Prayer and Fasting: Mother Nature’s First Doctors
- The H3O/Art of Life Blog
- Aug 12
- 4 min read
By Dr. Hugh A. Jenkins, ND, DC
Presented by Omni-U Virtual University
Dear Friends,
Over the course of my life’s journey, I have learned this simple truth, God has already provided what we need to live well and it is my belief that “prayer is God as our inner surgeon”.
I have seen prayer and fasting bring restoration to the mind, body, and spirit- not just in my own life- but also in the lives of countless men and women who sought a path to true healing.
Practicing natural medicine had not always been my goal. In fact, my path originally pointed toward conventional, i.e., allopathic, medicine. I studied pre-med as an undergrad at Northern Illinois University . I applied to medical schools, including the University of Illinois- College of Medicine in Chicago. However, God had another direction for my life.
In 1974, my father, Garfield Jenkins, an original Tuskegee Airman, introduced me to Dr. Alvenia Fulton, ND (Doctor of Naturopathy) who was one of the great pioneers of natural healing. My dad had completed a 21-day fast under her supervision, and had experienced powerful healing. When I met her, she told me something I will never forget: she declared that we had enough people going into allopathic medicine but what we needed were more young people trained in God’s healing. ways—natural medicine. That conversation changed my life and I would come to understand why Dr. Fulton believed, “Fasting is nature’s operating table.”
After undergrad school, I enrolled at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine (now National University of Natural Medicine) where I studied both conventional allopathic medical sciences and traditional natural healing practices. The course of study included nutritional science ,i.e.,learning to use food as medicine) as well as Eastern and Western herbal remedies and iridiology, the art of learning to evaluate the body through the iris of the eyes.
During school and summer breaks, I trained under Dr. Fulton, along with comedian and political activist, Dick Gregory, to help people from all walks of life with supervised fasting. I watched in amazement as people were released from the grips of disease that allopathic medicine could only “manage.” From Christmas Eve 1975 to New Year’s Day 1976, we supervised 120 fasters in Atlanta during a World Hunger Awareness Campaign. This is where I experienced my first air/dry fast. The first day my energy levels hit rock bottom and I thanked God the master teacher was there with the wisdom to walk me through it. Dr Fulton told me that “going into and out of the air fast on a water fast was the best way for me.” (pg, 26)
This amazing, world renowned healer was more than a mentor—she was a prophetess of natural healing, a naturopath, a Baptist minister, and a gifted teacher. She planted in me a seed of purpose: to carry on this mission and help others experience the power of God’s medicine through fasting and prayer. Later, I expanded my practice by earning a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from the National University of Health Sciences, and studied Traditional Chinese Medicine both in the U.S. and in 1996 and 2006 in China.
I began my practice of over 40 years, in 1982 as Physicians’ Nutritionist on 78th and Cottage Grove in Chicago. In 1992, It was renamed Alternative Healthcare of Beverly Hills when I relocated to the Beverly Hills area on the Southside of Chicago. The Total Balance Wellness Center was established after I moved from the Beverly Hills area.
Through the years, I’ve been blessed with the wisdom of integrating these powerful systems—Naturopathy, Chiropractic, Health and Wellness Coaching for the benefit of helping our community heal. One of my patients with colon cancer came to me after completing a popular cleanse, which he did 3-4 times a year over the course of 25 years. He’d lose about 20 pounds, but would go right back to eating and drinking the same toxic foods that caused the weight gain and the chronic disease that would nearly take his life. His mother was a patient of mine and got him in to see me before his cancer progressed to stage 4C. (pg, 20) Today, he is 19 years cancer clean, proving that fasting and prayer really works!
For more than four decades of God blessing me to assist patients through their healing journeys from infertility, diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases, I have written a book.that has become a best seller: Fasting and Prayer: God’s Healing Therapies. My prayer is that this book, gleaned from my many years of experience helping patients fast, will bless the reader’s life as well. Fasting and Prayer, God’s Healing Therapies also contains testimonies from former patients who were healed of their health ailments through God's healing therapies, to encourage you on your way.
Recommended Viewing:
“Health and Its Alternatives” Featuring:
Dr. Hugh A. Jenkins ND DC and Gwendolyn Jenkins
Recommended Reading
Dr. Hugh A. Jenkins.
Fasting and Prayer: God's HealingTherapies.
Dr. Alvenia M. Fulton
The Fasting Primer
Dick Gregory .Dick Gregory's Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin with Mother Nature.
Dr. Laila O. Afrika. Nutricide.
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