VALUE OF FASTING.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 24 March 1926, Page 12

VALUE OF FASTING.

•J'o the Editor of the “Timam Herald.” Sir,—in a recent issue of the “Herald” appeared mi aceount by cable ef the experiences of an ItnglisJi iauy who had undergone a last tor iort\two days with great benefit to herself. Jtverv now anti again one sees these 'eases reported in tlie Press, as though ■ they were not only unusual, but against the helicls of the average 'person. A last of forty-two days js • ’nv 'no means uncommon here in Ximaru. People have undergone fasts ranging from three to lit cy-nvo days .with excellent results. Uno of the greatest delusions is that it is necessary to eat to keep up strength. Vol- ' lintary abstinence from food for certain periods does not mean starvation, fjivcn plenty of water, and the correct mental attitude, the average person can live, for a considerable period without food. The difference between lasting and starvation is that in lasting the -body subsists upon its surplus . accumulations and upon the tissues, up to a. point at which it would bo impossible to abstain from food further without actually depriving the body of the means of sustaining life. Starvation occurs when the body is in actual and direct need df food or some special dements, without which life cannot he sustained. One has cidy to watch •••the. animals to learn the fact that when they are suffering in any way they refuse to cat. A sick cat or dog Jiivs-moro sense than most humans, for it 'crawls away tc a place where it can rest, refuses to eat food, but occasionally takes a drink of water, and this i teaches man a lesson which, unlortunaiely, few heed. Olio American authority on fasting can quote nearly one hundred thousand eases of fasts which have been successful. One of tno longest fasts on record was of ninety days. lieforo beginning the fast, the, patient weighed 2971 b, and was confined to bed. owing to a. dropsical swelling of both legs. On the fifty-ninth day of his fast lie engaged in a. wrestling contest for ten minutes. He lost on an average of one pound a day for the first seventy days; after that the loss became less |’Medical scientists at the University of Chicago have proverb by a series >.q experiments, that fasts of various duration rejuvenate the body ceils, give I the system a chance to rid itself of ’ toxins, and poisons that induce age, land thin turn hack the years.—f am, j

tlt "’ VIS MEDICATION NATURAL