Staying Hungrier (Intermittent fasting truths) by Jerry Brainum

 

 

 

Perhaps no one was born was a more apt surname than Linda Hazzard. Although Hazzard never attended medical school, she was nonetheless licensed to practice medicine in the state of Washington.  She operated a sanitarium there in a town called Olalla, and she claimed to be a "fasting specialist." Indeed, in 1908, she self-published a book, Fasting for the Cure of Disease, in which she claimed that fasting provided the ultimate cure for all diseases, including cancer. This startling statement led people to her sanitarium to undergo what even then was considered radical and unconventional treatment. The patients "doctor" Hazzard treated subsisted largely on only vegetable broth and nothing else. The broth consisted of tomato and asparagus juice, and as a special treat, a teaspoon of orange juice was sometimes added to the mix. Some people managed to survive this stringent eating regime and sang the praises of Dr.Hazzard's miracle cure. Others were not so fortunate. Over 40 people died under her care, with the cause being, not surprisingly, starvation. Hazzard denied that her minimal diet was the cause of death, instead of blaming the deaths on undiagnosed diseases, including advanced cancer. One woman who succumbed to the Hazzard plan weighed only 50 pounds. Local residents referred to Hazzard's sanitarium as "Starvation Heights" for obvious reasons. The outrage finally came to an end in 1911, when Hazzard went on trial for the death of a woman who died weighing 50 pounds (not the same one as previously mentioned). She was convicted in 1912, not only for her clear-cut medical negligence but also because she had stolen most of her victims' belongings. She was both a quack and a crook. Hazzard was sentenced to 2 to 20 years of hard labor at Washington State Penitentiary, but was paroled two years later, and even given a pardon by the governor. She then left the country, only to return five years later and open another clinic. Since her medical license had been justifiably revoked, she called her new sanitarium a "school of health."  She once again supervised what she called medical fasts until the building burned down in 1935. Karma entered the picture three years later, as Hazzard died of self-starvation after an extended fast.

 

 

While Hazzard's technique of treating all diseases through eating little or no food seems radical and idiotic, it's nonetheless true that fasting does have features that can actually aid health and longevity--it just needs to be done correctly. Hazzard's mistake was in providing too few calories to sustain life, along with a near-complete lack of essential nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, protein, and fat for extended times. In short, it was a prescription for death . . .