Dr. Sniadach interview part 3

Dr. Sniadach: Strategies for True Health

..it allows people time to really kick back and re-evaluate where they're going with their lives

..to provide an environment of caring and beauty and love that allows people to open up as they probably haven't opened in many years

Don't concern yourself so much with symptoms and diseases; learn to create health, and diseases will usually take care of themselves.

If your body's telling you it needs a box of Twinkies, then you know your signals are still a bit screwed up

When most people first come into Hygiene, the radical improvement in their diet usually results in a much, much better feeling of health and well-being

In that same interview, Dr. Esser also pointed to emotional problems as causing health problems and commented that time at the Ranch helps people. Specifically, what do patients at the Ranch receive in terms of help? Counseling? Simple and real peace and quiet? Details, please.:         Well, the peace and quiet and getting away from all your regular stuff, your regular job, your regular house, your regular people you're in contact with, for us to actually back off and get away from all that for awhile completely removes us from our typical daily patterns and habits. Usually the first few days of that can be somewhat disconcerting for people. I mean, you know, we all have our daily routines and to suddenly be thrown out of that forces us to kind of kick back and re-evaluate our whole lives. What is it about our daily routine that's either pulling us up or pulling us down? Are we heading toward goals or are we getting bogged down with daily routines that are just a vicious cycle where we're not really getting anywhere?

        So going to somewhere like Esser's Ranch or any of the Hygienic retreats, one of the biggest parts of it, is that it allows people time to really kick back and re-evaluate where they're going with their lives, what the heck is the purpose of their lives, and how are they treating themselves in respect to health and is it time for some changes? Is it time for re-evaluation and improvement? Time for some new goal setting? All these things. We all get so wrapped up in our daily routines that we lose track of why we are alive. What are we supposed to accomplish while we're here? What's our purpose in this life?

        I think these questions can really be looked at when we're in a place of peace and quiet and beautiful surroundings that give us a time to get introspective and see what we ought to do about it. Carol and I both work with people on these issues. Our counseling, though, isn't about telling people what to do. It's just simply opening people up to options. Carol always makes a point of saying that psychiatry and psychology as they are practiced are about diagnosing and labeling people's illnesses–telling them they're sick–and then telling them how the doctor is going to fix it. Of course, a prescription pad comes in handy for keeping these people quiet or for dealing with "difficult" cases. There are hundreds of therapies and techniques out there to fix these people. I get a kick out of the word "diagnose." "Di" means "two," and "agnose," as in agnostic, means "I don't know." So having a diagnosis means you have two people, the doctor and the patient, who don't know!

        That's why Hygiene's so unique. It doesn't spend tons of time and money trying to diagnose what liver enzyme is in short supply, or what your vitamin C level is–that's almost beside the point–the point is just to get back to living sensibly. Don't concern yourself so much with symptoms and diseases; learn to create health, and diseases will usually take care of themselves.

        So what we try to do with people in regards to emotional problems or life goals and all these sorts of things is to act as a sounding board. As we hear what people are up to and where they're at, we try to reflect back to them what they're telling us so they hear exactly what they're saying to us. We then provide options as we see them or even just reflect back some questions about what they've told us so that they themselves can form new options, new directions, new goals.

        So it's not a matter of us telling people what to do. We act as a mirror so people can hopefully get a clear picture of where they are. At this point, their inner potential, their capabilities hopefully can come shining through a little brighter. They can see and take positive steps in directions that'll most quickly and effectively get them to those higher goals. Our job as Hygienic practitioners and supervisors of fasts is to provide an environment of caring and beauty and love that allows people to open up as they probably haven't opened in many years, so they can see some of these aspects of themselves and really shoot for the shining star that their life really is.
Speaking of emotions, I continue to try to develop a fond relationship with sprouts, green lettuces, and vegetables but find it, excuse me, a tough row to hoe. Approximately 24 months into a Natural Hygiene lifestyle I continue to prefer fruits as the bulk of my diet. Different doctors and experts, of course, recommend different diets, and, indeed, some of my correspondents eat up to 30% of their daily diet in the form of sprouts while others concentrate on lettuce and vegetables. Do you have an "ideal" percentage of the various items that you recommend for your patients once they return to live in the real world?:         Nutritionally, in today's world, there is no ideal. I've just going to put it on the table and say that. Most of my Hygienic life I've been a big fruit eater as well and not so big on the vegetables though that's changing and I'm moving more and more toward green vegetables and things like different colored vegetables–like bell peppers in green, red, yellow, and orange–and I notice these types of food stuffs in my diet increasing quite a bit. But I'm still definitely very big on fruits and always probably will be, at least as I can see it. As you get more and more Hygienic and as your body works more efficiently and effectively, I think the real needs of your body come out and make themselves known much better. The thing to do is just to follow what your body's telling you it needs.

        Keep in mind the caution that as we're coming out of a previously less than ideal dietary or health situation, our body's signals are going to be somewhat perverted. If your body's telling you it needs a box of Twinkies, then you know your signals are still a bit screwed up, but as we clean up our act and our body functions in a much cleaner environment and detoxifies quite a bit, the signals that intuitively come to us will be much truer to our needs and we can start to rely on those signals a lot more. From what my body's telling me, I need a lot of fruits, so I still go for them. I don't seem to have any problem with them and enjoy them tremendously, especially down here in south Florida where we have a lot of different tropical fruits that are readily available.

        But as far as there being a perfect ideal, I just really don't think there is one. We don't live in a Garden of Eden anymore. We need to tune in as much as possible to the basic Hygienic ideal of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, including sprouts and some root vegetables and things of that nature. Just dive into it and start playing around with what suits you, tune in as much as possible to find what seems to be best for you. When most people first come into Hygiene, the radical improvement in their diet usually results in a much, much better feeling of health and well-being than they've known in the past.

        When people get to a new baseline of health, they'll notice times when it seems like their health should be a little better, other times when it seems to be fine. Once you get halfway up the ladder, that's the time to start looking a little more closely at what you're eating and start modifying things a bit, changing things in order to see how your body responds. I think we continually fine tune our health as we go by listening to these signals. So I believe that's the best way to go.
Dr. Bass commented in his interview that a major difference in nutritional perspective exists between practitioners who run fasting institutions and those who don't. He contends that Dr. Shelton was great with fasting but less than perfect in terms of clinical nutrition in the real world where patients cheat and lie about what and how they are eating. Is it possible for normal, average people not staying with a practitioner to live without regular cheating on the "pure Hygiene" diet of fruit, vegetables, and nuts and seeds? Or has the time come for the Natural Hygiene diet to receive major revisions, especially in terms of grains?:         Again, I think we need to stick with the idea that all of us practice Hygiene. Let's talk about what the Hygienic diet is as we know it and yet recognize that there is no perfection out there. We're constantly going to be learning new things and having new experiences, so let's meet people where they are, let's bring them along, moving as close as possible toward a Hygienic ideal so that they can experience for themselves what their best dietary regime is.

        Now if that includes grains, regardless of the fact that grains may not be ideal physiologically, they may be ideal emotionally for people–for whatever reason, at specific times in their lives. And if we look at that as an emotional weakness–that people have to have grains–I think we're missing the point. It's not that big of a deal, in my opinion, if somebody eats moderate quantities of cooked grains or cooked starches, potatoes, rice, that sort of thing. Go for it and don't make a big deal about it.

        As people get healthier and healthier and are able to tune in more and more to their own body signals of what they need, they may then find that the need for grains and other complex carbohydrate products diminishes. Then they can get on with more raw fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds. If that doesn't change, then so be it.

        If they're still 80% along the way, then I think that's a wonderful achievement, and I'm going to give them a good pat on the back and tell them to keep going. Let's keep in mind what that primary Hygienic diet is. We know grains in their raw state are basically unpalatable, there's no way to chew that stuff up–it's hard as a rock. So those things that aren't part of our dietary in their raw state probably aren't ideal for us, but yet if we have the capability to take a food that isn't strictly hygienic and with very minor processing or soaking in water make it something that we can consume, then there's a place for it.

        I think people will gradually evolve in their own health capabilities to get to a point where they will then find themselves tending toward a Hygienic ideal. That's our job–to keep guiding them along the way as far as we can in that direction. I still think this is the right thing for Hygiene to do: to hold up an ideal and as well to meet people wherever they are and to quit being negative about the whole thing, quit being chastising and condescending to people who aren't Hygienic idealists and let's just get on with getting as many people healthy as we can.
Dr. Bass contends that many deficiencies, including those of Vitamins D and B12, occur over extended periods of time in individuals who practice the traditional Natural Hygiene diet without cheating. Comments?:         I really enjoyed Dr. Bass's interview, and we talked for hours at the Baltimore convention. I think he did a wonderful job relating his experiences in the interview. I think he's got some good points. It comes down to trying to imagine what life was like before we had the use of fire to cook our food. I'm sure humans were essentially nomadic in that they went wherever they needed to find food, just like all animals do. If one imagines what the situation was before cooking, I suspect we spent much of our waking hours eating whatever was in sight that was palatable. I suspect that the variety of foodstuffs was tremendous compared to what we have now.

        Heck, grocery stores, shipping problems, factory farming and everything else have got us eating a relatively limited variety of foods. We have just a handful of types of fruits, maybe a handful and a half of the type of vegetables that we eat on a regular basis, so we probably should have a heck of a lot more variety in our diet. I suspect that as time goes on we'll move more and more into getting a much wider variety of fruits and vegetables in our diet, especially vegetables. I think we'll find tremendous improvement in our health as we keep including more and more greens.

        So I suspect Dr. Bass is right in that if we had a tremendous variety of things in our diet, especially in a raw, natural form as we would find them in nature, we would find ourselves ingesting not just plants. We would also have eaten various insects and bits of earth and soil on the food that supplied some of the B12 we needed via the bacteria that came along for the ride. The huge variety of plants we probably ate would have supplied trace vitamins, minerals and other unknown co-factors that we're probably not getting now to a significant degree.

        Maybe the answer in the short term is to go for B12 supplementation where necessary, but obviously in the long term what we have to do is increase our variety of foods that are available to us. It's especially important to get on with good biodynamic and organic farming methods so we can get the much higher quality protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, trace minerals and everything else in our foods from our soil; from a good, healthy fertile soil. We must improve topsoil quantity and quality by remineralizing and revitalizing it with scientifically applied natural methods. This is the real answer for obtaining permanent, excellent nutrition.

        Quite a few real farmers are coming on-line; men and women who understand the difference between being stewards to the soil as opposed to being miners of the soil. One point comes to mind - why do organic farmers have to pay extra money to be approved, monitored and licensed by some useless government agency for simply growing healthy and safe food? This is backwards. The extra expense and burden should be placed upon those who grow with deadly chemicals. These farmers must be required to tell us exactly which poisons were used to grow their produce. You know, "this watermelon brought to you with the addition of malathion, heptachlor, etc." Along with this confession would be a table telling you how these chemicals destroy your nervous system, your immune system, and so on. If this was the scenario in grocery stores around the country, farming practices would change quickly.

        Nevertheless, natural farming practices are improving a lot, and we need to support these folks with our dollars. The money we save on having good health with Hygiene more than justifies spending the extra money on the good organic quality produce and other good foods wherever possible. So that's the answer for the long term.
In his Health Science interview, Dr. Esser recommended two fruit and one vegetable meal each day. Dr. Sniadach, do you personally practice this regime?: Yes, that's pretty much mine too. I pretty much eat fruits for breakfast and lunch, all throughout the day, and then I find I desire a heavier meal of vegetables and potatoes, rice, those sorts of things in the evenings. I'll also go with nuts with my citrus fruits a lot of times in the morning. A lot of seeds with my salads. Personally I enjoy that a lot. That's my regime as well.
Do you see any justification at all for eggs, cheese, or occasional fowl or fish in the human diet?:         As far as fish or fowl, I think that would be a rare, if ever, needed food. Cheese. Dr. Esser goes for a little cheese. He uses a salt-free, raw milk cheese that he gives to guests a couple times a week with salads at dinner time. Personally, I don't go for the cheese. Cheese causes me all kind of problems. I mentioned the sinusitis before. If I eat some cheese, the next day I'm paying for it, so it's out for me.

        You know, as we go along eating Hygienically, month after month, year after year, our desire for these foods diminishes. I don't have any craving at all for any of these flesh foods. My craving is for fruits and vegetables. It wasn't that way all the time. Early on practicing Hygiene I had cravings for a lot of animal products and now and then I would indulge, but I've noticed (as have many others) that with time your cravings switch from the old less-than-ideal foods toward much more of an ideal thing. I anxiously crave oranges and honey bell tangelos and mangoes and sapotes and all the good fruits we can get down here.

        Eggs. A good question. When humans were a more nomadic people and went where they had to in order to get the food they needed, I suspect that when they came across eggs that they ate them in their raw state. So there might be some argument for eggs now and then. But of course the argument would be for raw eggs, and there's quite a bit of evidence against raw eggs as they are now "manufactured" for contamination with salmonella, antibiotics, hormones and other junk inside the eggs, as well as some of the chemical compounds that are in raw eggs that aren't the best for us.

        But on the other side, raw eggs do supply nutrients that we don't get in any of our other raw foods so there might be some argument both ways. I suspect if we could get a hold of raw eggs of good quality that it might not be such a bad thing now and then. But, again, at this point in time and with the commercial eggs that we have available, I don't recommend them. Dr. Bass claims good results with limited use of eggs, however, so I would always be open to new information.
I find the business of "cheating" on the Natural Hygiene diet irresistible at times, especially when the stress level in my life gets out of hand. The argument that the more one cheats, the less likely one will ever attain real health makes perfect intellectual sense to me, and I can verify the difference in my entire being (body, mind, emotions, spirit) when I get off the straight and narrow. What advice do you have for individuals like me who feel physically sound but who want to move beyond the cheating stage nonetheless and arrive at the point where we practice all aspects of Natural Hygiene all the time? Or is this impossible away from a fasting institution which provides a temporary but wonderfully motivating environment to practice "pure" Hygiene?: As I just mentioned before, I find that over the years your cravings will just diminish on their own because your body will start desiring the much higher quality, much more compatible nutrients and foodstuffs that come with a normal Hygiene diet. So part of the answer is that it's a matter of time and that you have to keep plugging and things will get better and better.

The other side of the coin, especially when it comes to animal foods, animal products, if we just look beyond the physiology and start looking at some of the other issues that go with animal foods–you know, the ethical and moral and spiritual issues of all the land and water and resources that are essentially wasted on animals that then provide us with inferior food–we realize it's a really inefficient and stupid way to go. Of course, there are also the ethical considerations of killing these animals and the factory farms that are in operation.
John Robbins has done wonderful work in these areas, making it crystal clear for us to see just how these products get into our lives, what these animals and their remains have to go through before they actually get to our tables. The simple fact is that if we each had to kill, skin, disembowel and clean up these animals for our dinner, we likely wouldn't do it. So we pay people to do the dirty work for us. Then we have them package it nicely so we don't have to think about the gruesome and horrible details. So, by looking at the ethical, moral, and spiritual issues as well as physiological factors one can gain a lot more impetus, a lot more help in giving up certain cravings.
I know from the Health Science interview of Dr. Esser's fondness for tennis. Dr. Sniadach, please identify your exercise of choice. What other exercises do you recommend?:         I used to play racquetball a lot. Now I like swimming, biking and walking outdoors as much as possible. As far as good aerobic exercise, I highly recommend rebounding on the little mini-trampolines. Bottom line on exercise? The more directly against gravity one works, the more efficient the exercise. And since gravity's going from top down, the act of jumping moves directly against gravity. So jumping and rebounding, trampolining, these sort of activities, all have a tremendous positive effect upon the whole body structure.

        Rebounding does wonderful things for all the systems of the body. If done vigorously it can be a good aerobic workout as well as good for coordination and working all of our muscles and getting tremendous lymphatic movement throughout the body. Everything's positive about it, and I think it's one of the best ways to go. With the little mini-rebounders you can rebound right in the living room or a spare room on a rainy day. And rebounding takes the shock out of the joints from hitting the ground when doing things like jogging or other sports done on hard surfaces.

        Of course any other physical activities are just wonderful. If you're going to shoot for an ideal, try to shoot for one that uses both sides of your body, not just right handed or left-handed so you try to work yourself out in a good, balanced way. There's also a good place for moderate weight training.

        The big thing about exercise, especially in areas of sports is to make it fun. Make it something you enjoy doing. Make it a challenge to yourself and if possible get outside and get as much fresh air and sunshine as you can at the same time. In fact, when I talk about rebounding, I suggest that people wear minimal clothing and put their rebounder as close as possible to a window open to direct light and air. This way while you're exercising you also get fresh air and sunshine on as much of your body as possible–you get a lot of your requisites for good health all at the same time so you can make it a wonderful, rounded out program there, right in one little spot. So find your favorite place around the house and set up a little exercise spot there as well.
How do you feel about jogging? Please identify your recommendations in regards to miles per week, times per week, speed per mile, and so on.: Personally, I got into jogging at one point in my mid-twenties and I was doing about five miles a day and up to ten miles sometimes, really got into it, but it was a forced thing for me. I thought jogging was the hot ticket back then and a lot of research was coming out about how good it was, so I jumped on the bandwagon, but personally I just didn't really enjoy it that much. I was doing it out of sheer will and discipline and kind of got tired of it and just said the heck with it because it lost its appeal to me.

So I don't particularly like it. I don't think humans are made to be joggers. I think we're made to be walkers and occasional sprinters. I don't think we're anatomically suited for long periods of time spent plodding along at some moderate jogging pace. The constant pounding of the joints on hard surfaces does a pretty fair amount of damage over the long term.
So I suggest lots of walking and, if you're up to it and if you're capable of it, doing some wind sprints–periodic short, quick sprinting. That can be real good for cardiovascular and pulmonary conditioning as well. But one needs to be in pretty good shape before starting such a program, so I always highly recommend walking and then the next step would be rebounding, again as I mentioned before because it takes the unnecessary stress off the joints. You have the trampoline itself taking the shock out of bottoming out on the ground, so it's much easier on the joints and still gives us much of the same benefit.
Dermatologists and cancer specialists repeatedly tell us to avoid the sun's rays or to use sunscreens or to keep our bodies covered when in the sun, using as their rationale the weakened ozone layer. Although I take some heat from friends about this, I like my sun straight and relish a good hard sweat in keen, bright sunlight. Please give your points of view on this question of sun exposure.:         We know we need sun. In fact, I've done some research and reading lately on the effects of light and what we're finding out about it. Sunlight is a nutrient just as much as food is, in my opinion. We need to have regular exposure to sunlight in order to have excellent health. Sunlight seems to have all kinds of different effects on us that we're just now starting to scratch the surface of. Bottom line is, Hygienically, it's a definite need and we should get at least some sun on as much of our body as possible every day that we can.

        It's also important that reflected sunlight and natural light get into our eyes because that affects our endocrine system, our hormonal system, in positive ways. The day and night cycles, our sleep and waking cycles, are obviously dependent on sunlight and it has a lot to do with regulating hormonal balance as well. Vitamin D, as Dr. Bass talked about, is a very important vitamin that is initially activated by sunlight. We know that sunlight has a tremendous effect upon our pineal gland and its release of melatonin, which has all kinds of physiological ramifications.

        Boy, some of the research that's being done lately on the effects of light, visible light on the eyes, there's a lot of tremendous work being done out there, cutting edge work, showing where different aspects of the visible spectrum, different colors, seem to have a myriad of different responses in our bodies. I don't have any of that in front of me at the moment, but a lot of good work's being done in that area.

        Of course these investigators are mostly trying to create therapies out of this research rather than just telling people to get some natural sunlight. Natural light has a lot to do with our emotional well-being, mental well-being, as well as physical well-being. The fact that we've been exposed to sunlight for millions of years, all life on earth totally depends on it, it's utterly foolish to say that we should stay out of it. That's just going completely overboard.

        We need to get a moderate amount of sunlight as often as possible on as much of our skin as possible. We need to be very aware of our limitations and never overdo it.

        As far as sunscreens, you're probably aware of the research showing that the main ingredient, paba, in most sunscreens of a few years ago, well, the paba seems to react with ultraviolet rays in order to create cancerous compounds, so that was sort of a bum steer there. I'm not real sure what other ultraviolet absorbing chemicals are being used in sunscreens now, but if you must use it, I highly recommend that you use titanium dioxide type preparations that reflect sunlight. You probably remember the lifeguards from years ago who had the bright, white noses with the zinc oxide on them? That stuff, instead of absorbing the UV rays, reflected them. The new preparations basically grind titanium dioxide into very, very fine particles and mix these particles with clear gels so that when you put it on you don't even know you have it on–you can't see it, but evidently it still very effectively reflects the ultraviolet away from your body. You still get the benefits but without the white nose. So that's something worth looking into.
Too much sun and slow but long distance jogging like I enjoy leads to much sweating. Indeed the air here in New Orleans is often so dirty that I come home downright filthy, too cruddy to shower without some form of soap. Regarding soaps, shampoos, deodorants, and so on, what specific products or alternatives do you recommend for normal use?:         Well, in terms of soaps, you want as basic and pure a soap as possible. I don't think you need any of the perfumes or dyes or any other baloney that's in these products. I'm all for leaving as much of the natural oils the body produces on the body as possible, so I only use soaps on areas of the body that actually produce odor, which is under the arms, in the groin area, and on the feet. I think those are the main areas right there. If you keep these areas clean with soaps, to keep the natural oils from becoming odiferous, then the rest of your body really just needs kind of a sponging with water. I'd rather see people keep their natural oils on their skin to keep it supple and moist as possible naturally rather than be stripping the oils off all the time with soaps, especially abrasive soaps or harsh soaps in terms of perfumes and dyes and things. Most people strip off their natural body oils, then attempt to replace them with artificial moisturizing products. Your natural oils are there for good reason, so work with them, not against them.

        Shampoos? Again, just use a basic, simple shampoo that removes some of the excess oils and dirt from the hair. We don't need dozens of different types of conditioners and various preparations. I think we get way carried away with this sort of thing. Americans in particular are neurotic about personal hygiene. Remember that advertisers spend many millions of dollars figuring out how to convince you that you can't make it without their product. As our health improves in general, we find our hair, our skin, and all improves and looks much healthier anyway so I don't think we need to artificially enhance this stuff as much as we're being promoted to.

        You ask about deodorants. That's a good question. I personally use mineral crystals. I don't know exactly what the mineral is, but it's some sort of crystalline mineral compound that you hold under running tap water for a second to wet it and then you put it on under your arms or wherever else you want to use it. It evidently kills or keeps the bacterial populations down to a manageable level in these areas so that though the body's still able to perspire freely, the odors are basically pretty well eliminated. It works for me and I don't have any ill effects from it, though I'll be honest and say I don't know what chemical compound this is.
Although we'll hear next month from Dr. Robert Wynman, D.D.S., about Hygiene and care of the mouth, will you please tell us what you recommend for good dental Hygiene?: I'll be very anxious to read that interview. Again, on our Hygienic program much of our dental health takes care of itself. Things like cavities and gingivitis and other gum problems don't happen to Hygienists to much of a degree. I don't know all that much about the fine details of how specific problems might be handled. I just brush my teeth with water, sometimes I use a little baking soda, and then I'll finish it off with a bit of natural type mouthwash–some mint oils in water, a very natural preparation that's useful as mouthwash rather than the commercial types that have a lot of chemicals and alcohol in them. That seems to work fine for me. I haven't had any real dental problems since I've been a Hygienist. Before then I had lots of cavities and things, but that hasn't been a problem since eating well and taking better care of myself.

The Price book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, vividly demonstrates that dental structure and health takes care of itself when living well and eating whole, natural foods.
I've read that excessive fruit intake can damage the enamel of the teeth. What can those of us who really like fruit do to minimize the potential for problems? Indeed, what is there in fruit that causes these problems? Do fruit sugars leach minerals from the teeth if we're not getting enough minerals with sufficient vegetable intake?:         I haven't seen this as a problem for myself though I have known people here in Florida who eat copious amounts of citrus fruit and that does seem to cause a problem. Evidently the natural alkalinity of the saliva just can't keep up with the amount of acid in the citrus. If people eat lots of citrus, they might make it a point to brush after eating it. A lot of times the citrus fruit fibers can get stuck between the teeth and there seems to be a fair amount of acid related to it, so it might be a good idea to brush and get rid of that, or floss, whatever you need to do.

        Mostly, I believe the natural action of saliva and whatever else going on with normal dental health takes care of itself when our diets get completely in balance. If we're taking just fruits or just citrus for long periods of time, then we're upsetting normal balances and going at it wrong. That may give the opportunity for certain bacteria to increase on the teeth and in the gums or their acidic byproducts to do damage to the enamel.

        Normally such things aren't a problem, but, again, if we start getting imbalanced with whatever aspect of our life then we'll pay the price.
I get letters fairly regularly asking me to explain how Natural Hygiene can argue that diseases such as chicken pox are not contagious. I don't have a satisfactory answer for this question, but I hope you do. Please explain how half a dozen kids in the same classroom can all come down with chicken pox within a few days of each other if chicken pox isn't contagious.:         Well, that's a good question. There's definitely bacteria and microbes out there that have a role to play in disease processes. These little critters want to survive, too. A typical Hygienic argument is that if you have a classroom full of twenty kids, probably ten of those kids are what we would consider borderline toxemic, you know, right on the threshold of illness. Should some one or two of them get sick with some particular type of "contagious disease," then it's certainly a possibility that those others who are right on the edge of being sick as well would be much more "susceptible." We know the true problem really isn't the bacteria or virus itself–it's the susceptibility of the person. The next question then is "What are the factors that come into play, making one more or less susceptible to these things?"

        As Hygienists we know what makes one less susceptible to any illness is our general state of health and our general lack of toxemia and enervation, the basic precursors to disease. So obviously it behooves us to maintain our health at as high a level as possible such that all of our systems, especially our detoxification and eliminative systems–liver, kidneys, lungs, skin–as well as our immune system be as strong and as healthy as possible in order to not have a problem with these things. People usually say that diseases must be contagious because one kid got it and then ten more got it too. But then, we have to remember: ten other kids didn't get it. So we have to ask, "What's the situation here?" If it doesn't hold true for all the kids, then there are factors at work that allow the other ten kids not to have to deal with the disease. Rather than study the ten kids who got it and ask why, I would certainly look at the ten kids who didn't get the illness and ask what they were doing right and proceed from there.

        Human nature is that we look at the exceptions, we look at what's wrong, and we try to figure out an answer rather than looking at what we're doing right and continue to do that and find other ways to do even better.

        So contagion, you know, it's still somewhat of an open question, but the bottom line is that if we maintain a high level of health, we'll rarely have any problem with it.

INDEX INTERVIEW
[Baltimore] [Health search] [Meeting Dr. Esser] [Internship with Dr. Esser in Florida]
Part 2 [Dr. Esser's views] [Shangri-la] [ANHS and Hygienic purity] [ANHS and member needs] [Nerve energy and sleep] [Nerve energy and sex] [Sex and body fluids] [Methods to build self-discipline]
Part 3 [Hygienic retreats and emotional support] [Fruit or vegetables] [Cheating and eating] [B12 deficiencies] [Dr. Esser's diet] [Eggs and cheese] [[Food cravings] Recommended exercises] [Jogging or walking] [Sunshine or sunscreen] [Soaps and schampoos] [Dental hygiene] [Can fruit sugars damage the enamel] [Is chicken pox contagious]
Part 4 [AIDS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrom] [Immune system problems and fasting] [Spiritual visions while fasting] [Fasting and exercise] [Are short fasts enervating?] [Norman Walker and juices for healing] [Water fasting versus juice diets] [Enemas while fasting?] [How can the overstressed American slow down?] [Top ten book recommendations] [Alternative health confusion] [Keki Sidhwas detoxification routine] [Barley green supplements] [What supplements are best] [Usefulness of chiropractic, acupuncture and other therapies; muscle tension] [Hygiene, Christianity and wholistic thinking]

TRUE HEALTH FREEDOM
[Shelton and the Principles of Natural Hygiene] [Hanna and Somatics body awareness]
Part 2 [What is the science of Natural Hygiene?] [Natural Laws of Life] [Disastrous results of therapeutic intervention] [Is sickness inevitable? - No!] [Natural Hygiene Philosophy] [Basics - what are the ideal conditions for human life?] [Nutrition in a nutshell] [The perfect food for humans] [Elimination] [Drugs are toxic] [Is there a place for therapies?] [Pain is a warning alarm] [The remedy mentality]
Part 3 [Fasting - basic facts] [Appropriate intervention] [When is medical or surgical care necessary?] [Living wisdom] [Internal somatic awareness] [The Alexander method] [Somatics] [Somatics philosophy and theory] [Putting it all together] [Turning helpless frightened patients into happy non-patients]

SCHOOL OF NATURAL HYGIENE Dr. Sniadach is editor-in-chief for the new NATURAL HYGIENE COURSE, an updated, expanded edition of the original course by T.C. Fry. Click here for more info or contact Dr. Sniadach rwsniadach@transformationinst.com.

Hygienic Physicians Webring
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