Some Methods of Living That Produce Poisons That Intoxicate Us — Health Impaired in This Way — Some of the Common Diseases That Result — How to Live So as to Avoid It
By David Paulson, M. D.
Medical Superintendent Hinsdale, Illinois, Sanitarium
Although there are about fifteen hundred diseases, yet there are only a few causes for them all. Likewise there are only a few ways of becoming well. The old-fashioned doctor frequently had fifteen different remedies for one disease, while the modern physician has only one remedy for fifteen diseases. For example, the fresh air cure is not only the most important thing in tuberculosis, but it is almost equally useful in fevers, nervous diseases, and many other disorders.
The Bible says the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. It is a common mistake to overlook the real causes of disease that are close at hand, as well as the simplest and most effective remedies that are easily obtainable, and spend time and money traveling to the ends of the earth for a better climate, when it is really the inside climate that is causing the trouble. As a result of wrong dietetic habits, such people carry a vicious climate with them wherever they go; and though they may return sunburned and a little invigorated, they are face to face with the same conditions as before.
The Body a Poison Factory
It is important to know that even the healthy body is a poison factory; and the body of an invalid is doubly such. We breathe pure air; when exhaled, it contains poisons. The water we drink is saturated with toxins when eliminated. The cells of the body are constantly manufacturing poisons.
Furthermore, the alimentary canal of the average individual is a veritable paradise for germs. They naturally flourish there just as weeds do in the cornfield or bugs in the garden, and they are not there for any good purpose.
Our Natural Defenses
The child enters this world free from germs, but they are soon introduced in various ways into his alimentary canal, and then we must reckon with them in both health and disease. God has placed in the human body certain defenses to destroy and neutralize these poisons which are constantly absorbed from the alimentary canal. The thyroid gland should perhaps be placed at the head of the list. Its greatest business is to manufacture something that destroys these poisons; and one reason why goiter is now so frequent is because the dietetic habits of the majority of the people are such as to encourage toxins, thus overwhelming the system with poisons, and thereby overworking the thyroid gland.
The liver is another organ that stands between us and destruction. It is fortunately so arranged that practically everything absorbed from the alimentary canal should pass through the liver before it reaches the general circulation. It acts as a sort of custom-house inspector; and as long as it can hold out, the midnight supper, the outrageous banquet, the juicy beefsteak, strong tea and coffee, and even the excessive use of tobacco, can be tolerated reasonably well, and the individual can truthfully boast, as far as his feelings are concerned, “None of these things hurt me.”
A Group of Chronic Disorders
Sooner or later the liver begins to be a filter instead of an overworked protector; and then it permits some of these poisons to slip into the general circulation and batter down the resistance of the body, and what happens depends on the individual.
Perhaps the susceptibility to colds is wonderfully increased. Attacks of tonsillitis may begin to be frequent though unwelcome visitors. Possibly pyorrhea appears—that miserable, stubborn infection at the roots of the teeth. More than likely the skin becomes dry, inelastic, and discolored. Some lose flesh as if they had tuberculosis.
A larger number suffer from lassitude, dragging themselves around minus their former snap and energy. Others become depressed, and begin to believe that their wives have ceased to love them, or their husbands are not good to them, as the case may be. Still others develop persistent insomnia; for the poison irritates their brains so they can not sleep, and they beg the doctor to give them another poison to put them to sleep. A small number develop rheumatoid arthritis, that slow, persistent, obstinate swelling of the joints that used to puzzle the doctors and in most instances baffle their skill.
Frequently neuritis, various neuralgias, attacks of sick headache, are due to the same cause. Mucous colitis was formerly a very mysterious disorder. We now know that in most instances it follows long-continued auto-intoxication, and that after it has developed, it encourages the auto-intoxication; so a vicious circle is developed, which often taxes the ingenuity of the physician to the uttermost.
What Favors Auto-Intoxication?
The best evidence that this formidable list of disorders is largely due to auto-intoxication, is the fact that they either speedily disappear or improve, when the auto-intoxication is corrected. So it becomes a matter of prime importance for every one to become thoroughly intelligent as to the causes of this condition and how to correct them.
Nine tenths of all civilized people suffer more or less from intestinal stagnation, and this is as serious a matter for the human being as stagnation of the sewerage system in a large city.
Practically all this stagnation takes place in the large intestine, or the last few feet of the alimentary canal. Pondering over this fact, and recognizing clearly what it meant in disease and suffering to the human race, a dozen years ago Smith, a great English bacteriologist, Metchnikoff, head of the Pasteur Institute, and Lane, one of the world’s greatest surgeons, each independent of the other, came to the conclusion that the large intestine was not only useless but actually a nuisance, and men would do well to be delivered from it. And Lane actually began to remove the colon in a considerable number of aggravated cases. The results on the general health were in some instances simply phenomenal—which was apparently conclusive evidence that the colon was all wrong.
But a few more thoughtful men gradually came to the conclusion that it was the modern diet that was a failure rather than the large intestine; in other words, that it was the fuel that was at fault instead of the engine—that it was more sensible, and certainly safer for the patient, to feed him properly and undertake to clear out the colon, than to remove it.
Starve the Germs and Feed the Patient
Dr. Combe, the great European authority on auto-intoxication, says that the best way to disinfect the intestine is to saturate it with food that nourishes the man but is offensive to bacteria.
When dogs have their thyroid glands removed, they die in a few days if fed on meat, but can live indefinitely when fed on bread and milk. Likewise if a surgical operation is performed on a dog, under anæsthetic, which connects the blood vessel going to the liver with the one leaving the liver, so that the foodstuff coming from the alimentary canal does not pass through the liver at all, the animal can live satisfactorily on a non-flesh diet, but only a short time on meat. To those who have already overtaxed the poison-destroying properties of their thyroid glands, and whose livers are permitting poisons to pass into the circulation, these experiments should convey a valuable hint.
All physicians who have given any thought to the matter know that decomposing protein foods are the most virulent poisons, and that the substitution of a properly selected non-flesh dietary lessens the absorption of these poisons from one half to three fourths. In other words, the so-called “strengthening diet” really strengthens the germs rather than the man. Dietetic blunders may arouse slumbering and inoffensive microbes, and lead them rapidly to multiply and invade the whole system. The colon bacillus—a common intestinal germ—may under such conditions be found in the gall bladder, the kidneys, and even the lungs.
Some Dietetic Suggestions
Preference should always be given to solid, substantial foods that require thorough mastication. When monkeys are fed exclusively on soft foods, they are likely to develop pyorrhea, or infection of the gums. Thorough mastication not only excites the flow of the saliva and the gastric juice, but it also stimulates the intestinal movements.
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Eating between meals disturbs the rhythm of digestion, encourages the activity of the germs, and thus favors auto-intoxication.
Dr. L. Duncan Bulkley, the noted New York skin and cancer specialist, secures most phenomenal results in inflammatory skin disorders by prescribing an exclusive bread and rice dietary for five consecutive days. Lettuce, coleslaw, cooked spinach, and other varieties of green garden truck, cooked carrots, and similar foods, by their bulk stimulate the activity of the intestines, and their rich contents of mineral salts are beneficial for the blood. So it can be truthfully said that such foods clean the alimentary canal and the blood at the same time. Fruits both raw and cooked serve the same purpose.
If we want to enjoy simple, natural health, we must return to the simpler foods of uncivilized people. Bran biscuits, whole wheat bread made from the old-fashioned Graham flour when that is obtainable, are steps in the right direction.
Such fiery spices and condiments as mustard, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, etc., cause spasm of the pylorus, delaying the emptying of the food from the stomach, and have a tendency to produce nervous spasm at different points in the alimentary canal, thus promoting stagnation of its contents and at the same time encouraging hyperacidity and intestinal catarrh.
God has put a flavor into every food, just as He has put fragrance into every flower; and no food is in any way improved by adding to it stinging, burning, blistering, irritating substances.
Other Remedial Measures
Only a small amount of poison can be generated during the first twenty-four hours after the food is eaten; and that is the normal time for the food remnants to traverse the entire length of the alimentary canal. But among civilized people it more often requires forty-eight and sometimes even seventy-two hours or longer.
Such people have already discovered that they feel better after taking salts and various cathartics. But that is only substituting artificial dysentery for an abnormal stagnation. The ordinary laxatives increase the spasm of the lower bowel, irritate the mucous membrane, promote mucous colitis, and thus actually increase the absorption of toxins.
Provided there are no adhesions or other conditions requiring surgical interference, it is nearly always possible, by using a larger amount of food possessing bulk, and eating more liberally of fruit, to secure a normal bowel movement in the morning. For those who are not in the best of health, it is highly advantageous to take a small enema before bedtime. Securing two bowel movements daily, in the majority of cases increases physical efficiency and a sense of well-being from fifty to a hundred per cent in a few months’ time.
White Russian Mineral Oil
Dr. Lane, the brilliant English surgeon, was the first man to suggest liquid paraffin as a substitute for medical laxatives. Being a mineral oil, it is neither digested nor absorbed, and it can not decompose in the alimentary canal. As it is merely a lubricant, it does not create the laxative habit. For the benefit of our own patrons, we import by the barrel the variety known as the white Russian mineral oil, which is practically tasteless and very inexpensive. For those who can not secure it readily in their own drug stores we can supply it.
Of all the different medical laxatives, senna and castor oil, the old-fashioned remedies of our forefathers, are perhaps the simplest and the least harmful. Metchnikoff, the eminent French scientist, developed the Bulgarian bacilli idea with the view of helping to disinfect the colon. In many instances, these are undoubtedly advantageous. In other cases, they appear to render no benefit.
Many persons are suffering from intestinal stagnation simply because they have prolapsed abdominal organs, which produce kinks or strain of the intestine. Such can often be wonderfully benefited by wearing for a time properly adjusted abdominal supporters, and at the same time taking such simple exercises for strengthening the abdominal muscles as lying down and carefully raising the heels six inches to a foot from the floor and lowering them again, then raising the head and shoulders a few inches, repeating half a dozen or a dozen times once or twice a day. These exercises should be taken cautiously at first, until the muscles are accustomed to the exertion.
Above all things, our vast army of sedentary people need more outdoor exercise. While we can not reverse modern conditions, we may introduce into our daily life more normal conditions.
Many who are suffering of auto-intoxication can secure amazing improvement by adopting a sane, sensible plan of living. Others will need a careful physical examination and intelligent advice by some competent, conscientious physician.
Above all things, every patient who is struggling with ill health should remember that God’s wish for him is that he may “prosper and be in health” (3 John 2); and that if he will cheerfully use all the light Providence causes to shine on his pathway, God will give him all the health he will make good use of; and what is equally important, He will bless to his good all the ill health He permits him to retain. 2 Cor. 12:7-9.
