Should you be sick — or feel only "half alive"?
You need to understand the WAY to a healthier, more dynamic life!
DID YOU REALIZE that some thirty million Americans are yearly spending time in a hospital — 1,500,000 on any one day? Did you know that nearly half of all Americans, over eighty-seven million people, suffer with at least one chronic disease or disability?
And the shocking truth is that seven out of ten persons over forty-five are afflicted with at least one chronic condition. A fantastic twenty-five million Americans have some stage of coronary-artery disease — thus making them candidates for heart attacks.
In Britain, heart disease is now the biggest killer, causing one out of three deaths. Forty years ago, the rate was only one in eight. Now it kills 200,000 Britons annually.
In the U.S., heart disease now kills about 600,000 people annually! New Zealand newspapers report that one out of three New Zealanders also will die of heart disease. Its incidence there among younger people is of grave concern to the medical profession.
Where do you fit in?
Are you bubbling over with health, energy and enthusiasm? Are you free from all aches, pains and sickness? Do you enjoy the kind of vigorous, dynamic health that makes it seem good to be alive?
Or are you among the millions who are just half-well?
There is a CAUSE for Sickness
People do not just happen to get sick. There is a CAUSE for every effect. And there is a definite cause for all sickness, disease and physical suffering which is so common in this modern world. Why, then, are so many sick today?
In a nutshell it is because there are physical laws that regulate our bodies. If you break these laws or if they are accidentally broken, it is a transgression of law — and it automatically exacts a penalty. The penalty is pain, sickness — or possibly even death.
Through breaking physical laws, Britons and Americans are becoming the most overfed and undernourished people in history. A report from the United States Department of Agriculture showed that one American household in every five eats a nutritionally "poor" combination of foods by the department's standards. Only 15 percent were in this category in 1955 when the last survey was made.
Surprisingly, families in the upper-income groups, as well as in the lowest, were found in the nutritionally "poor" diet category.
The downturn in nutritional value was attributed largely to a national turn away from milk and milk products, fruits and vegetables. While Americans have been eating less of these foods, they have been eating more meat, more ready-made baked goods and drinking far more soft drinks.
A similar report from Britain reveals that 48 percent of British families — about sixteen million people — have an average intake of nutrients which is below the level recommended by the British Medical Association.
Another report discloses that 67 percent of British army recruits showed signs of rickets — a vitamin deficiency disease.
People NEED Exercise
From Australia, health expert Dr. John Bloomfield reported: "If I picked out any one hundred people in Sydney, I doubt if any could be called fit by European standards." He said that Australians had not worked their bodies for thirty years, when they began coming to the cities to live, and deluded themselves that they were a physically fit nation and tempted heart disease and hardening of the arteries by playing a strenuous sport only once a week.
Back to the U.S., Harvard University nutrition professor Jean Mayer said that soft living has left the American male in "absolutely miserable" physical shape. He cited that "shocking" mortality rate from heart disease and laid most of the blame on too little exercise.
"It's become an end unto itself to make sure nobody will move a single muscle," said Professor Mayer in an indictment of modern living habits. He compared American men to animals penned up to fatten them for the kill. He blamed the automobile for cutting down physical activity to "almost nothing." And he added that one reason people have stopped walking is that American cities are too "ugly" to explore on foot.
In addition to indicting physical inactivity, Professor Mayer says the other leading causes of heart disease are a high-fat diet, too much weight, cigarette smoking and excessive coffee intake and too little sleep.
Based on thirty years' experience in treatment of pulmonary diseases, Dr. Lincoln Stanley, coordinator of the Veterans Administration Central Office, estimates that up to 50 percent of the adult male population of the United States is afflicted by some degree of emphysema. He described emphysema as a disease that attacks the most vital part of the lung, the alveoli. These are small, grape-like clusters of air sacs at the end of the bronchial tubes.
Cigarettes, Polluted Air and Foodless Foods
Doctors of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare recently wrote, "Most people with severe emphysema have been heavy cigarette smokers." Dr. Walter Alvarez, famous medical columnist, stated that emphysema is thirteen times more likely to show up in a cigarette smoker than in a non-smoker.
A recent report stated that despite an outlay of two billion dollars for research in the past thirty years, the number of Americans who died of cancer rose 25 percent in that time. A record 305,000 Americans died of cancer in 1967. At the same time, almost 900,000 Americans were under treatment for cancer in the same year — another all-time high. The National Cancer Institute director, Dr. Kenneth M. Endicott, said "Seventy to eighty percent of cases of lung cancer could be eliminated if people stopped smoking."
Other CAUSES of bodily cancer were cited in the Australian magazine: "A growing body of medical opinion believes that most human cancers are caused by environmental chemicals, a Melbourne research scientist said yesterday. Dr. Hughes (head of a new cancer research institute) said it was possible that cancer-causing chemicals were present in industrial chemicals, foodstuffs, beverages and in the atmosphere."
Can we begin to understand that the kind of food we eat, beverages we drink and air we breathe has a GREAT deal to do with our physical health? Can we realize that poor food, bad air, poor sleep and lack of exercise are causing a tremendous amount of the physical impairment that is affecting most of the English-speaking world today?
The CAUSE of sickness is the breaking of physical laws set in motion to govern the operation of our human bodies. These laws are just as real as the law of gravity, and the penalty for breaking them is just as sure.
There is no excuse for feeling and being only half alive. The mounting rate of sickness, suffering and death clearly shows that this world has lost the way to health — the way to live. We need to learn how to really LIVE.
What, then, are the physical laws which affect our bodies — our lives —so much?
1) Food and Fasting
We are what we eat. The body is formed entirely from the food we eat. Yet the average person has' very little knowledge of what he really ought to eat to build a strong, vigorous body.
If many of the foods we eat were fed to a rat, the rat would soon die of starvation!
Why?
Many of the products commonly called foods are of little or no value in sustaining, nourishing or building the body. In fact, it has been proven by tests that they do actual harm to the body. They clog the digestive system, aggravate it and become a real burden for the body to eliminate. In many cases, they act as poisons — not foods!
The basic thing to remember in selecting foods is to be sure you eat natural foods which have not been corrupted or perverted in man-made "food" factories, and that you learn to have a balanced diet containing all the elements your body requires to sustain and build health.
Take care that your food is properly prepared so as not to destroy the bodybuilding elements. Avoid the starchy, greasy, sugary, and spiced-up concoctions which may taste good at the moment, but which contain little of nutritional value and will in time wreck your stomach.
It is beyond the scope of this article to give you specific dietetic instruction, but remember the principle that your foods should be natural foods — as the Creator caused them to grow or be formed in nature. These will include genuine whole grain breads (without poisonous preservatives added) and cereals, fresh fruits and fresh vegetables — or vegetables cooked at low temperatures so as to preserve their nutritional value, lean meats cooked without grease or fat, and dairy products.
Few people fully realize the detriment caused by such "refined" or "improved" products as white bread, white sugar, commercially canned fruits and vegetables, and pasteurized milk when these are substituted in place of the natural products that were intended as food.
Man's effort to improve upon the creation has FAILED. The more you intelligently study the food question, the more you will realize this. So eat a balanced diet of the natural foods that have not been perverted by the hand of man. And learn to prepare all foods so as not to destroy their nutritional value.
Under the heading of diet, we should also consider the health value of water. Pure drinking water — and plenty of it — is one of the greatest aids to eliminating body poisons and keeping the entire system clean. It is an aid in preventing or overcoming constipation — that source of so many bodily ills. So drink pure water daily — preferably between meals, and never use it to wash food down. The total intake of all fluids — milk, soup, fruit juices, water — is generally a recommended six to eight glasses daily, or more for those who work in the sun.
Greatly restricting one's diet is known as fasting. The practice of fasting as a health measure is as old as the human race. An animal, when sick, will frequently refuse to eat. It loses all appetite. Governed by its instincts, it fasts until it is well — a sure cure provided by nature.
But what about humans?
Doctors and dieticians agree that we humans are in the habit of eating far more food than our bodies require. If food is used in excess of bodily needs, it is bound to produce a clogging up of the vital process, for if it is not needed it is invariably harmful and becomes productive of causes which lead to sickness and disease.
The greatest number of sicknesses are caused by the presence of poison in the bloodstream. Fasting enables the body to cleanse itself of the accumulation of the products of an imperfect diet. As food intake is retarded, elimination proceeds rapidly and the body is truly "house-cleaning" itself.
For many, many common sicknesses such as colds, headaches, fevers, and stomach distress, fasting is a very effective and often the only natural cure.
In a strictly health fast, water only should be taken, or in some cases, fruit juices may be taken to provide necessary strength. Fasting is a marvelous natural means of preserving health.
2) Cleanliness and Dress
It has been said that "cleanliness is next to Godliness," and, while this saying didn't come directly from the Bible, the principle is certainly correct.
In order to teach ancient Israel the habit of cleanliness, Moses instituted many regulations commanding the people to bathe or wash their clothes after coming in contact with likely disease carriers. We should certainly keep our physical bodies clean.
Regular care of the skin, hair, nails, and teeth and freedom from perspiration odor are essential to cleanliness and contribute to health. Waste products are eliminated through the pores of the skin, and regular bathing is always important.
Keeping your person, your clothes, and your living quarters clean will not only aid in promoting vigorous health, but will tend to keep your thoughts on a higher level of productivity and accomplishment.
Untold physical impairments are caused by the wearing of tight, ill-fitting, or unsuitable clothing. Clothing should afford proper protection from the weather, and should be loose-fitting and comfortable. The wearing of extremely tight girdles or corsets by women often results in the cramping of vital organs, and the weakening of muscles and tissues in the abdominal and pelvic areas — often causing physical distress in later life — and sometimes resulting in the inability to have children normally. It just doesn't pay.
Also, shoes that throw the whole body out of line often cause harm not only to the feet, but to the entire body. Another common fault among women is wearing unnecessarily tight-fitting shoes, which cause bunions, corns and ingrown nails.