Many men are wise in their own lines, but they have been so busy attending to the affairs that brought them success that they have omitted to learn how to have health. These people owe it to themselves and to humanity to take enough time to learn how to live so that they can work in health. The better the health the finer their product. Health and efficiency go hand in hand.
What is a man to do when he has reached middle age and finds himself degenerating? A man ought to know how to live at forty, but if he does not he should immediately learn. It may be true that "a man is a fool or a physician at forty," yet there is time and if a man lacks wisdom at forty he should immediately acquire some. Such an individual should get the best health adviser possible, avoiding any man who would have him take drugs. What he needs is not medicine, but to learn how to live. I am confident that the careful reader will find enough knowledge in this book to give him the key to the situation.
If the sufferer uses narcotics and stimulants, they must be stopped immediately. Even the least harmful of these, such as beer and light wine, should be avoided until good health has been won. These beverages need never be used. If they are taken rarely and in moderation they do no harm.
In every case that has come under my observation it has been necessary to simplify the food intake, that is, to reduce the quantity and the number of articles of food taken at each meal, also to simplify the cooking. The result is that the individual gets less food, but it is of better quality, for the conventional cooking spoils much of the food.
Most of these men neglect to exercise. It is necessary to be active and in the open, also to take good care of that important organ, the skin. Constipation is common, and it is a very annoying symptom, which disappears in time under proper living. The absorption of poisons from a constipated lower bowel is one of the factors that causes premature aging. When the constipation is overcome there are a feeling of physical well-being and a mental clearness which are impossible in the presence of constipation.
The treatment of such a condition is very much the same as the treatment of catarrh or any other curable disease, that is, find the errors of living and correct them.
It is really surprising how little food people need after they are fifty or sixty years old. If such people eat enough to be well nourished, but not enough to produce any bad feelings there will be no disease. People who die from disease are physical failures, for the natural end does not come in a physical upheaval. Those who live as they should will pass away without any pain. The organism simply grows weary and goes into the last sleep.
There are people who say that there needs be no physical death. Harry Gaze wrote an entertaining book on the subject some years ago and gave lectures in this country. It will not convince the average student of nature that people can live forever, for in nature there is constant change. The order of life is birth, development, reproduction, decline and death. It is not likely that man is an exception.
It is believed that in olden times men were larger and lived longer than they do today. There is not much foundation for such a belief to rest upon, except in a few cases. The last census shows that there are several thousand centennarians in the United States. In the Technical World for March, 1914, appeared an article by Byron C. Utecht, entitled, "When is Man Old?" This magazine is careful in gathering its facts. I shall quote a few paragraphs:
"Abraham Wilcox, of Fort Worth, Texas, is one hundred and twelve years old, but he takes keen enjoyment in life. He walks two miles or more every day as a constitutional and, occasionally, he even takes a small glass of beer. He looks forward with all the enthusiasm of a boy to a visit to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915. Mr. Wilcox reads the newspapers every day and is interested in everything about him, from the food being prepared for his dinner to the latest feats by aeroplanes. This aged man looks forty or fifty years younger than he really is. His skin is white but not deeply lined. His vision is excellent and he walks nearly erect. Thirty years ago he gave up smoking, as his doctors warned him he was near death from old age and that the use of tobacco would only hasten the end."