A “diseased” condition develops when we fail to maintain health; it is the absence of health. Disease is not always some entity which drives out and overcomes health. The true science of conquering disease is to do so by restoring the health rather than to expect to restore the health by conquering disease. Health is maintained by forces which are always persistently at work, which need to have all hindrances to their work removed and all possible assistance given.
Possibly too much attention has been given to the study of disease, and not enough to the study of health, that the study of health has been approached from the standpoint of disease. It is certain that the study of sick, diseased bodies is much more common than the study of sound, healthy ones. To propose reversing this may seem to be like asking one to “stand on his head to get a right point of view,” and yet that change in outlook is the very thing that is needed. …
“Disease is an effort of nature to free the system from conditions that result from a violation of the laws of health. In case of sickness, the cause should be ascertained. Unhealthful conditions should be changed, wrong habits corrected. Then nature is to be assisted in her effort to expel impurities and to re-establish right conditions in the system.” The Ministry of Healing, 127.
A Balanced Program
There ought to be a way of daily living which will keep its adherents in good health so that they may perform the ordinary duties of life with ease and without undue fatigue, that the daily rounds of life may be one continuous pleasure rather than a struggle to “keep going” from the sheer force of necessity.
Such a happy way of living consists of a balanced program, which must include among other items:
- Perfect nutrition—natural foods, raw and cooked, proportioned to provide the right amount of protein to repair the body cells, starch, sugar and fat to supply heat and energy for the body and its activities, with water, minerals, and vitamins to sustain all of the life processes—a program of feeding which will nourish every organ, gland and cell in the body. …
- A proper amount of exercise to maintain good circulation of the blood that it may promptly bring fresh supplies of oxygen and food to the body cells and quickly transport their wastes to the skin, lungs, and kidneys for elimination so that toxins will not be allowed to accumulate in the body.
The Body’s Life
The body is built of cells. All body functions are associated with the function of cells. If the cells are normal, the organs and body are normal, and that is health.
The life is in the cell. The continuance of the life and functions of cells is made possible by forces which reside in air, sunshine, water, and food.
Plants can attain perfect development only when all of the elements they need for life and growth are in the soil.
“A plant, in order to obtain perfect growth, must find in soil a certain minimum of each of many elements. Consider, for example, the element potassium. Suppose only half of the necessary amount of potassium be present, then no matter how abundant may be all the other soil and air constituents, their normal utilization is limited to one-half. The rate of growth and the ultimate development of the plant are consequently depressed. Applying this principle to food absorption, showing that the lack of any one mineral requirement in the body will, to the extent it is lacking, thereby deprive the system of the ability to utilize all of the minerals present.” Dr. F. G. Hoskins, Cambridge University.
This is similar to the maxim the sages gave us long ago—“a chain is no stronger than its weakest link.” This seems to be so clear that it is useless to dispute it, and yet, when applied to a balanced ration it is almost revolutionary.
Animals—cows, horses, pigs, chickens—are the most profitable when fed scientifically.
The average farmer knows more about fertilizing the soil so that it may bring forth proper crops; the feeding of a balanced ration to the hens that they will lay a goodly number of eggs, and to the cows that they may give a profitable supply of milk, than he does about feeding those for whom all these things exist—himself and his family.
The average mother knows less about the foods needed to nourish the inside of the bodies of her children than about the style of the clothes for the outside. She does not discern that the body is more than the raiment.
Animals in the laboratory can be kept in good health, or fall ill with common ailments and diseases similar to ours, according to the food given them.
The engine of the automobile is “fed” scientifically to secure the greatest efficiency and the longest service.
Man alone—he who is lord of all living creatures and of every mechanical device, and who holds their destiny in his hands—too often eats according to the caprice of appetite and does not use as good judgment concerning his own health as he does in the protection of the animate and inanimate things under his care.
The Life-Span Is Decreasing
Man is the only creature given to the practice of self-destroying habits. Because of such habits, degenerative diseases of the vital organs are rapidly increasing with a consequent shortening of the life span. The much-lauded reports that human life is lengthening are deceptive in that they give a false impression. Through better care of babies and their mothers, and by better control of contagious and infectious diseases, more children grow to adult life than formerly; but when they reach adult life—age forty—they have already indulged in so many life-destroying habits that, on the average, they will not live as long as their grandparents did. “The young live longer but the old die sooner.” People do not live longer, but more babies grow up to adult life and this increases the average length of all lives. The age limit is lowering at the same time the average length of life is increasing. We cannot continue indefinitely to add to the average length of life by conquering infectious diseases, because when they are wiped out there will be no more to conquer, but degenerative diseases are increasing with accelerating rapidity.
Excerpts from Abundant Health, Northwestern Publishing Association, 1951, 1–11.