Nervous Prostration: Its Cause and Cure
NERVOUS prostration is a condition in which the nerve-centers are exhausted of their stores of energy. Properly speaking, nervous prostration, or, as physicians call it, neurasthenia, is not a disease, but simply a group of symptoms which indicate a weakened state of the nerve-centers. But these symptoms and the state of the nerve-centers are only indications of some other morbid conditions in the constitution of the individual; they are a result. Not Always Due to Overwork
NERVOUS exhaustion is frequently attributed to overwork. This is a mistake. Rest will cure all the damage that work can do, leaving out of consideration, of course, structural or mechanical injuries which may result from overstrain. The only difference between a tired man and a man who has neurasthenia is that the latter is chronically and constitutionally tired. Sleep and rest do not cure him. He is not lazy, but languid; disposed to take up accustomed tasks, but lacking the force and energy to perform them. In most cases this condition has nothing to do with work, unless it be the result of too little work. A State of Chronic Poisoning
Neurasthenia, in the vast multitude of cases, is nothing more or less than chronic poisoning, a state of the body in which the blood and tissues are constantly filled with poisons produced in the alimentary canal in such quantities that the liver can not destroy them, or the kidneys remove them as fast as they are developed. When this accumulation reaches the point of tissue saturation, then the symptoms of poisoning appear. The nerve-centers are stupefied by narcotic poisons produced by indigestion, these poisons being similar in their effects to opium and other narcotic drugs. The brain may be excited by poisons formed in the alimentary canal resembling strychnia in their effects. The whole body may be deranged by toxins and ptomaines which subject the body to a perfect fusillade of toxic influences, as if a whole apothecary's shop had been turned into it. A chronic dyspeptic is bound to become a neurasthenic sooner or later,—generally sooner,—for his stomach and intestines have become the hold of every unclean and hateful germ. They are converted into a factory of nerve-irritating, brain-stupefying, heart-exciting, tissue-paralyzing poisons, which are capable of deranging every vital function, perforating every vital process, and opening thousands of doors to germs and other causes of disease. The most important thing to be done13for gastric neurasthenia is to remove the chief causes, to correct the dietary; set the patient to eating right, and his stomach will gladly resume its normal functions, and will become so inhospitable toward the microbic parasites which infest it that they will disappear or perish. The neurasthenic generally recovers soon enough if he can be persuaded to assume a normal mode of life. If he is a self-made prisoner in a counting-room or an office, he must release himself from his fetters, and flee to the liberty of the woods and fields, and in the fresh air find a priceless benison. He must not only exercise right, but he must eat right. Two meals a day, well eaten, in proper quantity, composed of fruits, cereals, and nuts, nature's choicest products, and which contain exactly the elements for building brain and muscle and storing them with vital energy,—these are true sources of energy. Flesh affords energy, it is true, but only at second hand and deteriorated. A neurasthenic should sleep from eight to ten hours a night, or if he can not sleep, let him lie in bed and rest. A warm bath at bedtime, at ninety-five degrees or ninety-eight degrees temperature, for half an hour or an hour, will often induce sleep when hypnotic drugs of every sort fail utterly, unless administered in such overwhelming doses as to produce a poisoned sleep that is sure to be followed by a wretched awakening. He must cut off all unnecessary expenditure of energy, as a miller sometimes stops his wheel that his pond may fill up. Mental and moral peace and content of mind are essential conditions for rapid recovery from neurasthenia. The daily cold bath has tonic powers equalled by no known drug. The patient should not attempt to administer the bath himself. The water should generally be as cold as can be borne without discomfort. Very cold water can be applied if employed in the right way. The vigor of the application should be increased from day to day, until very powerful effects are produced.—Good Health.