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Show That Body of Yours By I AMES VT. B ARTON, M. D. The Liver and Mental Ailments Ci"ME years ago the superintendent of a large mental hospital discovered discov-ered that a patient who had been an Inmate for two years (with no sign of any change) began to Improve shortly short-ly after some bad teeth were removed, and leCt the hospital perfectly well mentally two months later. Immediately dentists were brought in aud the removal of dead aud infected infect-ed teeth gave such satisfactory results that this institution attained the best record on the continent for the percentage per-centage of cures in proportion to the number of cases entering the hospital. As the underlying cause of a number num-ber of mental cases was thus shown to be due to poison in the system, nose and throat specialists were brought in who removed infected tonsils and corrected cor-rected other conditions in the nose and throat, resulting in the cure of a considerable con-siderable number of cases. This superintendent went further In his efforts to remove poison from the system, by requiring the attendants to , see that patients had Intestinal move-mo. move-mo. .ts daily and in some cases ordered ordinary enemas, and in other cases, high enemas, or colonic irrigations, as Lhey are called. A point, not fully recognized by most of us, is that one of the important jobs done by the liver is that of removing poisons from the blood. If the liver fails to do this work properly, then i ' ere Is that tired, lazy feeling that Is caused by any poisonous waste. Thus we speak of a lazy liver as an organ that makes us "quitters." Dr. A. Lingjaerde, Oslo, found that disturbances of the liver were very frequent In a common- type of mental ailment, and that It was due to a large extent to too much waste in the large bowel. The liver simply could not take care of this large amount of poison. As you know the liver tries to prevent pre-vent constipation by manufacturing bile and sending it down the intestine. If this bile flows freely and sends wastes out of the bowel, then naturally natural-ly there will not be as much waste (poison) in the blood for the liver to remove. If we would keep the liver active by bending exercises, forward or to the side, with knees straight, many of us would have clearer minds. The Cheerful Temperament 'TpHE cheerful temperament is a J- priceless possession, for when all Is said, happiness is alone, the greatest or highest gift of our existence; wealth cannot purchase it, nor health insure it." , These words in the Medical Practitioner Prac-titioner by Dr. E. "A. Barton are worthy of our most serious consideration, because be-cause if you have all, and have not happiness, life is really a failure. Certainly wealth cannot purchase happiness because, to the busy individual, individ-ual, wealth is a source of great anxiety anx-iety at all times, and to the idle individual in-dividual wealth is the source of temptation temp-tation and trouble. As a matter of fact, while It cannot be said in every case that health can insure constant happiness, It can be said that real happiness cannot be Insured In-sured to you without health. We are told that "happiness depends for the most part on our inner consciousness, con-sciousness, our outlook on life, our faith in the future, and above all, on the good companionship of our fellow men." I believe we will all agree with this, but nevertheless our inner consciousness, conscious-ness, our outlook on life, our faith in the future and the good companionship of our fellow men depend to a very great extent upon our health. I have more than once quoted the saying of Chesterfield "an attack or indigestion, a sleepless night and a rainy morning will make a coward of a man who would otherwise be a hero." The difference between the coward and the hero then was that attack of Indigestion which prevented sleep, aggravated ag-gravated by the gloomy morning. If you live a normal life and are in no way conscious of having a body no headache, stomach ache, no pain anywhere, good appetite, able to go anywhere on your feet, no breathless-ness breathless-ness as you go about, get a good night's sleep you have life's greatest asset, life's greatest boon. This doesn't mean that you will always al-ways be happy, or even happy most of the time, but it does mean that you have the greatest thing needed to make you happy, that Is good health. If things come into your life that cause unhappiness, good health gives you the greatest possible help in withstanding with-standing this unhappiness, because it gives you a hopeful outlook on life, a real faith in the future, and the enjoyment en-joyment of the good companionship of your fellow men. Copyright. WXU Service. |