In high school, Eccleson’s heart would suddenly beat at an incredible speed—120 to 160 beats per minute. He was afraid he was about to suffer a heart attack whenever these speedups occurred. In the mornings, he was tired, weak, and irritable. He had perennial headaches, throbbing pains which increased if he even tried to shift position or move his head. Because of this, Eccleson missed about a third of his courses when he entered college. The dean and the school physician considered him a hypochondriac, since no “physical” problem had been discovered.

Eccleson himself was aware of some susceptibilities to foods, including pancakes, eggs, beef, and chocolate. He avoided these items whenever he could, although he had little conception of the degree to which such common foods as beef or eggs penetrate our food supply. He also believed himself to be susceptible to cheese, steak, steak sauce, apple juice, grapefruit, sorghum, and all foods containing baking soda. Eating such foods usually brought on a reaction.

When he was tested in the office with scientific procedures, it was found that he was highly allergic to pork, milk, eggs, potato, beets and beet sugar, and peanuts. Eggs, for instance, brought on severe coughing, shortness of breath, and even vomiting.

By avoiding these incriminated foods entirely, he underwent a transformation. His fatigue and headache went away quickly. One day he popped in to visit me and proudly handed me an official school certificate citing him for “having completed the work of the past quarter with high honors.” He had obtained straight A’s in all his courses, including those in Analog Computers, Feedback Systems, and Lasers. At the bottom of the photocopy he had handed me he had written simply, “Thank you, Dr. Randolph.”

Brain-fag is difficult to describe to those who have not seen it close up. It is a form of mental fatigue, a much more serious and debilitating symptom than physical tiredness. Brain-fag is characterized by mental confusion, slowness of thought, lack of initiative and ambition, irritability, occasional loss of sex drive, despondency, as well as bodily fatigue, weakness, and aching.

Some brain-fag patients report a feeling of being slowly poisoned. This becomes grist for some psychiatrists’ mill—the fear of poisoning is interpreted as typical “paranoid” thinking. Unconsciously, however, such patients are expressing a truth: chemicals in the environment are slowly poisoning them, as are their reactions to commonly eaten foods.

People with brain-fag are more obviously ill than those at the minus-two level. Often called “phobic,” they are too dizzy to walk, cannot get out of bed, cannot express their thoughts or remember what they are told. They seem to have lost their desire for life, and sometimes even call themselves the “living dead.”

Such patients are almost never properly diagnosed They have “graduated” to this condition through a number of previous levels of physical and mental distress. They therefore usually have thick medical files, filled with long lists of complaints, many of them seemingly mental in origin. In truth, their medical problems are basically physical in origin (responses to foods or chemicals), but no one realizes this. To their doctors, their family members, and sometimes even themselves, they are classic “hypochondriacs” and attention-seekers.

Such patients are among the prime recipients of mood-altering drugs, electroshock therapy, psychotherapy, and prolonged sermons from assorted well-wishers. None of this does much good, and as time goes by they tend to get progressively sicker. They may eventually graduate to the deep despondency of minus-four: depression, or “psychosis.” Others linger at the minus-three level for years, sometimes experiencing temporary remissions. The general course of an untreated ecologic illness, however, is downward.

Since minus-three reactors often graduate from the minus-two category, which includes physical fatigue, the distinction between brain-fag and plain tiredness was difficult to make. The first clear description of both phenomena was made in 1930 by Dr. Albert Rowe, the father of the study of food allergy, who called food-caused fatigue “allergic toxemia.” In an article which he wrote on the subject, he gave a good description of some of the mental symptoms which commonly are associated with physical tiredness.

Rowe observed that mental symptoms often alternate with physical symptoms. He quoted a sixteenth-century physician who noted, apropos of asthma, that “there appears a great dulness [sic] and fulness [sic] in the head with a slight headache and great sleepiness before the fit [i.e., asthma attack].”1 This certainly seems to be an old description of the “modern” disease.

In the 1940s, I was able to confirm many of Rowe’s observations and put them in the context of environmental illness. In particular, I differentiated between physical (minus-two) fatigue and mental (minus-three) fatigue, or brainfag. Why hadn’t other doctors seen the same thing? They had, of course, but had misinterpreted the phenomena because of their traditional separation of mental and physical problems. “The majority of allergic individuals with the fatigue syndrome,” I wrote in the 1940s, “have been previously diagnosed as ‘neurotics.’ ”

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Since some patients react to the chemical preservative used in the preparation of house-dust extract, Muysenberg was given a chemical-free preparation. Again, however, he became acutely ill. On the next visit the dose was reduced, on the theory that the amount given, although very small, may have been the source of the reaction. Again, he became ill.

Since he lived outside the city, these trips to Chicago were becoming a burden for him, but in an effort to get to the bottom of his reaction, he continued to come. Nothing seemed to work, or rather, everything seemed to bring on these distressing symptoms.

As a control test, Muysenberg was given an injection of preservative-free normal saline solution, which generally has no effect on the body at all. Again, however, he suffered his characteristic fatigue and headaches. After a few hours, he was given another appointment and sent home. The next time, he was jabbed in the arm with a dry needle. This time, too, he became tired, headachey, and had to lie down. The next time he came, he was given no injection at all: he was simply sent home without any treatment and told to watch for symptoms. A few hours later he called and said that he had developed the familiar symptoms on the trip back.

At this point, of course, many doctors would have referred this patient to a psychiatrist or attributed his symptoms to the strain of his intellectually demanding job. Having been alerted by the experience of other patients, however, I thought to ask Muysenberg what means of transportation he used to get to my office and to return home. The bus, he answered. I therefore “prescribed” the elevated train for his next trip into town.

This time there was no headache, exhaustion, or any untoward reaction at all. Muysenberg was able to take his dust-allergy injections with impunity and to return home with no problem, provided that he used the “El.” Whenever he attempted to ride the diesel-powered bus for any length of time, however, the same distressing symptoms returned—symptoms which, in other circumstances, might have landed him on a psychiatrist’s couch.

Another patient got abdominal cramps and diarrhea whenever she attempted to ride a few blocks on a diesel bus but was able to ride several miles on a propane-fueled bus before the same symptoms came on. Sleepiness and mental confusion are reactions which are also often seen among chemically susceptible bus riders.

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Babies may react immediately to their allergen, with symptoms such as vomiting, urticaria, and swelling of the lips, face and eyes. In such cases there is usually a positive skin-prick test. Once the allergen has been identified it must be avoided, for a while at least (see p218). Some babies grow out of the allergic reaction in time.

Not all babies react to their allergen immediately. Some have a delayed reaction with symptoms such as eczema, diarrhoea, asthma or rhinitis. Irritability, restlessness and crying are also reported, although most doctors would not accept these as allergic symptoms. Infants with delayed symptoms often fail to give a positive skin-prick test, and the link with food may not be at all obvious, either to the mother or the doctor.

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cube on the patient’s arm for three minutes. When the doctor tried this on Elizabeth she reacted with nettle-rash on the arm. Purely as an experiment, the doctor . decided to try Elizabeth on an elimination diet. After five days excluding all commonly eaten foods she did not react to the ice-cube test. But when she reintroduced milk, and later eggs, she reacted in the same way as before. By avoiding these foods in winter, or only eating them occasionally, she is free from the nettle-rash. This has allowed her to do something she never thought possible before – to go on a skiing holiday!

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STEP 11

Be alert to gut-mediated allergies. If you still have any of the digestive tract symptoms of allergy after eight weeks on the combined Anti-Candida/Anti-Allergy Program and find that no food allergies show up on skin, blood or food elimination tests, then the foods that you are sensitive to are creating inflammation in the intestines. Because of this, they are not being absorbed and won’t show up on the standard tests. Trial and error elimination of foods, one at a time, is the only way to treat a gut-mediated allergy. However, before eliminating any more foods from the diet, worm yourself again and have your doctor test you for giardia. Check your stress levels. Be more regular with the breathing and mental relaxation exercises. All of these factors can mimic gut-mediated food allergies.

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If after four weeks you’re feeling really good try introducing some amine and salicylate foods from the moderate.

Remember: The Anti-Candida Program is a restrictive regime and for this reason you must never embark on it without having first built up a sound tissue reserve of vitamins and minerals on the Metabolism-Balancing Program.

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Don’t worry about whether or not you will have the ability to start the program again. If you’ve committed yourself to getting well the mental and emotional power generated by that commitment will get you started. The only thing you need to start and stay on a program is a good reason for doing so. If the reason is a good one it will impress your subconscious mind, from which you will draw great strength of will, and the successful completion of the program will be automatic—life accidents notwithstanding.

From my observations I’ve noticed that those who are motivated by the more profound reasons of wanting to elevate their disposition, such as to improve their capacity to think, work and achieve, to improve their emotional well-being so they can enjoy more harmonious relationships with others, to have the vitality and confidence to take on new challenges and broaden their horizons, to look and feel the best they can, are more motivated than those who go on a program because others are doing so. That is, to be trendy. If you don’t let the desire to ‘look right’ to others usurp a personal commitment to your own growth and development, you will have no trouble going on and staying on a program. To be trendy is to be an also ran; to be committed to your personal goals is to be a winner.

Constantly reminding yourself of your goal is a sure way to achieve it. Writing down on paper that which you want to achieve helps greatly to develop the will to make that achievement a reality. The written word carries great power and is a potent reminder. Self talk is also a potent reminder. During the program keep telling yourself how much you are looking forward to feeling well, having energy, looking great, with nice skin and an ideal body weight. Take time out to picture yourself as you’ll be when the program is completed and the goals have been achieved. This self talk and creative imagery will generate enthusiasm for the program. Enthusiasm is power.

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If the white blood cells arc tired they cannot perform at full capacity. They are not able to swim as far, which means they have trouble reaching Candida colonies in remote tissues. Even if they manage to make contact, with the yeast they often lack the strength to kill it and sometimes end up being killed by it. Tired white blood cells produce far less antibodies than energetic ones.

Rest is as essential for the successful treatment of Candida infections, as it is in the treatment of other common infections such as ‘flu. Unfortunately, some people receiving treatment for candida problems fail to take this seriously and end up getting only mediocre results.

With adequate sleep and rest most people can completely contain their Candida problem within three months. Without adequate sleep and rest they are usually still on the program and Nystatin nine months later, receiving only mediocre results. Some give up after four to five months and slip back to their original state of ill health, thoroughly disillusioned with the whole program. Some people refuse to heed the call to rest because they feel they are progressing well enough without it. Then, at the end of the three months, they stop taking the Nystatin and go off the program and their symptoms return.

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Lactobacillus acidophilus is one such bacterium killed by antibiotics. It is a normal resident of the intestines and lives quite happily on the bowel wall where, among other things, it breaks up proteins and carbohydrates into lactic acid to help maintain an acid medium in the bowel. Because it takes up space on the wall it limits, by its presence, the spread of Candida colonies. When lactobacillus is killed by antibiotics clear spaces are left on the intestinal wall for Candida colonies to grow on.

By killing lactobacillus, antibiotics in the long-run aggravate the very symptoms they are called upon to contain. Although they kill the bacteria causing ear, nose and throat infections they don’t remove the excess mucus accumulation that enabled the infection to take hold in the first place. The excess mucus is produced by an allergic’ reaction in the mucous membranes of the nose and throat caused by acetaldehyde.

As more lactobacillus dies off more Candida plants grow in the unoccupied spaces and more acetaldehyde is produced. More acetaldehyde in the blood means more mucus in the nose, throat and ears. Because mucus provides such a favourable breeding ground for bacteria their numbers soon begin to build up to infection proportions again after each course of antibiotics. This is because there are always a few bugs that get away and live to propagate a new generation.

Each new generation is a little bit more antibiotic-resistant than the last and for this reason each successive course of antibiotics has to be a bit longer. So more and more antibiotics are needed to kill off stronger and stronger bugs. This ends up giving us more and more mucus to facilitate the breeding of more and more bugs. A vicious cycle develops which can only be broken by treating the Candida albicans infection.

Killing off the yeast reduces the blood acetaldehyde levels and mucus in the upper respiratory tract. The removal of the mucus makes it very hard for bacteria to proliferate, especially if the body is well fed and rested. Sound nutrition and adequate rest ensure that the white blood cells are capable of keeping bacteria numbers down.

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