Impaired Health : Its Cause and Cure Volume 1

All diseases may be likened to a string of beads, the string representing the true disease--toxemia--and the so-called diseases, which should be called affections, being represented by the beads. Break the cord, and the beads are lost--correct the toxin, and affections subside.

Excerpt:

To introduce this subject, I desire to say a little about the influence of functional derangement of the nervous system on our daily lives. This subject is not considered in the average textbooks, nor by the average physicians in their general practice. Full nerve energy indicates full nutritive power. This means that metabolism will be carried on normally, that secretions and excretions will be balanced, and that the body will be in as near a normal condition as it is possible for a human being to be. It should be understood that full health is a state which only approximates the ideal; and this state is always in keeping with the nerve energy.

To maintain nerve energy at a normal state, it is necessary for man to be adjusted to his environment, and his everyday experiences in that environment must be of such a character as not to overtax and draw too heavily upon his nerve energy.

In other words, man's body must be adjusted to its environments. Any influence, it matters not what, that draws too heavily upon the nerve energies, weakens this energy to just that extent. If man uses up too much nerve energy, if he uses a little beyond his creation of nerve energy, each day, it is obvious that he must be gradually running out of this power, Overwork, over-enjoyment, exposure to the elements, physical influences, eating, clothing, etc., all have their influence in using up the nerve energy.

Where nerve energy is used beyond the recuperative power for a time, we have enervation following. This causes an interruption--retarding--of secretions and excretions. Add to this retention of excretions the toxins that evolve when the eating is beyond the digestive power. This toxic state brings about functional derangement of the nervous system, and also functional derangement of various organs of the body. Much more on this subject will be found in [Tilden's book] Toxemia Explained.

Special tracts are affected by local injuries. An injury to any part of the body is liable to set up for the time being an enervated state of the nervous system supplying that particular part. Waste products fail to be eliminated, but are deposited, causing irritation. We have whole systems of healing based upon this derangement of the nervous system.

Where the nerves pass out of the spine they are liable to become cramped or impinged because of slight deposits, luxations, or displacements. When this is true, the osteopath and chiropractor are almost invariably successful in giving relief and cure. Where the condition is due entirely to a slight misplacement, the readjusting and righting of the anatomy must necessarily bring a cure; but where nerves are passing out through small foramina or openings between bones or other points, deposits are liable to take place when there is such a state of the blood as toxemia, plethora, scurvy, or gout existing. In these constitutional states there is a certain amount of deposit taking place in different parts of the body, and if a certain part of the anatomy is exposed to irritations--if muscular energy is expended over a certain locality, causing a freer flow of blood to the part than is normal--deposits will take place.

If these deposits take place in small bony openings, where nerves and arteries pass out, the nerves will be impinged upon, then cause pain--neuralgia or rheumatism--and, when continued, arteritis and endocarditis. To overcome nerve impingement, there must be absorption. Manipulation and exercise will often bring temporary relief by causing absorption of the present deposits; but so long as the constitutional derangement remains, there will be a redeposit, and all tender points throughout the organism--all points where discomfort is once developed on account of this state of the blood--will reappear. There can be no permanent cure until the habits of life are corrected to such an extent that the organism will no longer keep up its manufacture of toxins and pathological deposit.

It is obvious that manipulations of all kinds will be beneficial. Electricity, vibratory treatment, massage, and certainly osteopathy and chiropractic adjustments, will be followed with positive relief. But such relief will often make the patient and doctor believe that a cure, has followed, when, if what I say is true, it is absurd to believe that a cure can be brought about in this way. In addition to the so-called cure, the righting of the system, by correcting disease-producing habits, will remove the cause; and then a cure may be had that can be depended upon.

In injuries of all kinds there is a tendency for a deposit to take place, because nature rushes there with surplus material to make repairs. But after there has been a restoration to the normal of the parts destroyed, and surplus material is, left--for instance, in the healing of bones--after the bone has been thoroughly united there is a great quantity of debris, not unlike joints made by plumbers; and these extra deposits must be absorbed in the course of time, especially the soft structures. A bony deposit that has taken place will to a certain extent be absorbed, but there will always remain an extra amount, which is for bracing purposes. In injuries, however, where there is no need of this surplus material, and where the surplus material impinges on a nerve structure, either a painful state will remain at that point, or the irritation will be reflexed to other parts of the body. This will be the invariable experience, and will require a treatment which will overcome this condition.

Manipulation will cause absorption; but if there is a slight irritation at the locality, which will bring a surplus amount of blood, there will be redeposits and a return of the discomfort. In all subjects where there is a scrofulous or gouty diathesis, and where there is a general toxemic state of the blood, the redeposits will continue until the toxemia is overcome and the system is readjusted to the original or normal state. It should be kept in mind, in treating the sick, that whatever is necessary to be done to bring them back to the normal should be done; and it should be obvious to all intelligent people that where there are irregular habits or bad habits--where the life is not up to the normal--in any respect, these perversions must be righted. There can be no hope of a readjustment and a bringing back to a normal state without correcting the errors of life.