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Fasting and Sunbathing (The Hygienic System, Vol 3)

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Herbert Shelton wrote 40 books over his 60-year career in health education and "natural hygiene." He supervised over 30,000 fasts of chronically ill and terminal patients, losing only three. Shelton's teachings on fasting inspired Ghandi as well as such popular authors as Fuhrman, the Diamonds, Mercola and Graham. Harvey and Marilyn Diamond said of Shelton: "A man of astounding intelligence and understanding, Dr. Herbert Shelton was the greatest health oracle of the 20th century."

One of the key tenets of natural hygiene is toxemia + enervation = disease, and that symptoms of disease are remedial efforts by the body to return to balance. For example, a fever is instituted by the body to speed metabolic action and kill germs. It is a healing event that should be allowed to run its course, not a dreaded enemy to be suppressed.

The best action to take when first becoming ill is to stop eating and rest, which goes contrary to the prevailing advice to take a drug, eat to keep up your strength, and keep on going. When you fast, you are not starving your body of nutrition, because it obtains all the nutrition it needs from its own tissues. But in doing so, the not inconsiderable amount of energy that would have been spent in digestion is now spent in repair of tissues and elimination of toxins.

Long fasts of up to three months followed by healthy living practices can reverse chronic degenerative diseases such as arthritis, heart disease, colitis, migraines, mental illness, even cancer. (See also Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor's Program for Conquering Disease.)

The majority of this book covers what you need to know to conduct a fast of any length. Also included are the health benefits of moderate daily exposure to sunshine. The chapters are:

1. Definition of fasting

2. Fasting among the lower animals

3. Fasting in man

4. Bill-of-fare for the sick

5. Autolysis

6. Fasting is not starving

7. Chemical and organic changes during fasting

8. Repair of organs and tissues during fasting

9. The influence of fasting on growth and regeneration

10. Changes in the fundamental functions while fasting

11. The mind and special senses during a fast

12. Secretions and excretions

13. Bowel action during fasting

14. Fasting and sex

15. Rejuvenescence through fasting

16. Gain and loss of strength while fasting

17. Gain and loss of weight during fasting

18. Fasting does not induce deficiency "disease"

19. Death in the fast

20. Objections of the fast

21. Does fasting cure disease?

22. The rationale of fasting

23. The length of the fast

24. Hunger and appetite

25. Contra-indications of fasting

26. Fasting in special periods and conditions of life

27. Symptomatology of the fast

28. Progress of the fast

29. Hygiene of the fast

30. Breaking the fast

31. Gaining weight after the fast

32. Living after the fast

33. Fasting in health

34. Fasting in acute disease

35. Fasting in chronic disease

36. Fasting in drug addiction

37. Fasting versus eliminating diets

38. Sun bathing

39. Sunlight

40. The use of sunshine

41. Sunshine in sickness

42. Suntan and sunburn

43. Substitutes for sun-bathing

44. Objections to sun-bathing

45. The sun bath

46. The air bath

This book was originally published in hardcover THE HYGIENIC SYSTEM - Orthotrophy, Volume 3: Fasting and Sunbathing. A newer title by Shelton on fasting is Fasting for Renewal of Life. It appears to cover much of the same information but in a more condensed, less technical form.