Metabolic degeneration is a condition of disease; it is a state of disrepair of body tissues which accompanies the accumulation of harmful substances among and within the body cells and is characterized by lowered enzyme levels and a diminution of all body functions.
Depending on the diet and other lifestyle factors, the process of metabolic degeneration can be rapid, terminating life in youth or middle age, or deferred to finally terminate life by what is known as old-age.
In his book Old Age Deferred, Dr. Arnold Lorand of Austria described old age as a condition in which there is a diminution of metabolism, i.e., the assimilation and conversion of food into energy, and is characterized by the abundant growth of connective tissue in vital organs, diminution of oxidation, and increased auto-intoxication.
Dr. De Lacy Evans, in his book How to Prolong Life: An Enquiry into the Cause of Old Age and Natural Death, said further:
“The most marked feature in old age is that fibrinous, gelatinous, and earthy deposit has taken place in the system; the latter being chiefly of phosphate and carbonate of lime, with small quantities of sulphate of lime, magnesia and traces of other earths.”
The deposits occur as well in the bones, and blood vessels, which harden and reduce in calibre. Dr. Evans quoted Dr. C.J.B. Williams:
“The process is, therefore, to be viewed as almost entirely of a chemical nature, and as consisting of the concretion and accumulation of calcareous salts, phosphate and carbonate of lime in the debris of animal matter.”
That was written over a hundred and twenty years ago. This viewpoint is supported today by Dr. Arthur C. Giese, Professor of Biology Emeritus, Stanford University, quoted from his book ‘Living With Our Sun’s Ultraviolet Rays:
“In our multicellular bodies some cells, such as those of the epidermal basal layer, continue to divide throughout life; others – for example nerve and muscle cells – differentiate and cease dividing at birth. Nevertheless, they continue to function for a lifetime, with gradually lessening activity and progressive filling with insoluble wastes and pigments.”
The decline in function is characterized by, and is measurable by, a corresponding decrease in enzyme levels and activity. So it becomes clear that ‘old age’ occurs because we take into our bodies, mainly in food, harmful substances which for one reason or another, the excretory organs fail to eliminate. Some of these substances serve no purpose at all in the body and are best avoided if possible, and some are perfectly normal by-products of normal body processes.
It follows then that old age can be deferred by selecting foods which provide the best nutrition with the least residue of by-products, and consuming foods in great moderation. However, notwithstanding the care with which food is chosen, there is strong evidence that the cooking of food – regardless of anything else – is, in the long term, the factor most harmful to the human body.
Acute Metabolic Degeneration:
Today, the reason that few people die of natural old-age is that they are killed long beforehand by one or more of the unnatural conditions listed below. Regarded as separate diseases, these complaints are in fact not diseases at all, they are symptoms. There is only one disease, and that is Lipotoxemia, the stifling and poisoning of body processes by a bloodstream depleted in oxygen and polluted with fat, cholesterol and toxic substances. Rectify this disease, and the symptoms go away.
- Kidney Disease
- Liver Disease
- Glandular Disease
- Multiple Sclerosis,
- Addison’s Disease
- Pernicious Anaemia
- Endocrine Diseases
- Autoimmune Disease
- Gallstone
- Goitre
- Congestive Heart Disease
- Coronary Heart Disease
- High Blood Pressure
- Claudication
- Varicose Veins
- Gangrene
- Haemorrhoids
- Phlebitis And Other Vascular Diseases
- Oedema
- Anaemia
- Diabetes
- Cancer
- Tumours
- Rheumatism
- Arthritis
- Osteoporosis
- Paget’s Disease
- Bronchitis
- Pleurisy
- Asthma
- Pneumonia
- Emphysema
- Obesity
- Conjunctivitis
- Failing Eyesight
- Cataracts
- Retinal Separation
- Glaucoma
- Tunnel Vision
- Tooth Decay
- Periodontal Disease
- Enteritis
- Intestinal Dystrophy
- Diverticulitis
- Appendicitis
- Ulcer
- Colitis
- Hernia
- Slipped Discs
- Reproductive Disorders
- Cystitis And Urinary Disorders
- Polyneuritis
- Behavioural Disorder
- Loss Of Sex Drive
- Alcoholism
- Hyperactivity
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Neuroses
- Premature Senility
- Loss Of Co-Ordination
- Tremors
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Premenstrual Tension
- Prostate Disorder
etc. – not to mention trivial things like falling hair, florid face, skin disorder, constipation, indigestion, headaches and fatigue.
This list is not complete, none of the diseases are due to germs or viruses, but are due to faulty metabolism in a body deteriorated through bad lifestyle, faulty diet and unnatural stress.
That may sound like over-simplification but the reason so many people have badly conditioned bloodstreams is because of the sort of food and drink they consume, usually in conjunction with other bad living habits. And the reason that the blame for their ailments is not correctly assessed is because modern orthodox medicine is wrongly oriented and therefore confused. Doctors are, however, beginning to realize that the difference between disease and health is not a simple matter of germs and drugs, and are starting to think a little more in the manner advised by Hippocrates over 2,000 years ago.
Claude Bernard, a contemporary of Pasteur and famous for many medical discoveries, introduced the concept of the “milieu interieur”, meaning the constancy of the internal chemistry of the body and the co-ordinated regulation of its various parts. This concept is commonly called “the whole body” concept of health and disease. Pasteur and Bernard many times debated the two concepts and it is significant that on his deathbed Pasteur said to Professor A. Renon who was caring for him, “Bernard was right. The microbe is nothing; the soil (body) is everything.”
The particular features of our society that affects our health so badly, are unfortunately generally considered highly desirable, and people in the poorer “developing” countries are striving for greater affluence so they can have them too.
Just as Sir Robert McCarrison’s (Major General, British Army) tests with albino rats back in 1927 in India showed the group of rats on the Hunza diet displayed the physical excellence of the Hunza race, so did the group on the poor diet of Indians of Bengal and Madras soon display the appalling disease rate of those Indian people at that time.
Likewise, rats made up part of the diet of the poor and working English classes at the time – white bread, margarine, sweet tea, boiled vegetables, tinned meats and jams, soon displayed poor health and stunted growth. McCarrison’s work is described in the informative book, The Wheel of Health by G.T. Wrench, M.D., published in Londonin 1938.
How Constipation and Autointoxication Cause Metabolic Degeneration:
Constipation is the slow transit and delayed expulsion of faecal wastes from the intestine and colon. Because of the slow transit time of animal protein foods, fats and refined cereals, constipation is unavoidable on the Western diet and exists to a marked degree even when there is a regular daily bowel movement.
It has always been know that constipation leads to all kinds of indispositions. Hundreds of medical papers, some written centuries ago, link constipation and its poisoning effects with practically every known condition of disease, particularly with cancer. Conversely, it is a fact that in native populations who never experience constipation because of their predominately vegetable diets, the degenerative diseases of civilization are practically unknown.
It was established in 1909 from experiments by Drs. C.C. Herter and A.I. Kendall at the Rockefeller Institute, and others, that a high protein diet resulted in the dominance of proteolyzing, putrefactive anaerobic bacteria in the colon which produced innumerable toxic chemicals. With the constipation associated with such a diet, the bile fluids as they circulate back to the liver from the colon carry toxins with them which must be neutralized by the liver for elimination via the kidneys. Eventually the liver is incapable of coping fully with its detoxifying duties, with the result that the toxins circulate in the blood to poison the system and damage the kidneys. Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane in a paper ‘Chronic Intestinal Stasis’ written in 1913 stated that constipation “facilitated the multiplication of organisms and the subsequent development of toxaemia in the bloodstream which led to progressive degenerative changes in every tissue and very definite and unmistakable series of symptoms.”
In 1933, Dr. Anthony Bassler, Professor of Gastrenterology, Fordham University, and New York Polyclinic Medical College, after a study of over 5,000 cases over a period of 25 years stated that: “Every physician should realize that the intestinal toxemias are the most important primary and contributing causes of many disorders and diseases of the human body.
There have been countless such medical pronouncement over the years, and it has been known since 1909 that the intestinal flora can be rapidly normalized and auto-intoxication eliminated by changing to a high natural carbohydrate diet. The medical professionals have chosen to ignore this information (if indeed they were aware of it) in favour of drugging the various symptoms.
To counteract the continual toxic assaults to which people unwittingly subject themselves, the vital organs work constantly to detoxify the blood and to eliminate harmful substances from the body. For years most of these substances are expelled, but those excesses with which the excretory organs cannot cope, accumulate in all tissues and organs, gradually aging them and depleting their function. For years a person may enjoy tolerably good health and appear youthful even, but eventually the degeneration compounds to a point where breakdowns of organs commence and various disease conditions appear.
So bewilderingly complex are the chemical interactions within a living organism, the simplest cell presenting a miracle of automated chemistry, staggering to the mind, that to attempt to influence these interactions by drugs is an insult to Nature – analogous to lubricating a fine Swiss watch with sump oil and trying to fix it with a set of car spanners.
Pain is Nature’s warning that something is wrong, but blocked arteries and decaying organs do not cause pain until at the point of failure, by which time it may be too late. Prevention is better than cure.
How Diet and Longevity Affect Metabolic Degeneration:
In 1829, Vincent Priessnitz of Silesia, later to become famous as a nature healer, suspected that the cooking of food conveyed gradual harm over a period of time, to those who ate it. In an experiment with pigs fed different diets he discovered when the pigs were slaughtered, that those on a diet of raw food had firm, healthy flesh whereas the fleshy of pigs on a cooked diet was inflamed and brittle.
Successful naturopaths have always been aware of the harm caused by cooking, and this was re-discovered in the 1920’s by the authorities of various zoos around the world when they proved that the rapid degeneration and early mortality of animals could be avoided when the animals were fed raw food instead of cooked scraps from restaurants etc.
Regardless of the sort of food consumed, cooked or raw, experiments have shown that the health of laboratory animals can be dramatically improved and their lifespan doubled, simply by reducing their food intake to the minimum required.
In his book, mentioned earlier, Dr. De Lacey Evans said:
“On reviewing nearly 2000 reported cases of persons who lived more than a century, we generally find some peculiarity of diet or habits to account for their alleged longevity; we find some were living amongst all the luxuries life could afford, others in the most abject poverty – begging their bread; some were samples of symmetry and physique, others cripples; some drank large quantities of water, others little; some were total abstainers from alcoholic frinks, other drunkards; some smoked tobacco, others did not; some lived entirely on vegetables, others to a great extent on animal foods; some led active lives, others sedentary; some worked with their brain, others with their hands; some ate only one meal a day, others four or five; some few ate large quantities of food, others a small amount; in fact, we notice a great divergence both in habits and diet, but in those cases where we have been able to obtain a reliable account of the diet, we fin one great cause which accounts for the majority of cases of longevity, moderation in the quantity of food.
This observation confirms the view that even the best constructed diet partaken to excess will overtax the vital organs and accelerate the degenerative process, and that in the pursuit of longevity not only must a strict diet be followed, preferably uncooked, but at the same time strict moderation in its consumption should be exercised.
How Lack of Exercise Contributes To Metabolic Degeneration:
A secondary factor to diet in the degeneration of health is lack of physical exercise. Exercise is important because it improves the circulation and the general efficiency of the body’s metabolism. In good physical condition, the body can more adequately cope with dietary abuses and other debilitating factors of a bad lifestyle. Therefore, the worse the diet the more important it is to exercise, although it should be realized that only partial protection can be achieved.
