WAR ON RHEUMATISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 19, 23 January 1926, Page 10

WAR ON RHEUMATISM.

" (To the Editor.) »"■• \ \ ■ Sir.-Mr Bodley's letter, under-.. tk above heading, which appeared in * Tuesday's issue,- while- quite -interior , * is.apt r to be somewhat misleading B T ? ! would be absurd to suggest -flat*? use—even the excessive use—of sban v : civilised peoples is the cause of tv- y rheumatic troubles.. Yet the letter U. that impression. While it » true that savage races <io .not use sn , y 'to infer' that their immunity ; f3' rheumatism is due to- this factor is if say the \east of it. stretching This is only, one point in the diffeS between savage and civilised life• it • not a fundamental one. and' it 'U' JL 1 ' to question whether it is entitled to I? classed as important. Wjthout 'coin! too far into details, the vital differeic ' between savage and civilised life, imak be classed under the following, heading; ' diet, clothing, fresh air, and sunlmU I mental stress. We civilised -beam I emasculate Nature's foods,. snVother-m« I breathing skin, avoid' fresh air, and hW. from the life-giving, sun <as mueu.. a » possible. In addition we worry, an appreciable slice of our life. iiheumZ tism is a serious disease o.f the System. and a rapidly growing menace .to civil lised humans. Are we to believe thai even a fair proportion of our rheumatii sufferers have found themselves in Qμ condition through the use—or abuse-: of soap? It*is possimVthat it may'bj a contributing cause in certain cas«s r b o t surely no one would be rash enough to acclaim it the root cause. Modera I authorities have come to the conclusib'j I that'rheumatism is onfy one mariifest44 I tion of "acidosis." whicli attacks human. I ity. (also domesticated: animals); in ma&y 1 guises, from the beri-beri of tlie tropfci I to the scurvy of the Arctic. Investiga. I tions have produced'"evidence which'all I seems to point in one direction, namely I denatured food. W T e re move, the-life* I giving germ from.our wheat and corn, I stew '.he base-forming salts out of;onr B vegetables,. and throw them down drain, then refiavour them to-outtastj with spices and condiments of naibft value. If we don't spoil goodwato with tea, coffee, or alcohol, we must tiarj it coloured up and flavoured with varimii chemicals - to tickle out thirst. In'fac't, we eeem to do our best all the ,timft to tell Mother Nature that she is a.pobir fool and knows nothing about feeding civilised human beings. Yet we >liyj under the ominous shadow of'cancer ani acidosis in all its forms, troubles which are outside the ken; of the .ignorant savage. Scientists and food reformeii are hammering away at these trutWall the time,, but the majority of. peoplp still seem to cling to the idea bf:.'» potent specific, "taken three times a'daj after meals."—l am,.etc., ' TRUTH; SEEKER. ■.