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The Medical Approach To Health And Disease;
The Erroneous Notion of "Cure"
By: rawfoodexplained.com
The idea behind medicine is more than 2,500 years old and, like most ideas
from behind the dark ages, it's very unscientific.
The premise is that the body is like a machine that can be repaired by outside
agencies. The machine goes wrong because of invading entities. In ancient
times these entities were evil spirits, demons, and devils, which had to be
exorcised.
By and by these evil spirits became known as little beasties called microbes,
germs, bacteria, viruses, and yet other appellations.
Medicine today has the concept of "cure" a word that has been perverted from
the original of "care."
Medicine itself means a curative or healing substance. The idea behind the
use of medicine is that the "medicine" acts within the organism that it seeks
out the trouble routs the invaders and effects in some manner the necessary
healing.
The medical concept of the modus operandi of drugs, which they call
medicines, is very hazy at best. But medicine is the harmful practices that
men do to try to help ailing people.
People go to physicians for medical intervention. They want to get "fixed up."
They're ailing. Something must be done lest they suffer grave consequences
or death.
Medical practitioners take advantage of the clients—they play upon their
fears. They applaud their clients for coming to them when they did. They
flatter them for this bit of "wisdom" and assure them that, if they do not do
something soon, grave dangers will ensue.
The medical man always has a course of treatment to suggest, invariably a
prescription of drugs and tests.
The idea is that the tests will reveal what is wrong and thereby determine what
drugs to prescribe or what steps to take, as in surgery.
That their beliefs and practices are, on the whole, precisely contrary to
biological science seems never to enter their minds.
There is no healing other than self-healing. All modalities can interfere with
healing but none can aid healing.
"Cures" Do Not Deal With Causes
Can you imagine trying to develop a drug to "cure" drunkenness without
going to the root of the whole matter, i.e., the drunkard's drinking habit? How
can we deal with drunkenness if the drunkard continues to drink?
This is what happens with the medical approach. They try to remedy effects
or symptoms without dealing with causes.
In reality they drug, butcher, and purge while almost totally ignoring basic
causes of physiological problems.
They resort to crippling surgery and treatments running into the thousands of
dollars when the problems can be simply and inexpensively solved by a
change in life practices.
Nothing happens without sufficient cause. All afflictions of the body must be
caused and the cause is almost always initiated by the sufferer.
Unless cause is discontinued the problem will always develop again, ever
more serious.
Nutritional and health science basically teach us two things:
1. To remove causes of problems and:
2. To establish the conditions of health.
Mastering and understanding the cause and effect of nutrition and health and
that diseases are suffered because the sufferer has indulged or been
subjected to harmful causes either mental or physical.
"Cures" Do Not Furnish the Needs of Life
To be returned to health the body must be provided with its requirements.
First, those substances, influences, and practices, which beget illnesses and
disease, must be discontinued.
Secondly, it is necessary to bring to the client the essentials of health. Very
simply these are pure air, pure water, correct diet, sunshine, exercise or
wholesome activity, adequate rest and sleep, emotional poise, security of life
and its means and yet other factor elements and influences.
If you reflect upon medical procedures it is obvious they do not try to
ascertain causes that are inherent in lifestyle and practices. They do what an
auto mechanic does—they try to find out which cylinder is missing and then
proceed as if the body can be repaired much in the manner of a vehicle.
They rarely advise about practices and beliefs, which cause problems. Since
most medical men are financially oriented, it is wise that they do not teach
correct habits. They'd be out of business if their clients became well.
"Cures" Destroy Body Vitality
Dr. Herbert M. Shelton must be proclaimed the greatest oracle of Hygienic
philosophy, principles, and practices unto this day.
He has noted that now we have more medical discoveries than ever before;
we have more medical practitioners than ever before; medical men enjoy more
respect than ever before (at least until recent years) and yet, for all this, we
also have more disease and suffering than ever before.
Why is this so?
Because, very simply, drugs destroy. They never build. It is not within the
province of drugs to create cells and replace body tissue.
Medical men would be the first to tell you this for they've studied physiology
too. But yet they act as if their drugs perform some kind of magic that will
effect healing.
What do drugs, when administered, really do?
In truth, drugs do nothing other than form chemical unions with body
compounds and fluids. When these chemical unions occur, the body suffers
distress.
When the character of a substance is determined as harmful by the body, it
goes into a frenzy. When it does this, it is stimulated.
Sometimes the body has a reaction of depression in which case it is sedated
or narcotized. This means function has been inhibited or paralyzed.
In both cases the reaction is one of self-protection against an unwelcome
intruder, in this case a poison even though it is called a medicine.
In causing an emergency in the body, drugs are harmful. The body must
redirect its energies from the healing process, which it is conducting.
The symptoms for which the drugs or medicines are administered are
evidences of the body's self-conducted healing process.
When drugs are ingested or injected, the body must leave off partially or
wholly the cleansing/healing efforts and attend to a greater threat which the
drugs represent.
When healing efforts are discontinued the symptoms disappear. Physicians
interpret the disappearance of symptoms as a "cure" or a healed condition.
They thus mistake drug or poison effects for healing effects. In reality the
body has more problems than before. For now it has, additional to its prior
problems, the problem of expelling a terrible poison too.
Medical And "Healing Art" Approaches Are Deadly And A DeadEnd.
We readily recognize that drug addicts take illicit drugs and eventually
become physiological wrecks as a result. Also the drug addict loses moral
values.
Thinking ability is lessened and almost totally redirected to acquiring the
addictive drugs and to the spell the body casts when they are taken.
What we also recognize is that physician-prescribed drugs have precisely the
same actions. What we do not recognize is that the prescriptions,
administrations and treatments of all so-called healers have the very same
effects whether the medics are called physicians, homeopaths, chiropractors,
osteopaths, herbal doctors, acupuncturists, or whatever.
Their modalities devitalize while their ignorance of cause likewise continues to
devitalize and destroy.
Because treatments are more or less deadly and because causes are left
intact by those who treat the diseased, the situation gets progressively worse.
Those who get better do not become so because of the treatments. Better
health comes from self-healing which occurs despite, not because of,
treatments.
Under medical and other care, recovery takes place about 90% of the time.
Medical men, just as do herbologists, chiropractors, osteopaths, etc., attribute
healing to their intervention.
But the unrecognized truth is that witch doctors have a much higher "cure
rate" and that Hygienic practitioners have a nearly 100% recovery rate.
Healing always takes place to the extent of residual healing potential when
causes are discontinued and the conditions of health instituted.
What Health Really Is
Description of Health, Can we define health?
Yes, we can. Conventionally, a lack of obvious disease is regarded as a state
of health.
In actuality about 99% of our peoples are diseased in some manner or other
regardless of appearances.
Health may be defined as having fullness of function. Health means complete
well being, inner and outer harmony, vigor, strength, mental acuity, in short,
total fitness.
Perhaps no better statement of health has ever been made than that of Dr.
Herbert M. Shelton. I'm happy to quote his definition:
"Health is a condition of perfect development, a state of wholeness and
harmonious development and growth, an adaptation of part-to-part of the
organism, or organ-to-organ, with no part stunted and no part in excess.
In this state of organic development lies the perfection and symmetry of
beauty. Beauty is but the reflection of wholeness, of health. It is easy to
demonstrate that the forms and proportions of humans and every animal and
plant, which are in their highest and most useful state, are the most beautiful
and therefore the most healthy.
When every bone is of the best form and size for its service in the total
organism, there is perfect proportion. When every muscle is fully and
proportionally developed, with just enough of fat and the cellular tissues to
round out the muscles, we have the highest beauty of form.
When the texture of the skin is finest, when the circulation of the blood most
vigorous, the blood well-nourished and freed of all waste, there is the glow and
charm of the finest complexion.
The highest beauty is the expression of the highest health. Partial beauty,
fading beauty or decaying beauty—these are but expressions of partial, fading
or decaying health."
When we suffer any impairment or impediment we cannot be said to be in a
state of health. We can be in a relatively high state of health but to the extent
we do not enjoy perfection of body function, we are not healthy.
We live in a nation where disease is the norm of life rather than a rarity.
Beauty as Reflecting Health
Though our standards of beauty are rather low today, they still, nevertheless,
take note of the exceptionally beautiful.
Beauty, as a reflection of health and well-being, should be the norm, not the
exception. How many women have we seen whom are so lovely and beautiful
that we are drawn to them as a magnet?
How many men are so wholesome, so fit and handsome that they, likewise,
are irresistible to their female counterparts? I daresay such men and women
constitute less than 1% of our peoples.
The ability to appreciate beauty is highest in humans. And humans would
normally be the epitome of beauty if they lived in keeping with their birthright,
that is, their biological mandate.
We readily recognize beauty in birds, flowers, and other life in nature. But our
fellow humans, whether aged or young, whether nice or disagreeable, are, for
the most part, in some way repulsive to our aesthetic senses.
While it is not always true that athletes are superb examples of health, it is true
that all in superb health are quite athletic. Suppleness, agility, stamina,
strength, and vigor are qualities essential to a state of health.
Physiological function will be ideal in every respect to someone in full health.
A sense of euphoria, of joy, and of total well-being is a condition of health.
Healthy people usually wear smiles and pleasant countenances.
Glumness and a downcast disposition personify inner unhealthfulness.
Nothing sabotages beauty, function, happiness, and well being as a body shot
through with the poisons or toxins borne of bad living practices.
Life Science (Natural Hygiene) holds that perfect health is the norm of life. We
hold that all creatures in nature adapted perfectly to the conditions of life
under which they developed. They changed to cope with their environment
and their food supplies.
In nature, perfect health is the norm of existence. Animals have no knowledge
or concept about healthful living. They live healthfully naturally by doing only
what their instincts bid them do.
It would seem that with a technological society at the apex of development
human health would have kept pace and be better now than ever. The
contrary is true.
Humans are probably unhealthier now than at any time except the immediate
past, that is, the last ten to twenty centuries. In the Dark Ages and Medieval
times health was at an overall low.
Technological progress builds upon itself, and it is a credit to the human
heritage that we still have, even though in a degenerated state, sufficient
intelligence to develop and husband a highly technological society.
Even though affected by physical degeneracy, the brain is always the least
affected of organs in famine, disease, starvation, and physical debilitation.
Perfect health is possible if the conditions of health are ideal. With our
intelligence and extensive technology we can create the conditions for
healthful living practically anywhere in the world where humans live.
Health Is Normal and Natural
Over eons of time, organisms have developed to cope with changed
environmental conditions and food supplies that varied environments were
capable of producing.
Environments range from the ideal to the impossible for every creature on
earth, even microbial forms of life.
Perfection arises from adaptation—from coping with conditions. Adjustments
to every vagary of nature created organisms that functioned perfectly.
In humans and animals we witness what is obvious: health is normal and
natural. We see animals in nature being born, living their natural life spans
and dying naturally without once suffering the infirmities of sickness.
And for all our modern pathogenic practices we see humans more or less well
most of the time. In view of my Hygienic experience and by my observation of
hundreds of others who remain sickness-free under the Hygienic regime, there
is but one inescapable conclusion: health is a normal condition of life. It is our
birthright.
Life Science is truly a science of life for it is based soundly and scientifically
upon our biological requirements for thriving in perfect health.
Life Science or Natural Hygiene had its awakening in 1822 when Dr. Isaac
Jennings, who had a medical practice in Derby, Connecticut, despaired of
drugging.
In his many years of practice he was distressed to see his patients become
worse from the drugging modality. His patients died and many became
chronically afflicted. His yearning to help his fellow beings was sincere.
Dr. Jennings noted that as physicians became older they drugged less and
less. He did likewise and found his patients were faring better under less
drugging. Then he quit prescribing drugs altogether and found that it wrought
miracles.
When patients with problems came to Dr. Jennings he would dispense pills of
colored flour and vials of tinted waters. He gave strict instructions for their
use just as other physicians gave detailed instructions for the ingestion of
drugs.
But, in Dr. Jennings' case, he made a prescription that was to launch a great
health movement and an infant science.
In 1822 at age thirty-four Dr. Jennings gave his patients placebos with
instructions to take them at specified hours of the day with a glass of water.
His prescription was that no food could be taken, or else the pills would not
work.
His patients were ordered to do this for a number of days and then return for a
checkup. Upon return they would be terminated from the regimen or
continued on it "a few more days."
Under Dr. Jennings' new modality, his patients invariably became well. While
other physicians lost patients by the graveyard full, his thrived. The ailing
flocked to him from far and near.
The success of his "no-drugging" system astounded Dr. Jennings as much as
it did his patients and colleagues. Wisely, in his initial years, Dr. Jennings did
not reveal his "secrets."
Instead he sought the rationale for his success. He called his treatments "the
leave alone" method while professing to dispense pills of unnamed
composition. They came to be regarded as pills with magic curative
properties.
From this rather inauspicious start, Dr. Jennings began to develop a few laws
relative to his observations and experience. He called the system that flowed
from the employment of these laws "orthopathy" or correct affection.
Dr. Jennings, to his credit, saw disease not as an attack from some malevolent
entity but as lowered vital energy or vital energy redirected to other purposes.
His new outlook ventured that disease was caused by an ebb of the body's
energy supply. In essence he was correct, but his explanations were quite
formative for it remained for successors to build upon the foundations he
built.
Dr. Jennings may rightfully be ascribed as the father of Natural Hygiene or Life
Science, for he is the first to attempt a systematic ascertainment of the
physiology of health and disease.
The next illustrious forefather of the science of health was Sylvester Graham.
He was born six years after Dr. Jennings in 1794. He was a very sickly boy.
Becoming healthy was an obsession with him, which led him to study health.
He became well versed in anatomy and physiology. Before coming onto the
health scene, he was a Presbyterian preacher. In 1830 during the temperance
movement, he lectured in Philadelphia on the physiological evils of alcohol.
As a firebrand orator he was amazingly effective with large audiences. In
Philadelphia he expanded his knowledge of physiology and health and
became acquainted with the teachings of a "vegetarian" group who abstained
from animal foods and products and many modern ways of preparing foods.
In the great cholera "epidemic" of 1832 Sylvester Graham rose to fame. He
literally took on the whole medical fraternity of New York City and the interests
supporting the medical system.
While the medical men were advising New Yorkers to abstain from fruit and to
cook their food thoroughly, Dr. Graham was advocating eating more fruits in
the raw state.
He advocated open windows, more light, and fresh air and other healthful
measures which were contrary to medical teachings. It is noteworthy that
those who followed Dr. Graham’s teachings were not affected by the cholera
epidemic, whereas those who followed medical bidding died wholesale.
His fame as a health lecturer was well established in 1832 and he, more than
anyone else, gave health science a tremendous impetus. He was in demand
as a lecturer over the whole Eastern seaboard.
He appeared before audiences of several thousand. People flocked to his
lectures and listened to them raptly for hours in seeking salvation from
disease and suffering.
So effective was Dr. Sylvester Graham in his lectures and writings that books
and magazines blossomed presenting the "Graham system." The first health
food stores came into existence to sell foods, which he advocated.
Special eateries and living facilities were established for those who wanted to
follow his system. The name of Graham became synonymous with the
Hygienic diet and Hygienic living.
Where Dr. Isaac Jennings approached health and healing from the point of
view of helping people regain health, Dr. Sylvester Graham was instrumental
in teaching the touchstones of healthful living so that people would not
become ill in the first place.
During the 1840's, Dr. Jennings and Dr. Graham were joined by perhaps one
of the greatest geniuses the movement has produced, Dr. Russell Thacker
Trall, M.D.
His was an inquiring methodical mind that ever sought the rationale and
scientific basis for the concepts and findings developed by his predecessors.
Thus he brought the Hygienic system to a standard that could thoroughly
challenge the medical system.
In the 1870's the medical profession adopted the Pasteurian germ theory with
a passion. People found it much easier to blame their problems on little
mysterious beasties rather than on their mode of living.
No matter what they did they were absolved of responsibility for their
condition. The germ theory made them unfortunate victims of malevolent
entities over which they could exercise little control.
With the ushering in of the "germ era" came about the decline of Hygiene.
While the philosophy remains alive and still receives a good following, it has
been in continual decline relative to our population. In recent years there has
been growth in the ranks of those practicing Hygiene in their lives, but there
are yet only a few thousand devoted Hygienists.
The revival of Natural Hygiene in the 1920's owed much of its impetus to the
efforts of Bernarr McFadden and Dr. Herbert M. Shelton. Though there were
some great Hygienists in the early part of this century, notably Hereward
Carrington, Otto Carque, John H. Tilden, and Linda Burfield Hazzard, Dr.
Shelton became the acknowledged voice of Hygiene with the publication of
his immortal book, "Human Life, Its Philosophy And Laws" in 1927.
Though Dr. Shelton built upon the shoulders of his predecessors, he
produced such a wealth of literature with new findings and thoughts that he
added more to the science and art of healthful living than any other person.
He had the benefit of new findings, and his fertile mind generated a new body
of knowledge based on them.
Today the Hygienic movement still survives though it cannot be said that it
thrives. A few thousand Americans practice it conscientiously. A greater
multitude pay lip service to it and practice healthier living because of it.
But, by and large, Hygiene is almost completely out of the mainstream on the
American health scene.
By: rawfoodexplained.com
Article: The Medical Approach To Health And Disease
www.rawfoodexplained.com/introduction/discussion-of-the-medical-approach-
to-health-and-disease.html
The Erroneous Notion of "Cure"
By: rawfoodexplained.com
The idea behind medicine is more than 2,500 years old and, like most ideas
from behind the dark ages, it's very unscientific.
The premise is that the body is like a machine that can be repaired by outside
agencies. The machine goes wrong because of invading entities. In ancient
times these entities were evil spirits, demons, and devils, which had to be
exorcised.
By and by these evil spirits became known as little beasties called microbes,
germs, bacteria, viruses, and yet other appellations.
Medicine today has the concept of "cure" a word that has been perverted from
the original of "care."
Medicine itself means a curative or healing substance. The idea behind the
use of medicine is that the "medicine" acts within the organism that it seeks
out the trouble routs the invaders and effects in some manner the necessary
healing.
The medical concept of the modus operandi of drugs, which they call
medicines, is very hazy at best. But medicine is the harmful practices that
men do to try to help ailing people.
People go to physicians for medical intervention. They want to get "fixed up."
They're ailing. Something must be done lest they suffer grave consequences
or death.
Medical practitioners take advantage of the clients—they play upon their
fears. They applaud their clients for coming to them when they did. They
flatter them for this bit of "wisdom" and assure them that, if they do not do
something soon, grave dangers will ensue.
The medical man always has a course of treatment to suggest, invariably a
prescription of drugs and tests.
The idea is that the tests will reveal what is wrong and thereby determine what
drugs to prescribe or what steps to take, as in surgery.
That their beliefs and practices are, on the whole, precisely contrary to
biological science seems never to enter their minds.
There is no healing other than self-healing. All modalities can interfere with
healing but none can aid healing.
"Cures" Do Not Deal With Causes
Can you imagine trying to develop a drug to "cure" drunkenness without
going to the root of the whole matter, i.e., the drunkard's drinking habit? How
can we deal with drunkenness if the drunkard continues to drink?
This is what happens with the medical approach. They try to remedy effects
or symptoms without dealing with causes.
In reality they drug, butcher, and purge while almost totally ignoring basic
causes of physiological problems.
They resort to crippling surgery and treatments running into the thousands of
dollars when the problems can be simply and inexpensively solved by a
change in life practices.
Nothing happens without sufficient cause. All afflictions of the body must be
caused and the cause is almost always initiated by the sufferer.
Unless cause is discontinued the problem will always develop again, ever
more serious.
Nutritional and health science basically teach us two things:
1. To remove causes of problems and:
2. To establish the conditions of health.
Mastering and understanding the cause and effect of nutrition and health and
that diseases are suffered because the sufferer has indulged or been
subjected to harmful causes either mental or physical.
"Cures" Do Not Furnish the Needs of Life
To be returned to health the body must be provided with its requirements.
First, those substances, influences, and practices, which beget illnesses and
disease, must be discontinued.
Secondly, it is necessary to bring to the client the essentials of health. Very
simply these are pure air, pure water, correct diet, sunshine, exercise or
wholesome activity, adequate rest and sleep, emotional poise, security of life
and its means and yet other factor elements and influences.
If you reflect upon medical procedures it is obvious they do not try to
ascertain causes that are inherent in lifestyle and practices. They do what an
auto mechanic does—they try to find out which cylinder is missing and then
proceed as if the body can be repaired much in the manner of a vehicle.
They rarely advise about practices and beliefs, which cause problems. Since
most medical men are financially oriented, it is wise that they do not teach
correct habits. They'd be out of business if their clients became well.
"Cures" Destroy Body Vitality
Dr. Herbert M. Shelton must be proclaimed the greatest oracle of Hygienic
philosophy, principles, and practices unto this day.
He has noted that now we have more medical discoveries than ever before;
we have more medical practitioners than ever before; medical men enjoy more
respect than ever before (at least until recent years) and yet, for all this, we
also have more disease and suffering than ever before.
Why is this so?
Because, very simply, drugs destroy. They never build. It is not within the
province of drugs to create cells and replace body tissue.
Medical men would be the first to tell you this for they've studied physiology
too. But yet they act as if their drugs perform some kind of magic that will
effect healing.
What do drugs, when administered, really do?
In truth, drugs do nothing other than form chemical unions with body
compounds and fluids. When these chemical unions occur, the body suffers
distress.
When the character of a substance is determined as harmful by the body, it
goes into a frenzy. When it does this, it is stimulated.
Sometimes the body has a reaction of depression in which case it is sedated
or narcotized. This means function has been inhibited or paralyzed.
In both cases the reaction is one of self-protection against an unwelcome
intruder, in this case a poison even though it is called a medicine.
In causing an emergency in the body, drugs are harmful. The body must
redirect its energies from the healing process, which it is conducting.
The symptoms for which the drugs or medicines are administered are
evidences of the body's self-conducted healing process.
When drugs are ingested or injected, the body must leave off partially or
wholly the cleansing/healing efforts and attend to a greater threat which the
drugs represent.
When healing efforts are discontinued the symptoms disappear. Physicians
interpret the disappearance of symptoms as a "cure" or a healed condition.
They thus mistake drug or poison effects for healing effects. In reality the
body has more problems than before. For now it has, additional to its prior
problems, the problem of expelling a terrible poison too.
Medical And "Healing Art" Approaches Are Deadly And A DeadEnd.
We readily recognize that drug addicts take illicit drugs and eventually
become physiological wrecks as a result. Also the drug addict loses moral
values.
Thinking ability is lessened and almost totally redirected to acquiring the
addictive drugs and to the spell the body casts when they are taken.
What we also recognize is that physician-prescribed drugs have precisely the
same actions. What we do not recognize is that the prescriptions,
administrations and treatments of all so-called healers have the very same
effects whether the medics are called physicians, homeopaths, chiropractors,
osteopaths, herbal doctors, acupuncturists, or whatever.
Their modalities devitalize while their ignorance of cause likewise continues to
devitalize and destroy.
Because treatments are more or less deadly and because causes are left
intact by those who treat the diseased, the situation gets progressively worse.
Those who get better do not become so because of the treatments. Better
health comes from self-healing which occurs despite, not because of,
treatments.
Under medical and other care, recovery takes place about 90% of the time.
Medical men, just as do herbologists, chiropractors, osteopaths, etc., attribute
healing to their intervention.
But the unrecognized truth is that witch doctors have a much higher "cure
rate" and that Hygienic practitioners have a nearly 100% recovery rate.
Healing always takes place to the extent of residual healing potential when
causes are discontinued and the conditions of health instituted.
What Health Really Is
Description of Health, Can we define health?
Yes, we can. Conventionally, a lack of obvious disease is regarded as a state
of health.
In actuality about 99% of our peoples are diseased in some manner or other
regardless of appearances.
Health may be defined as having fullness of function. Health means complete
well being, inner and outer harmony, vigor, strength, mental acuity, in short,
total fitness.
Perhaps no better statement of health has ever been made than that of Dr.
Herbert M. Shelton. I'm happy to quote his definition:
"Health is a condition of perfect development, a state of wholeness and
harmonious development and growth, an adaptation of part-to-part of the
organism, or organ-to-organ, with no part stunted and no part in excess.
In this state of organic development lies the perfection and symmetry of
beauty. Beauty is but the reflection of wholeness, of health. It is easy to
demonstrate that the forms and proportions of humans and every animal and
plant, which are in their highest and most useful state, are the most beautiful
and therefore the most healthy.
When every bone is of the best form and size for its service in the total
organism, there is perfect proportion. When every muscle is fully and
proportionally developed, with just enough of fat and the cellular tissues to
round out the muscles, we have the highest beauty of form.
When the texture of the skin is finest, when the circulation of the blood most
vigorous, the blood well-nourished and freed of all waste, there is the glow and
charm of the finest complexion.
The highest beauty is the expression of the highest health. Partial beauty,
fading beauty or decaying beauty—these are but expressions of partial, fading
or decaying health."
When we suffer any impairment or impediment we cannot be said to be in a
state of health. We can be in a relatively high state of health but to the extent
we do not enjoy perfection of body function, we are not healthy.
We live in a nation where disease is the norm of life rather than a rarity.
Beauty as Reflecting Health
Though our standards of beauty are rather low today, they still, nevertheless,
take note of the exceptionally beautiful.
Beauty, as a reflection of health and well-being, should be the norm, not the
exception. How many women have we seen whom are so lovely and beautiful
that we are drawn to them as a magnet?
How many men are so wholesome, so fit and handsome that they, likewise,
are irresistible to their female counterparts? I daresay such men and women
constitute less than 1% of our peoples.
The ability to appreciate beauty is highest in humans. And humans would
normally be the epitome of beauty if they lived in keeping with their birthright,
that is, their biological mandate.
We readily recognize beauty in birds, flowers, and other life in nature. But our
fellow humans, whether aged or young, whether nice or disagreeable, are, for
the most part, in some way repulsive to our aesthetic senses.
While it is not always true that athletes are superb examples of health, it is true
that all in superb health are quite athletic. Suppleness, agility, stamina,
strength, and vigor are qualities essential to a state of health.
Physiological function will be ideal in every respect to someone in full health.
A sense of euphoria, of joy, and of total well-being is a condition of health.
Healthy people usually wear smiles and pleasant countenances.
Glumness and a downcast disposition personify inner unhealthfulness.
Nothing sabotages beauty, function, happiness, and well being as a body shot
through with the poisons or toxins borne of bad living practices.
Life Science (Natural Hygiene) holds that perfect health is the norm of life. We
hold that all creatures in nature adapted perfectly to the conditions of life
under which they developed. They changed to cope with their environment
and their food supplies.
In nature, perfect health is the norm of existence. Animals have no knowledge
or concept about healthful living. They live healthfully naturally by doing only
what their instincts bid them do.
It would seem that with a technological society at the apex of development
human health would have kept pace and be better now than ever. The
contrary is true.
Humans are probably unhealthier now than at any time except the immediate
past, that is, the last ten to twenty centuries. In the Dark Ages and Medieval
times health was at an overall low.
Technological progress builds upon itself, and it is a credit to the human
heritage that we still have, even though in a degenerated state, sufficient
intelligence to develop and husband a highly technological society.
Even though affected by physical degeneracy, the brain is always the least
affected of organs in famine, disease, starvation, and physical debilitation.
Perfect health is possible if the conditions of health are ideal. With our
intelligence and extensive technology we can create the conditions for
healthful living practically anywhere in the world where humans live.
Health Is Normal and Natural
Over eons of time, organisms have developed to cope with changed
environmental conditions and food supplies that varied environments were
capable of producing.
Environments range from the ideal to the impossible for every creature on
earth, even microbial forms of life.
Perfection arises from adaptation—from coping with conditions. Adjustments
to every vagary of nature created organisms that functioned perfectly.
In humans and animals we witness what is obvious: health is normal and
natural. We see animals in nature being born, living their natural life spans
and dying naturally without once suffering the infirmities of sickness.
And for all our modern pathogenic practices we see humans more or less well
most of the time. In view of my Hygienic experience and by my observation of
hundreds of others who remain sickness-free under the Hygienic regime, there
is but one inescapable conclusion: health is a normal condition of life. It is our
birthright.
Life Science is truly a science of life for it is based soundly and scientifically
upon our biological requirements for thriving in perfect health.
Life Science or Natural Hygiene had its awakening in 1822 when Dr. Isaac
Jennings, who had a medical practice in Derby, Connecticut, despaired of
drugging.
In his many years of practice he was distressed to see his patients become
worse from the drugging modality. His patients died and many became
chronically afflicted. His yearning to help his fellow beings was sincere.
Dr. Jennings noted that as physicians became older they drugged less and
less. He did likewise and found his patients were faring better under less
drugging. Then he quit prescribing drugs altogether and found that it wrought
miracles.
When patients with problems came to Dr. Jennings he would dispense pills of
colored flour and vials of tinted waters. He gave strict instructions for their
use just as other physicians gave detailed instructions for the ingestion of
drugs.
But, in Dr. Jennings' case, he made a prescription that was to launch a great
health movement and an infant science.
In 1822 at age thirty-four Dr. Jennings gave his patients placebos with
instructions to take them at specified hours of the day with a glass of water.
His prescription was that no food could be taken, or else the pills would not
work.
His patients were ordered to do this for a number of days and then return for a
checkup. Upon return they would be terminated from the regimen or
continued on it "a few more days."
Under Dr. Jennings' new modality, his patients invariably became well. While
other physicians lost patients by the graveyard full, his thrived. The ailing
flocked to him from far and near.
The success of his "no-drugging" system astounded Dr. Jennings as much as
it did his patients and colleagues. Wisely, in his initial years, Dr. Jennings did
not reveal his "secrets."
Instead he sought the rationale for his success. He called his treatments "the
leave alone" method while professing to dispense pills of unnamed
composition. They came to be regarded as pills with magic curative
properties.
From this rather inauspicious start, Dr. Jennings began to develop a few laws
relative to his observations and experience. He called the system that flowed
from the employment of these laws "orthopathy" or correct affection.
Dr. Jennings, to his credit, saw disease not as an attack from some malevolent
entity but as lowered vital energy or vital energy redirected to other purposes.
His new outlook ventured that disease was caused by an ebb of the body's
energy supply. In essence he was correct, but his explanations were quite
formative for it remained for successors to build upon the foundations he
built.
Dr. Jennings may rightfully be ascribed as the father of Natural Hygiene or Life
Science, for he is the first to attempt a systematic ascertainment of the
physiology of health and disease.
The next illustrious forefather of the science of health was Sylvester Graham.
He was born six years after Dr. Jennings in 1794. He was a very sickly boy.
Becoming healthy was an obsession with him, which led him to study health.
He became well versed in anatomy and physiology. Before coming onto the
health scene, he was a Presbyterian preacher. In 1830 during the temperance
movement, he lectured in Philadelphia on the physiological evils of alcohol.
As a firebrand orator he was amazingly effective with large audiences. In
Philadelphia he expanded his knowledge of physiology and health and
became acquainted with the teachings of a "vegetarian" group who abstained
from animal foods and products and many modern ways of preparing foods.
In the great cholera "epidemic" of 1832 Sylvester Graham rose to fame. He
literally took on the whole medical fraternity of New York City and the interests
supporting the medical system.
While the medical men were advising New Yorkers to abstain from fruit and to
cook their food thoroughly, Dr. Graham was advocating eating more fruits in
the raw state.
He advocated open windows, more light, and fresh air and other healthful
measures which were contrary to medical teachings. It is noteworthy that
those who followed Dr. Graham’s teachings were not affected by the cholera
epidemic, whereas those who followed medical bidding died wholesale.
His fame as a health lecturer was well established in 1832 and he, more than
anyone else, gave health science a tremendous impetus. He was in demand
as a lecturer over the whole Eastern seaboard.
He appeared before audiences of several thousand. People flocked to his
lectures and listened to them raptly for hours in seeking salvation from
disease and suffering.
So effective was Dr. Sylvester Graham in his lectures and writings that books
and magazines blossomed presenting the "Graham system." The first health
food stores came into existence to sell foods, which he advocated.
Special eateries and living facilities were established for those who wanted to
follow his system. The name of Graham became synonymous with the
Hygienic diet and Hygienic living.
Where Dr. Isaac Jennings approached health and healing from the point of
view of helping people regain health, Dr. Sylvester Graham was instrumental
in teaching the touchstones of healthful living so that people would not
become ill in the first place.
During the 1840's, Dr. Jennings and Dr. Graham were joined by perhaps one
of the greatest geniuses the movement has produced, Dr. Russell Thacker
Trall, M.D.
His was an inquiring methodical mind that ever sought the rationale and
scientific basis for the concepts and findings developed by his predecessors.
Thus he brought the Hygienic system to a standard that could thoroughly
challenge the medical system.
In the 1870's the medical profession adopted the Pasteurian germ theory with
a passion. People found it much easier to blame their problems on little
mysterious beasties rather than on their mode of living.
No matter what they did they were absolved of responsibility for their
condition. The germ theory made them unfortunate victims of malevolent
entities over which they could exercise little control.
With the ushering in of the "germ era" came about the decline of Hygiene.
While the philosophy remains alive and still receives a good following, it has
been in continual decline relative to our population. In recent years there has
been growth in the ranks of those practicing Hygiene in their lives, but there
are yet only a few thousand devoted Hygienists.
The revival of Natural Hygiene in the 1920's owed much of its impetus to the
efforts of Bernarr McFadden and Dr. Herbert M. Shelton. Though there were
some great Hygienists in the early part of this century, notably Hereward
Carrington, Otto Carque, John H. Tilden, and Linda Burfield Hazzard, Dr.
Shelton became the acknowledged voice of Hygiene with the publication of
his immortal book, "Human Life, Its Philosophy And Laws" in 1927.
Though Dr. Shelton built upon the shoulders of his predecessors, he
produced such a wealth of literature with new findings and thoughts that he
added more to the science and art of healthful living than any other person.
He had the benefit of new findings, and his fertile mind generated a new body
of knowledge based on them.
Today the Hygienic movement still survives though it cannot be said that it
thrives. A few thousand Americans practice it conscientiously. A greater
multitude pay lip service to it and practice healthier living because of it.
But, by and large, Hygiene is almost completely out of the mainstream on the
American health scene.
By: rawfoodexplained.com
Article: The Medical Approach To Health And Disease
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