§ 260 – Sixth Edition
Hence the careful investigation into such obstacles to cure is so much the more necessary in the case of patients affected by chronic diseases, as their diseases are usually aggravated by such noxious influences and other disease-causing errors in the diet and regimen, which often pass unnoticed.1
1 Coffee; fine Chinese and other herb teas; beer prepared with medicinal vegetable substances unsuitable for the patient’s state; so-called fine liquors made with medicinal spices; all kinds of punch; spiced chocolate; odorous waters and perfumes of many kinds; strong-scented flowers in the apartment; tooth powders and essences and perfumed sachets compounded of drugs; highly spiced dishes and sauces; spiced cakes and ices; crude medicinal vegetables for soups; dishes of herbs, roots and stalks of plants possessing medicinal qualities; asparagus with long green tips, hops, and all vegetables possessing medicinal properties, celery, onions; old cheese, and meats that are in a state of decomposition, or that passes medicinal properties (as the flesh and fat of pork, ducks and geese, or veal that is too young and sour viands), ought just as certainly to be kept from patients as they should avoid all excesses in food, and in the use of sugar and salt, as also spirituous drinks, undiluted with water, heated rooms, woollen clothing next the skin, a sedentary life in close apartments, or the frequent indulgence in mere passive exercise (such as riding, driving or swinging), prolonged suckling, taking a long siesta in a recumbent posture in bed, sitting up long at night, uncleanliness, unnatural debauchery, enervation by reading obscene books, reading while lying down, Onanism or imperfect or suppressed intercourse in order to prevent conception, subjects of anger, grief or vexation, a passion for play, over-exertion of the mind or body, especially after meals, dwelling in marshy districts, damp rooms, penurious living, etc. All these things must be as far as possible avoided or removed, in order that the cure may not be obstructed or rendered impossible. Some of my disciples seem needlessly to increase the difficulties of the patient’s dietary by forbidding the use of many more, tolerably indifferent things, which is not to be commended.
In treatment of chronic diseases, besides using correct medicine, it is equally important to follow the rules of regimen and carefully avoid such impediments to the cure. It is an irrefutable truth that irregularities of food and routine and indecent way of living aggravates the sufferings in chronic diseases.
§ 261 – Sixth Edition
The most appropriate regimen during the employment of medicine in chronic diseases consists in the removal of such obstacles to recovery, and in supplying where necessary the reverse: innocent moral and intellectual recreation, active exercise in the open air in almost all kinds of weather (daily walks, slight manual labor), suitable, nutritious, unmedicinal food and drink, etc.
During the treatment for chronic diseases, such obstacles should be removed. Besides, treatment should also be regulated according to the necessity of each occasion; moral and scientific gestures are also desirable. It is essential that to have a recreation of the mind and exercises in the open air in all weather conditions in order to keep up continued healthy activity of body and mind. Nourishing foods and drinks capable of rectifying the health should be taken. Those having medicinal influence should be abandoned.
Explanation
Depending on the nature of the chronic disease, cereals, vegetables, fruit juice, milk, butter milk, uncooked foods (raw vegetables etc.), honey etc. should be used. Strong foods not easily digestable should be prohibited. Onion, garlic, cardamom, spices, asafoetida etc., although they possess qualities of food, should be prohibited by virtue of their medicinal powers.
§ 262 – Sixth Edition
In acute diseases, on the other hand – except in cases of mental alienation – the subtle, unerring internal sense of the awakened life-preserving faculty determines so clearly and precisely, that the physician only requires to counsel the friends and attendants to put no obstacles in the way of this voice of nature by refusing anything the patient urgently desires in the way of food, or by trying to persuade him to partake of anything injurious.
In acute diseases other than those having mental aberrations (insanity), the regulation of diet is not the same. This may be little lesser than in the case of chronic diseases, because the power of self-preservation will be stronger and more alert in cases of acute diseases, than those suffering from chronic diseases. It is enough if a few instructions are left with the attendants. They are to be advised not to give some foods even if asked and to prevent from doing anything that makes the patient tired and disturbs his sleep.
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