Chapter V: Reactions During Treatment

Before taking up the consideration of the different diseases, I will here describe some of the reactions that take place on a full milk diet. The great majority of cases of chronic disease, without fever, have defective circulation of the blood. The heart beats feebly or slowly, and there is actually too little blood in the arteries. The blood pressure is too low, perhaps 40 or 50 degrees below normal. The entire body is poorly nourished and unable to throw off the disease, which afflicts it.

In these patients we notice directly, in every case, a most remarkable change. Within two hours after commencing the diet, the action of the heart will be accelerated, and within twelve to twenty-four hours there will be a gain of over six beats to the minute. Within two or three days there will be an increase of about twelve beats to the minute; the pulse will be full and bounding; the skin flushed and moist; the capillary circulation under the fingernails, or wherever it may be examined, quick and active. The blood pressure will have raised ten to twenty degrees. All this takes place with the patient lying as quietly as possible, making no movement unless necessary— conditions under which normally on an ordinary diet, the circulation would be much slower than usual.

“None of the usual methods of heart stimulation such as alcohol or other drugs, exercise, massage, hot and cold baths… can equal the results of the milk diet treatment in effect, in permanency, in total lack of danger.”

Physicians, investigating the milk cure, say that one of the most striking things about it is the quick return to a normal condition of the blood pressure, no matter whether it is too high, or too low. The blood pressure is entirely independent of the pulse rate. A very high, or very low blood pressure may exist with either a slow or a rapid heart.

In anemia, consumption, auto-intoxification and wasting diseases generally, the pressure is below normal. Persons subject to hardened arteries, apoplexy, Bright’s disease, asthma, bronchitis, etc., frequently have a very high blood pressure.

In examining the records of the patients for 1915, I was astonished myself to see how all of them with either a low or high pressure, tended to gravitate up or down, until they struck about the normal, which is probably around 130 for a middle-aged adult.

There is no dangerous strain on the heart, in this treatment, because the heart itself is the first organ to share in the benefits derived from the better blood circulating through it. There is no greater stimulant for the heart than milk; there is nothing that will build up the heart like milk, but in all cardiac disorders complete rest must be combined with the diet.

In taking the milk diet there is no danger to the kidneys, in spite of their greatly increased work, for invalids with badly diseased kidneys take the milk diet successfully. Some patients, it is true, have slight pains in the kidneys during the first days of their treatment. It is always temporary, and due, I think, to a rapid growth of the organs, so rapid that the sensitive covering of the kidneys is stretch tightly at first.

[Image of the human urinary system]

The amount of urine is very much increased by this diet, and no matter what its previous condition, whether highly acid, or loaded with solids or salts in solution, it becomes bland, non-irritating, and almost as clear as water.

It is really wonderful how the various parts of the body accommodate themselves to the great changes, which they undergo on the milk diet. It is only possible because the greatly increased blood supply brings with it all the necessary materials to make these changes and a plentiful supply of nourishment for every cell, of every tissue.

In ill health there is always one or both of two conditions of the blood, viz.:
1. Insufficient quantity
2. Abnormal quality

Disease is a result of a disturbance of the mechanism of nutrition. There may have been predisposing or exciting causes in the way of bacteria or heredity, bad food, air or habits, but as the abnormal condition becomes apparent to us, we see the evidence of some disturbance of the processes of nutrition.

The action of the heart, as I have said, is usually accelerated, soon after commencing the milk diet. There is no reaction from this condition. The effect continues with the diet, but after a varying time the heart may slow down a little because it has become strong enough to do the work with fewer pulsations. The arteries continue full. The heart hypertrophies physiologically, just as a woman’s heart does in her first pregnancy. I have observed it many times.

[Image of the human circulatory system]

We hear a great deal of hyperemia as a curative agent, following the ideas of Prof. Bier, and using hot air apparatus to cause a local congestion of the diseased parts. Why not increase the blood supply naturally all over the body? Why use an apparatus to cause a local congestion when there is a well-known function of the body to attend to just such things, if given the material to work with?

The effect on the lungs is to quicken the breathing at first; then as the respiratory muscles strengthen, the inhalations become deeper. No matter what disease one may have, the breathing capacity is increased. In fact, the capacity of the lungs increases from 25 to 100 cubic inches by measurement with a spirometer.

These changes, remember, take place while the patient is resting. The muscles all over the body increase in size. To one who has had no experience with this treatment, it seems incredible that the muscles should not only rapidly increase in size, but become much harder. Yet it is a positive fact that the voluntary muscles of the body become firm and solid, almost like an athlete’s limbs after a hard course of training.

The hardness of the muscles, on a milk diet, is due largely to the fact that they are pumped full of blood, like all the other organs of the body. The whole alimentary canal (oesophagus, stomach and intestines), contains in its wall a double layer of these involuntary muscle fibers. In the invalid these small but important muscles are thin and weak and unable to do their duty. It is not unreasonable to suppose that they build up and resume their normal functions just as do the external muscles, while a person is on a full milk diet.

[Image of the human digestive system]

The abdominal increase is very largely in the walls of the stomach and intestines at first. Later on there will be more or less fat deposited subcutaneously. Every healthy person has a protecting pad of fatty tissue in front of the intestines and stomach. This intestinal development and enlargement is necessary to insure proper digestion and assimilation.

Examining the records of 820 recent patients, I find that a few days after starting on the milk diet 34 per cent of them were more or less constipated; 8 per cent of them had diarrhea on anything over three-and-a half quarts of milk daily, and 58 per cent were able to take enough milk to overcome the constipating tendency of the diet.

The skin, including the hair and nails, shows decided reactions in the milk cure. Remarkable changes take place in this important organ. The prolonged warm baths greatly assist in this improvement, by softening up the dead cells of the external layers. Patients who had not visibly perspired for years, show a perceptible sweat within a few days.

A rapid increase in body weight occurs to every one below weight taking the full milk diet, no matter what his previous condition or disease. The average gain in weight for thin folks is about five pounds the first week, and after that about half-a-pound daily. This latter rate continues for weeks or months, until they are near the normal weight.

In discontinuing the diet, undoubtedly the best way to resume ordinary food is to stop the drinking of milk at noon and eat a very light supper the first day. A slightly cooked yolk of egg, bread and butter, salad or fruit, is enough. The next day start with the milk as early as usual, again stop at noon, and eat a somewhat heartier meal in the evening, if the appetite calls for it.

Always remember this: never stuff on ordinary foods. Milk is the only thing that can be used safely for forced feeding, and it must be taken alone, or in most cases, fruit can also be used.