Talks About Health by Dio Lewis

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 25, 1864

Talks About Health.

By Dio Lewis

A WORD TO MY DYSPEPTIC FRIEND.

You have asked me to prescribe for you. You expect medicine. Perhaps you hope for whisky, just now the rage for chronic maladies. But I shall give you nothing to swallow. You swallow too much already.

Of all the maladies, dyspepsia is the most distressing. To get rid of its horrors, you would part with your right arm. I believe you. But will you part with a portion of your table luxuries? I fear not. But presuming you are in earnest, I will prescribe for you.

RULES.

1. Rise early, dress warm, and go out. If strong, walk; if weak, saunter. Drink cold water three times. Of all cold baths, this is the best for the dyspeptic. After a half hour or more, come in for breakfast.

2. For breakfast eat a piece of good steak half as large as your hand, a slice of coarse bread, and a baked apple. Eat very slowly. Talk pleasantly with your neighbors. Read the cheerful comments of loyal journals. Avoid copperheads as you do hot biscuits and strong coffee. Drink nothing.

3. Digest for an hour, and then to your work. I trust it is in the open air. Work hard till noon, and then rest body and mind till dinner. Sleep a little. Drink water.

4. For dinner (2 or 3 o'clock) eat a slice of beef, mutton, or fish, as large as your hand, a potato, two or three spoonfuls of other vegetables, and a slice of coarse bread. Avoid tomatoes. For dessert, an apple. Give more than half an hour to this meal. Use no drink.

5. After dinner play anaconda for an hour. Now for the social, for pleasant games—a good time.

6. No supper. A little toast and tea even, for supper, will make your recovery very slow.

7. In a warm room, bathe your skin with cold water, hastily, and go to bed in a well-ventilated room, before 9 o'clock.

Follow this prescription for three months, and your stomach will so far recover that you can indulge for some time in all sorts of irregular and gluttonous eating.

Or, if you have resolved, in the fear of Heaven, to "present your bodies living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God," and will continue to eat and work like a Christian, your distressing malady will soon be forgotten.—DIO LEWIS, M. D.