Budwig

Budwig diet and protocol: tips and frequently asked questions

Budwig Diet FAQ: expert answers to 138 frequently asked questions

Question 49, re Weaning off medications: Dr. Budwig took patients off medications as soon as possible*, but sometimes those who start with conventional medicine can not wean off their prior medications easily due to their body seemingly needing the drug to help overcome serious symptoms or deficiencies. Since drug intake can jeopardize the healing effectiveness of the Budwig protocol, do you have any suggestions how to overcome this difficulty?

* Compare the detailed Dr. Johanna Budwig on what to avoid when following the Budwig diet & protocol (items observed to interfere with its healing effects).

Answer:
First of all, I would check out any natural or more natural ways to achieve the same effect. This could be anything from herbs, hydrotherapy applications (according to Kneipp etc.) and exercise (with its cancer-protective effects into the bargain) to homeopathics, acupuncture, chi kung and similar “energetic” approaches to healing (aimed at balancing, increasing or decongesting the flow of life force energy and overcoming energetic blockages, compare Energetics and here particularly the often very effective DIY healing tool of EFT).

This could also be mental (“power of mind”) approaches such as visualization and yet quite unexplored esoteric healing modalities such as the use of healing stones (gemstones and minerals) as espoused by St. Hildegard von Bingen and colour therapy. Since the basis of physical healing and normalization of functions can often be detoxification and increased circulation, I would try to create the greatest possible internal cleanliness, avoiding overweight etc.

I would also always ask for help, guidance and inspiration from the spiritual realms via prayer, meditation etc.

And a final idea for those looking after a loved one: could you imagine trying to give the patient a placebo ("empty" pill) to see if his belief in his current medication’s effectiveness alone is the major reason behind its current effect on his body? (I know this wouldn't be an easy ethical decision to make but personally that would be my second choice after first going for herbs/homeopathy/acupuncture etc.) (credits: Healing Cancer Naturally)

Question 50: I read many testimonials from folks who "quit" chemo, went on the "diet", and then got better. Giving all the credit to the diet. Maybe the chemo had something to do with their recovery and not the Johanna Budwig diet?

Answer:
Theoretically, that's possible, but I don't see why that would be likely (at all), and I don't understand your reasoning in practice. My understanding is that chemo produces its effects immediately (and in fact each chemo treatment is significantly less effective than the previous one), and the cancer cells that do survive are substantially stronger (and more resistant to almost all treatments). [In other words, later occurring improvements cannot be attributed to the chemotherapy.]

Recoveries in people who've had chemo (and to a much lesser extent, in people who've had radiation) is in fact a much STRONGER endorsement of the alternative treatment applied than are recoveries in people who haven't had chemo (or radiation). Also, there are only a few types of cancer for which chemo (or radiation) produces a significant rate of recoveries. (credits: Leonard)
Compare On Chemotherapy and On Cancer Statistics.

Question 51: What do I do during traveling?

Answer 1:
In her Oil-Protein Diet Cookbook, Dr. Budwig writes on page 175: "While traveling, you can always care for yourself with Linomel and hot or cold milk, and/or fruit juices." She also recommends eating various types of fresh fish to fill in for the flax oil and cottage cheese/quark when travelling. She writes: “...you can protect yourself against harm while travelling by ordering fresh fish such as trout, pike, carp and other fresh fish. However, canned (tinned) fish, also shrimps, prawn and other items from the deli counter which frequently contain artificial coloring agents and harmful chemical preservatives, must be strictly avoided.”

For info on making your own Linomel, compare When making my own linomel, are there specific ratios for flaxseed to honey to observe?. (credits: Healing Cancer Naturally)

Answer 2:
During our 5 day stay travelling away from home, it was really simple to keep up with the Budwig diet, all that was needed was a little bit of preplanning. We did have a fridge in the hotel room, but could have done it with ice chests.

I prewashed all my fruits and veggies and juiced enough for the travel day and one more day. (Found an organic juice bar for juice the next 3 days).

I packed a bowl, fork, spoon, sharp knife, small cutting board and my little blender, nuts and oatmeal and tea. I also brought a little electric tea kettle to heat water for tea.

Flax oil, cottage cheese, and fruits and veggies all went into ice chests for travel. If we were going to be at appointments for very long, I brought a mini cooler along with my juice. I ate my flaxoil/cottage cheese meals before we went to a restaurant for my husband's meals, and I just sat and enjoyed his company while he ate. The restaurants didn't mind that I didn't eat.

It was simple and very filling, I didn't feel deprived at all, especially after I found out the tumor had shrunk .7 centimeters!! (credits: Janet)

Answer 3:
You can pack a small stick blender and coffee bean grinder (for the flaxseed), a mixing container, and some paper towels. Transport your flax oil and seeds in a small dark, insulated, airtight food storage glass or plastic container and upon arrival in your hotel room, store it in the fridge.

Ask the receptionist for a tablespoon, plate etc. or bring along your own. After picking up some cottage cheese or similar product at your destination (even self-made yoghurt quark will do), you can now prepare your flaxoil/cottage cheese mix twice daily and add whatever fruits, nuts and vegetables you have bought.

When going out for a meal, ask for healthy menu items such as salads, baked potatoes, steamed vegetables etc. and in your small airtight food storage container, bring along your own flax oil/cottage cheese dressing made up in advance (but only a few hours in advance, it should be as fresh as possible). (credits: Healing Cancer Naturally)

Question 52: Where can I obtain flaxseed oil in India?

Answer 1:
If you write to infoATflaxindia.com, they will tell you how you can obtain cold-pressed high quality flax oil over there.

Answer 2:
We source flax oil from an organic shop in Shahpur Jat in Delhi. Ganesh Ishwar and his wife Jayshree run this shop, you can be in touch with them at 98101-31343. Their email adddress is dubdengreen at organicbounty.com. (credits: T.)

Answer 3:
Contact Mr. Vijay Seth from Jaipur on 09314502490. (credits: S.C.)

Answer 4:
You can get flaxseed and oil in the central part of India called vidarbh (Nagpur and the surrounding area). Vidarbh is abundant in flaxseed. There also is one place in Raipur where they cold press the oil out of seeds in front of you. (credits: K.P.)

Question 53: I'm taking 1 tblsp flaxseed oil to 2 tblsp cottage cheese each serving right now. Increasing the cottage cheese to 4 tblsp each serving is way more than I can eat and still eat my other food. The cottage cheese fills me up and I'm not hungry for any other food. I'm also on the small side, only 5'4", and I find it difficult to eat other foods in addition to the flax oil/cottage cheese in the recommended amounts. I've been depending on the flax oil/cottage cheese primarily because I'm assuming that is the most important, then adding the other food as I can consume it. Is this a correct way to approach it?

Answer:
It sounds as though you are saying that you are trying to add flax oil/cottage cheese to your regular diet and you are having a hard time eating everything. Based on Dr. Budwig's Oil-Protein Diet Cookbook, you are to eat ONLY her diet and NOT OTHER FOODS if you are not well.

Breakfast is the blended flaxseed oil with cottage cheese in a ratio of 1 to 2. Dr. Budwig recommends 3 Tb flax oil and 6 Tb cottage cheese. Add freshly ground flaxseeds (very important and health-giving part of the program. Then add fresh, raw, natural, organic fruit, some nuts and honey and you have a full meal.

At Lunch blend the flax oil/cottage cheese, add some old-fashioned apple cider vinegar, to make a salad dressing. Dr. Budwig recommends 2 Tb flax oil & 4 Tb cottage cheese. Select fresh raw vegetables (I put mine in a food processor). And you have a full meal for lunch.

If you are still hungry, Dr. Budwig suggests another flax oil/cottage cheese mix with fruit--like at breakfast. I'm small, 100 lbs, so I can't eat this one.

If you add two freshly made vegetable juices, adding more freshly ground flaxseeds during the day and a dinner of cooked grain to which you can add vegetables and oleolux, you will have a healthy diet that will keep you feeling full.

There is no need for other food. If you have cancer or any other disease that these foods will help to cure, this is the healing diet that Dr. Budwig recommends, no other foods are to be added.

This diet gives you fruit, vegetables, grains, proteins and healthy fats - everything you need.
Compare Dr. Johanna Budwig: The Practical Implementation of My Oil-Protein Diet.

Question 54: Cesium Chloride Therapy, PolyMVA and the Budwig Protocol: Does anyone know of a conflict between Cesium Therapy, PolyMVA and the Budwig Protocol? I have my Dad starting the Budwig diet he has esophageal carcinoma and it is a very aggressive cancer. Now with this diet I am adding the Cesium protocol; this is a Stage 4 protocol, which only lasts 32 days, but once finished with the cesium we hopefully will continue the PolyMVA and the Budwig diet.

Answer 1:

I don't know the answer to this question. The Budwig Protocol normalizes many of the bodily functions as it balances much of the biochemistry and biophysics in the body. What you are proposing to do is to introduce a powerful chemical so as to tweak things towards greater alkalinity. I would expect that the cesium therapy might conflict with the Budwig Protocol. Keep in mind that Dr. Budwig used no such chemicals in dealing with cancer.

The Budwig Diet has been developed by Dr. Budwig as a stand-alone protocol. The Cesium or Cesium Chloride protocol is not part of it. Adding cesium to the Budwig Diet is a clash of two different healing philosophies.

One is altering the body chemistry in order to achieve a high alkalinity to combat cancer. That is not a natural approach in my view. The other is an attempt to bring back some sense of natural balance to the body.

Will cesium work with or against the Budwig Diet? I would expect it to interfere with it, but I have no idea what the outcome will be. Adding Polymva to the Budwig Diet seems less extreme than adding cesium, but having no experience with it and being no bio-chemist, I don't know whether it would help or hinder the Budwig Diet either.

Scientists develop protocols with a specific aim or biochemical adjustment/correction/manipulation (or whatever you want to call it) in mind. They may or may not be compatible. Unless you know exactly what you are doing, combining two protocols can be tricky. It does not necessarily result in something better. If they are incompatible, you could end up undermining one or both protocols and end up in a worse way.

In addition to that - in the words of an alternative doctor on another list who was critical of combining protocols - if it doesn't work, what do you have to fall back on? Dr. Budwig used no supplements [apart from nutritional yeast flakes] in her diet...no chemicals either.

Answer 2:
I would like to warn you about my own experience with taking cesium. My warning is that I do not think a person ought to try it unless they are under a doctor's supervision.
The reason I say that is because I tried it this last winter---was taking 6 grams a day, along with magnesium, selenium, vitamin C, vitamin D and potassium---and I developed serious nausea and high fever. I was only able to go 19 days before I just had to stop. One is supposed to stay on the protocol for 30 days. It took me 3 weeks to recover from the effects of the treatment.

I cannot say for sure what went wrong or what went right. Maybe I took too much. Some of the problem certainly was that I had a very bad sinus/bronchitis attack at the same time I was taking the cesium.

All I know is that it became too much for me to handle. There was no significant diminution of the tumor in my neck, though of course I only managed 19 days of the protocol.

I do not think there are many doctors in the US who will administer/follow someone taking the cesium protocol. There is a Dr. in Australia who claims to have very significant success with cesium, but he is very expensive, and requires that an arterial catheter be implanted in the chest of people getting the treatment.

The problem in this country [USA] with cesium treatment is that all the information on it is anecdotal and rather scant. When I was putting together my own protocol, I had to take a piece here, a piece there, improvise this and that, and there was no one around to help me when I got into trouble.

It is very important, I believe, if one is self-administering a treatment for cancer or any other dis-ease, that it be safe/non-toxic. It is NOT GOOD to run into serious problems with a home protocol, and to have no one to turn to who knows what one is up against and who can tell one what to do. (credits: Elliot Y.)

For a “terminal” esophagus cancer healing testimonial involving the Budwig diet cum determination, see this report.

Question 55: Based on my experience with my own healing and reading of that of others, I have come to believe that the Budwig protocol actually heals ANY condition of disease within ANY human/animal body. Am I right?

Answer:
I think this statement may be a bit daring and Dr. Budwig herself would be the first to disagree (she mentions that there are a number of factors which determine an outcome, including life force, emotional life etc. She repeats that the person needs to be seen as a whole and as an individual.

We are more than what we eat, though what we ingest does lay (or rather contributes to laying) our physical foundation. So unless you define "Budwig" as addressing and healing the whole person (emotions, mind, spirituality, exercise etc.)* while strictly following the Budwig protocol to the extent that it is currently known particularly in the English-speaking world [a number of her works are out of print and only three Budwig books exist in an English version], I do think one is on the safer and truer side not to call it a cure-all or panacea.
* a holistic approach Dr. Budwig herself endorsed as can be seen from the complementary treatments Dr. Budwig allowed, endorsed or recommended.

Personally I have come to feel that our thoughts, beliefs and emotions are highly important. In fact the power of belief can/will create a placebo effect that has been shown in scientific studies to exert a strong impact on how a person will react to any one substance administered, and has frequently been observed to be similarly at work with mental inputs such as doctors’ verdicts re seriousness of disease, “life expectancy”, so-called “terminal” diagnoses etc.

Equally, many cancer recoveries and remissions seem to start with the firm unequivocal intention to be healed. You can actually see this kind of intent directly expressed in a number of natural cancer healing testimonials featured on this site.

In fact, there are former cancer patients who have healed themselves just by "willing" themselves to live because they have a strong purpose in life, compare for instance Terminal Cancer Healed through Love, Will, Determination and the Power of the Mind).

For examples highlighting the emotional contributors to cancer genesis and healing, see e.g. Spontaneous remission of malignant tumors thanks to patients working with emotions, rediscovering life purpose & quality of life.

So I feel it is an excellent thing to fully believe in what you are doing (as you are expressing above) as this belief and enthusiasm will likely work as one of the (even possibly major) contributing healing influences. (credits: Healing Cancer Naturally)

Question 56: I am worried about the "warning" concerning rough-ground flaxseeds appearing on page 22 of Dr. Budwig's book FLAX OIL AS A TRUE AID: "A few words about flaxseed because the risks involved are high. The optimal fats are, of course, the most oxygen-active ones. When flaxseed is rough-ground, the beneficent fatty acids, that is the threefold unsaturated ones, the very best ones, will spoil rapidly--within 10-15 minutes. And if you [buy] rough-ground flaxseed from a health food store, by the time you get it home, its goodness has been destroyed and the oxidation waste products are harmful, particularly so, the older they are. Caution is advised with flaxseed."

Answer:
Let's be careful not to discourage people from eating ground flaxseeds. They are a VERY important part of the Budwig Diet. Dr. Budwig's caution only refers to eating flaxseeds that are pre-ground and rancid.

I have not heard of anyone who had problems with eating ground flaxseeds. There is overwhelming evidence that ground flaxseeds provide great benefits for everyone, especially for those who are sick. However, there is always the odd person who can have undesirable reactions to foods that are perfectly good and healthy for everyone else, e.g. nuts, wheat, legumes, sauerkraut, tomatoes, milk, peppers, to name only a few.

Question 57: Difference between taking fish oils and flax oil/cottage cheese as a source of omega-3: Why would the flax oil/cottage cheese be more effective or better than fish oil? Isn’t substituting fish oil for flax oil as good or better than using flax oil?
[Fatty fish like mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna & salmon are high in the “long chain” omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Flaxseed oil is 58% LNA (or ALA) part of which is used by the body as a precursor for these long chain fatty acids.]

Answer 1:
I don't think so. The Budwig Protocol has helped people regain their health without fish oils. Flaxseed oil is 58% LNA. How can it be that all that LNA is supposedly good for, is to be converted to the long chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA?

In fact, LNA's role is not only to serve as a precursor for long chain fatty acids. LNA is the only really essential omega-3 fatty acid. That is because it cannot be made in the human body or in any animal body, and much of it is used in its original form.

That is why Dr. Budwig stressed the importance of seed oils over and over again, especially in conjunction with sulphurated amino acids which provide the opposite polarity in cellular functionality. Here are some important examples as to how LNA works in connection with cells, where most of the emphasis of the Budwig Diet is.

a. LNA is an essential component of all cell membranes and helps to preserve the fluidity of cell membranes
b. LNA is capable of directly "communicating" with genes, sending them clear messages to produce greater or lesser quantities of specific proteins.
c. Retarded growth can occur as a result of LNA deficiency.
d. LNA transports oxygen into cell membranes.
e. LNA helps to hold proteins in cell membranes by the electrostatic attractive forces of its double bonds.

For an appreciation as to how important LNA is on a much greater scope, go to [no longer available].

I agree with using some fish oil or better yet cod liver oil if you can get it unadulterated. It is important to make sure that these oils have not been heated, because if they are, they form harmful components in them. That is why Dr. Budwig did not include fish oils in her diet even though she knew very well of the value of them.

The problem is that most cod liver oils are heated to an enormously high temperature in the processing which is called molecular distillation. The same is true for other fish oils as far as I know. One would have to look for cold processed fish oil. In that case taking some cod liver oil in addition to the rest of the Budwig Diet should work out fine.

Answer 2:
If you study Budwig's Flax Oil as a True Aid Against Arthritis, Heart Infarction, Cancer and Other Diseases, you will see that her approach to healing is more about the photons/frequencies than about molecular research.

The greater value of flax oil (ALA or LNA) over fish oils lies exactly in the very elongations/desaturase actions of converting the ALA to -> Steridonic -> Ecosatetraenoic -> Ecosapentaenoic -> Docasahexaenoic.

Each elongation is a result of proper vitamins/minerals to help the desaturase - but the value is in the exchange of hydrogen atoms to make up the longer EFAs. That exchange brings in fresh hydrogen atoms (usually from water) with electrons along with their frequencies which adds to the energy of the body.

This also affects cell membrane structure by balancing the frequencies that make up the integrity of the membrane - thus allowing cells to function properly.

Vitamin B6 is known to deplete under stress and cause the shortage of D6D desaturase - This is why I feel Budwig used nutritional yeast for the best and closest to natural 'B' complex.

So which is better? Why can't you use both? I would stay mainly with flaxoil/cottage cheese to bring in more energy, and some Good cod liver oil for Vitamin D when needed such as in wintertime. So far the best cod liver oil I have seen is Icelandic - less processed and true vitamin D = Not man-made!
Compare Question 6: Flaxseed vs. fish oil: why did Dr. Budwig think that flaxseed, rather than fish oil, was preferred? and Question 29 re estrogen receptive tumors: I am unable to take Flaxseed Oil because it is estrogen-like. My tumors are very highly estrogen receptive. How much Fish Oil could I take to replace the Flax?

complete list of questions here

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For the most comprehensive and authoritative English-language coverage worldwide of the oil-protein diet & protocol developed by Dr. Johanna Budwig, see

• Budwig Diet.