Hygiene Accessories Of The Fast

HYGIENIC ACCESSORIES OF THE FAST

BREATHING:
BATHING:
SLEEP:
EXERCISE

In health a cold bath should never be undertaken immediately after a meal, but, with regard to a hot bath this caution is unnecessary. When the menstrual flow in woman is in progress, medical dicta to the contrary, a hot body bath and vaginal douche are daily essential for cleanliness and for relief and ease in function. The relaxing effect of a hot tub bath, together with resulting equalization of circulation, alleviates congestion and pain, if present, and in conjunction with other natural agencies cited herein, leads ultimately to permanent relief.

During a fast or while on restricted diet, the patient frequently experiences a sensation of chilliness with or without change in pulse and temperature. The source of this phenomenon, "fasters' chilliness," lies in nervous reaction following the absence of food stimulation, and, at times, in the absorption of liquid waste from the intestines. The enema will correct the latter condition, and a therapeutic bath taken as soon as the sensation of chill occurs will serve at once to equalize the circulation and to restore temperature and pulse to normal, if the latter are in any degree deranged. Baths for this purpose may and should be repeated as often as needful, if proper precaution is observed. In cases of greatly lowered vitality, when temperature is habitually below register, hot therapeutic baths should frequently be given, three or four daily usually proving not too many. Cold therapeutic baths for assistance in reducing fever should be more cautiously used. In any contingency, the therapeutic bath, hot or cold, should be administered only under competent direction.

SLEEP.--Sleep has its analogue in death; and it is an accepted scientific truth that the continuance of life in any living thing depends upon death. Through life to death; through death to life again. One manner of expressing this truth regards merely the outward fact, as when we say that animal tissue is renewed through decay; another regards the action and reaction proper to life itself, whereby it forever springs freshly from its source. And because of this inter-relation, this inter-dependency, between the two states of life and death, we.apply to all manifest existence the term, Nature, which in derivation means "forever being born."

In the regularly recurring periods of unconsciousness, in the hours we spend in sleep, we find exemplification of the relation that exists between our working, active moments, and those that are devoted to the renewal of our physical and mental equipment. It is during sleep that the human instrument of thought and of motive government, the brain, obtains its repose; it is then that the cells of the human battery are recharged, that the working principle receives its potential for transformation during conscious intervals. It is then, too, that the greater portion of tissue impaired by wear in bodily activity is rebuilt and prepared for use in further exertion when consciousness recurs. Sleep is both a physiological and psychological necessity, and literal death will follow within short time if it be denied.

In the fast inability to sleep sometimes occurs, due in instances to lessened wear upon body tissue because of diminished call on muscles and organs, since muscular labor is more or less curtailed during abstinence from food, and digestion is entirely in abeyance. It may also happen that in the earlier stages of abstinence waste is excreted in amount incapable of being promptly and fully evacuated, and slight brain congestion with accompanying wakefulness results. The hot bath and the enema here again find their mission, and their use before retiring will go far towards remedying any tendency to insomnia.

But no natural process may be compelled if conditions be such that its function in the organism is not at the moment essential. Demand dependent upon necessity governs every natural desire. Upon it wait hunger, thirst, and sleep; without it, these constructive processes cannot be evoked. Hence frenzied attempts to induce sleep are futile, not to say foolish. The cultivation of an equable frame of mind in health, the ability to cast aside the cares of the day when one lies down to rest, add to disease-resistive qualities, and, if illness does occur, prove valuable aids to the efforts nature then proceeds to put into operation for relief. Here also reading plays its part; not that which necessitates extreme concentration of mind, but that which diverts the mentality, leading it along cheerful, wholesome lines of thought. The expedients suggested are natural abetters of healthful slumber, and find fitting time for their exercise after the activities of the day are done.

EXERCISE.--The maintenance of every muscle of the body in proportionate development is regulated by its work as well as by its supply of pabulum, although the latter is determined in large part by the necessity for repair or upbuilding occasioned by the exercise given the particular muscle. Constant use of one portion of the muscular fabric tends to add to its substance at the expense of that of neighboring parts not equally exercised. Hence the aim of all physical labor should be that of uniformity. Trunk and legs, arms and neck, all should receive proportioned attention. Normal muscular development also depends upon an unimpeded circulation of the blood and upon healthful cell-forming constituents uninterruptedly supplied for the replacement of used tissue. Constriction of the body in any region restricts free circulation, and only loose garments permit of full growth and proper development. The tight collar, the round garter, and the corset, make flabby muscles inevitable, and only a body unrestrained by the bonds so often prescribed by conventional usage can hope for muscular perfection. The possibilities of hygienic living, coupled with judicious exercise, are surely worth consideration, if merely for the satisfaction resulting from their effects upon personal appearance; but their more important consequences in respect to general health and longevity make neglect of these desiderata most deplorable.

Exercise that is self-imposed is wholesome; but exercise to which one is naturally attracted is the ideal form of labor. Combined with enthusiasm, physical work is doubly healthful, for enthusiasm in itself is a source of health. And that form of exercise that serves a productive purpose and is enthusiastically performed is best of all, whether the effort be physical or mental. Make your avocation the complement of your vocation. Gladstone and Horace Greeley chopped wood in their moments of relief from mental tasks. Conversely he who works with his hands should divert himself by exercising his brain.

During a fast moderate exercise in keeping with daily access of strength is advised, and, after the completion of the period of abstinence, constant comprehensive muscular activity is essential to tissue rebuilding and to form-development and maintenance.

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