More from Dr C, a compilation of a series of posts to Usenet: The Seven Stages of Disease Dr. Cee. PhD.
The orthopathic doctors determined that disease in the human occurred in seven stages. First Stage: Enervation. Enervation is simply insufficient nerve energy, or vital energy, to carry out the needed and necessary daily functions of the living organism. The living organism needs energy in two forms. The human (a living organism) needs chemical energy. The energy source of humans is glucose, a sugar. The waste end products of this internal combustion is water and CO2. Fats can be converted to sugar type chemicals to fit into the glucose system. Amino acids can be converted to sugar type chemicals which fit into the glucose system. The second type of energy is vital energy. What is it? I have no idea. However, living foods have this energy as does sunshine, fresh air, and pure water. The human needs all of these. An insufficiency of energy coming in contributes to enervation. So does excessive energy expenditure. Burning the candle at both ends leads to enervation. Excesses of all types can enervate a person. So does stress. There are five areas where the body uses its energy: Thinking, movement, digestion, metabolism, and elimination. When enervated, the area which is most easily slighted is elimination. The body strives to keep itself clean internally. The elimination cycle is continuous, but at a maximum from about 4 AM to 12 PM. If elimination is checked due to enervation, the un-eliminated bodily wastes accumulate. This accumulation of un-eliminated wastes is what fuels TOXEMIA, the second stage or step into disease. Enervation is then a double edged sword. Not enough energy coming in, or too much energy going out. Stage Two: Toxemia Toxemia to the Orthopaths meant a foul or morbid state of the blood and tissues resulting from the accumulation of un-eliminated toxic matter. Toxic or noxious materials or chemicals must be eliminated from the body in order to maintain homeostasis and body purity. These toxins come from our own metabolism (eg carbon dioxide), ingested foods containing toxins (eg hot peppers or garlic), and absorbed toxins from the intestinal bacteria (from fermentation of our undigested foods). Additional toxic components now come from all the chemicals in our food, air and water. The body of modern man is being taxed in its ability to handle this toxic load. On top of all this modern man insists upon even more direct blood poisoning with his vaccines. As a consequence of the rising toxemia, the vitality of the body drops as energy is drained to combat the inflow. All this sets the stage for disease. In an effort to maintain body purity and homeostasis, the body can conduct an “internal” housecleaning. I call it dis-ease, the body is not at ease, while others call it disease. Initially the disease will be of the “acute” type. These diseases are always of short duration and never fatal. The body will never, of its own accord, conduct a fatal disease of the acute type. The diseases of the acute type are the colds, and the flu. In children, the common childhood dis- eases such as measles, and chickenpox are seen. Even smallpox is an acute dis-ease and not a fatal disease (depending upon the actions of the physician). The second type of disease is those of the “chronic” type. These represent the degeneration of the body. Since the body is being prevented from maintaining internal cleanliness and providing the owner (you) with perfect health, in order to prolong life, the default mode is to store the un-eliminated crap. This storage of un- eliminated material interferes with the proper oxygenation and nutrition of the cells and contributes to our “internal pollution”. The body begins to degrade and sink deeper into disease. Typical examples are heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, etc, exactly those diseases for which modern medicine has no clue as to cause and no “cures, but does have lots of theories and treatments. Stage Three: Irritation. As the enervated body becomes more and more polluted with the accumulating un-eliminated wastes, the interstitial space between the cells begins to resemble a toxic waste dump. In addition, water is used to dilute the effects of these wastes, causing the tissues to become water laden. Guyton (Textbook of Medical Physiology) explains that the “dry cell” state is the state of healthy tissues. The “wet cell” state, or the “hydrated cell” state is the state of the tissues in disease. The body tissues are then very much like a sponge. While the dry cell state is the state of health, the tissues can absorb a great deal of water and toxins, just like a sponge, if it is forced to in order to extend life. These waste products interfere with the proper oxygenation and feeding of the cells as well as causing the accumulation of excess water in the tissues. Pain signals coming from the tissues have at least three causes: lack of oxygen, lack of nutrition (cellular food), and pressure. The cells, subjected to the lack of oxygen, the lack of food, and the increased pressure from the retained water, begin to send out pain signals. The cells are hence “irritated.” (If not downright angry). Modern man’s answer is either to ignore the pain and discomfort, or to take a “pain” pill, which just adds more toxic stuff to the load, and keep on going on. This leads to the next stage of disease and body degeneration, Inflammation. Stage Four. Inflammation The enervated body is now suffering the results of toxemia. The cells have initially become irritated. The next step of cellular changes and body degeneration is inflammation. The inflammation process produces the common “-itis”. With the skin it is dermatitis. In the throat it may be tonsillitis and further on esophagitis. In the stomach we find gastritis. In the small intestine ileitis. In the colon colitis. The heart may have carditis. With the liver it is hepatitis. (We now have types a, b, and c. Given enough time we will no doubt have ‘a’ through ‘z’.) You can have an inflammation (an -itis) anywhere within the body. It is not uncommon to have bacteria involved in the inflammation process. The bacteria have not caused the inflammation and the -itis any more than flies cause garbage. By allowing the accumulation of toxemia to continue, the body will continue to decline in energy and vitality. Further cellular changes will be found (pathology proves this). Left unchecked and unheeded, the next stage of disease is ULCERATION. Stage Five: Ulceration The body has undergone the successive effects of enervation, rising toxemia, irritation, and inflammation. The next step in body degeneration is ulceration of the tissues. Ulceration can occur with any body tissue, but the usual connotation of ulcers has to do with the skin or the digestive tract. One can develop ulcers on the skin, in the nose, in the mouth, in the throat, in the stomach, in the small intestine, and in the colon. These conditions are painful and serious. The sufferer usually seeks medical assistance at this point. The allopaths of today will offer lotions, potions, and medicinals to alleviate the pain and swelling but offer little else other than anti-biotics. When the pain becomes too much to bear, the sufferer may have his throat cut out, his stomach “re-sectioned”, his small intestine reduced in length, or the colon totally removed whereby the sufferer can now enjoy having a dump in a bag carried on his side (a colectomy with an ostomy). Clearly, if you have no colon, you can have no pain from the colon or any other painful tissue which may have been ulcerated and removed. The modern surgeon’s answer to pain is always the same...cut it out. There is a second type of ulcer. In Orthopathy, it is termed “ ...a route of vicarious elimination.” The body has many routes of eliminating wastes from the body. Some are not so obvious, nor so pleasant and simple as “bad breath.” The body intelligence, sensing the need to eliminate the accumulated toxins and lower the amount of toxemia, can form an ulcer. In this case, as an example, an opening through the skin will be formed. The poisons and toxins will then be routed through this opening to the outside of the body. This ulcer will ooze and run with the toxins it contains and will remain until the level of toxemia has been lowered sufficiently to allow the body to close the site. It is kind of like letting excess air out of an overfilled tire. Modern medicine views this process as negative. Special clinics have been set up for “wounds that will not heal.” The allopaths of “modern medicine” apply creams, lotions, antibiotics, and chemicals galore, never realizing what the underlying physiological process that is going on demonstrates. An ulcer can then be viewed as a consequence of body degeneration, or the action of the vital organism to prolong life and maintain its remaining health. Stage Six: Induration The enervated body is now carrying an un-eliminated toxic load creating toxemia. The cells of the tissues are experiencing irritation, inflammation, and ulceration. The next step is for the cells to indurate. Induration is a thickening and hardening of the tissues in an effort to protect themselves. The stomach is unique in that it will first indurate then ulcerate as compared to the other body tissues. It is easy to recognize the indurated stomach. The typical American male shows it very well...the stomach enlarges and hangs over your belt. Look at the pouch of the typical American male over the age of 25. For the stomach then, induration precedes ulceration. Induration is a protective measure. The formation of “water blisters” on the hands is an example of a protective measure. Upon continued stress in that area, the tissues will indurate and form a callous. The soles of the feet of the human going barefoot will indurate, thicken, and harden allowing the bare foot child to run and play with no discomfort. (As a farm kid the first day after school was over, I kicked off my shoes for the rest of the summer. The soles of my feet would thicken to over 1/3 of an inch thick.) The continuing accumulation of un-eliminated toxic waste causing toxemia leads to the final stage of cellular degeneration...FUNGATION. Stage Seven: Fungation The living organism, living with an ever increasing amount of toxemia, has expressed its internal discomfort with irritation, inflammation, ulceration, and induration. The final stage of the expression of its discomfort is FUNGATION, more commonly known as CANCER. The cells of the body form a collective consciousness. Each cell performs its function according to the needs of its group which then benefits the body as a whole. When subjected to conditions which prevent the cell from performing its duties in the normal manner, the cells can revert to less beneficial means to prolong and extend the cell’s life. When the internal conditions have deteriorated to the extent that normal aerobic, oxidative processes are no longer possible, the cells can revert to a more primordial means of surviving. The cells can carry on their life processes by anaerobic processes, the same processes that many bacteria use. When the cells have changed in form and function to this extent, this is when your oncologist will tell you that you have the big C... cancer. Cancer is then a normal consequence of toxemia. You have not been invaded by some foreign cancer cell. The cancer cells are you, they are your cells. The work of Noble Prize winner Warburg proves this conclusively. Warburg demonstrated that cancer cells, when slowly exposed to oxygen, converted to normal cells. These same cells, when deprived of oxygen, turned into cancer cells. The body does make use of one other means to prolong the life of the whole organism. The body can form tumors. The tumors are walled off from the rest of the body by a membrane but fed to keep the cells alive. (The new cancer drugs are attacking this ability of the body.) The tumor is a toxic waste dump for the body. The body is so loaded with toxic waste that some of the tissues must be sacrificed for the good of the rest of the body. The tumors are initially non- cancerous. However, over time they will convert to anerobic cells or cancer cells. The deposition of toxic wastes into these sites is the only reason chemotherapy works as poorly as it does. The chemo drugs are terribly toxic to the body. The body routes them out as rapidly as it can. Since the tumors are toxic waste sites, they get the majority of the poisons, but not all of the poisons. (Modern medicine still does not know why chemo drugs work or why they may affect the tumors more so than the rest of the body.) A second type of cancer is possible. Induced cancer from carcinogens, X-rays, and radiation of various types are possible. These types of cancerous growths should not be confused with cancer which originates from the natural causes. Induced cancers are of the abnormal type. Induced cancers proliferate only if the body’s immune system is compromised and not up to the task of eliminating the rogue cells due to either the lowered ability of the body or the quantity of the induced cells (like the difference between an infection and gangrene). Summary and comments. The Orthopathic medical doctors belong to the class termed “vitalistic/humanistic.” In their studies and research upon the subject of the etiology of disease, they developed a seven stage model for the disease process. Those seven stages are enervation, toxemia, irritation, inflammation, induration, ulceration, and finally fungation (cancer). There are several details of note. First, at no time did they have to resort to the concept of an outside source for any disease. They did not rely upon the false doctrine of germs, viruses, retro-viruses, prions, etc, etc. The cause of disease was the condition of the body, the internal cleanliness or lack thereof, the soil where the seeds of disease are sown. Their understanding of the disease process is in complete agreement with the great work of Antione Bechamp. When you combine their knowledge of disease with those of deficiency (protein, vitamins and minerals) an answer to over 99.99% of man’s ills are readily explainable, treatable and healable. >From this understanding, one can see that the work of Hahnemann, with his homeopathic remedies, was more nearly correct in his theory that “like cures like” and that homeopathic remedies were meant to aid the body’s healing efforts, not to suppress the process. If one then views acute disease as dis-ease and is the body’s attempt to heal itself, fighting the process, as is done by modern medicine, is to stop the healing. The dis-ease, then, is the cure when dealing with acute disease. Acute disease is then the outward manifestation of the internal discomfort of the body and the body’s attempt to purify and heal itself. You can also see that except for the spiritual nature of the theories, the Oriental medicine of China and Ayurvedic medicine of India are not so totally different. With the understanding of the seven stages of disease, one can also see why they succeed to the extent that they may succeed. When reading of some vaunted cure for cancer be very skeptical. I know of no cure or treatment for cancer in alternative medicine which does not use nutrition as its basis. This is not to say many of the cures (herbs, medicinals) do not or cannot help anymore than I would say that antibiotics for gangrene do not help. There are times and situations where the body needs extra assistence in order to maintain itself. However, the root cause must be eliminated to be totally successful, and the root cause is toxemia. Lastly there is the concept of “retracing.” When a person supplies the body with superior building materials, begins to lower the level of toxemia, and increases their vitality, the body will begin to repair and rebuild, previous complaints may surface once again as the body “retraces” and heals. You may feel worse rather than better for a time, particularly if you detoxify too rapidly and load the blood with the stored toxins. The road back to health is not so smooth as one would hope. Herring’s law of healing states that the body will heal itself in the inverse (or reverse) order that it degenerated, and the healing will occur from the head down. For those of you interested in alternative medicine and your own health and healing, I do hope you found this effort beneficial and informative. When dealing with an acute disease process, all systems of medicine and treatments work to some degree but over treatment (as in allopathy ) can kill. The true test of any theory of disease is how well it can handle the chronic diseases like lupus, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, and cancer. Few succeed and most fail since they violate the seven stages of disease and do not understand nor recognize the underlying physiological processes
