THE ROAD TOWARDS HEALTH

by Walter Last

Learn the Principles of Natural Living to Restore your Health...

The first and most important step in reversing the deterioration of your health is to realize that you may have caused it yourself. Because of ignorance and habit, we select the wrong foods; because of laziness, we do not exercise; because of lack of self-control, we create destructive emotions. Therefore, only the realization that poor health is the result of a lifetime of wrong living - including the living habits of our parents - can initiate a real change for the better.

The next step is to find guidance on the road towards health. There is so much contradictory advice on offer that it is utterly confusing for the aspiring health seeker. Worldwide, the healing arts are in a state of chaos. The sterile healing monopoly of the medical establishment is beginning to break down and multitudes of different healers are rapidly filling the gap.

Find out by reading, listening, meditating and experimenting which healing system is most appropriate for your own needs. Then start a determined healing program using careful self-observation.

MEASURING HEALTH

It can be seen from the above discussion that disease is not something that happens suddenly - for example one day you are healthy and the next day you are sick because cancer has just been detected. Instead, your state of health has greatly deteriorated over many decades to only a fraction of what it might be in true health. Even suddenly appearing infections are only possible because of a gradual deterioration of the immune system.

Health should be measured as vitality, as the body's ability to regenerate itself. An indication of the inherent vitality of the body is given by the speed of wound healing or bone mending and possibly hair and nail growth or, in a more scientific way, by the electric potential of body cells. Sometimes radionic methods may be useful in giving an estimate of vitality.

A reasonably objective way of measuring health is with electro-acupuncture diagnosis. There are different systems, such as Dermatron, Vega, Thera and others now commonly linked to computer programs. Basically, the electrical resistance of acupuncture points on hands and feet are measured. From this it can be seen which meridian, organ or gland is overactive or underactive and to what degree. Suitable remedies may be selected by introducing them into the electric circuit and observe their reaction on an abnormal reading. Also the health of teeth and jawbone positions can be assessed in this way. At a return visit a repeat diagnostic read-out will show the effect of the treatment program and point to necessary modifications.

According to this yardstick, hardly anyone living at present may be more than 90 per cent healthy, while most people in 'normal' health live at below 50 per cent of their personally attainable health potential. When a chronic degenerative disease becomes manifest, the health rate drops to below 10 per cent and at death, of course, it is zero.

It is meaningless to be elated about the success of conventional medicine in greatly reducing the number of people contracting certain infectious diseases. It is the overall number of unhealthy people that counts. If one disease is eliminated, unhealthy people will simply contract a different one. What is needed is a general health improvement that will effectively reduce the total number of people becoming sick and ultimately hinder the development of any disease.

Eventually with better genetic stock and improved living conditions we should be able to live an active and enjoyable life until the age of about 120 years and then quietly withdraw from the body. This is the presently unknown 'natural death'. For most of us who have serious inherited weaknesses and misused our body for many decades this may not be possible to achieve. Nevertheless, better health and an enjoyable life are possible for almost everyone. The key to success is in your mind!

THE HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM

The basic requirements for real healing involve the reversal of the factors previously listed as the cause of health degeneration. They include natural living - good nutrition, proper breathing, sufficient physical activity, improved emotional and mental attitudes - as well as specific procedures, uppermost of which is cleansing, the purification of body and mind.

A fundamental aim of all healing is to provide the body with more vitality. True healing is always a holistic process, involving all levels of the personality - physical, bio-energetic, emotional, mental and spiritual. A health improvement program may include the following steps.

1.   Improve your nutrition: discover and break addictions and allergies; avoid chemicalized, refined and other problem food;
      pay attention to food combinations; select food suitable for your body type and condition; use suitable supplements.

2.   Remove metabolic wastes and toxins: drink plenty of unpolluted water and use colonics, laxative foods, suitable packs;
      stimulate the skin; have repeated cleansing periods.

3.   Eliminate microbes and parasites from your body using electronic zapper, colloidal silver, oxygen therapy and herbal
      parasite cure.

4.   Strengthen the body with regular exercises such as yoga, tensing and stretching or suitable outdoors activity.

5.   Improve energy flows and work out specific problems with reflexology, acupressure, ear acupuncture, magnet and
      meridian therapy, massage and homeopathy.

6.   Create natural living conditions for yourself and your family by minimizing synthetics and plastics, pollution and harmful
      radiation in your home. Frequently be in fresh air with mild sun exposure; bathe in the sea or unpolluted streams; walk
      on grass barefooted.

7.   Learn meditation and mind control, learn to express your negative emotions appropriately, practice generating positive
      feelings and emotions; love yourself as well as your neighbor; adopt a positive or spiritual philosophy of life. Find a worthy
      goal or ideal and strive to manifest it.

8.   Form or join a health or healing group to support and heal each other.

In addition to these self-help measures it is advisable to seek professional or expert help for specific problems. However, it would be self-defeating to see your health-improvement efforts as a deadly serious matter, as a 'life-or-death' struggle. Like everything else in life they are best conducted in a light and playful way, exploring and enjoying yourself - even if it sometimes hurts.

True Healing Means Growing - Learning and Applying the Laws of Nature!

BALANCING

An important general principle in healing is to aim for an overall balanced condition. Generally, every condition within our body is the result of the interaction of two opposing forces. In oriental philosophy there are the concepts of yin and yang. Yin is female, cold and passive; yang is male, hot and active. In our Western thinking we see body processes as interplay between overactive and under-active conditions, tension and relaxation, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems.

As part of our healing, we aim for balance not only on the biochemical level, but also in our emotions and thinking. As an extrovert, for instance, aim to go into inwards by meditating and learning to listen. If you are an introvert, then try to become more outgoing and open in your relationships and social interactions. The following table shows the general principle of opposing forces that rule our body.

CONDITION

OPPOSITE BODY FORCES		REMEDY
Sympathetic Nervous System	Parasympathetic Nervous System
tension, contraction	relaxation, expansion	blue, indigo, purple
aggression, extroversion	placidity, introversion	vegetarian diet
anger, fear, activity	resentment, rest	more potassium, magnesium
rapid pulse and breathing	slow pulse and breathing	lecithin, choline, insulin
pupil dilated, mouth dry	pupils narrow, mouth waters	sedation, releasing energy
good muscle tone, body rigid	poor muscle tone, body soft	magnetic south-pointing pole
poor digestion	good digestion	deep, slow acupressure
overexcited, hyperactive	low energy, depression	red, orange, yellow
high blood pressure	low blood pressure	animal protein
far-sighted	near-sighted	calcium (sodium), iodine
overactive thyroid/adrenals	underactive-thyroid/adrenals	adrenaline, cholesterol
inflammation, pain	debility, weakness	magnetic north pole
diabetes, schizophrenia	hypoglycemia, allergies, arthritis	rapid, light acupressure

As an example on how to use this table, if you often feel tense, fearful, aggressive, or have high blood pressure, inflammations or pain, then blue color therapy may help, or using more magnesium, lecithin, or apply the south-pointing pole of a magnet.

GOOD NUTRITION - BAD NUTRITION

Nutrition was the main tool with which I helped patients overcome a wide range of diseases claimed to be medically incurable. Unnatural nutrition is one of the major causes of our diseases, while natural nutrition is an equally powerful agent in curing these diseases, and rejuvenating our body.

Most of our commonly eaten food contributes to gradual health deterioration, and the development of chronic diseases. This is a main reason why there is such a high incidence of chronic degenerative disease in our society.

Diet rules are designed to guide us towards healthier eating habits. There are different schools of nutrition, which do not always agree on the same principles and sometimes even contradict each other, just as in politics, religion and other areas of human endeavor. The diet rules in these pages are based on the principles of the earlier 'nature cure' movement, but modified according to the findings of modem clinical nutrition research and my own experiences in overcoming diseases.

For the successful elimination of diseases, I have found that the less ideal the patient's diet was, the more specific the remedies, supplements, or other therapies needed to be. Conversely, on an ideal diet, specific interventions could be kept to a minimum. I have also noticed that the different nutritional requirements between the various metabolic types begin to disappear when an ideal natural diet is adopted and all can eat similar food, although in different proportions.

Changing our diet to an ideal natural one requires a considerable shift in eating habits, and re-educating our taste buds. It often also requires greatly increased time and energy for food preparation. For most of us this is not easy. While some take to it enthusiastically, others need to be driven by the hope to overcome a debilitating disease, and most are content to make just minor adjustments or gradual improvements as a preventive measure or to overcome an existing health problem. Therefore, I use a graded approach with a high-quality diet for gradual health improvement and maintenance of good health, and a raw-food diet for maximum healing, rejuvenation and maintenance of optimal health into old age.

While I have presented each diet in its pure form, most individuals will not be able to adopt fully one or the other diet but rather move gradually towards their dietary goal in a period of months or even years. You may also need to modify the diet according to your special requirements, as described in the chapter on Metabolic Types and Blood Groups. However, ultimately it is best to learn to trust your body in telling you what it needs. If you are not addicted to a certain food but crave it, then it is probably good for you.

We need to realize that we ourselves can choose to a considerable degree how healthy we want to be and how long we want to live in good health or, alternatively, which diseases we are willing to accept for the comfort of satisfying our present taste preferences, and maintaining potentially harmful living habits. Of course, other factors such as our mental and emotional condition, the environment, how we use our body, have a strong influence as well, and are covered in other articles.

EXPERIMENT!

For overall health improvement I suggest that you experiment with as many of the methods in these pages as you can. On the biological level these are mainly intestinal sanitation, allergy testing and cleansing. Some idealistic individuals may embrace these measures enthusiastically while others will try a little here and there but generally wait until poor health launches them more determinedly into a program of health improvement. For those, however, who want to start right now, here is the prescription.

Many natural therapists believe that most disease starts in the bowels or, more generally, in the gastro-intestinal tract. This certainly is a common factor in many diseases and requires our initial attention. Allergy testing is most important for sensitive individuals and children with health problems.

Fasting and cleansing are required to remove the heavy load of metabolic wastes and toxins that most of us have stored in the body. This cleansing process often leads to unpleasant symptoms - healing reactions, also called healing crisis - which we frequently must endure before we can advance to a higher level of health. This is especially the case for those with a chronic degenerative disease.