Books: Nature Cure
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Henry Lindlahr >> Nature Cure
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In thousands of cases we have thus cured female troubles without
poisonous drugs or surgical operations, simply by improving the
digestion, purifying the blood and invigorating the abdominal organs
in a natural manner.
On the other hand, almost daily we meet with instances of untold
suffering as the direct consequence of operations, the use of
pessaries, etc., which only served to weaken the genital organs
still more and resulted in all sorts of complications,
inflammations, adhesions, etc., and in many cases in malignant
tumors.
In this connection I would warn especially against the use of
pessaries. They are at best only a mechanical contrivance, and do
not add anything to the improvement of the diseased condition. On
the other hand, they irritate the abdominal organs by excessive
pressure, which in many instances produces inflammation of the
neighboring tissues and abnormal growths.
Suppressing inflammation of the genital organs by poisonous
antiseptics, sprays, tampons or other local applications only tends
to aggravate the chronic conditions. Curetting (scraping) the womb
does not cure the catarrhal affection, but only serves to destroy
its delicate mucous lining and to suppress catarrhal elimination.
Holding up the womb by means of a pessary in order to strengthen its
muscles and ligaments is about as reasonable and effective as to try
to strengthen a weak arm by carrying it in a sling. Replacing or
removing misplaced or affected organs by means of surgery does not
contribute anything toward correcting the causes of these abnormal
conditions, but in many instances makes a real cure impossible. How
can an organ be cured after it has been extirpated with the knife?
It is a fact known to every observing physician that from fifty to
seventy-five percent of all women have some kind of misplacement of
the genital organs and that only a comparatively small number of
these suffer from local disturbances, indicating that, in most
cases, misplacement alone will not create serious trouble.
It is ridiculous to assume that the small, flabby uterus of an
anemic woman can block the rectum and cause disease, but it is an
excellent talking point, as effective in bringing victims to the
operating table as appendicitis with its fairy tales of seeds and
foreign bodies lodging in the appendix vermiformis.
While studying Nature Cure in Germany, I took special courses in the
Thure-Brandt Massage. By means of this internal manipulative
treatment, weakness of ligaments and muscles, displacements,
adhesions, etc., can be corrected without the use of knife or drugs.
During my first years in practice, I frequently resorted to the
internal manual treatment with good results; but I found that in
most cases it was not at all necessary in order to produce perfect
cures.
I saw that chiropractic and osteopathic correction of spinal and
pelvic lesions and consequent removal of irritation and pressure on
the nerves, the cure of chronic constipation and malnutrition by
pure food diet and hydrotherapy, the strengthening of the pelvic
muscles and nerves by means of active and passive movements and
exercises, were fully sufficient to correct the local symptoms in a
natural manner. Thousands of cases cured by us by these methods
attest the truth of our statements; while those who failed to
understand the simple reasoning of the Nature Cure philosophy or
lacked will power to withstand the arguments of friends and
physicians followed the siren call of the operating table and have
been sorry for it ever since.
In case of operation for misplacement of the womb, it is necessary,
in order to keep the womb in its new position, to stitch it to the
frontal abdominal wall. Very frequently it will not stay there,
breaks loose, and relapses into an abnormal position. Granted that
it remains fixed, woe to the woman if she becomes pregnant. The womb
cannot assume the constantly changing positions of pregnancy, and
the result is either abortion or malformation of the fetus, together
with great and constant suffering to the woman.
The operation has done nothing to correct unnatural habits of living
or to purify the system of its scrofulous and psoriatic taints, of
drug and food poisons. Frequently these gather in the parts that
have been weakened and irritated by the antiseptics and by the
surgeon's knife, and set up new inflammations, ulcerations and only
too often malignant tumors. As a result, one operation follows
another.
We cannot cut in the genital organs without cutting in the brain.
The nervous system is a unit, and the brain is directly and
intimately connected with the complex and highly sensitive nerve
centers of the genital organs. Mutilation of the genital nerve
centers, therefore, invariably affects the brain, and thus the
intellectual and emotional life of a woman. It is almost axiomatic
that a woman whose uterus or ovaries have been removed or mutilated
is afterward mentally and emotionally more or less abnormal.
Nervousness, irritability and only too often nervous prostration and
insanity are the sequelae of operative treatment.
In medical colleges, among students and professors, these facts are
freely admitted and discussed, but the prospective patient hears a
different story. "Cut loose the womb, shorten the ligaments, put it
into the right position, and everything will be well." This sounds
plausible and seductive; but everyday experiences expose the
inadequacy and the destructive aftereffects of local symptomatic
treatment.
The Climacteric or Change of Life
Under our artificial methods of living, the ~climacteric~ or change
of life, has become the bugbear of womanhood. It seems to be
universally assumed that this period in a woman's life must be
fraught with manifold sufferings and dangers. It is taken as a
matter of course that during these changes in her organism a woman
is assailed by the most serious physical, mental, and psychic
ailments which may endanger her sanity and often her life.
Like rheumatism, neurasthenia, neuralgia and hundreds of other
medical terms, "change of life" is a convenient phrase to cover the
doctor's ignorance. No matter what ailments befall a woman during
the years from forty to fifty, may the causes be ever so obscure,
the diagnosis is easy. "You are in the climacteric, you are
suffering from the change of life," says the doctor, and the patient
is satisfied and resigns herself to the inevitable.
Frequently women come to us for consultation, and after reciting a
long string of troubles they conclude with the remark: "Of course,
doctor, I'm in the change, and I know that lots of these things are
natural at my time of life."
Is it true that all this suffering is natural and inevitable? Among
the primitive races of the earth suffering incident to the change of
life is practically unknown. The same is true in a lesser degree of
the country population of Europe. The causes of it must, therefore,
be sought in the artificial modes of living peculiar to our
hypercivilization and in the unnatural methods of treating disease
as commonly practiced.
Which are the specific causes of the profound disturbances so often
accompanying the organic changes of the climacteric?
Aside from their other physiological functions, the menses are for
the woman a monthly cleansing crisis through which Nature eliminates
from her system considerable amounts of waste and morbid matter
which, under a natural regime of life, would be discharged by means
of the organs of depuration, that is, the lungs, skin, kidneys and
bowels.
The more natural the life and the more normal, as the result of
this, the woman's physical condition, the shorter and less annoying
and painful, within certain limits, will be the menstrual periods.
Through unnatural habits of eating, drinking, dressing, breathing
and through equally unnatural methods of medical treatment, the
kidneys, skin and bowels have become inactive, benumbed or
paralyzed. As long as the vicarious monthly purification by means of
the menses continues, the evil results of the torpid condition of
the regular organs of depuration do not become so apparent. The
organism has learned to adapt itself to this mode of elimination.
But when, on account of the organic changes of the climacteric,
menstruation ceases, then the systemic poisons, which formerly were
eliminated by means of this monthly purification, accumulate in the
system and become the source of all manner of trouble. All
tendencies to physical, mental or psychic disease are greatly
intensified. The poisonous taints circulating in the blood
overstimulate or else depress and paralyze the brain and the nervous
system. As a consequence, mental and psychic disorders are of common
occurrence; the more so because the waning of the sex functions is
accompanied by a tendency to negativity and hypersensitiveness.
How Can the Ailments of the Climacteric Be Avoided or Cured?
Is it not self-evident that the easiest way to sidestep the troubles
incident to this critical period and to reestablish the perfect
equilibrium of the organism lies in restoring the natural activity
of the organs of elimination?
This is what Nature Cure accomplishes easily and successfully with
its natural methods of treatment. Air and sun baths, water
treatments and massage bring new life and activity to the enervated
skin. Pure food diet, chiropractic and osteopathic treatment,
curative gymnastics, homeopathic or herb remedies restore the
natural tonicity and functioning of the stomach, liver, kidneys and
intestines. Mental therapeutics, systematically practiced, make
every cell in the body vibrant with the higher and finer forces of
the mental and spiritual planes of being.
When the natural equilibrium of the organism is thus restored, there
is absolutely no occasion for the troubles of the climacteric. We
have proved this in hundreds of cases. As kidneys, skin and bowels
begin to function normally and freely, physical and mental
conditions commence to improve, and one after another the dreaded
symptoms disappear.
Let us compare with this common sense, natural treatment the
orthodox medical practice in such cases:
The medical treatment, as usual, is entirely symptomatic. The
sluggish organs of elimination are prodded by poisonous cathartics,
laxatives, diaphoretics, cholagogues and tonics, all of which, after
temporary stimulation, leave the organs in a more weakened and the
system in a more poisoned condition. If brain and nerves are
irritated and aching, sedatives and hypnotics are given to stupefy
them into insensibility. If the heart action is weak and irregular,
it is whipped up by poisonous stimulants; if too fast, it is checked
and paralyzed by sedatives and depressants.
Thus, instead of removing the underlying causes, every symptom is
promptly suppressed. Drug poisons are added to the waste and morbid
matter which are already clogging the channels of life. And, of
course, under such unnatural treatment, in many instances things go
from bad to worse. Flushes, headaches, rheumatic and neuralgic
pains, melancholia, irritability, mental aberration, partial
paralysis and a multitude of other symptoms appear and gradually
increase in severity.
When the family physician has arrived at the end of his wits, the
surgeon has his innings, and leaves the patient in a still worse
condition of chronic suffering.
These experiences are so common that the manifold troubles of the
climacteric are regarded as unavoidable and as a matter of course.
Here, as in so many other instances, people fail to see that it is
the treatment which prevents the cure. If the efficiency of common
sense, natural treatment were more widely known and recognized, how
much unnecessary suffering could be avoided.
Chapter XIII
The Treatment of Acute Diseases by Natural Methods
In the preceding chapters we have described the results of the
wrong, that is, suppressive treatment of acute diseases. We shall
now proceed to describe the simple and uniform methods of natural
treatment.
If the uniformity of acute diseases be a fact in Nature, then it
follows that it must be possible to treat all acute diseases by
uniform methods.
That it is possible to treat all acute diseases most successfully by
natural methods, which anybody possessed of ordinary intelligence
can apply, has been demonstrated for more than seventy years by the
Nature Cure practitioners in Germany, and by myself during the last
ten years in an extensive practice.
One of the many advantages of natural treatment is that it may be
applied right from the beginning, as soon as the first symptoms of
acute febrile conditions manifest themselves. It is not necessary to
wait for a correct diagnosis of the case.
The regular physician, with his specific treatment for the multitude
of specific diseases which he recognizes, often has to wait several
days or even weeks before the real nature of the disease becomes
clear to him, before he is able to diagnose the case or even to make
a good guess. The conscientious medical practitioner has to postpone
actual treatment until the symptoms are well defined. Meanwhile he
applies expectant treatment as it is called in medical parlance,
that is, he gives a purgative or a placebo, something or other to
placate, or to make the patient and his friends believe that
something is being done.
But during this period of indecision and inaction very often the
best opportunity for aiding Nature in her healing efforts is lost,
and the inflammatory processes may reach such virulence that it
becomes very difficult or even impossible to keep them within
constructive limits. The bonfire that was to burn up the rubbish on
the premises may, if not watched and tended, assume such proportions
that it damages or destroys the house.
It must also be borne in mind that very frequently acute diseases do
not present the well-defined sets of symptoms which fit into the
accepted medical conception of certain specific ailments. On the
contrary, in many instances the symptoms suggest a combination of
different forms of acute diseases.
If the character of the disease is ill-defined and complicated, how,
then, is the physician of the "Old School" to select the proper
specific remedy, Under such circumstances, the diagnosis of the case
as well as the medical treatment will at best be largely guesswork.
Compare with this unreliable and unsatisfactory treatment the simple
and scientific, exact and efficient natural methods. The natural
remedies can be applied from the first, at the slightest
manifestation of inflammatory and febrile symptoms. No matter what
the specific nature or trend of the inflammatory process, whether it
be a simple cold, or whether it take the form of measles, scarlet
fever, diphtheria, smallpox, appendicitis, etc.--it makes absolutely
no difference in the mode of treatment. In many instances the
natural treatment will have broken the virulence of the attack or
brought about a cure before the regular physician gets good and
ready to apply his specific treatment.
In the following I shall describe briefly these natural methods for
the treatment of acute diseases which insure the largest possible
percentage of recoveries and at the same time do not in any way tax
the system, cause undesirable aftereffects or lead to the different
forms of chronic invalidism.
The Natural Remedies
The most important ones of these natural remedies can be had free of
cost in any home. They are: air, fasting or eliminative diets,
water, and the right mental attitude.
I am fully convinced that these remedies offered freely by Mother
Nature are sufficient, if rightly applied, to cure any acute disease
arising within the organism. If circumstances permit, however, we
may advantageously add corrective manipulation of the spine,
massage, magnetic treatment, advanced regenerative modalities (like
the Magnatherm) and homeopathic, herbal and specific nutritional
supplementation.
The Fresh-Air Treatment
A plentiful supply of pure fresh air is of vital importance at any
time. We can live without food for several weeks and without water
for several days, but we cannot live without air for more than a few
minutes. Just as a fire in the furnace cannot be kept up without a
good draft which supplies the necessary amount of oxygen to the
flame, so the fires of life in the body cannot be maintained without
an abundance of oxygen in the air we breathe.
This is of vital importance at all times, but especially so in acute
disease, because here, as we have learned, all the vital processes
are intensified. The system is working under high pressure. Large
quantities of waste and morbid materials, the products of
inflam-mation, have to be oxidized, that is, burned up and
eliminated from the system.
In this respect the Nature Cure people have brought about one of the
greatest reforms in medical treatment: the admission of plenty of
fresh air to the sickroom.
But, strange to say, the importance of this most essential natural
remedy is as yet not universally recognized by the representatives
of the regular school of medicine. Time and again I have been called
to sickrooms where by order of the doctor every window was closed
and the room filled with pestilential odors, the poisonous
exhalations of the diseased organism added to the stale air of the
unventilated and often overheated apartment. And this air starvation
had been enforced by graduates of our best medical schools and
colleges. This unnatural and inexcusable crime against the sick is
committed even at this late day in our great hospitals under the
direct supervision of physicians who are foremost in their
profession.
It is not the cold draft that is to be feared in the sickroom. Cool
air is most agreeable and beneficial to the body burning in fever
heat. What is to be feared is the reinhalation and reabsorption of
poisonous emanations from the lungs and skin of the diseased body.
Furthermore, the ventilation of a room can be so regulated as to
provide a constant and plentiful supply of fresh air without
expos-ing its occupants to a direct draft. Where there is only one
window and one door, both may be opened and a sheet or blanket hung
across the opening of the door, or the single window may be opened
partly from above and partly from below, which insures the entrance
of fresh, cold air at the bottom and the expulsion of the heated and
vitiated air at the top. The patient may be protected by a screen,
or a board may be placed across the lower part of the window in such
manner that a direct current of air upon the patient is prevented.
In very cold weather, or if conditions are not favorable to constant
ventilation of the sickroom, the doors and windows may be opened
wide for several minutes every few hours, while the patient's body
and head are well protected. There is absolutely no danger of taking
cold if these precautions are taken. Under right conditions of room
temperature, frequent exposure of the patient's nude body to air and
the sunlight will be found most beneficial and will often induce
sleep when other means fail.
I would strongly warn against keeping the patient too warm. This is
especially dangerous in the case of young children, who cannot use
their own judgment or make their wishes known. I have frequently
found children in high fever smothered in heavy blankets under the
mistaken impression on the part of the attendants that they had to
be kept warm and protected against possible draft. In many instances
the air under the covers was actually steaming hot. This surely does
not tend to reduce the burning fever heat in the body of the
patient.
"Natural Diet" in Acute Diseases
From the appearance of the first suspicious symptoms until the fever
has abated and there is a hearty, natural hunger, feeding should be
reduced to a minimum or better still, entirely suspended.
In cases of extreme weakness, and where the acute and subacute
processes are long drawn out and the patient has become greatly
emaciated, it is advisable to give such easily digestible foods as
white of egg, milk, buttermilk and whole grain bread with butter in
combination with raw and stewed fruits and with vegetable salads
prepared with lemon juice and olive oil.
The quantity of drinking water should be regulated by the desire of
the patient, but he should be warned not to take any more than is
necessary to satisfy his thirst. Large amounts of water taken into
the system dilute the blood and the other fluids and secretions of
the organism to an excessive degree, and this tends to increase the
general weakness and lower the patient's resistance to the disease
forces.
Water may be made more palatable and at the same time more effective
for purposes of elimination by the addition of the unsweetened juice
of acid fruits, such as orange, grapefruit or lemon, about one part
of juice to three parts of water. Fresh pineapple juice is very good
except in cases of hyperacidity of the stomach. The fresh,
unsweetened juice of Concord grapes is also beneficial.
Acid and subacid fruit juices do not contain sufficient carbohydrate
or protein materials to unduly excite the digestive processes, while
on the other hand they are very rich in Nature's best medicines, the
mineral salts in organic form. Sweet grapes and sweetened grape
juice should not be given to patients suffering from acute, febrile
diseases because they contain too much sugar, which would have a
tendency to start the processes of digestion and assimilation, to
cause morbid fermentation and to raise the temperature and
accelerate the other disease symptoms.
Fasting
Total abstinence from food during acute febrile conditions is of
primary importance. In certain diseases which will be mentioned
later on, especially those involving the digestive tract, fasting
must be continued for several days after all fever symptoms have
disappeared.
There is no greater fallacy than that the patient must be sustained
and his strength kept up by plenty of nourishing food and drink or,
worse still, by stimulants and tonics. This is altogether wrong in
itself, and besides, habit and appetite are often mistaken for
hunger.
A common spectacle witnessed at the bedside of the sick is that of
well-meaning but misguided relatives and friends forcing food and
drink on the patient, often by order of the doctor, when his whole
system rebels against it and the nauseated stomach expels the food
as soon as taken. Sedatives and tonics are then resorted to in order
to force the digestive organs into submission.
Aversion to eating during acute diseases, whether they represent
healing crises or disease crises, is perfectly natural, because the
entire organism, including the mucous membranes of stomach and
intestines, is engaged in the work of elimination, not assimilation.
Nausea, slimy and fetid discharges, constipation alternating with
diarrhea, etc., indicate that the organs of digestion are throwing
off disease matter, and that they are not in a condition to take up
and assimilate food.
Ordinarily, the digestive tract acts like a sponge which absorbs the
elements of nutrition; but in acute diseases the process is
reversed, the sponge is being squeezed and gives off large
quantities of morbid matter. The processes of digestion and
assimilation are at a standstill. In fact, the entire organism is in
a condition of prostration, weakness and inactivity. The vital
energies are concentrated on the cleansing and healing processes.
Accordingly, there is no demand for food.
This is verified by the fact that a person fasting for a certain
period, say, four weeks, during the course of a serious acute
illness, will not lose nearly as much in weight as the same person
fasting four weeks in days of healthful activity.
It is for the foregoing reasons that nourishment taken during acute
disease is not properly digested, assimilated and transmuted into healthy
blood and tissues. Instead, it ferments and decays, filling the
system with waste matter and noxious gases. interferes seriously
with the elimination of morbid matter through stomach and intestines
by forcing these organs to take up the work of digestion and
assimilation. diverts the vital forces from their combat against the
disease conditions and draws upon them to remove the worse than
useless food ballast from the organism.
This explains why taking food during feverish diseases is usually
followed by a rise in temperature and by aggravation of the other
disease symptoms. As long as there are signs of inflammatory,
febrile conditions and no appetite, do not be afraid to withhold
food entirely, if necessary, for as long as five, six or seven
weeks. In my practice I have had several patients who did not take
any food, except water to which acid fruit juices had been added,
for more than seven weeks, and then made a rapid and complete
recovery.
In cases of gastritis, appendicitis, peritonitis, dysentery or
typhoid fever, abstinence from food is absolutely imperative. Not
even milk should be taken until fever and inflammation have entirely
subsided, and then a few days should be allowed for the healing and
restoring of the injured tissues. Many of the serious chronic
aftereffects of these diseases are due to too early feeding, which
does not allow the healing forces of Nature time to rebuild sloughed
membranes and injured organs.
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