Establishing The Client Practitioner Relationship

5. Establishing The Client-Practitioner Relationship

Even though the disorder of immediate concern to the client may be limited to the skin, scalp, or hair, the knowledgeable practitioner well understands that any diseased state affecting these areas indicates an eliminative effort of some dimension. He also understands that the entire system is burdened with a degree of toxicosis which is, at present, unknown and that it is this toxic condition which must first be addressed before the disorder which has brought the client to your office and which is localized outwardly, can be controlled.

At first meeting, the client will probably have no understanding of Natural Hygiene or autointoxication. He must be led to an understanding of life’s basic requirements, the requisites of organic existence, because, upon these, full health, including that of the hair and scalp, depends. He must gradually learn that you have a plan for health that works regardless of age, sex, or income! A plan that he can carry out in his own home without the aid of pills, lotions, or doctors. A plan that will not only save him money but will provide superb health for all of life. A plan that has worked for hundreds of thousands of persons, many just like himself, suffering from even the most horrible lesions. And, finally, that it is a plan that may require more time than he now anticipates because how well it works for him will depend on how faithfully he follows your guidance and directions.

It will, of course, be impossible to impart to every client all the knowledge the Hygienic practitioner has garnered as he has studied this course and the many lessons yet to follow, about body detoxification and how this may be achieved. However, we find that a good initial briefing of methodology usually is well received.

We recommend that, on first meeting, the client be given an understanding of the fact that as you work with him you will, in general, proceed with four specific goals in mind, all bearing directly on his present condition.

5.1 The Hygienist’s and Life’s Four-Fold Program for Superior Health!

1. To discontinue all things, habits, foods, etc., which are acknowledged by the scientific community to be harmful to the human life process; to reduce or completely remove all undue stressors.
2. To improve the lifestyle so that it includes only those practices which are acknowledged by the scientific community to be health-promoting, such requisites of organic existence as:

• Exercise
• Pure Air
• Pure Water
• Suitable exposure to sunlight
• Sufficient rest, sleep, and relaxation
• Protection from violence
• Emotional Poise
• The “Pluses of Life,” such as friendships, love, etc.

Dr. Lester Breslow, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of California at Los Angeles, stated in 1975, as follows: “I firmly believe the American people are depending far too much on their doctors to stay healthy.” He went on to comment that “all of us must take more responsibility for our own health—the choices we make in our daily life with regard to certain personal habits.”

It is this concept that the Hygienic practitioner must convey to his new clients; that the client is now embarking on a wonderful adventure that will not only correct his present annoying symptoms but one that will also open countless numbers of doors and joys to him and provide a future in which he can enjoy a hitherto undreamed of new dimension of health.

We have found that having the four-fold program printed and then given to the client helps him to stay on course. We suggest to our clients that they paste the list on a bathroom mirror or perhaps, even better, on the refrigerator door or some other place where they cannot help but be reminded day by day that they have begun a new way of life, one that has untold promise.

The World Health Organization defines health as “physical, mental, social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” We can add that our goal is inner peace and really this is the ultimate goal!

Rarely are diseases of the scalp and hair life-threatening. Perhaps it is for this reason that presentation of the fourfold action plan is so important. It helps clients to understand that their present condition is remedial, not by outwardly or inwardly applied substances, but rather a condition in which the body can constructively redirect its energies and faculties to restoring high-level health. The plan teaches how to provide the tools.

5.2 The Consultation

When the client makes his first contact and requests a consultation, he should be asked to provide you with a diet profile which covers a minimum period of one week plus a personal and medical history. An office form may be mailed to him which he can fill out prior to his appointment. These may then be brought to the office for your consideration.

5.2.1 Inquiry

The first meeting should open with the inquiry.

This part of the consultation offers an opportunity for the client to express himself, to present his evaluation of his condition. If the lesions or other conditions are not visible, he can describe them and give his reaction both to them and to past treatments.

The client should have time to express himself, how he is feeling, to give an evaluation of himself, dietetically and perhaps otherwise. Clients have a need to relieve themselves verbally of concerns, to express emotional and other specific needs.

The first meeting is critical. It is at this time that the Hygienic practitioner must impart to the client, both by action and by deed, the fact that he empathizes with the client and also that he has a solution to offer. However, let us point out at this juncture that, while the Hygienic practitioner should listen, should empathize, and then give of his best advice, he must also learn that, once the client leaves his office, the responsibility from that point on rests with the client to put all recommendations into practice; in other words, to carry the ball. If the practitioner does not learn to do this, he will soon “burn out” emotionally.

5.2.2 Visual Examination

Following the inquiry comes the visual examination.

Initial visual examination can be done along gross lines, of course, during the inquiry part of this session. However, psychologically speaking, it is well to take a closer look at all affected parts and note the extent of the afflicted area or areas. Notes should be taken. These will assist the practitioner in noting progress from one meeting to the next.

We recommend that a good quality magnifying glass with a handle be used for this close examination. Notes should be made as to size of pustules, if any, the precise location of any affected areas, and the size of the area affected, not for diagnostic purposes, but rather to assist you in evaluating the on-going improvement in the condition as the client responds to Hygienic measures correctly applied. Such records are also important in the event that you are called upon to explain procedure.

5.3 Kinds of Clients

Clients who consult you regarding diseases of the hair and scalp, generally fall into two types:

1. Those who willingly and cheerfully carry out all suggestions made by you because they have full confidence in your advice. This group is further subdivided into two groups:
1. Those who have endured the torments of itching, flaking, or the oozing of pus and watery secretions for so long that they have almost despaired of ever finding relief and are now willing to try even what they may consider as being bizarre and strange suggestions.
2. Those who have explicit confidence in you because they have previously witnessed positive results in a similar case under your supervision or have been referred to you by someone in whom they have much confidence.
2. Those who seek your advice with a certain amount of skepticism and/or fear. This group can also be divided into two subgroups:
1. The elderly who have long been accustomed to doing things in a certain way. These individuals have well etched habit nerve pathways and require careful handling if success is to be achieved.
2. Persons who consider their condition remedial by the use of “medicines,” even though they may have met with repeated failures. These individuals are still searching for a “cure.” They must be deprogrammed and reeducated in the true ways of health and healing.

Through experience one learns to evaluate the particular category in which a client belongs. Once this has been accomplished, it is possible to proceed in a planned orderly way.

5.3.1 Group One

All diseases are serious, of course. Milder hair and scalp disorders often represent a beginning, a foretaste of more involved pathologies that will most certainly arise if remedial steps are not instigated. The present condition, mild or serious, represents an attempt by the body to cleanse itself of a burden which is too great for the body to handle by usual eliminating procedures.

Fortunately members of this group have confidence in you and will follow your instructions. For these clients we immediately recommend a prolonged fast, the time suggested depending upon client response, emotionally and physically, to this procedure. We particularly recommend a prolonged fast in cases of psoriasis and chronic eczema and especially when these conditions have seated themselves on the scalp and are accompanied by severe itching and/or flaking. Remedial fasting will do what topical applications can never do, get at the cause of the trouble, whether it be in the constitution of the individual, in a deranged metabolic inner state, simply a state of hypersensitiveness, an injury of some kind, or the presence of imbedded fungus spores. Fasting represents do-it-yourself surgery: cutting out the cause.

According to Otto H. F. Buchinger, M.D., fasting is always the remedy of choice in cases of eczema and psoriasis and that most persons will respond favorably provided that they have not had recourse to many of such heroic treatments as the constant application of highly-irritating substances over a prolonged period of time or to radiological procedures as, for example, X rays.

Buchinger points out, and we have also observed this same fact, that quite often even following a prolonged fast, patches of eczema and psoriasis will persist, these representing “safety-valves,” to quote him, the means whereby the body leaves a way open for exudation of wastes should the need arise. These small patches serve as a reminder to the afflicted person not to relax in the ways of health.

We are reminded of one client whose face and scalp were covered with psoriatic patches before fasting. After several short fasts, the scalp entirely cleared but a minute patch remained behind each car. This particular person enjoyed golfing and meeting with friends after a match at the “19th hole” to talk about common subjects of interest and to have a beer. Invariably, a day or so later, these patches would enlarge, a silent reminder that obtaining health represents a commitment to a lifetime of correct living.

Most clients who experience the flaking of psoriasis or the extreme itching of eczematous conditions are more than willing to listen to accounts of the benefits that may accrue to them should they decide to undertake an extended fast. However, there are exceptions.

Years ago a close friend who was afflicted with psoriasis came to visit us for a few weeks. Whenever she combed and brushed her hair, the flakes would fly in all directions. Her condition was so bad that we finally resorted to covering the furniture with sheets which we then periodically took outside for a good shaking. We were compelled to vacuum the floor in her bedroom every morning.

For over forty years this woman has tried every “remedy” on the market and every poison that hundreds of medical “authorities” have prescribed. She has tried kinds of diets: with and without fat, with and without salt, she has tried high-protein and low-protein diets, high carbohydrate and low-carbohydrate diets. She has constently refused to fast. She still has her psoriasis.

Her scalp still sloughs off the sick and wounded cells, do the many patches that cover various parts of her body. In spite of all her futile attempts to find “relief,” she still retains faith in “medicines.” She still believes that medical “science” will be able to provide the magic “cure.” She still refuses to try the one positive step which has been demonstrated in hundreds of cases to be capable of permitting the body to heal the hurt—the simple fast. Contrast this experience with that of John given in Lesson 61!

Clients should be instructed in the merits of the fast an be encouraged to convince themselves of its possible benefits by reading the literature on the subject. If the practitioner himself is qualified to supervise a fast and has the facilities to house fasting clients, he may properly do so. Otherwise, he should encourage his clients to go to an institution where the fast can be professionally supervised by an experienced practitioner and where the client can be isolated from the concerned but unfortunately often uninformed and discouraging comments of relatives and friends.

We presently have a man who is very seriously afflicted with a painful inflammatory condition. He has been placed on a very restricted diet and instructed to take short fasts. He has no family and is dependent upon the services of a paid housekeeper. This woman who weighs well over 200 pounds and is herself under the care of a physician for innumerable ailments, rants and raves at her employer because she is “worried” about his loss of weight and the fact that he is depressed so much of the time! He has finally given in to her, but only temporarily. He has given her notice to leave and in her place has hired someone else. Within a few weeks he expects to make a new beginning under happier circumstances.

However, not all persons have this man’s determination. Many unfortunately succumb to the wishes of their misguided relatives and friends and lose their one chance to find a higher plateau of health.

When Money Is a Matter of Concern

In instances where the client is willing to fast but is, for the moment at least, financially embarassed, it is often possible for the practicing Hygienist to advance credit for a specified time with a contract being signed for future payment of a specified sum; or supervision of the fast can be undertaken in exchange for services rendered by the client to the practitioner as, for example, typing, addressing envelopes for mailings, yard work, serving in some useful capacity at meetings and lectures, etc. Contracts can work out especially well with those clients who have hair and scalp disorders and especially when visible lesions are present. Photographs of the same may be taken at the onset of the fast and/or other services. When all lesions disappear, payment is due. Such contracts, it goes without saying, are best drawn up by an attorney.

The Fast and Apheresis

The medical community is more and more coming 10 accept the fact that a toxic condition of the body can cause multitudinous numbers of diverse conditions according to individual tendencies as they may occur in any one person due to his peculiar collection of weak and strong parts, these varying by the very nature of human differentiation. This is why apheresis, the mechanical cleansing of the blood, is being given serious attention by the AMA and insurance companies who can visualize a veritable bonanza if the practice becomes widely accepted.

Apheresis admittedly does “not cure disease, it simply treats the symptoms of illness, and it hasn’t been
around long enough for scientists to determine how effective it really is,” this according to an article by Edward Edelson in the October 1982, issue of Science Magazine.

In apheresis a technician taps into the patient’s vein, and “blood flows into a machine where the spinning components settle into bands: the heavy red cells first, then the white cells, then the platelets that help blood to clot, and finally the plasma and all the valuable proteins it contains.” Components suspected of “harboring the damaging substances associated with the patient’s illness are discarded and, in the case of plasma, often replaced with an equal amount of saline solution. The rest of the blood is then returned to the body,” supposedly now in a pristine state.

The technique has been used with varying success in such diseases as macroglobulinemia, a condition in which certain plasma components have an unusually high molecular weight, for example, as much as 1,000,000 compared to water with a molecular weight of only 18; multiple myeloma, aplastic anemia, systemic lupus erythematosis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis, to name a few. There have been successes and failures, as well as a few deaths primarily because technicians do not as yet know just what to remove and what to put back! In spite of its acknowledged drawbacks, momentum seems to be accelerating for its use even though a series of “treatments” can cost as much as $32,000.00, and even more, depending upon the number of “treatments” judged necessary in any particular instance.

We are inclined to suggest fasting as a much simpler procedure, one more in keeping with systemic reality, to say nothing of its relative cheapness and the exactitude of the process, carried out as it is under the watchful and precise guidance of the body’s own intelligence, every move being dictated by the body’s primary concern for perfect performance on the part of all cells and systems. Unlike manmade machines, the human body does not make errors. We make errors in eating and living and in so doing we may place impediments in the road of perfect performance but the inner workings of the body, the control mechanisms, always turn in a precise and perfect performance.

While medical science waits for controlled experiments to give a stamp of approval to this new medical marvel, fasting has already received its accolades from millions of humans throughout all of history and in all cultures and by other lesser animals who have also benefitted by the cleansing it enables the body to realize. It is little wonder that fasting is so universally recognized as being the almost perfect “cure.” However, let us point out here that its benefits accrue best to those persons who are emotionally and mentally prepared and willing to fast. The results to be observed even in severe disorders of the hair and scalp are often no less than spectacular.

Following the First Fast

If the first fast has been extended for a minimum of ten days, the client should, after the initial recovery period, be immediately placed on the fruitarian diet. This is the ideal time for him to adopt a physiologically sound way of eating, the perfect diet, because his system has been cleansed of its former burden of toxic metabolic debris. He should be advised that this is the way humans are intended to eat and that he should follow the fruitarian, diet for a lifetime of health and superb wellness.

Less severe diseases of the scalp and hair will often respond to shorter fasts, often with the scalp becoming quite clean within a matter of three to five days. However, should these persons be immediately placed on the fruitarian diet, it is possible for them to suffer healing crises as the morbid debris, now placed in a state of flux by the short fast, continues to try to find its way to the exit points.

When such healing crises occur, clients often become discouraged because they find that the terrible itching, flaking, falling out of the hair, etc., all seem to intensify instead of improving, as expected: At this early stage in their education in the principles of Natural Hygiene, they fail to understand that this is an entirely normal happening, one that is fully in accord with responsive healing.

With those clients who elect to fast initially for just a few days, it is often advisable to follow the first fast by introducing a planned graduated program, one adjusted to individual differences, especially those of an emotional kind. We suggest the McCarter Extended Detoxification Plan which follows. Such a program may be continued until such time as complete healing has taken place; it may be speeded up or slowed down as circumstances warrant.

The clearing of the scalp and absence of all annoying symptoms will indicate that the toxic load has once again fallen within the toleration level with the usual channels being able to cope successfully with their elimination chores. At this time the client may be encouraged to begin the fruitarian diet. If symptoms should again present themselves too violently, it may be necessary to reduce the fruit intake and place more emphasis on vegetables. Regardless, with improved nutrition, cleanliness, etc., the client will be inspired to continue his Hygienic ways because he will feel and look better than he did at the first meeting.

How Exercise Helps to Nourish the Scalp and Hair

Have you ever noted the beautiful skin and hair of very active, hard-working, healthy people? This is because, when we exercise, the blood rushes to the surface of the skin causing it to lake in more oxygen and available nutrients and, in return, give off more of the body’s morbific waste metabolites.

Also, exercise makes us warm. In fact, the temperature of the skin may rise from 86 to 90 and even up to 94 while we are engaged in a really vigorous workout. In Lesson 61 it was shown that one function of the skin is to dissipate heat. The blood acts somewhat as a coolant. The more heat is to be dispersed, the more blood is called up to the skin carrying with it valuable nutrients.

Dr. Albert M. Kligman, professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine says that “the thickness of the skin—the rate at which collagen is synthesized—is probably temperature dependent. So exercise actually may replenish the skin in some way.” Hygienists know that nutrients are required for all body synthesis.

According to an article in Today’s Living of December 1982, Dr. James White, exercise physiologist and coordinator of physical fitness at the University of California in San Diego, says that a study in Finland showed that their daily exercise had beneficial effects on the skin of middle-aged athletes.

“Actual snips of skin from these athletes were found to be denser, stronger, and thicker than skin from sendentary people the same age. The elasticity of the skin was also much better preserved in the
athletes.”

We have often observed great improvement in the texture of the hair of clients and in its more abundant growth after relatively short periods of Hygienically correct living and eating. When the body has ample supplies of all required nutrients, healing and replenishment follow. Exercise increases fluid transport of nutrients.

One of our clients, after beginning a greatly improved dietary regimen, found that he began to develop small lumps in several places on his scalp. We suggested he increase his exercise periods and also to include more aerobic exercises. He did so and, within six months, the lumps disappeared. No other changes were made. We believe that the more consistent influx of nutrients to cells and removal of wastes accomplished by consistent and vigorous exercise periods has much to do with improving the condition of the scalp and the texture of the hair. The fruitarian diet, of course, has been shown to provide all the nutrients required by humans for maximum health.

5.3.2 Group Two

In the practical arena of dealing with individuals long accustomed to following after demographically programmed and controlled masses, the new Hygienist will often find many who will seek his services with mental and emotional reservations. Many will have been given false impressions of fasting and relate it to starving. Many of these individuals will have reached their present sorry state after years of medical dependency and mismanagement but, nevertheless, they are literally afraid to undertake a fast and should they try would only do so with great trepidation and fear, a condition which could lead to emotional disturbances which, in turn, could negate the benefits which might accrue to the fasting client if s/he were only better prepared for the experience. In such cases, a more extended approach should be thoughtfully considered and, in many cases, adopted. Such a slower method will accomplish its purpose, detoxification, the cleansing of the body fluids, albeit more slowly. The McCarter Extended Detoxification Regimen represents such a method.