Kuhne, the German pioneer of Nature Cure, claimed that "disease is a unit," that it consists in the accumulation of waste and morbid matter in the system. Since his time, many "naturists" claim that fasting offers the best and quickest means for eliminating systemic poisons and other encumbrances.
To "fast it out" seems simple and plausible, but it does not always prove to be successful in practice. Fasting enthusiasts forget that the elimination of waste and morbid matter from the system is more of a chemical than a mechanical process. They also overlook the fact that in many cases lowered vitality and weakened powers of resistance precede and make possible the accumulation of morbid matter in the organism.
If the encumbrances consist merely of superfluous flesh and fat or of accumulated waste materials, fasting may be sufficient to break up the accumulations and to eliminate the impurities that are clogging blood and tissues.
If, however, the disease has its origin in other than mechanical causes, or if it is due to a weakened, negative constitution and lowered powers of resistance, fasting may aggravate the abnormal conditions instead of improving them.
We hear frequently of long fasts, extending over days and weeks, undertaken recklessly without the prescription and guidance of a competent medical adviser, without proper preparation of the system and the right subsequent treatment. Many a good constitution has thus been permanently injured and wrecked.
When Fasting Is Indicated
Persons of sanguine, vital temperament, with the animal qualities strongly developed, enslaved by bad habits and evil passions, will be greatly benefited by occasional short fasts. In such cases, the experience affords a fine drill in self-discipline, strengthening of self-control and conquest of the lower appetites.
Vigorous, fleshy people, positive physically and mentally, especially those who do not take sufficient physical exercise, should take frequent fasts of one, two, or three days' duration for the reduction of superfluous flesh and fat and for the elimination of systemic waste and other morbid materials. Such people should never eat more than two meals a day, and many get along best on one meal.
However, different temperaments and constitutions require different treatment and management. People of a nervous, emotional temperament, especially those who are below normal in weight and physically and mentally negative, may be seriously and permanently injured by fasting. They should never fast except in acute diseases and during eliminative healing crises, when Nature calls for the fast as a means of cure.
People of this type are usually thin, with weak and flabby muscles. Their vital activities are at a low ebb and their magnetic envelopes (aura) are wasted and attenuated like their physical bodies. The red aura, which is created by the action of the purely animal functions and forces, is more or less deficient or entirely lacking. Such people have the tendency to become abnormally sensitive to conditions in the magnetic field (the astral plane).