Fasting For Health Part-V

Symptoms During a Fast

Certain symptoms are liable to appear when a patient abstains from food for the cure of a disease. One need not be alarmed at their appearance as they are either indicative of the body's cleansing efforts or merely accidental to a fast. The commonest among them are thick coating on the tongue, foul or ether like breath, dizziness headaches, stomach pains, heart palpitation etc. The reason for the coating of the tongue which frequently increases day after day throughout the early stages of the fast, is that Nature employs every avenue of elimination possible, so the tongue is also used for this purpose. The coating generally clears at the conclusion of a fast when natural hunger is felt. The tongue should be cleaned daily with a tooth brush and mouth rinsed with pure cold water. Like the tongue the breath also begins to give evidence of the internal state of the body and is offensive for the part of the fast. Sometimes the breath smells like ether owing to the presence of acetone which is indicative of a functional disorder with decay of organic matter. In such a case the fast may be broken with a small amount of fruit juice or thin oatmeal gruel. Dizziness and sometimes fainting are experience during initiation as a result of anemic condition of the brain caused by the excessive flow of blood into the large abdominal blood vessel owing to slackness of the nerves of the sympathetic system. If these symptoms do not pass off quickly, they may be treated by placing the patient in a prone position so that the head is kept lower than the feet. The blood supply will be directed towards the brain and the patient soon recover. Application of cold water to the forehead and rubbing hands and feet of the patient will also be found helpful in reviving the patient.

Where Fasting is indicated and where it is not
It is not advisable for a man to fast who has nothing the matter with him. If the nutrition of the body has been properly managed no fast at all is necessary because there is no sickness to cure. Fasting is not a natural process for when the body needs food you must give it. Fasting would only be a natural process when the body is in an unnatural condition. In case where the accumulation of poisons in the system has given rise to diseased condition which have advanced or developed to an extent that the system has not sufficient power to eliminate them, you have to stop food in order to give the body that power. Nature is the best guide in ascertaining whether you need food or require a fast. If you do not feel hungry omit a meal and wait for the next.
Fasting is specially efficacious in all acute disease.In chronic disease the body is so encumbered with waste matter and the vitality is often so low, that it is sometimes advisable to enter on a fast more carefully and gradually. In most of the chronic cases the system has become overloaded with morbid matter owing to the sluggish and atrophied condition of the eliminate organs such as skin, kidneys, intestines etc. During a fast additional quantities of waste matter are produced in the form of broken down tissues which are used up in bodily nourishment. This may cause serious aggravation and complication. it is therefore wiser to build up the blood on a normal basis by natural diet and to put into order the eliminate organs by natural methods of treatment before undertaking a fast.
How to fast

Before launching on an absolute fast it is necessary to prepare the body for