Is it possible to cure bowel obstruction without operation?

If it cannot be cured without operation, it cannot be cured. With few exceptions bowel obstruction arises from hysteria, panic, intense jitters. Certainly a diseased organ may be cut away, and a frightened and crumpled up section of the bowel may be cut away, but genuine cure calls for restoration of normal function. Once an organ or part is extirpated it cannot ever be normal again; if it cannot be repaired from within, it cannot be cured.

In the case of obstruction which arises from a tumour pressing on the bowel, the tumour is the problem. In the more common spastic form, apply warmth and talk soothingly to the patient until he returns to a calm frame of mind, and the tension and the obstruction pass away together. The basic pain was holding up the tiny impulses which move the waste matter along the intestine. The muscular rings which do this work become rigid with fear.

The worst possible treatment that can be applied at this stage, when the pain may be overpowering, is by the doctor or surgeon who palpates the painful part and then merely gives a negative shake of the head. The best procedure in such a case is to cut out the practitioner.

Will you please give a cure for depression?

First thing, begin full deep breathing as soon as you awake. Most civilised people are unhealthy in one way or another, and a high proportion are suffering from a lack of fresh air. When you awake in the morning, lie on your bed and pull your ribs up vigorously as you breathe deeply. By so doing you start the blood circulating through your rib marrow where it breeds millions more of the oxygen carrying red blood corpuscles.

Next, get out of bed and take a quick, cold, splash. That too will encourage the blood to circulate this time through the pelvis and abdomen. Then dress and set off on a brisk two or three mile walk, without breakfast. After the first few times you begin to like the routine because it makes you feel so much better for the whole rest of the day. Having done that, next learn to take smaller meals than you are accustomed to. Make the evening meal the main meal of the day, but take it at least three hours before retiring at night. Malnutrition and depression, over-eating and mental distress, are commonly found together.

Have you anything to say on the question of heart trouble?

The heart is the central organ of the body, and if it begins to manifest distress, there is trouble for the whole body. A great deal of what passes for heart trouble is actually mental distress. A worried or frightened attitude of mind may cause the heart to be greatly over-worked. If you can get the person to do a few sensible out-door exercises and stop sitting in a bad position etc, you will have begun to achieve something. One of my happiest experiences with heart trouble was with a lawyer whose brother was a Harley Street specialist. His doctor had told him that he must stop golf and retire from work because of angina. He enjoyed his golf and his work and was reluctant to take that advice. So off he went to London to get his brother’s opinion. This led to visits to one or two of his brothers colleagues. All had confirmed the diagnosis and corroborated the doctor’s advice.

At the end of our interview he said, "I do not think I could do what you advise, but I will get in touch with my brother". So he wired his brother, "A naturopath in Edinburgh thinks he can cure me, what do you advise?" and by return he had this message from his brother, "By all means, place yourself in his hands. He must know more than all the Harley Street specialists put together."

Despite this sarcasm he took up our treatment and followed instructions with growing enthusiasm. At the end of three months he was satisfied. Once again he was able to play golf and walk up hills without distress. Only then did he acknowledge his brother’s wire with a two word message of his own. It read, "He does!"

But I did not cure him; he did that for himself when, biologically, he began to behave more reasonably.

Is alcohol good or bad for a person?

Your body manufactures approximately 2gs of alcohol daily and it is not wise to add to that quantity.

Is there a point at which hardened arteries cannot be cured?

Unquestionably, there is. Had I been forty years older, instead of still in my teens when I developed tuberculosis so seriously, I do not believe anything could have saved me. Similarly there comes a stage in any disease condition where increasing breakdown with failing resilience renders regeneration improbable. Hardened arteries do not come out of the clear blue sky; they usually result from prolonged unwise ways of living—worry, over-eating, over-drinking, etc. Dr Lindlahr’s favourite aphorism is peculiarly suited to hardened artery patients: "One third of what we eat enables us to live; the other two thirds enable the doctors to live".

Even the poorest persons eat too much breadstuffs and unfortunately much of our present doctored bread presents probably one of the worst problems of all.

Diabetes is on the increase. Can anyone cure himself by taking insulin?

Diabetes, like all other degenerative disease—high blood pressure, Bright’s disease, cancer, arthritis, disseminated sclerosis and the rest—is on the increase throughout the whole of the civilised world. The insulin enthusiasts tell us that their product saves the lives of many thousands of these sufferers annually. On the other hand, as the vital statistics since 1922 show a steady rise in the death rate, somebody is not telling the truth. But here and there we get a glimpse of it.

For example a statement issued in November 1953 from an American hospital for diabetics. Five chemists and three doctors had just completed a prolonged experiment on 4,000 patients. Their conclusion—which by the way, is a medical opinion and not a Nature Cure one—is that not more than one per cent of diabetics require insulin.

It is staggering to think that there is only one per cent of difference between our opinion and that of these drug doctors on the need for insulin.

That finding will be rapidly forgotten in all orthodox circles. It would never do for the public to learn that only by self-effort can the diabetic be cured. Always there must be the miracle drug, injection or operation.

To keep the rate of recovery high, insulin is given to persons who have not the slightest trace of diabetes. Some of the most healthy people, especially strong men who are not ill in any way, excrete sugar in their urine. The only thing wrong with these people is an exceptionally sugary and starchy diet—that, and over-credulity. Their sugar leakage is not a symptom of disease, it is a vital safety-valve. But these people are advertised as "saved by insulin".

I believe that only through self-control and self-effort can there be any hope of cure for the diabetic.