While in Utah working on a construction job I went to the Veteran’s Administration about my legs and feet which had been badly swollen for sometime and getting worse. It was becoming almost impossible to work. I felt that the Veteran’s Administration could give me the very best care possible and through the many tests they gave me, I tried to be as cooperative as possible in every way.

Then it came as a severe shock when the doctors at the Veteran’s Administration told me that according to the medical diagnosis, I had a hopeless case of Glomerulonephritis… there wasn’t anything they could do for me and I should return home and do the best I could. I had everything to live for…a wonderful wife, children, family and very uplifting church activities, and I had always planned my life to be a long one like everyone else does, I suppose, and then at the age of 30,1 was being told by the most highly qualified doctors that there was nothing they could do for me. They sent me home to die and perhaps in the not-too-distant future.

I was administered to by members of my family and my church; then I met people with a good knowledge of herbs and how to administer them: I was introduced to Iridology and Nutrition and when I began to feel some relief, my faith and determination to overcome this illness was strengthened a great deal.

Learning about nutrition was a new experience for me because in the past I had eaten any and all types of food, junk foods, pitchers of Cool-Ade with every meal because it didn’t cost much and tasted good, and I always had eaten and stuffed myself with as much food as was available. At work the other men called me the garbage pail because I would go around and eat anything they had left from their lunches. During this time I had bowel movements about twice a week and sometimes less than that.

I was doing the best I could to change my previous eating habits and many wonderful people were helping me in every way they could, but as time went on I realzed I needed additional help but didn’t know exactly where to go. I was reading all I could of Dr. Bernard Jensen’s materials and books on nutrition and Iridology. I always had a very good feeling about what I was reading and I finally made up my mind that I had to meet this man.

With the help of my family and my wife, on January 7th, 1977,1 arrived in San Diego, California and was taken to Dr. Jensen’s Hidden Valley Health Ranch. This quiet little ranch was high in the hills above Escondido with sandy roads, horses running in the pasture, a beautiful flower garden and swimming pool, and most of all there were good friendly people.

At that time I needed help to walk. My weight was 175 pounds with bloated abdomen and my legs were swollen bigger than my head. I could hardly walk and I think something like the word “waddle” would have been a better word to use because I felt something like a duck, I suppose, because my rear end flopped from side to side just like a duck. My stomach on down to my toes was so out of shape I felt twice the size that I actually should have been.

I was the first patient to go in to see Dr. Jensen the next morning. I told him I had read his Iridology book twice and studied it and also his nutrition courses. He examined both irises and was telling me what he found so fast, I hardly could keep up with him and then I forgot half of what he said. I know of some of the things that were weak and sluggish, but there were things I hadn’t realized. I knew the kidneys were weak and this was my main weakness. I didn’t realize that I had poor circulation to the head and that my heart was under stress. I did realize, however, that my pancreas and testicles were problem areas along with some acidity in my stomach and my whole body was run down.

I learned later that Dr. Jensen almost came to the conclusion that the patient was incurable and was going to suggest that I return home, but fortunately for me, he accepted me as a patient.

Three months later I returned to my home. My weight was about 141 pounds, my body was slender, and to condense a very long story that would make a large book to cover completely, I would like to add here Dr. Jensen’s interview with me when I returned to the ranch the following September for the last Iridology Seminar for the summer.

(The class had just viewed both my irises on the video screen.)

Dr. Jensen: Val, I hear that you are interested in the health work now, and you’re really into the diet work. Val: Yes.

Dr. Jensen: And you’ve gotten into it enough yourself that you will not go back?

Val: That’s true…never will! Dr. Jensen: Never will! One nice thing about going into this health work… very few people ever go back because they find something. I’m wondering if you wouldn’t tell, Val, some of the things that have happened here. Sometime ago we were having considerable kidney trouble. I would like you to mention here how much did you weigh when you came in? Val: About 175 pounds.

Dr. Jensen: How much do you weigh now?

Val: About 141 pounds.

Dr. Jensen: When he came in he was quite bloated. We found he had an abdomen that really was a tremendous thing. His legs were quite swollen. That had been going on for some months, hadn’t it, Val?

Val: Oh yes. It was about a year and a half.

Dr. Jensen: Yes, about a year and a half…he had this swelling. Now in the beginning, I might just ask this question here. What did they diagnose this as?

Do you remember?

Val: Glomerulonephritis.

Dr. Jensen: Glomerulonephritis. Now, they did suspect other things here, did they not?

Val: Well, they didn’t really know what was wrong with me; they just knew that it was nephritis and there was nothing they could do for me and that’s about all that they told me. Dr. Jensen: What kind of tests did they make?

Val: They made a kidney biopsy. I had it done at the Veteran’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. And, from the biopsy, they didn’t get the tissue that they wanted, but when I left, they just told me that it really wasn’t that necessary to get another sample, although they would like to, because there was really nothing they could do for me and it was better to go home and die there, than it was to go in the hospital.

Dr. Jensen: In other words, they didn’t give you too much chance of living? Val: No, they didn’t. Dr. Jensen: I’m wondering, did they take this biopsy on one side of the body or on the other, or did they take it from both kidneys?

Val: No. They took it on the right side — three of them.

Dr. Jensen: They took three biopsies on the right side? I’m wondering, why they took it on the right side.

Val: I don’t know.

Dr. Jensen: You don’t know? They suspected probably the right side, and probably that was where they had the tenderness and the problems show up most.

Val: They asked me which kidney I would rather have it taken out of, and I said, well, the right one is all right. Dr. Jensen: The right one is all right.

Val: They could have taken it out of the left one I’m sure. Dr. Jensen: I see. Well, now here we have the right kidney and they had the biopsy taken out there. They didn’t suspect anything else outside of nephritis, did they?

Val: They didn’t mention anything else, as I recall.

Dr. Jensen: No, but, going around trying to, get rid of this water here in the body, when did you come in here?

Val: First of January.

Dr. Jensen: First of January, this year, 1977.

Val: That’s right.

Dr. Jensen: I’d like to go through just a little bit here; we mentioned that we had these healing crises, these healing signs. I’d like to go through the healing process as we take a patient through. When I saw this kidney weakness here, the first thing I recognized was that I didn’t want too much of an elimination. I did not want to release a lot of toxic materials into his body that the kidneys would have to take care of. The man couldn’t take care of the fluids and the water that he had already, and , we find out what is an elimination diet made up of? It is usually carrot juice or some juices. It’s always liquids and an elimination diet is going into more of the vegetarian diet; more fruits, and so forth, and to stir all of this up, we actually went into a program, but I kept this man eating, and I insisted that he eat – and he did. In fact, there were times there when I thought he was trying to outdo my horses, but we find out that over a period of a month, while he was eating, changing his diet, how much did you lose? Val: Well, I came in about 175 and when I left on the first of April, I weighed about 141, as I am now.

Dr. Jensen: Well, the main thing that I was seeing here is that you were losing this weight all the time you were eating. Val: Oh yes, every week I lost 10 pounds of water.

Dr. Jensen: Lost 10 pounds of water every week while he was eating. The next thing I would like to bring out is that you hit a healing crisis here and that was about a month after, wasn’t it, Val?

Val: That’s right.

Dr. Jensen: What happened?

Val: Well, I was feeling pretty good. I was walking all over the hills and I thought I was really doing great, which I was, and a healing crisis hit me that night and…

Dr. Jensen: This healing crisis hit you when you were really feeling good? Val: The very best.

Dr. Jensen: I want you to know that this is when it comes. When anyone tells me that they feel good, I’m afraid of the next few hours…then, what hit you?

Val: Well, all night case of diarrhea, and, well, not all night, all that night, and all the next day and all the next day.

Dr. Jensen: And, we find when we come to this diarrhea, what do you mean by a diarrhea?

Val: Do you want me to explain? Dr. Jensen: Do I want you to explain? I’ll tell you; these are all doctors here and they won’t mind if you tell them that it was 20 or 30 bowel movements a day.

Dr. Jensen: In other words, he couldn’t come to me and I couldn’t see him because he was busy. Now this lasted for approximately 3 days, didn’t it, Val? Val: Three days; and I had an extreme high fever. I never had any vomiting, but the next crises, I did have vomiting too.

Val: Yes, it was about 30 bowel movements a day at least.

Dr. Jensen: Yes, I just wondered here with all of this diarrhea and this experience in the bathroom here, let me ask you this question. How much did you lose that first month just eating? Wasn’t it about 30 pounds?

Val: Yes, about 30 pounds.

Dr. Jensen: Well, let me ask you this question. How much did you lose in the next 3 days?

Val: About 12 pounds in 3 days.

Dr. Jensen: You lost 12 pounds in 3 days, and he came down to the place where he didn’t have to go in the door sideways. You find out that he lost…this was fluids that he was losing, so you see I had to go back over the old trouble, bowel troubles. I had to go over and relieve those kidneys to throw these fluids out through the kidneys; we were saving the kidneys from doing that work and that’s where a diarrhea came to save and to help this boy. This is why you don’t stop the diarrhea. I know he would like to have had me stop it, or “What is going on here? I felt so good, and look at me now.” But, you see this is the reversal process and we had to go back and clear up that bowel. Well, I’m only bringing this thing out, that he left here feeling pretty good. He had a second crisis after he went home, isn’t that right, Val? Val: Yes, it is.

Dr. Jensen: After he left here he had another crisis at home, and this crisis at home, Val, are you at liberty to say what happened in that?

Val: Yes. I had an extremely high fever. I thought I was actually going to burn up and I had diarrhea again and vomiting at the same time for 3 days again. And, I might mention, that when I lost all of this water, maybe 3 or 4 lbs. would come back, but never more than that. Then I lost another 10 lbs. with the crisis at home, and maybe just a little came back during the month, but not very much, and of course, I still have a little water retention now, but you could hardly tell it.

Dr. Jensen: Yes, of course, and the doctors back home were kind of glad to see you, or did you go in and have a test again or what did you do with that?

Dr. Jensen: Yes, and they were saying that you were the miracle patient.

Val: Oh yes, they called me a miracle patient, but how I got well, they don’t know. I should tell them -I will— real soon, I believe.

Dr. Jensen: Yes. Val has been waiting to make sure that this is working. The nicest thing through all of this, this boy wants to go into this work and he has changed his attitude, his mind, and he is going into this work now, because of what it has done for him and the nice thing that I can say, Val, is that any time I can help you, I will always do it. Well, I will say this too, Val, that I hope when you tell these people that you are coming into the sunshine, getting away from the cold, I can only tell you this that when you come into this work you’re coming into the light.

Val: Two more things I want to mention.

Dr. Jensen: There are two more things that he wants to mention.

Val: It might be interesting to all of you that I did have some X-rays taken of my colon a year ago and I have those X-rays with me, and you noticed in the iris that it was dropped and then, in these X-rays that definitely does drop. Another thing that is interesting while I was so swelled up with water in my worst days, the scrotum was severely swelled for months… Dr. Jensen: I mentioned about it…which one was it? Was it the right? Val: That’s right.

Dr. Jensen: I mentioned about it…Was it the right?

Val: That’s right. I really had a lot of problems there and I still have a lot of infection and blood secreting all the time.

Dr. Jensen: You mean through the urine, through other secretions?

Val: Not through the urine .just at night while I’m resting. Ill get up with a lot of blood not often. It’s a lot better than it used to be, but there is a definite problem there and I have a lot of catarrh there. Dr. Jensen: Yes, he was just trying to bring out that some of these other things that we mentioned here, they bring themselves out in his problems along with the iris itself. Well, this should be a day of light for you and I just want everything good to come to you.

In closing… I would like to add here that during the days, weeks and months when I was searching so desperately for the way out of my illness and for my very life, I never dreamed that it would ultimately bring such a change into my life and that of my entire family. We now have two acres of land, our garden, and we’re busy repairing the fences and taking care of our goat and chickens. I am even biginning to play basketball and practicing to develop the tone of my tissues in my body again.

This adversity has opened a new way