CHAPTER 5  IMBALANCES OF THE LARGE INTESTINE

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5  IMBALANCES OF THE LARGE INTESTINE

Structural, functional and metabolic imbalances of the colon are manifested in various forms. We will mention a few of the more common abnormalities of the colon to illustrate the effects of autointoxication and constipation. These are: adhesions, ballooning, colitis, diverti-culitis, mucosal dysfunction, spastic bowel, strictures and ulceration.

Adhesions

in the colon are caused by inflammations and irritations to the bowel wall. When the mucus membrane breaks down, tissue becomes exposed, open and irritated. The raw surfaces begin to stick together as the result of glue-like substance secreted from the tissue. This is a serious condition and requires delicate treatment to correct.

Ballooning

of the colon occurs as a consequence of backed up feces. For various rea-sons, feces can accumulate and stretch the bowel wall into enormous proportions. This often occurs in the sigmoid colon as the result of a narrowing of the bowel lumen below the ballooning. This narrowing can be caused by adhesions, spasm or colic conditions. When this occurs, con-stipation can become quite severe and painful and has a damaging effect upon the bowel struc-ture and function.

Colitis

is an irritable bowel condition that is highly associated with Psychological distress. Few people truly realize the benefits of a calm and peaceful lifestyle. They are often unaware of the mind’s ability to sink into the body’s functioning ability and upset normal tissue activities. Fear, anger, depression, stress, tension, worries and obsessions can all upset delicate pro-cesses in the body, and in particular, those of digestion and elimination. Sometimes what we need is a good cerebral laxative to rid the mind of emotional autointoxication and constipation.

Diverticular

disease of the colon is occurring at an ever-increasing rate. It is a serious bowel disturbance leading to many difficulties and must be avoided. When the diet is lacking in bulk or fiber, the colonic muscle must work extremely hard to force feces through the organ. Where there is weakness in muscle fibers a hernia occurs, producing a small pouch or sac-like protrudence in the tissue. It looks like a blister on the side of a tire where the air is forcing its way to the surface through a weak spot in the tire wall. These sacs, or diverticula, are blind in one end. Therefore feces accumulate within them and hold morbid matter in which a variety of very unfavorable organisms can begin to breed. They become sources of infection, inflammation and degenerative conditions. They are also the host for the production of powerful toxins, adding to an already over-burdened and toxic body. I have seen X-rays of the colon in which there were 142 of these little sacs on one bowel. When these diverticula become inflamed and irritated, we have a case of diverticulitis. Should any one of these festering sacs produce a rupture, then we have a grave situation in which life is threat-ened by the release of these very poisonous substances into the abdominal cavity of the body where infection can spread quite rapidly.

Mucosal dysfunction

occurs when the intestinal mucus lining becomes stagnant and pu-trefactive. It begins to develop many unfavorable conditions. No longer does it serve the function of facilitating elimination of fecal material. Instead it degenerates in several ways. It can become.30 abcessed, in which case irritations, abrasions, ulcerations and bleeding can occur. Food pas-sage can be very painful. Mucus can dehydrate and accumulate due to increased viscid consistency. This causes layer upon layer to be built up until extreme constipation occurs. This old material becomes a source of infection and toxic absorption, holding many otherwise excreted products. It also greatly inhibits the absorption of nutrients and water, adding to nutritional crisis.

A spastic bowel

is often associated with colitis. The point I want to stress is that when bowel muscle or any muscle is overworked, tense and not given an opportunity to rest, it will go into a spasm. Muscle spasm is a chronic tightening of the fibers due to hyperactivity in the nerve impulses controlling muscle action. The symptoms frequently manifest as constipation, alternat-ing with diarrhea. Mental and emotional stresses are high on the list of contributing factors, coupled with chronic toxemia and poor diet.

A stricture

of the bowel usually occurs after an inflammatory disease such as colitis has damaged the tissue. It is a chronic narrowing of the passageway that often results in a backup of feces that are unable to pass through. The feces accumulate in front of the stricture, causing ballooning, while the segment just past the stricture collapses.

Ulceration

of the bowel occurs due to irritations, abrasions, infections and toxic concentra-tions settling inoronmuscletissue.This results in open sores, bleeding and much pain as is com-mon in hemorrhoids, etc. The sigmoid and rectum are the sites for most of these troubles. Again, autointoxication and constipation are the root causes.

THE FOLLOWING DRAWINGS ILLUSTRATE THE VARIOUS ABNORMAL SHAPES OF THE BOWEL IN COMPARISON TO A NORMAL BOWEL.

DIAGRAM SHOWING CONDI- TION OF COLON WHEN BOWELS MOVE ONLY ONCE DAILY, CONTAINING RESIDUE OF SIX MEALS. DIAGRAM SHOWING CONDI- TION OF COLON IN CHRONIC CONSTIPATION-SHOWING NINE OR MORE MEALS HELD BACK.

There should be no doubt about the relation between health of the intestinal tract and health in the rest of the body. Intestinal management probably is the most important thing a person can learn in a health-building routine. Some of the most important functions of life take.31.32 place in the intestines. Through it worn out cells are eliminated and new cell structures have their beginning. At the Battle Creek Sanitarium I heard Dr. John Harvey Kellogg say he knew of many cases in which operations were prevented by cleansing and revitalizing the bowel. He main-tained that 90% of the diseases of civilization are due to improper functioning of the colon. Sir Arbuthnot Lane (M.D.) of London has shown the relation between bowel stasis and disease. He left no doubt as to how seriously he regarded the effects of intestinal intoxication when he said, “The lower end of the intestine is of the size that requires emptying every six hours, but by habit we retain its contents twenty-four hours. The result is ulcers and cancer.” Besides these world-renowned exponents of intestinal sanitation, other authorities have given recognition to the belief that cleanliness of the colon is necessary to good health. It is believed that disorders such as appendicitis, infected tonsils, liver and gall-bladder infections, dysfunction of the heart and blood vessels, sinusitis, arthritis and rheu-matism, etc., no doubt have their origin in a sluggish colon. There is also an increasing number of morbid conditions in the various parts of the colon, involving the flexures, the rectum and the anus. Consider the amount of surgery and various therapies of hemor-rhoids, fistulas, prostate disturbances and malignancies. While I attended the National College in Chicago many years ago, autopsies were per-formed on 300 persons. According to the history of these persons, 285 had claimed they were not constipated and had normal movements, and only 15 had admitted they were constipated. The autopsies showed the opposite to be the case, however, and only 15 were found not to have been constipated, while 285 were found to have been constipated. Some of the histories of these 285 persons stated they had had as many as 5 or 6 bowel movements daily, yet autopsies revealed that in some of them the bowels were 12 inches in diameter. The bowel walls were encrusted with material (in one case peanuts) which had been lodged there for a very long time. Thus we see that the average patient coming to a doctor’s office does not know whether or not he is constipated. Some of my patients believe that if they have three bowel movements a day they have diarrhea, and that a couple of movements a week is normal. An example of the latter was a lady patient I had who assured me that she had normal movements; that her bowels moved regularly, every Tuesday and Friday morning. Most people have not been properly educated in their child-hood to realize the importance of adequate daily elimination and to heed nature’s call to evacu-ate the rectum. This indifference to the natural urge to evacuate the bowels may be the beginning of constipation. Doctor John Harvey Kellogg, who gave us so much of his philosophy and practical experi-ence, lived to the age of 91. Since he did more work in connection with intestinal sanitation than anyone in this country, his advice should be worth listening to. It was his opinion that we should eliminate the residue of each meal 15 to 18 hours after eating it. Babies, savages, birds and animals evacuate a short time after each meal. Observe from the following statistics published by the Register General of England that no group has contributed more to the death rate from intestinal diseases than doctors..33 “Comparative Mortality from Diseases of the Digestive System.” Physicians, surgeons 50 Inn-keepers 45 Barristers, solicitors 44 Seamen 43 Clergymen, priests, ministers 34 Butchers 30 Car men, carriers 28 Farmers 25 Gardeners 22 Railway guards, porters 20 Agricultural labourers 19 Average among all workers 28 As shown by the above statistics, the death rate of doctors is 31 points higher than that of agricultural laborers, and 22 points higher than that of the average death rate of all workers who die of diseases of the digestive system. Is there a way that these troubles can be avoided? Yes there is. Early detection will help in many cases, but the real remedy is found in changing the diet and ways of living. In the meantime, there is only one way that we can do this and that is by making sure that everyone has an X-ray to see if these conditions actually exist. We believe that practically every-one has bowel troubles in the civilized world today due in part to the way we are eating. We can’t usually sense these things because the nerve supply to the bowel is so poor that we don’t know we have a serious problem until we have pain. Any time there is pain in the bowel, it is a serious condition. Whenever there is gas, and it cannot be taken care of through the ordinary food routine or through ordinary treatments, then we know it is very serious indeed. I believe that long before any of these symptoms appear in the body there are preconditions in the bowel and we should be able to see how to take care of these things before symptoms appear. If a person is going to check up on the presence of diverticula possibly the best way is through the barium enema X-ray. This is one of the finest ways of doing it. There should always be two X-rays; one when the bowel is full of the barium meal and one taken after it is emptied. Years ago, I was very astounded when I took a picture of the bowel. We could see that there was some of the barium meal in a little pouch or diverticulum. A week later, another X-ray was taken of the same patient for a gall bladder scan. Upon examination of the negative we were able to see the barium meal still settled in various diverticula throughout the colon. If barium meal can stay there for a week, what happens when food stays there? There is no food that should stay in the colon constantly and over a period of a week’s time. We find through the work in iridology that most diverticula have settled in the sigmoid colon. We feel that this is the logical place due to the fact that the patient hasn’t answered nature’s call in the past. Bowel accumulations from not only one, two but from ten even fifteen meals have.34 backed up because many people are that much behind in getting rid of the toxic wastes that develop from the food they eat. We find that many patients are having only one bowel movement a week; some two bowel movements a week. I had a patient who had a bowel movement every eighteen days and was still consuming three meals a day. The driest part of any stool is always in the sigmoid colon. Because of this condition, the sigmoid colon has to withstand the greatest amount of pressure in trying to get rid of this dry stool. With the toilet designed the way it is, it becomes even a greater strain on the sigmoid than on any other part of the intestinal tract. It is here that we find the driest material working the greatest hardship on the mucosa of the bowel wall itself. Further we find that the kinds of foods that man is eating today are excessive in meats and the putrefactive materials-the heavy additives cause greater irritation. In addition, there are the spices, especially black pepper, which are considered quite an irritant to the colon and to the liver. Many of the coal tar additives develop into drug accumulations as a result of ingesting into our bodies the various nostrums that are so readily taken from the drugstore without prescrip-tion. We find that the sigmoid colon is the greatest place in the bowel for these things to settle. Further, we do not bring children up to realize that bowel movements are the most important thing to take care of in the body. We get busy; we let things slide-we put things aside; we “cannot take care of it now.” The refining of carbohydrates has removed the lecithin, oils and vitamin E from these foods. These act as a lubrication when present. The lubrication is not sufficient in refined foods to keep the feces moving for proper elimination. I believe that diverticulosis is a civilized disease. It is a disease that has come about by our wrong living habits. It isn’t a matter of not having enough fiber one or two days, it is a matter of not having it over a period of many years that can produce this diverticulitis. We find that fast living-not chewing our foods properly; going to the quick-snack shops and eating foods that lack bran (the hull or outside coating), and taking the skins from potatoes, apples, pears, peaches and vegetables deprives the bowel of adequate bulk and fiber. We are eliminating the fiber that we would natu-rally have to eat and which could well be the basis of giving the bowel wall all the exercise that would be necessary to keep it from forming a diverticulum. People have gone from the smooth diet of pancakes, pasta and many of the other soft foods that we have today to those of extreme roughage and have caused many disturbances. We believe that by taking our time and slowly changing over from the soft diet to a more rough diet, we can eventually diminish and remove the effects of the diverticula that have been built over many years of wrong eating habits.

FLATULENCE OR BOWEL GASES

Certain chemical processes in the colon produce various gases as by-products of normal bowel function. Some are odorless like carbon dioxide, while others are very odorous such as hydrogen sulfide. Bowel gases are of no consequence in a healthy colon. This isn’t true in a diseased colon, however. Excessive gas is an indication of bowel disturbances and can be very serious in its consequences. For example, when there is a bowel stricture or obstruction due to constipation,.35 the gaseous products may become trapped, not being able to exit the anus. Extreme pres-sure may develop, causing pain, swelling and other symptoms to appear. Gas production does not always come from a normal metabolic process. In fact most gas-eous wastes are the result of abnormal conditions in the bowel. They are the products of inferior processes at work in the body. Specifically, they are the result of putrefactive fermentations. When undigested proteins find their way into the colon, they provide nourishment for unfavorable bacterial growths. These undesirable bacteria and virus are responsible for the breaking down of organic compounds by way of a putrefactive process. This process is unde-sirable specifically due to the fact that these organisms produce toxic, poisonous, disease-producing (morbid) by-products as a result of their metabolic functions. The waste materials they produce are injurious to body tissues. These organisms were not intended to inhabit the human body. Those that are beneficial and indeed necessary for good health cannot live in an environment which is dirty, toxic and constipated. When there are pockets, diverticula and ballooning in the bowel, there is non-moving waste accumulating in the colon. These conditions are ripe for putrefactive fermentation to occur and result in considerable flatulence, discomfort and seepage of toxins into the body. A healthy colon produces little to no flatulence. Taking care of gases in the bowel has been one of the most difficult problems to handle from a nutritional standpoint. When we start changing the diet and go into the natural fibered foods that nature has given us, and leave off any man-handling, we find that we have more of a gas condition. It is like the stirring up of a dirty basement and as we brush it clean, there is a lot of dust that has formed. The one unusual thing I observed in taking care of people with a lot of gas is that they could go to town and eat the worst diet possible and they would be free of gas. You could put them on coffee and donuts and nothing but that for 2 or 3 days and they report no gas whatsoever. And. when we put them on a natural fiber diet. as prescribed in our diet advice, then we have gas to contend with. However, they began to say they were passing off the gas easier-their stools became softer; they did not have to force the bowel movement; they did not have to cause pressure: the feces moved easier through the bowel and they no longer were having problems with constipation. However, the gas still per-sisted, but it seemed to get less and less and, over a period of three months, we found that it came down to a minimal amount. Once a bowel has diverticula, it will never become totally free of I gas. There are very few people who can say they have no gas | whatsoever. To get the gas out completely is almost an impossibility in this day and age because we cannot live the way of life necessary to accomplish that task, but I do think it can come down to a minimum and will cause no disturbance-no distress.

THE EFFECT OF GRAVITY ON THE BOWEL

An important thing to realize is that we have pressure, both mechanical and chemical, to take care of as far as the bowel is concerned. On the chemical side, we have the effects of the acidophil us bacteria, acids and putrefactions. On the mechanical side. we have peristaltic ac-.36 tion and the ever-present downward pull of gravity. Gravity, we must realize, brings on more problems than most people can possibly imagine. Do you remember the historic landings of American astronauts on the moon? Were you watching television when it showed them on the moon’s surface, easily jumping 10-12 feet high? When they walked, you could see them bounce with each step. They looked like they were bouncing on a trampoline, because gravity on the moon is much less than here on earth. Gravity on earth is very harsh on our bodies. When we walk or stand, our body is pulled down toward the earth. We have to live with this constant tugging on our vital organs. We find that the intervertebral disks are being pressed down. I’m sure we would have few disk problems if everyone lived on the moon. Because there wouldn’t be enough pressure from its gravity to cause disk problems. On earth we have gravity problems, especially when we are tired I have said before that tiredness is the beginning of every disease; that is when gravity has its greatest effect on the body. When we are tired, we begin to lose muscle tone, so we find that internal organs are more easily pulled downward. When gravity takes its effect, our shoulders begin to droop: we can have scoliosis or we can develop curvature of the spine. The softest tissue in the body is the transverse colon, and it is the only tissue in the body that goes completely from the right side to the left side of the body. If it was made of bone, it would stay in position; but since the colon is made of very soft tissue, a prolap-sus or dropped transverse colon can happen as a result of gravitational pull. There is a new disease coming: it’s called gravitosis. The symptoms are as follows.

PROLAPSUS OF THE TRANSVERSE COLON

When we have prolapsus, all the organs above the transverse colon are going to fall as well and those below it will suffer the effects of pressure. When the transverse colon comes down, for exam pie, bladder pressure develops. The uterus can develop flexions and retrof-lexions and could double over the bowel causing constipation. We sometimes find that there is pressure on the fallopian tubes or the ovaries. Many times the egg from the ovary cannot pass into the uterus properly and this can cause sterility. Still further, we find that women have more cysts on the ovaries than on any other organ in the body. There are more hyster-ectomies given to women than any other operation; and I believe it is because a good deal of pressure is against the tubes, pressure which does not allow proper circulation of blood or the removal of toxic material. But women are not the only ones subject to pressure-caused troubles; a man with a prolapsus experiences prostate gland pressure. The urethra, through which urine flows from the bladder, passes through the center of the prostate gland. When there is pressure on the prostate gland, urination is difficult. There will be retention of urine, which is one of the liquids we can absorb back into the body. This can mark the beginning of arthritis and joint troubles, especially as we grow older. So we find we can have prostate gland and bladder troubles, uterine and ovarian disturbances, all because of prolapsus caused by gravity..37 NORMAL COLON. NOTE NORMAL POSITION OF STOMACH.38 Many doctors and gastro-intestinal specialists are making their living treating hemor-rhoids and other anal, rectal and bowel problems caused mainly by pressure from the trans-verse colon and various organs involved while we are eliminating at the toilet. I think the toiletis the most abominable device ever invented in our civilization. We find that the Indians never had any rectal troubles; they had no hemorrhoid troubles whatsoever. Why? They squat-ted to defecate. If you go to France, Italy or South America, you will find that the toilet is often a hole in the floor and you have to squat. This is the normal eliminating position, the one in which all of our internal organs are held in the proper position. When this position is habitually used for elimination, no veins will protrude from the rectum. Now to add to the problem, we may have gas or we may have a hard stool. There is pressure against the rectum whenever we have hard fecal material or excessive gas. These problems are aggravated by fatigue and by the gravitational pull. It is well that you know this so you can learn to overcome these things. To overcome the problem of gravity when and if you must sit on the toilet, one thing to remember is to keep your hands over your head. You’Il find when you push down, the force is really against the rectal tissues and the rectal areas, so to overcome this keep your hands above your head. That’s the way it should be done anyway, if you’re going to use the regular toilet seat. In fact, in our sanitarium we had a little rope above and off to the side of the toilet to hold when there was a bowel movement, which kept the hands above the head.

IRIDOLOGY AND THE BOWEL

In looking at the bowel from the standpoint of iridology. the first thing we have found is always a black area in that portion of the ins corresponding to the bowel. The condition of the transverse colon (which comes across the top of the bowel) is indicated by signs near the top of the iris at from 10 o’clock to about 12 o’clock, within what is called the autonomic nerve wreath. We start down the descending colon, represented in the iris from 12 to 5 o’clock, then the sig-moid colon from 5 to 7 o’clock, until we come to the rectal area about 7 o’clock. This is only one side of the body. I don’t want to give a lesson in iridology but I would like to take you on a little learning trip because the ins has much to teach us about the condition of the bowel. In the iris of the eye, various conditions show up as black areas, which I call “bowel pock-ets,” where the autonomic wreath makes a definite break. I have found that the black area repre-sents underactivity, an inherent weakness and a toxic material settlement. Over the years, I went after these three things in my work with patients. I found that an inherent weakness in the bowel quickly leads to problems in bowel function unless the body has all the power and energy it needs to work with. When the body is tired, an inherent weakness in the bowel leads to hypoactivity. So, I had to take care of the energies of my patients. I had to take care of enervation. I had to get rid of tiredness. I had to help patients get rid of what I call “vitality wasters.” Every sick person is fatigued and rundown. They are burned out. They want to lie down. Some of them don’t even have the energy to walk. All they want to do is to go bed. They don’t have enough energy or spirit to really do things, and I found that while taking care of these people, having them rest and changetheir diets, I began to see certain healing signs come into those black areas in the irides. These correlations between bowel condition and the appear-ance of the iris were confirmed repeatedly over the years..39

THE FOLLOWING DIAGRAMS ILLUSTRATE BOWEL SIGNS AND OTHER IRIS SIGNS AS THEY RELATE TO VARIOUS CONDITIONS IN THE BODY..

40 There is much cynicism among medical doctors over the value of iridology, but I believe this will change. It takes three months to demonstrate healing signs in the eye and the average medical doctor seems to be unwilling to take the time for this kind of systematic follow-up. I can prove what I have presented here, but it does take three months. The average doctor wants to see it right now; he makes one test and that’s it. If it isn’t there in a week, it doesn’t exist. Iridology deals with tissue changes. When we examine the iris, we are “reading” tissue condition. We do not directly read toxic material settlements in the bowel. When we examine the iris, we are reading the bowel wall. When the healing signs appear, they are called calcium luteum lines. Improvement in the bowel wall takes care of toxic materials in the body; it moves them along a little quicker. We may quicken elimination of the acids by using foods containing potassium and sodium. We find that magnesium relaxes the bowel for those who have tension. Of course, we often resort to using milk of magnesia for this, but we can also use the magnesium which is found in our foods, of which yellow cornmeal contains the most. Magnesium is also found in all vegetables. Using the proper foods to bring about physical changes is slower than drug therapy; it is the natural way. We find no “undesirable side effects” here. When I first began seeing these changes come about in the irides of my patients’ eyes, I actually didn’t know I was doing anything unusual. I was simply putting my patients on a right-living regime. But I then started to have X-rays taken, because I wanted to confirm what I sus-pected was going on. I spent time at the Battle Creek Sanitarium and began to see how the X-rays verified what I was finding through iridology. When my iris reading indicated a bowel pocket at 3 o’clock, I found on the X-ray that there was a diverticulum in the bowel. I found there was a ballooned condition where the toxic materials were not being eliminated as they should. At that time, I studied with Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who was a master of taking care of the bowel. He wrote on colon hygiene and also did a great deal of work with diet. One thing I learned was that we have “friendly” bacteria in the bowel. These friendly bacteria keep the bowel clean from pu-trefaction and fermentation which produce excess gas and bad odors. Dr. Kellogg taught that the bowel should be about 85% acidophilus bacteria and 15% bacillus coli, or those which pro-duce gas. This, he stated was the right bacterial balance for a healthy bowel. I wanted to test my patients for this bacteria balance, so I sent fecal samples from 500 of my patients to a medical laboratory to find out about the relative amounts of acidophilus, bacillus coli and acid-fast bacteria. I wanted to know the effect of the pH (acidity/alkalinity value) and to find out all I could about the intestinal flora. The lab results averaged 85% bacillus coli or detri-mental bacteria as compared to 15% of the acidophilus. It was just the opposite of what is should be to be healthy! These were the results for 500 of the patients who had come to my office. Obviously, the bowel of the average patient was not what is should be. I have taken care of bowel problems through colonies. I have recommended colonies fre-quently to my patients, but you see, this alone doesn’t bring healing lines into the eyes, because healing signs come when there is a new chemical balance in the tissue. I deal in tissue, and when I see various bowel conditions indicated from the eyes, I can’t tell you that the problem is always diverticula. It could be diverticula and I would say 9 times out of 10 it is, because X-rays I have examined have demonstrated it as such. It is so important to mention that through iridology I have found reflex conditions from prob-lems in the bowel. There is a definite relation between certain organ conditions and the bowel conditions as indicated in the eye. For instance, I examined a lady who had torticollis (a wry.41.42 neck) and when I told her I would have to adjust her neck, she refused because she’d had several adjustments to her neck and it only seemed to become worse each time. She just couldn’t stand to have anybody touch it again. Well, I’m a chiropractor and I’m supposed to do adjustments. I was just starting in iridology but I had to do something, so I checked her eyes and found a black pocket. When I asked if she had ever had bowel trouble, she said she’d had it for years ever since her neck trouble began. Lately, the bowel problem had become worse. I prescribed an enema right away. She had three enemas and in one hour’s time while I was still there, she obtained complete relief from the stiff neck problem. I walked out of there and I hadn’t touched her neck. I only took care of the bowel. This was quite an experience and I will never forget it. Another patient came to see me some months later who had a large abscess on his neck, and in looking into the iris of his eye, I saw a large black hole with the most beautiful healing signs coming into it. I know you cannot have healing signs unless there is a change in diet. It is very necessary to talk about food. He said he had been driving behind a citrus truck which overturned and spilled oranges all over the road. When he stopped to help, the truck driver told him to pick up as many as he wanted, so he filled the trunk of his car and drank orange juice for 45 days. This certainly was an extreme elimination diet, but he couldn’t get rid of the accumulated toxic mate-rial in his body fast enough through normal elimination because he wasn’t doing enough in tak-ing care of the bowel. The overload of toxic material being eliminated produced the abscess on his neck.

INHERENT WEAKNESSES

Inherent weaknesses are areas of the body where toxic materials finally accumulate. It is in these organs that infection develops. We can have an infection in the lung, we can have abcessed teeth, we can have these problems in various parts of the body, and invariably, these infections come originally from the bowel. I have found a striking correlation in my iridology studies over the last 45 years, confirming that there is a definite relationship between conditions in sections of the bowel and conditions in other specific parts of the body. When a patient complains of a breast condition, there is a certain place in the bowel that I suspect harbors a low-grade infection which is affecting the breast area; or, other areas of the body nay have problems that can be traced to the bowel. Why separately treat any organ in the body if we find that the source of the problem is in the bowel? Look again to John Wayne. Is it possible that he should have been treated in the bowel area before the stomach and lung? I wonder also about the famous comedian, Jack Benny, who had a perfect examination just two months before he died of cancer. Could his death have been prevented? In one instance, a boy came to me with left leg problems. He had been treated for three years with massage, mechanical and chemical treatments. Examining the iris of his eye, I found a section of the sigmoid colon, the last part of the colon before it goes to the rectal area, I that was quite black. Since we cannot identify a disease from the iris, I refused to treat him until he had an X-ray. He had not had an X-ray until that time. It was discovered that he had cancer of the sigmoid colon and this boy died six months later. I believe this tumor was causing the reflex conditions in his leg, but he had been treated only for the leg problem. We had many experi-.43 ences in which black areas in patients’ irides showed specific troubles in various organs in the body, and I’ve been able to verify these in thousands of cases. I have seen many good results from caring for the bowel. I haven’t confirmed complete relief coming only from colonies. I’ve seen relief, but if you don’t change the diet, I don’t believe colonies are worth anything. If you don’t take care of your marriage problems or finan-cial disturbances, I believe you can create more acids, more mucus problems and more dis-turbances with distressed bowels, colitis and ulcers. With all the technical treatments avail-able today, I believe we have to consider a complete cleansing that’s physical, mental and spiritual. At the Battle Creek Sanitarium, they showed that you have to have a sufficient amount of the acidophilus bacteria, the friendly bacteria, as compared to the bacillus coli or the gas-producing bacteria. There are certain foods that produce and help to develop friendly bacteria and there are certain foods that break down friendly bacteria. Meat can break down friendly bacteria when you consume too much, especially when you have a static bowel or a lazy colon. We find that coffee destroys the friendly bacteria in the bowel more readily than any-thing. Chocolate also breaks down the friendly bacteria, as do over-cooked foods. We should be working toward cleansing the body through better nutrition, more exercise, by changing our life habits and go in a direction that will be good for our whole body. Someone will ask, I’m sure, why we use coffee enemas if coffee breaks down the acido-philus? If one is in need of a coffee enema, chances are that the acidophilus is already gone, and the benefits obtained by its stimulation of elimination are very worthwhile. We reestablish the flora with implants after the cleansing. This takes courage, determination, perseverance and faith in the ultimate, unseen out-come. Yet, by following the right path, by looking to nature as our model, we realize that our choice has the best potential for health and happiness. It calls for a commitment to give up the old familiar, easy, toxic habits and take up the new, unknown, seemingly difficult unfamiliar ones. Changing habits is the hardest task in the world to accomplish. It’s as if we were made of quick-setting jelly, fresh and pliable right out of the jar, but soon to turn hard and brittle. There is a fear factor involved in giving up an old habit. Even though it’s bad for us to keep it there is still the comfortable feeling in knowing it. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush-but if the bird in the hand is a vulture, it may end up eating you some day. Don’t commit intellectual suicide by closing yourself off to alternative possibilities, for after all, if what you know and do now is killing you, then you are suffering from a lack of knowledge and wisdom and the saving answer to your problem is to be found in the new, unfamiliar territories. Alvin Toffler in Future Shock aptly states that man’s current and future task for survival is in his ability to adopt new ideas and habits very quickly, in fact. much more quickly than he has ever managed in the past. Is he up to it’? Can he let go of the life-snuffing old ways quickly enough to recover from past and present mistakes in order to grab hold of a correct and viable alternative? No one knows. We are in the midst of finding out. We should not accept anything that is not in balance with nature into our bodies. We cannot improve upon God’s perfect order. It is suicide to try. It serves no good purpose and is.44 destructive in all ways. Whole, natural and raw is the absolute perfection that our bodies require and respond to best. Anything else is a cheat and a robber. Processed, white sugar, for example, literally leaches out of the body certain substances, It requires energy and metabolic substances pulled from the body’s bank account of nutrients to deal with it once ingested. In return, the sugar gives an incredible nothing. That’s correct, nothing’ In fact. it takes more to get rid of it than it gives and is therefore a thief of potent proportions.

CHEMICAL IMBALANCES

When the body begins to lose its balance in any sector, there is a reverberation through-out the whole organism that feels that vibration of imbalance. Illness and disease are states of disharmony in the body. One of the subtlest forms of imbalance in the body that I know of is a chemical or nutritional imbalance. It’s like not seeing the forest for the trees. We live in it, on it, and by it, immersed in it to the point of nonrecognition. especially if it is a chronic condition as it so often is. Chemical deficiencies and imbalances are at the root of many ills. W e can even say that the imbalances extend into the atomic level and even on into the electromagnetic levels of cellular function. Why is radiation so dangerous? Because of the disturbance it sauses in the tissues on an atomic level. The chemical processes are upset and influenced disharmoniously. The natural, God-given, peaceful, beneficial order is broken. When we have toxic substances in the colon seeping into body tissues, it’s like having a time-release poison in your bowel. It works slowly, imperceptibly wearing down the vitality, resis-tance and health of body tissues and organs. It’s sort of like having our own personal chemical dump that we carry around with us all the time. It’s always working as long as the toxins are present, serving out its lethal microdoses. Never before has man been in such a toxic, poisonous environment. The air, water, food, soil, clothing and everything he touches has potential or real toxic substances that eventually find their way into the body. People are more toxic today than ever in known history. The levels of it and the extent of it are becoming a nightmare as illness walks the land. The need to detoxify and cleanse the body has nerer been greater than right now. Nearly all the patients I see have a toxicity problem that has to be cared for first. Restoring balance, peace and harmony is the physician’s job. That is the task he has c;.osen to do. It cannot be done effectively or lastingly in a body that is breaking down due to an accumu-lation of toxic materials in the body: i.e., autointoxication. When the bowel fails, the whole body goes into a nutritional crisis. Metabolic shock waves flow to every cell and tissue. It’s often said that you are what you eat. I say that you are what you absorb. You can eat the finest foods and still starve to death if the digestive and absorptive processes are not functioning properly..45 When we cleanse and remove the toxic debris, feed the body good, healthy, vital foods and stop poisoning ourselves, the body will respond with healing and reversal of disease processes. We find that the bowel wall needs sodium, which neutralizes acid The average person produces much acid in the body and this draws sodium out of the body, through the tissues of the bowel and stomach. Furthermore, we know that potassium is very necessary, because it is a muscle element. The average person does not realize that potassium neutralizes acids. To neutralize acids in the body. potassium is taken from the bowel wall. I believe that the bowel wall is the most maltreated tissue of the body, functioning in a constant state of semi-starvation for chemicals which are consumed in day-to-day living, The most important ele-ments found in the bowel wall must be kept in constant supply or we will suffer the conse-quences. In addition to the blood and chemical elements, we must discuss some of the foods we put into the body. Bran is verv poouiar now in this country. We should have been using bran all along. Why did we give it up? We have thought a great deal about “junk foods,” and we talk a lot about them. We talk about school lunches; we talk about hospital snacks that are available while you’re trying to get well. We find that so many of the sweetening materials in drinks today rob the body of the vital health producing elements that are stored in the bowel.

CARE FOR THE MUCOUS LINING

The bowel wall has a mucous lining, and this mucous lining throws off toxic material, acids and catarrh. In order to get rid of the catarrh, the mucous lining has to come off along with it. In most cases, it does not. We find that the mucous lining is not moving out the accumulations as it should, and in fact, it clings to the bowel wall itself. We find that we have to take care of that mucous lining. The bowel wall may also have an inherent weakness. When I say that I’ve never found a patient who didn’t have an inherent weakness in the bowel itself, I’m not saying that the whole bowel has an inherent weakness, but only sections of it. This shows up as slow and underactive functional ability. If we have food that does not go through our system as fast as it should, we find that it will go still slower and be even more underactive in moving through an inherently weak section of the bowel.

CHEMICAL STRUCTURE

A healthy bowel contains sodium, potassium and magnesium for proper functioning. These three chemical elements are lacking in our civilized foods more than anything else. Sodium is a chemical element that neutralizes acids and it is found in the lymphatic system. It is required in tissue that is pliable, active and movable; i.e., joints, ligaments and tendons. Potassium is the great alkalizer in the body and found more in the muscle structure than anywhere else. Potassium is found in our bitter vegetables which so few people ever eat any-more. Sodium and potassium are found more in salad vegetables than anywhere else. Salads have been left out more and more in our food intake in recent years and the soft foods taken in their place have increased. Could this occurrence be partially responsible for much of our diver-ticular and bowel problems today?.46 We find that magnesium is the relaxer in the bowel; it is also the element most necessary to have good bowel movements. Milk of Magnesia, which is probably one of the most promi-nent of all drugs being used today, is a good peristaltic stimulator; however, we are using a drug that only gives symptomatic relief. I do not believe that the magnesium used in its drug form is particularly favorable to remaking and rebuilding the bowel structure. It is the magnesium in our foods that can do the greatest amount of good. Magnesium is found a good deal in salad vegetables. It is found heaviest and most abundantly in yellow corn. Cornmeal is one of the foods that has been milled and refined so much that it no longer has the roughage from the kernel that makes it one of the great laxatives and one of the great bowel toners we can take into the body. In spite of this shortcoming, I believe that everyone should have yellow cornmeal cereal at least two mornings every week. As we work with eliminating the encrusted mucous lining, we must also consider nourish-ing the new cells below it. We use flaxseed and psyllium seed as a lubricant and bulk. These seeds, along with sunflower seeds and other seed oils, contain vitamin F, which is used to rebuild the mucous lining, especially in the bowel. Thus, we are getting triple benefit from these substances.

MENTAL ATTITUDE

There is a mental side to physical health. The mind can cause tension. We know that it can cause contraction in the bowel wall. We might say that colitis begins in the head. Inflam-mation of the bowel can be caused by nerves and stress. Many people have much better bowel movements when free of emotional pains and aches and when free from money wor-ries. Good companionship, relaxation and music can be conducive to good bowel move-ments. What I’m pointing out is simply that the bowel has to be taken care of through the wholistic healing art, rather than by some drug, adjustment, reflex therapy treatment or even by taking care of the diet. Each of these will bring some improvement, but we must realize that the bowel will not function right until we know how to live properly. There is a way of right living, and it isn’t just food or diet. We find that it is important to get along with people, because the problem isn’t always what is wrong with you; it may be who is wrong with you. I do not wish to give the impression that I have become one-sided in my emphasis upon the importance of a healthy, clean intestinal tract, but evidence has been coming to me for a long time which indicates that people do not realize that constipation is at the root of most of our diseases today. I feel that people are not regarding poor health as seriously as they should. They place their health problems secondary to all their other problems-financial, domestic, real and invented-while the health of an individual or a nation should at all times have first place on the list of duties and responsibilities. Without health there is little that one can truly enjoy. The road to health is the one that begins with an understanding and commitment to cleanse and detoxify the body, to restore balance, peace and harmony. We must be willing to rise above selfish habits, realizing that the path of cleansing has implications for the intellect, emotions and spirit. We need to accept our personal responsibility on this path..

CHAPTER 6   INTESTINAL FLORA AND BOWEL GARDENING