Inflammation
From what has already been said on this subject, it will have become
apparent that inflammatory and feverish diseases are just as
natural, orderly and lawful as anything else in Nature, that,
therefore, after they have once started, they must not be checked or
suppressed by poisonous drugs and surgical operations.
Inflammatory processes can be kept within safe limits, and they must
be assisted in their constructive tendencies by the natural methods
of treatment. To check and suppress acute diseases before they have
run their natural course means to suppress Nature's purifying and
healing efforts, to court fatal complications and to change the
acute, constructive reactions into chronic disease conditions.
Those who have followed the preceding chapters will remember that
their general trend has been to prove one of the fundamental
principles of Nature Cure philosophy, namely the Unity of Disease
and Cure.
We claim that all acute diseases are uniform in their causes, their
purpose, and if conditions are favorable, uniform also in their
progressive development.
In former chapters I endeavored to prove and to elucidate the unity
of acute diseases in regard to their causes and their purpose, the
latter not being destructive, but constructive and beneficial. I
demonstrated that the microorganisms of disease are not the
unmitigated nuisance and evil which they are commonly regarded, but
that, like everything else in Nature, they, too, serve a useful
purpose. I showed that it depends upon ourselves whether their
activity is harmful and destructive, or beneficial: upon our manner
of living and of treating acute reactions.
Let us now trace the unity of acute diseases in regard to their
general course by a brief examination of the processes of
inflammation and their progressive development through five
well-defined stages. We shall base our studies on the most advanced
works on pathology and bacteriology.
The Story of Inflammation
To me the story of inflammation has been one of the most wonderful
revelations of the complex activities of the human organism. More
than anything else it confirms to me the fundamental principles of
Nature Cure, the fact that Nature is a good healer, not a poor one.
Before inflammation can arise, there must exist an exciting cause in
the form of some obstruction or of some agent inimical to health and
life. Such excitants of inflammation may be dead cells, blood clots,
fragments of bone and other effete matter produced in the system
itself or they may be foreign bodies such as particles of dust,
soot, stone, iron or other metals, slivers of wood, etc.; again,
they may be microorganisms or parasites.
When one or more of these exciting agents of inflammation are
present in the tissues of the body in sufficient strength to call
forth the reaction and opposition of the healing forces, the
microscope will always reveal the following phenomena, slightly
varying under different conditions:
The blood rushes to the area of irritation. Owing to this increased
blood pressure, the minute arteries and veins in the immediate
neighborhood of the excitant dilate and increase in size. The
distension of the blood vessels stretches and thereby weakens their
walls. Through these the white blood corpuscles squeeze their mobile
bodies and work their way through the intervening tissues toward the
affected area.
In some mysterious way they seem to sense the exact location of the
danger point and hurry toward it in large numbers like soldiers
summoned to meet an invading army. This faculty of the white blood
corpuscles to apprehend the presence and exact location of the enemy
has been ascribed to chemical attraction and is called ~chemotaxis.~
The army of defense is made up of the white blood corpuscles or
leukocytes and of connective tissue cells which separate themselves
from the neighboring tissues. All these wandering cells possess the
faculty of absorbing and digesting microbes. They contain certain
proteolytic or protein-splitting ferments, by means of which they
decompose and digest poisons and hostile microorganisms. On account
of their activity as germ destroyers, these cells have been called
germ killers or ~phagocytes~. In their movements and actions these
valiant little warriors act very much like intelligent beings,
animated by the qualities of patience, perseverance, courage,
foresight and self-sacrifice.
The phagocytes absorb morbid matter, poisons or microorganisms by
enveloping them with their own bodies. It is a hand-to-hand fight,
and many of the brave little soldiers are destroyed by the poisons
and bacteria which they attack and swallow. What we call pus is made
up of the bodies of live and dead phagocytes, disease taints and
germs, blood serum, broken-down tissues and cells, in short, the
debris of the battlefield.
We can now understand how the processes just described produce the
well-known cardinal symptoms of inflammation and fever; the redness,
heat and swelling due to increased blood pressure, congestion and
the accumulation of exudates; the pain due to irritation and to
pressure on the nerves. We can also realize how impaired nutrition
and the obstruction and destruction in the affected parts and organs
will interfere with and inhibit functional activity.
The organism has still other ways and means of defending itself. At
the time of bacterial infection, certain germ-killing substances are
developed in the blood serum. Science has named these defensive
proteins ~alexins.~ It has also been found that the phagocyte and
tissue cells in the neighborhood of the area of irritation produce
antipoisons or natural antitoxins, which neutralize the bacterial
poisons and kill the microorganisms of disease.
With the Evil, Nature Provides the Cure
Furthermore, the growth and development of bacteria and parasites is
inhibited and finally arrested by their own waste products. We have
an example of this in the yeast germ, which thrives and multiplies
in the presence of sugar in solution. Living on and digesting the
sugar, it decomposes the sugar molecules into alcohol and carbonic
acid. As the alcohol increases during the process of fermentation,
it gradually arrests the development and activity of the yeast
cells.
Similar phenomena accompany the activity of disease germs and
parasites. They produce certain waste products which gradually
inhibit their own growth and increase. The vaccines, serums and
antitoxins of medical science are prepared from these bacterial
excrements and from extracts made of the bodies of bacteria.
In the serum and antitoxin treatment, therefore, the allopathic
school is imitating Nature's procedure in checking the growth of
microorganisms, but with this difference: Nature does not suppress
the growth and multiplication of disease germs until the morbid
matter on which they subsist has been decomposed and consumed, and
until the inflammatory processes have run their course through the
five stages of inflammation; while serums and antitoxins given in
powerful doses at the different stages of any disease may check and
suppress germ activity and the processes of inflammation before the
latter have run their natural course and before the morbid matter
has been eliminated.
The Five Stages of Inflammation
What has been said in former chapters confirms my claim that all
acute diseases are uniform in their causes and in their purpose.
From the foregoing description of inflammation it will have become
clear that they are also uniform in their pathological development.
The uniformity of acute inflammatory processes becomes still more
apparent when we follow them through their five succeeding stages,
that is: Incubation, Aggravation, Destruction, Abatement and
Reconstruction, as illustrated in the following diagram:
I. Incubation. The first section of the diagram corresponds to the
period of Incubation, the time between the exposure to an infectious
disease and its development. This period may last from a few minutes
to a few days, weeks, months or even years.
During this stage morbid matter, poisons, microorganisms and other
excitants of inflammation gather and concentrate in certain parts
and organs of the body. When they have accumulated to such an extent
as to interfere with the normal functions or to endanger the health
and life of the organism, the life forces begin to react to the
obstruction or threatening danger by means of the inflammatory
processes before described.
II. Aggravation. During the period of Aggravation the battle between
the phagocytes and Nature's antitoxins on the one hand, and the
poisons and microorganisms of disease on the other hand, gradually
progresses, accompanied by a corresponding increase of fever and
inflammation, until it reaches its climax, marked by the greatest
intensity of feverish symptoms.
III. Destruction. This battle between the forces of disease and the
healing forces is accompanied by the disintegration of tissues due
to the accumulation of exudates, to pus formation, the development
of abscesses, boils, fistulas, open sores, etc., and to other morbid
changes. It involves the destruction of phagocytes, bacteria, blood
vessels, and tissues just as a battle between contending human
armies results in loss of life and property.
The stage of Destruction ends in crisis, which may be either fatal
or beneficial. If the healing forces of the organism are in the
ascendancy, and if they are supported by right treatment which tends
to build up the blood, increase the vitality and promote
elimination, then the poisons and the microorganisms of disease will
gradually be overcome, absorbed or eliminated and, by degrees, the
tissues will be cleared of the debris of the battlefield.
IV. Abatement. The absorption and elimination of exudates, pus,
etc., take place during the period of abatement. It is accompanied
by a gradual lowering of temperature, pulse rate and the other
symptoms of fever and inflammation.
V. Resolution or Reconstruction. When the period of Abate-ment has
run its course and the affected areas have been cleared of the
morbid accumulations and obstructions, then, during the fifth stage
of inflammation, the work of rebuilding the injured parts and organs
begins. More or less destruction has taken place in the cells and
tissues, the blood vessels and organs of the areas involved. These
must now be reconstructed, and this last stage of the inflammatory
process is, therefore, in a way the most important. On the perfect
regeneration of the injured parts depends the final effect of the
acute disease upon the organism.
If the inflammation has been allowed to run its course through the
different stages of acute activity and the final stage of
Reconstruction, then every acute disease, whatever its name and
description may be, will prove beneficial to the organism because
morbid matter, foreign bodies, poisons and microorganisms have been
eliminated from the system; abnormal and diseased tissues have been
broken down and built up again to a purer and more normal condition.
As it were, the acute disease has acted upon the organism like a
thunderstorm on the sultry, vitiated summer air. It has cleared the
system of impurities and destructive influences, and re-established
wholesome, normal conditions. Therefore acute diseases, when treated
in harmony with Nature's intent, always prove beneficial.
If, however, through neglect or wrong treatment, the inflammatory
processes are not allowed to run their natural course, if they are
checked or suppressed by poisonous drugs, the ice bag or surgical
operations, or if the disease conditions in the system are so far in
the ascendancy that the healing forces cannot react properly, then
the constructive forces may lose the battle and the disease may take
a fatal ending or develop into chronic ailments.
Suppression During the First
Two Stages of Inflammation
It may be suggested that suppression during the stages of Incubation
and Aggravation need not have fatal consequences if followed by
natural living and eliminative treatment. To this I would reply:
"Such procedure always involves the danger of concentrating the
disease poisons in vital parts and organs, thus laying the
foundation for chronic destructive diseases."
Furthermore, it is not at all necessary to suppress inflammatory
processes by poisonous drugs and other unnatural means, because we
can easily and surely control them and keep them from becoming
dangerous by our natural means of treatment.
I shall now endeavor to prove and to illustrate the foregoing
theoretical expositions by following the development of various
diseases through the five stages of inflammation. I shall first take
up the commonest of all forms of disease, the cold.
Catching a Cold
According to popular opinion, the catching of colds is responsible
for the greater portion of human ailments. Almost daily I hear from
patients who come for consultation: All my troubles date back to a
cold I took at such and such a time, etc. Then I have to explain
that colds are not taken suddenly and from without but that they
come from within, that their period of Incubation may have extended
over months or years, that a clean, healthy body possessed of good
vitality cannot take cold under the ordinary thermal conditions
congenial to human life, no matter how sudden the change in
temperature.
At first glance, this may seem to be contrary to common experience
as well as to the theory and practice of medical science. But let us
follow the development of a cold from start to finish. This will
throw some light on the question as to whether it can be caught, or
whether it develops slowly within the organism; also whether this
development or incubation may extend over a long period of time.
Taking cold may be caused by chilling of the surface of the body or
part of the body. In the chilled portions of the skin the pores
close, the blood recedes into the interior, and as a result of this
the elimination of poisonous gases and exudates through these
portions of the skin is suppressed.
This catching a cold through being exposed to a cold draft, through
wet clothing, etc., is not necessarily followed by more serious
consequences. If the system is not too much encumbered with morbid
matter and if kidneys and intestines are in fairly good working
order, these organs will take care of the extra amount of waste and
morbid materials in place of the temporarily inactive skin and
eliminate them without difficulty. The greater the vitality and the
more normal the composition of the blood, the better the system will
react in such an emergency and throw off the morbid matter which
failed to be eliminated through the skin.
If, however, the organism is already overloaded with waste and
morbid materials, if the bowels and the kidneys are already weakened
and atrophied through continued overwork and overstimulation, if, in
addition to this, the vitality has been lowered through excesses or
overexertion and the vital fluids are in an abnormal condition, then
the morbid matter thrown into the circulation by the chilling and
temporary inactivity of the skin cannot find an outlet through the
regular channels of elimination and endeavors to escape by way of
the mucous linings of the nasal passages, the throat, bronchi,
stomach, bowels and genitourinary organs.
The waste materials and poisonous exudates which are being
eliminated through these internal membranes cause irritation and
congestion, and thus produce the well-known symptoms of inflammation
and catarrhal elimination: sneezing (coryza), cough, expectoration,
mucous discharges, diarrhea, leucorrhea [vaginal dis-charge], etc.
In other words, these so-called colds are nothing more or less than
different forms of vicarious elimination. The membranous linings of
the internal organs are doing the work for the inactive, sluggish
and atrophied skin, kidneys and intestines. The greater the
accumulation of morbid matter in the system, the lower the vitality,
and the more abnormal the composition of the blood and lymph, the
greater will be the liability to the catching of colds.
What is to be gained by suppressing the different forms of catarrhal
elimination with cough and catarrh cures containing opiates,
astringents, antiseptics, germkillers and antipyretics? Is it not
obvious that such a procedure interferes with Nature's purifying
efforts, that it hinders and suppresses the inflammatory processes
and the accompanying elimination of morbid matter from the system?
Worst of all, that it adds drug poisons to disease poisons?
Such a course can have but one result, namely the changing of
Nature's cleansing and healing efforts into chronic disease.
From the foregoing it will have become clear that the cause of a
cold lies not so much in the cold draft, or the wet feet, as in the
primary causes of all disease: lowered vitality, deterioration of
the vital fluids and the accumulation of morbid matter and poisons
in the system.
The incubation period of the cold may have extended over many years
or over an entire lifetime.
What, then, is the natural cure for colds? There can be but one
remedy: increased elimination through the proper channels. This is
accomplished by judicious dieting and fasting, and through restoring
the natural activity of the skin, kidneys and bowels by means of wet
packs, cold sprays and ablutions, sitz baths, massage, chiropractic
or osteopathic manipulation, homeopathic remedies, exercise, sun and
air baths and all other methods of natural treatment that save
vitality, build up the blood on a normal basis and promote
elimination without injuring the organism.
Suppression During the Third
Stage of Inflammation
Should the inflammatory processes be suppressed during the stage of
Destruction, the results would be still more serious and
far-reaching. We have learned that during this stage the affected
parts and organs are involved in more or less disintegration. They
are filled with morbid exudates, pus, etc., which interfere with and
make impossible normal nutrition and functioning. If suppression
takes place during this stage, it is obvious that the affected areas
will be left permanently in a condition of destruction.
Here is an illustration from practical life: Suppose necessary
changes and repairs have to be made in a house. Workmen have torn
down the partitions, hangings, wallpaper, etc. At this stage of the
proceedings the owner discharges the workmen and the house is left
in a condition of chaos. Surely, this would not be rational. It
would leave the house unfit for habitation. But such a procedure
would correspond exactly to the suppression of inflammatory diseases
during the stage of Destruction. This also leaves the affected
organs permanently in an abnormal, diseased condition.
That accounts for the mysterious sequelae or chronic after-effects
which so often follow drug-treated acute diseases. I have traced
numerous cases of chronic affections of the lungs and kidneys, of
infantile paralysis and of many other chronic ailments to such
suppression. In the following I shall describe a typical case, which
came under our care and treatment a few years ago.
Suppression by Means of the Ice Bag
A few years ago several gentlemen of Greek nationality called on me
with the request that I visit a friend of theirs who had been lying
sick for about two months in one of our great West Side [Chicago]
hospitals. On investigation I found that the patient had entered the
hospital suffering from a mild case of pneumonia. The doctors of the
institution had ordered ice packs. Rubber sheets filled with ice
were applied to the chest and other parts of the body. This had been
done for several weeks until the fever subsided.
As a matter of fact, ice is more suppressive than antifever
medicines. The continued icy cold applications chill the parts of
the body to which they are applied, depress the vital functions and
effectually suppress the inflammatory processes.
The result in this case, as in many similar ones which I had
occasion to observe during and after the ice-bag treatment, was that
the inflammation in the lungs had been arrested and suppressed
during the stage of destruction, when the air cells and tissues were
filled with exudates, blood serum, pus, live and dead blood cells,
bacteria, etc., leaving the affected areas of the lungs in a
consolidated, liver-like condition.
As a consequence of suppression in the case of this Greek patient,
the pneumonia had been changed from the acute to the subacute and
chronic stages and the doctors in charge had told his friends that
he was now suffering from miliary tuberculosis, and would probably
die within a week or two.
After receiving this discouraging information, the friends of the
patient came to me and prevailed upon me to take charge of the case.
He was transferred to our institution, and we began at once to apply
the natural methods of treatment. Instead of ice packs we used the
regular cold-water packs, strips of linen wrung out of water of
ordinary temperature wrapped around the body and covered with
several layers of flannel bandages.
The wet packs became warm on the body in a few minutes. They relaxed
the pores and drew the blood into the surface, thus promoting heat
radiation and the elimination of morbid matter through the skin.
They did not suppress the fever, but kept it below the danger point.
Under this treatment, accompanied by fasting and judicious
osteopathic manipulation, the inflammatory and feverish processes
suppressed by the ice packs soon revived, became once more active
and aggressive, and were now allowed to run their natural course
through the stages of destruction, absorption (abatement) and
reconstruction.
The result of the Nature Cure treatment was that about two months
after the patient entered our institution, his friends bought him a
ticket to sunny Greece. He had a good journey, and in the congenial
climate of his native country made a perfect recovery.
I have observed a number of similar cases suffering from
consolidation of the lungs and the resulting asthmatic or tubercular
conditions, which had been doctored into these chronic ailments by
means of antipyretics and of ice.
Equally dangerous is the ice bag if applied to the inflamed brain or
the spinal column. Only too often it results either in paralysis or
in death. In many instances, acute cerebrospinal meningitis is
changed in this way by drug and serum treatment or by the use of ice
bags into the chronic, so-called incurable infantile paralysis.
We say so-called incurable because we have treated and cured such
cases in all stages of development from the acute inflammatory
meningitis to the chronic paralysis of long standing.
In our treatment of acute diseases we never use ice or icy water for
packs, compresses, baths or ablutions, but always water of ordinary
temperature as it comes from the faucet. The water compress or pack
warms up quickly, and thus brings about a natural reaction within a
few minutes, while the ice bag or pack continually chills and
practically freezes the affected parts and organs. This does not
allow the skin to relax; it prevents a warm reaction, the radiation
of the body heat and the elimination of morbid matter through the
skin.
Suppression During the Fourth and
Fifth Stages of Inflammation
Let us see what happens when acute diseases are suppressed during
the stages of abatement and reconstruction. If the defenders of the
body, the phagocyte and antitoxins, produced in the tissues and
organs, gain the victory over the inimical forces which are
threatening the health and life of the organism, then the symptoms
of inflammation, swelling, redness, heat, pain and the accelerated
heart action which accompanies them, gradually subside. The debris
of the battlefield is carried away through the venous circulation
which forms the drainage system of the body.
When in this way all morbid materials have been completely
eliminated, Vital Force, "the physician within," will commence to
regenerate and reconstruct the injured and destroyed cells and
tissues.
If, however, these processes of elimination and reconstruction are
interfered with or interrupted before they are completed, then the
affected parts and organs will not have a chance to become entirely
well or strong. They will remain in an abnormal, crippled condition,
and their functional activity will be seriously handicapped.
The After-effects of Drug-Treated Typhoid Fever
In hundreds of cases I have told patients after a glance into their
eyes that they were suffering from chronic indigestion,
malassimi-lation and malnutrition caused by drug-treated typhoid
fever; and every time the records in the eyes were confirmed by the
history of the patient.
In such cases the outer rim of the iris shows a wreath of whitish or
drug-colored circular flakes. I have named this wreath "the typhoid
rosary." It corresponds to the lymphatic and other absorbent vessels
in the intestines, and appears in the iris of the eye when these
structures have been injured or atrophied by drug, ice or surgical
treatment. Wherever this has been done, the venous and lymphatic
vessels in the intestines do not absorb the food materials and these
pass through the digestive tract and out of the body without being
properly digested and assimilated.
During the destructive stages of typhoid fever, the intestines
become denuded by the sloughing of their membranous linings. These
sloughed membranes give the stools of the typhoid fever patient
their peculiar pea soup appearance. In a similar manner the
lymphatic, venous and glandular structures which constitute the
absorbent vessels of the intestines atrophy and slough away.
If the inflammatory processes are allowed to run their normal course
under natural methods of treatment through the stages of
Destruction, Absorption and Reconstruction, Nature will rebuild the
membranous and glandular structures of the intestinal canal
perfectly, convalescence will be rapid and the patient will enjoy
better health than before he contracted the disease.
If, however, through injudicious feeding or the administration of
quinine, mercury, purging salts, opiates or other destructive
agents, Nature's processes are interfered with, prematurely checked
and suppressed, then the sloughed membranes and absorbent vessels
are not reconstructed, and the intestinal tract is left in a denuded
and atrophied condition.
Such a patient may arise from his bed thinking that he is cured; but
unless he is afterward treated by natural methods, he will never
make a full recovery. It will take him, perhaps, months or years to
die a gradual, miserable death through malassimilation and
malnutrition, which usually end in some form of wasting disease,
such as pernicious anemia or tuberculosis. If he does not actually
die from the effects of the wrongly treated typhoid fever, he will
be troubled all his life with intestinal indigestion, constipation,
malassimilation and the accompanying nervous disorders.
A Change for the Better
Speaking of typhoid fever, we are glad to say that for this
particular form of disease the most advanced medical science has
adopted the Nature Cure treatment, that is, straight cold water and
fasting, and no drugs, as it was originated by the pioneers of
Nature Cure in Germany more than fifty years ago.
This treatment, which medical science has found so eminently
successful in typhoid fever, would prove equally efficacious in all
other acute diseases if the regular doctors would only try it. It is
a strange and curious fact that so far they have never found it
worth while to do so. All Nature Cure physicians know from their
daily experience in actual practice that the simple water treatment
and fasting is sufficient to cure all other forms of acute diseases
just as easily and effectively as typhoid fever. By this is proved
the unity of treatment in all acute diseases.
Both in typhoid fever and in tuberculosis, progressive medical men
have now entirely abandoned the germ-killing method of treatment.
They have found it absolutely useless and superfluous to hunt for
drugs and serums to kill the typhoid and tuberculosis bacilli in
these, the two most destructive diseases afflicting the human
family. They were forced to admit that the simple remedies of the
Nature Cure school, cold water and fasting in typhoid fever and the
fresh-air treatment in tuberculosis, are the only worthwhile methods
to fight these formidable enemies to health and life.
If they would continue their researches and experiments along these
natural lines, they would attain infinitely more satisfactory
results than through their germ-hunting and germ-killing theories
and practices.