"What man has done man can do." If long life is worth while, doubtless a time will come when long life will be enjoyed. The worry, fretting and foolish haste of today will doubtless be partly done away with some time. Then men and women will have time to live, instead of merely existing, as most people do today. Men have lived long and found life good. Long life for its own sake is perhaps not to be desired, but the benefit that can be bestowed upon the race by those advanced in years is desirable. Occasionally a brilliant individual appears on the scene, doing superior work in life"s morning, but most of the work that has been found worthy of the consideration of the ages has been done by men of mature years.
Galen, the famous physician, is said to have lived to a great age. It is hard to tell exactly how old he was, but he was probably well past the century mark at his death. His long life gave him time to do work that is appreciated after the lapse of eighteen centuries. For many hundred years after his death he dominated the practice of medicine and he is today spoken of as often as any living medical man.
Thomas Parr, an Englishman, died at the age of one hundred and fifty-two. He was hale and hearty to the very end. Unfortunately, his reputation traveled far. He was brought to the English court, where he was wined and dined, and as a consequence he died. Before this he had always led the simple life. An autopsy was performed and the physicians found his organs in excellent condition. The only reason they could give for his death was his departure from the simple life which he had led in his home.
Henry Jenkins, also an Englishman, lived to the age of one hundred and sixty-nine years. He lived very frugally and was always on friendly terms with nature. His favorite drink was water, though he partook in moderation of "hop bitters." He was moderate in all things, and it is said that he was never really ill until near the end of life. He was not shriveled and shrunken, but a wholesome looking man. King Charles II.
sent a carriage to bring Mr. Jenkins to London, when he was one hundred and sixty years old. The old gentleman declined to ride and walked the two hundred miles to the metropolis. The king questioned him regarding his life and desired to know the reason for his longevity. Mr. Jenkins replied that he had always been sober and temperate and that this was the reason for his many years. The Merry Monarch was neither sober nor temperate, and you may be sure that this reply did not please him. Mr.
Jenkins was wiser than Mr. Parr had been, refusing to dissipate, even though he was old. Consequently he returned to his home to enjoy life nine years longer.
These two cases are authentic.
All are familiar with the records given in the Bible. Whether they are figurative or not it is hard to tell. However, so many cases of longevity are recorded that they in all probability have a basis in fact. The Hebrews of old must have been a long-lived people. One hundred and twenty years was not an extreme age. In Genesis is the record of many over five hundred years old, and a few over nine hundred years of age. At the time of the apostles the life span of the Hebrews had grown shorter and hence the dictum of three score years and ten. Between the time of Moses and that of the apostles the Hebrews had advanced--or shall we say degenerated?--from a semi-barbarous people to one that had the graces and also the vices of a higher civilization. The Hebrews of old were husbandmen, who lived simply and got their vigor from the soil.
The cause of so much unnecessary suffering and of the premature deaths has been discussed elsewhere in this book. In short, it is wrong living and wrong thinking. Impure air and bad food kill no more surely than does worry.
The bodies of children are composed largely of water. The structures are flexible and elastic. The bones are made up mostly of cartilaginous structure. As the children grow older more solids are deposited in the body and the proportion of solid matter to water grows greater. Lime is deposited in the bones. When they are limy throughout they are said to be ossified. After this process is complete no more growth can take place. Bone formation continues until about the age of twenty-five. At this age the body is efficient. The fluids circulate without obstruction. Could this condition be maintained, there would be no decay.
During the early years of life the food intake in proportion to the weight of the body is great. The child is active and uses much fuel to produce power and to repair the waste. Considerable food is required for body building. At this time a broken bone mends quickly and cuts heal in a short time. With advancing years come slowness and sluggishness of the various vital activities. The slowing up can be r.e.t.a.r.ded almost indefinitely by proper care of the body.
If the circulation could be maintained and the purity of the blood stream guarded, old age would be warded off. A healthy body is able to cleanse itself under favorable conditions and so long as the body is clean through and through there is no opportunity for disease to take place and there can be no aging. By aging I mean not so much the number of years one has lived as the amount of hardening and degeneration of the body that take place.
Some are as old at forty as others are at seventy.
When people have reached physical maturity they should begin to reduce their food intake. There is no need for building material then. All that is necessary is enough to repair the waste and to keep up the temperature. The individual at twenty-seven should eat a little less than when he was twenty and by the age of thirty-five he should have reduced his food still more and made his meals very simple. Children enjoy the gratification of the sense of taste, but at the age of thirty-five a man has lived enough and experienced enough so that he should know that the overgratification of appet.i.tes is an evanescent and unprofitable pleasure, always costing more than it is worth. It is best to grow into good habits while young, for it is difficult to do so after one has grown old. The man who reforms after fifty is the exception.
Children are fond of cereal foods and sugars. They can eat these foods two or three times a day and thrive. A man of thirty-five should make it a general rule to limit his starch eating to once a day. Various physiologists say that as much as sixteen ounces of dry starch (equivalent to about thirty ounces of ordinary bread) are necessary each day. This is entirely too much. Very few people can profitably eat more than four ounces of dry starch a day, and for many this is too much.
Through eating as much as is popularly and professionally advocated, early decay and death result.
The arteries are normally pliable and elastic. When too much food is taken, the system is unable to cleanse itself. Debris is left at various points. One of the favorite lodging places is in the coats of the arteries. After considerable deposits have been formed the arteries lose their elasticity. They become hard and unyielding. A normal radial artery can easily be compressed with one finger. Sometimes the radial artery becomes so hard that it is difficult to compress it with three fingers. As the arteries grow harder they become more brittle and sometimes they break, often a fatal accident.
This hardness of the arteries impedes the circulation, for the tone and natural elasticity of the vessel walls is one of the aids to a normal circulation.
So long as the arteries are normal all parts of the body are bathed in a constantly changing stream of blood. The muscles, the nerves, the bones, in fact all parts of the body, remove from the blood stream those elements that are necessary for repairing or building the various tissues. They also throw into the blood stream the refuse and waste due to the constant repair and combustion going on all over the body. The blood then leaves this refuse with the skin, lungs, kidneys and bowels, which throw it out of the body.
So long as there are enough fuel and food, but not too much, and so long as all the debris is carried away, there is health. But let this process be thrown out of balance and there will be disease. The food intake is seldom too small, though the digestion is frequently so poor that not enough good food gets into the blood. Old age is largely due to overeating and eating the wrong kinds of food. This is how overeating causes premature aging, when it does not kill more quickly: When too much food is taken, too much is absorbed into the blood, provided the nutritive processes are active. Then all the food in the blood can not be used for repair and fuel. The balance must either be excreted or stored away in the body as deposits. If this storing takes place in the joints, the result may be rheumatism or gout and at times even a complete locking of the joints (anchylosis). If it is stored in the walls of the blood-vessels they become hard and unyielding. No matter where deposits take place, some of them will be found in the walls of the blood-vessels. When these vessels grow hard they decrease in caliber. The result is that the heart is compelled to work very hard, but even then enough blood is not forced through the vessels. The circulation becomes sluggish. The blood in the various parts becomes stagnant.
Then insufficient good oxygen and first-cla.s.s nourishment are brought to the parts and not enough waste is carried away. Now the billions of cells of which the body is composed are constantly bathed in poisonous blood. The result is lowering of physical tone, or degeneration, of the whole body. The hands and the feet suffer most at first from the poor blood supply and become cold easily. Those who suffer constantly from cold hands and feet should know that they are aging, although they may be but twenty years old.
Such a condition as this often gives rise to varicose veins in the legs.
The feet are so far away from the heart, and it is such a long upgrade return of the blood, that the circulation in the lower extremities easily becomes sluggish. The flabby, relaxed tissues and the hardened blood-vessels allow the blood to stagnate. This is why senile gangrene is so common in the feet and so often fatal.
The brain gets a copious blood supply, yet the hardening of the arteries often deprives this organ of its necessary nourishment. Then the higher faculties begin to abdicate. If the hardening is extensive senile softening of the brain may take place. This is always due to a lack of pure blood. Sometimes the arteries are brittle enough to break. Baldness is another symptom of physical decay. The hair follicles are not properly nourished, for the arteries have become so contracted and the tissues of the scalp so hardened that there is not enough blood to feed the hair roots. Baldness begins on top of the head, generally the only part affected, because it is farthest away from the blood supply.
Baldness is also partly due to man"s headwear. Women are rarely bald.
There is a saying that there are no bald men in the poorhouse. Even if this were true, it would not be very consoling, for the bald heads on the street cleaning forces are numerous.
Overeating also causes premature aging because if results in fermentation in the alimentary tract. The acids produced cause degeneration of various tissues, having an especially bad effect on the nervous system, which reflects the evil to other parts of the body.
It is well to bear in mind how this comes about: First there is overeating; too much food improperly prepared is taken into the blood stream; this makes the blood impure; deposits, causing hardening of the tissues and reduction of the lumen of the vessels, are formed; the blood grows more impure and the circulation sluggish; the tissues are constantly bathed in impure blood, causing further degeneration. When a certain point is reached nature can tolerate no more and life flits away.
Those who wish to remain young must give some thought to the selection of their food, especially if they are hearty eaters. If only sufficient food is taken to keep the body well nourished it does not make much difference what is eaten, provided it contains sufficient of fresh foods, for when only enough food is taken to supply fuel and repairing material, the food will all be used and none is left to ferment in the digestive tract and form deposits in the body. The body will then keep itself clean, or at least the formation of deposits takes place so slowly that it is hardly perceptible. This can be compared with the process taking place in the flues of a boiler. Stoke properly and they remain clean. Choke the firebox with an excess of coal and the combustion is so incomplete that the flues are soon filled up and the grates are often burned out. Just so with the body: Feed too heavily and the digestive organs are burned by the abnormal amount of acid produced and the blood-vessels are filled with debris.
As most people lack the self-control to eat a normal amount of food, they should select foods that are compatible and that are not too concentrated. Too much meat causes degeneration of all parts of the body and hardening. Too much starch causes acidity and hardening. The fruits and the light vegetables have a tendency to overcome these degenerating processes.
Starch is surely the chief offender in aging people. It is such a concentrated food that overeating is easy, especially when it is taken in the soft forms, such as mushes, fresh bread, griddle cakes and mashed potatoes. If people would masticate their starchy foods thoroughly it would greatly reduce the danger of overeating. It is common to eat bread three times a day and in addition to take potatoes once or twice a day.
Those who consume so much starch carry into the system more food than can be used and more of the mineral salts than can be excreted. The result is the formation of deposits, chiefly of lime carbonate and lime phosphate; fatty deposits are also common.
In order to live long and comfortably it would be well to reduce the starch intake to once a day. The meats also are objectionable when taken in excess. To them can be attributed the chief blame for the formation of gelatinous deposits in the body. However, they do not carry so much earthy matter into the blood stream as do the starches. It is best to partake of meat but once a day, or even more seldom. Meat should certainly not be taken more than twice a day even by those who are advanced in years. People who care enough for starch to take it three times a day, or are compelled to live chiefly upon it, grow old and homely more quickly than do those who are able to partake more plentifully of the more expensive proteins. The flesh obtained from young animals and birds is not so heavily charged with earthy matters as is that which is obtained from old animals and birds.
Fruits and nuts do not carry so much earthy matter as do the starches and meats. The sweet fruits could with profit partly take the place of the starchy foods. The sugar they contain, which has the same nutritive value as starches, needs very little preparation before entering the blood stream. Thus a large part of the energy required for starch digestion is saved. On the other hand, the use of too much refined sugar is even worse than an excessive intake of starch. Nuts are not difficult to digest if they are well masticated..
The objection to acid fruits during the latter years of life is that they thin the blood and cause chilliness. This is true if they are partaken of too liberally. It is not necessary to refrain from eating acid fruits, but they should be taken in moderation and the mild ones should be selected. Pears, mild apples and grapes are better than oranges, grapefruits and apricots. Those who have learned moderation can eat all the fruit desired, for they will not be harmed by what a normal appet.i.te craves.
Vegetables carry considerable earthy matter, but on account of their helpfulness in keeping the blood sweet they should be eaten several times a week.
Those who think that overeating of starch is too harshly condemned are referred to the horse. When he is allowed to roam about and partake of his natural food, gra.s.s, he stays well and lives to be forty or more years old. When compelled to eat great quant.i.ties of corn and oats, which are very rich in starch, the horse becomes listless and slow at an early age. He is old at fifteen and before twenty he is generally dead.
When horses suffer from stiffness in the joints a few weeks spent in pasture, where they have nothing but green gra.s.s and water, remove the stiffness and make them younger. This shows what partaking of nature"s green salad does for them. Any good stock man will tell you that feeding too much grain "burns a cow out." It does exactly the same for a human being, burns him out and fills him with clinkers. Many people think that it is a hardship to be moderate in eating and drinking, but it is not.
It brings such a feeling of well-being and comfort that it is unbelievable to those who have not experienced it.
Many envy the rich, thinking that they can and do live riotously. Rich men must live as simply as though they were poor or else they soon lose the mental efficiency that brought them their fortunes, for when health is gone mental power is reduced.
According to information in the Sat.u.r.day Evening Post, the eating habits of many of our most influential business men are very simple and the amount of food partaken of small. John D. Rockefeller could hardly live more simply and plainly than he does. William Rockefeller, George F.
Baker, James Stillman, Otto H. Kahn, Thomas Fortune Ryan, George W.
Perkins, J. Ogden Armour, John H. Patterson, Jacob H. Schiff and Andrew Carnegie, all business giants with money enough to subsist on the most expensive delicacies, are said to live more plainly than does the average American who is complaining of the high cost of living. It is the price they have had to pay for success and it is the price that you and I will have to pay to live successfully, though our success may not take the form of financial power.
The one conspicuous exception among the financially great to the rule of simplicity was J. P. Morgan. His eating habits were somewhat gross, but on account of his rugged const.i.tution he lived to be more than seventy-five years old. If he had given himself just a little more care he would be alive today. They say that his strong black cigars did him no apparent harm, but those who read of his last illness understandingly cannot agree to that statement. Mr. Morgan started with enough vitality to live and work far beyond the century mark. John D. Rockefeller was not physically strong when young. He has been compelled to take good care of himself and to be moderate. Now he is past seventy and enjoying good health.
John W. Gates died a martyr to excess, partly excess of food. He lacked balance. His son followed in his footsteps and died young.
Frank A. Vanderlip, who is looming large on the financial horizon takes but two meals a day, from which he gets enough sustenance to do good work and he says that this plan makes for efficiency. Perhaps now that such men as Mr. Vanderlip live well on two meals a day, it is time to cease calling those who live thus faddists. Eating three meals a day is a habit and many can and do get along very well on two meals, and a few take only one meal daily.
E. H. Harriman also lived simply. He ill.u.s.trates the evil of a poorly controlled mind. He died when but little past sixty, probably because his frail body was too weak to harbor his great ambition. He took his business wherever he went. When ill and business was forbidden by his physician, Mr. Harriman had a telephone concealed in his bedroom and as soon as the doctor was gone, he was on the wire.
Another cause of premature aging is the drinking of very hard water. The earthy matter is absorbed into the blood stream with the water, and a part of it is deposited in the various tissues. People beyond middle age should drink water containing only a small portion of salts. Those who partake of fresh fruits or fresh vegetables daily get all the salts that the system needs. Even the young should not drink water that is exceedingly hard. We can well ill.u.s.trate the harm that comes from the excessively hard water by referring to the disease known as cretinism.
This disease is quite prevalent in some parts of Europe. They say that the disease is hereditary, which is questionable. What is inherited is the environment and the habits of the parents. The chief cause is without doubt the superabundance of earthy matter in the drinking water.
The cretins are ill-favored in face and figure. They do not reach normal mental or physical maturity. They are old long before the normal person has reached his prime. They die young, rarely living to be over thirty years old. The bones are completely ossified early, which is the cause of their small stature and their stupidity. The bones of the skull harden so early that the brain has no room to expand.
There is no need of suffering, even in a mild degree, from the disease of cretinism. If the water is very hard it is easy to distill what is needed for drinking purposes. Such water should at least be boiled. It is much better to have a teakettle lined with earthy matters than to have such a lining in our arteries.
The excessive use of table salt is another cause of early aging. It is a good preservative and pickles meat very well. People have long used salt as a preservative and perhaps they got the salt-eating habit in this way, first using it on the foods to be preserved, and then on nearly all foods. Salts to excess, especially table salt, help to mummify or pickle those who partake of them too liberally. The addition of sodium chloride to foods is unnecessary. We get all we need of this salt in our fruits, vegetables and cereals. Salt should be used in moderation.
Alcohol, tobacco and coffee are harmful. However, it will be found that most of the old people have used one or more of these drugs for many years and this is often largely responsible for their reaching old age.
Overeating causes more deaths than any other single factor. The use of tobacco, coffee or alcohol has a tendency to reduce the desire for food and thus these drugs at times prove to be conservers of individual lives, though they are undoubted racial evils. They never can or will take the place of self-control. The senses were given us to use for our protection, but most people abuse them for temporary gratification, and thus they go in the way of self-destruction.
Other things being equal, a healthy child will live longer than a weakly one. But other things are not equal, so it often happens that a weakling has as much chance to survive as a healthy person. Strong people frequently squander their inheritance by the time they are forty or fifty years old. Healthy people are very imprudent. They are well so they think they will always remain well. What a surprise it is when after thirty they discover that they cannot do with impunity what they could do before with apparently no bad results! When warned about their eating habits they boast that they can "eat tacks". Smoking and drinking are harmless, they say! But the day of reckoning always comes and the account is often so great that under the conventional treatment of today they die.
The weakling has been compelled to be careful. Habits of moderation grew upon him in youth, and his health has improved as he has advanced in years. He may never be strong, but great physical strength is not essential to health. Thus the strong often perish and the weak survive.
If both cla.s.ses lived with equal care the strong would outlive and outwork the weak every time.