HOME   HYGIENE LIBRARY CATALOG   CHAPTER 5

*These Australian news reports are indicative of health standards in USA, Great Britain, and the rest of the Western nations.

 

   Modern society has a health problem which we shall now start to analyze. The causes are revealed and the solution is described, at least in regard to degenerative diseases.

   As already indicated, it all has to do with people's lifestyles and the resultant interaction with their environment.

   There is a great deal of concern about preserving the environment. Many environmentalists are concerned primarily with preserving the natural countryside and the creatures living there. They wish to preserve its beauty and tranquility. Other environmentalists think further ahead about more serious issues, such as depletion of forest areas reducing the oxygen in the envelope of air surrounding the entire Earth, or atmospheric pollution which could result in the melting of the polar ice which would raise the levels of the oceans. These issues affect human survival.

   Air pollution in cities is a real hazard that you can actually see and smell. It is a threat to the survival of city dwellers. Motor cars pollute the atmosphere and kill and maim people in accidents, but probably their most drastic effect on the environment is one you cannot see--they deprive people of exercise.

   Another change in our environment has been the gradual substitution of "artificial" food for natural food.

   These last two factors present a greater immediate threat to human survival than the destruction of forests or the melting of polar ice.

   How have these things come about, and what measurable effects have already occurred?

   The human race has attained a mental standard which sets it so far above the other animals that people do not think of themselves as animals at all.

   The evolutionary process which brought this about is still at work, and the rate at which it works depends upon the degree and the rate at which there is a change in the environment.

   Charles Darwin, to whom is credited the Theory of Evolution, coined the term "survival of the fittest". By fittest he meant those creatures who could best survive in a changed environment. With every big change, those that could not cope would perish, but the others (the fittest) would survive, and the breed would be improved. The process is called "natural selection". So generally, when there is no change in the environment there is no evolution. Because the conditions in the oceans have always been stable compared to the conditions on the land, most sea creatures have not changed in many millions of years. On the land, however, severe climatic changes over those millions of years have continually altered the environment. There have been long periods of wet tropical conditions when jungles covered most of the Earth, long periods of fearful drought when jungles turned to desert, ice ages when tropical areas have frozen, and so on. Therefore, on land, new species of animals evolved and others became extinct.

   As the primates evolved, no doubt many times must our ancestors have faced extinction. Early man, mainly by virtue of superior intelligence had a great advantage in the struggle for survival, and eventually humans became more and more numerous.

   The resultant increased competition for territory and food constituted in itself a significant change in environment. The main threat to survival now came from other men, a situation which still continues.

   No wonder the human brain evolved so rapidly within a body remaining virtually unchanged. The survivors had to be of the highest intelligence, using superior weapons and guile. Treachery and cheating are forms of human guile still to be used today by everyone who is desperate enough, and by some as common practice.

   Even within an unthreatened community, the superior ones have the advantage in the "mating game", a principle that works in many species of animals to ensure the continuation of the best strain.

   Eventually, as humans became smarter, instead of foraging and hunting for food, farming was invented. More people could be supported by a given area of land and the population increased. With a benevolent environment ensuring food supply, individuals had some spare time and began to specialize their talents, and technology commenced. The advent of writing, printing and communications accelerated the process enormously.

   Notwithstanding that more technical effort has always been devoted to more efficient ways of killing other men than to anything else, the changes brought about by technology have generally been beneficial overall. So, due to the ideas and inventions of individuals of genius, developed and utilized by the initiative of others, mankind has in a relatively brief time, altered his environment from the primitive to the civilized, then faster still to the affluent, artificial, pressurized environment in which we find ourselves today.

   And over all that time, with all those changes wrought by man's improved intellect, one thing is still the same, still attuned to a primitive natural environment, and this is--the human body.

   Equipped with this body in 1997 how are we coping?

   Here's how we are coping--

   Although medical science has virtually eliminated the dangers of infectious diseases, and despite monumental expenditure on medical research, complex equipment, expensive drugs, and new hospitals financed through crippling taxes and "Health Schemes", we find millions of people in the technically advanced countries afflicted with diseases of degeneration--kidney disease, liver disease, glandular diseases, multiple sclerosis, Addison's disease, pernicious anemia, endocrine diseases, autoimmune diseases, gallstones, goiter, congestive heart disease, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, claudication, varicose veins, gangrene, hemorrhoids, phlebitis and other vascular diseases, edema, anemia, diabetes, cancer, tumors, rheumatism, arthritis, osteoporosis, Paget's disease, bronchitis, pleurisy, asthma, pneumonia, emphysema, obesity, conjunctivitis, failing eyesight, cataracts, retinal separation, glaucoma, tunnel vision, tooth decay, peridontal disease, entiritis, intestinal dystrophy, diverticulitis, appendicitis, ulcer, colitis, hernia, slipped discs, infertility, cystitis and urinary disorders, polyneuritis, behavioral disorders, loss of sex drive, alcoholism, hyperactivity, depression, insomnia, neuroses, premature senility, loss of coordination, tremors, Alzheimer's disease, premenstrual tension, prostate disorder, etc., not to mention trivial things like falling hair, florid face, skin disorders, constipation, indigestion, headaches and fatigue.

   This list is not complete, none of the diseases are due to germs or viruses, but are due to faulty metabolism in a body deteriorated through bad lifestyle, faulty diet and unnatural stress.

   Many contagious diseases which are caused by germs and viruses, such as herpes, influenza and AIDS, should also be considered as degenerative diseases because they attack everybody but gain a hold only on those with poor metabolism and weak immune responses.

   So drugs are prescribed left, right and center, and every shop in town except the hardware stores sells aspirin tablets and Quick-Eze. Have you ever thumbed through a medical journal? The drug advertisements directed at doctors are numerous, colored, lavish, convincing and expensive. The drug firms hand out doctors beautiful calendars and other expensive giveaways. Have you read Thalidomide and the Power of the Drug Companies? It would make your flesh creep!

   As people get older they expect--and get--disease to a greater extent. "Healthy" persons may experience twinges of arthritis, the blood pressure creeps up, the skin becomes puffy and maybe florid. They need reading glasses, get tired, lose sex drive, have "back trouble" etc.

   You say, but that's not disease, that's normal, it's middle age. Wrong. It's the early manifestations of the degeneration of the entire body which, unchecked, leads to the breakdown of the cardiovascular system and vital organs, reducing the quality of life to mediocre, thence to decrepitude and death.

   Unless you already know the answer then it is a certainty that it is happening to you right now and will continue relentlessly. You will survive in indifferent health until a vital organ is stricken, a stroke perhaps, or a heart attack which is, if not the end, then a prelude to the end. There are a number of factors, and depending on the degree of abuse your body receives, so depends your life expectancy.

   In summary then:

1. The modern environment and the human body are incompatible and the widespread incidence of disease is evidence of this.
2. The design of the body cannot be changed, so to achieve the harmony necessary for happy living, man must modify his environment by correcting the dangerous factors he has himself introduced.

   The laws of Nature are inflexible, and to quote from a lecturer at the Pritikin Longevity Center in California:

   "If you would rather die than change your ways, then you will".