Nature Cure by Henry Lindlahr (best short books to read txt) π
Their success undoubtedly is based on the fact that they concentratetheir best efforts on preventive instead of combative methods oftreating disease. People are beginning to realize that it is cheaperand more advantageous to prevent disease than to cure it. To createand maintain continuous, buoyant good health means greaterefficiency for mental and physical work; greater capacity for thetrue enjoyment of life, and the best insurance against failure andpoverty. Therefore, he who builds health is of greater value tohumanity than he who allows people to drift into disease throughignorance of Nature's laws, and then attempts to cure them bydoubtful and uncertain combative methods.
It is said that in China the physician is hired and paid by theyear; that he receives a certain stipend as long as the members ofthe family are in good health, but that the salary is suspended aslong as one of his charges is ill. If some similar method o
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This is a good illustration of the condition of the cells of the body in chronic disease. They also have become unable to help themselves and need assistance until they can once more arouse themselves to self-help by means of an acute eliminative effort.
What can we do to help them? We must endeavor in the first place to furnish the cells with the right nourishment. We must abstain from everything that may be injurious to the body in food and drink, so as to relieve the cells of all unnecessary work.
Whatever one may think of vegetarianism as a continuous mode of living, a little consideration will make it plain that a rational vegetarian diet is the sine qua non in the cure of chronic diseases. It builds up the blood on a normal basis, excludes all food and drink poisons and thereby gives the organism an opportunity to throw off the old accumulations of waste and morbid materials.
In chronic disease, every drop of blood and every cell of the organism is affected. In order to produce a cure, the old tissues must be broken down and removed and new tissues built up. The more thorough the change in diet, the greater and more rapid will be the changes for the better in cells and tissues, especially if only pure and eliminating foods are used.
For these reasons it is advisable to omit most red-blooded meat while under the natural treatment. All animal flesh contains the morbid secretions and other waste products of the animal organism, and this means additional work for the cells already overburdened with systemic poisons.
Then we must work for elimination. Cold water applied to the surface of the body is the most powerful stimulant to the circulation. It actually pumps and pushes the blood through the system. One feels the blood rushing through the arteries and veins with greater force.
The cold-water treatment makes the skin more alive and active, stirs up and accelerates the circulation throughout the system and thus promotes the elimination of systemic poisons through the skin.
This stimulating effect of cold water upon the organism has been proved by counting the number of red blood corpuscles in a drop of blood before and after the application of the cold βblitzguss.β They were found to have doubled in number. That does not mean that in an instant again as many red blood corpuscles had come into existence, but it does mean that before the cold βgussβ one-half of them were dozing lazily in the corners. The cold water stirred them up, forced them into the circulation, made them travel and attend to business.
Another powerful means to promote elimination is thorough, systematic massage. The kneading, rolling, twisting and clapping actually squeezes the stagnant morbid matter and the waste products out of the tissues into the circulation, to be carried off through the venous drainage and allows the red blood with its nourishment and fresh supply of oxygen to flood the cells and organs.
Massage is also very effective as a means of regulating the blood supply in the system. In every chronic disease there is obstruction or congestion in some part of the organism, causing high blood pressure in the interior of the body and insufficient blood supply to the external parts, especially the extremities. Massage distributes the blood quickly and evenly.
Of great importance is osteopathy. All dislocations, luxations and subluxations of bones and ligaments should be corrected by expert manipulation. As a matter of fact, hardly a person can be found today whose spine is not abnormal in one way or another, just as there is hardly a single normal human eye [as far as iridology markings are concerned].
Manipulative treatment adjusts the lesions of the spine and other bony structures, thus removing abnormal pressure upon the nerves and blood vessels and establishing a free and abundant flow of nerve and blood currents.
Air and light baths, by stimulating the skin in a natural manner to increased activity, also contribute to the attainment of the various good results just described.
Next comes physical exercise. Corrective and curative movements combined with deep breathing promote the combustion (oxidation) of morbid materials and in this way facilitate their elimination from the system.
Life itself is dependent upon breathing. The Life Force enters the body with every breath we draw. Show me a man with well-developed, full-breathing lungs, and I will show you a man with good vitality.
Last but not least among the natural methods of treating the cell in chronic disease we mention the right mental and emotional attitude. Fear, anxiety and all kindred emotions congeal the nerve matter and thereby shut off the supply of nerve force. The cells and tissues starve and freeze. On the other hand, the emotions of hope, confidence and cheerfulness relax and open blood vessels and nerve channels and allow the free and unobstructed inflow and circulation of vital energy.
The different methods of natural treatment and their practical application in chronic diseases will be discussed in detail in subsequent chapters.
When through natural methods of living and of treatment the morbid encumbrances have been removed sufficiently to provide and maintain normal blood supply, better venous drainage and the unobstructed flow of the nerve currents, when lesions of the bony structures have been corrected by skilful adjustment, and when, through right mental attitude, a free and abundant inflow of Life Force has been established, then the cells and tissues of the body become once again able to arouse themselves to an acute eliminative effort, and the organism is ready for a healing crisis.
Crises
Crisis in the ordinary sense of the word means change, either for better or for worse. In its relation to medicine, the term βcrisisβ has been defined as βa decisive change in the disease, resulting either in recovery or in death.β
We of the Nature Cure school distinguish between healing crises and disease crises, according to the character and the tendency of the acute reaction. If an acute disease is brought about through the accumulation of morbid matter or the invasion of disease germs to such an extent that the health or the life of the organism is endangered, in other words, if the disease conditions are forcing the crises, we speak of disease crises.
But if acute reactions take place in the system because conditions have become more normal, because the healing forces have gained the ascendancy and forced the acute inflammatory processes, we call them healing crises.
Healing crises are simply different forms of elimination by means of which Nature endeavors to remove the latent, chronic disease encumbrance from the system. The most common forms of these acute purifications are colds, catarrhal and hemorrhoidal discharges, boils, ulcers, abscesses, open sores, skin eruptions, diarrheas, etc.
Healing crises and disease crises may seem very much alike. Patients often tell me: βI have had this before. I call it an ordinary boil (or cold, or fever).β
That may be true. The former disease crisis and the present healing crisis may be similar in their outward manifestations. But they are taking place under entirely different conditions.
When the organism is loaded to the danger point with morbid matter, it may arouse itself in self-defense to an acute eliminative effort in the shape of cold, catarrh, fever, inflammation, skin eruption, etc. In these instances, the disease conditions bring about the crisis and the organism is on the defensive. These are disease crises.
Such unequal struggles between the healing forces and disease conditions sometimes end favorably and sometimes unfavorably.
On the other hand, healing crises develop because the healing forces are in the ascendancy and take the offensive. They are brought about through the natural methods of living and of treatment and always result in improved conditions.
A simple allegory may assist me in explaining the difference between a healing crisis and a disease crisis:
For years a prizefighter holds the championship because he keeps himself in perfect physical condition and before every contest spends many weeks in careful training. When he faces his opponent in the ring, he has eliminated from his organism as much waste matter and superfluous flesh and fat as possible by a strictly regulated diet and a great deal of hard exercise. As a consequence, he comes off victorious in every contest and easily maintains his superiority.
These victories in his career, like healing crises in the organism, are the result of training and preparation.
The prizefighter in the one case and Vital Force in the other are on the offensive from the beginning of the struggle and have the best of the fight from start to finish.
Rendered overconfident by long-continued success, our champion gradually permits himself to drift into a weakened physical condition. He omits his regular training and indulges in all kinds of dissipation.
One day, full of self-conceit and underestimating the strength of his challenger, he enters the ring without preparation and is ingloriously defeated by a man who, under different circumstances, would not be a match for him.
So, in the case of a patient in a disease crisis, fatal termination may be due to the excessive accumulation of waste and morbid matter in the system, to lowered vitality and to lack of preparation. Victory or defeat in acute reactions as well as in the ring depends on right living and preparatory training.
In the healing crisis, vitality is the stronger and gains the victory in the struggle; in the disease crisis, disease conditions have gained the ascendancy and may bring about the defeat of the healing forces.
Under conditions favorable to human life, a body of normal structure, healthy blood and tissues and good vitality cannot be affected by acute disease. Such an organism is practically immune to all forms of inflammatory febrile reactions. These always indicate that there is something wrong in the system which Nature is trying to correct or get rid of.
Healing Crises
In Chapter Two βCatechism of Nature Cure,β we defined healing crises as follows: βA healing crisis is an acute reaction, resulting from the ascendancy of Natureβs healing forces over disease conditions. Its tendency is toward recovery, and it is, therefore, in conformity with Natureβs constructive principle.β The possibility of producing healing crises and thereby curing chronic ailments depends upon the following conditions:
The patient must possess sufficient vital energy and powers of reaction to respond to the natural treatment and to a change of habits. The destruction and disorganization of vital fluids and organs must not have advanced too far.
Some patients become frightened at the idea of crises. They exclaim: βI came here to get well, not to grow worse.β
However, there is no occasion for alarm. Healing crises occur in mild form only because, under the influence of natural living and treatment, Nature has the best of the fight. The healing forces of the organism have gained the ascendancy over the disease conditions.
In fact, Nature never undertakes a healing crisis until the system has been prepared for it, until the organism is sufficiently purified and strengthened to conduct the acute reaction to a favorable termination.
Furthermore, it is well to remember that crises cannot be avoided, because it is through fevers and inflammatory processes that Nature effects the cureβthat she tears down the old to build up the new.
On the other hand, if patients are possessed of exceptionally good vitality and if the organs of elimination are in good working order, the purification and adjustment of the organism may occasionally proceed gradually without the occurrence of marked acute reactions or crises.
Healing Crises, When Properly Conducted,
Are Never Fatal to Life
When well assisted by the right, natural methods of living and of treatment, healing crises are never dangerous or fatal to
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