Fasting for the cure of disease/Chapter 11
CHAPTER XI
AUXILIARIES IN FASTING
"The heart receiveth benefit or harm mott from the air which we breathe.
"Washing the body in water is good for length of life.
"Sleep doth supply somewhat to nourishment, and conferreth to length of days.
"No body can be healthy without exercise, neither natural body nor politic."
Lord Bacon.
CHAPTER XI
AUXILIARIES IN FASTING
BREATHING. Nature has provided in the air that surrounds the earth a plentiful supply of oxygen, a gas that is essential to the maintenance of human life. Its function lies in replacing carbonic acid, a poisonous gas developed within the body by the breaking down of tissue, and delivered to the lungs in venous blood. In the process of breathing, oxygen is inhaled and appropriated, while carbonic acid is expelled. The act of respiration exposes the blood to the air, and by mutual diffusion the two operations of oxygenating the blood and freeing it from carbonic acid are accomplished at one and the same time. The muscular movements of respiration are not dependent upon the will, as the same process goes on in sleep and in other unconscious states. The number of respiratory movements in health varies from fourteen to eighteen per minute, and besides carbonic acid, watery vapor and a small quantity of organic matter are exhaled, the latter dependent upon the condition of the digestive apparatus.
In order to supply oxygen to the system, from 300 to 400 cubic feet of air are drawn into the lungs in twenty-four hours. Each hour an adult inhales about 500 grains of oxygen and emits about 600 grains of carbonic acid with a much larger amount of watery vapor. Deprived of air the body perishes from asphyxiation.
It follows that not only is a continued supply of fresh air essential to life, but that constant care is necessary to insure its purity at the moment of delivery. The natural channels for the passage of air to the lungs begin at the nostrils, which are furnished with short fine hairs and with mucus secretion, mechanical preventives of the inhalation of dust and light material. If obstruction of the nasal tract occurs, it is possible for breathing to take place through the mouth, but so harmful is the latter method to general health that attention is here directed to its results.
Overfeeding a child invariably develops a cold with accompanying nasal discharge and consequent obstruction of the natural air passages. A prolonged cold or a series of colds compel the use of the mouth for the act of breathing, a method that, if not corrected, eventually becomes habitual. Constant irritation and inflammation of the mucus membrane of the nostrils and of the vault of the pharynx cause the much discussed adenoid growths to form, and obstruction of the air canal is thereafter permanent until removal of the obstacles is accomplished either by the fast or by surgical means. Children thus affected are stupid and sluggish and exhibit a characteristic facial expression approaching that of imbecility. In fact, when the habit of mouth breathing has been contracted in infancy or in adult life, even when no obstruction of the naso-pharyngeal vault exists, not only do the nasal passages, through the lack of exercise, fail of normal development, but the open mouth and dulled eyes denote a serious deficiency in intellectual advance and capability.
We cannot know the exact source whence is received the influx of vitality and energy, the expression of which is life, nor in what manner these forces penetrate the physical body and animate its movements and its thought, but whatever is gained of vital power from without and life is very evidently neither residual nor developed within the body must reach us from the domain of the surrounding atmosphere, either through air itself or through its penetrating medium, ether. Its transference to the brain directly through the bony structure immediately above and back of the nasal passages is conceivable; and, while the purity of the atmospheric constituents that furnish the lungs with blood-restoring activity may well be vitiated in transmission by paths not naturally intended, the lack of intellectuality displayed in all mouth breathers cannot be accounted for on this basis, since no depreciation in blood value is apparent. Hence the theory here presented: that vital force enters the body from without, through the natural air passages and the bony cavities immediately above and in their rear. Whatever the attitude of the reader in respect to this, there can be no question of the importance to be attached to the formation of a nasal breathing habit hygienic, because it is natural; healthful, because it is correct.
In the fast proper respiratory methods must be pursued, and deep breathing practiced. Every portion of the lung surface should be exposed to the general purification resultant from oxygenation of the blood, and an insure this, in addition to lung exercise, the body should be in contact with outer air day and night. Well ventilated living and sleeping rooms are important to the highest degree in illness, in fasting, and in health.
BATHING. The skin or covering of the human body consists of an outer layer called the cuticle, and of an inner one, the corium. These constitute the true skin, but under them lies a third layer of cellular tissue, which is considered also as part of the skin, when that word is used in its most comprehensive sense. In man the skin is covered more or less with scattered hairs, profuse in some parts and scanty in others. The office of the skin is one of protection to the organs beneath, and it is also a vast excretory system, sending out quantities of perspiration through the sudoriferous glands located in its texture. Each of these glands consists of a long fine tube coiled into a knot near its closed end, which is situated in the cutaneous cellular tissue, and constitutes the gland proper, and of a straight or spinal duct traversing the outer layers and ending in a surface opening called a pore. Nearly 3,000 of the latter are found upon a square inch of the palm of the hand, and at least 500 on an equal space upon other parts of the body.
Perspiration is the watery matter "breathed out" from the system through the pores described. It is more copious than the exudation from the lungs by respiration, but the quantity discharged varies greatly, and is affected by the heat or the dryness of the atmosphere, by liquids drunk, by exercise, and by the relative activity of the kidneys. Sensible perspiration is that which is perceptible in the form of small drops, but by far the larger portion exuded is of the insensible or nonvisible kind. Solid matter is carried to the surface of the skin in the sweat, and authorities all agree that a considerable proportion of the total waste of the body is evacuated in this manner. Hence, besides keeping the skin in a healthy, moist condition, and acting through evaporation as a refrigerator regulating body temperature, perspiration takes its share in the elimination of useless material.
Close sympathy exists between the skin and the lungs, the kidneys, the liver, and the bowels, and this is evidenced in the fact that, when one or other of these organs becomes affected by disease, the perspiratory function is sympathetically deranged and vice versa. This does not necessarily mean that the effect is produced by physical transference of suppressed exhalation to the internal organ nor the reverse; the chief impression seems to be made upon the nervous system. But the importance of the relation existing between the skin and the other excretory organs is such that it cannot be disregarded when disease is to be remedied.
In order to insure functional activity of the surface of the body, frequent bathing is necessary at all times. For this purpose one cleansing bath daily is required. Dead, scaly particles of skin, dirt, and the products of perspiration are thus removed, and the other organs of elimination are relieved from the performance of extra labor. The rule of the body is that of cleanliness, internal and external. The importance of the daily cleansing bath during a fast period needs no further exposition.
A bath with temperature ranging from 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit is suitable for elderly people and for those who do not nervously react with promptness from either heat or cold. One of temperature not more than 105 degrees is cleansing in the highest sense if soap be freely used and the flesh-brush vigorously plied. The cold bath of register lower than 75 degrees should never be employed except in health and for tonic purposes. It has a powerful stimulating action on the circulation and nervous system, in addition to but slight cleansing properties. It cannot be used during the fast.
Bathing should never be undertaken immediately before or directly after eating, and an interval of at least two hours should elapse between. During the menstrual flow in woman, medical authority to the contrary, a warm sitz or full body bath, with a warm vaginal douche are imperative for cleanliness and for relief and ease in function.
Caution is directed in connection with all bathing toward continuing the bath to undue length. Only time sufficient to cleanse the body or to receive a tonic effect should be occupied; more than this is weakening. When, in the fast, chilliness occurs, a few minutes in the hot bath equalizes the circulation and remedies the condition, care being taken to guard against exposure at its conclusion.
Civilization and the customs it entails are responsible for many physiological evils. The two great mediums through which energy is delivered to the human body, pure air and sunshine, are in large part denied immediate contact with its surface. Clothing prevents full elimination of perspiration and its products, which remain to be partially absorbed or to clog the pores of the skin. This defect can be remedied to a degree by daily exposing the naked body to the outer air for as long a time as can be spared from other duties. The air bath is a valuable adjunct to natural treatment for the prevention and cure of disease, and of equal worth is the action of the direct rays of the sun upon the skin. The human plant absorbs the tonic properties of air and sunlight with the eagerness of its garden counterpart, and these baths add their quota of benefits to the other hygienic means described. In the fast these two baths should form a daily habit.
The skin is the natural clothing of the body. Its protection to the parts beneath is aided by deposits of fat, a non-conductor of heat, distributed more or less uniformly over the body. When overheated, evaporation of perspiration cools ; when chilled, closed pores retain the body warmth. Like the lungs, the skin admits of blood oxygenation through the walls of the capillaries, and, as has been shown, it is an organ of elimination as well. In the conservation of body heat, the skin is the thermostat of the organism. It preserves and regulates temperature, and acts as a governor of internal mechanism. If its function be interfered with by the interposition of substances between it and outer air, evaporation cannot take place freely, and elimination of the products of the pores is impeded, if not entirely arrested. Temperature is maintained in this instance artificially and abnormally, for disease of function causes interior combustion that is detrimental to health. Kindred organs are called upon to do the work of body covering, and danger lurks in forced exertion. A chill precedes a fever; the pores are closed; intense heat is generated; the fever is cured when perspiration with subsequent evaporation is restored. A very striking exemplification of these facts is given in cases of cutaneous burns where large areas are affected. Respiration is increased to exhaustion, and kidney discharges are highly colored with waste that ordinarily is eliminated through the pores. If an extreme proportion of skin area is seared, suffocation ensues. Also fatal results ensue when the body is covered with a substance that is impervious to air, such as gold-leaf. Here the symptoms are those that accompany asphyxiation.
Ages of submission to conventionality have compelled skin covering, and have evolutionally made of this organ a partial functioner. Since clothing is an essential of civilization, the remedy lies in making it as light and as pervious to air as is consistent with decency, and in caring for the surface of the body with constancy and diligence.
SLEEP. Nature's law of recuperation is that of rest, of relief from labor. The instrument of thought and of motive government, the brain, obtains its repose in regularly recurring periods of unconsciousness and cessation. of bodily activity the hours of sleep. It is then that the cells of the human battery are recharged, that the working principal receives its potential for transformation during conscious moments. Sleep is a physiological necessity and death results within a few days if it be denied. In the fast, due to slight brain congestion produced by excessive elimination in the prior stages, inability to slumber is sometimes present, but attention to the bath and to the ventilation of the sleeping apartment brings refreshing rest as disease departs. No garment worn during the day should cover the body in sleep, and bedclothing should be regulated to an accurate degree of protection, neither too heavy nor too light.
EXERCISE. The maintenance of every muscle and organ of the body in proportionate development is regulated by its work. Constant use of a particular muscle adds to its substance at the expense of that of its neighbor, hence the aim of all exercise should be directed at equality of labor. Trunk and legs, arms and neck, all should receive proportioned attention. Muscular development also depends upon an unimpeded circulation of blood and upon healthful cell-forming constituents constantly furnished to replace used tissue. Constriction of the body in any part prevents free circulation, and only loose garments permit of full growth and proper development. The tight collar, the garter, and the corset, make flabby muscles inevitable, and only a body unrestrained by the bonds of conventional dress can hope for physical perfection in form. But few elderly women of the present day can exhibit an abdomen that is not pendulous, nor breasts that do not sag; and, as age creeps on, thighs and buttocks droop with muscular atrophy and with deposits of adipose cells. The possibilities of natural hygienic living, coupled with judicious exercise, are surely worth consideration, if merely for the satisfaction of personal appearance, but their more important effects upon general health and longevity make neglect of these desiderata sinful and criminal.
During a fast moderate exercise in keeping with the daily access of strength is advised, and after its completion constant comprehensive muscular activity is essential to rebuilding and to form-development.
The subject matter of this chapter, then, resolves itself into three requisites, equally divided in importance :
Ventilation of the body within and without;
Activity for its members; and
Rest for their recuperation.
Of similar moment are these hygienic measures with the laws of maintenance elsewhere enumerated.