It's Only Natural
Chapter XXIII
Miscellaneous Diseases And Treatments
To keep this book a respectable length, we are grouping together in this chapter a variety of methods that aren't necessarily related but that have all proven useful in "healing the sick." I realize it is impossible to describe in one book all the techniques we use, but those discussed are typical of the work we do. If you have a problem not mentioned in this book, feel free to write of call us on our toll free line and we will reply promptly to let you know if there is a natural method of overcoming your difficulty.
Leg Ulcers and Unna's Boot
A type of therapeutic aid known as Unna's Boot is without a doubt the most useful aid I've seen for helping to heal leg ulcers and other conditions of the legs caused by interference with the return of blood from the legs to the heart. If the circulatory problem in the legs is due to poor blood flow to the legs, usually the chelation method (see Chapter 22) is the preferable therapy, but if the problem is centered on an inadequate return flow to the heart because of varicosities or other inabilities of the veins to properly convey the blood, Unna's Boot therapy has proved invaluable.
The easiest way for the physician to use this device is by the use of a special gelatin-coated bandage, which can be ordered from most medical supply houses. Three or four-inch widths are used, depending on the size of the legs. The affected leg is wrapped from toe to knee very carefully and evenly with the gelatin bandage. When the gelatin bandage dries, it produces a moist non-rigid but inelastic leg cast, which helps support the collapsed veins in a way that support hose and even heavy elastic stockings can not. As the patient walks, the massage action between this bandage and the veins greatly increases the venous blood flow. The increased blood flow enables the body healing mechanism to function more normally and most leg ulcers heal within a relatively short time once the Unna's Boot treatment is initiated.
It may be possible at first to leave the bandage on only a day or two if the leg is very sensitive and in some extreme cases we have had to replace the bandage daily until the circulation improved and pain diminished. Once the sensitivity is reduced, however, the bandage may be left on for a week or two between replacements, although for best healing I prefer not to leave it on longer than one week because after this time it dries out too much to provide its most beneficial therapeutic effect.
A patient with the Unna's Boot should always be encouraged to walk while the bandage is in place. The milking of the veins that occurs during rhythmic walking effects the healing, not the bandage itself.
This method is not unique with our Centers, or even to our profession. It was developed by a medical physician and is available to all general practitioners. However, in our forty years of practice we have found very few physicians who use or who are even familiar with this therapy. Perhaps, because it is messy and somewhat tedious to put on, many physicians eschew it for antibiotics and various salves and ointments. The prescribing of these, rather than applying the Unna's Boot certainly does save time for the physician, but in our experience doesn't always benefit the patient.
If you have leg ulcers or similar inflammatory states due to varicose veins or other vascular difficulties, I suggest you look into the Unna's Boot. It is entirely natural, harmless, inexpensive and extremely effective in almost all instances.
Recently, we have added the LLLT therapy to that with the Unna's Boot. By treating the leg ulcer just prior to the putting on the Boot, we have been able to hasten healing.
The Jobst Machine
While on the subject of leg difficulties, I want to mention the Jobst Company of Toledo, Ohio, which devoted almost its entire efforts to appliances that aid the circulation and overcome swelling of the legs and feet. Although this company makes a variety of excellent elastic stockings and related products, it is their reciprocal pneumatic machine for reducing leg edema that we want to describe.
The Jobst machine, which is designed to help drain the various forms of water or edema from the legs and arms of patients so afflicted, consists of an automatically controlled air compressor unit and a rubber and cloth boot that goes over the affected extremity. The boot is built like a balloon, and a small tube from it fits onto the compressor. The compressor inflates the boot so that it applies pressure evenly on all parts of the treated limb. After a short preselected time, the pressure is released and the boot collapses for a specific interval. This alternating cycle is repeated as long as is desired, usually fifteen to twenty minutes per part.
By this intermittent compression and decompression, the blood and lymph are greatly aided in their passage from the affected limb. If these treatments are properly given, combined with other efforts to remove the cause of the vascular congestion and edema, the patient will receive great help in overcoming the edema.
The Jobst machine can't cure because it doesn't remove the cause of the condition. However, when the congestion is overcome, the cause can often be more readily attacked by our other natural methods.
The Webber Technique
In my work, I come into contact with many fascinating people; high on this list was H. C. Webber. A chemical engineer by profession and an organic gardener by desire and avocation. Webber has one of the most astute medical investigative minds that I have ever encountered. In his formative years he examined the whole procedure of the chiropractic and osteopathic adjustment. At that time he formulated certain personal conclusions that were contrary to those generally held by other investigators in this field, but that he believed to be valid. In order to implement his discoveries, he helped to develop a specific type of adjusting table that he thought more physiologically designed than any he had seen previously. With this table, he produced a variety of manipulations that were different from any then or now in vogue.
Unfortunately, Webber had no degree in medicine, so when he attempted to use this therapy to help the sick, there was a complaint, an investigation and finally an injunction preventing him from continuing his clinical research. There was no restraint, however, preventing him from teaching this method of therapy to licensed practitioners and he graciously and patiently trained me in his method manipulation.
The basic Webber technique consists of a specific gentle adjustment to open the various articular surfaces of the body vertebrae. Most chiropractic and osteopathic treatments are designed to replace malpositioned vertebrae. This method attempts to free the nerve, blood and lymph supply by freeing jammed or fixed vertebrae not necessarily out of alignment. Webber contended that his method has the effect of balancing and normalizing many of the endocrine glands, particularly the pituitary glands.
The treatment takes only a minute or two and is never harmful, so we use it routinely in many cases and most patients feel that it plays an important part in their recovery.
The specific table used in administering this therapy is designed to counteract the various adverse effects of gravity on the segments of the spine and their attendant nerves. It is rare and we are fortunate to have one of the few remaining tables approved of by Mr. Webber for his unique therapy.
Two conditions have been especially helped by this therapy: Intractable headaches of cervical (neck) origin and lumbar disc compressions. The latter cases sometimes obtain almost miraculous relief by this therapy.
Urinary Problems and Natural Treatment
Orthodox treatment for kidney problems, other than infections, has always been less than satisfactory. Because the kidneys act as filters for many of the toxic end products of drug therapy, if they become diseased, chemical medication may easily aggravate kidney disorders. Medical treatment for severe kidney diseases therefore usually consists of transplantation or kidney dialysis, in which a machine takes the place of the kidney. Very little has been done medically to help regenerate or rebuild the kidney.
Chronic kidney disorders in the earlier stages can be helped greatly by natural therapy. We don't limit ourselves to any single specific method. Because this is such a vital organ complex, we use everything at our disposal to encourage the vital force to heal the diseased kidney. If the condition has not already progressed too far, our success is usually most gratifying. Even in severe disorders, natural methods offer help, although a complete cure isn't to be anticipated, it isn't beyond the realm of possibility.
Alkaline Urine
One of the more common urinary problems starts as a simple burning and irritation during urination and can develop into the various forms of cystitis. This condition is generally more common in women and in, our experience, stems more often from urinary alkalosis than from any other cause. As long as the urine is slightly acid (pH 6 or less), most bacteria can't proliferate, because the acid medium isn't conducive to such growth. On the other hand, if the urine exhibits a pH above 6 (pH of 7, 8, and even 9 are possible), it then provides an acceptable medium for bacterial growth. A strongly alkaline urine can by itself, even in the absence of infection, create sufficient irritation of the urinary tissues to cause a frequent desire to void small amounts of urine.
Because urinary alkalosis is so common, we make it a policy in our Centers to check the pH of the urine in every patient complaining of frequency or burning of urination, bed wetting in children or any form of urinary disease in which there is a semblance of difficulty that might be related to the urine itself.
On the market there are several pH testing papers for self-testing. You should be able to find such papers at almost any drugstore and for those plagued by urinary difficulties such pH examination may well provide a clue to an irritating problem. Be certain that your obtain pH papers that are designed for urinary testing. Your want a rather narrow range of pH (From 5.0 to 8.0 or 9.0). Wide range papers are not accurate enough to show the subtle changes in pH needed by most of our patients. We always carry the proper pH papers in stock, so if in doubt ask for them at our one of our Centers.
The treatment of urinary alkalinity is usually very simple. Dr. D. C. Jarvis recommended apple-cider vinegar and honey for the correction of urinary alkalosis. However, I don't think that acetic acid is a good compound to use in the body; in our own work, we recommend not vinegar, but cranberry juice, unsweetened or sweetened only with honey, to change urinary alkalosis in patients. Cranberry juice has proven so successful that more and more urologists are recommending it, this being one instance in which a natural product has proven more effective and successful than any of the drugs available.
Mild and infrequent cases of urinary alkalosis can be treated at home by the use of this method. We usually recommend a pint to a quart of cranberry juice a day and abstinence from milk and citrus fruits during the treatment, because both milk and citrus fruits tend to increase the alkalinity of urine.
Urinary irritation, if caused by alkalosis, should leave shortly after treatment is begun. If the irritation persists, if it occurs more than once or twice a year, or if it is improved while taking the cranberry juice only to return when the cranberry juice is discontinued, home treatment is not adequate, and you should call our Center promptly.
Digestive Disorders
At one time, it was necessary for man, like the other animals, to search long and hard for his food. Usually he was pleased to obtain sufficient food to assure basic subsistence. At that time, man, as most wild animals now, probably had few digestive disturbances. For many centuries, however, man has been so resourceful in providing for himself that food for most is readily obtainable, not only in amount but also in such variety that it boggles the imagination. While the imagination may be boggled, the digestive apparatus is disturbed. In general, today, we tend to eat too much of too many things from too many areas, too often and under the wrong circumstances.
One has only to watch TV commercials to discover what ails us. Commercials for Alka-Seltzer, Bromo-Seltzer, Tums, RollAids, Maalox and a variety of other substances to help us when we eat "not wisely but too well" fill the screen. Recently, even these have not seemed adequate to quell the complaining digestive system and so the FDA has seen fit to allow the over the counter use of the much stronger anti acid drugs like Tagament. While this move is a bonanza for the Drug Cartels we cannot help but be concerned just what it will do, long term, to the digestive systems of Americans. Commercials for these products alternate with those trying to sell us something for our headaches, which, too, are often caused by improper diet, or something for constipation which is almost always caused by bad diet. A good two-thirds of the drug commercials on TV are for products that are directly or indirectly connected with our digestion.
At our Healing Research Centers, we treat a great many digestive disorders. The first fundamental of all such treatment is to correct the patient's food intake. Most patients can be greatly helped by simply placing them on our Basic Maintenance Diet, a diet designed and balanced to help the digestive system correctly handle the food that enters it. In many specific disorders however, such as gastritis, peptic ulcers and colitis, specific diets must be given at least until the basic pathologic disorder is overcome. Along with these diets, nutritional remedies are prescribed that aid in healing the patient's disorder.
Many herbal and homeopathic remedies are designed for overcoming digestive disturbances. These disorders, which are so rife in humanity, often respond poorly to orthodox drug therapy because the drugs, since they are not basically natural to the body environment, often aggravate the condition when used over a long time. The natural nutritional remedies and herbs are readily accepted by the system, as one might welcome an old friend returned from a long journey.
Many digestive disturbances are basically of nervous origin rather than due to specific organic causes. There is a large nerve center behind the stomach called the celiac, or solar plexus. If this nerve center becomes disturbed, which can easily happen if the emotions are upset, the whole mechanism of digestion can readily become disoriented. I find that, when this has occurred gentle fingertip manipulation of the nerve reflexes on the abdomen and over the solar plexus does much to relieve this nervous disorder. In fact, this is the only therapy that some patients receive at our Center and it has been known to completely cure many nervous digestive disorders. In addition to the manual manipulation of the Solar Plexus, we are now beginning to use the LLLT on this are with good results.
In severe digestive disorders, we aren't afraid to use our whole armamentaria of natural methods. The herbal colon therapy, diathermy, sine wave, Magnatherm, manipulation, spinal therapy, LLLT and the Webber treatment all have their place in certain problems. Most digestive disorders are caused, however, by improper diet and emotional irritability. Whenever we find these problems in our patients, we attempt to correct them before serious pathologic disorder results. In doing this, we can make the Beverly Hall Corporation Healing Research Center live up to its name.
Hemorrhoids (Piles)
Some disorders, like the fruit "prunes," bring a smile to our lips whenever they are mentioned. This is true unless you happen to be a grower of prunes or are afflicted with the mentioned disorder. Hemorrhoids obviously fall into this last category. You will never see a TV doctor treat hemorrhoids; they don't make for great drama, but more pain and discomfort can stem from this disorder than from a great many of the more "respectable" diseases.
Most cases of hemorrhoids are caused by congestion of the hemorrhoidal veins, which may result from several circumstances: (1) hereditary weakness of the venous tissues; (2) constipation, which puts pressure on the hemorrhoidal veins, interfering with the proper drainage; (3) any form of liver congestion, because the hemorrhoidal veins drain into the portal circulation, which passes through the liver before reaching the heart; and (4) various forms of colon and rectal disease, which may cause irritation and weakness of the tissues in this area.
The usual medical treatment for hemorrhoids is surgical removal. Some years ago injection treatments and negative galvanism were popular, though at present most of these non-surgical methods have lost favor and most physicians simply recommend the knife. What most physicians don't tell their patients is that the recovery period from this operation can be very painful because the rectal area has many sensitive nerve endings. It is also a rare physician who tells his patients that unless his habits are changed the hemorrhoids very likely will return necessitating another operation.
There are some patients in whom an operation is probably the therapy of choice; however, many cases of hemorrhoids respond very well to natural methods. In all cases, it should be the naturalist's duty to remove the cause of the disorder.
Constipation should be investigated; the general diet should be arranged to remove as much stress as possible from the liver; the patient should be warned about the use of highly spiced foods; alcoholic beverages should not be used, particularly wines and cordials; and sugar should be restricted to healthful limits. More fresh fruits and vegetables should be eaten and any local disorders of the rectum or associated areas that can be treated without surgery should be corrected. If the foregoing regimen is carried out in conjunction with herbal and specific nutritional supplement support, surgery can be circumvented in many instances. Where an operation must be performed, such a regimen at least should prevent the recurrence of hemorrhoids after the surgery.
For mild disorders, I can recommend a home treatment that has truly proven useful and sometimes almost miraculous in its curative capabilities. This is what I call my garlic and honey method.
The patient is asked to obtain some untreated and unpasteurized honey and several bulbs of garlic. Each night before he goes to bed, he is to remove one clove from the garlic bulb, strip off its papery outer covering and make a few small scratches in it with a paring knife. This clove of garlic is then dipped in the honey and inserted into the rectum as high as the index finger can push. The clove is left in place and will be voided with the next bowel movement, usually the next morning. Garlic oil is one of the most powerful healing agents known for rectal and hemorrhoidal irritation.
The garlic should be used for four nights in succession; then on the fifth night the raw honey should be warmed until it just loses its viscosity and runs freely. This honey is then drawn up into an ear syringe and injected into the rectum. The following night the garlic is again used and thereafter the honey and the garlic are alternated each night until a complete cure has taken place. Such a cure may take anywhere from one week to a month, depending on the severity of the inflammation.
It is important for the patient using this method to watch his diet and also to follow the general recommendations made for all hemorrhoid patients.
Here too, of late, we have been adding he LLLT with very good and sometimes near miraculous results.
The Marvelous Red Beet
The method I am about to describe is one I knew nothing about when I began to write this book. It all came about in this fashion: A short time ago I treated a woman for an abscess of the breast. Although our treatment was helpful, the disorder kept recurring, and even my most valued natural methods didn't seem capable of stemming its course. Out of desperation, the patient took antibiotics. Although this controlled the immediate reaction, it didn't prevent a recurrence. During the last exacerbation, the patient was visiting an old physician friend of hers in California who suggested that she try slicing a red beet and putting the raw slices over the abscessed breast. He told her that it was a method he himself had just learned recently and so far he found it very successful for such disorders. She tried it, and within a few days the abscess was cured and hasn't returned since.
After returning to Pennsylvania, the patient told me of her experience and suggested I try this method. Because I am always eager to test new natural methods no matter from what source, I told her I'd try it at the first opportunity. A week or so later, a patient of another physician showed up on a day when he was off. Upon examining her, I found a large boil on her left thigh that hadn't come to a head but was large and very painful. I suggested that she put the raw sliced beet on the boil just as my patient had described to me. I told her to get in touch with me within a day or two for the boil should then be ready for lancing.
I didn't hear from the patient for about a week and then one day she dropped by. I asked her if she wanted me to lance her boil. She just said, "What boil?" I said, "The boil you have on your thigh." She said, "Do you want to see?" In an examination room she showed me the spot where the boil had been. The skin was absolutely normal. I could see no sign that a boil had ever been there. I was happily surprised and asked her to tell me exactly what happened.
She said, "I went home that night and I told my mother just what you said, and I never saw a woman laugh so much in all my life. She said, 'My God, what kind of an insane doctor are you going to? Tomorrow I'm going to take you to my doctor and we're going to have that boil taken care of and you're not going to any of these quack doctors again.' Then I asked her, 'Can I put on the beet tonight?' and mother answered, 'I guess it's nothing that's going to hurt. But tomorrow we get that boil taken care of!'
"So that night I put the beet on just as you told me and went to bed. When I arose in the morning, I took a look at my leg and called my mother. I showed her my leg. When the beet was removed, the boil had completely vanished. There was only a small red mark remaining. Both mother and I were amazed. Within a couple of days even the red mark had vanished and now there isn't a sign of the boil." I then asked the patient, "What did your mother do?" She said, "What do you think? She called up all her girl friends and told them about it."
The results with boils and abscesses were so dramatic that I started using the beet slices for other staph infections. One of the most common forms encountered in daily practice in that of severe acne, and I suggested the beets for several of our worst cases. In almost all instances, the most severe lesions disappeared overnight. One patient told me that within two hours after putting on the beet, the pustule had vanished.
Although "beet therapy" isn't a cure all for acne, because it works only on the surface lesion, it is a great help and certainly far more natural and physiologic than the various suppressive creams, antibiotics and other more or less toxic substances usually used for this purpose.
What is it in the red beet that performs this miraculous function? I don't know. I only know that it works with amazing consistency and regularity. We are now in the process of testing the raw beet and the raw beet juice in a variety of other conditions and as this investigation proceeds, we shall report on more on this in future publications of our Healing Research Centers.
I wish to diverge from my subject for a moment to comment on the use of natural agents. Boils and red beets have been with mankind for many centuries and yet only now we are using the one to cure the other. With such a common condition, miraculously aided by such a common vegetable, being undiscovered by mankind for these many centuries, one must wonder how many other serious diseases could be helped by simple natural methods if only the time and energy were taken to investigate them. Our government spends millions of dollars annually to investigate disease and yet, until just recently, not one penny of this was spent studying natural methods. All this money goes into the continued research of orthodox medicine's destructive methods. If only a small portion of these funds was advanced to study natural methods, who can say how many beet-and boil relationships we might find?
Hyfercation
This method, like the Unna Boot, is not unique to our Healing Centers. It is a basic medical treatment, but it isn't well known to most patients.
Hyfercation is a method by which small skin growths such as warts, moles and papillomas can be removed by the application of a high-frequency electrical current. In common parlance, the skin defect is "burnt off." Such a method was quite popular at one time, though in recent years it seems to have lost much of its popularity; most physicians use either surgery or other methods such as freezing for removing these small skin growths.
In each instance-hyfercation, surgery, or freezing-one is destroying the tissues. Because the destruction is approximately the same with each method, theoretically there is little reason to prefer one over the other. In practice, however, they differ. There are several reasons why we prefer the electrical method in our Healing Centers.
It is simple and speedy. A small mole or Wart can be removed in just a few seconds. While for most small growths, we don't find anesthesia necessary, a topical (local) anesthetic can be used. Usually we merely place a small ice bag on the site to hyfercated for a minute or two before treatment and this numbs the area sufficiently for all except the most complicated cases. Rarely is the pain encountered during hyfercation objectionable to the average patient, and it disappears almost immediately after the treatment. In my experience, both freezing and surgery are less painful at the time but more painful later. The hyfercated area needs little after-attention and most patients rapidly forget that the treatment has even been given.
Hyfercation, by the nature of its heat and desiccation, tends to kill any malignant cells as it removes the offending part, whereas the scalpel may cause such cells to pass into the bloodstream, even though a large section of the offending object is removed. There have been no incidents known to us of malignant material being spread by hyfercation.
The use of this method is, of course, a matter of opinion. We at the Healing Research Center use it almost exclusively for removing small skin encumbrances, and we have never yet had a dissatisfied patient.
Skin Diseases
Practically all skin diseases respond very well to natural therapy. In fact one of the first great natural physicians, Father Sebastian Kneipp, considered the skin to be the major organ of disease elimination and he did much of his work to treat this potion of the anatomy.
In natural healing, we look upon skin conditions in a different light than do our medical confreres. We believe that most so called skin diseases are merely the body's attempt to eliminate a disease toxicity through this wide spread organ. Therefore we generally treat this condition from the inside out-that is, we work to overcome the internal disease process so that the skin elimination will no longer be necessary and the skin can then clear and become supple and smooth once again.
The medical treatment of skin conditions is usually by what we call the suppressive route, in which various substances are used to suppress or drive the skin eruption into the body. This action, according to naturopathic and homeopathic theory clears the skin but forces these toxic substances back into the body fluids, where they can do great harm that only becomes apparent later.
The natural healer will treat the skin as well, but it is always with a form of treatment that it hastens the removal of toxic products and never leads to their suppression.
The LLLT has proven to be of surprising value in skin conditions. It seems to aid the body in its eliminative efforts and in this way is in full harmony with natural therapeutic law.
"Poison"
We work and live in Pennsylvania Dutch country and one of the most common skin disorders here is what the local folk call "poison." This is usually an attack of contact dermatitis from poison ivy, oak or sumac. We use various homeopathic and specific natural remedies with great success in the treatment of this very aggravating condition, but a therapy I nearly always recommend is very simple and can be used by anyone anywhere. This is the parsley tea treatment.
To prepare this properly, 2 quarts of water are brought to a boil and then removed from the heat. Fresh cut parsley is spread liberally on top of the water, a lid placed over all, and the potion allowed to steep for half an hour. The liquid is then poured off and refrigerated. Two tablespoonsful of the tea is taken each hour until the condition is healed. Even the most severe cases of "poison" can be helped with this therapy, although for the best results you should consult a Center physician for the proper nutritional and homeopathic remedies to accompany the parsley treatment.
Few conditions are so exasperating to most physicians as those of the skin. We in the health field believe this to be true because physicians usually attempt to treat them in direct opposition to Nature's efforts. In our work we trust Nature and try to aid her in her efforts. We are almost always well rewarded by her and by our grateful patients' thanks.
Foot Problems
The big problems with foot conditions is that it is difficult to rest the affected part and still carry on any kind of a normal life. Very facetiously I tell patients want to know how to relieve the pressure on their feet to, "Learn to walk on their hands."
In all seriousness however, there are few things more distressful than painful feet. Many of these problems can be avoided if the proper measures are taken early on in life.
Excepting congenital deformities, most of our are born with good feet. It is what we do to them as we grow and mature that causes us most of our latter problems. The villain, assuming there is a villain, is not our unnatural appetite, our indolence or even the Medical Profession (how rare) but Dame Fashion. The natural foot is narrowest at the heel and from there widens until it is at its widest at the toes. Fashion, for centuries, has declared that this is not attractive; or worse yet, not sensual. Dame Fashion tells us that our foot ware needs to come to some form of a point in the area of the toes. Thus dictating a foot ware form that is in direct opposition to that of nature.
When fashion is observed, the foot suffers first and then, as the various forms of foot conditions develop from the long term unnatural pressures placed on the foot, the fashionable wearer suffers for the rest of his (or her) life. Thus, the vast majority of foot deformities that occur in our mature citizens can be laid at the feet (with her bunions, hammer toes and the like) of Dame Fashion.
What to do about it. The various foot problems can be helped by natural means. The new LLLT is helping many of these sufferers, but in truth the main reason for this section is to make a plea to mothers and fathers to see that their children are not forced to suffer as so many of us have. Look at your children's feet and insist that they are fitted with shoes that match the anatomy of the foot. Let's not feed any more foot victims to Dame Fashion. We were able to put the deforming corsets of the last century behind us why not the deforming shoes of this century?
Interestingly, there are shoes that are made in the form of the foot. They are made by special firms who cater only to those individuals with severe foot conditions. If these shoes are a part of the cure for such people, are they not the prevention of foot deformities also?
One last comment before we leave this subject. Even though you may have good shoes with a wide space for the toes to work, you can undo some of the benefit of them by the improper use of stockings. After you pull on your stockings, grab a hold of the toe of the stocking and pull it away from the foot. This is to give the toes some room in the stocking. It seems a simple thing but it can make the difference between deformed toes and good toes.