Prevent the Disease by Complying with Natural Law—Simple Remedies That Are Very Successful in Relieving the Sick
By W. A. GEORGE, M. D.
THERE are many ways of treating the sick, but not all ways are successful. That treatment is best which aids nature in its efforts toward recovery instead of attempting a substitution for nature's efforts. Disease is usually if not always the result of the violation of some of nature's laws, and nature's laws are God's laws. At the creation of man, God so planned that in order for man to have health and strength, he must have an abundance of pure air, pure water, wholesome food, and proper exercise, and keep the person clean, and the mind active in pleasant and proper channels. It was necessary also for him to partake of the fruit of the tree of life in order that his existence might be perpetuated indefinitely.
SCENES IN LOMA LINDA COLLEGE OF MEDICAL EVANGELISTS
When God led the Israelites out where He could teach them His laws, He said to them, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”
While the children of Israel were at Mount Sinai, the Lord through Moses gave to them the most wonderful sanitary and health laws the world has ever had; and in all these instructions, their health was made dependent upon obedience to natural law.
So to-day, the first and most important consideration is, how to prevent disease. This question reaches to every detail of life in all its activities, mental, spiritual, and physical. All our habits of thinking and working have a bearing on our health. The health should be guarded as sacredly as the character.
Much has been written about the power of suggestion, and various evils have had their origin in a perversion of this idea. Certain it is that a large proportion of the diseases of the human race are caused directly or indirectly by worry, or by other mental conditions that interfere with proper sleep, retard digestion, and otherwise hinder the normal functions of the body. On the other hand, how often we see the sick make rapid improvement when they are placed in cheerful surroundings, or the cause of worry is removed! When a person is ill, he should be placed in the pleasantest room in the house, and friends and attendants should be cheerful when in his presence.
PRAYER FOR THE SICK
In the early Christian church, in answer to prayer, God often manifested His power in healing the sick and even raising the dead; and all the way down to our time, as well as in the days of the prophets before Christ, He has often heard and answered prayer for the sick when it was offered in faith and according to His will. God in His word has made this subject plain. “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” James 5:14, 15.
There is nothing so helpful to the patient, the friends, the nurse, the physician, as to have strong faith and trust in our kind heavenly Father, and after all has been done that human skill can do, to trust the case in the hands of Him who “doeth all things well.”
NATURE'S SIMPLE RESTORATIVES
Under this heading may be placed all those methods of treatment which make use of the simple, harmless, and helpful means and materials that are found in nature everywhere, such as sunshine and fresh air, exercise, good food, and water applied to the body at different temperatures, and combined with various mechanical measures.
To-day many are recovering from tuberculosis of the lungs by living in the fresh air and sunshine; many who have lived sedentary lives until the blood is impure and the brain refuses to work, improve rapidly by exercise—work in garden or shop; the dyspeptic improves when he adopts a simple, wholesome dietary; and a large majority of all invalids, whether their trouble be acute or chronic, recover more quickly and more surely by the use of hydrotherapy combined with other natural means, than by the use of any or all of the artificial remedies and popular poisons described in the books or advertised in the daily papers.
In the treatment of disease, the first thing to be attempted is to remove the cause; second, to treat the conditions produced by the cause; and third, to treat those symptoms which by their severity may become causes. For example, we prevent smallpox and some other diseases by vaccination. We stop diphtheria by antitoxin, or so-called serum therapy.
HOW TO CURE DIPHTHERIA
Diphtheria antitoxin is the blood serum from a horse to which has been given, by hypodermic568injection, repeated doses of the toxins or poisons produced by the growth of diphtheria germs in the laboratory. The presence of these toxins in the horse's blood stimulates the blood to produce a material that opposes or neutralizes the toxins, and is called antitoxin. After months of this kind of treatment, the horse's blood contains large quantities of antitoxin; and some of the horse's blood is drawn off, and the serum is separated, and put up in tubes, ready for use.
When a child has diphtheria, his blood produces antitoxin to neutralize the toxins formed by the growth of the germs in his body; but if the germs grow in large numbers, his blood is unable to make antitoxin fast enough to neutralize the toxins, and the child dies, or at least has a prolonged and very serious illness. But if, when the disease first starts, a large dose of antitoxin which the horse has already prepared is given to the child, the toxins are neutralized, and the growth of the germs is stopped. If given when the child is exposed to the disease, the antitoxin may prevent the disease entirely. Properly prepared antitoxin seems to be perfectly harmless even when given in very large amounts.
Serum treatment has proved more successful in diphtheria than perhaps in any other disease where the method has been tried.
SURGERY
There are many cases where the prompt action of the surgeon is the only means that will save life. In other cases, the patient may live on indefinitely in suffering or inconvenience, and no treatment will give relief, while a simple surgical operation would give complete relief. In still other cases, the patient might recover could he take a long course of expensive treatments, extending over months or years. If an operation will produce the same results in a short time, it is usually justifiable.
ELECTRICITY IN THE HEALING ART
The wonders of electricity in general are too well known to be more than mentioned here. Electricity has long been used in treating disease, and when properly applied, is of great value. Since the discovery of the X-ray, much more attention has been given to this subject. The X-ray, while valuable for treatment, has shown itself most useful in diagnosis, thus opening the way for the more exact application of surgery or other treatments.
HYDROTHERAPY
No other remedy can be so generally employed as water, either as a solid, a liquid, or a vapor, and at any temperature, from freezing to boiling. No other remedy can be applied internally or externally, in large or small quantities, to the whole body or any part of it, and yet leave no injurious effects. It may be used to produce changes in any of the functions of the body quickly and agreeably to the patient.
Hydrotherapy may be used in the humblest home or in the palace of the rich, and by those who have little skill or by those who have spent years in the study of the human body. However, the best results are obtained by those who are skilled in the practice of hydrotherapy, and who have the proper conveniences for its application.
