This is, no doubt, due to mental influence. The whole of the alimentary process is under the control of the nervous system, which has its seat in the brain, consequently, a cheerful mental attitude favors digestion. It is well known that a fit of anger may temporarily stop digestion. The mind exerts such a vast influence over every function that it is impossible to set bounds to it. We are the creatures of habit. We eat so many times a day, from sheer force of habit. We habituate ourselves to partake of articles of food against which, at first, the senses rebel, by the same force; but it is left wholly to man’s reasoning powers whether his habits shall be cultivated according to the needs of the system. If they are, perfect nutrition will be established; if they are not, he is worse off than the animal who knows only to follow the instincts of the original habits of the species. A man can exercise his will power to partake of a diet which his taste had not been able to appreciate, yet no will power can ever provide good nutrition out of a diet against which taste constantly rebels. Consciousness of the digestive organs is an offense to them. The more a man is conscious of his stomach, the less will be its capacity for performing good service; therefore, a dyspeptic should never attempt to follow a course of experimental dietetics with himself, for if he watches his stomach after his carefully selected meal, to see how it will serve him, he will always find abnormal symptoms. It is never wise to expect anything but good results from anything which has been allowed to pass beyond the palate, for that is Nature’s infallible safeguard, its province being to reject every objectionable thing.
We would again remind the reader that one of the most important offices of the lungs is to promote the movement of the blood and lymph currents throughout the body. Active respiration assists all forms of lymph absorption, but gives special aid to the absorption of food substances from the stomach and intestines, because these particular lymph vessels are situated so close to the chest cavity that they are more directly under the influence of the suction action of the chest.
A few minutes spent in vigorous deep breathing exercise after each meal is one of the best means of remedying the sense of heaviness and weight of which so many complain after eating.
Thus we see that deep breathing, by favoring absorption, promotes the nourishment of the body—will assist in building tissue, in fact. Oxygen is a vital necessity for the body, and it is necessary to absorb a large quantity for the actual needs of the system, while all absorbed over the quantity means added nutrition. Now, deep, or diaphragmatic breathing, infallibly increases the lung capacity, so that the possibility for absorption of oxygen is increased, and health and strength promoted. Deep breathing is as necessary for the proper absorption and assimilation of nutrition as the selection of a well-balanced diet. It has saved thousands of lives, and is a factor in promoting health that cannot be disregarded.
“Order is Heaven’s first law,” and nowhere is this law better exemplified than in the human body. Order, or regularity, is an essential for success in human affairs—moral, mental, or physical; but especially in the latter. The successful conduct of large business organizations is only possible by regularity in the performance of every detail of duty.
If this be so when only physical results are involved, how much more so is it where vital interests are at stake? The human body is a wonderfully complex piece of mechanism, and if left to itself or rather to natural guidance, its manifold functions are performed with unfailing regularity; and regularity in function means health—irregularity, disease.
Mark the rhythmic regularity of respiration, or of the heart’s contractions! Long continued regularity begets habit, which is a form of automatism; hence the necessity of regularity in action along fixed lines, and in consonance with physiological law, that good habits only may be formed.
Good habits are absolutely essential to health, which is equivalent to saying that regularity in living is an imperative necessity to that end. Regularity in rising and retiring; regularity in eating and drinking; regularity in exercise, all are equally important.