The Royal Road to Health Part 15

DIARRHOEA

Is simply Nature's method of getting rid of undigested substances in the alimentary tract. After a time the irritation excites the glands to abnormal action to wash out the offending substances, resulting from excessive fermentation. If not relieved, ulceration sets in, and worms breed in the intestines--then we have what is known as chronic diarrhoea.

The treatment in both varieties is the same. Use the "Cascade" until the colon is thoroughly emptied and cleansed. Take a warm bath before retiring, and follow it with a brisk rub down. Be careful in your diet--the better plan being to fast for a day or two, until the worst symptoms are past.

DISEASES OF THE NERVES.

Most people imagine that nervousness is the result of too much nerve force, but the opposite is the case. The trouble is a too sensitive battery and inadequate nerve force. The batteries, or nerve centres, are too easily discharged. It is nervous irritability, therefore, that we have to deal with.

The causes are manifold, the restless American nature, the stimulating climate, neglect of physical training, giving too little time and attention to eating and sleeping, concentrating too much attention on money getting and business to the neglect of recreation and repose.

One of the gravest causes is a constipated colon, which promotes indigestion, and through it, lack of nutrition, thus cutting off the supply of nerve food. The habit of tea and coffee drinking, and the use of tobacco, are also fruitful causes of this distressing affliction.

TREATMENT.

You must apply a brake to that restless motor within you that is driving you too fast. You must step out of the busy stream of life for awhile, let it rush past you and take things easy. Flush the colon regularly--remove that great source of nervous irritation, for we have yet to hear of a nervous person that was not constipated.

If you suffer from nervousness, you are dyspeptic, your whole course of life tends to render you so. Follow the treatment, especially the diet, given under the head of "Dyspepsia." Practice deep breathing, for lung development, for strong lung power is never a.s.sociated with nervousness. Take plenty of exercise in the open air, but not to excess.

Be moderate in all things, except sleep, you cannot sleep too much.

Cultivate the sleeping habit, and don't give up until you can sleep ten hours a day.

THE MATTER OF FOOD

is important, for, as before stated, nervous people eat and sleep too little. Fatty foods, or those that are easily converted into fat, are what is necessary. Olive oil is one of the best nerve foods in existence. Take a teaspoonful at a time, and gradually increase the quant.i.ty until you can take a tablespoonful at each meal. If you really can't take olive oil, the best subst.i.tute is sweet cream.

Celery is also good, and lettuce.

Cultivate slow and measured movements, avoid undue activity, take life easy and be moderate in all things.

To sum up. Flush the colon, sleep long, eat slowly, and plenty of oily or fat food, exercise freely, but in moderation, develop the lungs by breathing exercises, and take life easy.

This line of treatment, faithfully carried out, will cure the very worst cases in time.

HEADACHE.

There are many causes for this distressing complaint. Generally the cause is to be found in the stomach. Something that has no right there is in that organ, and irritating the pneumogastric nerve that connects the stomach with the brain. It is a common symptom of dyspepsia.

An engorged colon is one of the most common causes, on the same principle that it causes paralysis and apoplexy. Stimulants invariably promote headache.

To prevent the attacks, live regularly, avoid late hours and excessive brain work, shun alcoholic beverages and tea and coffee, avoid sweets and pastries, and anything fried in fat. Eat good, plain food, including fruit (especially oranges), but never eat late at night.

Develop the lungs. Never let a day pa.s.s without gently exercising all the muscles. Ma.s.sage the abdomen each night before retiring. Keep the colon clean by the use of the "Cascade," and bathe at least three times a week.

To relieve an attack, flush the colon thoroughly. Take a hot foot-bath, and while taking it, take a cup of hot lemonade--without sugar--so hot that you have to sip it.

DROPSY.

In this disease the outlet to the intestinal ca.n.a.l has become clogged.

The kidneys wear out trying to evacuate the bowels through their delicate tubular network, and the capillaries have become helpless through misuse in trying to do the work of others. So the tissues and muscles of the extremities are loaded with this cast off material, and we call it bloat. This is dropsy.

TREATMENT.

Empty and cleanse the colon with the "Cascade." Take the following injection every night, and retain it: To a pint of hot water add ten drops of the homeopathic tincture of Indian Hemp. If that is not to be had, use the fluid extract of Merrill's preparation. Use every night until a decided improvement is seen. If you do not get the desired effect, double the dose--even forty drops will do no harm. It is not a poison, but an excellent diuretic for dropsical effusions.

Take a Turkish bath (see end of book) to open up the pores of the skin, but if the patient is too weak use the hot wet sheet pack. Use the "Cascade" at least twice a week, following it with the injection mentioned above. Eat as little as possible, and let that consist of dry toast well masticated, and do not take any tea or coffee.

APPENDICITIS.

This complaint was formerly known as inflammation of the bowels, and may be caused by injury. It was generally believed to be due to the presence of foreign substances, such as grape seeds, etc., in the vermiform appendix, but this idea is exploded. It is an inflamed condition of the appendix, but the inflammation may have extended from the colon or from the peritoneum. The most frequent cause is the caec.u.m (the lower pouch of the colon) getting filled with hardened faecal matter, in which case the ileo caecal valve is obstructed, and the natural pa.s.sages of the bowels stopped. With a clean colon appendicitis is practically an impossibility.

The accepted medical practice is to remove the appendix by operation, regardless of conditions; but the mortality in such cases is high.

Others put the patient to sleep with tincture of opium, or veratrum viride, and let Nature right herself, if possible. If Nature can maintain herself against the doctor and his drugs from seven to nine days, the patient may get round, but not well.

TREATMENT.

Use the "Cascade" promptly on the first sign of an attack, injecting all the water possible (at a temperature of not less than 102 Fahr.), so as to reach the caec.u.m, where the trouble is located. If the attack is an acute one, use the "Cascade" every third hour until relieved. If the obstruction (which is usually present) does not give way, inject a pint of hot water and a pint of castor oil mixed; but before injecting it (with a bulb syringe) raise the patient's hips several inches higher than his head; then turn the patient on his right side, and stroke the reverse way of the colon, applying a firm but gentle kneading movement in the region of the appendix. This injection should be retained at least half an hour--longer if necessary. If this does not break loose the obstruction, resume the use of the "Cascade." Hot fomentations over the appendicular region are valuable. Give no medicine, it can do no good, but may do infinite mischief. After the bowel has been emptied let the patient have absolute rest, and if there is much pain and inflammation present, apply cracked ice, in a rubber bag, over the affected part. The diet should be absolutely liquid until all danger has pa.s.sed. This is of the highest importance.

DISEASES OF THE LIVER.

Liver complaints are always closely related to other diseases of the digestive organs. The colon being clogged, the intestines are rendered sluggish, which in turn acts upon the duodenum, or second stomach, and prevents the food from properly pa.s.sing out--then fermentation takes place. Bile is poured out on the acc.u.mulated food again and again, for the presence of anything in the duodenum is a demand for the secretion of bile. As a result too much bile is mixed with the food to be absorbed--the blood becomes tainted with biliary secretions showing itself in a yellow skin, dizziness of the head, dull, sleepy condition and lack of ambition. This overtaxing of the organ results in what is known as acute congestion, the symptoms of which are tenderness to touch and a feeling of painful tension on right side just above the edge of the ribs, slight jaundice, furred tongue, loss of appet.i.te and scanty high colored urine.

TREATMENT.

Open the colon by the use of the "Cascade," when the intestines and duodenum will be in turn relieved, then open up the pores of the skin with baths and allow Nature to expel the waste from the system in that manner. The wet sheet pack will he found specially valuable for that purpose.

An unnatural appet.i.te often accompanies bilious attacks, but it should be resisted. Eat sparingly of bread and milk, slightly salted, for two or three days, then take more solid food, but do not eat meat more than once a day for a week or two. Any exercises that call the muscles of the stomach into play are beneficial and should be practiced daily, especially horseback riding and rowing. Exercise by bending forward, trying to touch the toes without bending the knees; at the same time taking a deep breath--you then have the liver as in a vise, thus inducing active circulation.

The "Bear" walk, or walking about the room on all fours without bending the knees, is one of the best exercises for a torpid liver that can be imagined, but it should be practised in private, or your friends may question your sanity.

DISEASES OF THE SKIN.

These diseases usually have their origin in constipation, therefore tile first tiling to be done is to relieve this condition of the colon by daily use of the "Cascade." Bathe the body daily in tepid water, being careful not to use soap that will irritate the skin.

Never use common soap nor any of the highly perfumed varieties. A pure soap will float in the water. An occasional wet pack sheet is of great value. Attend care fully to the diet and avoid all foods fried in fat, especially buckwheat cakes and food of that description.

DISEASE OF THE KIDNEYS.

This is caused by irritation of the kidneys, brought about by those organs being forced to do work which does not properly belong to them.

Congestion is the first step towards chronic or acute inflammation.

The second stage is a breaking down or degeneration of the kidney cells. If degeneration has pa.s.sed a certain point, there is no hope.

TREATMENT.