Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/251

 CHAPTER XVI

DIFFICULTIES IN CONDUCTING THE FAST

THE very simplicity of the fast in its application has proved the most serious obstacle to its general acceptance by both the public and the medical profession. Popular writers have lauded its claims in newspaper and in magazine. Books have been written upon it in the enthusiasm produced by the beneficial effects of personal trial, and cures by fasting have been heralded the world over. The consequences are what might have been foreseen. Regardless of the physiology of the human body and the rationale of the method, and ignorant of the physiological changes that the administration of the fast must involve both in function and in tissue structure, inexperienced hands have undertaken the treatment without guidance or the necessary knowledge of the conditions that may develop, and, in many instances, harm with unmerited adverse criticism of the method has resulted.