Natural Healing
The major focus of this site is Preventive Health Care by Natural Hygienic Means. If you live hygienically, you will rarely fall ill. My personal experience is, for the past 22 years, I have fallen ill maybe 6-8 times. Only once I had an allergy problem, which took a year to resolve on its own. I only had to take medication to give me symptomatic relief. On all the other occasions, I rccovered in a few days. I took allopathic medication only a few times in all these years.
Why do we fall ill? It is difficult to follow natural hygienic recommendations all the time. We do transgress once in a while. The body can handle these minor transgressions- but if they accumulate over time, we can fall sick. There are also external factors like pollution which affect our health.
Most of us, myself included, have adopted the hygienic lifestyle after years of faulty living (At the age of 30, in my case). So when the body recovers its strengths, it will start eliminating the accumulated toxins. This could result in us falling ill even on the hygienic system. This is a transition period only and once all the toxins are removed, and you stay on the system you will keep well. So, for whatever reason, you have fallen sick. What do you do now? What is the natural method to get well?
Here are some suggestions as per my understanding of natural hygiene. It is NOT to be taken as a diagnosis or suggested line of treatment etc. For all health problems, please consult your doctor and keep him informed of what is going on. Do not self-treat and self medicate - it is dangerous.
We first need to see the nature of the problem. Anything of a life-threatening, serious nature needs prompt medical attention. If you are in severe pain or having serious problems, go to a doctor and get back to some semblance of normalcy first. Also if you have some serious ailment (like diabetes, blood pressure etc), it is best to be under medical supervision.
The following is an illustrative list of situations when conventional medical/surgical care is necessary.
* Splinting/casting of severe bone fractures.
* Cardio-pulmonary emergencies.
* Organ failure emergencies; liver, kidney, etc.
* Severe shock; hypovolemic, anaphylactic, etc.
* Extended anoxia due to severe acute asthma, grand mal seizure, pneumothorax, etc.
* Severe dehydration due to vomiting, diarrhoea, etc.
* Reconstructive surgery - cleft palate, defects of the heart, other congenital defects, injuries, etc.
* Elective surgery - cataracts, unstable chronic hernias, unresolved abscesses.
* Obstetrics - life or death emergencies
* Traumas/ bites/ wounds causing life or death emergencies.
* Extremely high temperature
* Any situation where the symptoms are too difficult to bear
In all such (and similar) cases, you need the best medical care available today to help you out of your crisis. Natural Hygiene cannot provide immediate help and relief in such situations, but modern medicine can. It is only common sense to use modern medicine for what its good at.
Once all this is done and you are more or less back on your feet, you can now address the real problem. See what caused the problem. See what rules you have broken. What unhealthy habits you have to discard. Then implement the necessary lifestyle changes. If you don’t do this, the problem will recur.
Fasting
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During this process, if you fall acutely ill (fever, cough, cold etc), or contract any acute illness - the thing to do is to go to bed immediately and stay there until the problem is resolved. It will usually go away in 3-4 days. You ought to fast (drink nothing but two litres of clean water every day) during the period you are unwell. This will speed up the recovery. If you cannot fast, then stay on Tender Coconut water (Narial Pani or Daab). If this is also not practical, then on fruit juices. The next best option is raw fruits. Avoid cooked food as far as possible.
When ill, usually you will feel no hunger. Your appetite will be lost as long as you are sick. This is nature's way of indicating to you that food is not required at this moment. Your appetite will return when you recover.
Look at animals in nature. Or even at your pet dog. What do they do when they fall sick - Nothing - they refuse food, and rest in a dark, warm place until they recover. This is nature's prescription and man would do well to follow it based on his intelligence and competent supervision
All this is only for acute ailments. Here too, if the fever is too high or if does not go down in 2-3 days, you may be suffering from a bacterial infection that will need antibiotics. But I suggest you give the body a chance first to handle the problem. Only if does not work, then resort to drugs.
For chronic problems, you have to be under the care of a competent hygienic practitioner to recover your health. He will give you advice on how to handle your problem. Perhaps a fast of a longer duration will be required. THIS SHOULD BE DONE ONLY UNDER COMPETENT SUPERVISION
Please remember, any fast of more than 2-3 days duration should not be done unsupervised at home. It should be under the eagle eye of an experienced person who has conducted many fasts, who knows what to expect, knows when to break the fast - -and who can guide you accordingly. Please do not try fasting at home unsupervised - beyond 2 or 3 days.
This is the main difference between NH and other systems. Acupuncture, Acupressure, magnet therapy etc -- all address symptoms only. Only NH goes after the cause and can help you get permanent relief.
Healing Crisis and Symptoms
As your body detoxifies and heals itself, it may seem to get worse - when it is getting better. You will have unpleasant symptoms - rashes, boils, headaches, body aches, diarrhoea, fever etc. This is nothing but the body throwing out its accumulated toxic load. We call this a healing crisis. If you un-necessarily interfere with this process using medicines, the elimination stops and the symptoms go away but the healing is interrupted. It is very important to know and be able to distinguish between healing crisis and symptoms and disease symptoms. Disease symptoms have to be treated. Healing crisis symptoms have to be borne. It's important to appreciate the difference. This is why NH takes character and discipline. If it’s a healing crisis, You have to grit your teeth and bear it - until it goes away. And go away, it will. And if its any consolation, just after when it gets the worst, that's when you are going to get better. It is darkest before dawn.
For more info on fasting, how and why it works, visit this site: www.vidaclara.com
These books on fasting are also good reading: The first is a classic, and the second is also quite good.
Books: Fasting Can Save Your Life (1964) by Herbert Shelton, D.C. ISBN 0914532235
Fasting for the Health of it by Oswald/Shelton ISBN 0962049018
Fasting & Eating for Health (1995), A Medical Doctor's Program for Conquering Disease by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. ISBN 0312130716
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Here's an interesting article on the scientifically proven benefits of even short fasts.
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I will end with the wisdom of the Ancient Indians. The Ayurvedic \physicians “Langhanam Param Aushadham” is what they said. “Fasting is the best medicine”