Irritable Bowels
Categories:
The Analysis of Disease States: Helping the Body Recover
Sources:
How And When To Be Your Own Doctor
Some peoples' lives don't run smoothly. Jeanne's certainly didn't.
She was abandoned to raise three little kids on welfare. Her college
diploma turned out to be useless. Jeanne used to help me at Great
Oaks in exchange for treatment. During those early years she had
done a 30 day juice fast with colonics. Twenty years later at age
60, having survived three children's growing up, surviving the
profound, enduring loss of
one who died as an adult, after starting
up and running a small business that for many years barely paid its
way, and experiencing an uninsured fire that took her house, she
began to develop abdominal pains the doctors named "irritable bowel
syndrome" or "colitis." The MD offered antibiotics and
antispasmodics but Jeanne had no insurance, the remedies were
unaffordable. She also retained considerable affinity for natural
medicine.
Prior to these symptoms her diet had been vegetarian, and had
included large quantities of raw fruits and vegetables and whole
grains. But the bran in bread was irritating to her bowels, she
could no longer digest raw vegetables or most raw fruit.
Jeanne's vital force was low; her healing took time. She started on
a long fast supported by powdered vitamins, vegetable broth and herb
teas, but after three weeks was too weak to do her own enemas at
home and could not shop for vegetables to cook into broth. So she
had to add one small serving of cooked vegetable per day, usually
broccoli or steamed kale. This lasted for one more week but Jeanne,
having no financial reserves, had to return to work, and needed to
regain energy quickly. Though not totally healed, she progressed to
a maintenance diet of cooked grains and vegetables and food
supplements, very much like a Macrobiotic diet. She felt better for
awhile but wore down again after another stressful year.
Her abdominal pains gradually returned though this time she noticed
they were closely associated with her stresses. About one year after
ending her first fast, as soon as she could arrange to take time
off, she began another. This time to avoid extreme weakness, she
took vegetable broth from the outset, as well as small amounts of
carrot juice and one small serving of cooked vegetable a day for
three weeks. Again, this rest allowed the digestive tract to heal
and the pain went away. She returned to her Macrobiotic diet with
selected raw foods that she could now handle without irritating her
bowel.
She was now healthier then she had been in many years. With improved
energy and a more positive attitude, Jeanne returned to University
at age 65 and obtained a teaching certificate. Now she is making
good money, doing work she enjoys for the first time in 35 years. I
hope she has a long and happy life. She is entitled to one!