Its a virtual certainty that to fully recover, a seriously ill person will have to significantly rebuild numerous organs.  They have a hard choice:  to accept a life of misery, one that the medical doctors with drugs and surgery may be able to prolong into an interminable hell on earth, or, spend several years working on really healing their body, rotating between water fasting, juice or broth fasting, extended periods on a cleansing raw food diet, and periods of no-cleansing on a more complete diet that includes moderate amounts of cooked vegetables and small quantities of cooked cereals.  And even after recovery someone who was quite ill may have to live the rest of their life on a rather restricted regimen.

It is unrealistic to expect one fast to fix everything.  The body will heal as much as it can in the allotted time, but if a dangerous illness has not been fully remedied by the first intense fast, a raw food diet must be followed for three to six months until weight has been regained, nutritional reserves have been rebuilt and it is safe to undertake another extended fast.  More than two water or juice fasts a year of thirty continuous days are not recommended nor should they be necessary unless the life is in imminent danger and there is no other option.

The story of Jake’s catastrophic illness and almost-cure is a good example of this type of program.  Jake was from back East.  He phoned me because he had read a health magazine article I had written, his weak voice faintly describing a desperate condition.  He was in a wheelchair unable to walk, unable to control his legs or arms very well, was unable to control his bladder and required a catheter.  He had poor bowel control, had not the strength to talk much or loudly and most frightening to him, he was steadily losing weight although he was eating large amounts of cooked vegetables and grains.  Jake had wasted away to 90 pounds at 5’ 10” and looked pathetic when I first saw him wheeled off an airplane at my local airport.

Jake had seen a lot of medical doctors and had variously been diagnosed as having chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic (whatever that is) meningitis, and multiple sclerosis.  He had been treated by virtually every medical expert and many famous alternative practitioners, utilizing a host of old and new techniques, all to no avail.  He had even tried intravenous chelation therapy and colonics.  It had also been suggested that he enter a hospital for the treatment of eating disorders and/or see a psychiatrist.  He had tried to gain admittance to a number of holistic fasting institutions back east, but they all refused him because they considered the risk was too high to fast a person at such a low body weight.  But I had previously fasted emaciated people like Jake, and there was something I liked about his telephone presence.  Perhaps this is why I foolishly decided I knew better than the other experts.