A FALSE STANDARD OF HEALTH.
By David Paulson, M.D.
THE reason the body takes disease so readily is that altogether too many are willing to allow themselves to camp so near the disease line; they are satisfied with a standard of health that merely means being free from pain. The man who has no ache or pain often prides himself upon his wonderful health, when more than likely he has such a small store of reserve energy that a little extra strain upon his nervous force—an accidental exposure to a cold draft, or some other unlooked for physical drawback—is sufficient to precipitate an attack of pneumonia, bronchitis, or some other more or less serious malady. When a man submerged beneath the water, is pulled up so that his head is above the water line, it is all that is really necessary to make him feel comfortable. He “feels well;” but he is nevertheless in a precarious situation, for perhaps the added weight of only a brick on the top of his head would again submerge him. So thousands of people are content to live just above the pain line, when they might soon, with a little exertion, perhaps introducing some radical changes in their habits of life, and making it their business to cultivate health instead of disease, be living on a plane where they would experience a sense of buoyancy instead of a sense of languor and depression,—where they would be conscious of reserve energy that could be used in the emergencies of life or to resist the inroads of the wily and insidious microbe. The utilization of the principles involved in the rational measures that help to bring a man up from the very verge of the grave to experience again a fair degree of health, would enable the average healthy person to catch such a degree of health that he might become almost a modern Samson; for has he not a far better foundation to begin work upon than the invalid has? And nature, which is “no respecter of persons,” would as certainly add its blessing to the efforts of the healthy man to secure more health, as it does to the efforts of the invalid to secure a better physical condition. The Prevalence of Physical Decay.
On every hand can be seen abundant evidences of physical decay. The very “show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.” Isa. 3:9. We may meet on every street corner the blear-eyed and sallow-skinned invalid who has not yet become ill enough to be confined to his bed, but is vainly trying to cling to life while he is vigorously sowing for death. Take a look into the long wards of a modern hospital, and a glance at the occupants of almost every second bed will plainly reveal that they are there largely as a result of deliberate violation of nature’s laws. They have tried to use this body as a harp of a thousand strings out of which they could extract a little more selfish pleasure, instead of using it for its God-given purpose of representing the spirit of helpful service for humanity which dominates all heaven. Consider the massive and imposing structures erected in every state, at enormous expense, to care for that class of sufferers whose brains, instead of their livers, stomachs, or muscles, have become diseased, and who, as a result, have developed a train of symptoms that make them more difficult to manage than other classes of invalids, and therefore the State has undertaken the responsibility of their care. But bear in mind that the same general causes which produce mental disorders produce diseases of other organs in the body, and they all represent some definite sowing for disease. The frightful part of this picture is that insanity is increasing much faster than the corresponding increase in the population. It has been estimated that there are enough insane people in the United States to make a procession, in a single file, allowing three feet for each person, one hundred and twenty-three miles long! In England the proportion of insane people is greater than in the United States. In France it is greater still. This remarkable increase in insanity is simply an object-lesson to show the danger of allowing ourselves to be satisfied while living so near the ragged edge of disease. Cancer is supposed to be due to a parasite, which, naturally enough, cannot prey upon the system until it becomes susceptible to its inroads. This disease is estimated by those who have given it the most careful thought and scientific study to be enormously on the increase, as can be seen from an extract from the Medical Record, the leading medical journal in America:— “The assertion that the increase in the deaths from cancer in Great Britain is more apparent than real, owing to a variety of causes, has been advanced frequently of late by those who distrust statistics. This may be and probably is the case to a certain extent, but to contend that cancer has exhibited no increase is wilfully to ignore incontrovertible facts. The Lancet, referring to the matter, has this to say: ‘Perfectly accurate figures show that the registered mortality from malignant disease in England and Wales has at least doubled within the last fifty years.’ Among males, indeed, there has been an uninterrupted increase from 19.5 per million of the male population to 57.1 per million in the latter years of the last century. No verbal juggling or explanations can do away with the significance of these figures, and the quibblers must allow that, while admitting that an exaggerated view is taken of the greater prevalence of cancer by some, the truth is plain that there has been a very considerable increase of malignant disease both in this country and Great Britain.” Consumption is now making such inroads that it has been termed the “great white plague,” and those domestic animals which are the most in contact with man are likewise becoming infected; they in turn assist in the infection of man, and so the vicious circle is maintained. When nearly one-third of all who die between the ages of fifteen and sixty succumb to this disease,—and that really means, in the majority of instances, that the body is allowed to become weaker than the microbes,—then it is certainly time that every person should become thoroly aroused to the importance of vigorously cultivating health. If it is worth while for a prize-fighter to spend days and even months in bringing himself into such a physical condition that another man shall not be able to pound the life out of him, is it not worth while for a man to spend some of his spare moments in earnestly and enthusiastically cultivating such a degree of health, strength, and buoyancy that he may be able to fight daily battles for the Lord? Chicago, Illinois. DAVID PAULSON, M.D.