HOME   HYGIENE LIBRARY CATALOG

   The adverse effects of the affluent society have not yet reached their worst, but fortunately many people are now aware of the dangers and are altering their lifestyle to avoid them.

   There has been a marked decline in death rates from heart attacks over the last thirty years, particularly in the USA where the public is better informed. In the USA, the consumption of eggs has declined 25%, sugar 50%, coffee 40%, cigarette smoking has decreased, and there are ever-increasing numbers of vegetarians and joggers. In Finland, which had until recently the highest heart disease rate in the world, a public education campaign achieved a 15% reduction in heart attacks in a period of four years.

   Unfortunately, gains related to the improved habits of one section of the population have been offset by the increase in other degenerative diseases such as cancer, herpes, AIDS, and so on, among the generation not yet coronary prone. With the ever-increasing intake of "take-away" foods loaded with fat, cholesterol, salt and sugar, many of the younger generation may be lucky to make middle age.

   The decline must continue until the dangers of these deteriorating eating habits are recognized and it is realized that fondness for cooked, spiced and flavored food is an addiction more powerful than addiction to alcohol or nicotine. We are all addicted, and it takes strong motivation to resist this addiction.

   The writer has been on a steadily improving lifestyle for about 35 years, and today fresh raw fruit and vegetables make up about 90% of my diet, with cooked vegetables and fish making up the rest. However, an all raw diet would, I think, be preferable. I avoid cereals and bread. The first benefit I experienced was the disappearance of arthritis in my right elbow and right foot when about 35 years ago, I cut down on meat and ate more vegetables and salads. This happened in a few days. The next benefits occurred after I commenced running, even at the beginning with only a couple of miles a day. In a few weeks my blood pressure returned to the level I had at 21 years of age and my resting pulse rate fell to 42. Twenty-two years ago, at a special eye test pilots have to take when they turn 50, 1 was told I would need reading glasses in two years, but in fact, my eyesight on subsequent tests still does not require them. The only dental treatment I have needed is the replacement of old fillings, and I have had no colds or other indispositions regardless of flu epidemics which seem to affect everyone else. As thousands of people have demonstrated, these benefits are attainable by even those stricken with the severest disorders, and the cost is--NIL.

   Some good has eventuated from the recently completed US Government funded MRFIT (Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial) which involved 12,000 subjects over a six-year period at a cost of $200 million. The goals of this project were to achieve, in six years, a 10% reduction of blood cholesterol, a 10% reduction of blood pressure and a reduction of smoking by one-third to one-half. 6,000 men were on the average American diet, and 6,000 were on the American Heart Association recommended diet. Results obtained were--cholesterol 7% and other factors 2% to 3%. Although the project failed, the good that came from it was that the results were compared to those of the Pritikin Longevity Center where cholesterol is dropped 10% in six days, 29% in four weeks, and blood pressure 16% in four weeks! By diet, at no expense to the American taxpayers.

   So while massively funded medical research projects have one by one failed, Nathan Pritikin, Charlotte Gerson, Ann Wigmore, and others, self-financed and overworked, have demonstrated results undreamed of by conventional doctors.

   The revolution in the field of health is slowly gaining momentum. As Alexis Carrel predicted, dieticians are becoming doctors, and doctors are becoming (albeit slowly) dieticians.

   John H. Tilden, MD, said it all back in 1926. Summing up in his book Toxemia Explained:

   "In chronic disease, the treatment, first, last and all the time, must be with a view of getting rid of the toxemia. This consists of correcting whatever habits of life are producing enervation, and then gradually building up a normal digestion, assimilation and elimination.

   "After 50 years of floundering in the great sea of medical and surgical speculation to find the causes of so-called diseases, all I could find was that all of the people we re sick part of the time, a part of the people were sick all of the time. But glory be, all of the people were not sick all of the time.

   "Some people got well under my treatment and friends would say that I 'cured' them. Others died and friends would say that Providence removed them. I knew that I did not cure those who got well, and I did not like to acknowledge even to myself that I had killed those who died.

   "It took a long time to evolve out of the one conventional idea of many diseases into the truth that there is but ONE disease, and that the 400 catalogued so-called diseases are but different manifestations of toxemia--blood and tissue uncleanliness."

   It is all so utterly simple. There in a few words, Dr Tilden described the lessons learned in his long medical career. The summary of this entire book is even briefer:

1. It is natural to always be healthy.
2. A healthy body can easily defend itself against infection.
3. The degenerative diseases are, in fact, not diseases at all, they are only symptoms. They are symptoms, all, of one primary and basic disease, TOXEMIA --a poisoned, sludgy, de-oxygenated bloodstream.
4. If harmful influences are removed, and the body provided with correct proportions of natural food, together with rest, sunshine, fresh air and exercise, it will--entirely of its own accord--return itself to health.

   We have seen how, in our way of life, degenerative diseases start in childhood and progress within us until advanced enough to become troublesome. Depending on your age and the rate at which you have allowed your body to degenerate, will depend the condition of your arteries and body tissue now.

   Your life expectancy, in quality as well as years, now depends on whether, and to what degree, you are prepared to improve your lifestyle.

   I have not over-simplified the methods by which you can attain the promised results. You will need some willpower. Partners, if they are wise, will go along with you. Otherwise you may lose them or they may lose you (to somebody else).

   Sparkling eyes are hard to resist.

'Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed,
Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant;
But over its terrible edge there had slipped
A duke, and full many a peasant.
The people said something would have to be done,
But their projects did not at all tally.
Some said "Put a fence 'round the edge of the cliff,"
Some, "An ambulance down in the valley."

The lament of the crowd was profound and was loud,
As their tears overflowed with their pity;
But the cry for the ambulance carried the day
As it spread through the neighboring city.
A collection was made, to accumulate aid,
And the dwellers in highway and alley
Gave dollars and cents--not to furnish a fence--
But an ambulance down in the valley.

"For the cliff is all right if you're careful," they said;
"And, if folks ever slip and are dropping,
It isn't the slipping that hurts them so much
As the shock down below--when they're stopping."
So for years (we have heard), as these mishaps occurred
Quick forth would the rescuers sally,
To pick up the victims who fell from the cliff,
With the ambulance down in the valley.

Said one, in a plea, "It's a marvel to me
That you'd give so much greater attention
To repairing results than to curing the cause;
You had much better aim at prevention.
For the mischief, of course, should be stopped at its source;
Come, neighbors and friends, let us rally.
It is far better sense to rely on a fence
Than an ambulance down in the valley."

"He is wrong in his head," the majority said,
"He would end all our earnest endeavor.
He's a man who would shirk this responsible work,
But we will support it forever.
Aren't we picking up all, jut as fast as they fall,
And giving them care liberally?
A superfluous fence is of no consequence
If the ambulance works in the valley."

But a sensible few, who are practical too,
Will not bear with such nonsense much longer;
They believe that prevention is better than cure,
And their party will soon be much stronger.
Encourage them then, with your purse, voice and pen,
And while other philanthropists dally,
They will scorn all pretense and put up a stout fence
On the cliff that hangs over the valley.

Better guide well the young, than reclaim them when old,
For the voice of true wisdom is calling,
"To rescue the fallen is good, but 'tis best
To prevent other people from falling."
Better close up the source of temptation and crime
Than deliver from dungeon or galley
Better put a strong fence 'round the top of the cliff
Than an ambulance down in the valley.

Cartoon: John Dubord, Ottawa, Canada.

Courtesy: Air Safety Digest, Australian Department of Aviation.