HERBS
FOR AUTO-IMMUNE DISEASES: LECTURE NOTES
by Tom Billings
David Christopher, well known (Western) herbalist and
Director of the School of Natural Healing, gave a lecture titled "Herbs for
Auto-Immune Diseases", at the San Francisco Whole Life Expo, Explorations in Natural
Healing, on Sunday, 22 October, 1995. Below are my notes from the workshop. Contact
addresses and my comments are given after the notes.
The material below has only a limited direct connection to
raw/living foods (see Christopher's comments on fruitarianism, below). However, as the
Western herbalist model of disease is similar to that used by some raw fooders (toxemia =
blockage), the material may be of interest to some raw fooders.
Notes:
All auto-immune diseases are related. All the filth diseases
of the last century went away with cleanliness, except one: smallpox, the only one we
immunized against! Many diseases today are auto-immune. There is only one disease -
"constipation" or blockage of bodily systems (not limited to the bowels).
The different healing modalities are just ways to get
blockages out. Malnutrition can come from blockage also. Herbs help to remove the blocks.
Your cells must receive nourishment and eliminate wastes. Block those processes and you
get disease. Healing consists of cleansing and nourishment.
Auto-immune diseases were not prevalent 100 years ago but
filth diseases were. Auto-immune diseases are common today, even among young people. Why
would your body attack itself? The body is hermetically sealed (skin). We are also an
environment for bacteria. Friendly skin flora can protect us, also the lining in the lungs
and intestines protects us from unfriendly bacteria.
In Type I diabetes (insulin dependent), the insulin producing
cells in the pancreas (beta cells in the islet of Langerhans), are destroyed by your
system. This is not the fault of your immune system. Why destroyed? Foreign protein + beta
cell = foreign to your body => is attacked by the immune system.
Where do these foreign proteins come from? Leakages in
capillary walls or ulcers; injected protein in the blood - immunizations. Other sources of
foreign proteins include parasites and homogenized milk. (Homogenization makes proteins
small enough to pass through cell walls).
Normally, foreign proteins will be destroyed by the immune
system. But if the immune system is weak, they might cause damage. If the foreign proteins
combine with cells in your lungs, you get asthma, in the nerves - multiple sclerosis, in
the connective tissue - lupus, in the joints - rheumatoid arthritis.
Stay away from dairy and sugar. Fructose triggers insulin
production, but there is no glucose for it to combine with, hence the produced insulin
cannot be used, so you get hyper. This back and forth production of insulin, in the long
term, leads to Type II (adult onset) diabetes.
To get rid of sugar cravings, take herbal bitters: dandelion
greens are great. Raw sugarcane juice is great; cane workers eat it all day without
getting tooth cavities. Fruitarians should eat the whole fruit, including the seeds, and
eat only organic fruits.
Additional herbal bitters include: ginseng, oregon grape
root, thistle, barberry. Milk has many problems: you cannot use the calcium it contains,
and it is high in protein. Milk is a perfect food for babies of the correct species, but
it is not good food for adults. He closed his talk by advocating veganism and encouraging
listeners to become herbalists, so that they can divorce themselves from the medical
"profession".
Contact addresses:
School of Natural Healing - correspondence courses in Western
herbalism P.O. Box 412 Springville, Utah 84663 Phone: 800-372-8255 Fax: 801-489-4254
Christopher Publications - newsletters, audiotapes, books on
herbs and herbal healing. Same contact address as above.
Comments:
1. I have read that homogenization of cow's milk creates
enzymes that can pass through the intestinal wall and potentially cause problems. However,
as most people in Western countries sharply reduce their milk/dairy consumption when they
become adults, one wonders whether the milk<->autoimmune disorder link is as strong
as the speaker suggests. Also, one wonders about other whipped/ blended foods, most
notably juices and, among the meat eaters, egg meringue and mayonnaise - are
"harmful" enzymes being created there also?
2. Regarding the reference to fruitarians eating the seeds in
fruits; this is an individual decision as the seeds in some fruits act as
"antidotes" to the properties of the fruits. Melons are very alkaline but melon
seeds are very acidic, for example. So discretion and individual consideration apply here.
3. Although blockages of body processes are involved in many
diseases, I don't believe that blockages are the cause of all disease (blockages do not
explain deficiency diseases in "clean" raw fooders, for example). The blockage
can be a result, not the underlying real cause, in many diseases. |
