some people have died.
High levels not only cause white teeth to mottle, but Dr J.Yiamouyiannis, Science Director of the US National Health Federation, after researchingthe records of the National Cancer Institute covering 25 cities, concluded thereis a definite link between fluoridation and the cancer death rate.
Dr Dean Burk, for thirty years in cancer research with the USNational Cancer Institute and formerly Chief of Cyto Chemistry there, now runs theDean Burk Foundation in Washington, DC and is currently working with Dr Yiamouyiannis.On December 10, 1983, Dr Burk issued an open communication which reads as follows:
"The trends of the average annual cancer death rates (CDRs),from 1940-1969, of the 10 largest artificially fluoridated American cities, whosefluoridation commenced during the period 1952-1956, were compared with the correspondingtrends of the average annual cancer death rates of the 10 largest American citiesof equivalent initial CDR that remained nonfluoridated over the same period of 30years. Comparisons were made with both weighted and unweighted averages. By 1969,the US officially reported, observed, average cancer death rate had reached an excessof more than 10% in the fluoridated group (population ca. 10,000,000) above thatin the nonfluoridated group (population ca. 7,000,000). Initiation of this differentiationtook place coincidental with initiation of artificial fluoridation, and was clearlyevident statistically and graphically within 3 to 5 years, thus specifically indicatinga causal, time-linked fluoridation-cancer association.
"The foregoing observed ('crude') data were adjusted forage, sex and ethnicity simultaneously and separately by conventional indirect methods,using the 1950 total US population as standard, for the periods 1940-1950 and 1950-1970,so as to consider trends before and after fluoridation. In these adjustments allcensal and interpolated intercensal data were used, in accordance and with widespreadpractice, and also a number of variations in choice of standard populations, andage groupings, (eg. to, 9 or 4), and also with respect to both ratio (SMR) and differencebetween CDR observed and CDR expected. The results obtained indicate that no morethan about 20-40% of the fluoridation-cancer linkage can be explained by the indicatedadjustments for age, sex and ethnicity, leaving the fluoridation factor dominant.
"All proposed contraindications to this finding of a highlyharmful (mortal) fluoridation-cancer link, most notably those contraindications advancedin Britain, were in error from inadequate consideration of available and necessarydata of the type just indicated, primarily (1) prefluoridation period data and (2)otherwise widely used intercensal data (interpolated or officially estimated). Thecontraindication advanced in the Opinion of Lord Jauncey (Edinburgh Court of Session,June 1983, page 362, item 131) suffers from the same scientific inadequacy, and isat odds with the Decisions in the three major American courts where fluoridationwas ruled a dangerous to health (Judge Flaherty, Pittsburg, November 1978; JudgeNiemann, Illinois, February 1982; and Judge Farris, Houston, May 1982), and wheremuch the same scientific information was presented in evidence."
T. Okamura and T. Matsuhisha reported a similar correlationbetween fluoride and gastric cancer in Japan. Due to a number of deaths of patientstreated on kidney machines using fluoridated water in the USA and Canada, the USSurgeon General cautioned all American hospitals to avoid use of fluoridated waterin kidney machines. (See also Subtle fluoride poisoning , Chapter 21.)
Chlorine is a chemical used to disinfect water supplies in certainareas and it too is known to be suppressive to the immune system. Its effect is describedin the discussion on the immune system which follows.
Other carcinogens: There are innumerable chemicalsubstances used in industry and domestically which in addition to various chemicalsused in the processing of food, are known to be detrimental to body chemistry tothe extent of favoring the onset or growth of cancer.
Although most people are exposed to them, only a minority actuallydevelop cancer even among those who are heavily exposed. Thus such chemicals mustbe considered to be not primary causes, but "trigger" factors which influencepre-cancerous tissue to further adverse change. Cigarette smoking is an example ofthis as described in the discussion on lung cancer. Another example, not as clearlyproven, is aluminum which enters foodstuffs from aluminum cooking utensils. Suspectedof being the most widespread pollutant of indoor air is formaldehyde, a chemicalused in particle board, artificial wood-grain finishes, foam insulation, plastics,disinfectants, paper products, even toothpaste, and many other products. The chemicalcontinually enters the air (a process called "off-gassing") from the varioussources and causes allergic responses which range from irritation of eyes, skin andrespiratory tract to nervous disorders and asthma. Recent research by the ChemicalIndustry Institute of Toxicology showed that rats exposed for two years to formaldehydefumes developed nasal tumors.
Reference earlier in this chapter was made to the associationof beer consumption with the incidence of cancer. A possible link is suggested bythe report from a British Regional Heart study of 7,000 men aged 40 to 60 in whichit was found that heavy beer drinkers had 30% more lead in their system than lightdrinkers or teetotallers. Those that smoked as well, had even higher amounts of lead.It is known that commercially manufactured beer also contains nitrosamines, whichare carcinogenic substances. It is known also that beer, even in small quantities,increases the level of blood fats, reducing circulation and increasing blood pressure.

The role of smoking
Smoking directly contributes to the cancer process in many ways.
1.	Inhaled carbon monoxide inhibits the oxygen-carrying capacity of the red blood cells. 
2.	Stress is produced in the body. 
3.	The effect of 1 and 2 is to increase blood viscosity and reduce blood circulation. 
4.	Carcinogenic chemicals are introduced into the body. 
5.	Smoking destroys Vitamin C, essential to collagen integrity, oxygen metabolism, and body de-toxification. 
6.	Irritation in the respiratory tract is capable of triggering lung cancer.
The role of exercise
The direct effect of aerobic exercise in the metabolism of fat,lowered blood viscosity, and vastly improved oxygen transport has been fully described.It has been shown too, that physical fitness provides enormous protection againstphysical and emotional stress--in fact every single body function becomes more efficient,including the function of the immune system, a most crucial factor in cancer.
Its protective effect against all disease can be clearly seen,regardless of all other factors, and it has been observed that the incidence of canceramong athletes is only one-seventh that of the average population. Although immenselyeffective, aerobic exercise cannot, however, convey full protection when the othercancer factors, which may include the stress of overtraining and intense competitionsare severe.
Studies by Dr Andervont (1944) and Dr Muhlbock (1950) of Holland,with laboratory mice susceptible to mammary cancer, demonstrated that by segregatingthem in different sized groups in different cages of different materials, the incidenceof cancer among the females varied from 29% to 83%. In one experiment using two groupsof mice caged under identical conditions but with one group provided with an exercisewheel, the group with no wheel had a cancer incidence of 67%, and the group withthe exercise wheel only 43%. It was assumed that the exercise wheel provided a psychologicaladvantage to the mice in that group, but it is more likely that the benefit was aphysical one. Another study by the Labor Research Institute of Japan, reported inPrevention, February 1977, showed that mice given the carcinogen Lexzidinesuffered 33% less cancer when an exercise wheel was provided to the experimentalmice.
Other tests on mice showed when a test group was fed only halfthe amount of food that was consumed by the control group, ie. the same food butonly half as much, when carcinogens were added, only 2% of the test group developedcancer as against 40% of the controls. However, if the extra calories where burnedup by exercise, the incidence in the control group was also only 2%.

The role of stress and personality
Stress and its relationship to disease has been described inChapter 8. Intense and prolonged stress has been shown clearly and specifically tobe strongly associated with the onset of cancer. In this regard its effects are widespread.
1.	Oxygen available to the tissue cells is decreased because of elevated blood fats and increased blood viscosity which follow stress. 
2.	It likewise decreases oxygen available to the lymphocytes, the protective white cells of the body's immune system, thus debilitating them. 
3.	The immune system, constantly stimulated by stress, becomes exhausted and impotent, the thymus shrunken. 
4.	Other hormonal upsets may occur.
In this condition, the body's defensive white cells, althoughcapable of destroying the cancer cells, make no effort to do so.
Dr G.J. Nossal of Melbourne, in his book, Antibodies andImmunity (Nelson), discussing the destructive effect of x-rays on white cellssays, "It is not unusual for human beings to have placed on them a stress asgreat as near-lethal (to the lymphocytes) x-irradiation".
Whereas emotional stress appears to be the most significantstress factor, it should be remembered that faulty diet, alcohol and tobacco arealso stress factors and that all stress factors are additive.
Galen, the famed Greek physician of the 2nd Century AD attributedcancer to a melancholy disposition.
A century ago the physician, Sir James Paget wrote: "Thecases are so frequent in which deep anxiety, deferred hope and disappointment arequickly followed by the growth and increase of cancer, that we can hardly doubt thatmental depression is a weighty additive to the other influences favoring the developmentof the cancerous constitution".
Sir Heneage Ogilvie, a British surgeon, in his book, No MiraclesAmong Friends says: "The instances when the first recognizable onset ofcancer has followed almost immediately on some disaster, a bereavement, the breakupof a relationship, a financial crisis, or an accident, are so numerous that theysuggest that some controlling force that has hitherto kept this outbreak of cellcommunism in check has been removed".
J. I. Rodale, a lifetime student and author on the subject ofhealth, collated so much material linking state of mind with cancer that he wrotea book on the subject called Happy People Rarely Get Cancer.
Dr Lawrence Le Shan, an experimental psychologist and researchspecialist, noticed this link among his patients over twenty years ago. He made apreliminary test to confirm for himself the link of emotional disturbance with cancerwhich involved 28 subjects, 15 patients with cancer, eight patients with no cancerand five free of disease. Considering emotional factors only, he correctly selected14 out of 15 cancer patients, missing out on one patient with skin cancer. He incorrectlypicked three patients, one with arteriosclerosis, one with allergy and one with hypothyroidism,as having cancer. The factors he considered were: loss of a crucial relationshipand loss of purpose for living, the inability to express hostility, and emotionaltension over the death of a parent, not necessarily recently. In 22 years of continuedresearch, the syndrome of despair, the bleak hopelessness of ever achieving any meaning,zest or validity in life, he found to be the predominant factor. Seventy-six percentof all cancer patients studied, Dr Le Shan said, had this syndrome as against 10%of non-cancer patients.
Historically, cancer rates have always been significantly higherin cities throughout the world. In the Scientific Australian, July 1979, itwas reported that: "More than one-third of Sydney-siders suffer from depression,according to a survey conducted recently by Professor John Gibson at the AustralianNational University. The feelings ranged from deep melancholy to intense despair".The advent of cancer for the deposed Shah of Iran is understandable considering theenormous stress he suffered.
Certain personality types are more susceptible, in our modernway of life, to cancer and other degenerative diseases. These types relate closelywith the type'A' classification of Drs Rosenman and Friedman. In his book YouCan Fight For Your Life (M. Evans & Co, NY 1977) Dr Le Shan says: "Cancervictims seem to have a strong life potential, creative, more inner 'fire'. This impressionwas so strong and consistent that I often found myself speculating whether cancermight not be a selective disease that is more likely to appear in those with thehighest level of emotional force, especially if their lives did not allow for thefull venting of that force".
This is readily understandable inasmuch that the higher theintellect, the more exposed it is to the syndrome of "future shock", oneof the most harmful factors of modern civilization*. The more creative and activea person is, the more they over-commit themselves to diverse personal relationshipsand projects until they become intolerably over-involved and therefore over-stressed.It would seem that, with higher aspirations and emotions, they not only reach higherpeaks in life, but suffer greater depression from emotional set-backs.
*A study reported by the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation showed the cancer death rate among the mentally retarded was only one-fifth that of the general population, but that in paranoid patients the rate was higher.
This type of person, however, has the best record of recoveryfrom cancer. When they are down, they count their blessings and get up again. A reportpublished in April 1978 by the Institute of Neotic Sciences, San Francisco, by DrC. Simonton, former chief of radiation therapy at Travis Air Force Base, and psychologist,Jeanne Achterberg and Stephanie Matthews, remarked that people who show remarkablepowers to resist the ravages of cancer seem to display special personality traits."They are verbal, confrontive, at times scrappy but generally receptive andhighly creative people." The report rated these people highly in the qualitiesof nonconformity, ego strength, self-control, self-reliance, independence and energy.This too is readily understandable as such people do not easily accept defeat andeven without knowledge of cause and effect, would attempt lifestyle changes in adetermined effort to survive. In many cases just one or two commonsense changes wouldmake the vital swing to the right side of a borderline condition.
It is Dr Le Shan's opinion that it is not the fear of death--anegative emotion--that marshals the body's resources for survival. Instead, it isthe positive emotion of the wish to live that provides the vital force.
In his book You Don't Have to Die, Dr Harry S. Hoxseysays: "Cancer is not only a disease, it is also a psychosis. Tell a victim heis hopeless (or let him discover if from his family) and the will to live becomesparalyzed. Show him a way out, strip him of fear and hysteria, give him even a forlornhope, and the will to live is stimulated. It becomes a powerful ally in the battleagainst death".

Relief of stress by drugs
As described in the discussion of the role of the immune systemwhich follows, tranquilizers and other drugs have a depressing effect on the immunesystem and are therefore harmful to a cancer patient. However, a report in the NewScientist (August 21, 1980) is of interest. It comes from British gerontologist,Dr Stephen Fulder, and describes a substance, assumed to be a drug, called eleutherococcuswhich is derived from a plant from the same plant family as ginseng. It acts as atonic and helps people resist stress, without adverse side effects. The report concludes:
"The most prestigious specialist medical institutes inthe USSR have recently found eleutherococcus useful as an adjunct to other medicinesin hastening the cure of chronic conditions such as chronic pneumonia, chronic tuberculosis,and vascular dystonia. Oncology institutes in several regions of the USSR, includingthe Petrov Oncological Institute in Leningrad, reported success in improving thegeneral health of patients with cancer, and reducing the chances of metastasis (thedevelopment of secondary tumors). It was also found useful in reducing the debilitatingeffects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy and therefore allowing higher doses to begiven. The same goes for ginseng. Its glycosides have recently been shown to hastenthe recovery of patients after serious operations, considerably shortening theirdependence on the hospital and reducing complications. Trials with healthy* peoplehave been extensive in the Soviet Union. The biggest was organized at the Volga carplant in Togliatti, in which eleutherococcus was given to no fewer than 80,000 workerswith a consequent reduction in various illnesses and therefore in work losses."
*As in all industrialized countries, most people are not really healthy but are assumed to be so in the absence of definite sickness.
This form of therapy, like other herbal therapy and megavitamintherapy, although doubtlessly beneficial as described, would be superfluous if thediet were correct in the first place.
It should be realized, of course, that many people live highlystressed and emotional lives without getting cancer. The prerequisite for the onsetof cancer is the development of the pre-cancerous state of the body's tissued--the"cancer milieu". Countless people live for years with the cancer milieuwithout the occurrence of cancer growths, but the advent of severe stress with itsdepressing effect on the body's defenses is all that is needed, when in this condition,for cancer to advance, and grow.

The role of natural sunlight and radiation
In Chapter 18, I quoted Dr Joseph Meites, an endocrinologistat Michigan State University. Dr Meites said that light entering the eyes causesnerve impulses which influence the lower brain and pituitary gland and trigger arelease of various hormones. He further stated: "We have no idea how many diseasesare linked with hormone problems, but we do know that several diseases such as diabetes,infertility, cancer and thyroid disorders are involved with hormone imbalance".
In view of Dr Ott's specific reference to the role of naturallight associated with leukemia in school children, some positive attention shouldbe directed at the effect of natural light and its influence on the pineal and otherendocrine glands.
An interesting article on the pineal gland in the ScientificAustralian, March 1980, described some of the gland's functions, but only touchedupon its dependence on light. It stated significantly the association of melatonin,a hormone secreted by the pineal gland, with a person's mood. In proper amounts,melatonin induces the feeling of comfort and wellbeing, and it has been suggestedthat the hormone could well be used as an alternative to currently used anti-anxietydrugs. This information derives from experiments performed by Dr R. F. Seamark ofAdelaide University in collaboration with Professor Maurice King of Newcastle University.
Bearing in mind the clearly established relationship betweenanxiety and stress with the onset of cancer, straight away it can be seen where alink may exist between lack of natural light and the onset of cancer. Specifically,the ultraviolet spectrum of natural light, by its effect on the retina of the eye,activates the pineal gland to produce melatonin which is an anti-stress hormone andtherefore an anti-cancer influence.
Additionally, and possibly more important, is the direct effectof sunlight radiation on lowering blood fat and cholesterol levels and detoxifyingthe blood as described in Chapter 18.
Dr Ott's third book, Light, Radiation and You (1982),describes the specific effects of different wavelengths of light and other formsof radiation energy on increasing and decreasing the incidence and growth of cancer,both in humans and in laboratory animals. A recent report of Dr Ott's work, in theMerced Sun-Star (Feb 2, 1983) described the experience of Helen Fleming,director of the Merced (California) College radiologic technology program, whosetumors disappeared when she moved to the country and got lots of sunshine. The tumorsreappeared when she returned to work but regressed again when the lights in her officeand home were changed to a type recommended by Dr Ott.
Also described in Chapter 18 is the adverse effect of variousother fluorescent lights. Lancet, August 7, 1982, described an Australianstudy which sought the reason for the doubling of melanoma incidence in the past30 years. The study of 274 women patients revealed a correlation between office fluorescentlighting and a 250% increase in melanoma risk. Data on 27 male patients showed a440% increase in risk over 10 years of exposure. The types of fluorescent lightsinvolved were not specified* and there is conjecture on which light wavelengths couldbe implicated.
*They were not the full-spectrum lights as recommended by Dr Ott, because these were unprocurable in Australia at this time.
It should be remembered that ordinary window glass, spectaclesand car windows etc., filter out ultraviolet light, and so to gain benefit from naturalsunlight a person must spend some time outdoors without glasses. An alternative isthe use of fluorescent lights which emit ultraviolet light.
Whereas doctors recommend people to shield themselves againstsunlight to reduce their risk of skin cancer, it should be clearly understood thatskin damage by sunshine is not the real cause of cancer but only a secondary or "trigger"factor.

X-rays
X-rays are known to be causative of cancer. People who havehad many x-rays show a high incidence. Of 1,400 adult males who had x-rays of thehip, those with twenty or more x-rays had twice the rate of leukemia than the others.A similar proportion was noted in a survey of 10,000 women. Because of the dangerof x-rays, new equipment has been designed and modern x-ray machines incorporatingimage intensifiers and fast film only emit one ten-thousandth of the radiation ofthe machines of 10 years ago.
X-rays destroy white blood cells and deplete the immune system.Dr I. Bross of Rosewall Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, USA, Seymour Becker, Chiefof Suffolk County New York Health Department Radiation Control Unit, and RichardSandler, Energy Consultant to Ralph Nader, all agree that widespread use of diagnosticx-rays should be halted. In 1960, Dr Emile Grubbe, a world authority on radiation,said just before he died of cancer caused by radiation, that x-rays emitted by TVsets were dangerous over a period of years. Genetic damage could result. Accordingto the International Commission on Radiation Protection, no one should receive morethan 5 rem of radiation before age 30. As one year's TV watching provides approximately1 rem, most young people will far exceed this amount.

The role of the immune system
It is generally agreed that regardless of the cause of cancer,a properly functioning immune system will attack and attempt to destroy it.
Malignant cells which migrate in the lymph and blood, in orderto colonize elsewhere must first survive the defense mechanism of the body's immunesystem and lodge in a place "safe" for them. Usually they are arrestedbefore they accomplish this. Millions of such cells are released from the primarytumor but the overwhelming majority do not survive.
The degree of protection afforded by the action of the immunesystem against abnormal cells must depend of course on the degree to which the lymphocytesand macrophages can discern the difference between normal cells and abnormal cells.They lymphocytes must be programmed to know which cells to attack and destroy andwhich to ignore. With different degrees ranging from slightly abnormal to very abnormal,there must be a dividing line.
A factor complicating this otherwise straightforward state ofaffairs is the similarity of cancer cells to embryo cells. Embryo cells within apregnant woman are not the same as her own body cells, and indeed are "foreign"to her immune system. The mother's immune system, however, ignores the embryo growthbecause the embryo cells produce a substance known as blocking factor. Thus evena transplanted fetus not of the woman's own making can survive and grow in her womb.Cancer cells, having reverted to embryo-like form, are capable also of producinga blocking factor which protects them to a greater or lesser extent from attack bythe immune system.
An effective immune system at work

A T cell, a thymus-derived lymphocyte, attacks a cancer cell (large sphere), which it identifies by the antigen molecules protruding from its surface.
The cancer cell is dying indicated by the deep folds in its surface membrane, These micrographs were made by Andrejs Liepins of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.
Thus the efficiency of the body's defense against cancer cellslies not only in the health and vigor of the white cells but also in the proper programmingof the lymphocytes and the rest of the immune system by the thymus hormones. In addition,cancer cells can be destroyed by inflammation* which is a secondary immune response,but it is known that cancer patients with their lowered metabolism are incapableof producing a proper inflammatory reaction. In 1932 Professor G. von Bergmann ofGermany stated: "Cancer metabolism takes place once the body is no longer capableof producing an active inflammation metabolism" (A Cancer Therapy, DrMax Gerson).
*Hyperthermia is a procedure sometimes used as an accessory to other treatment aimed at destroying cancer cells. The entire body is wrapped and heated to increase the body temperature to fever level because it is known that cancer cells cannot endure such high temperatures. Reduction in the size of tumors can be achieved this way but of course cures cannot be.
Inflammation cannot be simulated simply by raising the body temperature, as chemistry changes are involved as well. In real inflammation the fluid which is produced at the site acts chemically against the cancer cell in addition to the effect of the heat.
The thymus gland relies on a rich blood supply, well oxygenated,as do all body tissues, and its function is influenced by secretions of hormonesfrom the other endocrine glands. It has been described already how even the effectof natural light is important to proper function of the endocrine glands. If thethymus is debilitated, which it invariably is in people degenerated, stressed, orsick, the immune system becomes ineffectual.
The majority of people are never in a condition of robust health,and the fact that the "common" cold is indeed so very common, testifiesto the marginal condition of the average person's thymus. The general degenerationof the vital organs accompanied by the towered immune function which usually accompaniesold age accounts for the increase in cancer incidence in the older age groups.
The thyroid gland is also an important component of the immunesystem, and it is significant that cancer is most common among hypothyroid peopleand least common among hyperthyroid people. Thyroid suppressing drugs have been shownto increase the growth of all kinds of cancer.
In kidney transplant operations, the immune system of the recipientmust be suppressed by drugs in order to prevent tissue rejection of the new kidney.The incidence of cancer among kidney recipients then increases enormously.
It has been found that the body organs, adenoids, tonsils, andappendix, rather than being useless appurtenances, are in fact, important componentsof the immune system. Although the body can get by without them, a certain degreeof protection is lost. Two researchers, Dr J. R. McVay and Dr Howard Bierman, workingindependently, reported that cancer occurs more often in those who have had theirappendix removed. One may conjecture, at the same time, that internal pollution hasled to the infection of the appendix in the first place, leading then to the developmentof the cancer milieu. Some carcinogenic substances are conducive to cancer, not becauseof their influence on tissue cells, but because of their debilitative effect on theimmune system. The paralyzing effect of cholesterol on white blood cells has alreadybeen mentioned.
When cancer becomes so advanced in a patient to cause severepain, if pain-killing drugs are employed with resultant further depression of theimmune system, the cancer will advance rapidly with little hope for the patient.
In September 1979, the Australian Federal Government, followingthe lead of USA, Britain and Canada, banned a number of drugs containing methapyrilene,a drug shown to be carcinogenic to animals. The drugs were tranquilizers and medicinesfor colds and allergies. It is interesting to note that some months earlier, in May,a letter appeared in Medical Journal, written by Dr David Horrobin, directorof the Endocrine, Pathophysiological Laboratory of the Clinical Research Institute,Montreal, in which he described research with rats in which the growth of tumorswas accelerated by tranquilizers. He said urgent investigations were needed in viewof the very high levels of tranquilizers used in our society.
Dr Edward Humphries, a veterinarian of the Bureau of AnimalHealth, also in May 1979, warned that the use of chlorine in water supplies may belowering people's resistance to a variety of diseases. In a five-year study he hadnoted a link between the incidence of "Q"-fever among abattoir workersand the chlorinated water supplies in certain Australian country towns. Q-fever didnot appear at all among abattoir workers in towns with unchlorinated water. Dr Humphriessaid that his study supported research by US cancer researcher, Dr Isiah Fidler,of the Cancer Research Center, Frederick, Maryland, who had found a marked depressionof white blood cells in animals which drank hyper-chlorinated water.

Immunotherapy
It is now apparent to everyone that surgery, radiation and chemotherapyare only palliative approaches in the treatment of cancer, and that the immune systemis the key to completely eradicating cancer cells throughout the body.
Thus immunotherapy has emerged over the past few years as the"new hope". Although immunotherapy had been tried early in the 20th Century,the efforts failed, and so this is the second time around. With greater knowledgeof microbiology and immunology, the scientists are more hopeful, though faced withperplexing problems.
The first problem barring the application of immunotherapy asconventionally employed against other diseases is that cancer cells are not all thesame, and therefore, just as with the wide variety of influenza viruses, it is notfeasible to produce vaccines against them. This puts the entire responsibility ofreaction against cancer, when it appears, upon the body's own defenses, and the onlypotential of immunotherapy therefore, is to somehow boost the general capabilityof the immune system.
This is easier said than done because, in the first place, theimmune system which in most cases appears normal enough, does not seem to alwaysrecognize the cancer cells as enemies and may make little or no effort to destroythem, although it is known that lymphocytes and macrophages are perfectly capableof doing so. Immunotherapy technique is to employ various vaccines and other formsof stimuli to encourage the immune system into greater activity.
The sounds reasonable enough because the circulating white cells,although perhaps depleted in numbers, often appear to reasonably perform their othernormal functions.
At this point the researchers are stalled and perplexed andthe reason for this is that their entire concept, although sensible, is based onfalse assumptions, which are:
1.	That cancer is a local problem wherever it appears in the body. 
2.	That the patient's body, apart from the cancer, is healthy. 
3.	That the patient's immune system is normal, or near normal.
None of these is the case, and although the immune system maybe partially functional, the thymus appears unable to program it effectively, andso the cancer cells are ignored. So until the activity of the thymus is restored,the cancer cells will escape destruction.
The immune system of a cancer patient is depleted and ineffectual,and to try and stimulate it with vaccines or other artificial methods is like whippingan exhausted horse. Indeed it can be regenerated, but only by removing stress andbuilding up the health of the entire body.
Natural remission of cancer may occur merely by improvementin immune function perhaps brought about solely by alleviation of stress factors.In this case the disappearance of cancer tumors in itself cannot be considered acure, it means only that the cancer is being held in check by the body's white cells.
To achieve a cure the cancer milieu within the body must becleared and the entire body restored to vigorous health.

The role of hypothyroidism
The thyroid gland is an important component of the immune system,and it is significant that cancer is most common among hypothyroid people (hypo =low) and least common among hyperthyroid people. Thyroid suppressing drugs have beenshown to increase the growth of all kinds of cancer. Dr Broda Barnes said that incancer transplant experiments with animals the transplant would seldom take unlessthe animal's thyroid had first been removed.
Hypothyroidism, although generally unsuspected, is very commonsays Dr Barnes (see book list), not only in the various "goiter belts"around the world but among all populations on high protein diets. Dr Barnes pointedout the observations (1954) of Dr J. G. Spencer, pathologist at Frenahay Hospital,Bristol, England, that the goiter areas of 15 countries and four continents consistentlyshow a higher incidence of cancer than adjacent areas of the same countries, andthat Austria with its high incidence of goiter has the highest incidence of cancerof the Western countries.
The majority of people have low thyroid activity due to theirdiet, says Dr Barnes, but of the thousands of patients he has put on thyroid therapy,not one has developed lung cancer, and only six deaths have occurred from cancerof any kind.

Different types of cancer
It has been postulated that there are as many as one hundredtypes of cancer and therefore the cancer problem is a very complicated one. On theother hand, sensible analysis of the subject reveals instead that cancer is a single,constitutional complaint preventable by the simple act of purifying the constitutionand that therefore the cancer problem is in fact a comparatively simple one.
Primary cancers may make their appearance in any one of a numberof sites, the location depending on several factors:
1.	The degree of local circulation of blood, which determines the degree of pre-cancer. (See The Liver and Cancer: A New Cancer Theory by Kasper Blond, MD, 1955) 
2.	The location of irritation or injury as a trigger for cell growth. 
3.	In the case of hormonal dependent cancer, the type of hormonal upset.
Cancer of the bowel (colon and rectum)
This form of cancer is the most common form of malignancy inWestern countries, and causes the most cancer deaths. Cancer of the intestine israre. (See Fig 20.1, appearing earlier in this chapter) There is no doubt, therefore,that colon cancer is directly attributable to the poisonous milieu in the colon causedby constipation and the residues of the high fat, high protein Western diet.
Countries with a high consumption of beef--Australia, USA, Canada,New Zealand, England, Scotland and Argentina--suffer from a high incidence of bowelcancer. Scotland has the highest bowel cancer rate in the world, with the worst incidencearound Aberdeen, the cattle raising center. The Scottish consume 19% more beef percapita than the English and their bowel cancer rate is precisely 19% greater thanthe English.
Similar to the relationship between beef consumption and coloncancer, there is also a strong relationship between beer drinking and colon cancer.
This latter relationship is held to be accountable for the higherincidence of colon cancer among males.

Breast cancer
The incidence of breast cancer is much higher in countries wherepeople eat high fat diets. Frequently cysts (soft lumps) wilt appear first but disappearquickly when the diet is rectified.
Breast cancer is the number one cause of death in women aged35-50 years in the USA; Holland and Denmark have seven times the rate of Japan withits low-fat diet.
Oral contraceptives cause 90% of women using them to developbreast cysts within two years. These women have a much greater (260%) chance of developingcancer.
The effect of the Western diet, in changing the type of intestinalbacteria which react dangerously with the bile, has been described. Another effectof this process is that the female hormone, estrogen, is produced. An excess of estrogeninduces premature development in young girls. Whereas a hundred years ago girls commencedmenstruating at 17 to 18 years, they do so now at 12 or 13. Estrogen is such a potenthormone that a three-and-a-half-year-old girl who had been rubbing her mother's estrogenskin lotion all over herself in a period of two months developed breasts and an adultuterus.
In the USA, Premarin, an estrogen preparation designed to keepwomen youthful, was shown to increase the incidence of cancer of the uterus by 400%in two years and by 1,400% in seven years. The high estrogen levels result in thecysts and breast cancer mentioned. In the UK, cancer of the ovaries has been linkedwith estrogen contraceptive pills. The incidence of cancer of the cervix and uterusis twice that of those who use a diaphragm.
Fig 20.5 The effect of high-fat diets on breast cancer ratesBreast cancer mortality (age adjusted) vs per capita consumption of dietary fat,courtesy Kenneth K. Carroll, "Experimental Evidence of Dietary Factors and Hormone-dependent Cancers", Cancer Research,  Vol 35, page 3379.
Prolactin is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland and isinvolved in the function of breast tissue and mammary glands of the breast. In testson rats it was noted that cancer was associated with an increase in the prolactinto estrogen ratio in their bodies. Dr Ernst Wynder in his report to the US SenateSelect Committee described a study with a group of nurses who voluntarily adopteda low-fat vegetarian diet. Their prolactin levels decreased 40-60% in four weeks.
At an International Congress of Vegetarians, Dr Kristine Nolfiof Denmark described how she cured herself of breast cancer by adopting a 100% rawvegetable diet. She later established a sanitarium, "Humilgardin" wherethis diet is employed and consumed by patients and the staff. All forms of rheumatismand arthritis are alleviated, also psoriasis, hemicranea, gallstones, and stonesin the renal pelvis and urinary bladder. Loss of hair, fat accumulation and dandruffcease.

Cancer of the stomach
The countries with the highest incidence are Japan and Iceland.
Japanese average an intake of 1 oz of salt per day and havea very high rate of hypertension. Examining the stomach lining of young Japanesemen with inflammation of the stomach, observers noted it took two weeks of salt-freeeating before the inflammation disappeared.
The rice consumed in Japan used to be dusted with talcum powderto make it look whiter. Talcum is mined along with asbestos. In Russia, asbestosminers have high rates of lung cancer and stomach cancer.
In tests on animals where cancer-producing substances were injectedinto their stomachs, those animals on a 35% fat diet developed four-and-a-half timesmore tumors than animals on a 5% fat diet.
The people in Iceland eat a lot of smoked fish and smoked meat.Investigating 1,600 deaths caused by stomach cancer, the highest incidence correlatedwith the consumption of smoked meat. The carcinogen in smoked meat is called 3-4benzopyrine. The amount of this carcinogen in 1 lb of smoked mutton equals that in250 cigarettes. In the coal mining areas of Utah, USA, miners have three times thestomach cancer of non-miners, and eight times the incidence of people in non-miningareas.
The barbecuing of meat has been strongly suspected for yearsnow. Tests on 25 rats fed smoked meat showed they developed tumors and 21 died in90 days. Nitrates and nitrites are used as preservatives of processed meats, ham,bacon, frankfurts etc. Much of the nitrates' effectiveness depends on its conversionby bacteria into nitrite. The permitted level of nitrite in the USA is 0.2%. Nitritescan be changed in the stomach to nitrosamines, some of which are carcinogens. Thesehave been observed to cause cancer in all laboratory animals. It should be rememberedthat preservatives work by inhibiting the function of enzymes, and therefore theconsumption of preserved foods must inevitably lead to the depletion of enzyme activityin the body.
Researchers at the University of Nevada have found that nitrosaminesdid not occur in the presence of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). Nitrates which normallyexist in vegetables can be converted to nitrites in prolonged storage. It was recentlydiscovered in Europe and in the USA that commercial beer contained nitrosamines.A paper by B. C. Challis and C.D. Bartlett, organic chemists, Imperial College ofLondon, April 1957, described how nitrosamine formation from nitrates and aminesincreased tenfold when small amounts of coffee were consumed. Thus Vitamin C wouldlessen the danger of this combination. Nitrites can also affect oxygen transportwhen they combine with the iron in the hemoglobin of the blood. It is thought thatthe high levels of sodium nitrite in the salt used in Japan were partly responsiblefor their cancer rate.
It has been noted that among Japanese who migrate and live inthe USA, the incidence of stomach cancer decreases but the incidence of cancer ofthe colon increases.
Scientists at the University of Texas report that common seasoningssuch as cayenne pepper, paprika and particularly turmeric (the main ingredient incurry powder) alter cells permanently by disorganizing chromosomes.

Cancer of the liver
Despite the fact that the liver continually processes all theblood in the body as well as receiving substances directly from the intestine, thusbeing more exposed to carcinogens and toxins than any other tissue, and despite thefact that liver cells are capable of replicating faster than any others, primarycancer rarely occurs there. However, secondary cancer of the liver is common. Primarycancer of the liver may occur when cirrhosis exists and the liver tissue is attemptingto restore itself. Heavy drinkers and smokers are very susceptible.
As is well known, natives of undeveloped countries, who eatmore natural food, escape most of the degenerative diseases of civilization. However,among some of these people primary cancer of the liver occurs frequently, and thisis directly attributable to the potent carcinogen, aflatoxin, which like the carcinogensused to quickly cause cancer in animal experiments, is powerful enough to do so inthe healthy livers of humans. The incidence of liver cancer among natives in Johannesburgis 27 times that of the USA, and in Mozambique is 270 times greater.
The 20% rate of primary cancer of the liver among the Bantupopulation was attributed primarily to their poverty-restricted diet of corn andcorn mush, cooked in iron pots.
Aflatoxin is an excretion of a mould which can penetrate theshells of peanuts and poison them, and is also sometimes found in rice. Aflatoxinincreases greatly in rice which has been cooked and kept for later use.
Brazil nuts contain aflatoxin and their importation into Austriahas been banned. Peanuts are the worst. In England in 1960, 100,000 turkeys all diedof liver cancer when fed mouldy peanut meal. In the tests that followed, calves givenaflatoxin, one part in half a million in their food, all got liver cancer in threeweeks and all died in 16 weeks. Steers given one part in three million got livercancer in 16 weeks. Tests on ducks and trout in even weaker concentrations had thesame results. With rats, one part in 70 million killed them all with liver cancerin 6-8 weeks.

Lung cancer
Until recently lung cancer caused more deaths among men thanany other form of cancer. It now ranks second to cancer of the bowel.
Smoking not only introduces carcinogenic tars and other irritantsinto the lungs, but also elevates blood fats by its effect on the nervous systemand simultaneously reduces oxygen available to the tissues by carbon monoxide poisoningof the red cells of the blood.
However, not all heavy smokers get lung cancer, and at the sametime there are many nonsmokers who do get lung cancer. Admittedly lung cancer isso markedly more prevalent among smokers that it is certain that smoking must beregarded as a powerful causative agent, but it could never be said that smoking wasthe primary cause of lung cancer.
More directly causative of lung cancer is a high fat, high cholesteroldiet. In a Chicago survey of 876 smokers, in those with cholesterol levels of 275mg% (7.0 mm/L) the lung cancer rate was 37 per thousand.* For those with cholesterollevels of 225 mg% (5.77 m/L) the lung cancer rate was only five per thousand, butfor those smokers with a cholesterol level of less than 150 mg% (3.8 mm/L) therewas no cancer incidence at all.
*These figures were the number of smokers with cancer at the time of the survey. Of the 876 smokers, a far higher number will eventually get cancer.
It is noteworthy that the Japanese, who smoke much more thanthe Americans, surprisingly have a much lower incidence of lung cancer, and it isfurther noteworthy that although over a 30 year period the percentage of Americanmales who smoked decreased from 60% to 40%, lung cancer mortality increased threetimes.
These facts do not exonerate smoking as a cause but it shouldbe noted that the prime causative factor once again is the condition of lipotoxemia.

Cancer of the mouth, larynx and esophagus
This kind of cancer, like all the others, stems from faultydiet and is associated with various factors which provide the necessary local irritation.Heavy drinkers are susceptible and their risk is increased twenty-fold if they smokeas well. In some countries where this form of cancer is common, the irritation isprovided by heavily spiced or very hot food.
Cancer of the esophagus is common in certain areas of Iran wherethe diet consists almost entirely of coarse bread. In this case the necessary conditionof pre-cancer would be due not to dietary excesses, but to dietary deficiencies,there being no fruit or vegetables available.

Leukemia
Leukemia is the uncontrolled proliferation of white blood cellsin the body and bloodstream. It occurs mainly in young people.
It is known that the incidence of leukemia is very low amongprimitive natives and vegetarians, and that the disease responds rapidly when a raw,low fat, vegetarian diet is adopted. (See Chapter 2.)
It is also significant that tests in the 1940s and 1950s showedthat leukemia patients displayed low levels of Vitamin C. These tests were describedby Dr A. Vogt, "Vitamin C Treatment of Chronic Leukemia" (Deutsche MedizinischeWochenschrift, Vol 66, 1940), Dr E. D. Kybos, "Large Doses of Ascorbic Acidin Treatment of Vitamin C Deficiencies" (Archives of Internal Medicine,Vol 75, 1945) and Dr A. L. Waldo and Dr R. E. Ziff in "Ascorbic Acid in LeukemiaPatients" (Cancer, Vol 8, 1955).

Prostate cancer
Cancer of the prostate is usually preceded by a benign conditionin which the prostate becomes enlarged. The enlargement is caused mainly by accumulationof cholesterol crystals.

Cancer of the uterus
This form of cancer is associated with obesity, and women fiftypounds or more overweight are ten times more susceptible to its development. Overweightdiabetics have the highest risk.

Skin cancer
There are three distinct types of skin cancers:
1.	Basal cell carcinoma. 
2.	Squamous cell carcinoma. 
3.	Malignant melanoma.
The first two are far more common and less dangerous than melanomabecause they are less aggressive and have little tendency to metastasize by way ofthe lymph or blood circulation.
It is generally accepted that most skin cancers are caused byoverexposure to strong sunlight because the cancer appears on the face and otherexposed areas of people who spend a lot of time in the sun. As would be expected,the incidence of skin cancer is greater in countries with sunny climates and greateramong fair-skinned people than in dark-skinned people.
However, as with lung cancer and other cancer, the incidenceof skin cancer more closely correlates with the level of blood fats and cholesterol,and regardless of exposure to sun, skin cancer does not readily occur among peopleon very low fat/cholesterol diets. As with other cancers, sun damage is merely thetrigger effect which initiates cell division.
According to Dr George Engel, a dermatologist in Illinois, thenumber of deaths from malignant melanoma in the USA doubled in the 25-year periodto 1978. As American exposure to sunshine has not apparently increased over thatperiod, the reason for these increased deaths cannot be ascribed to the sun. Thesame situation exists in Australia, where a recent study showed that melanoma incidencehas doubled in the last 30 years.

Kidney cancer
Australia has the highest incidence of kidney disease and kidneycancer in the world. This fact reflects not only the excessive intake of protein,fat and cholesterol in the diet, but also the enormous consumption of analgesic painkillerstaken in the form of tablets and powders. High as the general incidence of kidneycancer is, it is ten times higher again in women who take these drugs regularly.(See Analgesic Addiction, Chapter 21.)

General observations
A report from Holland said that people living within 150 feetfrom a busy highway suffered a nine times higher cancer incidence. This would nodoubt be due to high levels of carbon monoxide although a report from Japan describedhigh incidence of lead poisoning from exhaust fumes. Remember that carbon monoxidehas affinity for combining with the red blood cells to the exclusion of oxygen.
Smokers who smoke filter-tipped cigarettes to avoid the intakeof carcinogenic tars still inhale the deadly carbon monoxide, and people in theirproximity inhale up to 50% of the amount too.
Dr D. J. Field, Lancet, September 21, 1974, reportedthat polyunsaturated fats inhibit the white blood cells from fighting infection.
Dr R. K. Boutwell, Cancer Research, 9:741, 1949: "Thestimulating effect of fat on the rate of formation of certain types of tumors iswell established".
Dr C. A. Baumann, American Journal of Cancer 35:213,1939: "An increase in the fat content of the diet exhilarated the appearanceof tumors due to ultraviolet irradiation (skin cancers)."
Dr H. P. Rusch, Cancer Research 5:431, 1945 showed similarresults in animal tests with ultraviolet rays (as in sunlight) when their diets werehigh in fat.
Dr Ernst Wynder, American Health Foundation, stated:"Both epidemiologic and animal data suggest that colon cancer is due largelyto high fat consumption".
Dr E. R. Pickney, American Heart Journal 85:723, 1975:"There is certainly a reasonable epidemological association between a diet highin polyunsaturates and the increased incidence of cancer (especially gastric) inhumans." He went on to say that his research showed that 78% of people who usedmore polyunsaturated fats showed marked "clinical" signs of aging and that60% had had skin lesions removed because of suspected malignancy.
It appears that polyunsaturated fat inhibits the function ofthe white cells. It has a discernible effect on red blood cells, causing them toaggregate, ie. stick together, restricting circulation.
A Lancet report, August 16, 1969, stated that in theUK on the average a person annually consumed 3 lbs of chemicals, not naturally presentin food. Dr Ben Feingold of the Kaiser Permanent Medical Center, San Francisco, authorof Why Your Child is Hyperactive, puts the American figure at 5 lbs.

Medical treatment of cancer
"Considered in its broadest terms, orthodox cancer treatmenttoday is a failure and a disgrace. Contemporary cancer management in a number ofrespects, constitutes professional malpractice."--Dr Brian A. Richards, in hisbook The Topic of Cancer (1982).
In a lecture at the American Cancer Society's annual ScienceWriters' Conference in New Orleans in 1969, Dr Hardin Jones of the University ofCalifornia Department of Medical Physics, said:
"My studies have proven conclusively that untreated cancervictims actually live up to four times longer than treated individuals. For a typicaltype of cancer, people who refused treatment lived for an average of twelve and ahalf years. Those who accepted surgery and other kinds of treatment lived an averageof only three years . . . "
In a paper titled "Cancer Cures More Deadly Than Disease",Dr Jones said further:
"It is utter nonsense to claim that catching symptoms earlyenough will increase the patient's chances of survival. Not one medical scientistor study has proven that so in any way.* Furthermore, untreated breast cancer casesshow a life expectancy four times longer than treated ones. My wife and I have discussedwhat she would do if breast cancer were diagnosed in her, and we both agree she woulddo nothing except to keep as healthy as possible. I guarantee she would live longer.For not only does radical surgery or chemotherapy do nothing to prolong a cancervictim's life, but that same person will, in most cases, live a lot longer if heor she refuses treatment. Beyond a shadow of doubt, radical surgery on cancer patientsdoes more harm than good."
*Because if a patient remains free of symptoms for five years he or she is considered to be"cured" of cancer, medical statistics of cure rate do not reflect the true situation. When relatively harmless skin cancers are included as well, the overall cure rate of cancer appears much better still. It is obvious that the earlier cancer is detected in the first place the more chance a patient has of meeting the five-year criterion, but in fact this does not extend the patient's life, it merely makes the statistics look better.
The continued failure to effectively combat cancer, despitethe repeated optimistic promises of new breakthroughs has reduced the credibilityof the medical profession, but this failure is made to look less dismal by the misleadingsurvival rates published by medical authorities.
Conventional medical treatment of cancer is a failure for theobvious reason that it is not addressed at removing the cause but merely at destroyingone of the symptoms, ie. the cancer growth. This absurdity 'is due to the steadfastlyheld view that cancer occurs as a local malfunction of cell growth caused probablyby a chance mutation in an otherwise healthy body. The other symptoms of weight loss,fatigue, poor skin tone, etc. are thought to be caused by the tumor growth.
The three basic medical treatments are surgery, radiation andchemotherapy, all of which are traumatic and more often than not accelerate the declineof the patient.
Whereas there may be something gained by the surgical removalof a self-contained tumor inasmuch as stopping its parasitic action, in most casesthere are millions of stray cancer cells already circulating in the body and usuallymetastases already established. When a surgeon says "he got it all" heis being very optimistic.
Dr Robert Bell, MD, FRPS,* formerly a cancer surgeon who abandonedsurgery when he realized its futility against cancer and devoted the rest of hislife to natural healing, wrote: "it is of no more avail to excise the localmanifestation of blood contamination--which cancer undoubtedly is--and thus expectto eradicate the constitutional affliction, than it is to cut out a piece of dryrot in a beam without adopting means to remove the cause of the mischief".
*Dr. Bell practiced medicine from 1870 to 1928; he was a researcher ahead of his time and the author of several books (see list). He originated microphotography for cellular research, and identified the anaerobic nature of cancer cells, describing how cancer cells arose from cells which were originally normal. He abandoned surgery in 1894 and thereafter was constantly embroiled in controversy with the medical establishment in England. Despite malignment from this quarter, he was highly esteemed and was offered a knighthood by King Edward VII, which he graciously declined.
Further-more, surgery or biopsy, because the subsequent healingprocess causes de-differentiation of tissue cells, can actually initiate cancer growth.In such cases, said Sir James Paget, "The surgeon has unwittingly supplied bythe local injury what was needed for the production of a cancerous growth".
After surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy is the next step,because even in "terminal" cases, it is hoped that by retarding the tumorgrowth, the patient will gain extra time. Radiation usually diminishes the size ofthe tumor, and this is encouraging to see, but once again this is only the diminutionof a symptom. While this is going on, destruction occurs to normal tissue as well,and enormous numbers of circulating white cells of the immune system are destroyed.
Said Dr W. A. Dewey, Professor of Therapeutics, University ofMichigan: "As radium is directed only at the end products of cancer, it is notonly useless, but it destroys the healthy tissue around the tumor, destroying bloodvessels and protective glands which are most necessary to the healing process, andchases the disease to some internal organ, thus so complicating the case that cureis impossible".
Chemotherapy is even worse. Senator Hubert Humphrey before hedied, called it "death in a bottle". The idea of chemotherapy is to delaycancer growth by preventing replication of the cells, and the so-called advantageof the chemicals is that they circulate through the entire body so reaching all sitesof cancer growth whether detected or not. The disadvantages are that all other replicatingnormal cells are affected as well, resulting in hair loss and ulceration of varioustissues, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, vertigo and so on. At the same time, thealready diminished immune system is further destroyed.
It is hard to believe. The medical authorities and the chemicalmanufacturers admit that the chemicals used can actually cause cancer, and the pharmacistswho handle them wear special protective clothing and masks in fear of their own livesThese frightening chemicals are then purposefully injected into the very bloodstreamof the cancer patient, whose wretched liver now has to try to detoxify this furtherassault. As the patient's survival depends upon restoration of the liver and thefunctioning of the immune system, chemotherapy is not only bound to fail, it virtuallyguarantees the patient's further decline.
On chemotherapy, Dr Charles Huggins, Nobel Prize winner, ofthe University of Chicago, said: "I am very much against chemotherapy generally.It simply makes the patients too ill. Remember there are worse things than death.One of them is chemotherapy".
Sometimes radiation and chemotherapy are used together, andthis procedure is the most lethal of all, but is commonly used by doctors obsessedwith the destruction of cancer cells regardless of all else. Hope rises as the tumordiminishes in size, and then crashes as the inevitable regrowth appears.
The entire medical show, nothing less than ridiculous when honestlyassessed, is of course fearfully expensive in money, and in terms of grief and despair,immeasurable.
At the Annual Scientific Meeting on the subject of cancer atSydney University in November, 1980, Dr P. Shubik of USA was frank. In his openingremarks he said that "there were no cancer experts any more in the USA".What he meant was that cancer has the medical profession perplexed and confused.There is no medical cure presently foreseen, and hope lies mostly in extending thelife of patients by improving current methods of treatment. During the meeting, thesubjects of diet, physical fitness, exercise and stress were not discussed exceptfor one "workshop" on diet which only two doctors attended. The immunesystem was discussed once, but not as a serious cancer factor.
More recent are reports of the work of Professor John Williams'team at the Australian National University in Canberra. Hoping for a breakthrough,they are seeking methods of arresting cachexia, the wasting of the body which occursin the final stages of cancer. A medical breakthrough will only be achieved howeverwhen the fact, known for over a hundred years, is accepted that not only cachexia,but the tumor, the pre-cancer and the "cancer milieu" are all stages ofthe one degenerative process.
Why are people still ignorant of medical facts known for onehundred years or more?
In addition to Drs Koch, Gerson and Moerman, there have beena whole succession of doctors going right back to Dr Lambe in 1809 who have successfullytreated cancer by helping their patients correct the constitutional disorders oftheir bodies.
Despite their proven methods, these doctors could never breakthe barrier of prejudice historically surrounding the medical profession, but insteadwere persecuted in varying degrees as troublesome nonconformists. Such rejectionis a peculiar part of human nature and has always been encountered by innovatorsin all fields.
For a new method to be accepted by the medical establishment,the fact that it works is almost irrelevant. Unless research is on an "in"subject and conducted on "approved" lines, the authors of research papershave great difficulty having them printed, particularly in the more conservativemedical journals. Dr Gerson submitted dozens of papers on cancer therapy to the Journalof AMA but none were accepted. Dr Koch and Dr Moerman, along with Dr Hoxsey and manyothers, received the same rejection.
This is why today the medical profession is so ignorant of muchvital information, not only information on cancer. The vital facts of diabetes andheart disease also, known for over one hundred years and scientifically proven inthe 1930s by Dr I. M. Rabinowitch and in the 1940s by Dr Lester Morrison, are stillunknown to most doctors.
This opposition and cover-up is due not only to conservatismand vested professional interests, it is professed policy of the drug and chemicalcorporations together with such food industries as the meat, dairy and sugar industrieswho between them control most of the funding for medical research.
Perhaps Dr Gerson's story provides the best example. The curerates he achieved among so-called terminal patients were phenomenal, but he couldnot get the recognition in the USA that he had achieved in the 1920s and 30s in Europe.Dr Gerson, who had cured the wife of Dr Albert Schweitzer of tuberculosis, and DrSchweitzer himself of diabetes, was described by Dr Schweitzer: "I see in himone of the most eminent geniuses in the history of medicine. He possessed somethingelemental. Out of the deepest thought about the nature of disease and the processof healing, he came to walk along new paths with great success."
Gerson got as far as presenting five "hopeless cases"completely cured of cancer to a Senate subcommittee in Washington in 1946 which wasevaluating cancer research. The proposal for support for Gerson was narrowly defeatedafter heavy pressure from the medical lobby.
On April 28, 1981, a significant event occurred in Sydney, Australia.Dr John McDougall of Honolulu delivered a public lecture on the subject of diet andbreast cancer. In fact, he is researching the subject on a medical grant from theStraub Foundation of Honolulu. He is the first person to receive such a grant; inthe past not even Linus Pauling, a double Nobel Prize winner, could do so, so stronglyagainst this sort of research was the establishment. Dr McDougall's dietary approachis based firmly on the Pritikin diet, and he is showing very good results with hispatients.
A valuable step forward, and interesting reading, is the USNational Research Council's comprehensive report, Diet, Nutrition and Cancer(1982). Unfortunately, the viewpoint of the committee which prepared the report isstill wrongly orientated looking for "mutagens", etc, and no proposal ismade of diet and nutrition as a cancer therapy.
Meanwhile, the cancer death rate continues to increase. In 1971when the Nixon administration declared war on cancer, one in every six American deathswas due to the disease. Billions of "research" dollars later, in 1978,the rate had risen to one in five, and at this rate of increase, by 1988 it willbe one in four.*
*Update 1996: the 1988 prediction proved correct--the present rate is one in three.
Hopefully the orthodox medical establishment will eventuallyget the message. In her book Cancer Under Siege (1975), Dr June Goodfieldquoted Dr Robert Good, director of the Sloan-Kettering Institute as saying: "Whenwe look back at what we do to cancer today, chopping it out, burning it out, poisoningit out, it will all seem so crude."
Dr Good, why do you think Dr de Lacey Evans gave up surgerya hundred years ago?
Let Dr Kasper Blond sum it up. He said: "The problem ofcancer must be considered as an insoluble medical problem, because it is essentiallya nutritional and social problem: in other words a problem of prevention. Such aproblem cannot be solved by animal experiments, vaccines and drugs. Statisticians,pathologists, biochemists and doctors CANNOT SOLVE SOCIAL PROBLEMS."

Orthomolecular Medicine
Realizing the true nature of cancer and other diseases, manyprogressive doctors avoid the use of drugs, and concentrate on correcting the bodychemistry of their patients. Whereas the patient is given dietary instruction basedon the results of allergy tests (which are open to doubt), the main theme of orthomolecularmedicine seems to be the prescription of large quantities of artificial vitaminsand minerals which blood tests have indicated to be supposedly deficient. Orthomolecularmedicine, using vitamins and minerals therapeutically instead of drugs, is a goodattempt by medically trained people to help the body help itself.
In addition to vitamins and minerals, other scientific modalitiesare often employed in orthomolecular medicine such as supplementary enzymes, herbalmedicines, hyperbaric oxygen, ultraviolet irradiation of blood, chelation, DMSO andso on. The relative merits of such modalities are open to question in tight of thefact that in most cases the same or better results can be achieved by strict dietin a very short time. However, no doubt in certain cases, modalities such as thesehelp support life until failing body systems are restored. As mentioned, Dr Gersonfound it necessary to provide supplementary enzymes in the form of calves' liverjuice and to use coffee enemas to stimulate the removal of toxins.
Orthomolecular medicine although imperfect, has achieved verygood results, and for people incapable of maintaining a correct diet, it will bea big help. In respect to cancer, the only consistent successes achieved by orthomoleculardoctors all depend on nutrition, modelled on the Gerson diet as a basis.

Spontaneous (natural) remission of cancer
On rare occasions, to the surprise and sometimes disbelief ofdoctors, well established cancer growths in a patient mysteriously disappear. Believingsuch cancers to be "incurable", sometimes a doctor will reverse his originaldiagnosis and say the patient never really did have cancer in the first place. However,it is now accepted that such remissions do occur--probably more often than generallybelieved.
In his valuable book Victory Over Cancer Cyril Scottquotes surgeon Hastings Gilford stating in 1925: "Though cancer is so commonlyregarded as inevitably fatal, many cases are recorded of its 'spontaneous' disappearance--andnothing can be more certain than that these recorded cases are very few in comparisonwith those which are unrecorded". Hastings Gilford then listed the names ofmany eminent men who have testified to spontaneous cures of cancer. Among the nameswere Paget, Brodie, Muller, Sauerbrach, Gleitmann, Rohdenburg and Lomer. Lomer hadrecorded 213 cases and Rohdenburg 302. A Dr E. F. Bashford provided a list of 13other eminent doctors, all who had observed spontaneous healing of tumors.
Scott then quotes Dr Georgina Luden (USA) who said: "Theimportance of this fact can hardly be over-estimated. It is a proof positive thatthe human body can wage a winning fight against malignancy under the most untowardconditions . . .
"Since outside aid has proved useless, the victory musthave been won by inside means. Changes in the body chemistry, resulting from increasedor renewed activity of organs by which the chemical condition in the body is regulated,seem to be the only available explanation, since the chemical composition of theblood must influence the body cells."
Now remember--these spontaneous cures happened by "accident",not by design, so that a patient today who knows exactly what to do must have aninfinitely better chance of achieving success, ie. complete spontaneous remission.
Sir Alexander Haddow, a medical leader in cancer research, alwayssaid the key lay in finding out why spontaneous remission occurred. He was right.

Cases of recoveries

The chances of curing cancer (ie. achieving naturalremission) hinge on three main factors.
1.	The remaining capability of the liver and other vital organs. 
2.	The extent to which the immune system can be regenerated. 
3.	The fighting spirit of the patient.
If proper metabolism of nutrients can be restored, auto-intoxicationstopped, and at the same time the detoxifying capability of the body increased toexceed the production of toxins by the cancer cells, then favorable blood chemistrywill be regained and cachexia arrested.
The improved circulation and increased oxygen permeating thebody acts then to retard and maybe arrest the growth of tumors and at the same timeassists the immune system to regenerate.
The outcome of the fight depends on whether or not the combinationof natural anti-tumoral chemistry in the body plus the destructive capability ofthe immune system, exceeds the capacity of the cancer cells to multiply. The mostimportant factor is not the extent of the cancer, but the regenerative capacity ofthe body and the extent to which this can be assisted. In a critical situation itappears that the anti-tumoral effects of various herbal extracts can be of vitalassistance.
On the other hand, too rapid disintegration of cancer tissuecan produce toxins faster than the body can expel them, and perhaps kill the patient.This is the reason that cancer therapists employ coffee enemas which stimulate theexcretory function of the liver. It is thought that in some cases the surgical removalof an easily accessible tumor may favor the balance of factors involved.
There have been many cases of full recovery from cancer. Mosthave been achieved by diet.* Some have followed surgery, some have followed vitamintherapy, while others have resulted even from faith healing, meditation and variousfolk medicines.
*Dr D. T. Quigley of Nebraska, an oncologist for over thirty years has stated: "Cancer never grows in healthy tissues but always in previously diseased tissues." He told the American Academy of Applied Nutrition that in more than thirty years of practice as an oncologist, not one of his patients who had followed his dietary recommendations had had a recurrence of cancer. 
Dr Walter Ermer, Executive Director of the International Health Council, reported a survey completed in 1976 on survival rates of advanced cancer patients, comparing patients on nutritional therapy with those on conventional therapy. The survey showed that patients with early, or pre-cancer who adopted dietary therapy all survived and of advanced, so-called terminal cases, 86% survived, whereas of matched patients on conventional therapy only 6.4% survived, (From A Program for the Prevention and Early Detection of Cancer, International Health Council Booklet No. 110, Brea, Ohio.)
There are many cases of spontaneous (natural) remissions whichhave occurred for no apparent reason at all.
Obviously, in all of these cases, one or more of the influenceswe have discussed have changed sufficiently to allow the natural body functions toreverse the cancer process. There is no doubt that the faith healing cures occurredprimarily because of the patients' improved state of mind and the subsequent strengthenedimmune responses. The apparent medical cure would be accountable perhaps also toconfidence inspired by the surgeon, relief from a stressful situation, combined withthe benefits of rest and the adoption of saner living habits.
In other words, all cures of cancer are achieved by the bodyitself, when given the chance to do so.
The purpose of dietary methods, combined with correction ofother environmental factors is purely and simply to arrange circumstances favorablefor a spontaneous (natural) remission. And having achieved such a remission,and knowing how and why it occurred, there is no need to wait five years before callingit a cure.
Now that the physiological effects of diet, physical exercise,stress, rest, sunlight and so on are more fully understood, they can now be properlyconsidered as interrelated instead of separate factors. Particularly with cancer,every single component involved must be corrected simultaneously to ensure best results.
Francis Chichester's bout with cancer is a classic example ofall these factors. He devotes two chapters of his book, The Lonely Sea and theSky to describing his ordeal. He says:
"After the last sail in Figaro, I had a desperate attackof worry. I was struggling hard to make my map business pay. It was not big enoughto pay for the new talent it needed in both the sales and the production departments,but it was too big for me to provide all the ideas as well as the sales drive needed.Now I had this ghastly load of a new boat added, with all the extra work of planningit, and visiting it in Ireland. I had a nightmare fear of not being able to sellGipsy Moth II, and of being landed with two yachts. It was too much to bear. Thetrouble was that by the end of the Fastnet I was tired out. If only I had laid offeverything for a week, I should have regained my strength to cope with things."
Cancer of the lung* was diagnosed soon after this and the diagnosisconfirmed by five different doctors. He was told his only possible hope was to haveone lung removed immediately. He was booked into hospital for the operation but wasin such a low state that the operation was postponed. A little later Chichester feltan irresistible urge to go to the south of France and so went there with his wife.In the town of Vence he became so ill that a doctor was summoned, Dr Jean Mattei.Chichester relates:
*Chichester was a nonsmoker.
"He examined me and said 'Ce n'est rien, and if you followmy treatment you will be climbing up those mountains in three days' time.' The fantasticthing is that I did, in fact, climb up the Baou Blanc in five days' time. At 2,200feet it may not be much of a mountain, but it was the most wonderful climb I evermade.
"What I regarded as a miraculous chain of events had startedin London when I felt the urge to go to the South of France. There I reached a doctorwho had been considered one of the cleverest lung physicians in Paris before he settledin Vence; also I fetched up in a town which had been considered a health resort,with a magic quality of air for lungs, since the time of the Romans. How did thisthing come about? Sheila said that the doctor gave me back my confidence, that myillness was already on its last legs.
"For myself, I think that some part of my body had ceasedto function, that the doctor had correctly diagnosed what this was, and suppliedthe deficiency. To me he was a wonderful man; short, nuggetty, fit, with terrificenergy exuding strength and activity. He never seemed to stop work, seeing thirtypatients a day at times. I heard tales of his sitting up all night with a seriouslyill patient, for two nights running.
"It was in April when I fell into the good doctor's hands.In June I accepted an offer to navigate Pym in the Cowes-Dinard race." (Thatwas in 1959.)
Of his wife, Chichester says:
"She has a strange and amazing flair for health and healing.She believes most strongly in the power of prayer. When I was at my worst, she ralliedmany people to pray for me, my friends and others. Whether Protestants, Roman Catholicsor Christian Scientists, she rallied them indefatigably to prayer. I feel shy aboutmy troubles being imposed on others, but the power of prayer is miraculous. Hardlyanyone would doubt its power for evil--for example the way Australian Aboriginescan will a member of their tribe to death; so why should its power for good be doubted?On the material side I believe that fasting is the strongest medicine available andthat it played a very important part in my recovery. I believe that my being a vegetarianfor preference helped a lot."
Unfortunately, Chichester's story has an unhappy ending. Hewas an intelligent, courageous man, health conscious and disciplined, but at thesame time badly misinformed on matters of health.
In his book, Gipsy Moth Circles the World, he describedhis food supply for his 1966 voyage. The food was carefully selected on the basisof his diet in England.
The food list is a dietary disaster, obviously based on thefallacious belief that sugar enhances energy and endurance. Although he describedhimself as a vegetarian, in fact he was not, because he ate a lot of fish, eggs,cheese and milk. In addition his diet contained a preponderance of refined carbohydratein the form of sugar, chocolate, honey, syrup, marmalade, jam, sweet puddings, cakesand biscuits, honey bars, glucose tablets, liquor and soft drinks, plus canned anddried fruit. On top of all that he took large quantities of butter, oil and nuts.Ketchup, yeast and coffee were further accessories.
And although he had written a book on physical fitness, it wasa subject he did not understand. His recommended exercise program does not achievethe protective "training effect" of aerobic exercise.
If, in addition, you add the unremitting stress to which Chichestersubjected himself throughout his entire life, then it is clear that out of the threemajor cancer factors he failed in all three.
Thus, despite having achieved complete remission of his lungcancer in 1959, Chichester's mode of life and diet was one which almost guaranteeda further onset. He remained free of cancer until 1971 when it was found he had cancerof the spine. There was no recurrence however, of lung cancer.
He refused to rest--it was not in his nature--and he died aged70, in August 1972.
Chichester's demise was tragic; it was a case of good intentionsand dedication ending in disaster because of misconceptions. His recovery from lungcancer had been assisted by fasting but he did not realize why. He placed great importanceon physical fitness but did not understand the physiology involved. He felt thatthe prayers of his friends had assisted in his recovery but did not understand thephysiology of stress.
It should be realized that for prayers to work as in this case,it is necessary for the patient to be aware of them and so feel the encouragementand morale boosting of his friends. Chichester's reference to the bone pointing ritualsof Aborigines is valid, but they too, like voodoo, only work when the victim is aware.The influence for good or evil functions by way of the subject's own mind.
Travelling by bus recently from Brisbane to Surfers ParadiseI chatted with the driver of the bus most of the way, for an hour or so. He toldme of an incident he was involved in at Cairns in Queensland a few years ago to dowith an Aborigine wasting away as a victim of a 'bone pointing' ritual. The Aboriginewas a town dweller but still strongly influenced by tribal ceremonies and beliefsand was reduced to a dying condition.
The driver, in collaboration with some friends, contrived toperform an operation on the stricken man whereby they actually made an incision inhis side, and by sleight of hand produced a piece of bone. Having convinced the manthat the harmful influence was gone, he rapidly regained good spirits and good health.
The victim in this case did not have cancer (at least not inthe accepted sense) but he was being destroyed by hormonal disruption of his internalmilieu just as surely.
Another case is Dr Ian Gawler, a veterinarian from South Australiawho was pronounced cured of cancer throughout his body after having been told bya specialist in 1976 he had only two or three weeks to live. The case was describedin an article in the Medical Journal of Australia written by Dr Ainslie Meares.
Dr Meares said: "This young man has shown an extraordinarywill to live. He has consistently maintained a rigorous discipline of intensive meditationfrom one to three hours daily.
"He has developed a state of calm which I have rarely observedin anyone, even in oriental mystics. It would seem as if the patient has let theeffects of the intense meditation enter his whole experience of life. His extraordinarylow level of anxiety is obvious. It is suggested that this has enhanced the activityof his immune system by reducing his level of cortisone."
Dr Gawler, the patient, said he believed the cancer was thephysical manifestation of disharmony within. "I believe that the disease isthe end stage of your soul trying to tell you something is wrong."*
*Dr Gawler also incorporated strict diet in his recovery program.
In the USA, former Major-General John Medaris made a similarrecovery. He said, "People who have a positive fighting spirit and who don'tgive up hope stand a much better chance of fighting any disease. If you're not atpeace with yourself and God, if you're mixed up inside and have inner conflict, yourhealing is adversely affected".
One of Major-General (later an Episcopal minister) Medaris'physicians, Dr James Maxfield of Dallas said, "It's unusual for a man to havethree types of cancer and open heart surgery and still be going strong. There certainlyis a factor of faith in his case".
Actress Gloria Swanson, at 84 a busy sculptress and artist,described in an interview with the British magazine Here's Health (May 1979)how fifty years previously she had a tumor on an ovary which disappeared of its ownaccord after she gave up eating meat in 1928. She had maintained a strict naturallifestyle ever since and said, "You can cure anything through food. You mustkeep the body clean inside and it will heal anything--it repairs itself'.
Nearly all the people I have known with cancer are now deadand every one of them erred badly in at least two out of the three lifestyle factors.
I have described how my first wife's lifestyle led to migraine,peritonitis, asthma and heart disease and how she recovered from these. What I didnot mention was a skin cancer on her cheek which puffed up like a small sultana.Even though she did little exercise, the adoption of the Pritikin diet alone wassufficient to cause the skin cancer to regress in about five weeks and completelyvanish. We lived apart and I could not strictly supervise her diet, but it is significantthat on one occasion when she felt depressed she partially abandoned the diet andI could tell simply by the reappearance of the blister-like cancer. She respondedto a gentle pep-talk and returned to her reformed diet, whereupon the cancer onceagain regressed and vanished in four weeks.
Dr O. C. Simonton, formerly chief of radiation therapy at theUSAF Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base has used psychology successfully inslowing and arresting the growth of cancer. The first patient he treated this waywas a 61-year-old man with throat cancer so severe that he could hardly swallow liquids.Dr Simonton said, "I had him relax three times a day and mentally picture hisdisease. I had him visualize an army of white blood cells coming, attacking and overcomingthe cancer cells. The results of the treatment were both thrilling and frightening.Within two weeks his cancer had noticeably diminished and he was rapidly gainingweight. The man had a complete remission".
His findings are the same as Dr Le Shan's. He says cancer patientsoften have a low self-image, with feelings of loss and hopelessness, have troubleventing emotions, especially hostility, and feel they have no reason for living.But he declares: "You are more in charge of your life--and even the developmentand progress of a disease, such as cancer--than you may realize. You may actually,through a power within you, be able to decide whether you live or die."
Dr Simonton and his wife Stephanie produced a book called GettingWell Again (Cancer Counselling and Research Center, Fort Worth). The book hasbeen highly praised by none other than Dr Hans Selye, the author of Stress WithoutDistress referred to in Chapter 8. In part Dr Selye said, "The authors appearto have caught the very essence of the stress concept, especially as it concernsthe goal of overcoming cancer. Since I myself have endured and overcome an allegedlyincurable cancer by means of a code of behavior very similar to theirs, this opportunityto express my admiration for the Simontons' volume gives me great pleasure".
And from a news article in the Sydney Sun Herald, September16, 1979 we have this interesting report:
"Dr Losang Dolma, a 45-year-old Tibetan lady doctor, nowpractising in India, claims to cure 80% of cancer cases she treats, Her treatmentfor cancer involves the use of precious stones, powdered and made into pills. Thusthe treatment is very expensive." (And therefore impressive --Author.)
Dr Dolma presented a paper at the World Health OrganisationConference on Asian medicines in Canberra, Australia.
Commenting, Dr Brian Furness, Director of Health Services atthe Australian National University, said, "There is a great storehouse of informationin Tibet that is unknown in the West. In all humility we cannot say what is goingon". A spokesman for the Australian Medical Association was quoted--"Itmay seem out of this world, but we are not disposed to ridicule it. We are preparedto listen and learn." The director of the Cancer Council of NSW, Dr Gordon Sarfatywas reported to be reluctant to comment without knowing the full details, but saidthe use of jewelry seemed "a far-fetched notion."
I would like to add the comment that being far-fetched and expensiveis the reason that it works, at least with Orientals.
Two significant points are displayed by this report, both encouraging:
1.	Further substantiation of the profound influence of psychological factors in the onset and remission of cancer. 
2.	The willingness of some doctors to investigate "unorthodox" methods of treating disease.
It should be noted that when complete remissions of cancer areachieved using psychological means such as those employed by Dr Simonton and Dr Dolma,such remissions cannot be accepted as cures because, unless the cancer milieu withinthe body has been rectified, degeneration of the body will continue and reappearanceof cancer is always possible.
In the 1960s Dr Joseph Issels, at his Ringberg-Klinik in Germany,proved a 17% cure rate in the many "hopeless" terminal cancer cases treatedthere. His story is told in the book A Time To Heal by Peter Newton-Fenbow(Souvenir Press, 1971). Newton-Fenbow achieved a complete remission of widespread"terminal" cancer while following Dr Issels' treatment. Dr Issels' conceptof the cancer problem described in his book, Cancer--A Second Opinion (1975)is as follows:
"The conventional idea on cancer is that it is a localdisease affecting--initially--one part of the body and requiring localized therapyin the form of either surgery or radiation or chemotherapy or a combination of these.This is not my opinion. Here in the Ringherg-Klinik we believe that cancer can neveroccur in a healthy body. A healthy body is in the position to recognize the cancercells and to reject them. However, the defense mechanism of the body can become damagedin many ways and will eventually lose the power of being able to reject the cancercells. At this stage we would say that the body now has the ability to develop acancer tumor. We therefore believe that the tumor develops because of an illnessof the entire body and therefore the tumor is a symptom only of the body's chronicillness.
"Therefore a purely localized therapy which concentratesupon the removal or destruction of the tumor itself will not be highly effective.It is also necessary to treat the entire patient."
Issels' treatment combined conventional treatment with a formof immunotherapy with which he endeavored to restore the action of the body's immunesystem. He was emphatic that the patient should be fully informed, and said, "Inthe twenty years of experience with the so-called incurable, I have seen what reservoirsof undreamed-of strength and courage can be drawn upon, even in terminal cases bythe adoption of a positive attitude. I have found that a patient, previously depressedand without hope, has started to live again, provided he has had the opportunityto talk about his complaint and its implications to the doctors and his relatives."
Diet was considered important and was carefully composed witha view to wholesomeness. Here is where Issels erred badly when assessed from theGerson viewpoint, because although the Klinik diet excluded ham, bacon and pork,it contained nuts, yoghurt, eggs, vegetable margarine, cheese, meat, fish and honey.Thus the worst cancer factor--lipotoxemia--would still substantially remain, particularlywhen walking was only mildly encouraged. Notwithstanding these faults, he achievedcomparatively excellent results. In 1969 Professor John Anderson of Kings CollegeHospital, London, visited Issels' Klinik and stated:
"Based on a survey of the clinic and its patients and onstatistical evidence about the survival of these patients, I am of the consideredopinion that this is a new approach to cancer treatment and appears to be a considerableimprovement on what is usually offered . . . Some of the cases I saw would have beenregarded as hopeless by physicians in the United Kingdom . . . The Issels' approachto the treatment of cancer is a unique and pioneering solution to a very difficultproblem . . . Dr Issels is an able physician, a shrewd and penetrating clinician. . . There can be no doubt that he is genuine in what he does and the results hegets . . . He is undoubtedly producing clinical remissions in patients who have beenregarded as hopeless and left to fall back on their own resources."
Dr Denis Burkitt supported Professor Anderson's recommendationthat Issels' methods be fully investigated, but they received no support and nothingever came of it.
Preceding Dr Issels in Germany, and in the USA later, Dr Gerson'ssuccess in achieving complete remissions of cancer was much greater because his dietarymethods were much better. Full details of case histories with photographs appearin Dr Gerson's book, A Cancer Therapy--The Results of Fifty Cases (TotalityBooks, Delmar, California, 1958).*
*Obtainable from the Aquarian Book Co Rosebery, Sydney and Gerson Foundation.
Both Gerson and Issels fought against the blind rejection ofthe "establishment" and were both supported by Dr Albert Schweitzer. Ontheir last parting, Dr Schweitzer said to Issels, "Now colleague Issels, I mustreturn to the Wild, but you must return to the Jungle!".
New York journalists are supposed to be hard-bitten and cynical,and when one of them set out to expose Gerson as a fraud, he not only found Gersonto be genuine, but ended up writing a book eulogising him. The book is Has DrMax Gerson A True Cancer Cure? by S. J. Haught (London Press, also Major books,Canoga Park, California, 1962, 1976). *
* Now published by the Gerson Foundation, Bonita, California, under the title Cancer--Think Curable!
Dr Eva Hill of New Zealand who used methods similar to Gerson'sto cure her own malignant cancer, achieved in New Zealand similar degrees of successwith patients, and of course, the same inevitable rejection by her "peers".Her book, written in conjunction with John Barrett is titled Cancer and Cure--ADoctor's Story (Bachman & Turner, London, 1976).
There are a great number of books describing natural cancercures, many of which have been written by medical doctors who have actually curedthemselves. A list of the books known to the author, which have provided him witha great deal of information, appears at the end of this chapter.
Actor Steve McQueen nearly made it. With only a predicted fewweeks to live, he went to Mexico and undertook a dietary based "alternative"medicine therapy for his widespread cancer. He made a steady improvement, and afterthree months he appeared on Mexican TV and thanked the people of Mexico for the freedomof alternative medicine doctors to practice there.
As he got stronger, McQueen became impatient and decided toundergo surgery at another hospital in order to more quickly rid himself of the cancer.Unfortunately, five hours after the operation, McQueen died of heart failure causedby a blood clot from the surgery.
A happier story is that of 48-year-old Dr Anthony Sattilaro,President of the Philadelphia Hospital, USA, who like Dr Eva Hill also achieved acomplete cure. The story first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, September,1980. Dr Sattilaro's case is a classic--full of drive, he consistently overworked;always under pressure, he ate "on the run" during the day, and indulgedin fine restaurant foods in the evening.
In May 1978 he decided to have a check-up, and the first x-raydisclosed a large tumor in his left side. A bone scan revealed cancer in his skull,right shoulder, two backbones, sternum and a large tumor in the sixth left rib. Furthertests showed cancer of the testicles and the prostate filled with it.
Although his survival chances were rated at zero, he underwentsurgery and hormone treatment. His weight increased from 145 lbs to 170 lbs. Andhis pain became so severe and constant that he was given pain medication consistingof a "cocktail" of morphine, cocaine and compazine.
In August, his father died of cancer in New Jersey, and on thedrive home from the funeral, Dr Sattilaro did something that usually he would neverdo--he picked up two hitchhikers. This act saved his life, and indirectly, probablythe lives of many others. One of the young hitchhikers went to sleep on the backseat and the other, Sean McLean, talked. As Dr Sattilaro revealed his reasons forthe trip, he told his listener that he too was dying of cancer. Sean McLean replied,"You don't have to die, cancer isn't all that hard to cure". This was onAugust 9, 1978.
Sattilato said later, "I looked at him and though he wasjust a silty kid."
About a week later, he received a package in the mail from McLean;it contained a book called A Macrobiotic Approach to Cancer. He examined itcursorily and was about to toss it in the waste basket when he noticed a testimonialwritten by another Philadelphia physician who had successfully treated herself forbreast cancer with macrobiotic methods.
On August 24, 1978, in a "last-chance" attempt atsurvival, he introduced himself to 30-year-old Denny Waxman, director of the PhiladelphiaEast West Foundation, which instructs people in macrobiotic dietary principles. Waxmanadvised him to adopt this diet but to omit fish, oil, flour products and fruit initially.Dr Sattilaro was disbelieving, but had nowhere else to go and so embarked upon thediet.
In two weeks most of his pain had gone and he discontinued medicationexcept for the estrogen. He experienced a feeling of wellbeing which he could onlyascribe to the diet, and yet his lifetime of medical training did not at first allowhim to believe in it. He had one relapse of pain when he departed briefly from thediet, but thereafter has stuck strictly to it.
His weight reduced to his normal 145 lbs and he continued toimprove. In June 1979 after a consultation with Michio Kushi, the president of theEast West Foundation, he took himself off estrogen and he continued to get stronger.
On September 25, 1979, he underwent an exhaustive examinationin his own hospital, and the other physicians were stunned at the result. He wascompletely free of cancer.*
*Warning: Dr Kristine Nolfi reported that having completely cleared her breastcancer by rigid dieting, the cancer reappeared after she resumed eating small amountsof cooked food. This has happened with a number of people who have again clearedthemselves by resuming the strict diet. On the other hand, others have returned toeating cooked food without trouble. In his book Breast Cancer: A Nutritional Approach(1977), Dr. Carlton Fredericks says: "Tissue which has suffered dietary insultwill recover, but it remembers the transgressions. It may take five years of theaverage American diet to cause severe problems. Once corrected by proper diet . .. it may take only two months of poor diet to awaken all the old symptoms. Underthe microscope the tissues show no change, but they remember, implacably".
Dr Sattilaro's story is told in his book Recalled By Lifepublished in 1983.

In summary
It is apparent that cancer is the result of multiple factors,mainly self-inflicted, not all of which need be present together and which vary greatlyin proportion and degree. The cancer growth itself is a symptom of a serious constitutionaldisorder upon which cells become cancerous only because they are forced to.
The cancer process may take many years to proceed to the stagewhere a primary growth commences and up to this point the process is easily reversible.By the time secondary growths appear the process is very advanced. The stages are:
1.	Toxemia, at first counteracted by the liver and excretory organs. 
2.	Chronic toxemia as liver function gradually declines. 
3.	Pre-cancer, particularly in tissues with poor blood circulation. 
4.	Irritation or injury to pre-cancerous tissue causing critical cell dedifferentiation resulting in cancer cells. Still no cancer growth if immune system reasonably functional. 
5.	Further depletion of immune system due to emotional or physical stress. 
6.	Cancer cells, no longer destroyed by lymphocytes, form growth of tumor of low malignancy. 
7.	Vicious circle commences as tumor waste products add to toxemia. 
8.	Further de-differentiation of cancer cells increases degree of malignancy. 
9.	Malignant cells detach from primary tumor but at first are apprehended in lymph nodes. 
10.	Malignant cells carried further in lymph and into main bloodstream, but no metastasis occurs while blood flows freely. 
11.	Metastasis commences when malignant cell lodges in coagulated blood in a blocked vessel. Now free of any remaining constraints to growth which may have partly controlled it at the primary site, the metastasized growth commences virtually unrestrained.
It is obvious (and this has been demonstrated by many autopsieswhen people have died from causes other than cancer) that many apparently healthypeople have cancer of which they are unaware.* The cancer may lie dormant for yearsor be held in check by their immune responses. Subjected to shock, worry, grief orinjury, such people rapidly develop cancer when their immune responses become depleted.
*In his hook Antibodies and Immunity (Nelson, 1968), Dr G. J. Nossal says that in autopsies of non-cancer deaths, 22% reveal the presence of unknown malignancies. Of 1,000 such autopsies where cancer was not involved, when the thyroid was specifically investigated, over 50% contained malignant nodules. Other autopsy studies have shown that unsuspected cancer of the pancreas and thyroid is quite common and that in men who make 75 years prostate cancer is present in 50%.
Present medical statistics of industrial nations indicate thatone person in every three must expect to get cancer sooner or later. The correctprediction is worse, because only for the fact that the majority of people perishprematurely of heart or some other degenerative failure, it is almost certain thatpractically everyone on the Western diet would sooner or later get cancer.
According to the Cancer Society, there are seven danger signals:any sore that does not heal; any lump or thickening; unusual bleeding or discharge;any change in a mote; persistent indigestion or difficulty in swallowing; persistenthoarseness or cough; and any change in bowel habits. You cannot afford to wait forthese signals because they are too late; they indicate established cancer, and bythis time it is touch and go whether restoration of normal metabolism is possible.
It is obvious that any substance or influence of any kind whichin any way or any degree adversely affects the chemistry of the body, can therebycontribute to the development first of pre-cancer and then to cancer.
Cancer in humans and laboratory animals has been separatelycorrelated by many researchers, with each of the following factors:
•	Oxygen deprivation to cells. 
•	Constipation. 
•	High blood viscosity (sludged blood). 
•	Lipotoxemia: high blood fat, cholesterol and various toxins (which may include poisons from infected teeth and from amalgam fillings). 
•	Defective blood chemistry. 
•	Restricted circulation (eg. tight clothing). 
•	Excess body fat. 
•	High dietary fat. 
•	High dietary protein (animal or vegetable). 
•	High meat intake (particularly beef, smoked meat, smoked fish). 
•	High dietary sugar and other refined carbohydrates. 
•	High dietary starch intake. 
•	High dietary sodium (salt and monosodium glutamate). 
•	High intake of spiced food. 
•	High intake of canned, preserved, or processed food. 
•	High intake of caffeine in coffee, tea, chocolate, cola drinks. 
•	Low intake of fresh fruit and vegetables. 
•	Cooking of food (particularly at high temperatures). 
•	Vitamin, mineral and enzyme deficiencies (either missing from diet or destroyed by cooking or processing), especially Vitamins A, C, E, and minerals potassium and selenium. 
•	Hormonal disturbances, particularly hypothyroidism. 
•	Oral contraceptives. 
•	Alcohol. 
•	Beer drinking as distinct from other alcohol. 
•	Fluoridated water. 
•	Chlorinated water. 
•	Various chemical carcinogens inhaled, eaten, absorbed through skin or administered medically (some hair dyes and suntan lotions are suspect). 
•	Aluminum cooking utensils, cans, containers. 
•	Drugs (including medicinal drugs). Sedatives, tranquilizers and painkillers. 
•	Smoking (includes carbon monoxide, nicotine and carcinogens). 
•	Air pollution, car exhaust fumes, etc. 
•	Talcum powder, asbestos (irritants to sensitive tissues). 
•	Lack of sunshine. 
•	x-rays and TV set emissions. 
•	Lack of exercise. 
•	Poor general health. 
•	City life. 
•	Stress--emotional or physical (including overwork, fatigue, nagging etc.). 
•	Worry, grief, despair.
Whereas it is possible that correction of diet alone can preventcells becoming cancerous, it has been found that once cancer cells are establishedthey may survive, regardless of diet, if the immune system is not functioning properly.The immune system must therefore be restored to vigorous activity along with thegeneral health of the body.
With all these facts, surely it is ridiculous to undertake anymedical treatment whatever before first rectifying as many of the foregoing factorsas possible. Nobody in the world can give one sensible reason why not. But rememberthis: let it be absolutely clear that medical treatment, particularly chemotherapy,is so damaging to the body that the patients' chances or recovery are severely prejudiced.Remember, first and foremost, our objective is to detoxify the body and restore itsproper chemical balance so that, revitalized, it can restore itself to health.
If all that sounds reasonable, this is what to do:
1.	Adopt a diet of 100% fresh, raw fruit and vegetables, high in Vitamins A and C, preferably unsprayed, excluding any which are difficult to digest. No oils, dressings or condiments. 
2.	Supplement the diet with digestive enzymes, properly prescribed. 
3.	Observe all the restrictions of salt, sugar, coffee, tea, alcohol, grain products. 
4.	Drink only distilled water (little water will be required anyway). 
5.	Avoid air pollution, smoke of any kind. 
6.	Avoid all medicines, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, sedatives, painkillers, antibiotics etc. 
7.	Remove or repair infected teeth. 
8.	Avoid TV set radiation. 
9.	Get adequate exposure to sunshine without wearing glasses and preferably without clothes. Do not overexpose. 
10.	Adopt a light aerobic exercise program but don't overstrain. 
11.	Get plenty of rest. 
12.	Somehow--anyhow--escape from pressure and worry. Seek peace and tranquility. 
13.	Understand the problem and tackle it purposefully and confidently. 
14.	Friends and relations should participate and add moral support.
As mentioned earlier, further assistance to the body such assupplementary enzymes, thyroid extract, vitamins, minerals, herbal extracts, hyperthermia,artificial blood-purification and artificial blood-oxygenation can be provided, underproper supervision, to patients with advanced cancer whose vital organs cannot regeneratewithout help. An important feature of the Gerson treatment is the use of frequentcoffee enemas, the purpose of which is to stimulate the flow of bile in order toremove toxins formed by the disintegration of cancer tissue. Dr Gerson found thisprocedure necessary after losing some patients who suffered internal poisoning.
The recommended program is quite simple, is painless, and getsresults. However, the additional therapeutic procedures just mentioned should becarried out with the advice and supervision of a professional consultant.
Subsequent to the discovery of his colon cancer, president RonaldReagan, at the instigation of his wife Nancy, adopted what is known as a "prudent"diet. And after major surgery to remove the malignant tumor, his recovery was sorapid as to astonish his doctors. Said the leading surgeon, "The President ison a post-operative course that surpasses by 99.9% all patients who undergo thistype of surgery. That includes all patients, much less one who is 74 years old".Two reasons for this were given: the President's "superior physical shape"and "the amazing fact that his internal workings were those of a 40-year-old".
From the reports the author has read, the President's presentdiet still contains food unsuitable for a cancer patient and I would feet more confidentfor him if he went 100% Gerson.
The significance of these events is great, and perhaps soonthe "quacks" who long ago pioneered the dietary therapy for disease willbe accorded the recognition they deserve.

In conclusion
When it is considered that cancer remissions are often achievedby correcting just one factor out of so many involved, it is likely that correctionof them all should ensure success in the majority of cases.
At a meeting of Nobel Laureates at Lindau, Germany, June 30,1966, Dr Otto Warburg, the winner of two Nobel prizes for discoveries of key processesof cell respiration and various enzyme systems, concluded his address saying:
"Nobody today can say that one does not know what cancerand its prime cause be. On the contrary, there is no disease whose prime cause isbetter known, so that today ignorance is no longer an excuse that one cannot do moreabout prevention. The prevention of cancer will come there is no doubt, for man wishesto survive. But how long prevention will be avoided depends on how long the prophetsof agnosticism will succeed in inhibiting the application of scientific knowledgein the cancer field. In the meantime, millions of people must die of cancer unnecessarily."

Recommended reading
A Cancer Therapy, The Results of Fifty Cases (1975)--Dr Max Gerson
The Prime Cause and Prevention of Cancer (1969)--Dr Otto Warburg
The Survival Factor in Neoplastic and Viral Disease (1961)--Dr WilliamF. Koch
A Solution to the Cancer Problem (1962)--Dr Cornelius Moerman
Cancer and Cure--A Doctors Story (1976)--Dr Eva Hill
Recalled by Life (1983)--Dr Anthony Sattilaro
The Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology and Treatment of Cancer (1844)--Dr WalterWalshe
Cancer: Its Nature and Successful and Comparatively Painless Treatment(1866)--Dr John Patterson
The Treatment of Cancer Without Operation (1903)--Dr Robert Bell
The Cancer Scourge and How to Destroy It --Dr Robert Bell
Reminiscences of an Old Physician (1924)--Dr Robert Bell
Cancer (1912)--Dr Forbes Ross

Cancer, Its Genesis and Treatment (1912)--Dr Forbes Ross
Cancer, Its Non-Surgical Treatment (1921)--Dr Lucius Bulkley
The Prevention of the Diseases Peculiar to Civilization (1929)--Sir ArbuthnotLane
Be Your Own Doctor --Dr Anne Wigmore
The Body is the Hero (1977)--Dr Ronald J. Glasser
The Greatest Battle (1978)--Dr Ronald J. Glasser
Has Max Gerson a True Cancer Cure? (1962)--S. J. Haught (Retitled Cancer--ThinkCurable! )
Victory over Cancer (1957)--Cyril Scott
My Experiences with Living Food (1954)--Dr Kristine Nolfie
Cancer, Its Dietetic Cause and Cure (1963)--Dr Maude Tresillian Fere 
Does Diet Cure Cancer? (1971)--Dr Maude Tresillian Fere
Cancer is Curable --Stefanos Stefanou
How I Healed My Cancer Holistically (1978)--Dore Deverell
Civilized Diseases and Their Circumventions (1978)--Max Ganten
Fresh Hope in Cancer (1978)--Dr Maurice Finkel
Fresh Hope With New Cancer Treatments (1984) -Dr Maurice Finkel
Living Above It (1974)--Robert East
How I Conquered Cancer Naturally (1975)--Eydie Mae Hinsberger
Cancer and Vitamin C (1979)--Drs Evan Cameron, Linus Pauling
You Can Fight For Your Life (1977)--Dr Lawrence Le Shan
The Death of Cancer (1978)--Dr Harold Manner
The Psychogenic Biochemical Aspects of Cancer (1979)--Harold E. Simmons
Cancer, How and Why It May Be Wiped Out (1977) Gordon Roberts
Fruit Can Heal You (1908)--Dr 0. L. Abramowski
How I Overcame Inoperable Cancer (1975)--Dr Ebba Waerland
Healed of Cancer (1977)--Jo Lawson
Killing Cancer (1980)--Jason Winters
Too Young to Die (1979)--Rick Hill
You Don't Have to Die (1956)--Dr Harry S. Hoxsey
Laetrile Case Histories (1977)--Dr John A. Richardson
Food Is Your Best Medicine (1965)--Dr Henry G. Bieler
One Answer to Cancer (1969)--Dr William Kelly
An End to Cancer? (1978)--Leon Chaitow
Cancer, A Healing Crisis (1980) -Jack Tropp
The Grape Cure (1948)--Dr Johanna Brandt
Cancer, How to Prevent It and How to Fight It (1978)--Dr E. Berkley
Cancer Winner (1977)--Jaquie Davison
Healing Miracles from Macrobiotics (1979)--Dr Jean Charles Kohler
Stress, Cancer and the Mind --Dr Hans Selye
The Lonely Sea and Sky --Francis Chicester
The Cancer Blackout (1959)--Maurice Natenberg
Coronary? Cancer? God's Answer (1979)--Dr Richard O'Brennan
Cancer: The Facts (1979)--Sir Ronald Bodley Scott
How to Prevent and Gain Remission From Cancer (1975)--John H. Tobe
Cancer Treatment, Why So Many Failures? (1980)--Richard Ericson
Fruit, The Food and Medicine for Man (1961)--Morris Krok
A Rational Concept of Cancer (1977)--Robert W. Stickle
Cancer Holiday (1978)--Bettie Towner
A Time to Heal (1971)--Peter Newton Fenbow
Cancer--A Second Opinion (1975)--Dr Joseph Issels
Cancer--A Disease of Civilization --Vilhjalmur Stephannson
To Age--But Without Cancer --Dr R. Stoeger
Diet, Nutrition and Cancer (1982)--National Research Council
Colon Health (1979)--Dr Norman Walker
How to Prolong Life ( 1880)--Dr Charles de Lacey Evans
The Wheel of Health (1938)--Dr G. T. Wrench
Hypothyroidism, The Unsuspected Illness (1976)--Broda 0. Barnes
The Liver and Cancer, A New Cancer Theory (1955)--Dr Kasper Blond
Now That You Have Cancer (1977)--Dr Bruce Halstead
Get Well Naturally (1965)--Linda Clark
Cancer Causes and Natural Controls (1983)--Dr Lynn Dallin
Nutrition, the Cancer Answer (1983)--Maureen Salaman
The Topic of Cancer (1982)--Dr Brian Richards
Fluoride, The Aging Factor (1983)--Dr John Yiamouyiannis
A Cancer Patient's Survival Manual (1983)--Barbara Huntington
The Fitzgerald Report (1954)--Benedict F. Fitzgerald
Save Your Life (1983)--Michael L. Culbert
A Gentle Way with Cancer (1983)--Ian Pearce, BA, BM, BCh, MRCS, LRCP
The Cradle of the World and Cancer--A Disease of Civilization (1927)--DrE. H. Tipper
A Holistic Approach to Cancer (1983)--Ian Pearce, BA, BM, BCh, MRCS, LRCP
The Anti-Cancer, Anti-Heart Attack Cookbook (1985)--Ross Horne and ToniBobbin
The Cancer Prevention Diet (1983)--Michio Kushi
The Macrobiotic Approach to Cancer (1982)--Michio Kushi
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BLOOD VISCOSITY AS A FACTOR
IN ALL METABOLIC DISEASES
It's said that blood is thicker than water (sometimes more so than it oughta!)
Blood is a wonderful and complex substance containing many chemicalcompounds to perform many functions. It constantly changes and adapts to meet thebody's requirements. Healthy blood varies in viscosity as it flows normally and becomesmuch "thinner" by the time it reaches the capillaries. It can even changeviscosity locally at a given point in order to pass through a constriction.
As described in Chapter 8, the viscosity of blood is quicklyincreased by stress, and continuous stress will maintain the condition. Severelyaffecting blood viscosity too is a diet containing fat, cholesterol, refined carbohydrates,coffee, alcohol and excessive amounts of animal protein. Removal of these foods fromthe diet enables the blood to clear in several days, but because most people consumethese foods constantly, their blood is always polluted and viscous.
Since 1852 when Dr A. Coccius published data on microscope observationsof agglutinated blood in living human patients, many other studies have been madebut unfortunately their significance has not been appreciated. Dr Leopold Dintenfasof Sydney Hospital has studied blood viscosity for over 20 years and is just beginningto convince the medical profession that high blood viscosity is a disease factor.Dr Dintenfas is the Director of Hemorhology and Biorheology Department, Universityof Sydney. He is the author of Blood Micro-rheology Viscosity Factors in BloodFlow, Ischemia and Thrombosis (1971 Butterworth Press), Rheology of Bloodin Diagnostic and Preventive Medicine, (1976 Butterworth Press), Hyperactivityand Hypertension and Blood Viscosity in Heart Disease and Cancer (1981 PergamonPress) plus numerous medical papers published throughout the world.
High blood viscosity invariably accompanies degenerative diseases.The factors that effect blood viscosity are: plasma viscosity, aggregation of redcells, internal viscosity of red cells, hemoconcentration, aggregation of platelets,and concentration of white cells.
Quoting Dr Dintenfas:
"The high viscosity syndrome can contain one, two, or moreof these elements. Capillary occlusion, stasis hypoxia, acidosis, necrosis and infarctionare inevitable, although not necessarily irreversible steps in this process.
"It would be worthwhile to note that osteoarthritis andrheumatoid arthritis are associated with an elevation of plasma viscosity (Houstonet al 1949--Gasen et al 1970) and an elevation of the degree of aggregation of redcells (Laine and Zilliacus 1950, Redioch et al 1970). High blood viscosity alwaysleads to a slow down of circulation and to reduced oxygenation of tissues.
"Wardle in 1967 suggested that it is the increased bloodviscosity in the small digital arteries which is responsible for the common symptomof malignancy. Red cell aggregation, platelet aggregation and hypercoagulabilitycan contribute to this syndrome. Crenated red cells, raised fibrinogen, increasedplatelet stickiness, are all a common feature of malignancy."
The full implication of high blood viscosity in cancer is describedin Chapter 20 and in arthritis, MS etc, in Chapter 21.
On the subject of blood as a disease indicator, here is a quotationfrom the book Hunza Land by Dr Allen E. Bank from Nebraska, USA (1960):
"One of my major reasons for wanting to visit Hunza wasto find out whether their robust health would be corroborated by evidence of superiorcirculatory function as revealed by a study of the arteries and veins within theireyes, also to learn if their eyesight was superior, in general to that of our population.
"Although optometrists do not practise medicine, theirknowledge of pathology enables them to refer patients with abnormalities to propermedical authority. In my opinion, comparison of the diameters of the arteries andveins of the eye indicates whether the circulatory system is 'in balance' or 'outof balance'--whether a person's blood pressure is normal or abnormal. Determinationof the color relationship between arteries and veins is also indicative of an individual'scondition. For example, if the color ratio between an artery and corresponding veinis 1:1, a person is healthy (i.e. The artery is rich red and the vein has a colorintensity of equal degree). If the color ratio is 1:2 (the vein is two shades darkerthan the artery), health is somewhat below normal. The average American--includingmany children falls into this category. A ratio of 1:3 indicates illness; at approachingdeath the ratio is 1:4.
"Interesting evidence of this theory is supplied by studiesmade by Dr Melvin Knisely of the University of Chicago. Dr Knisely made an exhaustivestudy of the color changes in the circulatory systems of dying frogs, monkeys andhumans, and was able to predict the progression of diseases. As death approached,the toxin-laden corpuscles were unable to pass through the capillaries. Their progresswas stopped and their oxygen content discharged. As a sticky substance in the bloodcovered the dying cells, they formed into clusters which the doctor called 'bloodsludge'--a condition common in 50 diseases. Gradually, the blood flowed more slowly,and the tissues died of asphyxia. 'Understanding sludge', Dr Knisely says, 'willmake possible a new attack on a whole panorama of human diseases'. Photomicrographsof the circulatory systems of frogs, monkeys and humans substantiated the theory.An account of this remarkable discovery appeared in Life magazine, May 31,1948.
"The examinations I made in Hunza of the eyes of peoplein all age groups indicated that the Hunzakuts have healthy circulatory systems.Their artery-to-vein circumference ratios were, in most cases, perfect or near perfect,and the color ratios could generally be classified at 1:1.
"In all respects the Hunzakuts' eyes were notable. I foundthem unusually clear; there were few signs of astigmatism; even the oldest men hadexcellent far and near vision--an indication that their crystalline lenses had retainedelasticity. Most of our crystalline lenses lose their elasticity in our early forties,and we require bifocal lenses for the remainder of our lives.
"Here, I believe, is confirmation of the fact that bodilyhealth can be 'read' by a study of the eyes, and that general health promotes eyehealth. For our own benefit and that of our children, we should resolve that, startingnow, we will make the necessary adjustments in our diet to promote the radiant healthto which we are all entitled."

Blood Sedimenatation Rate (ESR)*
*Red cells are called erythrocytes.
There are many components of blood chemistry which can be checkedby complex tests.
A simple test of the blood sedimentation rate is one which indicatesthe degree of red cell aggregation. Again quoting from Blood, the Paramount Humour,by Dr Earle Hackett:
"The sedimentation test consists simply in watching a columnof blood, which has been prevented from clotting, standing in a vertical tube. Thered cells settle down to the bottom. The faster they settle, the sicker the patient(with a few exceptions, such as pregnancy).
"Absurd? No--more or less true.
"The explanation is that normal red cells are coin-shapedflakes of jelly and are slightly heavier than the plasma in which they are suspended.When blood stands still they will very gently settle to the lowest part of the container.They settle slowly because each individual one falls like a light disc on syrup,and there is a maximum resistance to its fall because of its large surface area.
"When red cells stick together they do so like piles ofcoins or dinner plates.
"These adhering collections offer less surface resistancewhen falling through plasma, and therefore in the test they settle more quickly.Rapid sedimentation accompanies all diseases which involve tissues or the entry offoreign or abnormal proteins into the blood. This will include a wide variety ofchronic inflammations, toxic infections, operations, fractures, blockages of bloodvessels, and disorders of the cell system which normally manufactures the plasmaproteins."

Platelet Adhesiveness Index (PAT)
Another factor which affects blood viscosity and by which thecondition of the blood can be assessed is the stickiness of the blood platelets.
Dr Paul Owren, Hematologist at the Oslo University Hospital,devised a method of measuring platelet stickiness by means of observing the percentageof platelets which adhered to glass beads. The percentage is the index number.
Healthy young women have an average index number of 20, whereascardiovascular-prone males have an index of between 50 and 70.
The effect of trauma on blood viscosity is reflected in thefact that after a major wound, all people, regardless of their starting PAI, haveit increased to 90 for a period of 15 days.
Anti-coagutants have no effect on the PAI but reductions havebeen observed after the intake of Vitamin E, flaxseed oil, garlic, codliver oil,lecithin and aspirin. Alcohol, although it elevated triglycerides, had the effectof temporarily reducing platelet aggregation.
Dr Mark Patterson, hematologist at the National Heart Hospital,London, in a paper titled Study of Action of Flaxseed Oil, Flax-phosphatides andTocopherals on Platelet Adhesion (July 1975) said that these substances, evenwhen used in pastry., reduced the PAI by an average 20%. He said that deep vein thrombosiswas absent after operations, and that protection was afforded to coronary heart patients.In an experimental group of 18, the PAI reduced from 59 to 29 and no deaths occurredcompared to six deaths in the control group of eighteen.
Although aspirin lowered the PAI, it was an irritant and didnot prevent deep vein thrombosis.
Recent research has revealed how dietary fats, in the amountconsumed in the Western diet, cause platelet stickiness. Hormone-like substancescalled prostaglandins, derived from fatty acids in the blood, are used by the cellsin the blood vessel walls to produce prostacyclin, and by the platelets to producethromboxane. Prostacyclin controls the muscular contraction of the vessels and presentsplatelets adhering to the vessel walls. Thromboxane determines the stickiness ofthe platelets and tends to cause the vessels to contract.
Prostaglandins differ in type depending on the type of fattyacids available. If fatty acids either from animal protein, dairy foods, eggs, orfrom vegetable sources such as nuts, are in abundance, then Prostaglandin H2 (PGH2)is formed and the resultant thomboxane (TXA2) makes the platelets sticky. If bloodfats are normal (which they never are on the Western diet) of if they are abundantfrom fish sources, then PGH3 and TXA3 are formed , and the platelets will be normal.(This is the effect of garlic etc.) The fatty acid in fish is called eicosapentaenoicacid or EPA.
Dr William Connor, professor of medicine, University of OregonClinical Nutrition Section, found that on a 10-day diet of salmon, patients' elevatedcholesterol levels fell by 20% and triglycerides by 40-67%. These results are notentirely surprising because it has often been observed, but not before explained,that fishing communities in various parts of the world suffer a lower rate of heartattacks than elsewhere.
Because EPA has the effect of reducing platelet stickiness,towering elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, and reducing blood viscosity, itis being researched for medical use* and is now available in extract form. This iswell and good, but it should be first of all realized that better results are obtainablesimply by eliminating both animal fats and concentrated vegetable fats from the diet.
*Medical authorities have stated low fat diets to be ineffectual in the treatment of disease, although they now recommend that fat should be limited to 30% of the diet. This recommendation is indeed ineffectual. The reduction of fat in the diet to 25% of total calories is helpful but achieves only a 10% reduction of elevated blood pressure, indicating the blood is still sticky. Total fat should be reduced below 10%. It has been proven that hypertension (high blood pressure) is directly related to high blood viscosity and that the removal of fat from the diet effectively reduces blood pressure in a few days whether there is salt in the diet or not. Drinking beer, and to a lesser extent other alcohol, increases blood fats and blood pressure. Three pints of light ale per day are sufficient to cause big increases in blood pressure over a three-day period, the increase in viscosity being sufficient to present risk of heart attacks in coronary prone patients. This information was reported recently by Dr John Potter and Dr Gareth Beevers at Birmingham Hospital, England.
It should also be noted that even on a high fat diet, athletesin training have low blood viscosity with no red cell or platelet stickiness, andconsequently lower blood pressure, simply because in a physically fit body the metabolismof fat is more efficient.
That the effect of high EPA intake can be harmful and preventblood coagulation altogether, is shown by the fact that primitive Eskimos whose dietconsists mainly of fish, although not prone to heart attacks or cancer, are veryprone to hemorrhaging, young and old alike, and often suffer nose bleeding lastingseveral days which sometimes reduces them to a state of collapse.
Improvement of circulation by the injection of snake venom serumhas been demonstrated in Europe and the USA in the treatment of various complaintssuch as angina, claudication, arthritis and MS. The research shows that the markedrelief of symptoms of these complaints is achieved by way of lowered blood viscosity.A recent television documentary on this topic showed graphically how a sample oftreated blood flowed faster than untreated blood when both samples were releasedsimultaneously in an inclined dish.
In Chapter 20 it is described how the incidence of both primaryand secondary cancer is dramatically reduced among patients with circulatory problemswho for long periods have been on anti-coagulant drugs to prevent blood clotting.
Thus it is abundantly clear that the state of health of an individualis directly related, not only to the nutrients contained in the bloodstream, butinversely to the harmful substances present and the degree of blood viscosity.

Other disease indicators
It is axiomatic that lipotoxemia and high blood viscosity musteventuate in disease and premature death. The state of health always correlates inverselywith the readings of blood pressure, pulse-rate, se dimentation rate, platelet adhesionindex and blood viscosity. High readings of any of these related parameters is anindication of disease whether symptoms are evident or not.

Summary on blood viscosity
This chapter can he summarized in the brief statements of threeeminent medical researchers--
Dr Melvin H. Knisely, University of Chicago:
"Thus far, completely unagglutinated blood has been foundonly in strictly healthy animals and men. No severely ill person has yet been seenwho did not have intravascular agglutination of the blood and visibly pathologicvessel walls."
Dr Leopold Dintenfas, University of Sydney:
"Studies of athletes, normal individuals and patients withcardiac and renal diseases show a progression from a low blood viscosity with a highflow velocity among athletes to an elevated viscosity and low flow velocity amongstpatients. Furthermore, my colleagues and I have found time and again an elevationof blood viscosity among apparently healthy individuals who later displayed obvioussymptoms of heart disease and cancer."
Dr Meyer Friedman, San Francisco:
"A meal rich either in animal or vegetable fat can leadto sludging of the blood and blocked capillaries for most of a 24 hour period, andone fatty meal follows another. At this writing (1965), 1 know of no single phenomenonthat has been so consistently neglected, in the study of heart disease, as this one.Later we may rue this inexcusable oversight."

HOME HYGIENELIBRARY CATALOG CHAPTER 12 
CHAPTER FIVE
OXYGEN--THE KEY TO LIFE
Hurrah, hurrah for oxygen, that energetic stuff, 
I need it bad, I need it now, I never get enough, 
Although I know it caused the rust 
That ate my car with greed, 
Let's appreciate, it bums our fuel so we can all proceed.
Of all the components of our environment, air is probably themost essential because it contains oxygen without which no animal or plant life couldexist.
A continuous supply of oxygen is vital to your immediate survivaland the health of every one of the countless millions of cells of which you are made.
Apart from the constant requirements of the cells, oxygen isrequired for the combustion of fuel in the muscle tissues to produce mechanical energyfor physical activity. The greater the activity, the more oxygen is required. Likewisethe brain requires oxygen to function, demanding more with increased mental activity.
The air consists of a mixture of 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogenand minor traces of other gases. When you breathe pure air your lungs absorb oxygenwhich is carried off around the body by the red corpuscles in the bloodstream pumpedby the heart. This circulatory system is called the cardiovascular system (cardiomeans heart, vascular means blood vessels). It is sometimes referred to as the oxygentransport system, or perhaps simply "the circulation". Every one of thetrillions of tiny cells must receive oxygen, glucose and other nutrients to remainalive. Thus every function, every movement, every sense, every thought, depends onthe efficiency of this blood circulation, right to the microscopic extremities amongthe cells.
There is more than sufficient oxygen in the atmosphere for normalactivity at sea level but the higher you go above sea level the less dense is theair, and a given volume of air will contain fewer molecules both of oxygen and nitrogen.Above 10,000 feet most people start to suffer from oxygen lack; this depends on theirindividual fitness, lung capacity etc. and activity. (Oxygen shortage does not occurin modern aircraft because the cabin is pressurized.)
To maintain supply as the air becomes more rarefied, you startbreathing deeper and more rapidly, and the heart pumps faster, just as it would tomaintain supply during exercise. Extremely fit mountaineers have acclimatized toattitudes above 20,000 feet after several weeks, but most people would die, somewithin minutes at such an altitude. Some early attempts to scale Mt Everest (29,000feet) were made without breathing from oxygen masks. These climbers spent weeks atbase camps slowly acclimatizing to the rarefied air. (The body manufactures manymore red blood cells to extract the maximum amount of oxygen from the reduced quantitiesavailable.)
I once met Captain Noel who was the photographer on the earlyBritish Everest expeditions in the 1920s. He told me he set up a base camp once atabout 24,000 feet. He was at first so weak that he lay in his tent in a sleepingbag for several days after which he regained normal capability. It is incrediblethat some of the climbers reached within a few hundred feet of the peak without usingsupplementary oxygen. In 1978 Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler were the first mento climb the peak and return without using bottled oxygen. Habeler described theirexploit in his book Everest: Impossible Victory. No matter how well conditionedat sea level, athletes cannot perform their best at elevated places like Mexico City(7,300 feet) or Johannesburg (5,550 feet). They must spend as long as possible acclimatizingbefore they compete. Thus people with circulatory disorders are well advised to remainat sea level.
In the Air Force in 1944, when aviation medicine was becomingimportant, pilots were detailed as a part of their training to do a High AltitudeCourse. One sequence of the course was a "trip" in the decompression chamber.About ten subjects at a time, with a doctor in attendance, were tested as the airwas gradually pumped out of the seated chamber to simulate ascending to higher altitudes.In these tests the first signs of hypoxia are when fingernails turn blue and subjectsget "tipsy", make errors and giggle etc. after a while at about 15,000feet and above. (Only richly oxygenated blood is bright red, and of course, venousblood returning to the heart is dark in color, which is why people go "bluewith cold" when their circulation is poor.) The "chubby" men are firstto be affected, especially the smokers, but when fitted with an oxygen mask theyinstantly recover.
Being slender and fairly fit I was last to be affected and made25,000 feet feeling good, writing neat observations etc., and when after a while,the doctor started fitting the mask on my face, I resisted, thinking I could holdout longer. The others were amused and I was told I had been completely unconscious.My notepad displayed decline in accuracy of technical observations, finally becoming"I want to go to sleep" written over and over many times, declining intolines of scribble. I had no recollection at all of writing the last page and no awarenessof any lapse in consciousness.
Even at sea level, oxygen can be severely reduced in crowded,badly ventilated places. If there is smoke in the air it becomes far worse becausecarbon monoxide gas, when inhaled, has a much higher affinity with the red bloodcells than does oxygen and will displace a high proportion of the oxygen availableto enter the bloodstream. Carbon monoxide is therefore poisonous, and fumes fromkerosene heaters or car exhaust pipes will quickly cause headaches and even unconsciousnessor death. The carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke causes far more harm to the bodythan the effects of nicotine and tars.
However, the main cause of oxygen shortage to various partsof the body is caused by impairment to the cardiovascular system. A fuller descriptionfollows in the next chapter, but briefly, impairment is due to the following factors,sometimes all of them together:
1.	Reduced lung capacity and reduced respiratory efficiency due to poor physical fitness. 
2.	Red blood cell aggregation (clumping) due to high blood fat levels This results in
(a) reduced oxygen pick-up from lungs;
(b) increased blood viscosity (blood thickens), and reduction of circulation;
(c) inability of red cells to enter capillaries. 
3.	Increased blood viscosity due to stress situations (including the effect of smoking and caffeine). 
4.	Increased blood viscosity due to dehydration. 
5.	Coronary insufficiency--heart output restricted by poor blood supply due to blocking of arteries (atherosclerosis) in the heart itself. This is known as Cardiovascular disease (CVD) or more specifically, Coronary Heat Disease (CHD). 
6.	Poor circulation due to atherosclerosis elsewhere in the body, even in the tiny arterioles and capillaries (peripheral circulation). 
7.	Edema (excess fluid) among cells prevents oxygen delivery. 
8.	Smoke immobilizes red cells. 
9.	Reduced enzyme activity inhibits oxygen delivery. Alcohol immobilizes enzymes necessary for cell respiration.
When mental lapses occur due to oxygen shortage to the brain,a person's trained reflexes continue and give the impression, at least for a while,that he is consciously performing. I have seen such lapses in performance of variousflying sequences caused by the effect of stress on pilots in poor physical condition,lapses which they later strenuously denied simply because they had absolutely norecollection of them. In the cases I have observed and which I can substantiate,the stress level in the pilot was higher than normal because he was being "checked".All pilots undergo regular checks and they all feel this extra stress as they strivefor best performance coping with simulated emergencies and so on. At the time ofobserving these lapses I was the examining pilot and had seen cases before of people"switching off" but did not know the cause. The lapse may last only a fewseconds.
Similar lapses can occur when blood viscosity increases forother reasons, such as dehydration. For instance, in 1965 a young Air Force pilotdescribed how he conducted a practise gunnery flight at Darwin with the cockpit airselector in the wrong position. Throughout the mission he was sweating heavily inthe tropical heat in his enclosed plastic canopy. Approaching to land his Sabre Jetfighter, he had great difficulty in flying the aircraft, he felt quite irrationaland did not close the throttle for some distance before touchdown. He could not seeif his landing gear indicator read up or down but landed safely. He said, "Aftershut-down I felt completely enervated, my legs weak, my hands were shaking and Icould not concentrate on the simplest subject. I drank a large amount of water andreported to sick quarters where it was agreed I had apparently suffered from heatexhaustion. In an hour I had completely recovered". A less fit pilot would probablynot have done so well.
Vagueness and senility are common in old people because of oxygenlack when circulation to the brain deteriorates. Such people (not only old people)are easily irritated and are quickly affected by alcohol as the oxygen transportis borderline. Airline staff should be particularly tolerant of excited passengers.I have seen many cases of refined and cultured passengers behaving most irrationally,not due to alcohol, but the excitement and fatigue.
Poor oxygen supply shows up in all parts of the body. Deterioratingeyesight requires reading glasses for most people over about 45 and hearing acuitydeclines as tiny blood vessels supplying these senses gradually close with atherosclerosis.Circulation may be so poor that "pins and needles" are felt in the limbs.
Psychosomatic pain means pain that is thought to derive fromthe mind because inspection of the painful area cannot reveal a reason for it. However,psychosomatic pain occurs in association with high blood viscosity which leads tobody tissue being deprived of oxygen, and such pain, like pins and needles, is acomplaint by the tissues for more oxygen.
The connection between high blood viscosity and poor oxygensupply is clear, and this I have emphasized in later chapters. In 1947, Doctor F.Windesch of Germany demonstrated that by intermittent withholding of oxygen, normalbody cells could be changed into cancer cells. The association of tissue anoxia withcancer and other conditions of disease is explained in later chapters.
Acute, severe oxygen deprivation to a part of the brain dueto circulatory failure is called a stroke and if it persists for more than a fewminutes, permanent damage will occur resulting in partial paralysis or impairment,or, depending on the severity, perhaps death.
Similar severe impairment to the heart's function is calleda heart attack, and wherever else in the body tissue is deprived of oxygen it willperish.
It is interesting that people, apparently drowned, have beenrevived without brain damage after immersion for as long as 38 minutes. Dr M. Nemiroffof the University of Michigan, a diving specialist, reported this in a recent study.What saved them, he said, was the "mammalian diving reflex" combined withthe coldness of the water (below 70 degrees F). This is the reflex that enables seamammals to submerge for up to 30 minutes. In all circumstances the brain receivespriority of blood supply while other body functions shut down. Cold water, he says,reduces oxygen requirements of the tissues.
Breathing pure oxygen can sometimes effect an improvement insome of these cases, but only, of course, if the "oxygen transport" systemis working. It is no use giving someone pure oxygen if they are not breathing orif their heart is not beating properly.
People can be administered pure oxygen instead of air by meansof an enclosed "tent" or by wearing an oxygen mask or just by insertinga tube into a nostril.
Dr Finney of Baylor University in Dallas infused oxygen directlyinto the arteries of diseased monkeys and cleared arterial plaques (diseased growthsin an artery lining) in eight weeks. Dr Wissler of the University of Chicago alsodemonstrated rapid reversal of cardiovascular disease in monkeys breathing oxygen.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
By placing a patient in a special sealed chamber or capsuleand pressurizing the chamber with air or pure oxygen, it is possible to increasethe amount of oxygen taken up by the bloodstream from the lungs and thereby improvethe condition of patients with various diseases. Although first employed in Europeand North America over 100 years ago, this form of treatment has only recently startedto arouse much interest in medical circles.
Normally almost all the oxygen in the blood is carried by thehemoglobin of the red cells which is almost fully saturated (98%) with oxygen, withonly a trace in the blood plasma. However, by increasing the oxygen pressure in thehyperbaric chamber to three times normal atmospheric pressure the plasma will absorba great deal of oxygen, sufficient to sustain life in the complete absence of redcells.
The beneficial effects are obviously not permanent, but goodresults have been obtained in a number of disease conditions including senility andmultiple sclerosis (see Multiple Sclerosis Chapter 21).

Negative ion generators
These are machines which process air to produce negatively chargedelectric ions in the air molecules. Breathing negatively charged air has been foundto produce great benefit such as relief from migraine headaches, rapid healing ofburns and wounds and all-round improvement of wellbeing, alertness and creativeness,by the improved oxygenation of the body.
The claims seem well substantiated, and ionized oxygen equipmenthas been installed in some hospitals including Eden Hospital in Castro Valley, California,Chico Memorial Hospital, California and the Valley Medical Hospital in Fresno, California.The way it works is twofold. Firstly the negatively charged ions of air attach toair impurities causing them to gravitate to the ground, thus purifying the air. Secondly,and of course more important, they say that the ionized oxygen in the air is absorbedmore quickly into the bloodstream, giving the effect of breathing pure oxygen.
There is little technical information available on the negativeion generator. One advertiser claimed that the generator restored the correct naturalionization of oxygen molecules in polluted city air. In this event no benefit wouldbe derived in an unpolluted area.
Later, reading Dr Earle Hackett's book Blood, the ParamountHumour, I discovered a link between negative ions and oxygen transport by theblood cells: "Now in healthy blood all the red cells carry a similar small negativeelectric charge. Bodies with the same electric charge repel, and so the cells tendto remain apart from one another. These charges on the red cells can be weakenedor neutralized by abnormal protein becoming stuck to the cell surfaces, or by theappearance in the blood of an excess of large molecule proteins either deriving fromtissue breakdown somewhere in the body or the result of an infection and the releaseof foreign material into the bloodstream. When this happens the red cells in non-flowingblood tend to stick together by their maximum-contact surfaces which means they becomearranged like piles of coins or dinner plates--called 'rouleaux' by the hematologists."
It would appear feasible then that inhaled oxygen, already carryinga negative electrical charge, would continue to do so when picked up by a red bloodcell and so enhance the cell's ability to repel others, thereby preventing aggregationor "rouleaux".
Research by Professor Albert Krueger at the Air Ion ResearchLaboratory, University of California, Berkley, and Professor Felix Sulman, HebrewUniversity, Israel, suggests that negatively ionized air prevents excessive productionin the body of the neurohormone, serotonin, high levels of which are followed bycomplaints such as migraine, respiratory troubles, insomnia and many others. If thisis the case, another link is established, because serotonin can cause blood to "sludge"or thicken. This was noted by Dr Melvin Knisely, then of the Medical College of SouthCarolina over 20 years ago, in his paper titled Intravascular Erythrocyte* Aggregations(Blood Sludge).
*Red blood cell.
The idea is acceptable then that the negative ion generatorcan give benefit to people with "sick" blood, but like supplementary vitamins,it would be entirely superfluous to a fit person on a correct diet.
Many people following the average lifestyle and diet live ina fairly reasonable state of health for many years with only a marginal supply ofoxygen to most organs of their bodies. In middle age and sometimes earlier, as furtherdegeneration of the body occurs, the oxygen supply becomes less than marginal, andthe more serious diseases occur.
Do not despair, inhale deeply and keep on reading.

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