Overcoming Toxemia
By Dr. George Weger

Many people live under the mistaken impression that bowel evacuation represents the whole system of human drainage. This is far from the truth. Only fourteen percent of the unusable waste in the form of toxic poisons finds its way out of the body through the bowel. It is true that many lateral and branch drains empty into the main sewer. Of far more importance to the health of the human race are the large and small arteries, the veins and lymph channels that maintain the circulation. Of still greater importance to life and function are the millions of microscopical channels and intercellular spaces that act as middlemen or distributors between the source of supply, which is the blood, and the ultimate consumer, which is the cell.

Overeating, A Widespread Habit

Under prevailing conditions of life, drainage becomes the paramount issue. The world produces food in abundance. Man finds a ready means to convey this food to his insides after first dressing and altering it to suit the discriminating taste of a pampered palate. Consequently, he eats more than he actually needs. Everybody admits this.

Overeating Clogs Body's Disposal System

What has all this to do with drainage? Everything! What happens to any sewer system that is crowded beyond its capacity? It fills up, circulation becomes slow, then sluggish, and finally stops. In the man-made sewage systems, choking or clogging is more likely to start at the distal end of the main trunk sewer and back up, eventually to occlude and obstruct the lesser channels in turn. To a certain extent this is also true of the human body, as in obstinate chronic constipation. Long before this condition can become a serious menace to health, clogging of the small channels in the body has been going on insidiously because of the excessive food intake which taxes the organism beyond its capacity to absorb assimilate, liquefy, and carry away.

Constipation of Body's Drainage System Rarely Felt

Everybody knows the harmful results of incomplete intestinal drainage, which is in itself an effect rather than a cause. What everybody does not know is that imperfect drainage throughout the entire organism is but another form of constipation, going on continuously as a result of wrong eating even though the bowels may move freely every day. In most persons drainage is obstructed very early in life, due entirely to an overcrowded nutrition. The functional capacity of the body is not equal to the burden imposed upon it. When nature sees fit to rebel against the practice of overeating, we develop what is known as disease or discomfort. These discomforts do not, except in occasional instances, come on at once. It may take years before we find out that we have been injuring ourselves.

The Necessity of Proper Drainage

What precedes and accompanies local swelling, congestion or inflammation? Imperfect drainage! This is true regardless of whether the immediate or exciting cause be an injury or an infection.

What prevents blood poisoning following wounds or abrasions? Proper drainage!
What relieves pain and removes the infection from an abscessed tooth? Drainage!
What do inflamed or infected tonsils need? Drainage!
What does a boil or an abscessed appendix need? Drainage!
What about a congested liver, an obstructed gall duct, an infected and debris-engorged gall bladder? They need drainage!
What about lumps in the breast or swollen mammary or lymphatic glands? Drainage is needed!
How can we allow rapid healing of certain venereal infections? The need is drainage!
What does the engorged lung in pneumonia need to relieve it? Drainage!
What subsides the inflammation of the mucous surfaces that are congested in acute or chronic catarrh? Drainage!
What cures the sinuses or mastoid abscess? Drainage!
What is the best solution for infection after childbirth? Drainage!

We are mentioning common conditions that all of us know and many of us have experienced. Why do these diseases occur in the first place? Lack of drainage. If drainage had been perfect, there would have been no local manifestation. What was undrained? The veins, the capillaries, the lymph channels, and the very cells themselves cry out for drainage. What caused them to clog? Unusable food, resulting in imperfect combustion and in clinkers instead of an easily removable or soluble waste also block drainage. NOTE: There are many causes of impaired drainage other than overeating. Improper foods, cooked foods, poisons, and enervating practices also retard excretion.

Can you see in this condition the cause of arteriosclerosis in which the caliber of the blood vessels is gradually lessened by the accumulation of waste? The child who is continually overfed is actually starting to build arteriosclerosis, if its diathesis (congenital susceptibility) is in that direction. When the individual reaches the age of forty or fifty, the condition is recognized: the man or woman has hardening of the arteries-possibly also high blood pressure and an organically unsound heart.

Impaired Body Cleansing Begins a Slow Death

What is the condition of the body when arteriosclerosis is already quite easy to diagnose? You are merely witness to imperfect nutrition plus imperfect drainage. Take, for instance, an organ such as the liver. For years the capillary blood vessels have been carrying a diminishing supply of nutritive blood to the liver. What happens? These cells no longer function vigorously. They become apathetic, sluggish, and slow to respond to stimuli. As a result of malnutrition, certain areas may break down and undergo fatty degeneration. What happens to the rest of the body? It suffers the same identical impairment! What then is the crying need of the body? Drainage-removal of obstruction; opening up of the channels that supply nutrition; and, what is of equal importance, clearing of lymph channels and venous circulation that carry away the debris. When such conditions have progressed to the point of ready recognition, it is already too late to make perfect repairs, and very few can even be patched up to run a little longer.

The same process goes on in the kidneys, ending in Bright's disease. Why seek forever and a day for causes outside the human body when there is so much within that needs correction or drainage?

One Way Cancer Begins

Thoughts also persistently turn to the subject of cancer. Take, for example, the simpler form that usually starts as a benign lump in the breast. Often a history of a blow or bruise or injury of some kind can be elicited. What happens? The glandular structure is fragile and held together by loose connective tissue. Bruising or crushing of the cells even in a small area causes local swelling and enough inflammation to obliterate the lymph channels. The walls of these channels virtually adhere or grow fast to each other so that the lymph can no longer flow through them. The gland structure suffers from lack of nutrition, lack of active and passive circulation. In time, this area breaks down and becomes tender or painful. Drainage of the dead or dying cells is obstructed. Nature does not permit dead material to remain in any part of the body without making an effort to remove it. Dead cells and the substances into which they break down are toxic in character and they gain entrance into the blood stream by breaking through the normal boundaries nature has built as protection. This toxic material comes into contact with neighboring lymph glands through communicating lymph channels. Secondary processes or infections are thus set up and the activity continues until sufficient tissue has broken down to cause a fatal ending.

What can be done about this condition in either the early or the late state? Drainage and circulation must be established. Surgery skillfully removes such local areas but it does not remove or correct the primary cause, which is obstruction of drainage throughout the body. The natural hygienist simply cannot conceive that a body developing lumps in the breast simultaneously has a free and unobstructed general circulation. In the affected area, toxic, undrained waste prepares the soil. The injury supplies the irritation, and the stages of degeneration follow in natural sequence. In the last stages of cancer, the toxic material becomes so concentrated that it virtually destroys the life of the blood. A condition allied to septicemia or blood poisoning supervenes, and this is invariably fatal.

In the early stages of lumps in the breast the great majority of cases recover completely if living and eating habits are corrected. What has diet to do with this? Much! The highways and byways in the body become clogged because of too much food. To be specific, too much carbohydrate (in the form of starches and sugars) and too much protein, with too little of the fruits, salads and vegetables which contain the alkaline bases. These are nature's most effective alternatives.

Raw Fruits and Vegetables Necessary for Best Health

Why are fruits and vegetables beneficial? Because they are converted into chemical reagents, solvents and neutralizer. Fruits and vegetables are potent factors in liquefying excretions in the tissues, thus promoting drainage of protein and carbohydrate waste. However, they also dilute the normal secretions of the body and place additional labor on the organism in carrying off the excess, mainly through the skin and kidneys. If the circulation is obstructed and the drainage impaired, too much water remains in the tissues resulting in hydremia or water-logging. If drainage is unimpaired, the fluids of the body can circulate without being diluted with water. We refer, of course, to excessive water drinking as a therapeutic measure. For actual thirst, there is no substitute for water.

Proper Diet Corrects a Clogged System

The arguments we have presented can be applied equally well to most pathological conditions not mentioned here. Successful treatment of many diseases resulting from imperfect drainage consists of a well-balanced diet, suited in quality and quantity to the needs, rather than the desires, of patients. The outgo must keep pace with the intake. Any other treatment that stimulates activity and does not enervate may effectively relieve venous congestion and lymph stasis. Well-regulated, methodical exercises and general hygiene are very important preventatives supplementing any other form of treatment. We should look well to our drainage systems and thus prevent the rapid encroachment of diseases in middle life which are now taking as great a toll of human life as did the plagues of old.

Overcoming Toxemia By Dr. George Weger