Fasting - an "operation without surgery"

[أم بدر الدين]

Fasting - an "operation without surgery"
part one

"Humans live on one-quarter of what they eat; on the other three-quarters lives their doctor." - Egyptian pyramid inscription, 3800 B.C.
"Very few people know what real health is, because most are occupied with killing themselves slowly." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Ph.D., Hungarian-born American biochemist; Nobel Prize in physiology and medical science
Before we look at how to fast, let's examine the question: "Why fasting?" Although hundreds of fasting centers and clinics have existed in most European countries throughout the 20th century, Americans are still very far behind the learning curve regarding scientific, therapeutic fasting, as well as in adopting natural and organic food diets.
Likewise, despite all 3 Fathers of Western Medicine having fasted and having prescribed fasting (Hippocrates, Galen and Paracelsus, who declared fasting "the greatest remedy, the physician within"), the fact remains that symptoms-oriented trained U.S. physicians are also equally in the dark.
In the U.S., many in the medical orthodoxy continue to take a negative view of fasting, particularly as a therapeutic tool. But when the medical profession shifts gears from treating illness to PREVENTING illness, fasting will be increasingly prescribed.
Harvard-trained M.D., Andrew Weil, in his 1995 bestselling book "Spontaneous Healing", clearly summarizes what Allopathic Medicine can and cannot do for you, on pages 225-226: "CAN: "Manage trauma better than any other system of medicine; diagnose and treat many medical and surgical emergencies; treat acute bacterial infections with modern antibiotics; treat some parasitic and fungal infections; prevent many infectious diseases by immunization; diagnose complex medical problems; replace damaged hips and knees; get good results with cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, and it can diagnose and correct hormonal deficiencies. Allopaths CANNOT: Treat viral infections; cure most chronic degenerative diseases; effectively manage most kinds of mental illness; cure most forms of allergy or autoimmune disease; effectively manage psychosomatic illnesses, or cure most forms of cancer."
Doctor Weil also holds this opinion: "Do not seek help from a conventional doctor for a condition that conventional medicine cannot treat, and do not rely on an alternative provider for a condition that conventional medicine can manage well."
Too often, scientific studies prove nothing. Frequently, the source of the money dictates the conclusions. Yet, these experiments are all we have to go by, and are crucially important when we are testing these potentially-dangerous drugs that may have various hazardous effects. Fasting and adopting a healing diet designed to help one's condition, on the other hand, are health-supporting. They will make a healthy person even healthier.