Dr. John Tilden, a hygienist who practiced in the '20s, before the
era of antibiotics, routinely fasted patients with infectious
illnesses. Supporting the sick body with wise nursing, he routinely
healed scarlet fever, whopping cough, typhoid, typhus, pneumonia,
peritonitis, Rocky Mountain fever, tuberculosis, gonorrhea,
syphilis, cholera, and rheumatic fever. The one common infection he
could not cure was diphtheria involving the throat. (Tilden,
Impaired Health, Vol. II).
Recently, medical gerontologists have discovered another reason that
fasting heals infections. One body function that deteriorates during
the aging process is the production of growth hormone so the effects
of growth hormone have been studied. This hormone also stimulates
the body to heal wounds and burns, repair broken bones, generally
replace any tissues that have been destroyed and, growth hormone
stimulates the immune response. Growth hormone also maintains muscle
tone and its presence generally slows the aging process.
Growth hormone might make a wonderful life-extension supplement; on
it a middle-aged person might readily maintain the muscle tone of
youth while slowing aging in general. Unfortunately, growth hormone
cannot at this time be inexpensively synthesized and is still far
too costly to be used therapeutically except to prevent dwarfism.
Pages:
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413