The Washington herald., 1916-08-02
Fear and Health.

BY .ORIsON SWEET MARDEN. ,,u. ,
Under the heading, "Fear of Lightning h'',s'
an item in metropolitan daily the o'he' ua'
reported the sudden death of woman foi'i
fear Of lightning. During a severe thunderstorm
which had done considerable damage IN 'ne
Ineighborhood of her home, the woman oe'"n'e
unconscious from fright and died inefe "@s
no heart trouble, and the lightning mao not
touched her, but all her life she had teit
nervous fear of thunder AMI lightning, ana 'ha'
deadly emotion had at length killed her.
1t used to be customary for the Weather
Bureau at Washington to send out warnings OF
the advent of tornadoes, but when it was found
that such forecasts frightened more people 10
death than they saved from death, the weather
chief decided that it was best to discontinue the
warnings.
After the passing of the St. Louis tornado,
which the Weather Bureau had predicted, num-
dreds of letters were received in Washington
telling of people who had died from fright and
of others made i'll by worry, though they were
not the path of the storm.
Many frightened mothers now flying from
New York with their children for fear they snail
contract infantile paralysis, or-to give II ts
medical -poliomyelitis-wh but for their
dread of the disease they would be just as safe
in New York elsewhere,
rear Is worse disease lldH any iiSiN PHJS
cal disorder. 1t is we'll known that during cpl
denies in the past multitudcs of people who had
not contracted the disease died of fear. Multi
tudes today are seriously affected through fear
of disease Their loss of courage more than any
thing else destroys their disease-resisting power.
Whatever depresses distresses or worries lowers
the vitality and Injuries the health. Fear is the
most terrible Of dcpressants. 1t tends to close
Iup life's avenues. 1t takes away the appetite,
checks the circulation of the blood and seriously
impairs the nutrition of the entire system.
Chronic anxiety or fear, from which multi
tudes of people suffer all their lives, keeps the
blood poisoned, and this opens the door to all
the enemies of health. In fact everything that
affects peace of mind and happiness affects the
health Whatever worries depresses, en-
courages the development Of disease.
Worrying about disease produces disease.
Fear and worry are the great wreckers Of health
ideals. They cause most of the dyspepsia in the
world, and develop and spread some of the most
dreaded diseases.
Many diseases have their origin in latent fear
and anxiety which work like leaven until the
whole nature is affected This is especially true
where the latent fear relates to possible inherited
disease tendencies, such tuberculosis can
Ger. The fear, for instance, that cancer may de-
velop in one when he reaches a certain age be-
cause seldom appears before this age, is
often irritating which tends to develop
cancer germs.
Now, just as fear and worry invite and pro-
mote disease, so courage and faith repe it. The
mind has everything to do with the progress or
the arresing of disease. More and more phys-
clans are recognizing the fact that the mental
attitude is by far the greatest factor in the prac-
tlce of medicine. They know that the patients
mental condition very seriously modifes even the
effect of drugs
The important thing is to keep the physical
and mental standards so high that the disease
germ, the worry germ, the anxious germ cannot
gain footing in brain. Our physical resist
ing power is dependent largely on our mental
power, which ought to be so great that it would
be impossible for these enemies to gain access
to the body
Instead of being filled with fear of disease
and disease germs from childhood up, every per
son should be trained and his life so reeu-
lated that he shall be mighty buwark of re-
sstance against all mental and physical enemies.
all disease germs