Septicemia, sepsis, going septic, septic shock

If Germs Don’t Kill, What About Septicemia?

People often ask: “If germs don’t cause disease, then what about septicemia (sepsis, going septic, septic shock)?”

From a Natural Hygiene perspective, septicemia is not some rogue bacterial invasion that mysteriously overpowers the body. It is the body’s own healing effort that has been complicated, obstructed, and driven into a life-threatening stage, almost always by well-meaning but harmful interventions.

A wound becomes septic when its natural drainage and cleansing process is interfered with. The body wants to drain toxic waste, dead cells, and debris out through the wound. This discharge is part of the eliminative process, Nature’s way of cleansing the injured area and preventing internal poisoning. When that natural outlet is blocked, the waste is forced to remain inside, reabsorbing into the bloodstream and overwhelming the system.

How this happens in practice:

Bandaging wounds – Wounds require airflow and the ability to drain; placing a bandage on the wound impairs the elimination of waste products, reduces airflow, and, if the bandage is too tight, blood flow and lymph flow are also impaired. Blood flow brings repair materials, the lymphatic system eliminates waste products, and constricting the flow of either results in impaired healing.
Closing the wound with stitches – Stitches force close a wound, impairing the elimination of the waste the body requires to drain. While there are times of serious major injury that might require stitching, care must be taken to allow proper drainage. If drainage is not allowed, septicemia may be induced by the trapping of waste internally.
Packing or covering the wound with antiseptic chemicals, antibiotics, salves, herbs or ointments that damage healthy cells and impair the body’s healing. Bacteria are put in place by the body, for the benefit of the body, at the site of all injuries. These bacteria are part of the cleaning and repair process. By applying antibacterial substances, we kill the body’s own repair team, impairing healing, and because these substances are injurious to the body, the body is forced to rapidly close the wound. Wounds are meant to close slowly so they can drain properly and eliminate poisons. If they are forced to close rapidly due to more poisons being applied externally, then the cellular waste which is a result of the wound becomes a poison trapped internally.

When we intervene in the healing processes with bandages, stitches, ointments ,or other salves, the toxic material, which includes the body’s own waste, cell debris, and by-products of bacterial breakdown, accumulates faster than the body can remove it. This is classic toxemia, the true cause of all disease.

As Shelton explains, bacteria do not initiate disease; they arrive after the fact, when waste material is present, and assist in breaking it down for elimination. Bacteria are a symptom of disease and tissue injury, not a cause. In septicemia, these symbiotic bacteria are present in large numbers because there is an abundance of cellular waste, toxins, or debris for them to work on. But the danger does not come from the bacteria themselves; it comes from the toxic condition of the internal environment caused by the interference in normal healing processes.

Fasting: the emergency measure
If someone reaches a true septic state, complete physiological rest (fasting) offers the best chance for recovery. Fasting frees up nerve energy, stops the intake of new toxins, and allows the body to concentrate all available resources on neutralizing poisons, breaking down dead tissue, and restoring balance. But more important than knowing how to recover from septicemia is knowing how to avoid it entirely.

Prevention according to Natural Hygiene:

Allow wounds to remain open to the air when possible so they can drain naturally. If a wound must be covered to protect it for a time, keep the bandage loose to allow airflow and remove the bandage frequently to avoid excess moisture building around the wound, injuring the tissues surrounding the wound.
Support the body’s eliminative effort instead of suppressing it with drugs or antiseptics. Fast, or eat only very lightly, of foods natural to the human diet – fruits, salads, nuts, and seeds – until the healing has been completed.
If the wound must be cleaned of debris, use only pure water, never chemical disinfectants that injure cells and impede healing.
Rest the body and avoid overfeeding, especially on protein-heavy or processed foods that create more toxic waste. Avoiding animal proteins and secretions is most important, as these are the heaviest burdens of an unnatural diet.

When the body’s needs are met, fresh air, pure water, adequate rest, wholesome food, it is fully capable of cleansing itself without complication. Septicemia, like all advanced disease conditions, is not caused by the germ but by the accumulation of poisons (cellular debris, waste, drugs, herbs, etc.) and the obstruction of the body’s natural avenues of elimination. Remove the obstruction, stop adding to the toxic load, and the body will finish the healing work it started.

As Dr. Shelton wrote:

“Disease is a remedial effort, a struggle of the vital powers to purify the system and recover the normal state. This effort should be aided… but never suppressed.”

In the case of septicemia, the tragedy is that it almost always results from preventable suppression/intervention, turning the body’s cleansing process into a closed trap. The real cure lies not in killing bacteria, but in restoring the free, unobstructed flow of Nature’s healing work.

September 25, 2025September 25, 2025

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

The Viral Theory of Disease Causation

Did you know that the word virus was originally defined as poison? And virulent was defined as malignant or poisonous? Today, the word virus typically refers to a submicroscopic particle and virulent means contagious. Modern medicine now uses the term virus to mean a particle that can only be seen under a microscope that infects cells and is said to be the cause of an ever-increasing number of diseases.

“In the simpler viruses, the virion consists of a single molecule of nucleic acid surrounded by a protein coat, the capsid; the capsid and its enclosed nucleic acid together constitute the nucleocapsid.” – Fenner, Bachman et al. “Structure and Composition of Viruses”

Allopathic medicine and the media portray the virus as a parasitic life form that attacks all life forms, including human cells, animal cells, plants, bacteria, and even fungi.

In the vast array of modern viral diseases, viruses are said to take a range of actions, including injecting themselves, incubating, infecting, attacking, conducting sieges, being at war with the body, or commanding our cells. They are said to be deadly and devastating. The media warns of the rogue virus leaping from body to body on its ruthless mission to take down mankind, killing the host it is said to require to reproduce.

The medical theory posits that the virus infects and then inhabits a healthy cell, reproducing until the cell itself explodes from the burden of the virus, at which point the virus is said to move on to infect nearby cells. Repeating this process over and over again, the virus kills off thousands and thousands of our cells until at some point our immune system decides to take action. According to medical theory, the single virus attacking the body is too difficult for our immune system to eliminate and so it is allowed to replicate into thousands of viruses. However, once the virus raises an army of replicated viruses and lays our body low, only then, when we are at our lowest, can the immune system fight back against and destroy the virus.

The narrative continues that once our immune system has beaten the virus we are now said to have antibodies against this virus and we are immune to the virus. However, every viral disease is said to be so contagious that even if you get the vaccines to give you immunity you can still become ill over and over again from that same virus.

So naturally, being immune, we would never get sick again from the virus, right? Except we do get sick again and again. We get colds over and over again throughout life, as well as the flu. With each new virus that the disease industry invents, we are told we become susceptible to those as well. If we eat the standard Western diet of cooked foods, animal foods, and other unhealthy fare we experience colds, flus, and rashes on a regular and consistent basis throughout life.

The viral theory of disease causation requires the virus to take action, however, virologists admit that although viruses are organic in nature, they have no metabolism, no nucleus, they are smaller than unicellular microorganisms and lack typical cell components, including organelles, cytoplasm, and nuclei. This means that the virus lacks all of the characteristics of a living being. Viruses contain nucleic acid and protein but lack enzymes, and they lack the first prerequisites of life, metabolic control mechanisms. Even bacteria contain these metabolic systems required for life. In addition, viruses cannot be replicated in a laboratory and have, in fact, never been observed alive.

You might be asking yourself now, “What about all the live virus vaccines that are marketed by the disease industry?” Well, it turns out that the term live virus in a vaccine merely refers to those viruses that are created in a live culture in a laboratory setting. It does not refer to a viral entity that has been isolated, purified, and observed alive. Even though these cultures are considered to be alive there is a massive cell turnover as various toxic substances are applied to these live cultures and it is from the dying cells that the virus particles are isolated. These entities are always dead and inactive because they have no metabolism and no requisites for life. So to summarize, live tissue is exposed to poisons that damage the tissues causing a mass die-off of cells, and as a result of this poisoning the material which is called the virus emerges only from the breakdown of the dying cells.

Virology also acknowledges that viruses have no reproductive system, no locomotion, and cannot be reproduced as live entities in vitro.

The viral theory of disease requires these microscopic materials to be capable of action, but the virologists who study them admit that these materials are not alive. Inert, or dead material cannot take action. Therefore, if the material is not observed alive and has none of the requirements of life then it cannot take any of the actions that have been ascribed to the virus – injecting itself, incubating, infecting, attacking, conducting sieges, being at war with the body or commanding our cells. If the material is incapable of action or locomotion then it is also incapable of contagious infection as dead material cannot leap from body to body infecting people, animals, or even plants.

If the medical narrative is not an accurate representation of what is scientifically observed to be true of this material, is there another explanation for what this material might be?

Viruses as cellular debris

Mitochondria are found in the cells of almost all eukaryotic organisms, including humans, plants, and animals. Each cell of our body contains varying organelles (little organs), which are living organisms, among them are the mitochondria which metabolize glucose into ATP molecules. Mitochondria are about the size of bacteria and have their own DNA and their own metabolism. The study of cytology (cell structure) shows us the greatest number of life forms within a cell are the mitochondria.

All of the cells in our body are continuously dying and being recycled into new cells, called daughter cells during the process of mitosis. During this process, the dying cell is disintegrated by lysosomes. Lysosomes are intracellular enzymes that break up cellular components into ultra-minute particles so that the body can readily recycle them or excrete them as waste.

Each day it is estimated that we expire between 300 billion and over half a trillion cells, each containing an average of 5,000 to 20,000 mitochondria. When a cell dies the cell’s own lysosomes deconstruct the cell, but the nuclei and the genomes of mitochondria are often not completely decomposed in this process.

The genomes and nuclei of the cell mitochondria are the blueprints of the cell and, as such, they are similar to the brain and nervous system of our body. They are protected with a double lipid-protein sheath, similar to how our skull and backbone protect our brain and nervous system.

You might recall from above that the virus is composed of nuclei and a protein sheath, just as the decomposed mitochondria leave a remnant of this same cellular debris. Upon cellular death, mitochondria are broken down by the lysosomes but due to the protective protein sheath, this process is not always complete, leaving behind a remnant material that exactly matches that which is described by allopathic medicine as a virus. It is this remnant cellular debris of the mitochondria that occurs as part of the normal recycling of the cells during mitosis which is the origin of the material called the virus.

In other words, as our cells become injured, commonly by the ingestion of toxic materials, the cells break apart and are recycled as part of the cleaning and repair processes the body goes through every day. When this happens, microscopic bits and pieces of the cells circulate and are broken down by the lysosomes. Some of this material is absorbed into other cells for reuse and some of the material is sent to the lymphatic system, the body’s sewer system, for elimination.

Since viruses are not alive they cannot act in any of the malevolent ways that modern allopathic medicine has ascribed to them. They are merely the undigested waste products of the normal recycling of cells. They are found in higher quantities when the body has been injured, and lower quantities when the body is healthy. When a person maintains a chronic level of disease conditions in their body by straying far from the requirements of health, the person will have higher quantities of this cell debris chronically until they correct the conditions that are not conducive to health.

Viruses are always present in the body

The medical authorities claim that viruses are the cause of disease symptoms, however, they also readily admit that these small particles as well as the bacteria which they also love to blame for disease are always found in healthy bodies. If a material is a natural part of the body, found in all healthy bodies it cannot be the cause of disease.

“Our bodies are exposed continually to bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, all of which occur normally and to varying degrees in the skin, the mouth, the respiratory passageways, the intestinal tract, the lining membranes of the eyes, and even the urinary tract” – Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology

The allopathic model which blames viruses as a cause of disease for a growing number of diseases readily admits that all healthy bodies contain bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. In fact, the study of the microbiome is continuing to discover daily the many functions of these beneficial bacterial, fungal, and parasitic organisms. Yet, while allopathy admits that these materials are present in healthy bodies and required for the health of the body, their arsenal for disease battling is filled with poisons designed to kill these beneficial organisms. Of course, you cannot kill something that is already dead, so their profitable poisons are not capable of killing a virus, a material that is already not alive. However, this does not stop them from trying to apply as many poisons to the body as they can get their customers to accept.

At this point, you are probably wondering, if viruses jumping from person to person are not the cause of our symptoms then what is? After all, we all get cold and flu symptoms at some point in our lives, for many, this occurs every year. What is the source of these symptoms if it is not the random attack of the malevolent virus as allopathy teaches us?

The self-healing, self-cleaning body

The human body is self-healing and self-cleaning. If you scrape your knee your body immediately sets out to repair the damage. The body breaks down the damaged cells and recycles them into new cells, expelling the waste in the process fully repairing the wounded area. Your body will of its own accord, with no assistance required, clot the blood, create mucus or discharge to expel any foreign material as well as the dead cell debris, bring in bacteria to assist with the breakdown of damaged cells, build a temporary scab to cover the wound and then slowly knit the skin back together, all without any assistance required.

If we break a bone we recognize the same truth, that our body is of an intelligent design whereby it is fully capable of repairing the bone, should we provide it with the essentials of health required. The state of our overall health and our diet at the time of injury impacts the length of time the body takes to heal from these injuries and whether we fast or eat during this time significantly impacts the duration of healing. Despite whatever handicaps it faces, the body takes intelligent action to repair the injury.

While we readily accept our body’s healing properties in some ways, we have been taught in other ways to fear our body’s healing actions. When our diet strays from the natural diet that our physiology was designed for and when our lifestyle habits create a toxic environment for our body, then our body is required to periodically clean and heal from these unhealthful habits.

Our bodies will create expulsion symptoms to eliminate waste, toxins, poisons, and irritants. If we inhale some dust, we sneeze to expel that dust. This is an example of an expulsion symptom. What we call the diseases of cold and flu that are purported to be caused by the dead and inactive malevolent virus of allopathic reasoning are in fact healing events or healing crises created by the self-healing, self-cleaning body.

If you look at the common symptoms of the cold or flu such as coughing, sneezing, runny nose, mucus congestion, watery eyes, diarrhea, or vomiting you will see quite clearly that all of these symptoms are the body working to push material out. The body creates diarrhea by flushing water into the bowels to rapidly eliminate any material in the bowels. If we eat rotten food, toxic food, or food that is irritating like spicy peppers our body springs into action and flushes the material out and what we experience we call diarrhea. The diarrhea is not a mistake or a dangerous process, but is in fact a defense mechanism protecting the body from injury from the inappropriate substances that have entered the digestive system.

If you get a bit of dust in your eye your body will spring into action and tears will form to flush the material out of the eye. If you inhale a bit of pet dander, grass, or pollen, your body will respond defensively to expel that irritating bit of material creating a runny nose or sneezing. If you sit too close to the campfire while camping you may notice mucus congestion or a runny nose the next day because the smoke is an irritant to the lungs and nasal passages. You might even develop a cough to get this material out of the lungs.

When our body encounters a toxic material the body initiates a cleaning. If you walk into a room where disinfectant was sprayed, you may experience a runny nose, cough, or congestion from the inhalation of the poisonous disinfectant. The body is working defensively to protect its tissues from the irritant.

Inhaled irritants like perfume, cleaning chemicals, candles, disinfectants, bleach and strong scented laundry detergents, car exhaust, and essential oils are all irritating and injurious to our tissues and result in the body creating an expulsion event to clear them out. Followed by mucus to eliminate the damaged cell debris that is left over.

Aside from the day-to-day exposure to inhaled toxins, poisons, and irritants, our body will also launch into a cleaning as often as required by our dietary indiscretions. The further we eat from our natural foods, which are whole, raw, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, the more injury our body encounters on a daily basis. The more we injure the body with cooked foods and foods that are not suited to our physiology, the more disease conditions build up in the body impairing normal cellular functions.

As these injuries pile up day after day, the cellular waste within the body builds until it reaches the individual’s level of tolerance. When the impairment to normal cell function becomes more than the body can withstand it has reached its tolerance level. When tolerance levels are reached and the body has sufficient energy available the body will launch into a cleaning event. This is why we frequently see colds arising after holiday celebrations like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Indulging in large quantities of some of the most unhealthy fat-laden fare pushes our bodies over the edge and forces a cleaning event.

In addition, we frequently see colds arising when we go on vacation. This is frequently a result of the increase in available energy our body has available to clean with. When we are working we frequently are under stress which limits our available energy, but as soon as we take the time to relax, sleep in, or just enjoy a week without the office stress our body recovers enough energy to clean and expel the build-up of waste that is impairing our daily functions.

The cleaning event

The cleaning event starts with a drop in energy and we begin to feel fatigued. If we stop eating and go to bed and rest at the first signs of fatigue we will avoid the worst symptoms of the cold or flu healing event. But if we continue to eat then we are adding more burden for the body to clean out. The cleaning event progresses with growing fatigue and the production and release of mucus. This mucus carries out cellular debris, toxins, old waste, any foreign matter or bacteria, and anything else that the body needs to eliminate. The more we eat and the heavier the foods we consume the less energy is available for the cleaning event and the more added burden is acquired. If we rest and limit our food intake our cold or flu passes quickly with little discomfort. Unfortunately, most people have been taught all their life to feed a cold with some of the worst foods like chicken soup, crackers, or ginger ale.

Sadly, not long ago it was common knowledge that “If you feed a cold you will have to starve a fever.” Somewhere along the way this old adage was corrupted and became “Feed a cold, starve a fever”. We will never know if this was done purposefully to deceive the public or simply an accident of poor attention to detail but it has had a significant impact on the health of millions. How many of us dutifully fed our loved ones soup and crackers thinking we were helping them battle the invading virus when in fact the action of feeding when the body is trying to clean and heal extends suffering and can even in some cases result in death if the body is attempting to recover from sufficient burden.

How the cold progresses into the flu, pneumonia, and other much more serious conditions.

The body has launched into a cleaning event because its normal operating conditions have become impaired. The cells are drowning in their own cellular waste, toxins, and debris. Suppose we can recognize this and give our body the break it needs, alleviating some of the causes of disease from our daily habits, getting more rest, drinking more water, etc. In that case, the body can quickly clear out the backlog of waste and get us back to feeling our best.

However, when the body shows us symptoms of a cold healing event or flu healing event, this is a body in distress. If the body can move through this cleaning event without being further injured, then the body will be able to return to normal functions. If, instead, we keep stuffing the body with food to “keep up our strength,” then the body becomes exhausted and is unable to complete the eliminations.

For some people, this means a cold or flu healing event that lasts for weeks or even months on end, with fatigue stretching on for months afterwards. This is because they are never allowing the body to catch up on the waste backlog. They are leaving the body in a chronic state of impairment.

But for others, the state of their body will get progressively worse. The heavier the food that we feed upon the greater the burden that we created. Even greater still is the application of drugs to the body. If you take cold or flu medications, pain medications, antibiotics, antibacterial or anti-inflammatory drugs you are ingesting a poisonous substance that would take a healthy body into a state of sickness. These drugs might result in the temporary suppression of your symptoms because the body must shift its energy from cleaning out the backlog to dealing with the incoming poisonous material. Drugs do not have the ability to create health. The symptoms stop due to the exhausting influences of the drug, not due to any health-giving effects. You cannot poison a poisoned body back to health.

If you feed a body that is trying to clean, your cold or flu healing event and the accompanying discomfort can be stretched on for weeks or months. If we drug the body trying to stop the cleaning event at this vulnerable time, pneumonia and other very serious conditions are very likely in our future. The more we attempt to drug away the symptoms, the more injured the body becomes and the more aggressive the symptoms become.

Eventually, if we keep taking drugs or even natural remedies to suppress our cold and flu cleaning symptoms, the body runs out of energy to launch these life-saving cleaning events, and instead, we shift into chronic disease, organ damage, and eventually cancer. Cancer is the end result of fearing and suppressing the body’s healing and repair processes over and over again.

By teaching the public to fear the virus and fear their own body’s healing and repair processes the for-profit medical industry not only can continue to sell in the trillions each year their antibiotics, injections, and cold and flu drugs and build a steady stream of lifelong customers who will fund the extremely lucrative cancer industry. The more you fear your own body’s ability to heal itself, the more the disease-for-profit industry is able to enrich itself.

You will recall that the original definition of the virus was poison. A virus is a result of poisoning, both the acute poisoning that we encounter on a day-to-day basis as a result of the many toxic substances allowed to exist in our environment as well as the daily poisoning from the ingestion of inappropriate foods. This means that health is 100% within your control, if you simply learn to supply the needs of health to your body and limit unhealthy habits.

Learn more about Contagions, Epidemics and how the medical industry has perverted science for their profit at the expense of our health by reading Lesson 66 – Contagions, Epidemics

Learn more about the purpose of disease, how disease is created, why it is created and how we can reverse disease by returning to feeding our body in alignment with our physiology, Read The Nature and Purpose of Disease Series

Learn more about returning to a state of health by returning to the foods our body is naturally designed for, read What is the Natural Human Diet?

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? I offer consultations, learn more about them here: https://www.therawkey.com/consultations/

Ready to make changes but not sure how to begin? Need some motivation or accountability? Why not join our 30-Day Natural Human Diet Support and Education Group? New Groups start on the 1st of every month! https://www.therawkey.com/the-natural-diet-support-group/

Eat fruit and be well my friends.

September 25, 2025September 25, 2025

Lauren Farris2 Comments

Why We Don’t Have an Immune System – The Truth About the Body’s Real Defense Mechanisms

How Belief In The Immune Narrative Has Led To Epidemics Of Chronic Disease And Cancer.

In the modern world of medicine, the concept of the immune system has taken a central role in how we view illness and disease. We are told it’s a powerful internal army designed to protect us from outside invaders: bacteria, viruses, fungi. We are taught to fear germs, to fight symptoms, and to see the body as constantly under attack. But what if this premise is completely wrong? What if the very idea of the immune system is built on a false understanding of the body’s biology?

From a Natural Hygiene perspective, the truth is far simpler and far more empowering. We do not have an immune system in the way it is described by medicine. Instead, we have a circulatory system and a lymphatic system – both of which perform clearly observable, purposeful, and intelligent functions. We cannot dissect the immune system because all parts of the immune system are already parts of these existing body systems. The immune system was created by taking parts of these other systems and cobbling them together to form a new system, which exists only to explain why we’re not always suffering at the hands of these omnipresent tiny hostile microbial invasions. In this article, I will explain why there is no need to believe in a mystical army fighting malevolent microbes and why the entire theory of immunity is a myth built on the flawed assumptions of the germ theory of disease.

The Myth of the Immune System

The medical establishment claims that our body defends itself from invading pathogens by generating antibodies and deploying white blood cells to attack foreign organisms. This war metaphor permeates everything from advertisements for cold medications to public health campaigns. But this theory rests on three unsupported premises:

That bacteria and viruses cause disease.
That the body needs to destroy these invaders to remain healthy.
That we can train the body with vaccines to recognize and eliminate these threats.

None of these assumptions holds up under closer scrutiny.

First, bacteria and viruses do not cause disease – they appear during disease. There may be a correlation, but there is no causation. Bacteria are present in and on our bodies at all times. They are essential to digestion and elimination, and are utilized in body cleaning processes. They exist on our skin, in our throat and nose at all times, and are essential to cell creation, in that they are directly responsible for the breakdown of nutrients, which allows them to enter the bloodstream and feed the cells. When disease occurs, it is because the body is overwhelmed by toxemia – an accumulation of waste products and toxins from poor diet, lifestyle, and environment. The body intelligently redirects its energy to eliminate this waste through symptoms we call “disease”. In other words, the symptoms themselves are the body’s created cure for the persistent disease conditions we are creating with our lifestyle and dietary failures.

What the Body Actually Has: Circulation and Cleansing

Instead of an immune system, the body has:

The Circulatory System: This system delivers nutrients, oxygen, and hormones throughout the body and removes cellular waste.
The Lymphatic System: Often misunderstood, this system is essential for drainage. It collects waste, including proteins and cellular debris, and moves it toward the elimination channels – primarily the lymph nodes, colon, kidneys, skin, and lungs.

These systems are not soldiers at war – they are custodians. They work tirelessly to maintain homeostasis and eliminate toxicity. The so-called immune response is nothing more than the body redirecting its energy to clean up its internal terrain.

The cells the medical world calls immune cells – lymphocytes, neutrophils, macrophages – are simply scavengers and repairmen. They clean up dead tissue, neutralize irritants, and assist in regeneration. They don’t attack invading invisible entities; rather, they respond to damage that has already occurred, usually from internal toxicity or exposure to poisons.

Viruses: The Most Misunderstood Waste Products

Modern medicine presents viruses as cunning assassins. Yet, viruses have never been observed alive, nor have they ever met the criteria of living organisms. What we call a virus is simply decomposed genetic material – bits of RNA or DNA wrapped in protein from dead or dying cells. They cannot move, metabolize, reproduce, or perform any living function. They are cellular garbage – the debris left behind after toxicity injures or destroys cells.

The body does not defend against viruses. It eliminates them. These so-called viral particles appear after cellular breakdown – not before. They are evidence of internal toxicity, not external invasion. To fear viruses is to fear your own cellular debris.

Symptoms Are Not Signs of War – They Are Signs of Cleaning

When the body is overwhelmed by toxicity, it initiates constructive elimination symptoms – fever, coughing, sneezing, rashes, diarrhea, and mucus production. These are not illnesses. They are cleansing processes. A cold is the body clearing the airways. A fever is the body increasing its metabolic rate to burn off excess waste. Rashes are the skin pushing out internal toxins. These are not signs of attack; they are signs of intelligent housekeeping.

When we suppress symptoms with drugs, we shut down the body’s healing processes. We force it to stop cleaning. And what happens to a home that never gets cleaned? It decays. This is how acute diseases become chronic and eventually degenerative.

The True Cause of Disease

According to Natural Hygiene, the science of health, there is only one disease, called toxemia, and many varied symptoms that express that state of disease. Disease conditions are progressive; the dirtier our inner terrain becomes, the more symptoms the body exhibits in its attempts to rid itself of the growing disease conditions. This means a body overwhelmed with waste and unable to eliminate it efficiently due to poor lifestyle habits such as:

Consuming unnatural, cooked, or animal-based foods
Lack of fresh air and sunshine
Lack of adequate sleep
Lack of appropriate exercise
Lack of adequate hydration
Overwork, stress, and emotional imbalance
Use of medications, stimulants, or suppressive therapies

These factors deplete nerve energy, the electrical vitality the body uses to perform its cleansing functions. When enervation sets in, the elimination of waste slows, toxicity builds, and the body reaches a point where it must intervene through a healing crisis.

Why the Immune Theory Fails

If germs and viruses truly caused disease, then once they invaded, the body would not recover without destroying them. Yet people recover without drugs. They recover through rest, fasting, and proper care – because the body heals itself.

White blood cells, instead of being warriors, are janitors. Antibodies, instead of being magic bullets, are just proteins – their so-called “immune function” has never been conclusively proven, only theorized. And vaccinations, which aim to trigger these proteins, fail to address the real cause of disease: an unhealthy lifestyle.

So, What Do We Have Instead?

We have:

A self-healing, self-cleaning body.
A lymphatic and circulatory system, not an immune system.
An inner terrain, which is either clean and vibrant or dirty and sluggish.
Detoxification, not infection.
Symptoms of healing, not symptoms of war.

As Dr. Shelton said, “Disease is a process of purification and repair. It is a remedial action. It is a power struggle to overcome obstruction and to keep the channels of circulation free.”

Conclusion: Clean the Terrain, Don’t Fight the Phantom

There is nothing to be immune to. There is no war. No battle. No evil invader. The idea of the immune system is a distraction from the truth: health is a result of clean living, the appropriate diet, and proper rest, not vaccinations, drugs, or antibiotics.

If you want true immunity, forget the immune system. Focus instead on creating a terrain that does not require cleaning. Eat fruit. Rest well. Move your body. Breathe fresh air. And trust in the body’s perfect, intelligent design.

Because the only thing that can restore health… is the body itself.

Learn more about the Virus deception, read on:

The Viral Theory of Disease Causation

September 18, 2025September 25, 2025

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

One Disease – Two Types of Symptoms

Did you know that there is only ONE disease? The medical industry calls various symptoms diseases, but this does not align with biological reality.

Central to the terrain model of health, also called the science of natural hygiene, is the knowledge that there is only ONE disease. We call this disease toxemia. Toxemia can also be referred to as acidosis or cellular malfunction, although it is more accurate to say that cellular malfunction is a symptom of toxemia and not the disease itself.

All of the “diseases” of allopathy are actually symptoms of the singular disease of toxemia, which is an over-acid state of the body. This state of toxemia is caused by a backlog of acidic cellular waste and debris, which results from chronic dehydration of the lymphatic system.

Acids burn. Acids trapped in the body exist in the same intercellular fluids that the cells exist in and therefore damage the cells that are exposed to them, eventually leading to cell malfunction. Disease starts as a backlog of waste, due to the body accumulating more waste than its cleaning systems can clean. The start of disease comes before the symptoms. The symptoms begin when the backlog becomes urgent enough to impair function, at which point the body creates an expulsion event, or healing crisis/healing event.

The body may use many different techniques to prevent the acids from burning. For example, the body may use cholesterol to buffer acids. The body may use water to dilute acids, which we notice as swelling and inflammation. The body may promote bacterial activity to break down the acids, resulting in fever, or heat at the area of injury. The body may also build tumors to store the waste. The body may use alkaline minerals (i.e. calcium) to neutralize the acid. When the body must pull alkaline minerals to neutralize the acids, this leads to osteoporosis, prolapses, sagging skin, and weakened tissues if the body is not receiving enough usable alkaline minerals to replenish what it is using up.

Acids burn and bases (alkaline) neutralize acids.

There are two types of symptoms:
1. Cellular malfunction, as a result of the acids damaging the cells responsible for a particular function.
2. Expulsion/repair symptoms. These are symptoms created by the body itself to clean and repair damage.

Disease, or lack of ease, within the body comes in stages. Through years and decades of wrong foods and exposure to other toxins/poisons through the environment, on our skin, the air we breathe, etc. we build upon our mistakes.

The most impactful are the daily choices you make. The three (or more) meals we eat each day.

When we ingest only those foods that are biologically and physiologically appropriate, then the natural state of health is maintained throughout life, and no disease is experienced.

When we stray from the natural foods that are appropriate to our physiology, disease grows by degrees based on how many mistakes we are making.

A few minor mistakes create only minor, occasional symptoms like fatigue, sneezing, coughing, rashes, and the occasional short fever. The further we stray from our natural foods, the larger the purge requires, leading to bigger healing events, such as colds or flu detox events, rashes, severe fatigue, and even pneumonia in more advanced states of disease.

If we attempt to suppress these early cleaning symptoms by the use of drugs, herbs, natural remedies, colloidal silver, ointments, or salves, then the body never finishes cleaning and is forced to retain the toxic material, and the waste load internally grows deeper.

The longer we suppress and kick the can down the road, the more serious the condition becomes, until we shift from expulsion symptoms, or constructive, useful symptoms of cleaning, to the symptoms of cellular malfunction. Conversely, if we have already put the body into a state of malfunction, such as heart disease, asthma, or diabetes, then we must experience those cleaning symptoms, such as rashes, colds, flu, fever, or what medicine calls an infection, to heal. The “infection” and the inflammation are the healing process; the coughing, sneezing, mucus, vomiting, diarrhea, etc, are the way the body expels the materials it must expel to return to a state of health.

Disease is not an on/off switch. It is in varying states of dirtiness or cleanliness. Much like the cleanliness of a floor can be on a scale of dirty to clean, from absolutely filthy to shining spotless, and every stage in between.

Dis-ease begins with minor warning signs and slowly progresses into major and chronic illness. For example, body odor, bad breath, acne, liver spots (brown spots on the skin, often on the face), dark circles under the eyes, a crease or creases in the forehead between the eyebrows, temperature sensitivities, sun burns, cavities in the teeth, wounds that are slow to heal, swollen hands, feet or ankles, swollen face/head, allergies, wrinkles as we age, and headaches are all signs of the toxic conditions growing in the body and all signs that our inner terrain is not clean and our cells are operating in a state of distress. This distress is often felt in the form of anxiety, depression, inability to handle stress, erratic emotions, and in more severe conditions of disease, we will see delusions, hallucinations, or extreme swings from manic to depressive.

If left unchecked, if the person does not return to their natural, highly alkaline, fruit-centered, plant-based diet, or the animal to their biologically appropriate diet, then the waste continues to grow, little by little, year by year, until the symptoms grow into an unbearable state and chronic disease is the result.

Luckily for us, our bodies are remarkable, brilliant, intelligently designed organisms that can take a tremendous amount of abuse before getting to such an extreme state of disease, and this means that we can work in reverse to eliminate the disease conditions by eliminating the acids and removing some of the burden on the body. Often, just small changes in the diet are enough to bring someone back from the brink because our bodies are built to survive.

Unfortunately for us, this also means our bodies have an extreme tolerance for abuse, which allows us to develop many harmful habits that do not cause immense pain and suffering immediately, but if continued over time, they will cause real harm. Our body warns us with small symptoms first, but we have been largely trained to ignore these symptoms, and so we continue on in our damaging habits until the symptoms become large enough to cause real discomfort. Only then do we attempt to seek correction. Sadly, most seek help in the hands of the poison salesman, who supplies their various poisons, be they herbal or pharmaceutical. These substances provide only a temporary relief, if any, and are followed by a further worsening of disease or an alteration in symptoms. You cannot poison a poisoned body back to health, no matter how much the disease-for-profit industry tries to convince you otherwise.

This symptom suppression route is why it is so easy to trick people into following unhealthy diets or taking supplements or other harmful substances and then hope for a magic cure, instead of building and maintaining their health over their lifetime.

The body heals when we remove the causes that led to the disease conditions growing in the first place. If you shift from a diet with 20 things wrong to a diet with 15 things wrong, the act of removing those 5 things will alleviate some symptoms and allow the body to clean a little bit more waste out. This is why less-than-ideal diets alleviate some disease symptoms but do not maintain a state of pristine health long term.

This leads to a temporary reduction in uncomfortable symptoms or a shifting of symptoms to less bothersome symptoms, and so the individual thinks that they are on the right track. Any reduction in the cause of the disease will lead to some reversal of symptoms. However, for the body to truly function at its peak, there must be no obstructions to healing and no habits that build disease. This requires a complete return to the natural species-appropriate diet, along with rest, and for some, it may also require periods of therapeutic fasting to allow the backlog to be cleared efficiently.

September 17, 2025September 24, 2025

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

The Hardest Thing to Do Is “Nothing”

Often, it’s the actions we take that cause the most harm.

Article by Dr Virginia Vetrano

“Poor baby, she’s so sick. And look at her, she can barely lift her head!”

“Yes, it is true, she is sick and has a high fever. But don’t worry, she’s fasting and the fever won’t last too long.”

The first day went by without the in-laws saying too much, so I felt relieved. My husband thought I knew what I was doing and he didn’t bother me too much about how I fed our baby. So I didn’t have too much concern that he would stop me from fasting her.

The second day went by. All the family came to visit the baby. They were a little concerned. But when the third and fourth days had passed and the baby still had a fever, I really had to calm their fears. It was an unheard of thing, to fast a two-year-old baby. Everybody knows when babies have fever they need penicillin to knock it out. To refuse to see a medical doctor when a baby is ill is a crime, they say, and to fast a baby is even worse it is sheer craziness. I’m surprised the family put up with my ways as well as they did. Perhaps I acted like I knew what I was doing or my faith in Natural Hygiene was so strong that it calmed their fears for a while, but on the fifth day of the child’s fast even my husband panicked. He stormed out of the house saying, “If she isn’t better by tomorrow, I’m taking her to a doctor.”

I was just as concerned for my baby as they were, but to let my concern or lack of faith show would have been the end of her Hygienic care. I waited it out patiently, knowing that nature heals. I took her temperature daily, kept her warm, permitted her to rest quietly, and prevented people from smoking in the room, or from waking her up to see if she was alive. I kept the place quiet so she could sleep and do nothing else.

It’s hard to buck the whole world, but it is even harder to sit back and wait for the day when a fever will drop. Every day you watch, listen, and hope. Infants that are fasting and who have fever are very quiet. They sleep a lot and this is also disquieting when you are a neophyte Hygienist and not a doctor. All sorts of fears enter your head.

“Is she okay?” you keep wondering. “Is she breathing?” “Is she still alive?” You are scared to death. You want to shake the child, or awaken it, or do just anything to reassure yourself that everything is fine. But I didn’t do anything rash. I had to have patience and wait upon nature to complete her wonderful healing process. I was very worried, but I had faith in the living organism. Finally, her fever broke about mid-day on the fifth day of her fast, and there were sighs of relief all around. Her father was no longer tense and worried. The baby’s great aunt was no longer hovering over her, wringing her hands. In fact, we all relaxed. That was the only time the baby was sick in her life. Thank goodness! I had weathered the storm. But I know how hard it is to sit and wait, and do absolutely nothing intelligently.

I am pleased I held out. I waited patiently for nature to heal my little baby. But others don’t. Just recently, the parents of a six-month-old baby became frightened by their baby’s symptoms. They called me, but instead of doing what I suggested they took the baby to the physician. They didn’t want to fast the baby. This is when the trouble started. He insisted on all sorts of harmful and painful tests for the baby, including X rays. It takes so long to establish a diagnosis that, had the baby been cared for Hygienically, it would have been well long before the medical diagnosis was complete.

Finally, the physician began the treatment. They went to the physician simply to get a diagnosis. They couldn’t forget about diagnosis and just fast the baby. They had to have a label. They were under the impression that if they just got a diagnosis and knew exactly what was wrong with the baby they wouldn’t be so fearful. They just couldn’t wait and rely on the natural healing powers of the body for their infant’s recovery. They forgot all about the treatment that comes after the diagnosis. When they balked at the treatment, the physician became suspicious. He then insisted on the parents carrying out his orders. He even brought the authorities on the case, and the baby was held in the hospital against the parent’s wishes. They were forced to submit to treatment of the baby. When they finally got the baby back home, they had to put up with the child abuse bureau visiting them twice a week to see that they were carrying out the physician’s instructions regarding the care and feeding of the infant, and they were forced to begin feeding the child meat and cereals against their wishes. It took the infant six months to recover from the medical abuse called “diagnosis and treatments.” All this trouble came about because the parents: had no faith in the living body to heal itself, and because of their inability to sit back and do absolutely nothing. “Doing nothing” intelligently is the hardest of all things to do.

Just the other night I was jolted out of my sleep by a ringing phone. It was a lady with a three-year-old baby. Deep concern, bordering on real fear, was in her voice. “I’m worried,” she said, “my baby is so listless. There’s no life in him at all and he has a fever of 104.5°F. I fasted him seven days and the fever went down. But he was very weak so I didn’t wait the 24 hours necessary after the fever subsided. Now his fever has come back, and I’m really worried. I fed him only two ounces of orange juice three times, but his fever returned. He’s so weak, and he’s still sick.” Her voice cracked, and she was crying.

I began asking her questions to try to discover how the child got sick and what the problem was. The baby had hidden himself on a back porch and had gotten into a dried dog food when the parents were visiting friends.

When he was found, he was happily stuffing himself on the dried dog food, and had probably been doing so for about 15 or 20 minutes.

He developed a fever, a cough after that, and so the child was fasted. The parents were naturally very concerned and when the fever didn’t come down in about three days, they became even more concerned. Many things went through their minds. Would the child survive? He had done this once before, but he had been discovered quickly enough to stop him before he had eaten very much. Under the stress of fear, and impatience, for the fever was still high, the baby was weak and getting weaker, and there was no sign of improvement, the parents decided that since the baby had not had a bowel movement, it would be best to give the child an enema. They reasoned that the dog food was an irritant and still in the colon, causing the temperature to remain high. “We must get rid of the irritant.” So an enema was given. The child, however, was still even more listless and it did not bring the fever down.

The parents couldn’t wait until the body rectified all the wrongs.

As the child had not vomited we know that the dog food was at least digested enough to pass from the stomach to the small intestine. By the time it reached the colon, most of it had been digested. The preservatives, other poisonous chemicals, and decomposition products were absorbed from the small intestine. The time to have done something was when the child had first eaten the dog food. Vomiting could have been induced when the food was still in the child’s stomach. But perhaps they did not realize just how much the child had eaten and the child was not yet sick. But, to give an enema after the food had already passed the absorbing area was useless and wasted the child’s nerve energy. Had the material in the colon been a great enough irritant to cause fever, the body would have forced it out by a diarrhea.

The parent’s reasoning was obfuscated because of the weakness and listlessness of the child. The tendency is to do something to make the child appear lively again. Parents forget that when nerve energy is being expended in one direction, it is withdrawn from another. It is normal when the body is fighting off poisons that all its energies, both nervous and physical, are directed to the area of the body that needs it most. The physical weakness comes because the blood and nerve supply has been withdrawn from the skeletal muscles of the body and directed inward to help rid the body of the poisonous substances. It is natural to be listless and weak under these conditions. However, seeing a listless child is frightening and there is that strong urge to do something, just anything, to see a manifestation of life to do nothing, I repeat, to do nothing, intelligently, at these times takes great courage and faith in the human organism.

Fevers may last for more than three days, when there is a need for it. Fasting, of course, is the quickest means to help the body rid itself of irritants that are occasioning the fever, but it sometimes takes more than three days. We must not panic if the fever does not subside more quickly. Children presently are developing fevers that last longer than in former decades. I have cared for several children recently and have noticed that the fevers seem never to quit. The children of this generation are not as strong as those of the previous generation, for many reasons. We will have to expect more acute illness and less robust, children until we clean up the environment and straighten out our method of growing and processing foods. The race is slowly but surely committing suicide.

Meanwhile, we must work in more harmony with nature than ever before. We must not needlessly cause the expenditure of any vital energy of any sick person, child or, adult. We must learn to conserve energy as we have never before conserved it, simply because there is less vitality and less functioning capacity than ever before.

If child or adult develops a fever, fasting is the best means for permitting the body to rid itself of the cause. The fever will never go as high when fasting as it does when feeding. “But,” you ask, “what about brain damage if the fever should go up to 106°F?” Remember, first of all, that cells can function only at optimum temperatures. The minute the temperature goes up too high, the cells automatically cease functioning and the temperature spontaneously drops. Cellular metabolism contributes greatly to the rise in temperature, and when it is so hot that the cells can no longer function, metabolism slows down and automatically the temperature drops. Actually, it is the suppression of a fever by drugs and other measures causing retention of the poison, or the bacteria or whatever is the occasion for the fever, that damages the brain, never the fever per se. The fever is the necessary biological process to help the phagocytic cells eat up the bacteria or destroy and render nontoxic, the poisonous substance that may have been ingested. The drugs themselves are poisonous and only add to the load that the body has to eliminate. The drugs, plus the bacteria, and bacterial toxins and other poisons in the system are what damages the brain, not the fever which is only the body’s best and speediest means of ridding itself of noxious agents.

No matter how hard it may be to sit and wait until the body heals itself, it is still the wisest thing to do.

Need answers or clarity on your personal health situation? I offer consultations to help you move forward with confidence:
https://www.therawkey.com/consultations

Want a clear plan and support for making diet and lifestyle changes? Join our next 30-Day Terrain Group—starts fresh each month on the 1st:
https://www.therawkey.com/the-natural-diet-support-group

Eat fruit and be well, my friends.

July 25, 2025July 25, 2025

Lauren Farris1 Comment

On the Self Healing powers of the body: Life’s Engineering

How the Body Heals

by Dr. Herbert M. Shelton

The greatest engineering feat of which we know anything is the building of a complex animal organism from a microscopic ovum. Think, for instance, of the marvels of the human body with its pulleys and levers to perform mechanical work, its channels for distribution of food and drainage of sewage and its means of regulating its temperature and adapting its actions and functions to its varied environments and needs. Its nervous system and the eyes, ears, etc. are constant sources of wonder. We regard the radio as a wonderful invention, as indeed it is, but we are all equipped with more wonderful “sending” and “receiving” sets than any radio manufacturer will ever produce. All human inventions have their protypes in the animal body.

In studying the wonders of the body, its structures, functions, development, growth and its varied powers and capacities, it is well to keep in mind that the building and preservation of all these things is from within. The power, force or intelligence that evolves the adult body from the fertilized ovum is in the body, is part of it and is in constant and unceasing control of all its activities. Whether it is an intelligent power or a blind energy, it works determinately toward the latest results in complexity of structure and function. In development and maintenance, and in health and disease, the movements of life appear to be guided by intelligence more often than the conscious intelligence of man. Indeed, unless we grant that something can come out of nothing, that intelligence can come out of that which has no intelligence, we must believe that the conscious intelligence of man is a subordinate part of that broader intelligence that evolves his body and which inheres in it.

If we view a few of the engineering feats performed by the body in cases of injury and disease, we are forcibly struck with the truth of Sylvester Graham’s remark: “In all these operations the organic instincts act determinately, and, as it were, rationally, with reference to a final cause of good, viz., the removal of the offending cause.” Some of these wonderful feats have been presented to you in previous chapters. We will here present a few of a different class.

To begin with, let us consider the natural healing of a wound, scratch or broken skin. We have become so accustomed to this familiar phenomenon that we have come to regard it as an almost mechanical process. But a close examination of the process shows us the presence of that same marvelous intelligence that built the body from a tiny microscopic speck of protoplasm to its present state.

Whenever the skin is broken or cut there is an exudation of blood which coagulates and forms an airtight scab. This scab serves as a protection to the wound and remains for a shorter or longer time as is needed.

Underneath this scab a wonderful thing occurs. Blood is rushed to the injured part in large quantities. The tissues, nerve and muscle cells, etc. on each side of the wound start multiplying rapidly and build a “cell-bridge” across the gap until the severed edges of the wound are reunited. But this is no mere haphazard process. Everywhere is apparent the presence of directing law and order. The newly-formed cells of the blood vessels unite with their brothers on the other side so that, in an orderly and evenly manner, the channels of circulation are re-established. In this same lawful and orderly manner the connective tissues reunite. Skillfully, and just as a lineman repairs a telegraph system, do the nerve cells repair their broken line. Muscles and other tissues are repaired in a similar manner. And what is a wonderfully marvelous fact to observe, no mistakes are made in this connective tissue, but each tissue connects with its kind.

After the wound is healed, when a new skin has been formed so that there is no longer any need for the protecting scab, nature proceeds to undermine and get rid of it. As long as the scab was useful it was firmly attached to the skin so that it was not easy to pull it off, but when there was no longer need for it, it was undermined so that it fell off of its own weight.

What more evidence than this does one require to know that the same intelligent power that built our bodies is also the power that heals it? What better evidence do we want that the healing process is accomplished in the same orderly manner and by means of the same functions with which the body is built, maintained and modified to meet its present needs.

We get a still more wonderful view of how nature performs her work if we observe the healing of a fractured or broken bone. If an arm or leg be broken, this same marvelous intelligence that has brought us from ovum to adulthood immediately sets about to repair the damage done. A liquid substance is secreted and deposited over the entire surface of the bone in each direction from the point of fracture. This section quickly hardens into a bone-like substance and is firmly attached to the two sections of the bone. Until nature can repair the damage, this “bone ring” forms the chief support whereby the limb can be used. By the same process of cell multiplication which we saw in the healing of the wound, the ends of the bone are reunited. The circulatory channels are re-established through the part. It is then that the “bone ring” support is softened and absorbed, except about an eighth to a quarter of an inch about the point of fracture.

If you strike your finger with a hammer, a very painful bruise is the result. There is an effusion of blood under the surface, with inflammation and discoloration. The tissues are mangled, the cells are broken and many of them are killed. But does the thumb always remain so? No. As time passes, new tissues are formed to replace the dead ones and the dead blood and tissue cells are carried away by the bloodstream. The inflammation subsides, the pain ceases and the bruise is healed and soon forgotten. Thus again is manifested the marvelous intelligence of the power that superintends the workshop which we call our body. Once again we watch its work and see its marvelous efficiency as a workman.

A similar manifestation of the body’s self-healing, self-adjusting and self-repairing powers is seen in the common accident whereby a sliver becomes embedded in the flesh. If it is not removed immediately, nature, or vital force, does a skillful little piece of engineering and removes it for us. Pain and inflammation are soon followed by the formation of pus, which breaks down the tissues, towards the surface of the body. Gradually increasing in amount, the pus finally breaks through the overlying skin and runs out, carrying the sliver along as a souvenir.

A remarkable engineering feat is presented to us in abscess formations. Ordinarily the abscess is limited by a thick protective wall of granulation tissue which prevents the abscess from spreading and prevents rapid escape of the pus into the circulation.

In appendicitis the loops of the bowels around the appendix form friendly adhesions. They adhere together and form a strong wall against further spread of the trouble. Within this enclosure the abscesses form. The line of least resistance normally is into the bowels so that practically every case, if not interfered with by meddlesome doctors, will rupture into the bowels and the pus will pass out with the stools.

Where the ice bag is employed for one or two days prior to the usual operations, there is a noticeable lack of effort on the part of nature to wall off the appendix from the rest of the abdominal cavity. However, where the ice bag has not been employed, a distinct walling off of the acutely inflamed and gangrenous appendix from the general peritoneal cavity is found. So greatly does the ice bag interfere with the curative and protective operations of nature that one of the leading abdominal surgeons of this country declares: “I have entirely discarded the use of the ice bag, and in cases brought to me in which it has been used, I always announce beforehand that I expect to find a gangrenous appendix and am seldom surprised. Clearly the ice bag should never be used in cases of actual or suspected appendicitis.” Nature can do her own work in her own way, and all our so-called aiding of nature amounts to is nothing more than meddlesome and pernicious interference.

Acute inflammation of the liver usually terminates in resolution, but sometimes it terminates in suppuration with abscess formation. This is more apt to be the case in hot climates. The amount of matter discharged from an abscess of the liver is sometimes enormous, and it is wonderful to see in what ways nature operates in getting rid of it.

There are several channels through which the pus may be sent out of the system. The inflammation may extend upward until an adhesion to the diaphragm is accomplished. A dense wall of scar tissue is first formed around the abscess. The abscess then extends through the diaphragm to the lungs, which become adherent to the diaphragm. Liver, diaphragm and lungs form one solid piece. A tight union of these organs prevents the pus from pouring into the peritoneal or pleural cavities. A hole is eaten through the lung and the pus is poured into a bronchial tube and is coughed up, emptying the abscess and leaving a clean hole. The wall of scar tissue thrown up around the path of the abscess grows stronger and contracts until, finally, only the scar remains, it having closed the hole, and the patient is well.

The abscess may be directed downward or to the side of the liver. In such a case the process is the same except the liver becomes united to the stomach, the intestines or the walls of the abdomen by adhesions produced by inflammation. If it adheres to the stomach or intestine, the abscess will perforate into these and the pus will pass out in the stools. If it becomes adherent to the wall of the abdomen, the abscess will “come to a head” under the skin and the pus will be discharged on the surface of the body. In either case cicatrization follows and the patient is well. In some cases the abscess discharges into the gallbladder and passes from there into the intestine. It has also been known to “point” on the back.

It sometimes happens in weak individuals that nature is not able to make proper connections along the line of march and the pus ends up in the pleural cavity, resulting in empyema, or in the abdominal cavity, where it results in peritonitis and, usually, death.

Another daring engineering feat is often accomplished by nature in the case of gallstones that are too large to pass through the bile duct directly into the small intestine. She frequently causes the gallbladder to adhere, by means of inflammation, to the wall of the intestine. An ulcer forms, making a hole through both the wall of the gallbladder and the wall of the intestine. The stone slips through into the intestine and passes out with the stools. The hole heals up and all is well again. In other cases the stone may be sent out through the abdominal wall and skin, on the outside of the body.

An unusual piece of engineering which shows, in a remarkable manner, the ingenuity of nature in her efforts at prolonging life in spite of every obstacle, is recorded by J. F. Baldwin, A.M., M.D., F.A.C.S., in a surgical paper dealing with blood transfusions. He performed an operation on a middle-aged woman who had been having frequent hemorrhages from her bowels for several years. He says:

At the operation I removed a snarl of small bowel, making the usual anastamosis. Examination of this snarl showed that there had been an intestinal obstruction, but nature had overcome it by ulceration between adherent loops of the bowel above and below the obstruction. The ulcer persisted, however, and it was its persistent bleeding that caused her anemia. She made an excellent recovery and got fat and hearty.

It looks like a real intelligence at work when nature causes two folds of the bowels to adhere together and then ulcerates through them in order to make a passage around an obstruction. There cannot be the slightest doubt that the ulcer would have healed, leaving a passage, and the bleeding stopped, had the opportunity been afforded it. Nature probably cried out day after day in unmistakable language for the cessation of feeding long enough for her to complete her engineering feat. But this was never given her. The ulcerated surface was kept constantly irritated with food, and drugs as well.

Abscesses everywhere in the body are limited and walled off by the formation of a thick wall of granulation tissue. Gangrene is also walled off in the same manner. The necrosed portion then sloughs off; nature grows new tissue to take the place of the destroyed tissue and the place is healed.

Encapsulation is the process of surrounding a body or substance with a capsule. A cyst or capsule consists of a cavity lined according to its origin by endothelium (in preexisting cavities of connective tissue—exudation cysts) or epithelium (in pre-existing epithelial cavities—retention cysts) with a fluid or semifluid content.

Those of chief interest to us here are known as distention cysts and are divided into:

(a) Retention cysts, which are due to the obstruction of the excretory ducts of glands. The cavity becomes filled with the secretion of the gland which later becomes altered and circumscribed by a fibrous wall. These may develop in any glandular structure, as pancreas, kidneys, salivary glands, mammary glands, sebaceous glands (wens).

Around a foreign body like a bullet, such a capsule forms. There is first inflammation and perhaps suppuration. But if this fails to remove the bullet, a capsule of tissue also containing fluid is formed, and the bullet is rendered innocuous. A similar thing frequently happens in the lungs in the case of germs. Rausse thought this fluid was a variety of mucus and thought that chemical or drug poisons were enveloped in this same “musus” to render them harmless and that they were then deposited in the tissues. He says with regard to the face that this theory cannot at present be demonstrated:

This theory is founded upon the incontrovertible principle of nature in the alimentary and organic world, that nature operates similarly under similar circumstances. Hence, the theory here offered loses none of its certainty because we are unable to recognize with the unaided eye, on account of their minuteness, the inimical atoms and the minute network around them, and to exhibit them by section.

—Water Cure Manual, p. 92, 1845.

The encapsulation of exudates, excretions, extravasions, disintegrating tissues, germs, parasites, bullets and other foreign bodies renders them harmless. The process and structure it evolves are plainly defensive measures. They once more remind us of the many and varied emergency measures the body has at its command.

The formation of gallstones and other stones is in itself an engineering feat that serves a useful purpose and even extends and saves life. In the lungs, for instance, in those who have tuberculosis, the affected spots are often the seat of the formation of stones. When this takes place, the disease in that part ends. Medical authorities consider that nature employs this means to wall up the tubercle bacilli.

The formation of stones in the gallbladder and kidneys, just as in the lungs, is the end result of inflammation and undoubtedly serves a definite and useful purpose. Sometimes, it is true, they are made so large that they are the source of much trouble, but it is safe to assume that they are never made larger than the gravity of the situation demands. Most gallstones are small enough that they pass out without causing pain, and the individual is never aware that he or she has had them. A large number of people examined at autopsies are found to have gallstones in the gallbladder and were never aware that they had them. They never cause trouble until they go to pass out and only then if they are small enough to get into the gall duct but too large to make the entire passage. A stone that may easily travel through the common duct may be forced, with extreme difficulty, through the small opening of the duct into the intestine. This causes severe pain. As soon as the stone is forced through, the pain ceases. (The sufferer then thinks that it was the last treatment he employed that relieved the pain and “cured” his troubles.)

A thrombus is a small blood clot formed inside a blood vessel. The condition is called thrombosis and the vessel is said to be thrombosed. They are the result of injury and inflammation and may completely plug the vessel.

In the intestines are many small glands composed of lymphoid structure just as are the tonsils of the throat. They are known as Pyer’s patches. In typhoid fever these patches are swollen or enlarged (hypertrophied), and frequently they suppurate. They may slough off. This peeling off may result in a hemorrhage or it may not, depending on whether or not all the vessels in that locality are tightly thrombosed. If they are all tightly thrombosed, no hemorrhage occurs. If the work of sealing the vessel is not complete or perfect, then a hemorrhage occurs with more or less loss of blood before it finally ceases. This is but another evidence of nature’s engineering work. These thrombi may later be swept into the general circulation and carried to some vital spot where they are too large to pass through the artery and may there cut off the blood to parts of the organ, causing it to die of starvation. Starvation would only occur in cases of stopping of an “end artery.”

“Anastamosing” arteries would soon establish sufficient collateral or compensatory circulation to supply the part with blood.

If heat or friction of sufficient intensity and duration is applied to the skin, a blister forms; that is, a watery exudate or serum is poured out of the surrounding tissues and circulation into the “space” between the dermis and epidermis and detaches the dermis from this, raising it up and thus protecting the tissues beneath. The accumulated fluid holds back the heat or, in the case of sunburn, the actinic rays, and protects from the friction. This little piece of engineering work is quite obviously a defensive work. In both burns and sunburn, inflammation and healing follow the blister, and in the case of sunburn pigmentation occurs to protect from future sunburn.

Of a similarly defensive nature are corns and callouses that form on the feet and hands or any other surface of the body that is subjected to constant friction. The clerk who deserts the store for manual labor finds his hands are tender and blister easily when he handles tools. However, before many days have passed, the skin on his hands has become thickened and hardened, ultimately becoming almost horn-like. When this occurs, he finds that no reasonable amount of hard work blisters his hands.

Tumors likely begin in this same manner. They probably begin as hardening and thickening of the tissues at a point of irritation as a means of defense.

Hardening and thickening of the tissues occurs in any and all parts of the body to resist constant irritation. This can be seen in the mouth, stomach and intestines of those who employ salt and condiments. It is seen in the constant use of drugs. Silver nitrate, for instance, if repeatedly employed, converts the mucous surface upon which it is used into a kind of half-living leather. Other organs harden and thicken as a result of toxic irritation. Toxemia, with or without the aid of external irritation, often necessitates, at certain points of the body, the erection of greater than ordinary barriers against it. When the normal cells of a local spot become so impaired that they no longer successfully resist the encroachment of toxins, not only are the usual defense processes brought into activity, but also, since a more than usual condition is to be met, nature calls into play her heavier battalions. She begins by erecting a barrier of connective tissue cells. Then, with a slowly-yielding fight against the toxins, she continues to erect her barriers. This may continue until the tumor becomes so large as to constitute a source of danger itself. Were it not for the erection of this barrier, the causes against which it is erected would destroy life long before they ultimately do. The tumor actually prolongs life.

A process similar to this is seen in plants that have been invaded by parasites. The large, rough excrescences seen on oak trees form about the larva of a certain fly. This fly lays its eggs beneath the bark of the tree. The larva which develop from the eggs secrete a substance that results in the formation of the huge tumorous mass. Large tumor-like masses form on the roots and stalks of cabbages as a result of parasitic invasion. The olive tree also develops tumors from a similar cause, while cedar trees present peculiar growths called “witches’ brooms” as a result of a fungus growing on them. There are many other examples, and they are all quite obviously protective measures. Tumor formation is undoubtedly due to a variation in the complex relations determining normal growth and is of a distinctively protective nature. A tumor is not a source of danger until it begins to break down.

In inflammation of the kidneys due to the impairment of kidney function, the normal constituents of the urine are decreased. They remain in the blood instead of being eliminated. Due to the necessity of removing from the circulation, the salts, etc., that are normally eliminated through the kidneys, and due also to the necessity of keeping these in dilute solution so long as they remain in the body, and to the equal necessity of removing them from the circulation, drospy develops in various portions of the body, particularly in the tissues immediately under the skin. It may also collect in the cavities of the body. When kidney function is restored, the dropsical fluid is gradually absorbed into circulation and eliminated.

An aneurism is an inflated portion of an artery. If the walls of an artery become weak at a given place, they either burst, some of its coats are strengthened or else it becomes bulged out due to the pressure of the blood from within. The body at once sets about to protect itself by forming a vail of new tissue around the aneurism. Should it rupture so that the blood finds its way along between other organs, a wall of scar tissue is thrown up around the aneurism to limit the escape of blood. This is called a dissecting aneurism.

Thus we might continue giving example after example of the wonderful engineering feats of the body and show with what marvelous powers and works it meets emergencies and protects its own vital interests. When we consider the wonderful mechanism of the human body, the certainty with which all organs perform their allotted work, the marvelous ingenuity with which the body meets emergencies, its almost limitless powers of repair and recuperation, we develop a large respect and admiration for the healing powers of the body and learn to view with contempt and disgust the means that people employ in unintelligent efforts to “cure.”

Well did Jennings affirm:

But at every step of her (nature’s) downward progress (in the face of pathoferic causes she cannot overcome), her tendency and effort have been to ascend and remount the pinnacle of her greatness; and even now, in the depth of her degradation, the tendency of all that remains of her, of principle or law, power and action, is still upwards.

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? I offer consultations, learn more about them here: https://www.therawkey.com/consultations/

Ready to make changes but not sure how to begin? Need some motivation or accountability? Why not join our 30-Day Terrain Model Diet Support and Education Group: New Groups start on the 1st of every month! https://www.therawkey.com/terrain-diet-support-group/

Eat fruit and be well my friends.

October 16, 2024October 16, 2024

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

Nutrient Density vs Assimilation

Is meat beneficial because it is nutrient-dense? Should we be eating grass-fed beef because it is nutrient-dense?

Have you heard people saying they eat a nutrient-dense diet? Often those promoting non-human appropriate foods like grass-fed beef promote this false concept of nutrient density as though the amount of one specific nutrient in a food makes it beneficial and can cancel out all of the detrimental effects of a food. This falls under the more is better fallacy.

For example, the disease industry promotes cooked tomatoes because they are higher in lycopene, but they ignore the fact that cooking the tomato turns the organic minerals into inorganic minerals, making them unusable, that cooking destroys the vitamin C content of the tomatoes and that cooking results in a destruction of the enzymes and many other nutrients. More lycopene does not make the cooked tomato better than the raw tomato, in fact, the cooked tomato is significantly worse for our health.

Another example of this fallacy is when people promote eating animal tissues for iron. Animal tissues contain heme iron, while plants contain non-heme iron.

The claim is the body absorbs more heme iron but this is NOT a benefit, it is an injury to the body. The non-heme iron is usable, but the heme iron is not. Heme iron that comes from animal tissues increases the risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome. (see Heme vs Non-Heme Iron – https://nutritionfacts.org/…/the-safety-of-heme-vs-non…/ )

Fruits and lettuce greens are full of usable iron in appropriate amounts to meet the body’s needs without overwhelming the body. More is not better, more is often much worse. Just like getting in more calories than we need is detrimental or eating more protein than we need is the leading cause of cancer and chronic disease.

Nutrient density is not a factor that results in health. Nutrient assimilation is. It’s not about how much of any one nutrient we can get, but how much we can use and if the source is free from causing injury to our body. It doesn’t do any good to load up on a substance that is high in a specific nutrient if that substance also contains things that injure the body. For example, spinach is rich in calcium, but it is also full of oxalates. A small amount of spinach, with its small amount of oxalates is easily managed by the oxalobacter bacteria in our digestive tract, but eat a lot of spinach and you will find that your health begins to suffer.

But that is precisely what the nutrient-density promoters are doing. They are eating a substance – red meat – that poisons their body with ammonia laboring under the false idea that it is nutrient-dense and therefore healthy. Please don’t fall for their tricks.

HEALTH IS NOT ABOUT WHAT WE EAT BUT ABOUT WHAT WE CAN ASSIMILATE

Food constitutes some of the raw materials that become part of the overall nutritive processes that sustain our bodies. When our bodies receive food, it is broken down mechanically and chemically into components that can be absorbed and synthesized by our cells into substances usable by the body. Many people think about foods as having different actions on the body but in fact, food is inert and the body takes all actions upon the food.

To be appropriated for the use of the body, food must be first mechanically crushed, then mixed with digestive enzymes and acids to be chemically broken down into its smallest components. Those components, amino acids, fatty acids, sugars, vitamins, and minerals can then be transported through the walls of the digestive tract, into the bloodstream, and to the cells for use.

“Nutrition is a vital process carried on only by a living organism. It is a process of growth, development and invigoration. To eat good food and enough of it, to drink pure water and breathe pure air, in and of themselves, are very desirable, but something more is needed in order to acquire health, strength and vigor. Nutrition is dependent on function. We can have better nutritive function only when we have a capacity for better nutrition.

Food is of value only in its physiological connections with air, water, sunshine, rest and sleep, exercise or activity, cleanliness and wholesome mental and moral influences—in short, all the natural or normal circumstances which we know to be necessary for the preservation of health.” – Dr Herbert Shelton

Assimilation and utilization are oft overlooked when discussing nutrition. We can eat all ideal foods but if we aren’t able to assimilate or make use of those foods then they simply pass through our bodies wasted.

There are many factors that can affect our body’s ability to assimilate the nutrition we are giving it. Some of those factors are under our direct control, while others are a result of the long-term damage to our digestive tracts and take time for the body to be able to make the necessary repairs, clean out the backed-up waste that is inhibiting the cells from optimal performance and clean out the fat that is blocking nutrients from getting into our cells.

Sometimes this damage requires full physiological rest – water fasting – in order to fully repair. In those cases, fasting for a week or a few weeks can make more of a difference than many years of eating because we are, by resting fully, allowing the repair of the mechanisms that assimilate our foods. If those mechanisms are impaired then all of the eating we can do will never lead to health because what we eat is simply being wasted.

The primary factors that affect our capacity to process and assimilate are:

• CHEWING OUR FOODS THOROUGHLY

• EATING SLOWLY AND DELIBERATELY

• PROPER FOOD COMBINING

• MANAGING WATER INTAKE TO NOT DILUTE STOMACH ACIDS DURING A MEAL

• ALLOWING ADEQUATE TIME FOR THE FIRST MEAL TO EXIT

• OVEREATING

• EATING WHEN STRESSED, UPSET, OR EMOTIONAL

• EATING WHEN WE HAVE NO APPETITE OR WE HAVE STOMACH DISCOMFORT

Let’s look at each of these in a bit more detail.

CHEWING OUR FOOD

You may have heard the saying, “Digestion begins in the mouth.” Another favorite of mine is “Your stomach doesn’t have teeth, chew your food.” As we grow up on a predominantly cooked foods diet we lose some of our natural habits of thorough chewing. Cooked foods are soft and mushy and require very little chewing, so we develop a habit of just one or two bites and then swallowing. Unfortunately, this behavior not only leads to poor digestion of foods and limits the assimilation of foods leading to indigestion, acid reflux, fermentation, and upset stomach, but it also leads to the slow destruction of our teeth. Chewing thoroughly strengthens the teeth, and the opposite minimal chewing means less blood flow and thereby fewer nutrients brought to the teeth for the teeth to be rebuilt and strengthened. Over time this lack very slowly breaks down teeth from the inside out.

When we eat we should be chewing food until it reaches a liquid state. If we swallow before this we are making it much more difficult for our digestive tract to break down foods and we will find that we are not getting as much out of our foods as we should be. The side effects of this are bloating, gas, fermentation, and overeating because we aren’t giving time for the full signal to register, and in more extreme cases excessive weight loss can result from the foods simply passing through our system without being utilized.

EATING SLOWLY AND DELIBERATELY

In modern times it is common to eat on the run, while working at our desk, or to snack in front of the television. In all these instances we are often not focusing on the slow and deliberate eating of our foods but are instead wolfing foods down, eating quickly, chewing very little, swallowing before foods are properly chewed, and as a result overeating because we eat faster than our full sensor can communicate back to us.

As we transition back to the natural diet it’s important to recenter our focus on setting time aside to eat in a relaxed fashion where we focus just on the meal and our eating habits. Slowing down can make a big difference in how much of our food we assimilate. When we focus on what we are eating we eat less, we chew more and we digest better because we are relaxed. When we eat on the run we end up doing the exact opposite of all of that.

PROPER FOOD COMBINING

Foods require various enzymes to digest. Digestive enzymes are proteins that your body makes to break down food and aid digestion. There are different enzymes for starches versus proteins and different enzymes to break down fat versus enzymes for carbohydrates.

These enzymes are meant to be used one at a time to digest just one type of food, as a result, many of these enzymes cancel each other out when two different types of foods are ingested. When this happens, neither food is properly digested.

If we put a carbohydrate and fat in the stomach at the same time the digestive enzymes work against each other and instead of digesting and assimilating the foods, both foods remain undigested and begin to ferment or putrefy inside our digestive tract leading to gas and bloating.

When this occurs the body is unable to utilize the nutrients in the food and instead the wasted food is rushed out of the body to avoid fermentation or putrefaction from releasing too much alcohol or ammonia into our system.

If we regularly combine foods in a way that is contradictory then this can lead to excessive weight loss as the body is not utilizing nutrition. On the opposite end, if we are having a lot of food fermenting in our system the excess alcohol or ammonia can also result in weight gain.

The biggest indicator of proper digestion is that we are not getting any bloating or discomfort after a meal.

MANAGING WATER INTAKE TO NOT DILUTE STOMACH ACIDS DURING A MEAL

Waiting at least 15 minutes after drinking to start eating allows the water to exit the stomach and not dilute the digestive acids. We also need to avoid drinking water during a meal or too soon after a meal for the same reason.

If we dilute our stomach acids then we can end up with fermentation, gas, and bloating or we can also experience acid reflux or indigestion.

The best way to manage drinking water is to drink early in the day before your first meal. Then drink prior to each meal just before you prepare your meal. Avoid drinking water for at least 1 hour after eating, preferably 2-3 hours.

ALLOWING ADEQUATE TIME FOR THE FIRST MEAL TO EXIT

Eating too often can lead to food mixing in the stomach which can result in the same issues mentioned above regarding food combinations. While transitioning it may be necessary to eat more meals per day to get in enough calories, but we want to make sure that the food from the last meal has had time to move out of the stomach before putting in the current meal.

As we eat more and more raw foods our stomach will naturally stretch to accommodate the bulky water-rich foods, making eating just two or three meals a day much more natural, but in the short term, we may need to eat five or six meals a day to meet our calorie needs.

We can avoid foods running into each other by eating fast-digesting watery fruits early in the day, followed by slower digesting denser fruits next, and then salad greens and then nuts and seed and dehydrated foods late in the day. Or by allowing at least 1 hour for watery fruits, 2-3 hours for dense fruits, and 4-6 hours for everything else.

OVEREATING

When we are dealing with excessive thinness on the natural diet it can be our natural inclination to keep trying to stuff in more and more food leading to overeating. Also, we may carry over habits of overeating from our cooked foods diet, looking for that stimulation that we get from the harmful effects of the cooked foods. Other times we overeat when we are stressed out or upset because we have learned this habit as a coping mechanism.

Whatever the reason, overeating overtaxes the stomach and digestive tract to a point where the foods being put in are not being properly utilized and are instead being rushed through without the benefit of assimilation. These are wasted meals, but they are also a waste of our precious nerve energy.

“The overstimulation of the physiological functions, which results from over-eating, weakens and impairs them through overwork. Fasting reverses this and permits them to recuperate. During the rest thus afforded, these organs are enabled to repair their damaged structures and restore their lagging energies, thus they are prepared for renewed function and are given a new lease on life. A fast is to the organs of the body what a night of restful repose is to the tired laborer.

Digestion and assimilation of food are a tax on the vital powers of the organism and increase the work of the stomach, liver, intestines, heart, lungs, kidneys, glands, etc. The more food eaten the more work these already overworked organs are called upon to perform. How can increasing the work of these organs help the sick? If feeding does not prevent sickness how may overfeeding restore health?” – Dr Herbert Shelton

Overeating results in bloating, fatigue, undigested foods in our stool, constant hunger (because nothing we eat is being utilized), indigestion, and many other symptoms. Eating more slowly and deliberately can help to improve digestion and avoid overeating. Eating whole foods and chewing them thoroughly helps to slow us down. Also, focus only on eating when eating, and do not try to multitask. Stop what you are doing, enjoy your meal, eat slowly and deliberately, and then the body will have time to signal you when the stomach reaches capacity.

EATING WHEN STRESSED, UPSET, OR EMOTIONAL

When we are under stress or emotional strain our digestive system shuts down. One of the ways that I learned to cope with stress in my life was through eating. I think there are a lot of people out there like me, who have used food as a pacifier whenever life didn’t go as planned. Unfortunately, this habit we develop is terrible for our digestion. Try your best to avoid eating when upset. Instead, sip water and try to focus on the problem at hand until it is resolved, then resume eating once the stress has passed. By doing so you will avoid the fatigue and fermentation of sluggish digestion and your mind will be clear and you will be calmer and better able to remedy the stressful situation effectively.

EATING WHEN WE HAVE NO APPETITE OR WE HAVE STOMACH DISCOMFORT

Our body communicates to us when it is in need of a break from food. Nausea, lack of appetite, a burning stomach, or any sort of uncomfortable feelings in the stomach are all signs from the body to skip the next meal. The more we obey these communications the better our health will become.

If we follow these guidelines we can improve digestion and assimilation which leads to greater energy for healing and activity and avoidance of any digestive discomfort. Eating with focus and intention can help to quickly correct any of the bad habits we have learned along the way.

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? I offer consultations, learn more about them here: https://www.therawkey.com/consultations/

Ready to make changes but not sure how to begin? Need some motivation or accountability? Why not join our 30-Day Terrain Model Diet Support and Education Group? New Groups start on the 1st of every month! https://www.therawkey.com/the-natural-diet-support-group/

Eat fruit and be well my friends.Have you heard people saying they eat a nutrient-dense diet? Often those promoting non-human appropriate foods like grass-fed beef promote this false concept of nutrient density as though the amount of one specific nutrient in a food makes it beneficial and can cancel out all of the detrimental effects of a food. This falls under the more is better fallacy.

Another example of this fallacy is when people promote eating animal tissues for iron. Animal tissues contain heme iron, while plants contain non-heme iron.

HEALTH IS NOT ABOUT WHAT WE EAT BUT ABOUT WHAT WE CAN ASSIMILATE

The primary factors that affect our capacity to process and assimilate are:

• CHEWING OUR FOODS THOROUGHLY

• EATING SLOWLY AND DELIBERATELY

• PROPER FOOD COMBINING

• MANAGING WATER INTAKE TO NOT DILUTE STOMACH ACIDS DURING A MEAL

• ALLOWING ADEQUATE TIME FOR THE FIRST MEAL TO EXIT

• OVEREATING

• EATING WHEN STRESSED, UPSET, OR EMOTIONAL

• EATING WHEN WE HAVE NO APPETITE OR WE HAVE STOMACH DISCOMFORT

Let’s look at each of these in a bit more detail.

CHEWING OUR FOOD

EATING SLOWLY AND DELIBERATELY

PROPER FOOD COMBINING

The biggest indicator of proper digestion is that we are not getting any bloating or discomfort after a meal.

MANAGING WATER INTAKE TO NOT DILUTE STOMACH ACIDS DURING A MEAL

If we dilute our stomach acids then we can end up with fermentation, gas, and bloating or we can also experience acid reflux or indigestion.

ALLOWING ADEQUATE TIME FOR THE FIRST MEAL TO EXIT

OVEREATING

EATING WHEN STRESSED, UPSET, OR EMOTIONAL

EATING WHEN WE HAVE NO APPETITE OR WE HAVE STOMACH DISCOMFORT

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? I offer consultations, learn more about them here: https://www.therawkey.com/consultations/

Eat fruit and be well my friends.

August 16, 2024September 17, 2024

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

WHAT IS NERVE ENERGY?

Nerve energy is a form of electricity measurable in millivolts. It is the electrical impulse that runs through our nervous system, allowing for the communication of every cell in our system with every other cell in our system. Nerve energy is central to the cleaning and healing processes of the body and when it runs low our body’s ability to clean up after itself becomes impaired.

“Demonstrating that nerve energy is electrical is easy. If you mashed your finger, a message would immediately go to the brain and back would come a command to remove the finger from that which applied the pressure. Moreover, the brain would command the entire balance of the body to cooperate in the extraction of the finger from the offending pressure. Only electricity is capable of such speedy transmission. No chemical process or circulatory process is capable of this dispatch. It occurs only through a network of nerves with conductive abilities, and electricity is the only form of energy it can conduct.

If you take a weak voltage and hook up to it while holding someone else’s hand, the other person gets a shock immediately when you touch the live electrical source. I don’t think anyone can doubt that we do generate electricity, and that is the form of energy we use to conduct our physical and mental activities. Sensations are transformed into electrical stimuli and forwarded to the brain. The brain interprets these and sends out commands based upon the interpretation. Thus, if you put your finger to a hot object, the finger is commanded in a flash to withdraw from it.” – T.C. Fry, The Life Science Health System

WHY IS NERVE ENERGY IMPORTANT TO OUR HEALTH?

“All diseases have an element of nerve derangement. Indeed, we must have enervation before any disease can develop and enervation may be brought about by anything–any influence–that uses up nerve energy.” – John Tilden, Impaired Health Vol. II

Diseases can be caused by any improper life practices, but generally are caused most by dietary indiscretions. The primary mechanism that causes disease and root of all illness is reduced nerve energy. Reduced nerve energy results in reduced ability of the body to eliminate the normal by-products of cell building and cell destruction.

“In the process of tissue building— metabolism—there is cell building— anabolism—and cell destruction—catabolism. The broken down tissue is toxic and in health—when nerve energy is normal—it is eliminated from the blood as fast as evolved. When nerve energy is dissipated from any cause—physical or mental excitement or bad habits—the body becomes enervated, when enervated, elimination is checked, causing a retention of toxin in the blood or Toxemia. This accumulation of toxin when once established will continue until nerve energy is restored by removing the causes. So-called disease is nature’s effort at eliminating the toxin from the blood. All so-called diseases are crises of Toxemia.” – John Tilden, Toxemia Explained

Toxemia/toxicosis may arise from many different sources: diet, water pollution, air pollution, injections, drugs, herbs and other poisons. The toll toxemia takes and the reason we manifest disease symptoms when we are experiencing toxemia is because of insufficient nerve energy to eliminate the cellular wastes.

“Obviously, to remain free of burdensome accumulations, both physical and chemical in nature, the body must have full use of its eliminative faculties. If these faculties are impaired by lack of nerve energy, if they have been disabled by toxic materials or if ingestion of toxic matters exceeds ability to cope, then elimination is likewise impaired. Accumulations further vitiate the elimination process until the body must undertake an eliminative crisis (disease) to free itself of its morbid load. – T.C.Fry

As nerve energy lags the body falls further and further behind in its elimination of cellular waste and this in turn further impairs the body’s ability to generate nerve energy. The more nerve energy we squander the less we are able to generate until we crash.

“…the body is primarily an organism that works on the amount of electricity it generates and which it has in its reserves. If this supply is depleted or otherwise insufficient to cope with the needs of the body, then body functions become impaired, including the processes of elimination of both endogenous metabolic wastes and exogenous poisons introduced into the body. This impairment begets further impairment including diminishing the body’s ability to restore depleted nerve energy.” – T.C. Fry

This can be clearly evidenced in the individual who consumes coffee. They quickly become dependent on having coffee every day, often multiple times per day because each cup of coffee makes their body more exhausted then the previous cup. They begin to rely on the stimulation in a vicious cycle of fatigue and stimulation which drains their nerve energy and impairs the creation of nerve energy.

As we drain our nerve energy we build a backlog of waste that the body falls behind on eliminating. Eventually the body must force a healing crisis to eliminate this cellular debris and at this point we experience a cold or flu healing event.

“Due to unnatural practices or influences, humans frequently accumulate toxic substances in their bodies beyond normal capacity for elimination. When the accumulation becomes intolerable within the context of residual vitality, the body will preempt its nerve energy and redirect it to the task of extraordinary elimination or cleansing” – T.C.Fry

SQUANDERING NERVE ENERGY LEADS TO DISEASE

The word toxemia means blood poisoning. Toxicosis refers to any disease brought on by poisoning. In the normal daily processes of life our cells themselves produce toxic byproducts. In a normal functioning body these toxic substances are rapidly eliminated from the area and the cell’s function is unimpeded. However, when we squander our nerve energy the body’s ability to eliminate these normal byproducts of cellular metabolism becomes impaired. The body becomes less able to eliminate, which then impairs the body’s ability to generate nerve energy, which then impairs every other function in the body.

“Nerve energy is required to digest food; nerve energy is required to keep up secretions and excretions; nerve energy is required to prepare enzymes for digesting our food intake and keeping up a normal resistance to environmental influences as well as those that are autogenerated.

When this nerve energy is up to the standard, we are poised–or balanced, as it were, with our environments–and we can eat a maximum amount of food, and take care of it. This being true, it should be obvious to those who care to reason that any influence which uses up nerve energy lowers the digestive powers of the body, and that an amount of food which can be utilized when the nerve energy is up to standard must necessarily be too much when the energy is used up in work, play, or sensual indulgence.

It should be obvious to any reasoning mind that a full dinner taken into a tired body cannot be digested properly; that a full meal, or any meal at all, eaten by one in great mental anguish over some great trouble, cannot be digested. And, when food is not digested, it becomes a poison.” John Tilden, Impaired Health Vol I

“Using nerve-energy in excess of normal production brings on enervation. Few people waste nerve-energy in one way only. Food is a stimulant. Overeating is overstimulating. Add to this excess one or two other stimulants—Coffee or tobacco—excessive venery, overwork and worry, and one subject to that amount of drain of nerve-energy will become decidedly enervated.

Elimination falls far short of requirements; consequently toxin accumulates in the blood. This adds a pronounced auto-toxin stimulation to that coming from overstimulating habits, and completes a vicious circle. This complex stands for a disease-producing Toxemia, which will be permanent except as toxin crises—so-called acute diseases—lower the amount of toxin, again to accumulate and continue until the habits that keep the body enervated are controlled. Perfect health cannot be established until all enervating habits have been eliminated.” – John Tilden, Toxemia Explained

The more nerve energy we waste the less ability our body has to clean out the cellular waste and debris that build leading to disease conditions. As the body becomes more fatigued the disease conditions build and we move from minor discomfort to major chronic disease.

HOW IS NERVE ENERGY CREATED?

Sleep and rest are the only way that we can regenerate nerve energy. When our sleep is disturbed or we ignore our bodies’ need for more sleep we set off a cycle of degeneration.

“Enervation can be caused by depletion of nerve energy in any of hundreds of ways. Sleep regenerates nerve energy. Obviously, insufficient sleep will not supply us with our needs. It will not fully recharge our batteries. We need sleep to regenerate nerve energy for the brain and nervous system. Rest and total abstinence from food, liquid and solid, and reforming all enervating habits, will restore nerve-energy; the elimination of toxin through the natural channels will take place, and full health will return.” – Tilden Toxemia

“Sleep is the condition under which the brain generates nerve energy with which to conduct body activities. The deeper the stage of sleep into which the body enters, the more efficiently can nerve energy be generated. There are five stages of sleep if we include the R.E.M stage, popularly called the dream stage, when there are rapid eye movements. Other stages are named after the brain wave frequency. The threshold stage of sleep is the alpha stage and the deepest stage is delta wave sleep. As nerve energy is the spark of vitality for vigorous activity and high level function generally, adequate sleep is very essential to well-being.” – T.C. Fry

Closing our eyes and resting on the couch for a few minutes periodically throughout the day can also help to regenerate our nerve energy and allow the body to clean out and improve its efficiency.

“While sleep regenerates a fund of nerve energy, rest enables the body to restock physical stores as well as to “clean house.”” TC. Fry

Sleep is controlled naturally, your body will only sleep when sleep is required. If you are tired and you force yourself to stay awake and push through you are only impairing your body’s ability to clean and heal. When your body tells you it needs rest, obey it and it will pay you back in health and comfort. Disobey and pain and suffering will be the end result.

“We become sleepy when sleep is needed. If we don’t fight it off by taking pep pills or coffee, we naturally drop off into a state of unconsciousness when our bodies need sleep. And we will remain in this state until our nerve energy is sufficiently recovered— unless our sleep is prematurely put to an end by a jangling alarm clock or other disturbing influence. It is impossible to sleep if we do not need sleep. Sleep cannot be “stored up” for future use. – T.C. Fry

It can be tempting to just push through and use those stimulants to make it through our day, but by doing so we are selling ourselves short. The rest we take today will pay us back in abundant energy. The stimulant we take today will pay us back in erratic, nervous energy that makes us less efficient and less effective and will cost our energy for the rest of the day and the rest of the week.

HOW IS NERVE ENERGY WASTED?

Sadly there are a great many ways in which we are wasting our nerve energy each day. When we look at the list we must marvel at how well our body maintains some semblance of normal functioning with all of the mistakes in living that we throw at it each day. Here is a list of just some of the ways that we squander our nerve energy:

Cold and heat – “Extremes of temperature require the expenditure of nerve energy to adjust to changes” – TC Fry “If a person spends all his nerve energy in keeping warm, he has none left for taking care of food. All other influences work the same way. Anything that reduces the nerve energy lowers the digestive function. When any part of the nerve energy is used up in keeping warm, there is just that much less for digesting and assimilating food.” – John Tilden “Deliberate cooling or heating of the body is exhausting of nerve energy and lowers the body’s functional abilities.” -TC Fry
Seeking pleasure excessively – “this condition may be brought on by exhausting the nerve energy in seeking pleasure–wearing out the nervous system enjoying, so to speak. Instead of taking a moderate amount of pleasure in going to the theater or picture shows, dancing, etc., the nerve energy is worn out taking these pleasures in excess.” John Tilden, Impaired Health Vol II
Excessive eating
Imprudent eating – “In processing food for use, we expend two kinds of energy. We expend metabolic energy, which is the chemical and mechanical energies expended, and we expend nerve energy. For instance, we use very little nerve energy in digesting watermelon. But, in processing foods to which we are not biologically adapted, an enormous expenditure of nerve energy is occasioned. Meats may cause nervous exhaustion due to the body’s frenzied activities in dealing with proteins, uric acids and other toxic substances in them. Though we may feel exhilarated while expending nervous energy just as we feel “a pickme- up” when taking coffee (which really drains nerve energy), the stimulation occasioned by eating unsuitable foods such as meat is an indication of the inefficiency with which the body handles it.” T.C. Fry
Eating wrong combinations
Fermentation
Consuming stimulants – Coffee, tea, chocolate and drugs all drain the body of nerve energy
Eating foods that are artificially prepared
Eating cooked and processed foods
Eating excess proteins – “neutralization and elimination of the toxins of protein degeneration (putrefaction) uses up vast amounts of nerve energy which, though stimulating at the time, exhausts and debilitates the body.” T.C.Fry
Eating starches instead of fruits – “A larger amount of the body’s limited supply of nerve energy is used up when starches are used for fuel than when fruits are used because starches are, as you know, polysaccharides and must be broken down (digested) into monosaccharides before the body can use them. Fruits contain a preponderance of monosaccharides, which, as you also know, need no digestion at all. Therefore, fruit eating leaves more of the body’s energies available for other activities. This explains, in part, why people feel so “light” when they eat fruits and so heavy when they eat beans or bread.”T.C.Fry
Overwork
Worry and fear
Excessive emotions and outbursts
Arguments with loved ones
Stress
Lack of discipline
The use of stimulants of all kinds
Carelessness in looking after the functions of the body
Any influences that will produce overstimulation, intoxication, enervation, or imperfect elimination
Overstimulation – Social media, television, even reading a book can be a source of nerve energy drain if done to excess, or to upset.

As you can see there is a wide range of ways that we can drain our nerve energy. Some of these are behaviors that are required, like eating or enjoying ourselves, but when taken to a place of excess, like gluttony or lust, they become a negative habit, while in moderation they provide health. Other habits are purely nerve energy depleting, such as consuming stimulants or watching negative television news or scary movies. These are ways in which we trap ourselves in draining experiences. Relationships can also be another form of energy drain, fighting with a spouse or child instead of having a calm and reasonable discussion can run us down leading to impaired function of our body. Some of these things can be avoided while others we have little control over. But the more aware we are of the various drains on our energy, the more we can adapt our lifestyle to meet the needs of our body through the healing process.

“Intoxication occurs when we overload the body with toxic materials from the outside, or we fail to observe our capacities, and overwork, get insufficient sleep, or are subjected to great stress, or when any number of other factors deplete the body of nerve energy or prevent its sufficient regeneration. For instance, stresses, emotional shocks, or traumatic experiences can drain our bodies of nerve energy very quickly.” – T. C. Fry

The more we take charge of our life experiences the better we can mitigate the drain on our nerve energy.

HOW DO WE CONSERVE NERVE ENERGY AS BEST WE CAN?

“Insufficient nerve energy arises from dissipation, stress, overindulgence, excess or deficiency of the normal essentials of life, or pollution of the body with substances not normal to it. Accordingly,recovery from sickness can be achieved only by discontinuing its causes and supplying conditions favorable to healing.” T.C. Fry

“Find out in what way nerve-energy is wasted, and stop it—stop all nerve-leaks,” etc. I am appalled at my stupidity in saying to a patient to stop enervating himself, and allowing the matter to end by naming one or two gross enervating habits; for example: Stop worry; stop smoking; stop stimulants; control your temper; stop eating too rapidly; stop allowing yourself to become excited. Stopping one enervating habit benefits; but dependable health brooks no enervating habits at all.” John Tilden, Toxemia Explained

As with all things health the answer is fairly simple but the implementation becomes more complicated. The goal is to eliminate as much of the stimulation that is draining away our energy to make room for enjoyable activity that we can partake in because of our abundant energy. The largest drain to our energy every day is digestion. If you eat far removed from your natural foods the body will struggle in digestion and eat up nerve energy. Correct the diet and a large improvement will occur.

Next we must look at our sleep and rest habits. Improve upon the quality of your sleep by getting to bed earlier and minimizing disruptions to your sleep. Incorporate a nap into your routine, particularly after a meal or if you cannot nap at least close your eyes and sit quietly for a period.

Do you want to learn more about how our self-healing and self-cleaning body remedies disease conditions and returns to a state of health when the conditions of health are supplied? Start by reading “Why do we get sick?“

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? I offer consultations, learn more about them here: Consultations

Eat fruit and be well my friends.

August 5, 2024August 5, 2024

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

The Life Science Course

Download a free copy of The Life Science Course – Full Version, click here

July 27, 2024September 17, 2024

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

What is Fatigue?

Fatigue and the Healing Processes

Fatigue is how we heal.

This is one of the hardest concepts that so many people struggle against.

Healing occurs when we are fasting and our legs get so weak that we cannot stand.

Healing occurs when the cold or flu makes us feel the lowest of low.

When I healed the mass in my breast I spent 72 hours in agony, with even the lightest of bed sheets touching my skin being excruciating. Bouncing between being freezing and being so hot that I felt like my skin was on fire. For 3 days I thought I was dying but I trusted that my body was intelligent. I also understood that my body has a biological mandate to survive. The body will never injure itself. The body will never create a symptom too dangerous. The body never needs to be rescued from itself. The body never benefits from interventions. The body is never made stronger by applying poisons.

When Happy, one of my Miniature Schnauzer rescues healed from a grapefruit-sized mass on her spleen, vestibular disease, sight, and hearing loss she slept all day for weeks on end and had several seizures during the healing process. Her body was always in control. Always creating symptoms for the benefit of the body.

When Mr Bean healed from seizures he fasted for 5 days and slept 23.75 hours a day, only getting up to pee once per day and drinking water on some days. He slept so soundly that I had to keep checking to make sure he was breathing.

Sleep is easy for the dogs to embrace. When healing begins they go straight to their dens, curl up, and sleep. The cats too. They don’t have any fear of rest like we humans do. They don’t fear their body’s healing processes. They don’t worry about missed meals. They don’t worry about missed activities. They just feel tired so they stop eating and go rest.

We humans though fight against every effort our body makes to heal us.

Rather than go to sleep and heal, we stimulate and fear the rest, further poisoning ourselves. We fear permitting ourselves to rest. We fear the wobbly legs, we try to eat through the nausea even with our bodies screaming at us to stop eating.

We fear heart palpitations as the body eliminates the poisons. We fear the mucus the body uses to wrap up the poisons and expel them and we try to use medicines or herbs to break up the mucus, as though dead materials can take action. Poisons cannot ever take action. They can never improve our condition. They can only poison.

We reach for drugs or herbs to save us from the very life-saving symptoms that the body is creating to heal us.

We fear the fever that heals but take a poison pill to bring the fever down. Many people succumb to the pill, many children die from the drugging of their body during a body creates fever.

We fear the diarrhea created by the body to expel the toxic materials, take anti-diarrheal medications, and drink salt-laden waters because we have been fed the electrolytes lie.

We fear the swelling of the lymph nodes that indicate the body is actively healing and working as designed and have our body’s sewer system surgically dissected for fear of the greatest healing process the body can create.

Every step of the way we battle against our body until our body has no choice but to give up the fight. And it all starts with fatigue.

Fatigue is the first sign of disease at our earliest juncture. It becomes chronic as we ignore it and disease builds. Yet, we continue to ignore it, stimulating it with salt, coffee, meat, or other irritants.

Fatigue is the result of the available energy turning inward to heal. Every time our legs get weak and wobbly or we feel like we cannot move our arms or lift even our water cup this is the tremendous gift of healing. The body has moved all available nerve energy internally and is cleaning and expelling the waste that has been slowly killing us.

But sadly, every step of the way most people will stimulate their way out of this healing with pharmaceutical drugs, herbs, salt, coffee, or a long list of other poisons until the body is left with no choice but to expire under the poisoning we have put ourselves through.

Fatigue is how we heal. Never forget that and health will be in your future.

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? I offer consultations, learn more about them here: https://www.therawkey.com/consultations/

Eat fruit and be well my friends.

July 17, 2024July 17, 2024

Lauren Farris1 Comment