The Colorado statesman., 1909-02-27
"THE DIET CURE"

LOT Ndller tnOuSnt) In maintaining
and restoring health, yet diet is not a
cure-all.
AS there is no single means by
which life is maintained, so there is
no single means of maintaining health
or of restoring it when it has been
lost. l often hear people say. Il have
tried drugs, and osteopathy, Christian
Science (or 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 see
what there is in dieting"
Such a 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 a
large acquaintance among physicians
and l 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" |
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 | am sorry to
say 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-
Kan who is successful in the practice
of specially, finds 1t necessary to
overestimate the relative Importance
of his speciality. 1t is the imperfectly
informed person who claims for some
one method of treatment, valuable in
certain cases, the impossible virtue of
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 cult to be
a means of faith cure.
DR.. Yorke Davies of London, one OF
the few eminent physicians who have
made a specially of dietetics, said,
tions from health are more correctly
remedied by dietetic means than by
medicines. Diet may be a permanent
cure, drugs are but palliatives. Z.
Diet in the hands of an expert is more
powerful than drugs. Medicine is
seldom a remedy for constitutional all
ments, whereas a system of diet, air
and other means that lead to sound
health is of permanent benefit. l
speak from a very large experience in
both systems" C'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 profes-
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 a few cases, as diabetes,
where expert knowledge is required.
Osteopathy, suggestion, massage, wa
ter cure, applied with ordinary 1udg-
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 bench
cial treatment.
Since the days of the prophet who
prescribed washing in Jordan, there
have been 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 oi
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 street car conductor in g
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 tha