Robin Pan
Dale Figtree, Ph.D., an artist, is also a dietician. She has been named as the most popular nutritionist of a district in Santa Barbara. She became a nutritionist all because of her personal experience with fighting cancer. Her experience serves as an eye opener for us, showing that it is possible to have one’s healing potential being stimulate once the toxin in the body had been eliminated. The body would then start to heal itself from degenerative diseases (like, blocked artilleries, arthritis, and even cancer), and rebuild its damaged organs, paving the way for a possible full recovery. In other words, healing energy, which has long been disregarded by the traditional medical profession, is now proven by the personal experiences of many, to be a possible cure.
Healing power is generated physically (through diet, exercise, rest), psychologically and spiritually (removing stress, changing one’s attitude, practicing visualization and meditation). According to Dale, there are three important basic aspects:
- Detoxification
In the highly polluted environment of today, all the energy of the body is used to combat external toxin and not much is left to stimulate healing. Toxin refers to caffeine, alcohol, food additives, indigestible processed food, low value food (that which requires excessive energy to digest), pesticides, toxic washing chemicals, etc. Thus, in order for healing energy to work freely, we must first and foremost stop depleting our energies.
- Provide the body with the most efficient raw material
Efficient raw material refers to food that is nearly primitive and nutritionally complete. Today’s food is mostly high in calories, low in vitamins and low in minerals. For instance, bread, noodle and sugar are processed food which have their vitamins and minerals depleted. They are meant to satisfy hunger without providing enough nutrition. Fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds, grains, beans are high-energy food. They provide the body with surplus of energy. It is this surplus energy that stimulates healing (a basic skill of the healthy body). We only need to allow the body complete freedom to exercise its basic ability by providing the extra energy. Today’s diet is not right, and people are low in energy levels resulting in an increase in degenerative diseases.
- Guiding the already initiated healing energy
Once the healing energy is being initiated, some discomfort such as excessive discharge from the eye, nose or mouth, appearance of acne, diarrhea, rashes, headache, fever, etc. may appear. Most people do not understand that these are symptoms of detoxification and attempted treatment by consulting Western medicine thus unknowingly hampering the process of cleansing and repairing undertaken by the body. This may give rise to serious side effects. Therefore, we must allow the healing energy to continue working once it is awakened. However, we must be aware of the body condition and be in control. That is to say, we must monitor the condition (e.g., headache or fever) closely such that it does not get serious; and consulting the doctor when necessary. In general, the patient is aware of his/her condition by being more conscious of the symptoms being experienced and is able to contain the illness sensibly. The patient should not ignore the illness altogether, instead he/she should exercise more common sense so as not to allow the condition to get worse. When a person is not well, it is obvious that he/she needs plenty of rest. Therefore, it is sensible to ‘take a break’ especially appointments that requires entertainment so that the stomach can also take a rest. For a speedy recovery, the patient should eat less so that energy is used to heal the body and not on digesting complicated food. The allocation of energy used for various functions in the body can be understood by observing a simple illness such as flu. When one is down with flu, one feels very tired. This is because energy is being channeled to ‘fight’ the illness and is not enough is being channeled to the muscles. Once the battle is over, the patient would no longer be tired. As for eating less, when the patient feels nausea, he/she should not eat; instead take plenty of water and rests. If the illness is not serious, the patient can try fasting with fresh vegetable or fruit juice, taking one different kind of (vegetable or fruit) juice at every three-hour interval thus providing all the necessary elements (vitamin, minerals and enzymes) for recovery. Fresh vegetable/fruit juice is highly nutritional and easily absorbed by the body without requiring much energy in its digestion. This allows the body to concentrate all its energy to rebuild a healthier body. Needless to say, in the process of supplying energy for healing, there may be some ‘bonuses’ and they need not be frightening. For instance, many patients experience swollen ankle, which is usually related to an old injury. When there is excess of energy in the body, it would naturally be directed to areas that require healing, some of which may have long been overdue. Therefore, we need to change our outlook in assessing an illness. We may look upon any illness as a means of helping the body to detoxify. Our body harbor excessively large amounts of ‘rubbish’ and toxin which depends on bacteria to help break down so that they can be voided from the body. Therefore, bacteria are attracted into the body for this purpose, and we embark on the process of so called ‘illnesses.
In short, if we allow the body a chance, and providing energy, to heal, it will. Dale drew upon her personal experience to explain the phenomena.
Twenty-two years ago, she was stricken with cancer and immediately underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Four months after the treatment, she accidentally came across a book about the ineffectiveness of cancer treatment by chemotherapy and radiotherapy; also explaining that the damages caused by such destructive treatment far surpassed those raved by the disease itself. She was then nearing the end of the radiotherapy course. She considered canceling the chemotherapy course that was supposed to follow. Coincidentally, her doctor suggested to her not to proceed with chemotherapy. Finally, result of the radiotherapy showed that the tumor in the chest has shrunk but not completely disappeared. The doctor declared that he couldn’t help anymore. Unfortunately, the outcomes of the treatment were as described by the book – ineffective! At that moment in time, she realized that to survive, she had only herself to depend on. Through some recommendations, she found herself a naturopath and started treatment through dieting, visualization and meditation simultaneously. The later two items being detrimental in her recovery process. At that time, she was completely focused on being well again. During the first few months, there were detoxification symptoms such as discharge, nausea, diarrhea, facial eruption, excessive perspiration, and excessive loss of weight and becoming very weak. She was very scared because these were symptoms of cancer advancing rapidly. However, the naturopath told her that they were signs of recovery. Weakness is an indication for the body to rest so that energy can be conserved for the purpose of overcoming the sickness. With correct eating, weight loss is a result of ‘wastes disposal’ by the body. Should such a phenomenon happen to an overweight person, it would have been a happy event; but it certainly was very scary to one who is grossly underweight and suffering from cancer.
She was frightened, yet her naturopath rejoiced sighting this is an indication of deep cleansing and thorough detoxification. Anyway, Dale was already at her wit’s end and could only believe his words. The condition persisted for four months; thereafter she gained weight and finally weighted slightly heavier than before. Then she went for a medical examination. The results surprised the doctor.
The tumor which was diagnosed to be extremely fast growing previously showed up in the X-ray to be about the same size as before after all these months. Although he did not understand the phenomenon, the doctor suggested that Dale should carry on with the treatment since it seemed effective.
Dale was overjoyed to be able to start life anew. She continued with her diet therapy. Suddenly, three years later, her condition seemed to turn for the worse. She felt sever pain at the location of the tumor, fever, pains in the joints, large quantities of discharge and frequent diarrhea. This went on for four months. Initially, Dale thought that she would surely die; but x-ray and blood tests results were normal. Her naturopath assured her that this was the indication of the most complete recovery in health that he has been waiting for. In this episode, the pain was stopped after she learnt to massage and apply pressure to the acupuncture points. However, she lost 30 pounds (about 14kg) in three months and had a persistent fever. Friends and relatives thought that she was going to die; only her naturopath was sure that she would live. Finally, after four months, Dale focused all her strength and told her body thus, “It’s enough, stop it!” In the end the fever subsided within the week; on top of that, she gained ten pounds, and all her discomforts disappeared one by one. Instead, symptoms that she experienced during her chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments showed up again; these included aches all over the body, rashes, after taste of chemotherapy, lightening of hair color, etc. It was then that her naturopath told her that she was completely void of toxin, which was more lethal than that of cancer. After going through all these, Dale’s physique, hair texture and skin became better than before she got cancer; even her menstruation became regular for the first time in her life. It was like acquiring a new physical body to continue life with. Dale now thoroughly understood the complete change in her body and its possibility. Later, she did a scan and results showed that there was no trace of cancer in her body anymore. After so many years of diet therapy, the eating habit became part of her. She is very grateful to this simple and nutritious diet.
In her opinion, Dale feels that today’s polluted environment in which we live does not spare anyone from degenerative diseases. Ordinarily, it is not noticeable as it takes ten to twenty years to become apparent (it is like a hidden bomb). The good news is that each and every one of us possesses this tremendous healing energy in ourselves to overcome such degenerative diseases. This is true healing, the best health insurance. Dale also suggested that the general public should use fresh fruits and vegetable juice to maintain and protect good health. For those who are already sick, they should pay particular attention to the combinations of fresh vegetable and fruit juices. For instance, diabetic patients should use carrot and apple only occasionally, bearing in mind that they contain high levels of sugar. In addition, she also cautioned against taking refined sugar, as it is a product of chemical process whereby its vitamins and minerals have been depleted thus losing its natural balance in food value. Sugar enters the blood stream quickly causing the pancreas to produce insulin instantly. If this condition persists, the pancreas would be under stress permanently and this is one cause of diabetes.
The road to recovery to good health was a long one for Dale. Along the way, through meditation, she realized that throughout her life she was fearful, and it was one of the reasons for her cancer as well as delay in the recovery from it. Only by overcoming this fear did she regain true health. She felt that during her period of healing, many supportive friends have given her great spiritual and psychological help. One very special friend is Joya who was the first to enlighten Dale on the relationship between cancer and life. Joya said, “If you do not fight cancer with everything you have, you’ll die; part of this war is to allow you to understand yourself and to be responsible for the occurrence of cancer.” When she encountered difficulties during the healing process, Dale asked Joya how she could strengthen her healing energy. Joya replied, “You have to tell yourself, ‘I want to live not because I’m afraid to die, but because I’m not afraid of death.”’
Thus, through Dale, we learn of another way of looking at sickness. Sickness not only give us an opportunity to eradicate toxin in our body and mind, but it also led us to examine the cause. It may even lead us to spiritual enlightenment, healing us of all injuries during the battle for survival. All sicknesses are not disasters in life, but a sober, great baptism.