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History of Fasting

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Natural Therapy

NATURAL THERAPY AND THE FAST

OSTEOPATHY AND CHIROPRACTIC:
THE TENDENCY OF OSTEOPATHY TO REVERT TO MEDICINE:
THE BROAD BASIS OF NATURAL THERAPY

On the other hand it is refreshing to discover in editorial comment the following: "Some say, if the science of osteopathy is developed and practiced, what is the difference whether we do it alone or unite with the medics and do it with them? It is this: as an independent profession, untrammeled by a hodge-podge of useless empirical chemical therapy, faulty lines of reasoning, and age-old prejudices, with a recognized excuse for our existence--clinical results scientifically proven--we can bring to suffering humanity generally the truths of osteopathy in a way better to advance the world's well-being. We have a responsibility. Let us not shirk it. Let us live up to it."

With the exception of sanctioning those surgical operations which it is necessary at times to perform upon the human body, osteopathy, a system of natural therapeutics, has no need to revert to the system of error out of which it grew and from which it long since separated itself. Its fundamental principles deny all save natural methods for prevention, relief, and cure of disease, and by its excursions into medical therapy, it belies, not only the tenets of its right to exist as a profession distinct from other healing cults, but it depreciates and disparages the wisdom of its founder.

The criticism offered concerning retrogression in principle on the part of osteopathy does not apply to chiropractic as a profession. Both of these schools may be arraigned before the bar of natural therapy in that each is seen to reason from effect to cause when it claims that spinal lesions primarily lower nutrition. Barring forcible displacement of vertebrae, accidentally brought about, there is but one source from which may arise a condition of lowered nutrition in any of the tissues of the body, and this is faulty digestion. Perfect digestion in large degree insures perfect assimilation, and perfect assimilation must conserve muscular tone. Muscles that are built when a state of malnutrition exists are not adequate for the work of supporting bony structure with the delicate adjustment that combines strength with the necessary measure off flexibility.

Manotherapy at all times is limited in its field of practice when used alone, but, in connection with the method outlined in the text, its efficiency is greatly extended, and, used in conjunction with the fast and its immediate accessories, an almost perfect combination for the prevention and cure of disease is presented.

To illustrate further, in the presence of a full stomach manotherapy becomes a method of mere force and stimulation, which in the circumstances is usually detrimental to health It can then be classed only as passive physical culture in which a subject permits the operator to exercise his muscles instead of doing the work himself. But, doing a fast, all muscles of the body are in a state of relaxation, a natural consequence of the process of rest and elimination in progress. They respond in this condition to every impetus, and blood circulation at the same time is directly amenable to the stimulation offered.

And in pregnancy and confinement, the trained hands of the osteopath, hands that possess what is known as "lesion sense," perform with accuracy, expedition, and intelligence those acts that are so essential in facilitating delivery, and, if beforehand, the general dietetic regimen outlined herein for pregnant women be observed, labor is eased, and the work of the manotherapist is rendered less difficult. In correcting uterine displacement, fasting removes congestion, relaxes muscles, while manual adjustment assists in completing cure. Body manipulation, properly administered, is at all times an aid to elimination, but especially is this so during fasting; and, when a patient is weak and despondent, circulation, thus stimulated, buoys. Congested glands that so often suppurate, and that may develop into growths, benign or malignant, may through judicious combination of fasting and manipulation be caused to disappear. And this applies to all morbid enlargements, the procedures mentioned compelling natural augmentation of blood in the parts, thus inducing an increased power of absorption. And it must not be forgotten that in virtually all forms of paralysis, manual release of the atlas, the uppermost of the cervical vertebrae, a movement known to all efficient operators in manotherapy, often is the first step towards restoration of sensation in the paralyzed area. And here the purifying processes impelled by a fast complete recovery.

The chief cause which deters general acceptance of natural therapy is the diversity of the methods presented and the completeness of none of them when depended upon alone. To say that any one method is a cure-all is arrant nonsense. In order to secure the greatest good both for the physician and humanity a broader vision is needed, and natural therapy must be extended to embrace that which is good in all of the systems of healing; and that which is good is that which, while conserving and stimulating vitality, will not interfere with natural function. The osteopathic physician, the chiropractic doctor, and even the fasting specialist, fails if the theory upon which his art is based is alone depended upon for each and every case presented for advice and guidance. Casting aside sectarian prejudices and differences, let the good that is in all be combined in one common school of therapeutics, a school that then will demonstrate that which makes nature itself distinctive and powerful, catholic in theory, which is science, and catholic in art, which is science applied.

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