Metabolic waste

“ Repair and Elimination of Waste (Metabolism)
Every part of the body is constantly changing. Its work never stops. If kept in thorough repair it must be torn down and rebuilt incessantly. These chemical changes are called collectively metabolism. They are divided into two groups: the chemical process of building up complex substances from simple ones is known as anabolism; the chemical process of oxidizing and breaking down the complex substances into simple ones, so that they are in a state to be excreted, is catabolism. ”

“ Of these the latter two furnish most of the 18 per cent of carbon in the body, and the animal or vegetable protein furnishes the nitrogen, which forms only about 3 per cent of the body tissues: all these substances are, of course, used up constantly in providing heat and energy, physical and mental, day by day, the protein being concerned chiefly in replacing wasted tissue. The combustion of the carbohydrates and fat is relatively simple, and the waste products pass off harmlessly, mainly by the lungs, as carbonic acid and water. ”

“ So long as carbo-hydrates or fats are freely supplied, no increase in nitrogenous waste matters follows prolonged muscular exertion; but if they are withheld, or if the muscular exertion is excessive, then there is an increase in the waste nitrogenous substances. ”

“ If our diet is unbalanced, Nature has the power to convert one chemical into another—a secret yet unknown to modern science.
Injurious effects of congested waste matter
While the tendency of Nature is to maintain normality by casting the debris [414] out of the body, she demands that we obey the laws of motion and oxidation. If we do not observe these laws, the debris or matter she cannot use will accumulate, and congestion and constipation will take place. The excess of food thus actually clogs the system and generates in the intestines the poisons which cause autointoxication. ”

“ Where there is an interference with the functions resulting in abnormal metabolism there is always an accumulation of waste products and poisons. The accumulation of the waste products and the correspondingly lowered resistance in these structures provide a fertile field for the growth and development of the bacteria that are found in the particular incoördination. ”

“ The red cells are liable to become damaged and anemia results. It has now been proved that even tiny doses of alcohol paralyze more or less the white cells, and thus interfere with their power of destroying microbes. Chemical substances tend to exert a delaying or inhibitory influence over the chemical processes of the body. These chemical processes are oxidation, the storing up of nutriment, the manufacture of secretion, the production of energy and muscular movement, and the excretion of waste materials. ”

“ While the process of oxidation in catabolism is going on, heat and energy are set free. Most of the chemical changes in the body are catabolic in character. This work of tearing down and rebuilding body tissues never ceases—even in sleep.
It is not enough that the proper foods be furnished the body in kind and quantity. The essential thing is that the system be kept in condition to assimilate the foods to its needs and to promptly eliminate the waste. Few people assimilate all of the foods eaten; nearly every one eats more than necessary for the body needs. ”

“ Hence the nitrogenizing of the surplus carbo-hydrates is not accounted for. One more difficulty remains. If the energy given out by a muscle results from the katabolic consumption of its proteids, then the quantity of nitrogenous waste matters formed should be proportionate to the quantity of work done. ”

“ The energy liberated by the protoplasm being derived through the breakdown of another part of the same or of the {14}food-materials or stored reserves, must give rise to waste products. The exchange of oxygen from without for carbonic acid formed within is termed "respiration," and is distinguished from the mere removal of all other waste products called "excretion." ”

“ As the cell fails and shrinks, so does it become more and more unable to make good the waste due to metabolism. This physiological wasting is termed senile atrophy.
General atrophy or emaciation is brought about by the tissues being entirely or partially deprived of nutriment, as in starvation, or in malignant, tubercular, and other diseases of the alimentary system which interfere with the proper ingestion, digestion or absorption of food material. ”

“ Assimilation of nutritive materials is impossible, unless a like amount of matter be eliminated from the system. Muscular and nervous energy are dependent upon activities which cause waste. Not only is this true in a general way, but it is also true that the energy produced by the operations of the vital system has a strict relation to the wasting products—that full energy is only attained by perfected waste. ”

“ In a horse the blood travels one foot a second in the largest artery. At present the accepted theory is that in the circuit the blood makes throughout the body, it picks up the waste matter Oxidation of waste matter from tissue that has been torn down by work or effort, and brings it to the lungs, where it meets with the oxygen we breathe and is oxidized or burned.
If the body undergoes excessive effort or exercise, it tears down an excessive amount of tissue, and there is created, therefore, an excessive amount of waste or carbon dioxid. ”

“ When daily examination is continued for a time, assurance is gained that food is not all digested; that the bowels are not completely cleared of waste by a regular daily movement; that fermenting, rotting matter defiles the human interior to an extent scarcely to be accepted as a fact ; and that, in consequence of over-supply, unnecessary tax is put upon the digestive tract and upon the organs of elimination. The results are apparent in a waste of energy that lowers vitality and diminishes the power of assimilation a double injury. ”

“ The total amount of body fluid is not large, for the spaces among the cells are in most cases extremely tiny; it follows that with all the millions of cells absorbing food materials and oxygen from this fluid and discharging waste materials into it the time will soon come when no more food or oxygen will be left to be absorbed and there will be no more capacity for holding waste substances. If this state of affairs were actually to happen, metabolism would come to an end and death would be the result ”

“ Summary.—As a result of the oxidations and other changes at the cells, substances are produced that can no longer serve a purpose in the body. They are of the nature of waste, and their continuous removal from the body is as necessary to the maintenance of life as the introduction of food and oxygen. The organs whose work it is to remove the waste, excepting the lungs, are glands; and the material which they remove are of the nature of secretions. From the cells, the waste passes through the lymph in the blood. ”

“ Every disease arising in the human organism from internal causes is accompanied by a deficiency in blood and tissues of certain important mineral elements [organic salts] . Undoubtedly, the majority of these diseases are caused by an unbalanced diet, or by food and drink poisoning. Wrong food combinations, on the one hand, create an overabundance of waste and morbid matter in the system and, on the other hand, fail to supply the positive mineral elements or organic salts on which depends the elimination of waste and systemic poisons from the body. ”

“ The larger part of man’s food is used for the production of energy, and it is physiologically economic that this energy be supplied by the non-nitrogenous nutrients, particularly the carbohydrates, and to allocate to protein, so far as practicable, its special rôle of building material.
Nitrogenous Waste Products.—The end-product of proteins is urea, which is formed from protein decomposition products in relatively large amounts in the liver cells, and, being readily soluble and diffusible, is easily eliminated by the kidneys. ”

“ Exercise is constructive up to the point of fatigue, but beyond that point it is destructive. The waste products of all cell-metabolism are harmful and poisonous. When exercise is long continued, the waste matter accumulating therefrom weakens or poisons the cells that secrete them.
Different forms of exhaustion
The products of cell-metabolism are of two classes, and each class has different effects. The first is due to oxidation. A runner, who falls exhausted from shortness of breath, has simply been suffocated by the excess of carbon dioxid in his muscles. ”

“ Further, it needs very little imagination to see that a large amount of energy is used up in passing on these nitrogenous waste products from organ to organ, or from tissue to tissue, on the way to elimination, and we can fancy that liver and kidneys must at times rebel at the excessive labor they are called upon to perform. ”

“ In old age the waste is greater than the supply, and the body diminishes. It is unquestionable, that, with the exception of a certain quantity of carbon and hydrogen, which are secreted through the skin and lungs, we obtain, in the solid and fluid excrements of man and animals, all the elements of their food.
We obtain daily, in the form of urea, all the nitrogen taken in the food both of the young and the adult; and further, in the urine, the whole amount of the alkalies, soluble phosphates and sulphates, contained in all the various aliments. ”

“ When there is nothing to hinder its occurrence, the poisonous toxins and waste matters are rapidly burned up and eliminated and health prevails. Alcohol, by its affinity for oxygen, robs the tissues of [Pg 132] oxygen which they would otherwise use for combustion. Hence the tissues are kept starving for oxygen, metabolism is interfered with, and they cannot get rid of their waste material.
This delayed oxidation tends to increase the body weight. The cells in an intermediate stage of fatty degeneration clog the body, and, of course, add to its weight. ”

“ To be sure, there is waste of energy in digesting, absorbing, and oxidizing the fats and carbohydrates when they are taken in excessive amounts. Once introduced into the alimentary canal they must be digested, otherwise they will clog the intestine or undergo fermentation, and so cause trouble. ”

“ To the lack of employment of such a remedy in the treatment of consumption, the unparalleled fatality of the disease is largely due. In their anxiety to improve digestion and nutrition, and thus build up the tissues, physicians often lose sight of the no less important indication of restraining the destructive waste going on in the system, which overbalances the supplies furnished by absorption. The gradually increasing emaciation and loss of strength render perpetuity of the organism impossible. ”

“ It entails a wasteful expenditure of energy that might better be preserved for future emergencies. It imposes upon the excretory organs the needless labor of removing waste products which could well be dispensed with, to say nothing of the possible physiological action of these products as they circulate through the body. ”

“ While work is being done certain wastes are formed in the cell. Carbon dioxide is given off when carbon is burned. But when proteins are burned, another waste product containing nitrogen is formed. This must be passed off from the cells, as it is a poison. Here again the lymph and blood, the common carriers, take the waste material to points where it may be excreted or passed out of the body. ”

“ In the matter of metabolism the advantage is not all upon one side. In the katabolic process of that which each discards are the two classes of life mutually complimentary,—the waste of the one being the want of the other,—carbonic acid gas being given off by the animal, oxygen by the plant. In biologic economy it is daily more 352 demonstrable that both are necessary constituents to an advancing whole, and that each pays for what it gets by what it gives in return. ”

“ This it discovers in the reserve supply of nourishment naturally stored in the interstices of tissue. As the process of elimination or purification continues, waste grows less; the density of the blood is reduced gradually, as refuse diminishes in quantity; and the labor of the heart is thus progressively lightened.
Heart action is low in some cases of disease, and it is high in others. It is low when the blood is loaded with waste and is dense or thick in quality. It is high when fermentation of refuse in the intestines occurs, with absorption of active poison into the circulation. ”

“ Organs of Excretion.—All the life processes which take place in a living thing result ultimately, in addition to giving off of carbon dioxide, in the formation of organic wastes within the body. The retention of these wastes which contain nitrogen, is harmful [Pg 341] to animals. In man, the skin and kidneys remove this waste from the body, hence they are called the organs of excretion. ”

“ The nitrogenous Aliments are needed particularly to supply the growth and waste of the muscular and nervous tissues, which both contain Nitrogen; as also do all the parts of the body, excepting Fat. This waste is continually going on. It depends upon the fact that, after having lasted a certain time, the particles of all these tissues are gradually displaced, oxidized, and conveyed away out of the blood into the urine and other secretions. In the urine these waste matters are found as Urea, Uric acid, and Kreatine. ”