The Folly of Treating Symptoms Instead of the Disease
By D. H. Kress, M. D.
IN order to know how to treat disease rationally, it is necessary to understand what disease is. The following is probably a definition that will cover most of the diseases to which humanity is subject: "Disease is the retention or accumulation of foreign products or poisons in the system."
The presence of these products gives rise to a great many symptoms. To these symptoms names are given, such as rheumatism, gout, neurasthenia, neuralgia, etc. When we speak of disease, we mean merely so many symptoms of disease. Understanding the nature of disease, it is not difficult to apply rational remedies; without this knowledge, the treatment will be wholly symptomatic. As a rule, people want to get rid of symptoms. They do not feel so much concern about the disease.
To illustrate this more fully, we will represent the human body by a circular figure, attached to which, on one end, is an inlet for the food, the air, and the drink, and at the other end, an outlet for the carrying off of body wastes. The skin, the lungs, and the kidneys may be called the sewer outlets of the body. As long as people live in a natural way, these organs experience no difficulty in eliminating the wastes that are normally formed. But if additional wastes are introduced in food or drink, or are formed in the alimentary canal through errors in eating, accumulations result, and symptoms arise which bring discomfort.
Wastes Pile Up in the System
IN Bright's disease, among the first questions the physician asks are these: "Do you feel weak in the knees? Do you have a dull pain in the back of the head? Are you troubled with confusion of thought, or specks before the eyes? Do you experience difficulty in adding up columns of figures?" The physician recognizes that these are some of the prominent symptoms of this disease. But these symptoms are present in other conditions than Bright's disease, for they are merely symptoms of self-intoxication.
The kidneys are able to eliminate a certain amount of the acid waste that is formed within the body; but in subsisting upon flesh, we are introducing an excess of the same kind of body waste, formed in the body of the animal. The kidneys will in time become diseased, and unable to do their work, and then these wastes will pile up in the system. This piling up of body wastes is not at once felt; but if it goes on day after day, for five, ten, or perhaps twenty years, at the age of forty or fifty, pains will appear in the muscles, the joints, or the nerves.
The physician is then sought, and the patient is informed that the trouble is an excess of uric acid. The physician's advice is, "Abstain from the use of flesh foods."
It took time to accumulate these wastes, and it will take time to get rid of them. The habits of eating have to be reformed. The person has to commence to eat pure food, breathe pure air, and do everything in his power to assist nature in her effort to dispose of this accumulated waste. By persistent efforts, they may be entirely eliminated.
Knocking Down the Danger Signals
THE difficulty is, however, that people do not treat disease in a rational way. As a usual thing, when troubled with a headache, they think only of stopping the headache, the disagreeable symptom. An opiate may be taken — something that paralyzes the nerves. When the headache disappears, the particular preparation is applauded and recommended as a wonderful remedy. After a time, another bad spell comes on, and again there is recourse to an opiate or to a patent medicine containing such. The system is gradually becoming overwhelmed with impurities, and finally death results.
When we speak of neuralgia, or neuritis, or megrim, we speak of them as diseases; but they are merely symptoms of diseases. For instance, a deposit of waste or foreign products around the muscles, we call gout. If this deposit is in the joints, we call it rheumatism; if around the nerve sheath, as for instance in the face, we speak of it as neuralgia; if around the membrane of the brain, we term it sick headache, or megrim. We might name a great number of symptoms, all of which indicate the presence of disease products in the system. Merely to get rid of the symptoms accomplishes no good while the diseased products that are responsible for the symptoms remain. To treat merely the symptoms of the disease could be compared to knocking down signals which notify of danger. Dangerous bicycle roads frequently have boards projecting, warning the cyclists that there is danger ahead, cautioning him to slow up. The pains felt in various parts of the body are signals, warning of the danger ahead, and calling upon us to slow up. Anything that merely knocks down these signals is not a friend. While palliative measures should be employed, the principal treatment should consist in assisting in the elimination of the accumulated products. Combined with this must be a correction of the habits of life which are responsible for the accumulated poisons.
A Cause for Every Disease
SICKNESS does not come without a cause. The violation of natural law and sickness bear to one another the relation of cause and effect. The effect is right, and the cause is wrong, and needs to be removed. There is but one way of getting rid of disease; that is to cease to do evil, and learn to do well.
Elimination must be encouraged. The skin should be put into a good, healthy, active condition. The lungs should have pure air. Uric-acid-free diet should be provided. By breathing pure air, eating properly, and only the purest kinds of food, we aid nature in her efforts to restore health. The Lord is doing the best He can for us all; but the difficulty is, we do not always coöperate with Him. We often neutralize His efforts. God, by calling our attention to the laws we have been transgressing, calls upon us to remove the obstacles we have created. Just to the extent that we come into harmony with the laws ordained for the government of our bodies, will we see the disagreeable symptoms disappear. This is the only rational way to get rid of disease.
Diseases considered incurable can often be overcome when the nature of the disease is understood, and the coöperation nature calls for is granted her.
