Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/63

bodily function that has become constant causes both physical and mental disturbances. Witness, for instance, the attempts of a victim of tobacco, alcohol, or morphine to escape from the toils. Will power, the highest attribute of mind, alone can accomplish the result. In many cases the will required to begin the fast is present, and food might at once be denied were this the sole consideration. But, because natural physiological change is always gradual in fulfilment, similar approach to absolute cessation of function is not only desirable but imperative. The ideal way of effecting the readjustment of organic action, that is the consequence of lowering to zero the intake of food, is to diminish by degrees the amount ingested. To omit all food suddenly when approaching a fast sets the stomach clamoring for supply at the hours which habit has fixed, and the results of deprivation are then comparable to those experienced by the toper or the victim of drugs when drink or narcotic is denied. Nervous reaction is at once apparent and depression follows. Only in acute disease should abrupt entrance to the fast occur, and this solely because nature demands at this time prompt and strenuous measures.