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Would be interesting to know how raw affects epilepsy

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Care of the Patient: That reflex irritations from abscessed teeth, adenoids, ovarian and uterine abscesses and fibroids, phimosis, enlarged prostate, bony growths, eye-strain, etc., may precipitate convulsions has been emphasized above, but these are only local outgrowths of the same nervous impairment and toxemia which form the basic cause of epilepsy; and unless the basic causes of all of these troubles is removed the patient will continue to have epilepsy. Hence, the failure of surgery in epilepsy.

Only by going back of these minor ailments and correcting all of the causes of ill health can we ever hope to succeed in remedying epilepsy. It is necessary to get rid of the enervation and toxemia and to remove all the causes of these. The whole body must be put in a state of health and maintained in this state.

As a matter of physical and mental economy, there must be a general reform in all physical and 'mental habits. The epileptic must stop all abuse of the body and mind. All enervating habits must be discontinued at once and permanently. Doctors who attempt to cure "disease" without correcting enervating habits and who treat patients for "specific diseases," while ignoring a manner of living that makes cure impossible, will never succeed in remedying epilepsy or any other affection in their patients.

It is necessary in all cases to avoid the causes of enervation. Since the cause of epilepsy is often subtle, uncertain and obscure, both the doctor and the patient should attempt to find and remove or correct all and every enervating habit or influence, however insignificant it may appear. The plan of living should be put upon a rigidly economic basis and nerve energy conserved as much as possible.

Sensualism must be controlled. Sex abuse, both mental and physical, must be given up forever. Libertines and masturbators cannot be cured of epilepsy until cured of their wasteful sex habits. Those who constantly excite their sex functions mentally, even if they do not resort to overt sexual acts, will also fail to recover until they have educated themselves out of this bad habit. -
Tobacco, tea, coffee, alcohol and like poisons lower nerve-tone and help to produce and perpetuate epilepsy. Until all poisonous habits are completely abandoned, the sufferer need not expect to recover. Gross eating habits must be broken. Gluttony, irritating foods and condiments and too "rich" foods help to produce enervation and toxemia and are often the causes of the irritation that precipitates a convulsion. The putrefaction and constipation that grow out of
gross eating habits are recognized as "causes" of epilepsy.

Since gastro-intestinal derangements are so nearly uniformly precedent to epileptic "seizures," it is folly to look for, good results in these cases without giving due attention to the amount, kind, and combination of food eaten.

Everything capable of producing reflex irritation must be overcome in order to overcome the convulsion habit. This is not to be done by cutting off a tight prepuce, saddling the nose with eye-crutches, removing the gall-bladder, or womb, etc., and by taking cathartics; but by restoring the whole body and all of its parts to good health.

It is often necessary to get away from family influences, for the epileptic who is pampered and indulged and weakened by misdirected sympathy cannot get well. He must learn to stand on his own.

Among the treatments employed by the ancients in the care of epileptics were fasting and prayer. On one occasion, when the disciples of Jesus, wanted to know why they had failed in their effort to cast out the "devil" from an epileptic, he told them "this kind cometh not out save by fasting and prayer." There is nothing of more immediate benefit to the epileptic patient than fasting, while the mental calm often produced by prayer is a great aid to restoration of poise.

Every case of epilepsy should be given a long fast as the surest and most rapid means of freeing the body of excess food and of its toxic overload. This will also quickly remedy nearly all the common sources of reflex irritation. Since the most common source of irritation is the digestive tract, nothing can more speedily benefit these patients than a properly conducted fast.
It has been shown that excess nitrogen (protein) increases the frequency of paroxysms in epilepsy; whereas, an increase in bases (alkaline salts) reduces them. One egg added to the daily diet of children predisposed to spasmodic affections will give rise to spasms. When the eggs are removed from the diet the child promptly becomes normal.

In all cases of nervous impairment - epilepsy, chronic melancholia, neurasthenia, etc. - "acidosis" arises more quickly and has more powerful effects. It is undoubtedly the weakness and derangement of the nervous system in such cases that permits the earlier development of "acidosis" and that explains why the "acidosis" has such a powerful effect. "Acidosis" is especially likely to precipitate an epileptic paroxysm at night, for then the reaction of the blood is physiologically less strongly alkaline than during the day.

The weakness and derangement of the nervous system in epilepsy renders care in feeding all the more necessary and makes it equally necessary to avoid shock, emotional strain, overstimulation, excesses, extreme exposure, and all other influences that tax or weaken the nervous system.

Finally, if all the enervating and irritating habits and influences enumerated above are not corrected and removed, these will keep up enough irritation, digestive derangement and excretory inhibition to prevent recovery.

It is, of course, true that the longer the causes of epilepsy have been allowed to run, the harder it is to correct. The nervous system may ultimately become so non-resistant to irritation and the habit of convulsive repetition so firmly established, that the slightest irritating influence may unbalance co-ordination and initiate convulsions. It is wise, therefore, to begin the care of these cases at the very beginning and we have a right to expect better and faster results than years later, when the "disease" is well established. Those are most benefitted by fasting whose mental state is not shattered by the long-continued use of drugs and by psychic shock.

But whether the case is taken early or late, we should not lose sight of the fact that it takes time to overcome toxemia and enervation, and still more time for the nervous system to evolve out of the habit of falling into temporary states of lost co-ordination. How can we expect this to occur during a few days of fasting?

Rest is necessary to restore nervous poise and this cannot be obtained so long as there is any nervous irritation from any source. Emotional over-irritation - worry, anger, jealousy, apprehension, fear, etc. - ; poison habits - tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, headache "remedies," constipation "cures," etc. - ; excesses - gluttony, sensuality, overwork, overplay, etc. - ; and the deficiencies - lack of fresh air, lack of sunshine, indolence, deficient diet, etc.,; all aid in building and maintaining the constitutional derangement that is back of epilepsy. Any program of care that ignores these will inevitably fail.

The patient who returns to gluttony, sensuality, inebriety, gambling, and to his former excesses, and dissipations, after he has been restored to health, will again break down his health and is likely to redevelop epilepsy. There is no cure of "disease" outside of removal of cause and there is no prevention of "disease" save by avoiding its causes.