The Mystery of the Blood, Part 2

The unrecognized role of the blood

The examples given earlier demonstrated what happens in extreme cases, when the organism in its entirety, body and blood, is threatened by danger. The priorities were clear; the body was sacrificed in order to save the blood. The blood, therefore, was more important. Yet a fundamental question begs to be asked: if the body is there to serve the blood, what is the blood there to serve? In fact, if the blood is more important than the body, the element that the blood serves must be more important still. But what is it?

The most important reason why the blood exists is to serve the spirit. The role of the blood is to form a connecting link between the body and the spirit. Without the blood the spirit could not incarnate nor stay incarnated in the physical body that serves as its instrument or tool. The spirit therefore is not connected to the body but to the blood and through it, the body. We can now understand why the body works so vigorously for the blood, that it is even willing to sacrifice itself for the blood. Without the blood there is no connecting bridge and therefore no physical life. If the body is alive it is not because of the blood but because of the spirit connected to the body through the blood.

New therapeutic horizons

The fact that the blood plays the role of bridge signifies that the spirit can be reached through its intermediary. Because food regimes or special diets react upon the composition of the blood, this can change the «spiritual» state of man and alter his state «of being». The many people today who suffer from undefined, yet persistent fears, depression and disturbances can therefore be treated without pharmaceutical remedies that act upon the nerves and the brain, but by returning the blood to its ideal composition. The treatment utilized is simple and natural. It involves giving the blood what it is missing through a food regime and taking vitamins and minerals adapted to each particular case, as well as by purifying the blood through short-term diets and draining techniques (with plants for example). In this way, not only will the body feel better, but also the spirit.

The Mystery of the Blood, Part 1

The role of the blood is not just to irrigate the tissues. It also forms a connecting link between the immaterial spirit of man and his physical body. This unrecognized role of the blood allows us to better understand ourselves and expands our therapeutic horizons.

What is the purpose of the blood?

It is generally accepted that the role of the blood is to irrigate the organic tissues so that the cells are constantly supplied with oxygen and nutrients. We also recognize the role it plays in evacuating toxins as well as transmitting hormonal messages from one cell to another. Furthermore, we know that the blood plays an important role in the organic defence system.

According to this information the blood is the body’s faithful servant that is used to carry out multiple functions. Hierarchically speaking, the body is held in first place and the blood, with its vital, but nevertheless subordinate role, is held in second place.

But is this true? Does the blood really play a subordinate role?

Upon examination of well know facts we will see that this is not the case.

During a 24-hour period of dialysis we can purify 300 to 400 grams of urea, whereas the single presence of 2 grams per litre of blood is considered very dangerous. Since our entire body only holds approximately seven litres of blood, where do the 300 to 400 grams of urea come from? Evidently it was not stored in the blood since the presence of a few grams is mortal, but it was held back in the body, more precisely in the organic tissues, and could only be returned to circulation through dialysis.

If the body is then sacrificed in this manner and must bear the price of intoxication by the urea in order to allow the blood to maintain a stable composition, does this not signify that the blood is more important than the body, and in this case, is the body not serving the blood?

Blood and deficiencies

The blood’s top position is equally evidenced in the opposite way, when the danger threatening the blood’s equilibrium is not an excess of harmful matter as was explained in the previous example, but is a lack of useful material. Normally the blood contains a certain amount of alkaline substances (calcium, sodium…) that it uses to neutralize acids that endanger its pH level, or in other words, its degree of acidity. When the influx of acid is too much and regular these alkaline minerals become depleted and another defence system takes over: alkaline minerals are taken from different tissues in the body. They are taken from the skeleton, the nails, the skin or the hair in order to re-establish the blood’s pH level.

When the pH unbalance is not resolved, the continual removal of alkaline minerals depletes the body of its mineral composition and transforms it into a real state of ruin: the bones decalcify and become porous; the teeth decay, crumble and fall out; the skin cracks, etc.

Here once again, the primordial importance of the blood is clearly observed by the veritable sacrifice of the body in favour of the blood. In order to maintain an ideal blood composition in alkaline minerals, the minerals are taken from the tissues and the organs even though these can be severely injured.

These two examples are neither exceptional nor unique. The same defence reactions take place when other wastes, besides urea, are concerned and with other nutritional substances.

Contrary to popular belief, the blood is therefore not present to serve the body but rather the body is there to serve the blood.

What is an Illness?, Part 2

Why do we fall ill?

The role played by toxins and deficiencies

When we understand how the state of the terrain becomes degraded, we also realize that it depends entirely on outside sustenance to build and renew itself. The nutritive substances contained in the foods we eat are used to manufacture cells and body fluids. Our bodies function thanks to them.

Toxins

If the intake supplied by one’s diet is greater than the body’s needs, the body accumulates substances it is unable to use. As the body is forced to store them, they collect in the tissues. This can include chemical or synthetic ingredients in food, such as coloring, preservatives, and so on. Since nature has never provided any instructions to the body for their use, these more or less toxic substances will collect in the tissues and alter the biological terrain in accordance with their specific characteristics.

Even when the diet – the body’s primary source for retaining or restoring health – is adequate, it is still possible for wastes to accumulate in the body. This occurs every time that worry, stress, fear, and so forth disturb the multitude of biochemical transformations that take place in the body – the body’s metabolism. Digestion functions poorly, so the food ingested engender a plethora of wastes, generally designates as toxins. This includes crystals, which, produced by the metabolising of proteins, are acidic in nature and can be hard and painful to excrete; and colloidal wastes, such as phlegm, which are produces by the metabolising of starches and fats and do not generally cause pain.

All of these substances, whether toxic or not, when present in excess amounts prevent the body from functioning properly and are considered to be the primary cause of the deterioration of the biological terrain, and therefore the source of disease.

Deficiencies

There is another major cause for degradation of the biological terrain, one brought about not by an excess of one or more substances in the body, but by a deficiency in a substance it requires to function properly.

A deficiency is a lack of essential nutriments that are indispensable for the body’s ability to rebuild itself and function. Such nutriments include proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, minerals, vitamins, and trace elements. The composition of the body’s internal environment can be maintained only when there is sufficient intake of all the elements it requires. If one of these elements is not supplied in sufficient quantity, there is an immediate slowdown in physical function. When this element is entirely lacking from the diet, the body functions that are dependent on it can no longer be assured. If this state of complete deficiency extends for a prolonged amount of time, death is a real possibility.

In our society of abundance, it might seem difficult to imagine falling ill due to dietary deficiencies, but the truth is it is very possible and even quite easy. The foods available today supply less and less of our body’s needs because they themselves are suffering deficiencies, due to modern farming and husbandry practices. The countless refining processes our food undergoes before reaching the grocery shelves exacerbates the problem.

How do we heal?

The wisdom of the body

Everyone has, at least once, recovered from a disease without taking any medicine, or products containing active ingredients for treating illness. And yet, when someone is sick, the main concern is always to produce medication. This need for a remedy at any cost has been engraved deeply into our brains, as it is commonly accepted that without medicine there is no recovery.

Medications are supposed to contain all the curative powers necessary to restore a sick body to health. And yet, how many patients have recovered their health without taking any medication, either because it was unavailable or because they simply did not want to take medication? And, how do animals cure themselves, since they do not have any medicines naturally available to them? Is there another option?

Natural medicine talks about a “medicalizing” nature or “vital force of the body”. This force cannot be identified with any one organ of the body; its existence is revealed only in the effects of its action. Hippocrates said, “The vital force of the body is the most powerful force of cohesion and action in existence. However, it is invisible to the eye; only reasoning can conceive of it.”

In the healthy state, the physical vital force orchestrates and harmonizes all physical functions of the body. It works constantly to maintain the body in the healthiest state possible.

Cleansing crisis

When confronted by a rising tide of overloads and congestion of the tissues, the vital force does not remain on the sidelines as a passive spectator. It reacts vigorously to restore order to the physical organism so that it can continue – or resume – its normal functioning. All its efforts aim at reestablishing the purity of the biological terrain by neutralizing the toxins found in this internal cellular environment, and expelling waste from the body by means of the various excretory organs. This eviction of toxins from the body often can take a spectacular form. Such events are called detoxification crisis, also known as cleansing crisis, or healing crisis, due to the abrupt intensity of their inception.

Elimination during these kinds of crisis will be made trough the same excretory organs as in condition of normal health, but with greater forcefulness. Colloidal waste will be expectorated trough the respiratory tracts, und urine will be laden with waste. The skin may eliminate waste trough heavy perspiration, pimples, or various forms of eczema. The digestive tract also plays a role by releasing diarrhea, or abundant secretions of bile.

Which excretory organs are pressed into service depends on the nature of the waste and the strength of a patient’s different organs, so there are significant variations from one individual to the next, and multiple possibilities for the localization of disorders. These local disorders are the visible manifestation of the vital force’s defensive reaction as it seeks to correct a much more profound ill: the congestion of the biological terrain.

What is and Illness?, Part 1

The Importance of the Body's Internal Cellular Environment

It is rare for any person whose health has been compromised to ask himself “Why am I sick? What is really happening in my body?” To the contrary, all of his attention – and that of those around him – is focused on his blatant, disagreeable, or painful symptoms, which are actually just surface manifestations of his deep-rooted illness.

It seems self-evident that the normal reaction would be to make a vigorous counterattack to the assault represented by the illness. As a general rule we behave as if disease were an outside entity independent of the patient, which, by entering the body, suddenly makes the patient sick. From this perspective, we consider the individual stricken by illness to be an innocent victim requiring our assistance because, through bad luck, he or she suffered an unhealthy assault.

The expressions used to speak of illness clearly support this premise. We say the we “fall” ill, that we haven been “stricken”, or that we have “caught” a disease.

According to this hypothesis, taught by allopathic medicine, each “assailant” determines different characteristic disorders. There are, therefore, as many diseases as there are assailants; this is what is known as multiple causes, or plurality of disease. Since there are no common elements among diseases in this corollary, each must be treated with its own specific remedy.

In naturopathy, however, all diseases are considered as different manifestations of a single, common disorder. This common denominator, this profound illness from which all others result, resides on the level of the biological terrain, or internal cellular environment. This terrain consists of all the fluids in the body, including those contained within cells and those in which the cells are bathed, as well as blood, lymph, and cerebrospinal fluid.

The intra-and extracellular fluids, along with the blood, represent 70 percent of the body’s weight. These fluids are crucial, inasmuch as they constitute the environment of our cells. Intracellular fluid fills the cells, gives the body its shape and tone, and allows the exchanges that need to take place between its organs. Extracellular fluid carries oxygen and nutriments to the cells, and carries waste they expel to the excretory organs.

Our cells depend entirely on these fluids. They deliver nutritive supplies (food, vitamins, water, oxygen, and so on), eliminate toxins created by the metabolic process, and transmit messages from one cell to another, ensuring their coordinated and harmonious interaction.

Just as our environment provides conditions that are favourable for health or make us sick, depending on whether or not it is polluted, the environment of the cells plays an influential role in the state of their health. If they are bathing in a milieu that is deficient in oxygen and overloaded with wastes, they will be incapable of performing their tasks properly.

Our body is made up of cells. If these cells are not functioning normally, the entire body will function poorly and enter the state that we call illness.

There is a precise and ideal composition of the internal environment that permits proper functioning of the body. Any major quantitative or qualitative change in these fluids leads to illness. For this reason, the vital force of the body is constantly struggling to maintain the internal cellular environment in perfect balance.

Primarily the body does this by neutralizing and expelling all wastes and toxins that are a consequence of metabolism. This purification is carried out by the emunctory, or excretory organs – liver, intestines, kidneys, skin, lungs – which filter and eliminate waste.

The localization of “surface” disorders depends on the particular weaknesses of an individual’s body. All the body’s organs are immersed in fluids that are overloaded with wastes. They are all irritated and attacked similarly by toxic sludge. The first organs to give way, the first to find this environment intolerable, are obviously those that are genetically weakest or have the greatest demands placed on them. For example, for people whose profession requires them to talk a lot, it would be the throat; for those most often affected by stress, the nerves will give way; miners, painters and others who breathe in dust or noxious gases at their place of employment are likely to have problems with the respiratory tract. The illness is one and the same in all cases, but manifests differently in every individual.

We owe this concept of a single cause for every disease to Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine. In the time around 500 BCE he wrote: “The nature of all illness is the same. It differs only in its seat. I think it only reveals itself in such diversity because of the multiplicity of places where the illness is established. In fact, its essence is one, and the cause producing it is also one.”

Twenty-five centuries later, Alexis Carrel, the 1912 Nobel Prize winner for medicine, stated: “The body is ill in its entirety. No illness remains strictly confined to a single organ.”

Image: 5th century bas relief, said to be of Hippocrates

Food from the native soil, Part 2

Plant and Soil Affinity

If it is understood that a major part of our diet should consist of foods local to our zone, it is more difficult to see why we should not consume foreign foods that are also grown locally. Is there really any difference between a pear grown locally and one from South Africa, or between French wheat and wheat from America?

Indeed, an analysis of the chemical composition of foods reveals significant differences. The water, protein, fat, cellulose, and mineral salt content of wheat can be as much as doubled depending on its origin. Fruits like apricots, grapes, and so on, cultivated in southern countries are generally sweeter with a higher sugar content than those from temperate zones.

Phytotherapy fully recognises the fact that the chemical composition of plants varies with the soil of origin. Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) from the French Riviera is rich in phenols while thyme from Provence and Spain is rich in linalool and citrals. The essential oil in wormwood from the Paris area contains a maximum of 19.5% of thujol, whereas that of the Alps contains up to 80.6%!

Naturally, these variations in composition lead to very different therapeutic effects. Likewise, foods have different physiological effects depending on their origin. These effects do not manifest immediately but develop over time.

In addition, beyond the chemical analyses that reveal only the material aspect, there are differences in the subtle energies or radiations given off by foods. It is easy to conceive that growing fruits and vegetables have developed within themselves precise energies against existing local conditions (temperature, humidity, rainfall and sunlight) and transmit these energies to local consumers who need them in the same environment. Clearly, foods coming from other regions will develop different energies which are not as beneficial for local consumers.

Influence of Food on Health

The harmful consequences of the consumption of food not originating from one’s native soil are more easily noticed in those who have left their native land to live for an extended period in a different climatic zone. There they consume foods that are of a quite different nature.

At first their health will be relatively stable with the new diet (just like one spending a few weeks abroad on holiday) but with time, especially if they consume only the food from the different environment, their vitality diminishes and their resistance to illness declines. In spite of any efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet they cannot sustain the same energy level and enthusiasm as they possessed on arrival. The local food cannot provide what their bodies need to function properly.

The craving for their native foods will manifest sooner or later in immigrants, and will be more difficult to deal with than other important changes in their living conditions.

In fact, it is significant to observe that their requests from relatives or friends visiting from home are typically for homegrown foods!

Does it mean that, if at all possible, an immigrant should exclusively eat food from his native soil? No. His diet is subject to a double imperative. On the one hand, he should eat local foods which are adapted to local conditions he now inhabits; on the other hand, he should eat foods from his native soil which support the characteristic needs of his body.

The term ‘soil’ should not be taken in a restrictive sense: one can consume foods growing outside of one’s own backyard! Food from one’s own region, province, even from the same geographic or climatic zone of birth offers adequate affinity.

The issues that have historically been faced by immigrants now confront the majority of people, who live in their country of origin, because of the fairly recent development of global trade in fresh foods. Current commercial methods facilitate the importation of foods from distant countries, but generally local foods are also available and should be preferred. With proper care the Law of Affinity will be respected, health maintained and reinforced through a judicious choice of foods.

Photo courtesy Photobucket