Inflammation

Swelling is the body's mechanism for concentrating the resources needed for detoxification and repair in a specific location. When an area is damaged or contaminated, the body directs more blood and lymphatic fluid to that area. This produces swelling. The swelling carries nutrients, white blood cells, and cleansing microbes directly to where they are needed.

Aajonus described this with a consistent example: when an athlete sustains a knee injury during a game, the standard medical response is to apply ice packs, wrap the knee with an ace bandage, inject cortisone, and send the athlete back onto the field. In his account, what follows from this intervention is that within four or five years the knee is destroyed. The ice prevents the increased circulation from reaching the damaged tissue. The fats in the lymphatic system, which are fluid at body temperature, harden when cold is applied, exactly as butter hardens in a refrigerator. The nutrients solidify and clot in place rather than flowing through the injured tissue. The cortisone suppresses the inflammatory response further. The result is scarring, not healing.

Scarring, in this framework, is composed of dead, mummified cells. These cells are structurally useless, incapable of generating energy or activity, and reduce the flexibility, agility, and stamina of whatever tissue they occupy. They are "dead bricks in the walls." Athletes who repeatedly apply ice to injuries accumulate scar tissue in tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bone where there are no cells capable of reproducing. This is why Aajonus said nine out of ten athletes cannot play their sport past their late thirties. Each ice application interrupts the healing cycle, deposits scar tissue, and leaves the area weaker and more vulnerable to re-injury than before.

The same principle applies to surgical antiseptics. When antiseptics are applied to surgical wounds, they prevent the bacteria from performing their janitorial function of dissolving damaged and surgically destroyed cells. The intense swelling and pus that would naturally occur, and that would indicate thorough cleansing, are suppressed. The long-term consequence is that dead cells accumulate rather than being dissolved, which Aajonus linked to tumor formation.

Because swelling is beneficial and needs to proceed unimpeded, Aajonus consistently recommended applying heat to any area of injury, pain, or inflammation rather than cold. Heat promotes relaxation of bones, cartilage, tendons, arteries, veins, muscles, and nerves. It allows tissues to expand with the swelling rather than resist it, which reduces the pain experienced during the inflammatory process. Cold does the opposite: it constricts vessels, hardens fats, clots blood and lymph, and stops the flow of nutrients into the inflamed area.

The guidance was stated without qualification: always use heat on injuries and problem areas, never cold, unless cold is applied for only a minute or two solely to reduce acute pain in a moment of crisis. Hot water bottles were specifically recommended for joint problems. For bursitis specifically, heat was indicated alongside dietary support.

When heat is applied and the inflammatory process is allowed to complete itself, the swelling reduces on its own once the toxins have been removed. The body does not continue swelling indefinitely. When the cleansing task is finished and balance is restored, the swelling goes down and the pain subsides. This is the natural arc of inflammation properly supported.

In every case Aajonus discussed where bacteria or other microbes were found in an inflamed area, he identified them as the body's janitorial agents, not as pathogens causing the inflammation. The bacteria are there because the body sent them there to consume dead, damaged, or contaminated cells so that those cells can be removed and replaced.

In inflamed joints, for example, bacteria are found because the joint is being used as a site for digesting undigested food particles that entered through leaky gut, or because toxins from vaccines or industrial chemicals have damaged the cartilage. The bacteria eat the dead damaged cells so that the body can eliminate them. The bacterial waste products from this process are minimal and do not produce significant additional swelling. This is why bacterial meningitis, where bacteria are doing the work of cleanup, produces much less dangerous swelling than viral meningitis, where a solvent-type viral process dissolves tissue and creates massive fluid accumulation.

The critical distinction Aajonus drew was between bacterial and viral cleanup processes. When bacteria are used, their waste products are small in volume relative to the material consumed, and the swelling in the inflamed area is modest and manageable. When the body must resort to viral processes because the contamination is too toxic for bacteria, the breakdown produces large volumes of fluid waste. This fluid causes massive swelling, which in the case of meningitis can produce coma, paralysis, stroke, and permanent damage. This is why doctors in the conventional medical system are not particularly alarmed by bacterial meningitis but are very alarmed by viral meningitis.

The implication for ordinary inflammation is that the presence of bacteria at an inflamed site is a sign that the body is successfully managing the cleanup. Killing those bacteria with antibiotics destroys the janitorial workforce and leaves the cellular debris and toxins in place, which advances the disease process rather than resolving it.

The large majority of joint inflammation that presents as arthritis or rheumatism originates not in the joints themselves but in the intestinal tract. Aajonus stated repeatedly, with varying percentages across different passages, that 80 to 90 percent of arthritis and rheumatism is caused by leaky gut, which he also called Crohn's disease in its more severe forms.

The mechanism he described is as follows. When the mucous lining of the stomach and intestines becomes thin from nutritional deficiency, the body's own digestive acids begin to eat through the intestinal wall. As the wall thins further, it tears when food is consumed in quantity. Undigested food particles pass through these tears into the body cavity outside the digestive tract. The body must move these particles to a location where they can be safely digested without damaging surrounding tissue. The joints, particularly the knees, are where the body sends these particles first because joint cartilage is among the most resilient tissue in the body. After the knees, Aajonus described the sequence as typically moving to the hips, then the shoulders, then the elbows, though he noted this was 80 percent of cases, not universal.

Once undigested food particles are deposited in a joint, the body begins building digestive acids, including hydrochloric acid and bile, within that joint to break down the particles. The bile sent to the joints is visible as darkening of the skin over the joints, which Aajonus used as a diagnostic observation. As this process continues, the digestive acids gradually consume not only the food particles but the cartilage itself. Bacteria proliferate in the joint to handle the accumulating dead and damaged cells. The bacterial activity, the acid accumulation, and the cellular debris all produce swelling, pain, and redness in the joint. This is what conventional medicine labels as arthritis caused by bacteria, when in fact the bacteria are there to manage the consequences of an intestinal problem.

Aajonus cited the case of a 14-year-old girl, the granddaughter of a well-known senator, whose knees were as large as his head from Crohn's-related joint inflammation. Her hips were also enormously swollen and painful. She had been medicated with antibiotics for nearly two and a half years. He placed her on a diet of lots of eggs and raw dairy, and within nine months she was normal. Two years later she returned to eating conventionally with her peers and the condition came back.

The 10 percent of joint inflammation not attributable to leaky gut comes from caustic toxins deposited directly in the joints, primarily from vaccines and industrial chemicals including agricultural and food-processing chemicals.

Vaccine toxins represent a distinct category of inflammatory cause. When vaccine materials, including aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, ammonium sulfate, and other adjuvants and preservatives, enter the body, they cannot be dissolved by bacterial or parasitic janitorial processes because they are industrially produced and are not organic matter. The body must use viral processes to break them down, which generates massive waste fluid and causes proportionally greater inflammation and swelling.

Vaccine toxins also tend to be stored in specific tissues. Aajonus noted that the stomach lining and cartilage are the most resilient tissues in the body, and that the body uses these locations to store vaccine toxicity. When vaccine toxins end up stored in joint cartilage, the resulting damage produces inflammatory joint disease that cannot be resolved until the toxins are mobilized and removed.

Penicillin and antibiotic toxins represent another category. Aajonus stated that 90 percent of the cases of Crohn's disease and inflammatory bowel syndrome he observed were caused by penicillin given in infancy or early childhood. The antibiotic damages the intestinal bacterial environment, which leads to deterioration of the intestinal walls, which leads to leaky gut, which leads to joint inflammation as described above. The chain of causation runs from a pharmaceutical intervention in infancy directly to inflamed, swollen joints years or decades later.

Aajonus described rheumatic fever as a detoxification of connective tissue linking muscles, cartilage, and bone, occurring primarily in children between ages 4 and 18 whose lymphatic systems are impaired. The condition is characterized by fever, swelling and pain in joints, sore throat, and heart complications. In his framework the fever, the swelling, and the joint pain are all components of a detoxification process, not a disease attacking the body.

He attributed rheumatic fever most often to vaccines, antibiotics, medications, or toxins consumed by the mother during fetal development. When the child does not have access to a wholesome raw diet during this detoxification process, the RNA and DNA are further damaged, and residual problems including heart disease, arthritis, chorea, and tissue and skin disorders follow. When the raw diet is in place during the process, the detoxification can complete and the child recovers without lasting damage.

Bursitis is an inflammation of the bursas, the fluid-filled sacs that lubricate joints, muscles, tendons, and bronchi. Aajonus described the symptoms as swelling and tenderness of the hip, shoulder, elbows, or feet, with extreme tenderness and sharp severe localized pain during active infection.

The dietary protocol he recommended during bursitis inflammation was beef with avocado eaten at least twice daily. Eating smaller amounts of food more frequently was preferred unless the person had a healthy appetite. He recommended consuming the Moisturizing and Lubrication Drink from his book after meat meals to speed healing. Adding one tablespoon of bee pollen to that drink, and eating one to two tablespoons of no-salt-added raw cheese with the drink, was specified as helping to relieve pain more quickly and for longer periods.

In a personal example, Aajonus described experiencing a bursitis injury on a Thursday and already being functional two days later, eating more chicken and starting his day with chicken rather than beef because of chicken's role in supporting connective tissue healing. He contrasted his rapid recovery with someone who did not eat the Primal Diet, for whom the same injury could take months to heal.

Diverticulitis is inflammation in one or more of the sacs of the intestines, resulting from collected food adhering to the sac wall or from toxins within the intestinal walls in a given area. Aajonus attributed it most often to fat deficiency, usually accompanied by protein deficiency, which results in the body's inability to produce adequate mucus to protect the intestinal walls.

The symptoms he listed were abdominal cramps or pain, irregular bowel movements, gas, lethargy, and continued abdominal bloating. His recommended protocol for calming the condition was eating one to two eggs every one to two hours, followed by half a tablespoon of a butter and honey mixture, sustained for three to seven days.

Aajonus returned to meningitis repeatedly as the clearest illustration of his distinction between bacterial inflammation, which is manageable, and viral inflammation, which is dangerous. The coating around the brain or the nervous system becomes inflamed when there is contamination within it, nerve damage, or toxic accumulation that the body needs to dissolve and clear.

When the body can use bacteria to perform this cleanup, the bacterial waste products are modest, the swelling is limited, and the risk of permanent damage is low. This is why the conventional medical community is not particularly alarmed by bacterial meningitis. When the contamination is too toxic for bacteria and the body must use viral processes, the dissolution of the contaminated tissue produces enormous volumes of fluid. This fluid cannot be easily neutralized or removed, and the resulting massive swelling within the enclosed space of the skull or the spinal canal can cause coma, paralysis, permanent brain damage, strokes, and lesions. The swelling of viral meningitis is the diluted toxic fluid that remains after the viral dissolution process, analogous to using a solvent to break up grease on a floor and ending up with a bucket of toxic grease-filled chemical solvent and water that must somehow be neutralized and removed.

Fever blisters are sores in or around the mouth characterized by inflammation, swelling, and sensitivity. Aajonus described them as resulting from too many free volatile toxins in the serums in the mouth, including the blood. This in turn results from a deficiency of the nutrients that would normally neutralize and bind with those toxins. Sleep deprivation was identified as a contributing cause because when the body spends all available nutrients on physical activity rather than on repair, the volatile toxins accumulate in the oral tissues and produce localized inflammation.

Inflammatory bowel syndrome and Crohn's disease represent chronic internal inflammation that Aajonus linked overwhelmingly to penicillin and antibiotic damage. The intestinal inflammation in these conditions is caused not by bacteria but by the absence of the bacterial environment that penicillin has destroyed, which allows the intestinal walls to deteriorate, become irritated, and inflame.

Aajonus cited the work of Dr. Jewel Weinstock at the University of Iowa, who gave whipworm eggs from pig intestines in a Gatorade solution to six elderly patients with chronic inflammatory bowel syndrome who had suffered for 10 to 30 years. Five of the six acquired the worm, and all symptoms of the inflammatory bowel condition disappeared within four days and remained gone for five months without any dietary change. Aajonus used this as evidence that parasites, when present in the intestinal environment as they naturally would be, perform a function that the inflamed and compromised intestine cannot perform on its own. The inflammation is not caused by the presence of microbes but by their absence and by the structural damage that absence allows to develop.

Aajonus recommended the Pain Formula from his book during any experience of pain and swelling. He specified that pain always represents swelling from detoxifying industrial chemicals in a given area, and that the correct nutritional support is to provide the area with more of the nutrients it needs to complete that detoxification rather than suppressing the process.

The Pain Formula as referenced in the sources includes bee pollen and cheese. Bee pollen was specifically mentioned as helping relieve pain more quickly and for longer periods when combined with the Moisturizing and Lubrication Drink after meat meals. No-salt-added raw cheese was recommended alongside the drink. For joint inflammation specifically, hot water bottles were described as important supportive tools.

For arthritis and joint inflammation resulting from leaky gut, the dietary corrections he emphasized were large quantities of eggs and raw dairy, which he said corrected the intestinal condition very quickly in the case of the 14-year-old girl described above. Raw cream was recommended as a lubricant for joint areas where cartilage was being damaged from rubbing rather than from toxic accumulation. Chicken was specified as useful for building connective tissue cells and providing the fats necessary for joint lubrication and elasticity. For arthritic conditions specifically, raw cheese was recommended along with hot water bottles applied to the joint.

For the subset of joint inflammation caused by tendon shrinkage producing cartilage irritation rather than toxic accumulation, Aajonus recommended blended walnuts with egg and peanut oil or butter and honey, with meat composition of approximately 60 percent chicken, 20 percent red meat, and 20 percent fish, with red meat always eaten alongside fish. Raw cream was to be consumed as freely as craved. The chicken was identified as helping to shrink inflamed tissue while providing the building material to restore what was lost.

Aajonus described the way that vitamin supplements create a misleading suppression of inflammatory pain. When vitamins are consumed, he explained, they poison the bloodstream and the intestinal tract. The body responds by pulling all of its energy away from whatever detoxification it was conducting in the painful area and redirecting that energy to neutralizing the vitamin toxicity. The pain from the inflammatory site decreases, giving the impression that the vitamin helped the inflammation, when in fact the detoxification has simply been interrupted and the toxins remain in place. He compared this to punching someone in the nose to make them forget about a sore shoulder.

The consequence is that vitamins, by interrupting detoxification in inflamed areas, cause toxins to remain and allow disease to progress rather than resolving.

The sports medicine practice of applying ice to inflamed injuries received sustained criticism from Aajonus across multiple contexts. He argued that this single practice is the primary reason most professional athletes cannot continue in their sport past their mid-thirties. Every application of ice to an inflamed area stops the nutrient flow, clots the blood and lymph, hardens the fats in the lymphatic system, prevents the cleansing process from completing, and results in scar tissue depositing in tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bone. Because scar tissue contains no living cells capable of reproducing, the scarred area becomes progressively weaker, less flexible, and more vulnerable to injury. Surgeons then scrape out the scar tissue, which causes additional damage and further scarring in the subsequent healing attempt, creating a cycle that steadily destroys the joint.

His prescription was simple: apply heat, rest from competition until the healing is complete, eat correctly. If an athlete did this consistently, the injured area would heal completely and become stronger than it was before the injury because the inflammatory process would lay down new, living cells in place of the damaged ones rather than scar tissue.

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