Nature Has Strong Barriers Against Disease—They Must Be Deliberately Broken Down for Sickness to Enter—Timely Hints and Suggestions
By DAVID PAULSON, M. D.
Medical Superintendent Hinsdale Sanitarium, Hinsdale, Illinois
AMONG the many foolish statements attributed to Ingersoll is this one,—that if he had made the world, he would have made health to be catching instead of disease.
But in reality health is more catching than disease. Men may indulge in indigestible midnight suppers, drink death-dealing liquor, smoke poisonous tobacco, violate almost every known health law they conveniently can, year after year; and when finally they succeed in catching rheumatism, nervous prostration, indigestion, or gastric ulcer, a few weeks of conscientious reform and proper care will generally enable them to catch a fairly good crop of health.
In order to catch smallpox, one must get within twelve feet of the patient. In order to catch health, there are likewise some things to be done, and one of the most important of these is the breathing of pure air.
FRESH AIR CURED THE MONKEYS
We are learning in this generation, as never before, the healing possibilities of pure air. In Lincoln Park, Chicago, in former years the monkeys used to die regularly of tuberculosis. Five or six years ago there were several monkeys that were at the point of death from this disease.
Instead of killing them outright, one of the keepers threw them out on a snow-bank. The boys fed them bananas; and having an opportunity to breathe fresh air, the creatures speedily recovered. This led to ventilation of the monkey house, and now the indications are that the monkeys will die of old age.
“TOO MUCH HOUSE”
There are many persons who refuse to drink sewage, who are willing to breathe filthy air. An old Indian chief, when asked what was killing off his people, said, “Too much house.” That is what is killing thousands of people who are not Indians.
The spread of the outdoor sleeping idea is a most gratifying sign of the times. If you can not move outdoors, do try to move more of outdoors indoors.
A BLESSING INSTEAD OF A CURSE
When the Lord told Adam and Eve to earn their bread by the sweat of their faces instead of merely by the sweat of their brains, He pronounced a blessing instead of a curse. To-day steam and electricity, directed by human brains, are doing the world’s work, and as a consequence humanity is falling into decay. Sedentary habits are creating a thousand ills from which our fathers were exempt.
Those who have no other opportunity to exercise should resolutely determine to take each day a brisk walk, with head erect, chest up, at the same time practising deep breathing.
NATURE’S BEST TONIC
When tired and worn out, the brain can be temporarily relieved from its sense of fatigue by merely bathing the face in cold water. Doing the same to the skin over the liver similarly arouses that organ. Putting a cold application of water over the heart wonderfully improves the pulse beat. The fact is, a brief application of cold water, especially if it has been preceded by a short hot application, is a natural stimulant to every cell in the body.
I had a blood count made of one of the nurses. Then a general hot and cold spray was administered, and the blood test repeated; and the color of the blood, and the number of both red and white blood cells, had increased in amounts varying from five to twenty per cent. This improvement persisted for several hours.
THE RESERVES BROUGHT OUT
No doubt this is the real reason for such an amazing change: Under ordinary circumstances some of the best blood of the body is collected in the spleen and other internal organs. It is off duty, accomplishing nothing. The vigorous reaction following such a short cold treatment brings out these reserves and puts them into active circulation doing good. This is the principal reason why hydrotherapy has completely revolutionized the treatment of pneumonia, typhoid fever, and other diseases, both acute and chronic.
RIGHTEOUS EATING
There is divine philosophy in the admonition to eat and drink “to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31. It is extremely difficult to have in the head a peace that passes all understanding and at the same time have in the stomach a war that is beyond all description.
From a moral and health standpoint, the climate we have on the inside is much more important than the kind we are living in on the outside. On this point the editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal has well said:
An overfed stomach, struggling with a lot of refuse and poison
“When the mind is supposed to be tired it is generally the stomach that is fatigued. In nine cases out of ten it is an overfed stomach, struggling with a lot of refuse and poison that it can not get rid of, thus depleting or overloading some vital organ of the body.”
And another writer has said: “People who have heartburn, bad breath, colds, throbbing at the stomach, pain in the side, headache, are all our meat-breakfast friends; there are no exceptions. All these pleasant symptoms just named are the result of food poisoning.”
Modern scientific researches have furnished convincing evidence that the body is constantly manufacturing toxins, that we are always in danger of autointoxication.
I have seen a small quantity of kidney secretion from a patient suffering with spasms, injected into the blood-vessels of a healthy rabbit, and produce spasms in the animal in a few minutes. On the other hand, the kidney secretion from a patient lying in a dangerous stupor produces in a few moments a similar stupor in the rabbit.
These symptoms in the patient were produced by certain poisons accumulating in the blood. The kidneys were doing their best to remove these toxins from the body, so as to save the patient’s life. That is why, when the secretions were injected into the rabbit, the same symptoms were produced. Similar experiments have shown that kidney secretion frequently contains several times as much poison when the patient is living on a rich meat diet as when he is living on a plain, non-flesh diet.
CAUSE OF PREMATURE OLD AGE
Metchnikoff, of the Pasteur Institute, has practically demonstrated that premature old age is due to the absorption, from the alimentary canal, of poisons resulting from an unsuitable dietary.
Cancer, like many other chronic diseases, is enormously on the increase. In some parts of the country, it is now destroying more lives than any other disease except consumption and pneumonia. There is a growing conviction, among thoughtful physicians, that there is a close relationship between meat eating, a rich dietary, autointoxication, and cancer. It is important, and especially in the summer, to eliminate flesh food from our daily dietary, and use a larger amount of rice in its several forms, the various cereals, vegetables, especially green garden truck, and fruits.
We have become a nation of sugar fiends. The mania for artificial sweets is an unfavorable sign of the times in which we are living. Literally saturating the system with cane-sugar, candies, and confectionary is a menace to health.
UNNATURAL FLAVORS
Mustard, pepper, and fiery condiments are unnatural to human bodies, and hence are unphysiological. They create gastric catarrh, promote hyperacidity of the stomach, and in many instances lay the foundation for gastric ulcer.
We should religiously refrain from eating those things which taste hot when they are cold. God has put a natural flavor into every food, just as He has put a fragrance into every flower; and it is folly to add these wretched and artificial flavors to our food.
NO RIGHT TO THROW BRICKS
Dr. Evans, formerly health commissioner of Chicago, commenting on the milder table stimulants, says: “Tea and coffee are both stimulants, the same as alcoholic drinks are stimulants. I have no sympathy for the tea soak or the coffee soak. They have very little right to throw a brick at the whisky soak.”
I have seen many patients just as miserable and wretched when deprived of their accustomed cup of tea or coffee as the poor inebriate is when deprived of his usual glass of brandy. Tea and coffee are drugs and not foods, and hence should really come from the drug store instead of the grocery.479
WHOLESOME RECREATION
In our generation so much is said about the virtues of the strenuous life, that we have almost come to believe it is a sin to go apart and rest ourselves a while. Mark 6: 31.
The streets of our large cities are filled with people whose nerves are worn to a frazzle, who are enabled, by the stimulants they are taking, to drain their last atom of nerve energy in keeping up with the frantic procession. Such people should be convinced that they would save time by taking wholesome and harmless recreation.
The very best and most profitable diversion is found in turning aside from the wearing grind of daily drudgery, to extend some helpful ministry to needy humanity. Its reflex influence imparts an inspiring thrill to the entire system.
Instead of chasing to theaters to over-excite the already feverish mind, go out and hunt up the poor, the suffering, the outcast, the downcast, and the downtrodden. By some kindly act, by some loving ministry, let a little sunshine into their lives. Strange as it may seem, you will come away from such an experience not only refreshed but rested. You will find such service both a stimulant and a tonic.
