HOME   HYGIENE LIBRARY CATALOG   CHAPTER 1

   At the University of California, Santa Barbara, a 51-year-old man stepped off a treadmill, panting. He had just run three miles in 20 minutes during which time his electrocardiogram (ECG) had been closely observed by a medical team. While running, his heart had maintained a rate of 177 beats a minute, steady and strong--yet five years before, his doctor had told him to avoid walking because of heart disease so severe that pronounced symptoms were evident at a heart rate of only 80.

   The cardiologist examined again the trace of each heart beat recorded on the ECG during the test. All were perfect. They looked at each other.

   That was in 1966 and the man was Nathan Pritikin, soon to become the leader of a worldwide revolution. Gaining momentum, it is a "bloodless revolution"--a revolution against disease. . .

   Heart disease and cancer are ruthless killers. There are other killers, perhaps less sinister, but no less final. Together they threaten the community--who will be next?

   There is a growing awareness of this peril generated by the press and popular magazines whose frequent medical articles highlight the appalling state of health, both mental and physical, that exists among the general population.

   It has become apparent that "health insurance schemes" costing billions of dollars do not achieve much more than maintaining a lot of people too sick to work. These schemes are not health schemes at all--they are "sickness schemes", the main effect of which is to boost the evergrowing medical and drug industry.

   At the same time, the natural health movement is growing--because observant people realize all this and can see that to avoid heart attacks, strokes, and other killing diseases, they must follow a lifestyle which keeps their bodies in good condition.

   To plan such a lifestyle, a reasonable understanding of the factors involved is necessary. Many people conscientiously follow health programs but achieve nowhere near their potential because their programs contain mistakes, mainly in dietary advice. These mistakes result from misconceptions widely held by professional nutritionists and which are continually repeated in many health books and articles. Some of these misconceptions are quite dangerous and can have harmful effects over a period of time.

   This book is intended to give you the knowledge and understanding required in order for you to evaluate your present lifestyle and make any correction should you then choose. The simple concept of natural health is not new and after many years is beginning to gain wide acceptance. Fifty years ago, Dr Are Waerland, a pioneer in the natural health movement declared, "We are not concerned with diseases but with mistakes . . . of living. Get rid of the mistakes and the diseases will disappear of their own accord." However, let us first discuss what is disease. Literally, dis-ease means the absence of ease.

   Disease of one sort or another has always threatened mankind. The diseases responsible for most suffering and death over the centuries have been caused by malnutrition, and by germ and virus infections. These are called deficiency diseases and infectious diseases, and were common together because, weakened by malnutrition, and misery, a person became easy prey to infections which otherwise would have been easily repelled.

   Nutrition was not understood, and germs, bacteria and viruses were unknown about one hundred years ago. When the germ theory was discovered and "proven" it was natural that all diseases were suspected to be caused by germs of some kind, and all sorts of new drugs were invented to combat them. A third group of diseases, which in the past afflicted only the affluent few in the population, has become prevalent in the 20th Century as the industrial nations have become wealthier and society generally has not only become more affluent but at the same time subjected to greater stress. These diseases are called degenerative and metabolic diseases and are often referred to as "diseases of affluence". Some of them are triggered or badly aggravated by mental stress and are therefore sometimes further categorised as "stress-related diseases" or "diseases of adaptation".

   Because deficiency diseases often responded to minerals and vitamin medicines, and because modern drugs seemed effective in controlling infectious diseases, orthodox medical practice practically ignored diet structure and mental stress as disease factors. So as the incidence of heart disease, strokes, cancer and a host of others steadily increased, conventional medical methods were naturally enough employed to combat them too.

   Countless drugs, chemical preparations, radiation and surgery have been tried unsuccessfully, and for years the few people who could see the real causes of these diseases, were ignored. Non-acceptance of any unconventional idea is human nature, and previously the germ theory proponents had met with similar opposition.

   But the accumulated weight of evidence is now so great that the real factors causing degenerative diseases are becoming widely recognized. 

   That news item from the Sydney Morning Herald describes a situation far graver than a fuel crisis, an assassination, or even a war, and yet it only received a few inches of small print. The situation is the same in the USA, Europe and all the developed countries of the world, but despite the wholesale destruction of human life, nobody seems unduly perturbed. If, however, you find this information disconcerting, here is the good news. . . . The causes of all diseases are now sufficiently understood for them to be easily avoided, and in most cases, reversed.

   Much of this recent information. is unknown still to most doctors, who have been trained in the conventional ways of medicine. Many open-minded doctors are accepting the concepts enthusiastically as they see them proven.

   The essential message is that all diseases are easily avoidable and in most cases curable, by rectifying improper diet and other living habits. The vital key for long life is a clean bloodstream containing adequate oxygen, and upon this concept is based this entire book. I have collated a great number of facts together with the opinions and conclusions of many highly respected medical researchers. The subject is not difficult to understand and you can draw your own conclusions.