The protein in the food debris are degraded by the anaerobic bacteria present in the mouth.Offenssive odor is produced due to release of some gases like hydrogen sulphide,skatol ect due to bacterial activity.Formation of a thin sticky membrane on the tongue favoures bacterial growth.Bactrera are also seen in the crypts of tonsils ,dental caries,dental pockets ect.Bad breath is associated with oral hygiene,caries,gingivitis,tonsillitis,tonsillar plaques,food habits,water intake ,tobacco chewing,stomach and liver diseases and ect.

Homoeopathy is a system of medicine introduced by a german physician Dr Samuel Hahnemann.Homoeopathy treats the diseased individual as a whole rather than treating diseased parts or organs.The physical,mental,emotional,social spheres of a person is considered for a permanent cure.This system believes that the diseases are caused due to the derangement of vital force which is an invisible power in every individual.In a healthy state the vital force maintains the equilibrium of mind body and soul .During this man will have normal sensations and functions.When the vital force gets affected there will be external manifestations in the form of signs and symptoms.The imbalance in the body functions makes a shelter for forign organisms(bacteria,viruses,fungi,protozoa ect) and allow them to proliferate &produce so called diseases.Homoeopathy believes thet the real desease comes before the bacteria & viruses,hence the root cause of the disease has to be treated for a permenent cure.The antibacterial and antiviral agents only remove the secondary causes mentioned above.

Diseases are produced by noxious morbific agents called Miasms which are dynamic influences which affect the vital force.There are mainly three miasms PSORA ,SYPHILIS&SYCOSIS. These three causes are accepted by other schools of medicine but called by different names. Psora causes functional disturbances, syphilis cause structural changes in the form of destructions and sycosis causes changes in the form of overgrowth.These three miasms can act individually or in combined form producing different disease conditions.

To treat bad breath with homoeopathic medicine is easy if correct remedy in suitable dose is given. In the homoeopathic medical repertory by Dr Robin Murphy there are 140 homoeopathic drugs mentioned for bad breath.So just giving one drug for bad breath may not give good result.To come to a correct remedial diagnosis we should have the symptomatology of the person .It is the total symptoms of a person which includes mental generals,physical generals,particular symptoms ect.Bad breath is considered as a physical general symptom .Eventhough it comes only from a part of the body it affects the whole individual.

Symptoms related with appetite,thirst,bowels ect are included in physical generals.
All signs and symptoms (mental&physical)of the person is taken in detail.Knowledge about past illneses,family history of diseases,food & bowel habits,relation to climatic changes and constitution ect are noted down in a systematic order.

Mental symptoms:

example: fear,anxiety,depression,anger,jealousy and ect….

Physical symptoms:

example: Body makeup,appetite,thirst,desires,aversions,bowels,urination,sleep,taste, nature of smell,discharges any abnormal sensations like pain, burning ,climatic changes,thermal relations, and ect….

Peculiar uncommon symptoms:

This is the speciality of homoeopathic system of medicine.For the selection of a suitable remedy these symptoms are very important.common symptoms which are seen almost in all patients are least important.

particular/local signs&symptoms:

This include signs &symptoms related to body parts &organs.

example: Coating on the tongue,nature of mucus membrane of oral cavity, tonsils, gums, teeth, ulcers, discolourations ect are considered here.

Systemic & general physical examination:-

Bad breath can be due to various systemic and disorders.Hence all systems ( respiratory system ,digestive system,nervous system, cardio vascular system and ect )and parts from head to foot should be examined.

provisional disease diagnosis; Here probable diseases are diagnosed. In homoeopathy disease diagnosis is not that much important for the selection of a remedy,but needed for general management and to know the prognosis.

Investigations:

This includes lab investigations and other methods to find out any other major illnesses.

Final disease diagnosis:

After doing all investigations the disease is diagnosed.

Remedial diagnosis:

This is the most importnant part as far as homoeopathy is concerned. For this the selected symptoms are arranged in a systematic order on the basis of importance.
symptoms are analysed to find out the importance of each symptom for the selection of a remedy.Remedies are selected on the basis of similarity.[the basic principle of homoeopathy is 'similia similibus curenter' means like cures like.A medicine which can produce some symptoms in a healthy man can be used as a remedy to trea the similar symptoms in a diseased person.Each homoeopathic drug is proved on healthy human beings and the symptoms collected by this process(drug proving) is written in meteria medica.]

Suitable remedies are diagnosed by a process called repertorisation. Here books called repertories are used. Repertory is the index of symptoms of materia medica(books which contain the symptoms of drugs).Nowadays computer softwares are used for repertorisalion.By this process we will get the remedies covering maximum important symptom of the patient.

Amoung this group of remedies the most suitable remedy is selected by referring various books and history of the patient..The selected medicine is given in suitable potency & dose.

ANTI MIASMATIC TREATMENT:

The root cause of disease is miasms which should be eradicated using suitable anti miasmatic drugs.Every drug can eradicate the miasm if there is symptom similarity.there are anti psoric drugs,anti syphilitic drugs and anti sycotic drugs.After diagnosing the miasm suitable anti miasmatic drug has to be given to complete the cure.

[In homoeopathy medicines are prepared from different sources like minerals, plants, animals, toxins, diseased parts ect. Medicines are prepared from these substances by a special process called potentisation.Here the soluble substances are potentised by diluting with spirit and insoluble substances by grinding with sugar of milk.The crude drug substance is first mixed with a calculated quantity of spirit and water and kept for few days .From this mixture extract is taken and is called mother tincture(denoted as Q).From this mother tincture dilutions are prepared by potentisation.Potentisation is a mathematical process by which the quantity of original drug substance reduces but medicinal power increases. Depending upon the ratio of quantity of drug substance and vehicle(spirit or sugar of milk)there are different scales for this process.Each scale has got different potencies which indicate power of medicine.Example in decimal scale 3x,6x.12x ect.in centisimal scale there is 30c,200c ect,in LM poteny there are 0/1,0/2,0/3 ect.potency is written after the name of every medicine]

Same medicine is available in different potencies. Suitable potency is selected according to so many facters like sevearity,depth of disease,condition of the patient ,nature of disease ,type of symptoms,age of patient and ect.

Some useful homoeo drugs for bad breath.

Arnica montana, Antim crude, Ars alb, Asafoetida, Aurum met, Baptisia, Bryonia,Borax,Calc carb, Carbo veg, Cinchona, Chelidonium, Graphites, Kali bich ,Kreosotum, Lachesis, Lycopodium, Merc sol, Natrum mur, Nitricum acidum, Nux vomica, Plantago, Pulsatilla, Phos, Pyrogen, Sulphur etc.

1) Arnica montana:

This medicine is useful for fetid breath.Mouth is very dry with thirst for water.Bad breath associated with fever.There is bleeding from the gum,may be after tooth extraction or after injury.Offenssive gas pass upwards and downwards from stomach.Petient is very sensitive to touch with sore and bruised feeling allover the body.

2) Antim crude:

Useful for bad breath with gastric complaints and coated tongue.This medicine act mainly on filthy persons with aversion to bathing.Tongue is coated white like fur.Nostrils and lips are cracked .Eructations are putrid.Very useful for badbreath in children

3) Ars alb:

All discharges are having cadeveric smell.Saliva is bloody with bad odor.Thirst for warm water is well marked. This medicine act well in debilitated and emaciated persons.Bad breath associated with gastric disorders.Vomiting from slightest food or drink and intolerance of vegetables and watery fruits.Mentally these patients are fastidious with an insecurity feeling.They are having fear of death or serious disease with restlessness and anxiety.

4) Asafoetida:

Useful for bad breath associated with eructations.Great distension of abdomen with sensation of a ball rising in throat.All discharges are offenssive.Reverse peristalsis with loud eructations.This medicine act well on hysterical persons.

5) Aurum met:

Useful for bad breath in girls at puberty. There is ulceration in gums with putrid or bitter taste. Destruction in body tissues like bone is noticed in these patients.This medicine act well on persons who are tired of life with suicidal thoughts.They also have a feeling that they have done an unpardonable crime.

6) Baptisia:

Breath fetid with bitter taste.Gums sore and ulcerated.Yellowish brown coating on centre of tongue with glistening edges.Surface of the tongue is cracked.These patients feel difficult to swallow solid food.Tonsils are enlarged without pain.Useful for painless tonsillitis & pharyngitis with putrid smell.All discharges are offenssive.This medicine act well on persons having besoted look.There is a tendency for stupor and delirium in these persons.

7) Borax:

Useful for bad breath associated with apthous ulcer in the mouth.Also effective for fungal infection of the mouth.Mouth is very hot and tender.Ulcers bleed on touch.Very useful for bad breath in children with ulcers in the mouth.Child is having fear of doward motion.

Bryonia:

Irritable persons who always talk about business.Lips parched dry and cracked.Tongue coated dark brown with bitter taste in the mouth.Thirst for large quantity of cold water is well marked.Heaviness in abdomen after eating.Usually constipated with hard dry stools.

9) Calcarea fluor:

Plugs of mucus are continually forming in the crypts of the tonsils.Unnatural looseness of the teeth with or without pain.Prone to get caries with discolouration.Tonsils are enlarged with recurrent infection.

10) Carbo veg:

These patients are weak and debilitated .All body discharges are profuse with cadeveric smell.Gums are retracted and bleed easily.Frequent putrid eructations with distention of abdomen.Complaints ameliorted by passing flatus.Can’t tolerate meat and fat.Involuntary diarrhoea at night.Wants to be fanned from a close distance.

11) Chelidonium:

Tongue yellow with imprint of teeth.Bad odor with bitter taste in the mouth.Useful for bad breath with liver complaints.Thirst for hot liquids.Patient feels better by eating. Constipation with hard round stools.Constipation alternating with diarrhoea.

12) Graphites:

This medicine act well on obese patients with skin troubles.Breath smells like urine.Rotten odor with salivation and blisters in the mouth.Sour eructations with gastric complaints.Skin complaints with sticky discharges.Gastric pain ameliorated by eating .

13) kali bich:

Bad breath with gastric ulcer.There are round ulcers in the mouth.Saliva viscid. Vomiting with bitter taste.Tongue is smooth .Craves bear.Gastric complaints alternating with rheumatism.

14) kreosotum:

Teeth dark and crumbly.Bitter taste in the mouth with putrid odour.Very rapid decay of teeth.All discharges are very offenssive.Gums spongy and bleed easily.Bad breath associated with caries and gastric complaints.

15) Lachesis:

This medicine act on dark restless patients with jelousy.Tongue is black coloured. Complaints are aggravated during sleep.Wants fanning from a long distance.Cannot tolerate tight cloathing around body.Complaints aggravated in hot climate.

16) Lycopodium:

Act well on intelligent people who are physically weak.They have lack of self confidence.Useful for badbreath associated with sour eructations with burning in throat. Teeth excessively painful to touch.There are blisters on the tongue.Wants warm food and drinks.These people are usually constipated .Craving for sweets well marked.

17) Merc sol:

Sweetish metallic taste in the mouth with bloody viscid saliva. Gum is spongy and bleed easily.Mouth is moist with increased thirst.Teeth indented. Crown of the teeth decay.Fetid odor from the mouth can be felt all over the room.Ulcerations in the mouth with bleeding.All body discharges are offenssive.All complaints are aggravated at night.

18) Nux vomica:

This medicine act well on people who lead a sedentery life.They are very short tempered and become angry very easily.They are very busy in their occupation and enjoy modern civilised life with all types of food and drink.Bad breath is more after meals and in the morning. Posterior part of the tongue is coated and anterior part is clean.Sour taste in the mouth with nausea in the morning.They have got frequent urge for stool.Heavy feeling in abdomen after food is noticed.

19) Plantago:

Dental caries with severe toothache.Pain better by eating.Salivation is better by eating. Toothache with swelling of gums.Gargling plantago Q is useful to get relief from toothache due to caries.

20) Pulsatilla:

Act well on mild and gentle ladies with a yielding disposition.Patient is very timid with a weeping tendency.Bad breath is noticed mainly in the morning.Mouth is very dry but dosn’t want to drink water. Yellow or white tongue covered with a tenacious mucus.Taste is altered.Taste of food remains in the mouth for a long time.Patient wash the mouth frequently.

21) Psorinum:

Act well on unclean patients with bad odor. Hawking up of cheesy, pea like balls of disgusting smell and taste is the main cause for bad breath in these patients.Tonsils are swollen with profuse offenssive saliva.Quinsy with tough mucus in throat.All body secretions are filthy.Eructations taste like bad eggs.Very hungry and getup even at midnight for food.Swallowing is painful with pain in ears.

22) Pyrogen:

Bad breath of septic origin is cured with this medicine.Taste terribly fetid with horrible breath,tongue red ,dry ,smooth asif varnished.Bad breath associated with high fever and coffeground vomiting. In general patients body is very sensitive to touch,can’t rest on bed because of bruinsed pain.All discharges are offenssive.

23) Sulphur:

This medicine act best on dirty & filthy people with offenssive odor and a tendecy for skin diseases.Lips dry bright red with burning sensation..Tongue white with red tip & borders.Bitter taste in the morning. Eructations are putrid.Burning in all parts of the body. Aversion to bathing is well marked.Not bothered about hygiene ,still they believe that they are having superhuman powers. These individuals are very selfish.

Some homoeo mother tinctures (Q) useful for bad breath.

[mother tincture should not be taken directly because it can produce burning sensation,hence 10 drops should be mixed in half glass of water and taken internally or used for gargling]

1) Cinnamon Q : This mother tincture can be used for gragling after diluting with water.Also useful for bleeding from gums.

2) Eucalyptus Q : This tincture can be used as a mouth wash after mixing with water.Internal use of this medicine can remove mucus from the respiratory tract.Also useful for cold and coryza.

3) Zingiber Q : Useful for bad breath associated with gastric complaints. This medicine can improve digestion.Also used for gargling.

4) Rhus glabra Q : Gargling of this tincture is very useful for ulcerative lesions in the mouth like aphthous ulcer.Internal use of this tincture can reduce the bad smell of stool & flatus.

5) Oleum caryophyllum Q : Gargling of this tincture can reduce toothache.Due to it’s fregrant quality very useful to reduce bad breath.

6) Balsamum peru Q : This medicine can remove the mucus from respiratory tract hence very useful in chronic bronchitis and lung abscess.Can heal the ulcers in the mouth by gargling this tincture,it can also produce pleasent smell from the mouth.

7) Menthol Q : This is a main ingradient in tonics and syrups.Gargling of this tincture reduces bad breath.

Mattersonhealth Blog
Charlestoncornmaze Blog

So it is no surprise that these stars have their own secrets when it comes to staying fit and gorgeous. Their health agenda can range from extreme workouts to well-planned meals. Who doesn’t want to know their secrets in staying absolutely sexy? Here are some of the diet secrets of seven women celebrities.

1. Jennifer Aniston
The star of the phenomenal television show Friends not only mesmerized audiences with her adorable comic sense and her famous hairstyle, she was also known for having one of the sexiest bodies in Hollywood, as she appeared in countless magazine covers. To stay trim, Jennifer follows the 40:30:30 diet method. The diet consists of:

40% Low glycemic carbohydrates
-Foods such as beans, fruits and vegetables, legumes

30% lean proteins
-Tofu, fish, chicken, turkey, beef and low fat dairy products

30% essential fats
-nuts and seeds, fish and olive oils

It is essential that every meal should contain macronutrients to attain the balance of hormones and maximum weight loss.

2. Kate Hudson
The gorgeous daughter of actress Goldie Hawn gained 60 pounds during her pregnancy, which she needed to shed quickly before commencing on her next film. From her previous eating plan, she switched to a higher protein diet. She consumed high protein meals in smaller portions, and she combined this diet with an exercise program that includes weight training and cardiovascular workouts. After getting a lot of flak because of her post-pregnancy figure, Kate removed all that baby weight in only four months and has gained abdominal muscles that gained the envy of many in Hollywood.

3. Oprah Winfrey
As one of the most successful talk-show hosts in the world, there is no question that Oprah needs to maintain her physical appearance for her millions of audiences. Known as one of those celebrities who are constantly battling weight gain, she has recently toned up her figure and has never looked figure in age 50 by combining a regular exercise regime and diet plan. Oprah works out five days a week, spending 30 minutes on the threadmill and doing free weights. Her eating plan consists of legumes, fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables, chicken and dairy products that are lowfat. She limits her consumption of white sugar and flour. Oprah also credits her trim figure to her habit of not eating anything after seven in the evening.

4. Gwyneth Paltrow
A lot of people may find it hard to believe that the perpetually slim Academy award-winning actress actually needs to diet. Gwyneth actually follows a healthy eating plan that resembles Oprah’s, avoiding sugar and white flour. She usually follows a macrobiotic diet, eating foods like vegetables, brown rice, and lean meat. She also eliminated dairy from her diet, and does yoga everyday.

5. Madonna
The pop star known as the Material Girl has always flaunted a body that is to die for, and has become a true fitness paragon over the years. She keeps herself in tip-top shape by having Ashtanga Yoga, and follows a strict diet that mostly shuns junk foods. She adopted a macrobiotic eating plan that includes organic foods rich in lean protein.

6. Claudia Schiffer
The bodacious German supermodel eats salad and steamed vegetables for dinner and eats only fruits before the afternoon. While on locations, she prefers to eat black grapes and drinks tomato juice and herbal tea.

7. Christie Brinkley
Long-time supermodel maintains her all-American good looks by being a vegetarian. She does not keep junk foods of any kind inside her home to make sure that she does not eat them when cravings occur. She snacks on sweet potatoes in place of candy bars, and she adopts a liquid juice diet when she needs to slim down fast.

Celebrities are just like ordinary people. They need to maintain their figures just like anyone else, and there is more pressure on their part since they are constantly in the public eye. Ordinary folks can have celebrity-like bodies, too, and by following these diet and fitness plans, they can also look like red-carpet worthy.

Blog Medical
Mattersonhealth Blog

Among the highest risk factors are male sex, age over 35, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, high levels of certain blood fats, and a family history of cardiovascular disorders.

Other researchers have added to this list another risk factor: the compulsive, hard-driving, highly anxious personality. The greater the number of severity, the greater the person’s overall risk.

These threats to the heart can be divided into two main categories: those beyond individual control, such as age, sex, and heredity, and those that can be controlled, avoided, or even eliminated. Among those in the second category are what cardiologists call “the triple threat.” These are the high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and high cholesterol levels in the blood.

If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, your risk of having a heart attack is twice that of a nonsmoker. If you smoke, have hypertension, and eat a diet high in fats without any exercise at all, your risk is five times greater than normal.

The Healthy Heart

If these risk factors endanger the heart’s health, what enhances its well-being and improves its odds of working long and well?

Obviously, quitting cigarettes and eating a low-fat diet will help. The next best thing you can do for your heart’s sake is to give it what it needs: regular exercise or a complete cardio interval training.

The heart is a muscle, or, more accurately, a group or “package” of muscles, similar in many ways to the muscles of the arms and legs. And just as exercise strengthens and improves limb muscles, it enhances the health of the heart muscles as well.

Since World War II, several large-scale statistical studies have evaluated the relationship between physical activity and cardiovascular disease. One well-known survey compared 31,000 drivers and conductors of some bus companies. The more sedentary drivers had a significantly higher rate of heart disease than the conductors, who walked around the buses and climbed stairs to the upper level.

The why and how behind these statistics were bet explained by classic experiments with dogs whose coronary arteries were surgically narrowed to resemble those of humans with arteriosclerosis. Dogs who were exercised were had much better blood flow than those kept inactive.

The exercise seemed to stimulate the development of new connections between the impaired and the nearly normal blood vessels, so exercised dogs had a better blood supply to all the muscle tissue of the heart. The human heart reacts in the same way to provide blood to the portion that was damaged by the heart attack.

To enable the damaged heart muscle to heal, the heart relies on new small blood vessels for what is called collateral circulation. These new branches on the arterial tress can develop long before a heart attack — and can prevent a heart attack if the new network takes on enough of the function of the narrowed vessels.

With all these facts, it is now boiled down to a single question: What should be done in order to prevent such dilemmas?

Some studies showed that moderate exercise several times a week is more effective in building up these auxiliary pathways than extremely vigorous exercise done twice often.

The general rule is that exercise helps reduce the risk of harm to the heart. Some researches further attested the link between exercise and healthy heart based from the findings that the non-exercisers had a 49% greater risk of heart attack than the other people included in the study. The study attributed a third of that risk to sedentary lifestyle alone.

Hence, with employing the cardio interval training, you can absolutely expect positive results not only on areas that concerns your cardiovascular system but on the overall status of your health as well.

This particular activity that is definitely good for the heart is a cycle of “repeated segments” that is of intense nature. In this process, there is an interchange periods of recuperation. It can both be comprehensive activity and moderate motion.

Consequently, the benefits of merely engaging into this kind of activity can bring you more results that you have ever expected. These are:

1. The threats of heart attack are lessened, if not eliminated

2. Enhanced heart task

3. Increase metabolism, increase the chance of burning calories, therefore, assist you in losing weight

4. Improves lung capacity

5. Helps lessen or eliminate the cases of stress

Indeed, cardio interval training is the modern way of creating a healthy, happy heart and body.

Blogging Health
Mattersonhealth Blog

Alcohol has no food value and is exceedingly limited in its action as a remedial agent. Dr. Henry Monroe says, “every kind of substance employed by man as food consists of sugar, starch, oil and glutinous matter mingled together in various proportions. These are designed for the support of the animal frame. The glutinous principles of food fibrine, albumen and casein are employed to build up the structure while the oil, starch and sugar are chiefly used to generate heat in the body”.

Now it is clear that if alcohol is a food, it will be found to contain one or more of these substances. There must be in it either the nitrogenous elements found chiefly in meats, eggs, milk, vegetables and seeds, out of which animal tissue is built and waste repaired or the carbonaceous elements found in fat, starch and sugar, in the consumption of which heat and force are evolved.

“The distinctness of these groups of foods,” says Dr. Hunt, “and their relations to the tissue-producing and heat-evolving capacities of man, are so definite and so confirmed by experiments on animals and by manifold tests of scientific, physiological and clinical experience, that no attempt to discard the classification has prevailed. To draw so straight a line of demarcation as to limit the one entirely to tissue or cell production and the other to heat and force production through ordinary combustion and to deny any power of interchangeability under special demands or amid defective supply of one variety is, indeed, untenable. This does not in the least invalidate the fact that we are able to use these as ascertained landmarks”.

How these substances when taken into the body, are assimilated and how they generate force, are well known to the chemist and physiologist, who is able, in the light of well-ascertained laws, to determine whether alcohol does or does not possess a food value. For years, the ablest men in the medical profession have given this subject the most careful study, and have subjected alcohol to every known test and experiment, and the result is that it has been, by common consent, excluded from the class of tissue-building foods. “We have never,” says Dr. Hunt, “seen but a single suggestion that it could so act, and this a promiscuous guess. One writer (Hammond) thinks it possible that it may ‘somehow’ enter into combination with the products of decay in tissues, and ‘under certain circumstances might yield their nitrogen to the construction of new tissues.’ No parallel in organic chemistry, nor any evidence in animal chemistry, can be found to surround this guess with the areola of a possible hypothesis”.

Dr. Richardson says: “Alcohol contains no nitrogen; it has none of the qualities of structure-building foods; it is incapable of being transformed into any of them; it is, therefore, not a food in any sense of its being a constructive agent in building up the body.” Dr. W.B. Carpenter says: “Alcohol cannot supply anything which is essential to the true nutrition of the tissues.” Dr. Liebig says: “Beer, wine, spirits, etc., furnish no element capable of entering into the composition of the blood, muscular fibre, or any part which is the seat of the principle of life.” Dr. Hammond, in his Tribune Lectures, in which he advocates the use of alcohol in certain cases, says: “It is not demonstrable that alcohol undergoes conversion into tissue.” Cameron, in his Manuel of Hygiene, says: “There is nothing in alcohol with which any part of the body can be nourished.” Dr. E. Smith, F.R.S., says: “Alcohol is not a true food. It interferes with alimentation.” Dr. T.K. Chambers says: “It is clear that we must cease to regard alcohol, as in any sense, a food”.

“Not detecting in this substance,” says Dr. Hunt, “any tissue-making ingredients, nor in its breaking up any combinations, such as we are able to trace in the cell foods, nor any evidence either in the experience of physiologists or the trials of alimentarians, it is not wonderful that in it we should find neither the expectancy nor the realization of constructive power.”

Not finding in alcohol anything out of which the body can be built up or its waste supplied, it is next to be examined as to its heat-producing quality.

Production of heat.
——————

“The first usual test for a force-producing food,” says Dr. Hunt, “and that to which other foods of that class respond, is the production of heat in the combination of oxygen therewith. This heat means vital force, and is, in no small degree, a measure of the comparative value of the so-called respiratory foods. If we examine the fats, the starches and the sugars, we can trace and estimate the processes by which they evolve heat and are changed into vital force, and can weigh the capacities of different foods. We find that the consumption of carbon by union with oxygen is the law, that heat is the product, and that the legitimate result is force, while the result of the union of the hydrogen of the foods with oxygen is water. If alcohol comes at all under this class of foods, we rightly expect to find some of the evidences which attach to the hydrocarbons.”

What, then, is the result of experiments in this direction? They have been conducted through long periods and with the greatest care, by men of the highest attainments in chemistry and physiology, and the result is given in these few words, by Dr. H.R. Wood, Jr., in his Materia Medica. “No one has been able to detect in the blood any of the ordinary results of its oxidation.” That is, no one has been able to find that alcohol has undergone combustion, like fat, or starch, or sugar, and so given heat to the body.

Alcohol and reduction of temperature.
————————————

instead of increasing it; and it has even been used in fevers as an anti-pyretic. So uniform has been the testimony of physicians in Europe and America as to the cooling effects of alcohol, that Dr. Wood says, in his Materia Medica, “that it does not seem worth while to occupy space with a discussion of the subject.” Liebermeister, one of the most learned contributors to Zeimssen’s Cyclopaedia of the Practice of Medicine, 1875, says: “I long since convinced myself, by direct experiments, that alcohol, even in comparatively large doses, does not elevate the temperature of the body in either well or sick people.” So well had this become known to Arctic voyagers, that, even before physiologists had demonstrated the fact that alcohol reduced, instead of increasing, the temperature of the body, they had learned that spirits lessened their power to withstand extreme cold. “In the Northern regions,” says Edward Smith, “it was proved that the entire exclusion of spirits was necessary, in order to retain heat under these unfavorable conditions.”

Alcohol does not make you strong.
——————————–

If alcohol does not contain tissue-building material, nor give heat to the body, it cannot possibly add to its strength. “Every kind of power an animal can generate,” says Dr. G. Budd, F.R.S., “the mechanical power of the muscles, the chemical (or digestive) power of the stomach, the intellectual power of the brain accumulates through the nutrition of the organ on which it depends.” Dr. F.R. Lees, of Edinburgh, after discussing the question, and educing evidence, remarks: “From the very nature of things, it will now be seen how impossible it is that alcohol can be strengthening food of either kind. Since it cannot become a part of the body, it cannot consequently contribute to its cohesive, organic strength, or fixed power; and, since it comes out of the body just as it went in, it cannot, by its decomposition, generate heat force.”

Sir Benjamin Brodie says: “Stimulants do not create nervous power; they merely enable you, as it were, to use up that which is left, and then they leave you more in need of rest than before.”

Baron Liebig, so far back as 1843, in his “Animal Chemistry,” pointed out the fallacy of alcohol generating power. He says: “The circulation will appear accelerated at the expense of the force available for voluntary motion, but without the production of a greater amount of mechanical force.” In his later “Letters,” he again says: “Wine is quite superfluous to man, it is constantly followed by the expenditure of power” whereas, the real function of food is to give power. He adds: “These drinks promote the change of matter in the body, and are, consequently, attended by an inward loss of power, which ceases to be productive, because it is not employed in overcoming outward difficulties i.e., in working.” In other words, this great chemist asserts that alcohol abstracts the power of the system from doing useful work in the field or workshop, in order to cleanse the house from the defilement of alcohol itself.

The late Dr. W. Brinton, Physician to St. Thomas’, in his great work on Dietetics, says: “Careful observation leaves little doubt that a moderate dose of beer or wine would, in most cases, at once diminish the maximum weight which a healthy person could lift. Mental acuteness, accuracy of perception and delicacy of the senses are all so far opposed by alcohol, as that the maximum efforts of each are incompatible with the ingestion of any moderate quantity of fermented liquid. A single glass will often suffice to take the edge off both mind and body, and to reduce their capacity to something below their perfection of work.”

Dr. F.R. Lees, F.S.A., writing on the subject of alcohol as a food, makes the following quotation from an essay on “Stimulating Drinks,” published by Dr. H.R. Madden, as long ago as 1847: “Alcohol is not the natural stimulus to any of our organs, and hence, functions performed in consequence of its application, tend to debilitate the organ acted upon.

Alcohol is incapable of being assimilated or converted into any organic proximate principle, and hence, cannot be considered nutritious.

The strength experienced after the use of alcohol is not new strength added to the system, but is manifested by calling into exercise the nervous energy pre-existing.

The ultimate exhausting effects of alcohol, owing to its stimulant properties, produce an unnatural susceptibility to morbid action in all the organs, and this, with the plethora superinduced, becomes a fertile source of disease.

A person who habitually exerts himself to such an extent as to require the daily use of stimulants to ward off exhaustion, may be compared to a machine working under high pressure. He will become much more obnoxious to the causes of disease, and will certainly break down sooner than he would have done under more favorable circumstances.

The more frequently alcohol is had recourse to for the purpose of overcoming feelings of debility, the more it will be required, and by constant repetition a period is at length reached when it cannot be foregone, unless reaction is simultaneously brought about by a temporary total change of the habits of life.

Driven to the wall.
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Not finding that alcohol possesses any direct alimentary value, the medical advocates of its use have been driven to the assumption that it is a kind of secondary food, in that it has the power to delay the metamorphosis of tissue. “By the metamorphosis of tissue is meant,” says Dr. Hunt, “that change which is constantly going on in the system which involves a constant disintegration of material; a breaking up and avoiding of that which is no longer aliment, making room for that new supply which is to sustain life.” Another medical writer, in referring to this metamorphosis, says: “The importance of this process to the maintenance of life is readily shown by the injurious effects which follow upon its disturbance. If the discharge of the excrementitious substances be in any way impeded or suspended, these substances accumulate either in the blood or tissues, or both. In consequence of this retention and accumulation they become poisonous, and rapidly produce a derangement of the vital functions. Their influence is principally exerted upon the nervous system, through which they produce most frequent irritability, disturbance of the special senses, delirium, insensibility, coma, and finally, death.”

“This description,” remarks Dr. Hunt, “seems almost intended for alcohol.” He then says: “To claim alcohol as a food because it delays the metamorphosis of tissue, is to claim that it in some way suspends the normal conduct of the laws of assimilation and nutrition, of waste and repair. A leading advocate of alcohol (Hammond) thus illustrates it: ‘Alcohol retards the destruction of the tissues. By this destruction, force is generated, muscles contract, thoughts are developed, organs secrete and excrete.’ In other words, alcohol interferes with all these. No wonder the author ‘is not clear’ how it does this, and we are not clear how such delayed metamorphosis recuperates.

Not an originator of vital force.
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which is not known to have any of the usual power of foods, and use it on the double assumption that it delays metamorphosis of tissue, and that such delay is conservative of health, is to pass outside of the bounds of science into the land of remote possibilities, and confer the title of adjuster upon an agent whose agency is itself doubtful.

Having failed to identify alcohol as a nitrogenous or non-nitrogenous food, not having found it amenable to any of the evidences by which the food-force of aliments is generally measured, it will not do for us to talk of benefit by delay of regressive metamorphosis unless such process is accompanied with something evidential of the fact something scientifically descriptive of its mode of accomplishment in the case at hand, and unless it is shown to be practically desirable for alimentation.

There can be no doubt that alcohol does cause defects in the processes of elimination which are natural to the healthy body and which even in disease are often conservative of health.

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