THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF NATURE CURE


A further element of nature cure practice is manipulative surgery which proves of inestimable value in sprains, dislocations, fractures, joint malfunctions, maladjustments of spinal vertebrae, foot deformities, wry neck, certain forms of paralysis, and even deafness.


ORTHODOX MEDICINE V. NATURE CURE.

PHYSICAL EXERCISE.

Apart from fasting and diet there are other aids in natural therapy for all who have reason to dislike and distrust so-called scientific medicine. Physical exercise is a potent remedy for numerous disorders. When a person takes very little exercise the muscular tissue throughout the body gets small and flabby, the blood and lymph streams run sluggishly, the oxygen intake is diminished and a general state of enervation sets in.

Such a person if not actually suffering is usually chronically tired and misses most of the natural joy of being alive. Later on, especially if his nutrition is unsatisfactory, the heart muscle fibres decrease and atrophy, and frequently they are invaded by fat cells producing the condition of fatty degeneration of the organ. Also any tendency there may be for the blood vessels to lose their elasticity and harden is accelerated by an inactive life.

Lack of regular periods of physical exercise and its physiological effect on the vital organs is one of the reasons why many die off well before their time from the normally harmless healing crises of pneumonia, influenza and infectious fevers.

No matter how satisfactory a diet one is on perfect metabolism cannot take place nor a high degree of vitality be enjoyed unless the body is constantly vitalized by exercise. The popularity of all organized outdoor sports, walking, mountaineering and private physical culture systems shows that the public are beginning to learn the immediate benefits to health they afford.

Indeed a large percentage of people actually stave off for years most of the ill effects of an improper dietary by burning up and sweating out toxins in the gymnasium and by hard manual work. Professor F. A. Bainbridge, M.D., D. Sc., F.R.S., in his book The Physiology of Muscular Exercise, wrote:.

“The speeding up of the metabolic activity of the body which is a characteristic feature of exercise, involves the more rapid utilization of reserve nutritive material and probably also the more complete oxidation of these materials within the cells. In this way it prevents the cells from being charged with substances awaiting combustion, or with waste products awaiting removal, and enables the lamp of life to burn more brightly.”.

As a form of treatment systematic exercise whether through engagement in sport or the adoption of a physical culture system is in many cases a specific cure for constipation, catarrh, gastritis, neurasthenia and rheumatism. There is nothing better known for neuroses, depression, melancholia and morbid obsessions conditions which are only too frequently left to the sympathetic and often absurd administration of a psycho-analyst.

An excellent treatment for a dropped stomach, intestine or womb consists in specific abdominal movements to strengthen the local musculature. Amongst the major diseases diabetes and certain forms of heart disease are those which show the most striking response to regular and careful exercising.

BATHS.

From the earliest times baths and water treatments have been regarded as invaluable measures in toning up the general health and expelling disease. They act by providing a strong stimulation to the skin, which is a most important organ for the elimination of toxins. If the skin were vanished over to occlude all the pores the victim would die in few hours from an acute toxaemia, which proves that an enormous and vital interchange is constantly taking place all over the surface of the body.

The skin under the condition of modern life is a much abused organ, most of it rarely seeing the light of day let alone a bath; and this is a state of affairs that a remedy should be found for.

Both air and water baths are a great tonic to the body and should be indulged in by everyone as often as the opportunity permits. Cold water baths, however, are usually only taken by healthy people and they require a degree of usage. In return they give the blessing of a high amount of vitality and resistance to infections and in particular to respiratory infections.

Warm water baths are generally indicated as a detoxication measure for those not in health, and they possess curative properties in rheumatism and skin diseases. They are specifically indicated as routine treatment in all acute fevers from the common cold to plague, so as to remove via the pores a quantity of the offending morbific matter in the blood stream. The eliminative effect of a warm bath is increased by adding a few pounds of Epsom salts to the water.

Alternative hot and cold sitz baths are splendid local treatment for piles, proctitis, pruritus ani, varicocele and other disturbances of the genito-urinary tract. A sitz bath is easily improvised by sitting down in a large tub of water with the knees flexed. One should remain in hot water for five minutes and transfer to cold water for one minute, and repeat the operation three or four times ending up in very cold water.

Hot foot baths are usually prescribed for insomnia and menstrual disorders. Russian and Turkish steam baths are very powerful means to force elimination through the skin, and where nothing else contra- indicates, will find their best uses in chronic arthritis, cancer, gout, psoriasis, eczema, spirochaetosis and tetanus.

The wet pack treatment is often used to prolong the period of elimination in the height of a fever, like smallpox, typhus, septicaemia or pneumonia. The patient is enveloped in an application which has been wrung out of cold water and further enveloped in flannel and put to bed. The most heat generated is a powerful skin stimulant and profuse sweating occurs.

A similar procedure is employed in acute nephritis with the obvious aim of relieving the damaged kidneys of some of their eliminating work. Along with a dry diet wet packs form part of the Schroth cure.

SUN THERAPY.

Someone somewhere has said that the sun is the best of all physicians, only his consulting hours are very limited. Our great brilliant orb for aeons has deluged the world with heat, light and life giving energy. Should its unceasing radiation stop all organic life would instantly wither and disintegrate. It is only recently being realized, however, how closely our welfare is bound up with the solar variations.

The lack of sunshine during the winter-time leads to an immediate increase of respiratory disease, epidemic infections, mental depression and a general lowering of vitality, and deaths become more frequent. In springtime it is the reappearance of the sun that causes the feeling of youthful vigour, health and happiness, and a fresh appreciation of the beauty and rhythm of life. It is suggested also, by many authorities that sunspots and disturbances in the sun play a part in the initiation of large scale epidemics and the frequency of particular forms of other disease.

The greatest living authority on sun therapy is Dr. Rollier of Switzerland. It was he, following Bernhart, who first brought the sun cure into prominence as the best of all supporting treatments for tuberculosis, and his results, especially in the non- pulmonary form, have been little short of miraculous.

At his institute in Leysin every case of tuberculosis that is possibly curable speedily reacts to the sun baths and the natural diet that is provided. Bad cases of lupus, joint tuberculosis and tuberculosis of the spine and peritoneum have passed out from under his care completely cured. In an appreciation of Rolliers great work for humanity along nature cure lines, Dr. C. W. Saleeby in his book Sunlight and Health wrote:

“Leysin and other places where heliotherapy is practised constitute the utter condemnation of all places throughout the world where surgeons operate for tubercular gland in the neck or white swellings or any other form of tuberculosis. Their very best results, rarely enough attained, are destructive, mutilative, crippling, hideous, compared with the everyday miracles of heliotherapy”.

Sun treatment is a specific treatment for rickets and is very valuable for osteomyelitis, chronic varicose ulcers and many classes of skin disease. Indeed there is no state of disease excluding a few rare sensitizing conditions like some avitaminoses that suitable exposure to the sun is not of great benefit.

The spectrum of the sun consists of six octaves of infrared rays, one octave of light rays and half an octave of ultra-violet rays. The ultra-violet rays are considered to be the rays which have the most health creating power. In these countries where we suffer from a maximum of clouds and smoke and a minimum of sunshine a lot of these variable rays are filtered off, and an artificial source of sunlight sometimes becomes useful.

Finsen and others have shown us that various imitations of sunlight rich in ultra-violet rays can be produced by the carbon arc and mercury vapour lamps and that judicious exposures of the whole body to these types of light can give good results in cases where heliotherapy is indicated. The infra-red rays are only heat rays and can be reproduced easily enough, and they are used to disperse pain and congestion especially in rheumatic conditions where they break up the uric acid crystals.

Peter O Connell