Chronic illness

“ There are eating disorders, shingles, skin problems, kidney disease, Alzheimer's, senility, mental illness, addictions, chronic fatigue syndrome, aids. There's macular degeneration, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic ear infections (especially in children) , tonsillitis, bronchitis, pancreatitis, cystitis, urethritis, prostatitis, colitis, sinusitis, osteomyelitis and a dozen other itises, including appendicitis. ”

“ Slow Cures.—Chronic illnesses of the soul, like those of the body, are very rarely due to one gross offence against physical and mental reason, but as a general rule they arise from innumerable and petty negligences of a minor order.—A man, for example, whose breathing becomes a trifle weaker every day, and whose lungs, by inhaling too little air, are deprived of their proper amount of exercise, will end by being struck down by some chronic disease of the lungs. ”

“ The light that has lately been thrown on chronic sources of focal infection has cleared up many of the mysteries surrounding the causation of certain obscure affections—chronic rheumatism, arthritis deformans, certain forms of anemia, goitre, chronic heart and kidney troubles, diabetes, ulcer of the stomach, duodenum, etc., and other forms of chronic disease, especially those that have proved resistant to known methods of treatment. ”

“ Chronic disease, from the viewpoint of Nature Cure philosophy, means that the organism has become permeated with morbid matter and poisons to such an extent that it is no longer able to throw off these encumbrances by a vigorous, acute eliminative effort. The chronic condition, therefore, represents the slow, cold type of disease, characterized by feeble, ineffectual efforts to eliminate the latent morbid taints and impediments from the system. These efforts may take the form of open sores, skin eruptions, catarrhal discharges, chronic diarrhea, etc. ”

“ A patient may be afflicted with some deep-seated, chronic disease that makes him very easily affected by a change of the weather, by a change of his diet or of his bed, and these may be assigned as the causes of his frequent relapses, and they are the immediate [188] or secondary causes, but the real cause is the deep-seated, chronic disease. Cure that disease and the changes in conditions, now so serious, would not be noticed by the healthy man. ”

“ Fortunate is the patient when such an escape can be established, because wherever in the system morbid excretions, suppressed by medical treatment, concentrate, there will inevitably be found the seat of chronic disease. ”

“ Under class B, diseases and defects not in class A but which affect ability to earn a living, are such conditions as hernia, organic heart disease, permanently defective nutrition and muscular or skeletal development, many deformities, varicosities of the lower extremities, premature senescence and arterial degeneration, certain nervous diseases, chronic joint inflammations, poor vision and tuberculosis of the bones, skin or glands. ”

“ On the other, a collection of rare and extraordinary instances of sudden death which have happened to be preceded by a powerful mental impression, many of which bear clearly upon their face the imprint of death by rupture of a blood-vessel, heart failure, or paralysis, in the course of some well-marked and clearly defined chronic disease, like valvular heart-mischief, diabetes, or Bright's disease. ”

“ One disease is very often the next preceding cause of another. So we speak of the great class of sequelæ of acute or subacute disorders; as, ophthalmia after measles, deafness following scarlet fever, or blindness small-pox, abscesses following typhoid fever, paralysis diphtheria, etc. But this kind of causation is extremely common also in chronic affections. What a train of organic troubles, of kidneys, heart, arteries, brain, and other parts, attend the affection to which we give the name of Bright's disease! ”

“ The fever will be gone in from seven to fourteen days in the vast majority of cases, and then feeding can be resumed.
Chronic disease is often due to neglected acute disease, at other times to the building of abnormality through errors of life which have not resulted in acute troubles. While acquiring chronic disease, the individual may be fairly comfortable, but he is never up to par. ”

“ In many of the minor chronic ailments that are the source of so much mental discomfort to patients, the physician finds that a change in the patients' habits, not necessarily of marked degree, may make all the difference between cheerful health and rather despondent low-spirited feeling. Now that epidemic disease has become rarer, a physician's practice, especially among the better classes, is much more taken up with these minor ailments than with the typical classical diseases. ”

“ For instance, if one member of a family is known to be affected, any chronic indisposition in another member, involving, perhaps, a daily rise in the temperature of the body, not sufficient to arouse alarm, but apparent in the listless behavior of the person, may be enough to suggest the beginning of the disease. ”

“ Contagious ulcers.
“Corrupted elements; epidemical diseases.
“Every acute disease is an attempt to dispel diseased matter.
“Fever is not a disease, but the consequence of it; it is an effect of an exertion greater than the power of the system.
“The radical healing of acute diseases is only possible by releasing the diseased matter, by means of water, an agent which invariably effects its object, and that always in a manner perceptible to the senses.
“By means of physic and bleeding, acute diseases become chronic ”

“ We have shown that there are constantly individual deviations, quite consistent with health, from any given standard. They only become significant of disease when they depart decidedly from the average, either in the frequency of the illness, its duration, the amount of the discharge, or the character. More or less pain, more or less prostration and general disturbances at these epochs, are universal and inevitable. ”

“ A fresh case of illness means the setting up of a fresh manufactory of horrible, insidious, deadly germs of disease, which, once set going in the world, cannot be recalled, and can only with difficulty be destroyed. ”

“ The remote causes are pneumony, catarrh, hæmoptysis, rheumatism, gout, asthma, scrophula, chronic diseases of the stomach, liver, and kidneys, nervous and intermitting fevers, measles, repelled humours from the surface of the body, the venereal disease, obstructed menses, sudden growth about the age of puberty, grief, and all other debilitating passions of the mind ”

“ ACUTE DISEASES are such as are either attended with inflammation, or other urgent symptoms, which bring on an early crisis, and render them dangerous in their consequence: hence they are opposed to chronic diseases, or those which, though of slower progress, may nevertheless terminate in dissolution. ”

“ I have never known a person to go from chronic derangements of any organ in his body to normal conditions of it, without passing through an acute stage, [81] and this acute stage is critical in its nature, subjecting the organ to added liability for the time, may be subjecting the whole organism to it. Thousands of persons die every day under medical treatment in this country from badly-managed critical changes through which they have to pass. ”

“ When local action has been long continued, however, the highly morbid condition of a limited portion of tissue may in time find sympathy in adjoining parts, and so by degrees the whole system become involved in a chronic disorder. ”

“ From the Nature Cure viewpoint, the chronic condition is the latent, constitutional disease encumbrance, whereas acute disease represents Nature's efforts to rectify abnormal conditions, to overcome and eliminate hereditary or acquired morbid taints and systemic poisons and to reestablish normal structure and functions. ”

“ The pendulum now, however, is swinging the other way, and the time has come to attack, with the aid of the methods of chemistry and physiology, the chronic diseases, the disturbances of metabolism and of internal secretion and the affections peculiar to infancy and old age. Only recently have the diseases of advanced life attracted an attention commensurate with their incidence and importance. ”

“ Diseases He is Most Susceptible To
¶ Acute diseases are the ones chiefly affecting this type. Everything in his organism tends to suddenness and not to sameness. [Pg 121]
Just as he is inclined to get into and out of psychological experiences quickly, so he is inclined to sudden illnesses and to sudden recuperations. A Thoracic seldom has any kind of chronic ailment. If he acquires a superabundance of avoirdupois he is in danger of apoplexy. The combination of extreme Thoracic and extreme Alimentive tendencies is the cause of this disease. ”

“ Chronic diseases are diseases of long duration and which do not tend to result in complete recovery; in certain cases a cause of disease persists in the body producing constant damage, or in the course of disease some organ or organs of the body are damaged beyond the capacity of repair, and the imperfect action of such damaged organs interferes with the harmonious inter-relation of organs and the general well-being of the body. ”

“ From these alone, the most essential advantages may be derived in all chronic diseases, especially such as cannot be traced to their sources, or the predisposing causes of which cannot be discovered, either from an intentional concealment of the patient, his want of resolution and capacity to disclose them, or other reasons, chiefly arising from the present imperfect state of the healing art. ”

“ The same may be said of various cutaneous diseases, especially in their chronic forms—suppression of the natural or habitual evacuations—ulcers—disposition to gravel and stone—old and painful wounds, healed or open—diseases resulting from metallic fumes—swellings and engorgements of the liver, spleen, and other abdominal organs—hæmorrhoids—nervous asthma—chronic sickness—colics—hysteria—hypochondriasis—derangements peculiar to females—sterility—in short, three fourths of human affections, in their chronic or tedious conditions! ”

“ We can treat many chronic diseases as successfully without as with a personal consultation, as our vast experience enables us to correctly determine the malady from which the patient is suffering, from a history of the symptoms, and answers to questions furnished. We have not seen one person in five hundred of those whom we have cured. ”

“ Congestions, chronic inflammations, tumors of the brain, paralysis, rupture of blood-vessels, enlargement of the heart, chronic bronchial affections, dropsical effusions, indigestion, diseases of kidneys and bladder, especially the latter, cancers, etc., are what the physician is most often called upon to prescribe for in old people. Aside from actual disease, the conduct of the life of elderly persons is to be studied and observed. ”

“ To one who has been an eye-witness of the wonderful achievements of American medical science in the conquest of acute communicable and pestilential diseases in those regions of the earth where they were supposed to be impregnably entrenched, there is the strongest possible appeal in the present rapidly growing movement for the improvement of physical efficiency and the conquest of chronic diseases of the vital organs. ”

“ Moreover, in chronic cases—cases of long standing—the best results may be hoped for—in fact the best possible results have invariably followed—from an abstemious (frugivorous) diet, together with simple bathing, as special symptoms may indicate,—and an improved general regimen, as to fresh air, exercise (inaugurated gradually) , beginning, perhaps, with passive exercise, as rubbing, etc., by the attendant. A chronic disease usually implies chronic provocation: Nature has simply commuted148 the extreme penalty of the law ”

“ Perhaps one of the reasons why so determined a fight against this particular disease, involving only 5000 cases of illness during the year, has been made, is on account of the length of the illness in each case and on account of the fact that the disease usually attacks those in the very prime of life, from 15 to 40 years. ”

“ Nearly all serious illnesses commence with a shivering fit: severe colds, influenza, inflammations of different organs, scarlet fever, measles, small-pox, and very many other diseases, begin in this way. If, therefore, your child should ever have a shivering fit, instantly send for a medical man, as delay might be dangerous. A few hours of judicious treatment, at the commencement of an illness, is frequently of more avail than days and weeks, nay months, of treatment, when disease has gained a firm footing. ”

“ Causes calculated to depress the health, such as previous disease, particularly affections, of the nervous system—anxiety, worry or overwork, irregularities in food, and in a marked degree intemperance—have a powerful predisposing influence, while personal uncleanliness, which prevents among other things the healthy action of the skin, the wearing of tight garments, which impede the functions alike of heart and lungs, and living in overcrowded and insanitary dwellings have an equally hurtful tendency. ”

“ Disease, which is quite as natural a process as health, is not allowed to go on as nature would; the internal organs whose morbid action alone can cause death, are made the arena for all sorts of conflicting and inflicting medical stimulants; and between the action which these excite, and that which originally existed, their vitality fails, their efforts towards restoration flag, and their functions are at last extinguished.”
Dr. Rush says:—
“We have multiplied diseases—we have done more, we have increased their mortality.” ”