HEALTH HINTS.

Franklin Times, Volume 14, Issue 189, 27 April 1925, Page 2

HEALTH HINTS.

By J. Ellis Barker, the famous writer on health problems, and author of a much-discussed book on cancer.

Going to the doctor and to the chemist is often unsatisfactory. In most cases, doctors and chemists can give us only temporary relief. It is better to enjoy such perfect health that one needs neither doctor nor chemist. Only people who are in that happy position know the joy of living. Unfortunately, most civilised people suffer from more or less impaired health, and have to physic themselves almost continuously. My personal experience has taught me that in a great many cases illhealth can be overcome without the aid of doctor or chemist. Those who wish to be well without the assistance of doctors and chemists should remember that the*animals in the field, but not the domesticated animals, keep well without professional assistance; that Nature.is more potent than medical science: that prevention is better than cure; and that the finest remedies in the world are fresh air, good food, exercise, cleanliness, and so on. Perfect Foods. The animals in the field are extraordinarily healthy. Sheep, goats, and rabbits are practically free from tuberculosis, although they may browse among tubercular cows and pigs. Cows and pigs, on the other hand, suffer from tuberculosis to a terrible extent, but then they are fed on manipulated and often on manufactured foods, recommended by the chemists. Nature has provided the most perfect foods for us. That may be seen by the fact that primitive races who live on the plainest and most natural foods have a physique much superior to that of civilised men. The primitive races everywhere have strong bones, jaws filled with excellent teeth and faultless digestion. Appendicitis, colitis, stomachic ulcer, cancer, and so on, are almost unknown among them. They do not need tonics, pills, and so On. But then their organs, their tissues, and their nerves are properly nourished by natural unsophisticated food. Throwing Health Away. According to chemists, our bodies contain more than a dozen minerals. These minerals are supplied in the food which Nature offers us. The identical minerals found in our bodies are found in the earth and in the •plants. Unfortunately these precious minerals, which are indispensable for our welfare, ar.e mostly discarded by civilised people. The indispensable mineral salts are contained chiefly in the husk of the grain, in the skin and core of our fruits, and in the blood and the organs of the animals we eat. In discarding the husk of the grain, we eliminate the precious minerals and vitamines, and we boil minerals and vitamines out of our greens and throw them away. We discard the skin and core of our apples and use blood for manure.

If we live ever so well on concentrated foods, rich in protein, carbohydrates, and fat, we shall always be ailing, for the three things mentioned cannot replace the indispensable minerals and vitamines, nor can we replace them with chemical iron, and so on, bought at the chemist's. In many cases people who have become physical and nervous wrecks have been completely cured without medicine by living largely on raw fruit, salads and wholemeal bread.

The Origin of Illness. The superstition of the pill and the medicine bottle remains, although drugs are being discarded to an. everincreasing extent by doctors. More than forty years ago the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis was discovered. People imagined that tuberculosis could be eliminated with a drug or a serum. Thousands of scientists have endeavoured to find a remedy which would slay the bacillus, but they have searched in vain. In the sanatoria and elsewhere tuberculosis is fought with the wonderful remedies of Nature —with fresh air, sunshine, un-manipulated food, exercise and cleanliness. With the help of Nature's medicines alone the consumption mortality has been reduced tremendously.

Approximately 90 per cent, of our health troubles are due to wrong living. Doctors and chemists are helpless if men insist upon eating and drinking the wrong things. It is unfair for a man who has ruined his indigestion by wrong feeding to expect that a doctor or chemist can cure, him.

How to Keep Strong.

The physics given by doctors and chemists for our self-created troubles do more harm than good in many cases. If a man eats too much and takes too little exercise he overstrains the organs of assimilation and elimination, and at last these are bound to break down.

Doctor and chemist may temporarily assist the sufferer by giving a medicine which will stimulate the flagging powers into activity. The medicine will act exactly the same wayln which whip and spur accelerate the pace of a totally exhausted horse. If we live on food in its natural condition, eating neither too much nor too little; if we abstain from pseudoscientific foods; if we take an adequate amount of exercise, expose ourselves to sun and air as much as possible, keep clean, drink plenty of fresh water, we shall be as healthy as the beasts of the field, and we shall look pityingly upon those wno all-treat their bodies and who try vainly to recover their health with medicines.

An old saying tells us that doctoring consists in pouring drugs of which we know little into bodies of which we know less.