The Virginia enterprise., 1909-03-05
DIET AND. 4 ID.
HEALTH
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"THE* DIET: <CURE,,,''
pyright, BY Joseph. B. Bowie

1.-THE DLET*:CURE','''
While believe diet to be the most
important factor|in life,; after thought
and therefore theS most important fac.
tor (after thought) in maintaining
and restoring health, yet diet Is not q
cure-all. So.
AS there is no single means by
which life is maintained, so there~ts
no single means of maintaining health
or Of restoring it when it has been
lost. I often hear people say. II have
tried drugs, and osteopathy. Christian
Science Tor suggestion) and electric
ity, the movement cure and the water
cure, and none Of them has done me
any good, and now am going to zee
what there is in dieting" II. j
f. Such speech indicates a narrow
view Of the work of the physician and
a grave Misunderstanding of the ma
ture of health and healing. l have d
large acquaintance among physicians
and I don't know one who prescribes
drugs and ignores dieting, though /
know some who do not agree with the
old saw in Marcus Wards copybook,
"Diet cures more than DOCTORS" l
know physicians who practice sugges-
tion very skilfully, by intuition, but
give the credit for their mental cures
to their medicine, even when they pre-
scribe bread pills; and I am sorry to
say l know some good physicians who
have not yet recognized the good in
osteopathy and mechanotherapy in
general; but the average medical doc
tor believes in using all means of cure,
and especially diet, as supplemental to
medicine.
No sane, literally educated physi-
clan who is successful in the practice
Of a specially, finds it necessary to
overestimate the relative Importance
Of his speciality. It is the imperfectly
informed person who claims for some
one method Of treatment, valuable in
certain cases, the impossible virtue of
a cure-all. The only way in which
almost any therapeutic agent can cure
almost any sickness is by becoming a
means OF suggestion. But let the men
tai condition be perfect yet withhold
the right food and the patient must
ultimately die. And suggestion need
not be made the basis of a cult to be
means Of faith cure.
DIR. Yorke Davies of London, one of
the few eminent physicians who have
~
after 30 years practice: "The devia-
tions from health are more correctly
remeGied by dietetic means than by
medicines. Diet may be a permanent
cure, drugs are but palliatives. :.
Diet III the hands Of an expert is more
powerful than drugs. Medicine is
seldom remedy for constitutional all
ments. whereas a system of diet, air
and other means that lead to sound
health is of permanent benefit.
speak from very large experience in
both systems" ("Diet and Condition."
1922
The general practitioner knows that
he cannot give his patients the benefit
Of an expert knowledge of a dozen
specialties. He realizes this better
than the specialist realizes the danger
Of being too ready to treat every case
that comes to him by his special cure
The surgeon who is so devoted to his
science and his art that he would
rather operate than eat," as one good
man puts it, is likely to be skillful;
but there are patients who need to eat
more than they need to be operated
on; and it might be well to take the
advice of faithful general practition-
er in conjunction with that of the spe-
cialist before acceding to the wish of
the surgeon who glorifies his profess
sion by crediting it with impossible
powers.
In no case is diet the only remedy to
be considered; but unlike surgery,
drugs, electricity, and other means of
cure which are often of vital impor-
tance, diet (which includes fasting),
like suggestion, is always indicated"
And whatever danger there may be in
misapplied surgery or drugs, food can
do no harm when taken moderately,
except in few cases, as diabetes,
where expert knowledge is required.
Osteopathy, suggestion, massage, wa
ter cure, applied with ordinary judg-
ment, can do no harm, except as they
may exclude other necessary treat
ment, as drug or surgical treatment
may also fail to include other beneti-
cial treatment.
Since the days Of the prophet who
prescribed washing in Jordan, there
have heen many cures, each more mys-
terious, If possible, than the other, but
nature has continued to use the same
means of restoring health, in spite of
the cures or by their aid.
A young man who has been reading
these articles writes me about his in
teresting case, which will serve to IL
lustrate the difficulty and the impor-
tance of distinguishing health from
disease, At the age of 20 he quit the
farm, late in the spring, and went to
work as a street car conductor in a
large city. He was In excellent health,
with a good appetite. A few months
later he began to have dull headache
and an almost constant sour stomach
with belching. Everybody knows that
an alkali will neutralize an acid and q
friend advised him to take a little com
mon baking soda in hot water occasion
ally. Perhaps some physicians would
have "cured" this case in the same
way. The average person who goes tc
a physician does not 60 for his valua
bic advice on the prevention of sick
ness, or even for a radical cure of his
sailment. What he wants is a quick
cl1re in fha easiest Wav n0ssihle