Fasting For Overweight & Severe Arthritis
Water Fasting & Green Juice Fasting: Arthritis, Swollen Knees, Spinal Cord Injury, Overweight
In 2006, I was overweight and also had arthritis in my knees. My knees were swollen, kept swelling and I was in such pain that I could not walk. I am a health care professional, but didn’t know much about proper foods for health. I was always a conventional eater.
When I met Dr. Baylac, I asked if I could work at her retreat to learn about healthy living. While I was there, I developed an arthritic condition of both knees. I asked Dr. Baylac to help me. First I went on a green juice fast for 25 days. The juice fast went fine. Except for the first 3 days, when I had headaches, due to detoxifying from smoking, eating chocolate, sweets and conventional foods. I was very grumpy those first days. But on the 4th day I was feeling fine.
After 25 days on green juices, my knees were still swollen. Dr. Baylac put me on a water fast. I was very fearful of the water fast and did not really want to do it because I did not want to lose more weight. The weight loss was the side effect of the green juice fast. Anyway, upon Dr. Baylac’s insistence, I started the water fast and was on it for 12 days. During the water fast, I felt good, energetic, the swelling disappeared 90%, and my knees returned to normal. Except for the first few days, I went through the 37 days of first juice fasting and then water fasting without any problem.
After the fast I went on a raw diet. But since Dr. Baylac suspected food allergies, I had to start with one food at a time. The first day I had lettuce, and I broke my fast on lettuce leaves. All went fine. The next day I had lettuce and tomatoes – and this time my legs started swelling, almost immediately after the meal. So, I had a sensitivity to tomatoes, and had to avoid them.
In this way, we went through one food after another, all raw, to weed out the foods I couldn’t eat. Carrots were OK. But one day someone squeezed orange juice on my grated carrots – and my knees started swelling, immediately. I was sensitive to orange. I was OK with lime, lemon and grapefruit. But I had many other food sensitivities.
After one year on vegetarian mostly raw foods, my health is so improved that I do not have any food sensitivities any longer. Today I can eat both tomatoes and citrus, and any other food I earlier was sensitive to.
I also have an old spinal cord injury, which has made my balance unsteady. I often lost my balance and fell, while walking, and I had broken my nose from these falls, on several occasions. Due to my lack of balance I couldn’t climb trees. Would this improve as well? Yes, it improved – especially during the year after the fast. Right after the fast I started exercising. Dr. Baylac gave me simple exercise tasks for my balance and gait that I performed 3 times a day. I also added some exercises that I knew from my professional experience as a rehabilitation specialist. At this point, I had lost more than 40 pounds and it was easier for me to get around. I could start practicing going up and downhill without fear of falling. One year later – my balance has improved so much that I can climb trees. (I climbed a tree last week to pick fruits, a sour sap), and hike without falling. Today, I went on a 4.5 miles hike in the Volcano Park at a fast pace with other experienced hikers. My last fall was about 7 months ago.
Not only did I get well, I also lost 40 lbs during my first month at the retreat. I now feel fantastic, and I do athletic sports, like paddling Hawaiian canoe, a popular team sport here.
Without Dr. Baylac’s knowledge I would have been following the conventional way of treating arthritis with steroid injections and bed rest and gotten worse. Instead, today I am very happy and satisfied with my health.
I am so grateful that I was lucky enough to be on her path, that I continue to help her today in her beautiful magical and compassionate work.
Margo, summer 2007