Old Age Deferred The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures

WE have just recently received the manuscript for the following introductory pages, which are intended as a message direct to the American people by Dr. Lorand. Their importance...

AS a general rule the first symptoms of old age do not appear before the fortieth or forty-fifth year. There are, however, many persons who, much earlier, occasionally even befo...

AS a general rule infants of both sexes look very much alike, so much so, indeed, that sometimes it is only possible, upon close inspection, to determine the difference in sex....

FROM the moment of our birth we are constantly exposed to the incessant attacks of innumerable bacteria and to the effects of a large amount of poisonous material formed within...

Both in Graves’s disease and fever there is an augmentation of the processes of oxidation. After convalescence, however, oxidation may be diminished, and this explains, as we ha...

BY treating with thyroid extracts a child that has remained backward in his mental development we can make a curious observation. The child who had previously been a cretinous i...

These changes have been found by Whitwell[90] also in myxœdematous persons. In accordance with these anatomo-pathological changes we must also expect clinical symptoms, and we s...

WHEN we study the history of people who present a youthful appearance late in life, and reach an extraordinary old age,—up to 120 or 140, or even 160,—we are surprised at the un...

WE occasionally witness the peculiar fact that persons who live very moderately and eat very sparingly, and who totally abstain from alcohol, nevertheless become old before thei...

WE have seen in the first chapter of this book that we may find the symptoms of old age, in quite early years, in persons whose ductless glands (the thyroid, ovaries, testicles,...

WE have seen in the first chapter of this book that the symptoms of old age may appear in quite young persons after changes in the ductless glands, especially the thyroid, ovari...

Alcohol in large doses may also have a degenerating effect on the sexual glands. Small doses can stimulate, but large doses are decidedly harmful. Temporary impotence may result...

WE have shown in previous chapters, through facts from pathological anatomy, experimental pathology, and clinical medicine, that old age is a disease characterized by the abunda...

THERE is not one thousandth of an inch of our body surface which does not swarm with innumerable bacteria, and as soon as the continuity of our skin is severed, as by a small wo...

THE earliest authorities on the thyroid gland, including Schiff and others, have shown that when this gland is extirpated in a dog, as a rule the animal develops convulsions aft...

THE rational hygiene of the thyroid gland consists in the avoidance of all agencies that may prove harmful to the gland, the most important of which are infectious diseases; fre...

THE liver is one of the most important of our organs. As Professor Hemmeter, of Baltimore, says, “The liver is an organ secondary in importance only to the heart. Living things...

WE have often observed that people suffering from diseases of the liver feel and look much better after abstaining from meat and living on milk and a vegetarian diet. If such a...

THERE is ample evidence in support of the contention that the adrenals play an important part in the destruction of toxic products in the body. As long ago as 1853, one of the l...

IN order to obtain the best hygienic condition of the circulatory system, it is indispensable to avoid all that are harmful to the adrenals. There can no longer be any doubt tha...

THE intestines contain billions and billions of microbes, their number increasing downward throughout the length of the intestine. The duodenum contains the least, and in some p...

WE all know from physiology that the expulsion of fœcal matter from the intestines takes place in such a manner that the contents therein act as a kind of _extraneous_ body with...

AS the means by which we are able to keep the intestines in good working order are of the same efficacy also for the stomach, all that is necessary to mention in this chapter ab...

APPENDICITIS, in these days, is one of the most frequent causes of an unexpected death. As this work is designed to set forth the means by which we may prolong life, it is desir...

IN the course of this work we have frequently insisted on the fact that we are being continually poisoned during the processes of life, either by poisons coming from without int...

THE most rational hygiene of the kidneys for the prevention of kidney diseases consists in the avoidance of all those causes which are injurious to the kidneys, and which we hav...

THERE are some two and a half million small glandular formations—the sudorific glands—on the whole surface of the body in the subcutaneous tissue of the skin, from which issues...

IN another part of this work we have attributed to the kidneys a very important part in the causes of premature old age, as their degeneration is one of the most striking causes...

THE chief object of rational clothing is to obtain porosity. All underwear as well as outer coverings must be made out of some porous substance which will in no way check the pe...

EVERY day we are getting rid of the superficial layers of the skin, which process can become so intense in some people that the skin looks as though it were covered with flour d...

UNDER normal conditions we daily lose a certain amount of water and also of gaseous and solid products, among them many harmful ones, through the invisible and insensible perspi...

ALL kinds of exercise have one essential point to them—they produce a contraction of the muscles. As Ludwig and his disciples have shown, contraction of the muscles produces an...

IT is intentional that we present this chapter immediately after those on the improvement of the functions of the skin and on exercise, as these are the principal means by which...

IT is a matter of everyday observation that when we leave plants in a room, where no sunshine can penetrate, they lose their color and soon show quantities of parasites. Similar...

WHEN we note the faces of persons who, by reason of their occupations, pass their lives in the open air, such as peasants, gardeners, etc., we usually find them healthy and fres...

Persons in the enjoyment of complete health and vigor are frequently very sensitive to recognize the different agencies deleterious to their health. In the same way as animals t...

OLD people are particularly sensitive to cold, and they therefore need a warm room when the temperature falls in the autumn. In old age, especially in its advanced stage, the pr...

THE leading principle in the use of food is that we should eat to live, but not live to eat. It is certain that more people die from eating too much than too little. It is wonde...

MEAT is the commonest animal food, is the most nutritious, and most closely resembles in its composition our own bodily tissues. Because the albumin of meat is much better absor...

SPEAKING generally, by the title “carbohydrates” is principally meant vegetable food, in the same way that by “albuminous” animal food is mainly designated. Still there are vege...

OWING to certain peculiarities in our anatomical construction we are not intended by Nature to be vegetarians. This is amply demonstrated when we consider the formation of our t...

MOST of us have experienced a feeling of heaviness after a dinner consisting of rich meat, and not infrequently there is also a sensation of drowsiness after it, which is not ea...

WE have often observed that patients taking large quantities of milk daily, together with eggs and vegetables, and little meat, soon begin to look better, and sometimes even you...

IRON is a most important element of our blood, the lack of which, as in chlorosis and various anæmic conditions, may produce very serious symptoms. To replace this deficiency ir...

to be preferred, and the question arises: How should we take it? Of all kinds of food used at present, spinach and the yolk of eggs contain the most iron; so we could give these...

IF we desire to derive benefit from what we eat in order to keep the body in good condition, and thus successfully resist the onslaught of old age, we must possess a good digest...

IN everyday life we are exposed to worry and disappointment; and also, as many of us easily tire after work, we frequently feel an inclination to take something to cheer us up a...

IT is a strange fact, but one in which all observers agree, that women who have never been accustomed to take alcohol, can stand considerable, and sometimes very large, quantiti...

In many people the use of the above stimulants produces greater energy, especially for mental work, and the process of thought may be facilitated by their means, although we are...

SLEEP is one of the most important functions of the body. As the physiologist, Bunge,[324] remarks, “a man can live for a month without food, but he must succumb after only a fe...

WHEN any one is affected by African sleeping sickness, he wants to sleep at all times. We observed the case of an officer of the Belgian Congo Army, suffering from this sickness...

WE are all acquainted with the tale of the man who was blind in one eye and deaf in one ear, who at once went to sleep when his sound eye and ear were closed. In this case there...

Before dealing fully with this subject it may be useful to refer to the treatment of sleepiness also, as our remarks concerning this will tend to explain better the novel and mo...

WE have referred, in previous chapters of this work, to the great influence of the sexual glands on several of the most important organs, and shown in what a marvelous way these...

OPINIONS differ as to whether married life can be generally considered as a source of happiness; some there are who say it is the acme of happiness, while others do not agree th...

WHEN the famous surgeon Vesalius was dissecting a woman, he discovered that her heart was still feebly beating. He was so overcome by mental distress at his discovery that he su...

A RELIGIOUS lady of the Dutch aristocracy, whom we have known for years, lost within a short time both her grown-up son and her husband, to whom she was most devotedly attached....

defense against disease; and like a careful mother, Nature warns us first, for hardly ever do we get ill without there being some premonitory symptoms. Thus, before chronic kidn...

MANY a man bemoans his fate when bed-ridden and tortured by pain, and yet we cannot fail to recognize, upon further consideration, that such suffering often serves but to pave t...

SCHOLARS, who live entirely from the product of their mental labors, often do not present a healthy appearance, and are not infrequently subject to nervous, gastric or intestina...

IT can often be observed that people who habitually take arsenic, either for medicinal or other purposes, look better and younger; and we have, ourselves, noted in some of them...

WHEN, some twenty-two years or more ago, the first accounts came to hand of the marvelous effects of extracts from the thyroid gland of sheep, they were at first received, as in...

THE youthful appearance of a person is dependent chiefly upon the condition of the complexion, of the teeth and of the hair. If a person has a fresh complexion, and if the muscl...

IN his report on the autopsy of Thomas Parr, who lived to the age of 152 years and 9 months, Dr. Harvey, physician to the king, attributed his death to the change from a frugal...