Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/368

 separate bones of the spinal column, there is but one source from which may arise a condition of lowered nutrition in any one of the muscles of the body impaired digestion. Perfect digestion insures perfect nutrition, and perfect nutrition must conserve muscular tone.

Both Osteopathy and Chiropractics are cut short of their greatest possibilities when they are applied apart from the fast. In the presence of a full stomach they become mere methods of force and stimulation, which, in many respects, are detrimental to health. They are then to be classed only as passive physical culture, in which the patient permits the operators to exercise the muscles instead of working them himself. During a fast, all muscles of the body are in a state of perfect relaxation, a natural result of the process of rest and elimination in progress. They respond in this condition to every impetus, and blood circulation at the same time is directly amenable to the stimulation applied. Hence the value, both local and general, of a combination with the fast of Osteopathic manipulation and Chiropractic thrust.

In pregnancy and confinement osteopathic methods are superior to all others in equaliz-