Fasting for the cure of disease 1908

by Linda Burfield Hazzard

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

Paperback

First published January 1, 1908

About the author

Quack doctor without medical degrees who served time for manslaughter after it was found that she was getting patients to sign over their financial assets to her after entering her treatment programs. Patients died of starvation under her care, who had originally complained of maladies as life threatening as "painful knees."

She died using the methods she advocated.

Reviews

[Steven Shook · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased and read Fasting for the Cure of Disease after reading Gregg Olsen's Starvation Heights, which tells the story of the Williamson sisters' experience at Linda Burfield Hazzard's fasting sanitarium called Wilderness Heights located in Olalla, Washington. While Olsen's book discusses much of Hazzard's behavior and the basic philosophy of her fasting cure, I wanted to better understand the perspective of fasting from Hazzard's clinical point of view.

Fasting for the Cure of Disease provides substantially more detail about Hazzard's fasting philosophy than what was included in Olsen's book. What I found to particularly chilling is that I believe Hazzard fully subscribed to her fasting cure. Fasting for the Cure of Disease was not written to hoodwink vulnerable people to her sanitarium, rather it was written to promote a form of naturopathic medicine (i.e., pseudoscientific medicine), particularly fasting, to be superior to what she refers to "orthodox medicine."

Hazzard's delineates disease into two categories; namely, functional diseases and organic diseases. Organic diseases included birth defects, abnormalities, deformities, etc, that generally existed at birth or perhaps from an injury. She states numerous times in her book that fasting will not cure organic diseases. Instead, the patient's life can perhaps be made comfortable and slightly extended with fasting.

All functional diseases, however, were curable by fasting according to Hazzard. This included bacterial infections, viruses, common diseases, general malaise, and even sexual dysfunction. Anyone suffering from small pox, syphilis, headaches, menstrual pain, joint pain, or masturbation, for example, were purportedly cured by Hazzard's fasting method.

What become rather shocking to me when reading Hazzard's book is that she was completely dismissive of "orthodox medicine," and states that the only factor causing anyone's death while undergoing her fasting cure was due to organic issues, which were always discovered by her in a post-mortem examination. Hazzard had no medical training, so her assessment of post-mortem examination has to be taken with much suspicion (and perhaps contempt).

There are numerous references in Hazzard's book, as well as a chapter, discussing patients that died during the fasting cure. She provides the symptoms that these individual suffered from just prior to their death - most of which appear to be the classic symptoms of ketosis, ketoacidocis, or hyperosmolar hyperglycemic nonketotic syndrome. Any patient with pre-existing pancreas, liver, thyroid, or gallbladder conditions would have suffered horribly from the fasting cure, and those with diabetes would have likely phased into unconsciousness during treatment before dying.

Unfortunately, vulnerable individuals - especially those that has been ill for an extended period of time - were more likely to subscribe to Hazzard's fasting cure. At least nineteen deaths have been directly attributed to Hazzard's fasting cure, including her own on June 24, 1938.

[M.]

Reading this for research. Amazing how this 'doctor', who killed possibly hundreds of people with her 'cure', can still be revered enough to have her book available to be read.

I wouldn't trust the opinion of anyone who does as prescribed in this book. If you read Starvation Heights side by side with this, it's quite an illuminating study into a narcissistic, delusional mind.

[Stephanie]

I hope no one takes this book seriously. The woman who wrote
this was a psychopath who starved people to DEATH while stealing
their possessions. She, along with her husband, were evil and
delusional. I read the book about her crimes -Starvation Heights-
and that is the only reason I was curious about her book.

It is hard to believe what she got away with.

[Justin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost never write notes or reviews BEFORE actually reading a book. I do so here in order to ensure no one seeing this on my reading list thinks I actually want to read this book in order to starve myself. First off, why would anyone need a book to tell them how to starve themselves? Is starvation really that complicated, that you need hundreds of pages of instruction to do it? No. Even the author knew that. One hallmark of quack medicine and pseudoscience is the need to justify what actual scientific evidence cannot. Therefore, books about these kinds of "treatments" are often more of a defense of unorthodox ideology, and for the authors an attempt to accrue status and position oneself as an expert, thereby obtaining credibility and cache through coercion. Books like these are important historical documents, testaments to how little has changed in the field of medical charlatanism, and case studies of the intersectionality of greed, narcissism, desperation, and how to take advantage of vulnerable people suffering as much from mental illness as any physical ailment.

Those dimensions of it make this valuable to scholars, but my intent in reading this, is to understand the mind and methods of Linda Hazzard so that I can write an alt history satirical novel that incorporates her as a character, her sanitarium, and another social experiment taking place in the nearby wilderness: the anarchist colony of Home.

[Linnea]

Read this for research and am not quite sure how to rate it. Definitely a 4 or 5 for entertainment value, but a 1 for the theory therein. Do not do anything she suggests in this book, it is utter nonsense.

[Gracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book paints an excellent picture of one woman's insanity. Unfortunately that picture is painted in fecal matter & bile.

[Ruby Spinner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scary

This book can be read ONLY with extreme caution. Please, do not use any of the "advice"; it is extremely unhealthy, and, furthermore, you must investigate and understand who this woman was, and what she was not.

Mrs. Burfield Hazard had a strong desire to operate a health spa, a quasi-receractional convalescent care center, but she was not a qualified medical professional even by the standards then, and her own treatment ended in suicide for her. There was also a world-wide push to obtain justice for British citizens, and, it gets worse.

[Azur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting window into the past. The advice is of course incredibly outdated or was seen as controversial even at the time. Do not try at home.