Vol. 7

No. 1

Fatigue is epidemic is our society. Common causes of this malady can vary from life-style choices to dietary indiscretions. Many people are aware that their exhaustion may come from poor food and emotional pressures, but an often overlooked factor is "auto-intoxication." Autotoxemia is poisoning with toxic substances formed within the body. The late Sir Arbutnot Lane, M.D., author of "Intestinal Stasis," agreed:

"All maladies are due to lack of vitamins, minerals, and protective bacteria. When this occurs, toxic bacteria invade the lower ailmentary canal producing bloodstream poisons which deteriorate every tissue, gland and organ of the body."

Intestinal toxemia or auto-intoxication is an old term for a phenomenon long recognized. Today, nutritionally oriented doctors call it the "leaky-gut syndrome."

The four essential factors contributing to this condition are: stasis, inability to digest proteins, over-growth of intestinal organisms such as Candida, and damaged or impaired intestinal mucosa.

Stasis refers to a lack of proper motion and position of the small and large intestines which causes the body to retain waste materials and absorb them into the bloodstream, and which may eventually produce a multitude of distressing human maladies. Stasis can be caused by spinal misalignment resulting in disturbance of the sympathetic nervous system as well as over-eating, lack of roughage, dehydration, and malposition of the intestines.

The inability of certain individuals to digest proteins results in undigested nutrients irritating the mucous lining of the intestinal walls. The irritation intitates localized inflammations and damage to the intestines, malabsorption of nutrients, and over-growths of bacteria and fungi.

It is here we find the origin of Systemic Candidiasis, Leaky Gut Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The most obvious signs of this condition are dizziness, headaches, fatigue, and nervous irritability. However, as the condition worsens, the complaints can spread to other systems such as endocrine, vascular, urinary, visual, skin, ears, nose, throat, and the brain. The manifestation varies from person to person depending on where the weaknesses lie in one's body-mind.

Hans Selye, MD., the father of the Stress Theory, who once remarked:that "all of us are as strong as our weak links," went on to state:

"In biochemical terms, we might think of exhaustion as largely due to accumulating undesirable by-products of vital chemical reactions. Much of the metabolic debris is readily eliminated, thus re-establishing the original equilibrium. But a small fraction of the countless chemical processes needed for adaptation to the demands made upon us by life, results in insoluble waste products which clog up the machinery of our body until it is no longer usable."

What Dr. Selye means is that the retention of small amounts of metabolic wastes begin to clog up the machinery of the body over time. That part of our machine that is most vulnerable will be the first to react. The "metabolic debris "comes from poor digestion, intestinal stasis with or without constipation, and the "silent" retention of toxins that should have been discharged. If we can relieve the body's toxic overload, we can relieve our discomforts and slow the aging process.

Alexis Carrel, M.D., who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1912 for his pioneering work on organ transplantation, performed an experiment at the Rockefeller Institute that ran for 33 years. The experiment, commonly known as "Dr. Carrel's Immortal Chicken Heart" demonstrated that a chicken heart could be kept alive indefinitely in a petri dish as long as adequate nutrition and elimination of metabolic waste poisons were provided. The chicken heart, which should have lived 7 years, survived 33 years until the experiment was terminated.

Research shows that many of the diverse pains people experience are often connected to a central source: overload of the body's detoxification pathways due to faulty digestion, assimilation and elimination. In the final analysis, all natural methods must follow Dr. Carrel's simple formula: input of the correct nutrients and the efficient elimination of body waste products. Supply the need and the body-mind then self-regulates and self-heals.

At various times throughout our lives, all of us will experience a sense of tiredness or fatigue. Sometimes this feeling will last a day or two but, for some people, it can persist for months, years, or even a life-time. It is important to understand that serious fatigue, that is, fatigue that is not attributable to temporary over-exertion, is actually a symptom of some other process going on within the body-mind unit. Prolonged fatigue is not an illness in itself, but a manifestation of a health imbalance. ...