Bircher-Benner 26 Manual for treatment of weight problems, overweight and anorexia

BY ANDRES BIRCHER 
Paperback, 171 Pages 
Release Date: November 1, 2021




Obesity and Anorexia can be permanently cured, not only be relieved. This manual is based on the knowledge and decades of experience from a medical centre of most modern healing arts, the world-famous Bircher-Benner Clinic, now called Centre for Scientific Natural Medicine. This manual is of great help for patients. It supports his active contribution on his way to the healing and prevention of obesity, bulimia and anorexia. It explains the newest scientific knowledge and the way to definitive cure of weight problems, and eating disorders. It gives to the patient an insight to the dietetics, care and physical applications. This book explains the dietetics in carefully tested diet plans, ready for practical use, and is equipped with tasty, tried, well tested and varied diet recipes from the Bircher-Benner Clinic. For the doctor, this book is a great time saver and a valuable aid in guiding his patients.

This manual is based on a wealth of experience in the treatment of patients suffering from overweight, obesity, underweight, anorexia nervosa and eating disorders. Preservation of the slender body shape is more than mere aesthetics. First and foremost it is a matter of health. In good health, a body will preserve its harmonious, natural shape into old age, without any abnormal fat deposits, flabby, bloated tissues – the nodular deposits under the skin, commonly known as “cellulite” – or without varicose veins. Muscles will remain elastic, the posture upright, the gait smooth, light and free. The skin will stay warm and well-supplied with blood.

What is visible on the outside is reflected on the inside. The generally widespread malnutrition overloads the metabolism. Degenerated, modified proteins (amyloids), oxidised lipids and other degenerated and modified substances, as well as toxins that are formed by anaerobic bacteria in pathological intestinal flora and that the metabolism cannot handle and detoxify, deposit in the intercellular substance of the soft connective tissue, the “matrix” that penetrates the entire and body and that is cleansed and drained by the lymph. The matrix is also our basic regulatory system, reaching into all organs and through the entire body. It is where substances are exchanged between cells, blood capillaries and nerve endings.

If the matrix is filled by the slags from an overloaded metabolism, the metabolism and the flow of biological information are gradually and increasingly impaired. Acidity and oxidative stress harm the fine structures and organs, causing degenerative processes and premature aging to become predominant.

Frequently high blood sugar levels from a diet rich in sugar, bread, pasta and pastries made of refined flour damage the innermost lining of the vessels (endothelium). This fine layer of cells regulates the structure and elasticity of the entire vascular wall.

When damaged by a frequently high blood sugar level, the blood vessels become inelastic, leading to the development of hypertension and varicose veins.

Waste products accumulate around the capillaries, which are embedded in the matrix of the artery walls to supply them with blood, causing inflammation. Oxidised cholesterol, amyloids and calcium are deposited. Arterioscleros often sets in early this way. As a result, people suffer the disastrous conditions of heart attack or stroke at increasingly young ages.

Highly oxidising metabolic waste products (reactive oxygen species, ROS) produce harmful fission products called “free radicals” in the tissues. Free radicals react so strongly that they may split genetic material (DNA), resulting in mutations that make healthy cells cancerous. Free radicals also damage proteins, making them insoluble and causing them to deposit as amyloids. In the matrix of the brain, this causes Alzheimer’s disease. If free radicals attack the fat-soluble structures of the nerve tracts (myelin), multiple sclerosis or other neurodegenerative diseases develop. If free radicals attack the retina and the lens in the eye, cataracts develop and blindness due to macular degeneration follows later in life.

Metabolic waste products cause diabetes and fatty degeneration of the liver (fatty liver), and they harm the kidneys. Malnutrition not only causes weight issues, but also premature aging in general. Obesity shortens life expectancy by an average of around 20 years

Strict fasting and calorie-reduced diets cannot fix the metabolic damage described above or the tissue damage already caused. Because of this, 80–90% of patients on a strictly calorie-reduced diet are unable to maintain a lower weight once it has been reached

The weight reduction diet described in this manual, with fresh plant-based raw food, fresh juices, vegetable milk and solid raw food has an entirely different effect. The diet allows reliable and long-term weight reduction over the course of months, finally reaching the ideal weight by reducing metabolic disorders and pathological deposits. This diet is easily digestible. Although calorie-reduced, it does not leave the patient hungry since it contains all substances they need in ideal proportions. This diet supplies neither too much nor too little of anything, with the exception of vitamin B12, which must be supplemented. Its high biological energy potential is clearly evident for the patients. The same applies to the pervasive healing process which is triggered by the diet.

Appetite and body weight are regulated by an extremely complex hormonal system acting on appetite centres in the hypothalamus of the diencephalon. The hormones are produced in part in the cells of the fatty tissue, in part in the digestive tract, the islet cells of the pancreas and in the muscles.

The status of the milieu in the digestive tract and the ecosystem of the bacterial flora quickly affect hormonal regulation in this diet, bringing about a lasting effect on appetite, energy balance and body weight. A sick enteral milieu, on the other hand, is unable to regulate appetite and weight.

Resistance to the hormones that regulate appetite and energy consumption, especially leptin and insulin, will develop to varying degrees depending on the degree of overweight. These substances act on the appetite centre in the hypothalamus of the brain. Overweight leads to resistance to these hormones, preventing the inhibition of appetite even in the face of excessive food intake. A feeling of fullness is only achieved when the stomach is overfilled and cannot take any more. The muscles also produce hormones to regulate body weight. These break down the fatty tissue of the abdominal wall and the internal organs in particular. They are formed insufficiently if there is a lack of exercise. For example, truncal obesity is caused by accumulation of fatty tissue in the intestines and abdominal wall. At least one hour of daily walking is necessary to prevent this.

Overweight people suffer severely from the insults and prejudices of others. They are often at a disadvantage in school, at work and in their private lives. They suffer injustice and as a result have low self-esteem and vital energy. This can cause enormous psychological damage that can only be healed by consistent, lasting reduction of body weight and adequate understanding in a therapeutic discussion.

The complex system of body weight regulation has not been fully explained scientifically so far. Those too thin by constitution without having any illness and despite their possessing a good appetite and eating healthily usually show a changed hormonal regulation of appetite that is entirely different from that found in anorexia nervosa.

People with constitutional anorexia often have gone through some unsuccessful high-calorie fattening diets. The regulating hormones have a paradoxical effect there. The reasons are not completely known to science yet. In these cases, fattening diets cause weight loss instead of weight gain. However, decades of experience show that those with constitutional anorexia can gain weight, in particular with the fresh plant-based raw food diet, and thereby reach their ideal weight. This suggests that the fresh plant-based raw food diet positively influences the disturbed hormonal regulation of appetite and body weight in both overweight and anorexia.

This is also the case with eating disorders such as binge eating, anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Ravenous hunger results from a diet with quickly digestible carbohydrates that are not composed correctly for the biological system. Every time the blood sugar level rises rapidly and steeply, after an eating bout, there will be high insulin release in response, causing hypoglycaemia and leading to the next episode of ravenous hunger. With its high proportion of fresh plant-based raw food, the plant-based wholefood diet leads to a slow increase of insulin, thereby reliably compensating for episodes of ravenous appetite and bouts of overeating.

Patients suffering from anorexia nervosa will gladly accept this type of whole food. They are grateful because their agonising feeling of fullness and bulimic episodes will quickly improve. Since the psychological causes are very deeply rooted, patients can heal only if therapy accompanies the diet to process psychological trauma that usually originates in very early childhood. The trauma must be brought to consciousness if the patients are to correct their eating habits.

Hormonal regulation is massively and specifically disturbed in anorexia nervosa. It is known that acute crises can be very dangerous, often requiring admission to a hospital with simultaneous intensive mental care, diet and life order adjustments. Unfortunately, knowledge of the relevance of the dietary part of treatment for this condition is still insufficient in most specialised hospitals.

Older people may also suffer from dangerous severe weight loss or anorexia. Their hormonal imbalance also follows a typical pattern that is very different from that in anorexia nervosa or constitutional thinness. Severe weight loss in old age is usually due to degenerative changes in the milieu of the digestive tract, unless caused by a chronic illness such as cancer. Weight loss is brought about by an unwholesome diet. Emaciating diseases such as chronic infections and cancer cause severe weakness and weight loss (cachexia) that cannot be remedied with fattening diets. In such situations, plant-based wholefood with a high proportion of fresh plant-based raw food is a great help.

The present manual is intended for comprehensive therapy; it is not directed against symptoms, but against the causes of illness. The manual discusses the scientific principles known today concerning the regulation of appetite, energy balance and body weight, as well as the resulting diseases. It also contains practical instructions for the dietary treatment of anorexia and overweight.

Our greatest teachers are the patients who over more than a century have been healed by our fresh plant-based raw food diet, by a new way of life and by careful psychological support at the famous Bircher-Benner Medical Centre in Zurich (now the Medical Centre in Braunwald). This manual provides patients and relatives with the knowledge and practical instructions needed to successfully and permanently cure problems relating to body weight and eating behaviour. For the treating physician, this manual is an important aid for the instruction and guidance of his patients.