The patient should be kept in bed. He must abstain completely from alcohol in any form. He should undergo an initial liver cleaning programme with a juice fast for seven days. Freshly-extracted juices from red beets, lemon, papaya and grapes may be taken during this period. This may be followed by the fruit and milk diet for two to three weeks.
In this regimen, the patient should have three meals a day of fresh juicy fruits and milk. The fruits may include apples, pears, grapes, grapefruits, oranges, pineapples and peaches. Two pints of milk may be taken on the first day. It should be increased by half a pint daily upto four or five pints a day. The milk should be fresh and unboiled, but may be slightly warmed, if desired. It should be sipped very slowly.
After the fruit and milk diet, the patient may gradually embark upon well-balanced diet of three basic food fruits, with emphasis on raw organically-grown foods. Adequate high quality protein is necessary in cirrhosis. The best complete proteins for liver patients are obtained from raw goat’s milk, home-made raw cottage cheese, sprouted seeds and grains and raw nuts, especially almonds.
Vegetables such as beet, squashes , bitter gourds, egg-plants, tomatoes, carrots, radishes and papayas are useful in this condition. All fats and oils should be excluded from the diet for several weeks.
The patient should avoid all refined, processed and canned foods, sugar in any form, spices and condiments, strong tea and coffee, fried foods, all preparations cooked in ghee, oil or butter and all meats rich in fat. The use of salt should be restricted. The patient should also avoid all chemical additives in food and poisons in air, water and environment as far as possible.
A warm water enema should be used during the treatment to cleanse the bowels. If constipation is chronic, all steps should be taken for its eradication. Application of alternate compress to liver area followed by general wet sheet rub will be beneficial. The morning dry friction and breathing and other exercises should form a regular daily features of the treatment.