Hi, I'm with you on the IBS label... A bit off-topic, but on the subject of refeeding, and the irritable bowel symtoms, you (and others) might want to consider slippery elm powder. It's a great soother and healer, and might be a good way to ease into solid food after a water fast. It is often used to heal "leaky gut", and also makes a wonderful soothing food when nothing else can be eaten. Sort of a wonder food. You might be familar with slippery elm pastilles, like a kind of throat-soother.

You basically mix up a couple spoonfuls with hot water, and can add cinnamon. It's got a sort of innocuous mild taste. I quite like it. Don't want to turn anyone off, but it's commonly known as *slippery elm gruel*. :-) yup. You make it thin, or thicker, as you like. It coats and soothes, and provides bulk and nutrition.

best,
Chiron

Azalee,
Even extreme toothache usually disappears after several days of fasting.

With regard to bad teeth, Shelton has this to say and is also my own experience..................

"I have conducted thousands of fasts and I have never seen any injury accrue to the teeth therefrom. No one makes a trip to the dentist after a fast who would not have gone there had the fast not been taken.

***Mr. Pearson records that at the end of his fast, "teeth with black cavities became white and clear, all decay seemed to be arrested by the fast, and there was no more tooth-ache."***

The only effects upon the teeth which I have observed to occur during a fast are improvements. I have seen teeth that were loose in their sockets become firmly fixed while fasting. I have seen diseased gums heal up while fasting. But I have never, at any time, observed any injurious effects upon the teeth during or after a fast, regardless of the age of the faster and the duration of the fast. This applies only to good teeth. Fasting does sometimes cause fillings to become loose.

Although I have always regarded the loosening of fillings in teeth as due to the extraction of the salts of the bad teeth, some of my students have brought up the question: Is the loss of the filling due to an effort of Nature to dislodge a foreign body preparatory to healing the tooth? This question is worthy of study"...............
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.ch7.htm


Chrisb1.