|
|
|
In this month of Ramadan, Dr. Elson M. Haas, M.D.,
offers some very beneficial information about fasting. Dr. Haas has
written many books addressing preventive and integrated medicines,
natural nutrition therapies and detoxification (fasting). He also wrote
one of the definitive books on natural nutrition and fasting, called
Staying Healthy: A Complete Guide to Diet and Nutritional Medicine. Dr.
Haas is currently the Director of the Preventive Medical Center of
Marin, with offices in San Rafael and San Jose, California.
In this article he discusses, the process and benefits
of fasting, as well as its hazards.
Fasting is the single greatest natural healing therapy.
It is nature's ancient, universal "remedy" for many problems.
Animals instinctively fast when ill. When I first discovered fasting, 15
years ago, I felt as if it had saved my life and transformed my
illnesses into health. My stagnant energies began flowing, and I became
more creative and vitally alive. I still find fasting both a useful
personal tool and an important therapy for many medical and life
problems.
Of course, most of the problems for which I recommend
fasting as treatment are ones that result from overnutrition rather than
malnutrition. Dietary abuse problems, more common in the Western world
than in Third World countries, generate many of the chronic degenerative
diseases that I have written so much about; these include
atherosclerosis, hypertension and heart disease, allergies, diabetes,
and cancer. I believe that fasting is therapeutic and, more importantly,
preventive for many of these conditions and more.
Fasting (cleansing, detoxification) is one part of the
triology of nutrition; balancing and building (toning) are the others. I
believe that fasting is the "missing link" in the Western
diet. Most people overeat, eat too often, and eat a high-protein,
high-fat, rich-food, building and congesting diet more consistently than
they need. If we regularly eat a more balanced and well-combined diet,
we will have less need for fasting and toning plans, although both would
still be required at certain intervals throughout the year.
In a sense, detoxification is an important corrective
and rejuvenative process in our cycle of nutrition. It is a time when we
allow our cells and organs to breathe out, become current, and restore
themselves. We do not necessarily need to fast to experience some
cleansing, however. Minor shifts in the diet such as including more
fluids, more raw foods, and fewer congesting foods will allow for better
detoxification; for a carnivore, for example, a vegetarian or
macrobiotic diet will be cleansing and purifying. The general process of
detoxification is discussed thoroughly in the General Detoxification
program; here we focus on fluid fasting - its history, therapeutic use,
benefits, contraindications, and, of course, how to do it, along with
other aspects of lifestyle that support fasting.
Fasting is a time-proven remedy. Its use goes back many
thousands of years, really to the beginning of life forms. As a healing
process and spiritual-religious process, it has continued to be more
intelligently applied, we hope, in the last several thousand years.
Voluntary abstinence from food has been a tradition in
most religions and is clearly a spiritual purification rite. Many
religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and the Eastern religions,
have encouraged fasting for a variety of reasons, such as penitence,
preparation for ceremony, purification, mourning, sacrifice and union
with God, and the enhancement of knowledge and powers. From Moses,
Elijah, and Daniel to Christ, the Bible is filled with fasters, who
employed it to assist their purification and communion with God. Fasts
as long as 40 days were employed to cleanse people of sins and the
"devil."
|
