Dansville, N. Y by H. S. Lay, M. D.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 15, 1865

Dansville, N. Y

By H. S. Lay, M. D.

Health. No. 3.

THE body is not the only part that becomes morbidly affected by errors in diet; the mind also suffers with it. There is great sympathy between the organs of digestion and the brain. They are closely and intimately connected by nervous communication, so that you cannot, to any extent, affect the one, without affecting the other; and to the degree that you affect the brain, to the same degree do you affect the mind; for it is by the action of the brain that mind is produced.

Now, unhealthful food irritates the nerves of the stomach, and through them, the irritation, to a greater or less extent, is conveyed to the brain, causing it to act abnormally; thereby affecting and perverting the intellectual and moral condition of the mind. And then again, bad food makes bad blood, and bad blood has a tendency to irritate the brain as it passes through it, and is poorly adapted to sustain the brain in its important function; and as a consequence, evil results follow.

Many an individual has often wondered why he could not better control his mind, and why his evil passions should so often and so easily gain the mastery over him, and he become irritable, fretful, peevish, and fault-finding; when, if he would but correct his bad habit of eating, and would live on plain, simple, and unstimulating food, he would find that his mind would be more easily controlled, and be in a much better condition to bear the trials and difficulties of this life, and he would have a better prospect before him of securing that which is to come.

H. S. Lay, M. D.