Have you noticed how we all resent this business of growing old? Once we pass the age of thirty, we usually do- not care to admit it. In fact, we use every type of subterfuge to cover up the uncomfortable fact! But regardless of what we do, this aging process is universal we cannot escape it. But notice how the rate of degeneration varies considerably from one individual to another. Some people never "look their age," while others "appear old for their years." What makes the difference? Hereditary tendencies?
Yes, they inevitably play their part. But the habits of life are also very important. In fact, a person with an admittedly poor background may so learn to live as to greatly extend his life expectancy, and also his general usefulness to the race. Yes, it is literally true: You can live longer if you will but will you? The answer to this question lies largely in your attitude toward life. If one is to live longer, he must develop and maintain a strong constitution. A long and healthy and happy life is no accident. It is the result of good living on the part of either the individual or his ancestors.
What does life mean to you? There are many people who are tired and bored with their lives. They are merely existing, carrying on the usual functions of breathing and eating, but getting no satisfaction out of living. They are natural pessimists, whose lives typically convey the impression that all is "vanity and vexation of spirit." Most of these unfortunate people may truly be said to have outlived their sphere of usefulness. They are always looking for some new miracle drug to give them another chance. They will never find it. What they need is to be awakened to the latent, unused powers within themselves, powers that would make them happy and productive again if only they could be released by some magic touch. There is no vitamin or mineral that can do this. Only the will of the individual can accomplish this miracle. And to the will, we must add the needed knowledge of better living.
Real living is far more than merely existing. There is nothing humdrum, tawdry, or common place about life when lived at its best. A life worth while is always a life of adventure and of joy in spite of adversity and difficulty. The one who is really alive is always a positive, active, contributory force, a personality worth knowing. Such a person may be a physical cripple, but he is always doing his best to uplift and strengthen those around him. He is not one to succumb to the adverse environment in which he may be placed. Instead he goes on to mold and shape that environment to serve him self and his generation. Yes, it all depends upon his attitude to life. No man ever really fails who does his best in a cause that is right.
But to live at one's best, one needs a body that is vibrant with life and health. To be really healthy and happy one must obey the laws of health. And to obey the laws of health, one must know and understand something of the body and its mechanism. Let us think about this body of ours.
The Masterpiece of Creation
First of all, man's life on this earth was no accident. Nor was his intricate human machinery the result of blind chance. No one who care fully studies the human body can ever really think otherwise than that man is the master piece of creation. He was made perfect in every detail. God never intended him to spend a large part of his life as an invalid, suffering from some chronic illness. God planned that man should live forever in perfect health. That is why He created such a perfect body for him. It is wise for us to study some of the organs of this body of ours and how they carry on their work.
First of all, let us consider the heart. That remarkable organ is built of very strong muscular tissue, but weighs only half a pound. It is about the size of a man's fist. But in spite of its very small size, it is the most wonderful pump in the world. No machine that man has made can begin to compare with the human heart for efficiency. This small muscular pump is responsible for sending the blood through thou sands of miles of tiny vessels, feeding every cell in our body, removing the waste tissues, building up new cells, and helping to repair the body wherever damage occurs.
Your heart is able to operate for perhaps a hundred years without losing even a few minutes for repairs. It will keep on going for days at a time under heavystress, even though it may be speeded up to two or three times its normal rate by disease or acute illness. If its valves begin to leak because of infection, it thickens up its own walls to in crease its strength, and thus it compensates for any temporary or permanent lack of efficiency. And it will keep on working under the most severe handicaps. Your heart puts out an enormous amount of work every day. At each beat it does the equivalent of lifting four times its own weight to a height of two feet. It does this 70 or 80 times a minute, day and night without stopping. And while working it selects from the blood stream those materials that it needs for its own nourishment and repair. It never stops until the end of its long and useful life. Only the master hand of a divine Creator could construct such a marvelous organ.
Those lungs of yours are also remarkable in their construction. Besides the large blood vessels leading to and from the heart, the lungs contain the mechanism by which the body takes on oxygen and gives off carbon dioxide. This is accomplished by many millions of tiny air sacs, all leading off from the bronchi and bronchioles. The walls of these air cells (alveoli) are extremely thin, and yet they contain myriads of minute capillaries, where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place. If these alveolar sacs were spread out, it is said, they would cover an acre! What a pity it is that so many have to make their work doubly hard by habitual use of poisonous gases containing nicotine!
The digestive organs are also most remark able. We are all well aware that teeth are needed for proper mastication of food, and that salivary glands help to lubricate the food thus chewed, in preparation for the digestion that takes place lower down. But even the saliva itself has some digestive properties. Hence it is wise to chew food properly and thus to prepare it for further chemical action in the stomach. The man who wants to preserve his health for later years will eat slowly and enjoy his food, rather than bolting it down and then pouring a lot of ice water down into his stomach. This only dilutes the gastric juices and retards digestion.
Common Sins Against Health
The sins against the human stomach are beyond computation. No animal that walks the earth is so careless of what it eats as are human beings except perhaps goats! No wonder we sometimes call ourselves by that epithet! Surely the stomach deserves the best of care, not abuse. Normally this large hollow organ is able to contain about five pints, but it often finds it self stretched far beyond that point! And such dreadful mixtures seem to find their way into this poor gastric organ! It is literally true many people who would not touch alcohol as a beverage actually manufacture some alcohol of their own by the horrible mixtures that they force down into their stomachs. People may get partially drunk on bad mixtures of food.
Let us follow that dinner of yours as it goes down. We should assume, (and hope) that it has been thoroughly chewed and swallowed. Having reached the stomach, it goes through some very strange contortions. That muscular churn pulls and squeezes and twists the food mass in all directions, at the same time pouring its own strong digestive juices. These are hydrochloric acid and the enzymes known as pepsin, rennin, and lipase.
Many marvels of chemistry and physiology next begin to take place in the small bowel. Powerful digestive juices are poured in from both the liver and the pancreas, and from the bowel itself. The food is now liquid, and finds itself bathed in a constantly changing stream of digestive chemicals, all much more complicated than anything used by ordinary manufacturing plants, except those that try to duplicate human digestion. This small bowel is more than twenty feet in length and during digestion it is constantly moving. It is a marvel of construction from one end to the other. For instance, in every inch of that bowel there are more than 2,000,000 tiny muscular engines, all playing their part. When digestion has been completed, the food residue passes from the small bowel to the large bowel. Most of the food constituents that are needed for the body's sustenance have already been removed and sent on to the liver and to other organs to be reconstituted from their now simple forms into the more complex fuels and building blocks needed to keep the body healthy.
In the colon, or large bowel, the last of the digestive absorption takes place. This colon of ours seems to have much to do with how long we live. It is often the center of chronic dis eases that usually start with emotional difficulties and a poor choice of food. Because the body may be run down through malnutrition and perhaps infection, the colon becomes sluggish and sick and unable to do its work. It is most unfortunate that many, people who ought to be studying their diet and their whole life program, and finding out how they have been disobeying the laws of health and good living, rush off to the drugstore for some powerful laxative, thus further increasing the physical dis ability of the colon.
The laxative habit is often a short cut to the cemetery. For instance, many modern laxatives contain phenolphthalein. This is a poisonous drug that is harmful to the bowel. Some children have died from eating large quantities of chocolate-covered laxatives containing this dangerous drug. Again, the routine use of mineral oil may also be harmful, for the oil tends to carry out the fat-soluble vitamins with the feces. The best advice for constipation is to study the laws of health, select the right food combinations to keep the body healthy, and leave your bowels alone!
Remember, your diet controls your life. And the diet you choose may greatly affect the life of your children too, both from the hereditary standpoint and also from the example you set. We human beings are often weak and sickly be cause of the dietary indiscretions of our ancestors. The antediluvians, those people who lived before the Flood, measured their lives in centuries, not in decades as we do. They had no need of doctors. It was their diet that accounted for their long lives, plus the fact that very little physical degeneration had as yet taken place since the creation of man. The Bible says that flesh foods were not used until after the Flood. This was, no doubt, one reason why the human life span dropped down so sharply in later centuries until we reach the "threescore years and ten" of the 90th psalm, which was written by Moses. Even today many European peasants live to well over a hundred years. It is their simple, easily digested diet that accounts for their longevity.
Here are a few health hints that will help toward a longer and happier life:
1. Don't overload your stomach at any meal.
2. Avoid highly refined foods, such as white flour, cane sugar, and other such foods that fill but fail to fortify the system. They tend to leave the body weak and flabby, a prey to disease.
3. Avoid haphazard eating. Take regular, simple meals.
4. Eliminate all tension and worry while eating. This only raises the blood pressure, and often prevents the body from absorbing the nutritive elements from the meal.
5. Don't use routine alkalies for stomach acidity. Hydrochloric acid is essential for digestion, and to protect the body against bacteria that may be swallowed with the food. If you are "too acid," change your diet and your way of living.
6. Avoid all stimulants, such as tea, coffee, alcohol, and caffeine drugs. Life is stimulating enough these days. Take it a bit easier. Don't whip that nervous system. Relax.
7. Leave your bowels alone. Quit the routine use of laxatives and enemas, and stop worrying about your colon. Give it the right kind of food and it will take care of itself unless you have ruined it from years of abuse. Even then a better diet and a sensible mental attitude may greatly improve the situation. Try it!
The right diet will help one to build up resistance to disease. But in addition we must have rest of mind and of body. To be really healthy we must also learn to relax. Rest and sleep are just as important as a nutritious diet. Don't take your problems to bed with you. Leave your burdens with God. Commit your way unto Him and trust in Him. Accept the pardon that He is so willing to extend. Let Himremove the load of guilt from the soul. You may then relax in His presence and find the peace and joy and satisfaction of living a life that is truly worth while.
