Hi everyone,

I know that a raw food diet has helped cure many people of disease. Do you think that a 100% raw food vegan diet can cure any and all diseases??

I'm getting to the point where I am fed up with Western medicine, Ayurveda, and TCM. I guess I'm just scared to go 100% raw. Scared that it won't work or it will take too long to work.

Are you having any side effects from medicine?
I don't think the body can cure all diseases. But it can probably do a lot. For example, there's a pill called 'finestaride' or something, it's a pill men who lose hair can take to grow back their hair, or at least keep it. The company who created that pill claims 2.5% of patients (whatever you want to call them) get side effects. The FDA approves it of course. There's a whole discussion board online filled with people who got severe side effects from that pill and their effects have not disappeared for 7 years!
Some of those people have gone on to raw foods but their bodies are unable to heal themselves. There's probably a point for which the body says I'm done I can't take it anymore---no more responses. I think that's rare.

maybe the following story would interest you, if you haven't come across it:
www.dyingtogetwell.com

it's free.

I know how you feel lotusblossom. Going with nature's laws can feel like there's no crutch, no ally, nothing to count on! I think that's why NH isn't very popular - it doesn't provide something to DO..... rather, we're supposed to just rest and fast.

The idea is that raw vegan puts much less toxic stuff into your body, making it easier for your body to heal the internal problems you have and also improving absorption of nutrients.

I know a raw food diet doesn't cure retinitis pigmentosa, the genetic disease my husband has. He likes eating a lot of raw food though, and in all other respects is extremely healthy and fit.

Sharrhan:


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some people can heal of certain ailments just by removing certain culprits completely, like dairy in a vegan/macro type diet. Although anything but a simple 100% raw diet probably won't get down to the deep deposits (unless one is some kind of transcendent super being of sorts, heh) and inevitably some disease/debilitation will result.

a raw cleansing diet, will release all these old deposits into the blood stream, creating symptoms..the very thing medicines are designed to suppress by - usually - drawing attention to the new more foreign matter.

it very well might take 'too long to work' depending on your time frame and the pace you are comfortable with allowing yourself. but ultimately some level of 'being OK with NOT being OK' will be required as a price of admission.

I personally think the body can heal anything, given enough vitality in the person and enough commitment, courage and patience. But if the mind does't think its possible, the healing is probably not going to happen though.

Faith is important, and not wanting to control the healing. Without faith in the body's ability to heal itself (or that healing is even possible), one just gets in the way of the body's attempt to heal itself. Which brings up surrender, which if one is trying to control things, surrender is going to be the furthest thing from the mind. Without the abilty to surrender, the attempt to control things is going to drain the person and decrease the chances for any healing.

There is the issue of responsibility. This is hard for most people in our society, and without taking 100% responsibility for one's health, its hard to heal. People often want someone to fix them and they are not willing to look at the habits and ways of interacting with other people and the reality and how one's interactions give away power and energy and responsibility.

Acceptance is another issue. Accepting where you are, and accepting you are where you are because you brought yourself there. Without acceptance, its hard to make forward movement in anything.

So far all I've mentioned is stuff that has to do with attitude. Without the proper attitude in place, all the raw foods and all the rest may not be enough to heal. Most of us, when healing, have to deal with our minds, who in their fear of not being enough to do the job, are going to try to control the healing and potentially get in the way of our body trying to do its job of healing disease.

After getting the proper attitude in place, then comes providing the conditions for healing: the non-toxic diet, the rest (or complete physiological rest if that is necessary), the healthful living habit that by now everyone on this board should know.

Bryan,
How does one know when complete physiological rest is called for?

Bryan,
Thats truely inspiring. Some very good words which really clarifys things down simply and truthfuly. Even if its difficult to hear at first. But that really makes things easier for myself, but know know this is something that will require changes, and some practice in changing habits and outlook.

Mislu

Does the person have symptoms that are chronic and not going away with their raw diet and lifestyle? If so, complete physiological rest will do the job. However, simply cleaning up the diet or practicing some of the health building habits may do the trick. I would try those things first, as they require a much lower investment. Things like lowering the fat intake, taking out the non-hygienic elements of the diet, getting more rest and sleep, etc.

Also, even if the complete physiological rest does remove the symtoms, if the lifestyle is not sufficiently clean enough, the symptoms will return. Finding this balance is part of the exploration of the healing.

I have been contemplating stopping my medications and starting a raw food diet in hopes to heal myself. It helps to process this on this board and I thank you for your responses.

Anaken, you hit the nail on the head when you said that I might have to be okay with not being okay. I think that is why I have been so scared to change my lifestyle. Out of fear that the damage has already been done. I take responsibility for my health and realize that poor lifestyle choices may have gotten me where I am now. I'm sure that a cleaner diet and better mental attitude will help. I may not cure myself of all my symptoms, but I don't think that it can hurt to try.

Bryan, what you say about faith, responsibility, and acceptance are very valid points. Thank you.

Just a side note, I looked up Natural Hygiene on the internet to learn more about it. I thought that all natural hygienists advocated and followed a raw vegan diet, but I was mistaken.

lotusblossom9 Wrote:
I thought
> that all natural hygienists advocated and followed
> a raw vegan diet, but I was mistaken.


Then I guess they're using a label that doesn't fit.

Bryan,
That really helps a lot. I was thinking of myself and wondering if or when I might need to do a long fast. Its helpful to know that it may not be called for at this time, or may never be required. I can't take off how ever long it might take to do that type of fasting, and I don't know how to properly start or end a fast. At the same time I feel like you said, maybe try some smaller changes first to see how I feel.

A lot of very good points have been made in this thread.

Healing is a complex subject. Some things are considered un-healable, but it is difficult to say when and where the limits are to such things.

For example, the liver can re-grow itself (about 98-99% of original) when a large part of it has been removed, as long as there is enough left to sustain life during the healing and re-growth period. This is much like a starfish re-growing a severed arm, or a lizard re-growing a removed tail. Other parts of the body cannot re-grow like that. For example, a severed finger will not re-grow. HOWEVER, there is ONE (yes, ONE) fully documented case of a severed finger that re-grew. Not 100% like the original, but about 80+%. So who can really say what the limits are to healing?

Our genetic blueprint is aimed at health: at maintaining homeostasis in life functions (which is really what health IS, by definition, although it seems odd until you think about it). However, a genetic blueprint is only a very flexible set of guidelines. Imagine you take two identical twins. One is raised on a farm, with fresh, clean air, adequate sunshine, fresh organic food, ample exercise, etc... The second one is raised in a dark, damp prison environment with little sunshine, inadequate ventilation and high mold-spore levels, no regular exercise and a wholly inadequate diet. After some years, they will NOT look identical, at all! Their appearance and their health will be very different. Both have identical genes, but the environment dictates how those genes will be expressed.

Your diet is probably the single biggest determining factor in the environment that decides where on your scale of possible genetic expression you end up (after air to breathe!): given the optimal nutrients to function as designed, each cell --and thus, each tissue and organ-- will function well, as it was designed to. In the real world, that doesn't happen, but the closer we can get to that, the better our health will eventually be.

The body is continually tearing itself down (catabolism) and rebuilding itself (anabolism). Cells replace themselves (except nerve cells and certain immune cells, which are with us for life) on different schedules. IF the right building blocks are there at the time when a cell is re-building, it will be a healthy cell, properly constructed and functioning optimally. Overall, we can function when only a portion of our cells are working properly, but the greater that portion is, the better we will function. When not enough cells function properly, illness and death result.

This is why it is so crucial to eat properly as much of the time as we can: the more regularly we build GOOD cells (and feed funtioning cells with good nutrients, and carry away their wastes efficiently), the greater the percentage of our cells function well, and the better we function overall.

Thus, when you eat properly over time, more and more cells start to function as they should. Along the way, wastes and toxins are eliminated which previously couldn't be dealt with (i.e., we detox!), but eventually as most of our cells are functioning well and the waste levels are low and manageable, our energy levels start to soar, our complexions clear, we find exercise pleasurable, we become more optimistic (the brain functions better, too!).

Understand this, have faith, and stick with it, and you WILL HEAL from ALMOST ALL things ... although your finger may not re-grow, etc... Not everything can be healed with food alone, but you will be maximizing your chances of a "miraculous" healing when you maximize every aspect of your overall health.

This last sentence is true, because all of our systems are inter-active, and the basic nutrients and substances that comprise the more complex molecules which allow cell function are similar across a wide range of cells. Thus, healing factors not tied up in one area can be released to heal something else. This explains why people on health regimens often experience a SERIES of "healing crises". Once one thing is healed, energy (and nutrients, etc...) are released to heal something else, and because the previous thing was healed, the body is stronger and better-prepared to heal the next thing.

Thus, how long the body takes to heal will depend in part on what (and how many things) are wrong in the first place.

On top of all the above, there are a few things to think about:

(1) If you have a particular thing that is interfering with your body's healing, then doing everything else "right" may help, but you may still remain ill and frustrated. For example, I am gluten-intolerant: as long as I was eating ANYTHING made from wheat (occasional soy sauce flavoring, for example, or a trace of vinegar in the rice used in sushi) or that had been in contact with wheat (herbs that may have been on flour-dusted conveyor belts in a packaging plant!), I was plagued with abdominal and other symptoms. Only when I went on a truly EXTREME diet of almost 100% raw, whole foods (while taking other healing steps) supplemented with healing foods like raw garlic and ginger, did I experience a dramatic healing. Before that, I was eating a diet that 99 percent of nutritionists would describe as an outstanding health-promoting diet, yet I was still ill.

Similarly, my brother had chronic illness, and didnt' know why, until he discovered that a roofy leak had caused a huge mold growth in the attic of his house... directly over his bedroom! All night long he was breathing in mold spoors, over-taxing his immune system and making himself ill!


(2) There are more subtle aspects of healing that are less well understood, but very, very important. The mind --one's attitude and deep beliefs-- clearly have a massive impact on health. People can think themselves ill, and very often can think themselves well. We have all heard of the "placebo effect". Much of the interactions of the brain and body are understood, but not all. Work on releasing pent-up negative emotions, letting go of habitual negative thought patterns, etc... Forgive old slights, get rid of sources of frustration in your life (No, I don't mean killing someone! LOL) and it will help you heal. Mentally picture and "feel" in your imagination what a healthy body feels like, and then shift back and forth between your actual body feelings/sensations and the imagined healthy ones. You'll be shocked at how powerful this one technique is, once you try it (although it takes a little practice to do it well). I used it for years to control rampant (food-caused!) inflammation in my spine and other tissues.

(3) The "subtle energy" aspects of health are also poorly understood, and unfortunately are plagued with charlatans and well-meaning but misguided people incorrectly applying mumbo-jumbo explanations, ignorantly mis-applying concepts of quantum physics, etc... HOWEVER, there is also truth in them: our cells DO interact and communicate with subtle electromagnetic fashion, and healing is partly directed by this process. "Qi meridians" do exist within the body, although their exact nature is only partly understood. Do your best to make use of these things, even whent he explanations given may be bogus: just as someone may drive a car without having a clue of how an engine, etc... work, don't think that because the person gives a wrong explanation for what they are doing, that they aren't doing something good.

Lastly, as much as possible, BELIEVE that you CAN and WILL heal! I remember when I was at rock-bottom, having spent YEARS trying to get better while watching my body deteriorate and finally knowing that I would be dead within a short time barring some kind of miracle. I was too ill to make much money, and my life was generally a mess; I was in most respects a failed human, whose greatest achievement was probably that he wasn't dead yet. This is from someone who some years before was one of those genius-IQ, "most likely to succeed", "natural-born charismatic leader", child prodigy types (Yeah, I was like that once, years ago). Yet when the change came -- when I finally went on that (to most people) "ultra-extreme" diet -- it came relatively quickly: all the inflammation and about half of the most intractable symptoms I had cleared up within a few weeks, and I felt GREAT for the first time in nearly three decades. I didn't need --as I had once thought-- all the sophisticated tests and fancy healing spas, etc... I just needed to finally do the truly "right" things for ME. The "miracle" occured for me, and it can for anyone. You can heal.

Am I 100% super-healthy? NO, to be honest. My knee isn't back to 100%, but it is missing some areas of cartilage and such that are difficult and slow to grow back (if they ever can, which is debatable), so I don't expect it to be. That said, it has gone from being a near-crippling and painful hindrance to being something I don't even notice for days on end. I no longer play risky or contact sports, but I still go for long hikes and ride a bicycle and such.

When do I have minor symptoms? When I eat restaurant foods (which are likely to have trace contamination from wheat products). Have I successfully "healed" from the intolerance of wheat? NO... but I have become MUCH better at dealing with the symptoms when I do slip up. What used to make me ill for three days now bothers me for perhaps all of three hours. One day I may become totally asymptomatic (without symptoms) again, even after eating wheat products, but I accept that I will probably continue to strive to be wheat-free for life. It is a huge inconvenience in our modern world, since wheat (and its derivatives) is the single most commonly-found food ingredient and the basis of most additives ... but health is far more important, and nothing feels better than being truly healthy.

Incidentally, I see my "curse" as a blessing in disguise: the need to avoid gluten practically forces me to continually avoid all those addictive and harmful processed junk foods that occupy most of the supermarket shelves, and choose the health-promoting natural produce, instead. [More than 90 percent of all factory-processed foods in containers contain wheat or wheat-derived additives.] It is like an implacable policeman that forces me to keep to a "natural" diet, and punishes me if I deviate from the path. This is probably keeping me from having a premature heart attack, stroke, etc... from processed-food-caused degenerative disease.

I was way beyond "sick and tired" of feeling literally sick and tired, for years. If you feel that way, don't give up hope. Start by accepting that you CAN heal, and WILL heal, then do whatever it takes --even if it means changing life-long habits-- and you will, indeed, heal from almost anything. Even if 100 percent healing doesn't occur, you can still regain the mental clarity, optimism, energy and zest for life. Whatever still plagues you will seem minor and manageable, and eventually it, too, may heal. You only lose when you decide that it is hopeless and stop trying.

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