Esophagus

In Aajonus's description of digestion, food travels from the mouth, which contains primarily acidic bacteria, down the esophagus. He noted that small amounts of hydrochloric acid are secreted along the esophageal passage before reaching the stomach proper, where the main hydrochloric acid production occurs. The esophagus itself does not perform substantial digestion. Its role is to move food downward while maintaining a mucosal lining that protects the tissue from those small amounts of acid and from the mechanical passage of food.

He described the throat and esophagus of indigenous people who ate raw meat, such as the Eskimos and Inuit, as notably open and unobstructed. He attributed their wide, unencumbered throats to the absence of the toxic accumulation, swollen tonsils, swollen adenoids, and lymphatic congestion that characterized Western bodies raised on cooked food, pharmaceuticals, and environmental pollution. He contrasted this with his own restricted throat, which he described as narrowed by the accumulation of poisons throughout his life.

One of the clearest and most specific causes of esophageal damage Aajonus identified was the regular consumption of hot beverages. In a direct consultation, he told a patient that what appeared in the iris reading as a belt of scar tissue running all the way down into the stomach was most likely caused by hot drinks, at least three cups daily. The esophagus in that case was described as "pretty much scar tissue," tissue that no longer secretes and no longer makes mucus well.

His remedy in that instance involved replacing hot beverages with raw juices served in small portions. He recommended three cups of juice per day, divided into half-cup servings using four-ounce jelly jars, so that four such servings would constitute two full cups, with additional servings making up the remainder. He also prescribed nut butter weekly and papaya as supportive foods for that level of esophageal scar damage.

In a separate consultation, Aajonus identified smoke tars in the esophagus and bronchioles of a patient. He noted the tars were not in the lungs themselves but specifically in the esophagus and bronchioles, and he allowed that environmental exposure such as a neighbor burning a large fire could be responsible even in a non-smoker. He distinguished this from the deeper lung tar deposits that result from direct smoking.

Aajonus addressed the case of a patient who reported a four-year undiagnosed history of GERD and a hiatal hernia that had scarred the entire esophagus until it was reduced to the size of a pencil. He connected this to a prior tonsil removal, saying that the scarring and the toxic poisoning from the thyroid and tonsil situation would not have happened to the esophagus in the same way without that earlier medical intervention. He did not elaborate on the full mechanism in the preserved passage, but his framing placed the tonsil removal and its downstream toxicity as a precondition for the severity of the esophageal damage.

In one iridology consultation, Aajonus told a patient that the lymphatic congestion visible around the heart area was the only dangerous sign he saw. He added directly: "If you weren't eating a good diet, I would say that the esophagus is likely to have cancer." The protective factor in his view was adherence to a raw diet. He then immediately asked whether the patient consumed any vinegar, and upon learning they did not, he recommended it as something that cow would not benefit from but the patient needed. He noted that vinegar over-acidifies cows and reduces their digestion, but is appropriate for the human condition he was observing.

A written exchange in the newsletters addresses a patient named Kathy who had been taking Nexium twice daily for ten years and experienced burning in the esophagus after beginning to eat meat partially raw. Aajonus's response explained that every time she had surgery, the wound keloided, meaning it grew many layers of uneven scar tissue. One of the primary causes he identified was that during and after surgery, medical practitioners swab the throat with iodine, Merthiolate, or Mercurochrome. He described the last two as liquid mercury used as antiseptics. He stated these substances are not only antiseptic to bacteria but are also antiseptic to live cells and prevent cellular repair.

He proposed a conservative approach before considering surgery: vinegar and whey gargles performed consistently for three to four months. If after that period surgery was deemed necessary, he advised allowing the surgeon only to scrape the uneven scar tissue rather than remove a section of the esophagus entirely.

Aajonus was unambiguous about the danger of surgical removal of esophageal sections. He stated that a shortened esophagus causes severe and often unresolvable pain because the stomach, now pulled upward, exerts constant traction on the esophagus. He described a specific man he knew personally who had to take morphine many times daily because of the pain caused by the stomach pulling on the esophagus. With morphine, the man could not function and was often depressed. He took medication upon medication for all the pain the shortened esophagus caused.

In a separate account from a workshop, Aajonus described another man whose entire esophagus had been surgically removed, with doctors then lengthening part of the stomach and placing the stomach up in the shoulder region to compensate. This man required enormous amounts of morphine simply to tolerate the pain. Aajonus reported that upon starting the Primal Diet, approximately eighty percent of the man's depression resolved and his life improved substantially, but the physical pain was still excruciating whenever morphine was not available, and movement of the arm in certain ways caused significant additional suffering. The man died approximately a year and two months after beginning the diet, but Aajonus acknowledged that the diet gave him that year and two months with his wife and children before he died.

His surgical advice in the newsletter was explicit: if surgery becomes necessary, insist that the surgeon only scrape the uneven scar tissue and not take a section of the esophagus. He treated the shortening of the esophagus as a catastrophic and essentially irreversible medical error.

For situations following esophageal surgery, Aajonus gave a specific healing protocol. To directly help prevent scarring, he recommended gargling with fresh lime juice. He stated it is more effective undiluted but may be diluted if necessary. He also recommended sipping and licking a mixture of no-salt raw butter, unheated honey, and lime juice from a spoon. This combination was described as soothing the throat and promoting healing without much scarring. The ratio he specified was four parts raw butter to one part honey to one part lime juice.

He emphasized that raw protein is essential for repairing damaged cells and stated that raw eggs most often accomplish this repair, though he noted the full passage was truncated in the source. The overall emphasis is on the fatty and enzymatic components of raw foods to rebuild esophageal tissue without triggering further inflammatory scarring.

In the account of feeding Jeff (a severely ill patient), Aajonus describes physically clearing the esophagus as part of the feeding process. Jeff's esophagus was filled with mucus that blocked swallowing and caused choking. Aajonus used a vacuum hose inserted deep into the throat to suction globs of mucus mixed with food out of the esophagus, allowing Jeff to swallow between episodes. He performed this multiple times during a single feeding session, waiting several minutes between insertions to allow the throat muscles and nerves to relax before attempting another bite. This account illustrates his understanding that accumulated mucus in the esophagus can entirely obstruct normal swallowing and that mechanical clearing can be necessary as a short-term measure when the patient cannot clear it independently.

Aajonus described the small secretion of hydrochloric acid that begins in the esophagus and continues into the stomach as part of the body's preparation for protein digestion. He noted that this progressive acid secretion means that by the time food reaches the stomach proper, the environment is already beginning to shift chemically. This framing was used in part to explain why the esophagus, despite not being the primary site of digestion, is not entirely passive. It participates in the early stages of the acid cascade that the stomach then completes.

He observed that in traditional raw-meat-eating populations, the entire upper digestive architecture, including the throat and esophagus, functioned without the obstructions created by tonsil swelling, adenoid inflammation, and lymphatic congestion. These populations could swallow large pieces of crushed raw meat with ease, obtaining only small amounts of the salivary enzyme present in the mouth before the food passed into the stomach. He used this to illustrate that the esophagus functions best when the surrounding lymphatic and immune tissue is clean and unobstructed.

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