Lesson XVIII Points On Practise

Dietetic treatment is reconstructive

There are a great many abnormal conditions of the human body classed as dis-eases that bear a very remote relation to diet, but in practise the student will soon learn that many of these conditions, which have not been considered in these lessons, will entirely disappear when the diet is perfected. This is true because dietetic treatment, based upon the fundamental laws of nutrition, is reconstructive, hence every part of the anatomy shares in the general improvement.

Scope of scientific feeding

There are many logical arguments to support the theory that there are no incurable dis-eases. There are many cases, however, where the vitality has become so low that recovery from dis-ease is impossible, but if the patient could be taken in time, the correct diagnosis made, and the proper food, air, and exercise given, Nature would begin her work of rebuilding at once. In view of these facts it is somewhat difficult to fix a limit to the scope of scientific feeding.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

The value of letters

The science of prescribing diet is a work that can be best conveyed to the patient in writing, hence one of the first and most important things for the new practitioner to do is to study the art of polemics—acquire the ability to write plain, convincing literature and letters. This is one of the greatest arts within the scope of human learning, and is probably susceptible of greater development than any other branch of human endeavor.

Every person has his own individual method of expression that should be preserved and cultivated. Select some good author and copy his logic, but not his language. For this purpose I would recommend the works of Henry George, the great economic philosopher—and probably one of the greatest polementitians that ever lived.

Writing is mental calisthenics

The student should begin by taking up some simple branch or certain subject of his work, and writing a short argument or essay upon it, using every fact that he can possibly command to convince imaginary readers of the correctness of his theories. Select a new subject and write something on it every day. This is merely mental calisthenics, and after a month's training the thoughts and the language will flow with a freedom that will enable the student to write just as he feels.

A booklet describing your work

It would be well to arrange an argument based upon each lesson separately, dividing it into short chapters. These arguments or essays should be logically arranged to form a booklet, with proper title, as such representative literature is vitally necessary to the growth and the success of your work. It will also be found that this will be splendid mental exercise, and will serve well in presenting your work, either orally, or by letter.

The personality of the writer

Every one should endeavor to be original in his literature; in other words, no special effort should be made to quote any "authority" or to copy the style of other writers. Put your own personality into your work, for the most successful writer is not always the one who uses the most learned, polished or scholarly language, but the one who can convey his thoughts to the minds of others in the simplest and the most comprehensive language.

Language at best is but a vehicle for conveying the thoughts of one person to the mind of another, and while there are accepted standards in literature and letters, from which one should not make too radical a departure, yet the ability to present one's convictions, or position convincingly should be of first consideration.

The most important thing in writing is to have something to say; then to say it so that it can be understood.

VALUE OF EXPERIENCE

Experience is the only method by which theory can be converted into knowledge. The best possible source of information, therefore, is personal experimentation. If the student should have any disorder, especially of digestion and assimilation of food, or elimination of waste, he should experiment upon himself along the lines laid out in this course. He should keep an accurate record of selections, combinations, and proportions of food, with results or symptoms. He may thus be able to arrange menus for himself, even more effective than those given as examples or guides throughout the course.

If there are no personal disorders that will permit of such experiments, then they should be made upon some other person with whom the student is sufficiently familiar in order that accurate information concerning the results may be secured.

Though the student may be normal and healthy, it is possible to make many valuable experiments in regard to special adaptations of diet, such as combinations to induce natural sleep; to produce and to relieve constipation and diarrhea; to produce excessive body-heat when exposed to cold, or the minimum of heat in summer, or in warm climates.

VALUE OF DIAGNOSIS

Correct diagnosis is one of the most important factors in the practise of applied food chemistry, and when a correct diagnosis has been made the remedy will suggest itself if the student has a thorough understanding of causes.

Causes sometimes very remote

In diagnosis it is often necessary to ascertain the patient's general habits of eating during the few years prior to the appearance of the disorders. As an example, rheumatic conditions are often superinduced by an overconsumption of starch, usually cereal starch and acids. This overindulgence may have continued for several years before the appearance of any rheumatic symptoms. The primary causes being residual in the body, exposure, low vitality, or extreme climatic changes may give expression to them in the form of rheumatism, or some kindred trouble.

Value of limited feeding

After determining the causes, a diet should be designed which will counteract existing conditions. This may usually be accomplished by limiting the quantity of food somewhat below the demands of normal hunger. This will give the digestive organs less work to do, and the body an opportunity to take up or consume any excess of food matter that may have become congested. In cases accompanied by loss of hunger, it is sometimes necessary to put the patient upon an absolute fast from one to three days, but in the majority of cases a semi-fast is best, prescribing light, nutritious foods of a remedial character.

EDUCATE YOUR PATIENT

In beginning treatment each patient should be made acquainted with the fact that the radical change in diet may bring slight discomfort. While the system is adjusting itself to the new regimen, there is usually a slight loss of weight and a feeling of weakness or lassitude.

Curing a slow process

It should be impressed upon the mind of the patient that regaining health and strength is in reality a process of growth or evolution, hence slow and gradual; that when one has violated the laws of health for many years, Nature will not, or probably cannot forgive all these sins and repair all these wrongs in a month or two. However, when one gets in harmony with the physical universe, and conforms to the laws of his organization, Nature will construct (cure) much more rapidly than she formerly destroyed (produced dis-ease).

The patient should agree with the diet

The practitioner may have many cases that for some seemingly mysterious reason will not respond to a perfectly natural diet and will, therefore, be called upon to change the diet from time to time in the vain hope of finding combinations of food that will agree. In these cases the student should not be led to deviate too far from what he knows to be a natural and chemically harmonious regimen. If such a diet does not produce the desired results, it is not always the fault of the food, but the fault of the patient. If the food is right, and does not agree, it is the patient that is wrong, hence the logical thing to do is to make the rebellious patient agree with the food, instead of searching for a food to agree with the patient.

These facts should be impressed strongly upon the mind of the one under treatment, and he should be prevailed upon, if possible, to conform strictly to a correct diet until Nature is given time and opportunity to bring about an adjustment between the individual and his food.

It has been the custom of the medical profession for centuries to shroud its work in mystery, to write prescriptions in a dead language, to keep patients in ignorance of the remedies being applied. This seems to be necessary, probably because an intelligent discussion of allopathic drugs, their sources and their constituent elements would, no doubt, prove fatal to their administration. The food scientist should follow exactly the opposite course. He should make a very careful diagnosis, taking into account the diet, habits of exercise and exposure to fresh air prior to the appearance of the dis-ease, as well as at the time of treatment. By giving the patient a thorough understanding of your work, you gain his confidence and faith, which wield a very powerful influence over the body.

EFFECT OF MENTAL CONDITIONS

Worry or fear causes stomach trouble

A very careful examination should also be made of the mental conditions. Worry, fear, or anxiety often produce serious digestive trouble which is generally attributed to other causes, and which should be treated very differently from the same trouble caused by errors in eating.

During my professional work many patients have come to me laden with fear, caused by the thoughtless or perhaps reckless statement of some physician. It is indeed as great a crime for a doctor to pass the "sentence of death" upon a man who comes to him for help as it would be for the judge of a court to pronounce the death sentence upon a prisoner without hearing the evidence, and some day when the power of the mind or suggestion is understood, it will be so considered.

What Christian Science has done

It is impossible to fully estimate the effects of fear on the human body. Each year, I become more and more impressed with the fact that fear is one of the most potent factors in the cause of dis-ease. Christian Science has relieved thousands of people through the simple presentation of a philosophy that induces the individual to throw off this burden of fear. It matters not whether this burden is cast upon the Gentle Nazarene or John Doe, the fact that it has been disposed of often leads to relief and recovery. Christian Science has done the world a great service—it has put out the fires of an orthodox hell by pouring into it orthodox medicine.

With a clear knowledge of the powerful psychological law, and the laws of human nutrition, the student has at his command two of the greatest forces in Nature for the relief of human suffering.

PUBLICITY

Value of truthful advertising

Judicious and truthful advertising is another important factor in the success of the food scientist. Advertising has been considered unethical by medical men for years. It has been discredited, not because it is wrong, or because there is any harm in telling the public the truth about one's business, but because so many spurious nostrums and patent medicines were exploited by "quack" doctors, that the respectable physician deemed it best to adopt the other extreme in his effort to keep entirely out of this class.

Advertising, however, is rapidly acquiring a more honest and upright character. The best magazines and some weekly newspapers will no longer accept advertisements of a questionable character, especially regarding medical remedies. Many of these excellent publications go so far as to vouch for and guarantee the honesty of everything exploited in their pages. Such methods are gradually purifying the advertising atmosphere.

Advertising both virtuous and necessary

There is no logical reason why anybody who has a virtuous and useful article, or who has discovered anything in the realm of science that would be a benefit to humanity, as well as a profit to himself, should not make it known as widely as possible through the instrumentality of advertising.

In preparing advertising literature, whether for magazines, booklets, or letters, facts and truth concerning your work are all that is necessary. No statement should be made that can in any way jeopardize your reputation; nothing should be stated or claimed that cannot actually be made good.

For many years it has been my policy to keep my advertising conservatively below the full limit of facts; in other words, the whole truth concerning that which can be accomplished by scientific feeding sometimes seems so startling to the lay mind that the experienced advertiser will not state it as it really is.

A patient of mine who had been in a wheel chair for twelve years, and afflicted for twenty years with locomotor ataxia, was so much improved within a year's time that he walked from Brooklyn to my office in New York City to exhibit himself. He gave me a testimonial letter and the privilege of using it in my advertisements. I wrote up the facts in regard to his case and submitted them to my agent, who was an expert advertiser, and he advised me not to state the facts as they were; the public, he contended, would not accept them as true.

BE COURTEOUS AND TOLERANT

It is almost impossible to estimate the moral effect of a broad-minded, tolerant and courteous attitude toward others engaged in the practise of the healing art. Medical doctors seldom agree, especially those of different schools. They accuse each other of ignorance and incompetence, and the public is sometimes inclined to concede that they are right.

In certainty and in truth one has confidence and strength which is always conducive to tolerance. The food scientist, knowing the laws of cause and effect in regard to nutrition, and knowing the proper use of natural methods of diet and hygiene in the prevention and the cure of specific dis-eases, needs neither to dispute with a fellow practitioner, nor to argue with his patient. He can afford to state his position and quietly allow Nature to prove his claims.