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Muscle/joint pain of fibromyalgia kept me awake. My stamina was nil; concentration, scattered. My body reacted to stints in a dusty room in front of a computer with headaches, body aches, itchy skin, mental fog, and panic. I had to take sips of water during all waking hours or my throat would feel as if it were closing up. Stress did me in.
Arthritis had forced me to give up potting; allergies had chased me home from painting the landscape. Years of periodically tenting out on radioactive nuclear sites and radiation treatments for cancer had done in my thyroid gland. Hip pain was so severe that driving a stick shift car was a monumental task. For years, constipation was such a constant companion that I had two colonoscopies to see if a cancer was blocking the way. Liver function was compromised.
I'd had malignant breast cancers and bouts with uterine pre-cancerous cells. Menses were painful, with very heavy, clotty flow. Once when driving to a mountain weekend retreat, I saw brilliantly colored lights in wide rings in my peripheral vision. For nearly a year, I couldn't put my left shoulder in certain positions without searing pain. My acupuncturist/Chinese Medicine practitioner called it '50 Year Shoulder', and others called it 'Frozen Shoulder'. Dancing, even closing the car door, was excruciating.
Up until four years ago, I'd been able to force my body to do what I required of it. I worked, played, danced, hiked, camped, played an active role in my several communities, even spent time in jail in support of ideals important to me.
But finally, I just couldn't fake it anymore! I could no longer hold down a job. I sought the aid of the medical establishment. Prozac was prescribed for sleep, surgery was suggested for a painful toe, mastectomies for the cancers.
"You call the shots, Jean. When your fibroids give you too much discomfort and lack of bladder control gets to you, we'll do the hysterectomy."
I fled! Seeking less intrusive therapies, I went three times a week to an acupuncturist trained in Chinese medicine. I consulted with an Ayurvedic practitioner.
"Your constitution is too delicate for raw food, Jean. You need warm, cooked food and sweetness in your life!"
I liked the sound of that!
But I wasn't getting any better.
About that time Richard, an acquaintance from contra dancing, and I decided to sign up for West Coast Swing classes together. I had to rest for days before each class. Little by little, I opened up to Richard about my compromised health. To my surprise, he wanted to know the whole story! He told how he'd recovered from a lifetime of ill health through practises described in "The Essene Gospel of Peace", translated from the original Hebrew and Aramaic texts by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely.
He brought over a huge stackful of other books including others by Szekely, Arnold Ehret, Morris Krok, Joe Alexander, Paavo Airola, Max Gerson, Viktoras Kulvinskas, George Malkmus, Gabriel Cousens, Roe Gallo, Nature's First Law, Charles Hunt III, Essie Hanibal. Some of the authors had experience with hundreds of patients who had recovered from grievous ill health through diet.
Richard offered to do a transitional diet with me.
Torn between the comforting Ayurvedic path and Richard's austere raw food diet, I tried to politely include both----for about two days!
It became clear that they were mutually exclusive! Impressed that Richard had turned his health around, which was way beyond simple relief from symptoms that other therapies offered, I took a leap of faith and dove into the Ayurvedically-forbidden raw foods.
At about the same time, I offered to help Richard with his sprout business. I had to rest after twenty minutes of work. We took fruit or salad breaks, juiced watermelons, rind and all, made fresh vegetable juices, drank fresh orange juice.
The fruits and vegetables caused gas, because things were loosened up but not eliminated. I often drank a gallon of peppermint tea a day, and for the first time in my life eagerly sought enemas! But I was determined to see it through, and in about two and a half months, the alkaline new food had cleansed me enough for better elimination to kick in.
We read everything we could by people going for 'Paradise Health' through diet. Anything we suspected of being detrimental to our health, we eliminated. Briefly, here's the progression we did:
June '95--Quit grains.
July '95---Quit last remnants of Chinese-Medicine recommended chicken
Jan '96---Quit salt (including Braggs')
April '96---Quit potatoes
July '96----Quit nuts, seeds, seed sauces. BEGAN ARNOLD EHRET'S MUCUSLESS DIET, which is fruits, raw and cooked starchless vegetables......and nothing else!
Many symptoms have disappeared:
Colon problems completely cleared.
Menstrual problems completely cleared.
Visual irregularities disappeared.
'Frozen Shoulder' completely healed. My practitioner said she never before had known it to go away!
My fingernails are stronger than ever before.
Arthritis is virtually gone.
I am no longer in pain.
I have energy for work and play.
I can sleep!
I am so encouraged by these improvements in my health and life! When a third malignant breast cancer was found June, 1998 I opted to merely have the malignancy excised under a local anaesthetic. (The surgeon announced, during the procedure, that the oxygenation of my blood was better than hers! ) Instead of the recommended double masdectomies, I continue to nourish my body and to address the clearing of any remnants of disease-supportive substances with this successful longterm diet progression.
I'm not quite there yet, but I'm aiming for an entirely raw food diet, with intervals of fruit only, and juice fasting. Many people who have gone entirely raw write of enjoying 'Paradise Health', and some experience great openings in their spiritual existence. I'm going for it!
Jean Mayes
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