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Original Articles of Walter B. Guy, MD
St. Augustine, Florida
Degenerative Disease and Its Etiology
It has been customary up to this time to look upon the degenerative
diseases so common in advanced life as a group of separate diseases
rather than as a distinct entity, and to say this man or this woman
is afflicted with or died as the result of several different affections
or complaints. In a recent case, that of Mr. Edison, the famous inventor,
we read in the daily press that he was suffering from the results
of diabetes, arteriosclerosis, heart disease, nephritis and so forth.
It is the writer's intent to take up the subject of degenerative
disease and endeavor to show that this group, so increasingly prevalent,
is, in reality, not many separate affections, but one in substance,
arising from one general cause and differing only in its mode of
manifestation and in the tissues involved. In this group the writer
includes arteriosclerosis, hypertension, nephritis, affections of
the heart, tuberculosis, diabetes, neoplastic growths, senile insanities,
and many other affections that are caused by degeneration of the
varied tissues of the human organism.
In organic life, we have, in order, birth, adolescence, maturity,
decline and death. At birth, the constructive forces are in the ascendancy;
in maturity, the constructive and destructive are in balance; in the
senile, the destructive force is in excess. If health were perfect,
the organism would complete its full life cycle with probably an average
of 120 years' duration, but the destructive agencies, destroying
the balance between the constructive forces of life and the invading
microorganisms and other injurious factors, bring about premature decay
and death.
Cancers or neoplastic growths are seemingly increasing; at least statistics
claim so. Also arteriosclerosis, diabetes, nephritis, senile insanities
are increasingly prevalent; so that this subject is well worth considering,
and if but a small beam of light can be thrown on this enigma, a big
step forward can be assured.
In the first place, let us consider the protective agencies of the
animal organism. but instead of talking about antibodies, vaccines,
antitoxins, immunity of blood serum, diet, and so forth, let us rather
go to rock bottom and consider the essential mineral elements of which
our body is composed. Suppose that today we first consider an element
that has been but little studied, yet is probably the greatest disinfectant,
antiseptic, germicide, deodorant, and preservative that nature has
ever produced; viz., chlorine.
It is generally believed that organic life began in the saline ocean many eons
ago and that the chemical formula of that ocean, the blood serum, and the temperature
of the body has not changed materially since that time. That the ocean is always
free from corruption, no matter how many of its animals die within it, is probably
due to its chlorine content; not only to sodium chloride, but also to the chlorides
of magnesium, calcium, and other minerals present. It is to this chloride group
of minerals that I wish to direct your attention, for in the proper concept
of the role of the chlorides in the human organism we shall find, I fully believe,
the key to long life and health as well as the reason why, in the treatment
of degenerative disease, the best indicated remedy fails to relieve or inhibit
the ravages of disease.
First of all, let us study the part that chlorine plays in the digestion of
food and its absorption into the body tissues. In Prof. A. E. Austin's
Manual of Clinical Chemistry, he says: "Chlorine may be found free, as
hydrochloric acid, in the gastric juice, or combined with albumin and albumoses,
or it may be found united with sodium, chiefly in the fluids of the body, and
with potash in the solids." Under "Potassium," he writes: "Potash
is also found as a chloride by preference in morphological elements like blood
corpuscles, muscle cells, etc." Under "Calcium," he says: "Calcium
chloride is found in the gastric juice, as a secondary product." Also,
he says hydrochloric acid favors the excretion of the calcium phosphates.
Concerning the amount of hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice, a very important
factor, as I shall later point out to you, Prof. Austin says the normal gastric
juice in man is from two to three parts in 1000. In healthy dogs, five parts
is found. That a healthy dog can eat septic meat and if its stomach is opened
one-half hour later, this foul, odorous meat will be found sterile is a well-known
truism, showing conclusively the germicidal power of free chlorine in process
of normal digestion. Too often, however, acidity of stomach is not due to an
excess of hydrochloric acid, but rather to an excess of lactic acid, and, if
the contents of stomach are alkaline, oxybutyric, diacetic, and other acids
due to putrefactive processes are present. This can readily be determined in
practice by giving a few drops, well-diluted, of dilute hydrochloric acid;
usually, relief will quickly be obtained.
We are, however, concerned at this time in the consideration of progressive
degeneration and whether or not the normal production of free chlorine in the
gastric juice is involved in the cause of progressive degenerative disease.
In healthy digestion, Austin further says that, one half-hour after eating
of food, all lactic and other acids should have disappeared, owing to the inhibitive
action of hydrochloric acid. Further, he says that what is true of lactic acid
is also true of the other organic acids – butyric, formic, and acetic – all
of which are especially abundant where there is stagnation of gastric contents
due to pyloric obstruction.
What, then, may we expect to occur when this fundamental, normal, sterilizing
acid is deficient or absent, and what, then, are the causes of its inhibition?
The answer to these questions opens up a vast field of research, but enough
data are already at hand to supply us with sufficient information to make us
realize, if we study them carefully, that an absence or deficiency of this
acid is a large factor in the etiology of degenerative diseases.
The first question is readily answered: hydrochloric acid is the only normal
acid in the animal economy. All other acids, such as lactic, uric, carbonic,
and so forth, are waste products, to be eliminated as quickly as possible,
and the normal acid is truly the chief factor in their removal or destruction.
For if we have a too great excess of carbonic acid – if uric acid deposits
in valves, arteries, and articular surfaces, and so forth – we have coma,
as in diabetes or later stages of pneumonia. When this hydrochloric acid content
of the gastric fluid is deficient or absent, grave results must gradually and
inevitably appear in the human metabolism. First of all, we shall have an increasing
and gradual starvation of the mineral elements in food supply. The food will
be incompletely digested, and failure of assimilation must occur. Secondly,
a septic process of the tissues will appear. Pyorrhea, dyspepsia, nephritis,
appendicitis, boils, abscesses, pneumonia, etc., will become increasingly manifest.
Again, a normal gastric fluid demands activity of the gallbladder contents
and of the pancreas or neutralization. Deficiency of normal acid leads to stagnation
of these organs, causing diabetes and gallstones. In other words, an absence
or a great deficiency of HCl gives rise to multitudinous degenerative reactions
and prepares the way for all forms of degenerative disease.
That this normal acid is nature's true antiseptic has been clearly demonstrated
by Dr. Burr Ferguson of Alabama, who injected hydrochloric acid, 1-1500 intravenously
and subcutaneously, causing rapid repair, in many septic infections, such as
abscess, osteitis, and tuberculosis. The writer has proved in several cases,
such as septic induration following gunshot wound and delayed repair following
operation, that this acid, well-diluted and given by mouth, hastens delayed
or absent phagocytosis and repair of injured tissues.
What, then, are the causes of its disappearance in the gastric fluid, following
eating of food? First, Professor Austin says most conclusively that "hydrochloric
acid secretion may be completely suppressed by emotion or worry." In
these days of emotional worry and distress, loss of homes, business, incomes,
and money, we may well fear that in the near future a great increase of degenerative
disease, such as cancer, nephritis, cardiac, nervous, and mental afflictions
must assuredly occur, unless man can rise above worldly affairs and find the
true and only source of contentment and happiness. To this state, the true
physician must continually point, first himself finding and then showing it
to others.
As long as mental depression envelops like a dark cloud the soul of man, so
long may we search in vain for the indicated remedy and the relief of our patient's
distress. Shall we, then, fold our arms and give up the fight? Not by any means.
The remedy the doctor prescribes, is it not, in a spiritual sense, the symbol
of a healing force? Nature's recuperative powers? Yes, and the patient's
faith must be present to reinforce the doctor's knowledge. But how much
better for the physician's own abiding faith if a truer concept of the
nature of disease and tissue pathology can be truly visualized and this necessary
acid and the deficient minerals be restored to the starving tissues, feeding
and cleansing the vital fluids! To do this, no massive doses of inert, sterilized
minerals are required. Rather an ionized dilute solution of these elements
will quickly bring about a change of the impaired metabolism.
The writer is using (after months of study and research, helped along by brilliant
results, again discouraged by absolute failures) an acid solution of arsenicum,
ferrum, potassium, and chlorine. This, properly diluted, can be used intravenously
or by mouth:
Liq. potass. arsenitis (Fowler's)
Tr. ferri chloridi Sol. potass. chloride (ten-percent.) Sol. acid. hydrochlor. (three-percent.)
|
πλ xv
f 3 iss
f3iij
ad f3j |
M. Sig.: gtt. v to xx well-diluted, three or more
times daily |
One remarkable case may be quoted here, of a woman more than 8o years
of age with an enormous adenoma of colon. She was found with complete
stoppage of bowels, vomiting, and gas pains. Instead of the use of
an opiate, a solution of mineral chlorides was given intravenously,
with complete relief in six hours. Four more injections were given,
followed by treatment by mouth. Within four months, all trace of growth
had disappeared. Eighteen months later, a hard sarcomatous growth appeared
in the right tibia. The chlorine solution was again given by mouth
and, at this date, two months later, has almost disappeared.
In other cases, tuberculosis, especially of bones and in lungs, rapidly
improved, while septic boils disappeared. Hypertension, by removal
of toxins, became normal, and, strange to say, the erythema of skin
seen in excessive hot weather was rapidly relieved by injections of
these acid mineral chlorides. In diabetes, thirst and sugar were rapidly
reduced to a minimum. All cases of arthritis were helped by giving
this normal acid in addition to other remedies.
When one considers that this normal acid is derived from the tissues
of the stomach or gastric membrane and not directly from the sodium
chloride of the blood, one readily realizes that an ample supply of
sodium chloride alone is insufficient to restore normal gastric acidity.
Instead, this is a complex process. The sodium atom is picked up and
combined with the phosphorus atom, giving rise to sodium to be eliminated,
thus allowing the chlorine atom phosphates to be set free to combine
with the potassium and other minerals and albumins in the gastric acid
cells and made ready for future digestive functions.
That the removal or breakdown of toxic products found in impaired metabolism
is best accomplished by an acid is well-demonstrated by considering
methyl guanidine, the deadliest toxin yet recovered from animal tissues.
A few minims of this toxin, when injected into the tissues of an animal,
cause convulsions; a slightly larger dose causes immediate death. Yet,
when hydrochloric acid is combined with methyl guanidine, the latter
becomes a harmless food substance.
This paper would not be complete without reference to malignant growths
already mentioned. So far, search by studying cell growth has ended
in complete failure. Not in cell life is the secret to be found, but
rather in the media in which the cell lives and which the nerves control.
That cell growth is materially influenced by the nerve centers of the
spinal cord is undoubtedly true, as shown by the rapid wasting of the
cellular tissue when involvement of the anterior horns of the spinal
cord occurs in infantile paralysis and progressive muscular atrophy.
Such being the case, a toxin causing destruction of the inhibiting
control of cell growth, probably present in the posterior spinal nerve
centers, would allow wild growth of cell life. Therefore, neoplasms
in all their multitudinous forms and a general failure of the antiseptic
powers of the blood serum will bring about what is known as malignancy.
In the writer's limited experience, cancerous growths seem to
appear when the blood pressure is low, indicating beginning failure
of the adrenal system to combat toxemia. When hypertension is present,
the other group of degenerative diseases makes itself evident. In youth,
a deficiency of normal gastric acid may allow tuberculosis to become
active, for all are probably infected, but only those deficient in
natural immunity develop this disease.
Of dietary causes, one naturally considers the great excess of sugar
now eaten, which produces a surplus of lactic acid and an excess of
egg proteins, making an unbalanced diet. But the worry fatigue, failures,
and despair of our present civilization, I believe, are the greatest
factors of all. Austin has clearly shown the absence and deficiency
of hydrochloric acid in gastric fluids in pneumonia, consumption, and
cancer, as well as in those mental states previously mentioned.
In Neoplastic Disease, Professor James Ewing writes on probable causes
of cancerous growth: "It has been shown that the presence of lactic acid is dependent
on impaired motility and deficiency of HCl. Since these conditions are present
very early in cancer, the test for lactic acid is of considerable diagnostic
value." Earlier, he mentions that deficiency of HCl causes alkalescence
and this alkalescence is found in cancerous disease.
Conclusions
• Normal hydrochloric acid is necessary for complete healthy digestion.
• Deficiency of this acid tends to sepsis, suppuration, and general toxemia.
• If adrenals are inactive, degenerative forms of disease usually appear.
• If the adrenals are impaired, malignant neoplasms may be expected.
• Neoplasms are most likely caused by failure of the inhibitory nerve controls,
probably located in the posterior nerve centers of the spinal cord.
* Emotional worry, grief, anxiety, depression are factors to be considered
as causes of acid deficiency of gastric fluid and thus give rise to many conditions
causing degenerative processes and alkalescence so commonly found in cancerous
disease.
The writer, after administering this acid solution of mineral chlorides to
over one hundred cases of chronic disease of many types, including cases of
diagnosed cancerous growths in digestive system, feels confident that this
method is without doubt a reliable and satisfactory one for such conditions
and also a method of preventing cancerous disease. If cases are too advanced
for hope of recovery, this treatment ameliorates symptoms and prolongs life.
Also, above all else, it opens up a new field of research that he believes
will lead to ultimate victory over the degenerative progressive diseases so
increasingly common among mankind.
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