Starvation Heights

Just finished reading this book based on the activities of a Fasting Doctor at her Oregon clinic in the early 1900's. Her method was to starve patients for 40 or more days, feeding them only a small amount of tomato or asparagus juice and no solid food at all. She combined this with daily enemas. She started them off with normal 2 quart enemas administered in the knee chest position and quickly increased the volume to 6 quarts or more given over a 2- 3 hour period. At one point the book mentions 12 gallon enemas, although this volume, if true, had to be given as a colonic irrigation with multiple fillings. She also got herself appointed as their guardian with power of attorney to drain their bank accounts. Needless to say many of them died, making this an interesting true crime read.

I do enjoy the benefits of large volume retention enemas, but since I have no desire to die I certainly wouldn't advocate this treatment. I draw the line at 2-3 quart SSEs.

Bends - I could well imagine her patients would waste away & die through malnourishment.....perhaps even mild anaemia due to the weight loss of combined purging & exceptionally drastic food allocation

Was she ever apprehended ?..Title of book ??

She was apprehended and found guilty of manslaughter. The title is "Starvation Heights" and available for Kindle at a very cheap price.

Thanks for reply Bends

The not so good Doctor was enema dependent herself probably because of colonic inertia of some kind, she took enemas to a rather evil place . . . . .

That's pretty chilling. In my opinion, that sort of thing - evil quackery - contributes to the negative impression many have of enemas.

Starvation Heights sounds very interesting, especially given the fact that it is a true story. I just purchased the Kindle edition. I'll post a review when I finish the book.