What About The "Chronic"?
It
Takes So Long
Yes,
Nature Cure is all right, but it takes so long." Now and then
we hear this or a similar remark. Our answer is: "No, it does
not take long. It is the swiftest cure in existence."
The
trouble is that, as a rule, we have to deal with
none but the most advanced cases of so-called incurable
diseases. People go to the Nature Cure physician only after all
other methods of treatment have been tried and found of no avail.
As
long as there remains a particle of faith in the medicine bottle,
the knife or the metaphysical formula of the mind healer, people
prefer these easy methods, which require no effort on their part,
to the Nature Cure treatment, which necessitates personal exertion,
self-control, the changing or giving up of cherished habits. This,
however, is what most of us evade as long as we can. "Exercise,
the cold blitzguss, no red meat, no coffee?--I'd rather die!"
Afraid
of Cold Water
The
most-dreaded terror on the threshold seems to be cold water. Undoubtedly,
it has kept away thousands from Nature Cure and thereby from the
only possible cure for their chronic ailments. If we could achieve
equally good results without our heroic methods of treatment, the
sidewalks leading to our institution would be crowded with people
clamoring for admission.
After
all, this foolish fear is entirely groundless. Cold water is no
more to be dreaded than the bogey man. It is one of our fundamental
principles of treatment never to do anything that is painful to
the patient. We always "temper the wind to the shorn lamb,"
the coldness of the water and the force of the manipulations to
the sensitiveness and endurance of the subject. Beginning with mild,
alternately warm and cool sprays, which are pleasant and agreeable
to everyone, we gradually increase the force and lower the temperature
until the patient is so inured to cold water that the blitzguss
becomes a delightful and pleasurable sensation, a positive luxury.
It
is amusing to watch the gradual change in the attitude of our patients
toward the cold-water treatment. In some instances we have had to
spend hours in earnest persuasion before we could induce a particularly
sensitive person to try the first mild spray. A few weeks later
if, perchance, something interfered with the cold water applications,
the patient would indignantly refuse to take the other treatment
if there was to be no cold water.
There
is certainly no finer tonic than cold water, no more exhilarating
sensation than that produced by the artistic application of alternating
douches and the blitz.
The
real cause of this cold-water scare, we believe, is to be found
in the boasting of the veterans. When, with protruding chest and
chin in air, they brag to the newcomers or to their friends about
their heroism and the coolness with which they allow the cold-water
hose to be turned on them, the listener shudders and exclaims: "This
cold water may be all right for you, but it would never do for me."
No
doubt, it is this bravado of the initiated that keeps many a novice
from the first plunge into the mysteries of Nature Cure. If these
timid ones only knew what they miss!
Business Versus Cure
From
a business point of view it would, perhaps, be better to omit the
cold water altogether. It would certainly be much less trouble;
but then, the rugged honesty of Father Kneipp, the champion of the
cold-water treatment branch of German Nature Cure, has descended
upon his followers and compels them to tell the whole truth and
nothing but the truth, to make use of everything that is likely
to be of benefit to the patient and to effect a real and lasting
cure.
Our
friends, the osteopaths, have only a pitying smile for our arduous
labors. They ask: "Why fool with cold water and drive patients
away, when pleasant manipulations bring the business?" If we
query in return: "Do your pleasant manipulations cure obstinate
chronic ailments?" They answer: "We do not expect to cure
them. The effort involves too much labor and spoils the reputation
of our work. Not one in a hundred chronics has the patience and
perseverance to be cured. Besides, if a patient comes too long to
the office for treatment he drives others away."
Some
of the most successful osteopaths in this city make it a rule not
to treat a patient longer than six weeks or two months.
In
a number of cases this may be sufficient to produce marked primary
improvement, but it is not enough to launch the patient into a healing
crisis and, therefore, does not produce a real cure
because it does not remove the underlying causes of the disease.
If, after a while, the latent chronic condition again manifests
in external symptoms, the patient returns for another course of
treatment; he was "cured" so quickly before and thinks
he will be helped again.
In
justice to the osteopaths it must be said that we are not referring
to those chronic diseases which are directly caused by lesions of
the spine or other bony structures. If such dislocations or subluxations
be the sole cause of the trouble, their correction by manipulative
treatment may produce a cure within a few weeks.
But
notwithstanding the teachings of orthodox osteopathy, the majority
of chronic ailments have their origin in other causes. In most cases,
the existing spinal lesions are themselves the result of other primary
disease conditions which must be removed before the bony lesions
will remain corrected.
The
mode of treatment depends upon the object that is to be accomplished.
If it is to make the patient feel better with the least possible
expenditure of time, money, personal effort and self-control on
his part, and the least amount of exertion on the part of the physician
or healer, then osteopathic manipulations or meta-physical formulas
may be in order. But if the object is to cure actually and permanently
a deep-seated chronic disease, all the methods of the natural treatment,
intelligently combined and adapted to the individual case, will
be required in order to accomplish results.
Pull
the Roots
Cutting
off their heads does not kill the weeds. The first sign of improvement
in the treatment of a chronic disease does not mean a cure.
Diagnosis
from the Eye, borne out by everyday practical experience, reveals
the fact that symptomatic manifestations of disease are due to underlying
constitutional causes; that the chronic symptoms are Nature's feeble
and ineffectual efforts to eliminate from the system scrofulous,
psoric or syphilitic taints and the disease products resulting from
food and drug poisoning, or to overcome the destructive effects
of surgical mutilations.
An
abatement of symptoms is, therefore, not always the sign of a real
and permanent cure. The latter depends entirely on the elimination
of the hereditary and acquired constitutional taints and poisons.
When,
under the influence of natural living and methods of treatment,
the body of the chronic becomes sufficiently purified and strengthened,
a period of marked improvement may set in. All disease symptoms
gradually abate, the patient gains in strength, both physically
and mentally, and he feels as though there was nothing the matter
with him any more.
But
the eyes tell a different story. They show that the underlying constitutional
taints have not been fully eliminated--the weeds have not been pulled
up by the roots.
This
can be accomplished only by healing crises, by Nature's
cleansing and healing activities in the form of inflammatory and
feverish processes; anything short of this is merely preliminary
improvement, "training for the fight," but
not the cure.
When
you order a suit of clothes from your tailor, you do not take it
away from him half-finished; if you do, you will have an unsatisfactory
garment.
No
more should you interfere with your cure after the first signs of
improvement. Continue until you have thoroughly eliminated from
your system the hidden constitutional taints and the drug poisons
which have been the cause of your troubles. After that you can paddle
your own canoe; right living and right thinking will then be sufficient
to maintain perfect health and strength, physically, mentally and
morally.
Is the Chronic Patient to Be Left to His Fate
Because Allopathy Says He Is Incurable?
Frequently
we have been severely criticised by our friends, our coworkers or
our patients for accepting certain seemingly hopeless chronic cases.
They exclaim:
"You
know this man has locomotor ataxy and that woman is an epileptic:
you certainly do not expect to cure them," or, "Doctor,
don't you think it injures the institution to have that dreadful-looking
person around? He is nothing but skin and bones and surely cannot
live much longer."
Sometimes
open criticism and covert insinuation intimate that our reasons
for taking in incurables are mercenary.
If
we should dismiss today those of our patients who, from the orthodox
and popular point of view, are considered incurable, there would
not remain ten out of a hundred; and yet our total failures are
few and far between. Many such seemingly hopeless cases have come
for treatment month after month, in several instances for a year
or more, apparently without any marked advance; yet today they are
in the best of health.
Yes,
it is hard work and frequently thankless work to deal with these
patients. It would be much easier, much more remunerative and would
bring more glory to confine ourselves to the treatment of acute
diseases, for it is there that Nature Cure works its most impressive
miracles. On the other hand, to achieve the seemingly impossible,
to prove what Nature Cure can accomplish in the most stubborn chronic
cases, sustains our courage and is its own compensation.
The
word chronic in the vocabulary of the "Old School" of
medicine is synonymous with "incurable." This is not strange;
since the medical and surgical symptomatic treatment of acute diseases
creates the chronic conditions, it certainly cannot be expected
to cure them. If, by continued suppression, Nature's cleansing and
healing efforts have been perverted into chronic disease conditions,
the following directions are given in the regular works on medical
practice:
"When
this disease reaches the chronic stage, you can no longer cure it.
You may advise the patient to change climate or occupation. As for
medication, treat the symptoms as they arise."
We
know that the symptoms are Nature's healing efforts; when these
are promptly treated, that is, suppressed, it is not surprising
that the chronic does not recover. In fact, it is the treatment
which makes him and keeps him a chronic.
Why
Nature Cure Achieves Results
Nature
Cure achieves results in the treatment of chronic diseases because
its theories and practices are entirely opposite to those just described.
However, when the Nature Cure physician claims that he can cure
cancer, tuberculosis, epilepsy, paralysis, Bright's disease, diabetes
or certain mental derangements, the regular physician shows only
derision and contempt. He will not even condescend to examine any
evidence in support of our claims.
Since,
then, Nature Cure offers to the so-called incurable the only hope
and the only possible means of regaining health, why not give him
a chance? Many times apparently hopeless cases have responded most
readily to our treatment, while more promising ones offered the
most stubborn resistance. Even with the best possible methods of
diagnosis, it is hard to determine just how far the destruction
of vital organs has progressed, or how deeply they have been impregnated
with drug poisons.
Therefore,
it is often an impossibility to predict with certainty just what
the outcome will be. This can be determined only by a fair trial.
In the past we have treated many a case that, according to the rules
and precedents of orthodox science, should be dead and buried long
ago; yet these individuals are today alive and in the best of health.
Every
now and then incidents like the following renew our enthusiasm and
our faith in Nature Cure: Recently, we had three new cases, sent
by three former patients who had been under treatment several years
ago. These three had been among the worst cases ever treated in
our institution. When they came to us, one was supposed to be dying
with cancer, the second was in the advanced stages of tertiary syphilis
and the third, a lady, had survived several operations for the removal
of the appendix and the ovaries. At the time she took up our treatment
she had been advised to undergo another operation for the removal
of the uterus.
These
incurables had been exceedingly trying. More than once one or another
had quit, discouraged and disgusted, only to return, knowing that,
after all, Nature Cure was their only hope. After they left us,
we lost track of them and often wondered how they were getting on.
Imagine our pleasant surprise when all three were reported by the
newcomers as being in good health. What if it did take months or
even years to produce the desired results? What would have been
the fate of these three patients if it had not been for slow Nature
Cure?
Discouraged
patients frequently ask: "Why do others recover so quickly
when I show so little improvement? This cure seems to be all right
for some diseases, but evidently it does not fit my case."
This
is defective reasoning. True Nature Cure fits every case because
it includes everything good in natural healing methods. In
stubborn cases Nature Cure is not to blame for the slow and unsatisfactory
results: the difficulty lies in the character and advanced stage
of the disease.