BODILY EXCESSES
In this division of secondary causes may be mentioned overwork, continuous loss of sleep, overeating, venereal excesses, etc.
They act in this manner. Wasting and overusing the bodily resources they lower the general vitality. Now, though there be subluxations at various points in the spine there is still transmitted through each impinged nerve a certain amount of Vital Force which to a certain extent maintains the functions of the body and keeps it in a state of activity sufficient for ordinary demands. When the entire stock of vitality is lowered through excess the amount of energy passing through each nerve in the body is lessened, but the effect of such lessening is felt most where there is subluxation. At the high tide of vitality the subluxations are not sufficient, perhaps, to produce serious disease. At low ebb, every organ whose nerve is interfered with suffers keenly. Under such conditions the body is much more subject to adverse influences, to shocks and jars, to contagion or infection, to the action of cold or exposure. Thus bodily excess acts as a secondary cause of disease.