ARCHIVE: Herbs for Auto-Immune Diseases

this was written for the old veg-raw, but never posted. I hope that
some of you find it interesting.

Tom Billings
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HERBS FOR AUTO-IMMUNE DISEASES: LECTURE NOTES

David Christopher, well known (Western) herbalist and Director of the School of
Natural Healing, gave a lecture titled "Herbs for Auto-Immune Diseases", at the
San Francisco Whole Life Expo, Explorations in Natural Healing, on Sunday, 22
October, 1995. Below are my notes from the workshop.  Contact addresses and my
comments are given after the notes.

The material below has only a limited direct connection to raw/living foods (see
Christopher's comments on fruitarianism, below). However, as the Western
herbalist model of disease is similar to that used by some raw fooders
(toxemia = blockage), the material may be of interest to some raw fooders.

Notes:

All auto-immune diseases are related. All the filth diseases of the last century
went away with cleanliness, except one: smallpox, the only one we immunized
against!  Many diseases today are auto-immune. There is only one disease -
"constipation" or blockage of bodily systems (not limited to the bowels).

The different healing modalities are just ways to get blockages out.
Malnutrition can come from blockage also. Herbs help to remove the blocks. Your
cells must receive nourishment and eliminate wastes. Block those processes and
you get disease. Healing consists of cleansing and nourishment.

Auto-immune diseases were not prevalent 100 years ago but filth diseases were.
Auto-immune diseases are common today, even among young people. Why would your
body attack itself? The body is hermetically sealed (skin). We are also an
environment for bacteria. Friendly skin flora can protect us, also the lining
in the lungs and intestines protects us from unfriendly bacteria.

In Type I diabetes (insulin dependent), the insulin producing cells in the
pancreas (beta cells in the islet of Langerhans), are destroyed by your system.
This is not the fault of your immune system. Why destroyed?
Foreign protein + beta cell = foreign to your body =>
is attacked by the immune system.

Where do these foreign proteins come from? Leakages in capillary walls or
ulcers; injected protein in the blood - immunizations. Other sources of foreign
proteins include parasites and homogenized milk. (Homogenization makes proteins
small enough to pass through cell walls).

Normally, foreign proteins will be destroyed by the immune system. But if the
immune system is weak, they might cause damage. If the foreign proteins combine
with cells in your lungs, you get asthma, in the nerves - multiple sclerosis,
in the connective tissue - lupus, in the joints - rheumatoid arthritis.

Stay away from dairy and sugar. Fructose triggers insulin production, but there
is no glucose for it to combine with, hence the produced insulin cannot be used,
so you get hyper. This back and forth production of insulin, in the long term,
leads to Type II (adult onset) diabetes.

To get rid of sugar cravings, take herbal bitters: dandelion greens are great.
Raw sugarcane juice is great; cane workers eat it all day without getting tooth
cavities. Fruitarians should eat the whole fruit, including the seeds, and eat
only organic fruits.

Additional herbal bitters include: ginseng, oregon grape root, thistle,
barberry. Milk has many problems: you cannot use the calcium it contains, and
it is high in protein. Milk is a perfect food for babies of the correct species,
but it is not good food for adults. He closed his talk by advocating veganism
and encouraging listeners to become herbalists, so that they can divorce
themselves from the medical "profession".



Contact addresses:

School of Natural Healing - correspondence courses in Western herbalism
P.O. Box 412
Springville, Utah  84663
Phone:  800-372-8255
Fax:    801-489-4254

Christopher Publications - newsletters, audiotapes, books on herbs
and herbal healing. Same contact address as above.

Comments:

1. I have read that homogenization of cow's milk creates enzymes that can pass
through the intestinal wall and potentially cause problems. However, as most
people in Western countries sharply reduce their milk/dairy consumption when
they become adults, one wonders whether the milk<->autoimmune disorder link is
as strong as the speaker suggests.  Also, one wonders about other whipped/
blended foods, most notably juices and, among the meat eaters, egg meringue
and mayonnaise - are "harmful" enzymes being created there also?

2. Regarding the reference to fruitarians eating the seeds in fruits; this is
an individual decision as the seeds in some fruits act as "antidotes" to the
properties of the fruits. Melons are very alkaline but melon seeds are very
acidic, for example. So discretion and individual consideration apply here.

3. Although blockages of body processes are involved in many diseases, I don't
believe that blockages are the cause of all disease (blockages do not explain
deficiency diseases, for example). The blockage may be a result, not the cause,
in many diseases.

Tom Billings