My last health article looked at naturopath Harry Benjamin’s treatment for tuberculosis, among other natural treatments used with great success.
It is often said that the naturopathy movement was a reaction to the very toxic and mostly ineffective treatments used by conventional medical practitioners. So I thought you would appreciate a little medical history in the form of an article from one of the foremost medical texts of 1901: Merck's Archives of Materia Medica and Drug Therapy.
The Treatment of Influenza in Children
By A. Jacbi, M.D. LL.D. New York
According to the eminent author of the paper with the above title, there is no other disease which is both so contagious and infectious as influenza is. The most perfect isolation is therefore imperative, wherever feasible. Expectorated mucus and the products of sneezing should, if possible, be caught and destroyed or disinfected; tools, toys, towels, handkerchiefs and linen should be washed and disinfected as in other contagious maladies. Both the sick and the well children should use disinfectant mouth washes, for which purpose water slightly acidulated with hydrochloric acid answers best. The drinking water should also be acidulated with the same acid, and may have the same favorable result that is obtained in Asiatic cholera. The nose should also be irrigated as a matter of course, both in the well and in the sick, the same as it is done in diphtheria. In this way the mucus, which catches the bacilli as in a net, is removed and the mucous membrane is kept in a healthy condition. The more normal the condition of the mucous membrane the greater is the protection against the invasion of the pathogenic bacilli. Among medicinal preventatives codliver oil, calcium sulphide, and quinine have been proposed, but results obtained by various observers are contradictory.
So much for prophylactic treatment. Coming to treatment of the established disease, we are at once confronted with the fact that there is no specific against influenza, and we therefore must consider the rational, hygienic, symptomatic and sustaining treatment. As the bowels appear to be the principal point of attack in young children, a purgative dose of calomel (mercury chloride) should be given at the start in order to clear the field of microbic and toxic products. The little patient should be kept in bed, the temperature of the room should be 70 deg F, or a little higher in the beginning; the diet, especially at first, should be scanty and fluid—milk, cereals, water, lemonade and broths. Later in the disease eggs may be permitted, and in a very few cases alcohol may be indicated; in influenza it is rather a slow convalescence than the disease itself that requires alcohol. In this respect it differs from other infectious diseases, especially typhoid and diphtheria; in the latter disease, for instance, alcohol should be given freely from the beginning.
Two measures indicated in so many diseases are distinctly contraindicated in influenza—those are cold water and opium. Opium rather increases than soothes the irritating cough; the bronchitis of influenza is aggravated by it, and it is injurious in every case of profuse perspiration or weak heart. A warm bath is often beneficial where there is much muscular pain and restlessness. Regarding quinine, diametrically opposite opinions prevail; while many eminent observers regard it as the remedy par excellence in influenza, other clinicians equally eminent have seen no benefit from its use. In cases of severe vomiting, rectal alimentation must be resorted to. Peptonized milk, eggs, and broths are absorbed in part; starch is converted into dextrin in the colon and makes the enema more nutritious, but even water alone adds to the circulating fluid. Ice, either internally or externally, may sometimes relieve the vomiting, but the best remedy is morphine. It is not necessary to put the morphine into the stomach. Absorption takes place more readily from the mouth or throat; to a child two to four years old administer a tablet of 1/60th grain or put 1/2 to 1 drop of Magendie's solution (morphine sulphate) on the tongue, undiluted.
What are we to do for the high temperature? Just as it is injudicious to consider the temperature the most important thing in the disease—trying by all means to depress it, and thinking that having reduced the temperature we have cured the disease—so it is unwise to allow high, persistent temperatures to run unrelieved and unabated, consoling oneself with the thought that high temperature is not the cause but the result of the disease. It is true, it is the result of the disease, but it in its turn produces very deleterious effects; it increases the rapidity of the respiration and of the heart's action, accelerates waste, and the waste products act in their turn as poisons to the system. When we further remember that most of our antipyretics are at the same time nervines, analgesics, and diaphoretics, their judicious indication will become plainly manifest. Acetanilid, author says, should never be used, under any circumstances, not only has it a sedative or rather paralyzing effect on the central nervous system, but it destroys the blood and causes anemia by changing hematin into methemoglobin, that is what gives rise to cyanosis, which is much more often observed than after any of the other modern analgesics and antipyretics. The effects of antipyrine—which has also the advantage of being soluble in water—are generally good, though it has many undesirable byeffects. These disagreeable byeffects show themselves in the gastrointestinal, nervous and circulatory systems, in the skin and in the mucous membranes. Phenacetin is much milder in its action; to infants and children it should be given in doses of 1/4 to 1/2 grain. Salipyrine has the advantage over antipyrine of not causing perspiration; it should be given in double the doses of antipyrine. Salophen is preferred by some to salicylic acid and sodium salicylate, especially in the nervous form of influenza. To adults it is given in doses of 15 to 90 grain [pro die] to children in doses of 5 to 8 grain.
Another important element that demands treatment in influenza is the exhaustion, because there is hardly a disease which has as great a tendency to cause exhaustion and numerous other nervous symptoms, from langor to heart failure, as influenza. If there is the slightest indication of such a danger, a heart stimulant should always be added to any antipyretic we may give. Alcoholic preparations are not advisable, but caffeine preparations are indicated; the caffeine-sodium salicylate and caffeine-sodium benzoate are the best, as they are very soluble, rapidly absorbed, and may be administered subcutaneously. The value of strychnine is too well known to need extended mention. Whether and to what extent to administer stimulants will depend upon the general condition of the patient, his former health and his resisting power. In most cases sparteine sulphate - 5/6th grain pro die to a child two years old—will have a favorable effect. The caffeine salts may be given in doses of 3 to 10 grain per day; should the caffeine appear to excite the brain, it should be replaced by camphor (4 to 6 grain during the day). Where strong stimulation is required, the above drugs should be given in larger doses or should be administered subcutaneously. For the hypodermic administration of camphor, it should be dissolved in four parts of sterilized expressed oil of almond. Another excellent stimulant, useful in the gravest cases attended with heart failure and collapse, is Siberian musk, an important drug sadly neglected by American physicians. The dose for a child of two years of the 10-per-cent. tincture should be 5 to 10 minims every half hour, until six or twelve doses have been taken. The author says that this drug, musk, together with large hot enemata, has helped him to carry through many a hopeless case, and he recommends it in all dangerous conditions of nerve exhaustion, from any cause.
The naturopathic treatment of influenza
No amount of research work to discover the germ of influenza is going to prevent or stamp out influenza. Although the disease is what is known as a germ disease, it is not primarily due to the action of germs, as people believe, but depends for its development in the first place upon a toxic and run-down condition of the system of the person concerned, as a result of wrong feeding habits and general wrong living.
Harry Benjamin, Naturopath
Extract from H. Benjamin’s book: Everybody’s Guide to Nature Cure
There are very few common diseases which bring so many complications in their train as influenza when treated along orthodox medical lines, and this is entirely due to the suppressive nature of the treatment employed and the crass feeding which is allowed. That is why pneumonia so often develops after "flu", kidney trouble, heart trouble, ear and chest trouble, etc. All are due to the wrong methods of treatment employed, which have checked the natural cleansing process taking place and forced toxic matter deeper and deeper into the system again, where, plus the drugs administered by the doctor, they take lodgment in this or that vital organ or structure, to the detriment of the organ or structure concerned and of the whole general health of the sufferer
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A fever, then, can only develop within the systems of those who are in a state of internal uncleanliness, and far from the fever being something inimical to health and likely to lead towards the death of the patient if not checked in time, as is generally believed, it is nothing but an attempt at self-cleansing on the part of the natural forces within the body of the individual concerned, and a direct move towards health and self-regeneration...
Fevers are acute diseases, and all acute diseases are direct manifestations of the self-cleansing and health-restoring activities of the body. Allow the fever to run its course in a natural manner, and the individual concerned will be in far better health in every way after the fever than before, because his whole system will have undergone nothing short of a natural "spring-cleaning".
Contrast this attitude towards fevers with the orthodox view. To the medical mind a fever is a most serious disease-condition brought about through the agency of unseen but deadly germs—a state which must be fought "tooth and nail" in order to save the life of the individual concerned. A deadly war has to be waged at once between the "life-saving" sera and drugs of orthodox medication and the potent death-dealing germs always prowling about the universe, the battle-field being the body of the unfortunate sufferer. If, "through the mercy of God" medical skill prevails, and the death-dealing germs are destroyed, then the victim will have had his life saved as a result of the blessings of orthodox medicine!
Unfortunately for those who like melodrama, even with regard to disease (with the germ as the villain of the piece, and the doctor as the hero, fighting with drug and serum to save the unfortunate victim's life), this view of fevers and their treatment is not only utterly wrong, but it is the bringer of untold harm to thousands upon thousands of luckless sufferers dealt with in this way. For when fevers are treated by drugs and sera, their natural self-cleansing activity is suppressed, and the toxic matter which the natural forces of the body were endeavouring to throw off through the medium of the fever are forced back again into the tissues and internal structures, where, plus the drugs and sera administered by the doctor, they sow the seeds for the development of disease of a more lasting and insidious kind—to wit, chronic disease (as pointed out clearly in the opening chapters of the theoretical portion of the present book). What the doctor calls a "cure" is nothing more than a checking of this natural attempt at self-cleansing; and even if no direct complications set in (as often happens!), and the individual feels quite all right for the time being, he often wonders why he suddenly finds himself the victim of this or that disease thereafter for no apparent reason at all. (And no doubt the doctor wonders too!)
The fact that so many complications arise out of the orthodox medical treatment of fevers—complications sometimes of the most serious nature—shows only too clearly what is going on within the body as a result of the suppressive nature of the treatment employed. Such complications simply mean that this or that vital organ or structure is being swamped with toxic material and drug poisons as a result of wrongly thought-out and wrongly applied measures of treatment, and has succumbed under the pressure. (That is why kidney and heart disease follow so often in the wake of fevers treated in the orthodox manner.) Indeed, on this question of complications alone, Medical Science stands convicted as totally misunderstanding the nature and treatment of fevers, because when a fever is dealt with along natural lines, COMPLICATIONS CANNOT OCCUR.
When fevers are understood in their true light as natural attempts at self-cleansing, their treatment is a simple matter. No doubt the symptoms and the general condition of the patient give cause for genuine alarm to relatives and friends; but when we realise that all that is taking place is that waste matter and morbid deposits are being "burned up" in the tissues preparatory to a complete rejuvenation of the system, then one can take matters more philosophically, and carry out what has to be done with calmness and sureness, knowing with certainty that all will come right in the end.
One of the great besetting sins of all people is that they think that as soon as someone is ill something must be done for the patient. The doctor is hurriedly sent for, he comes into the sick-room, the anxious parents or relatives of the sick person are there waiting for him, and of course he is expected to do something right away to save the patient from further suffering. Even if he does not know what is wrong or what treatment to pursue, he still must do something to satisfy the touching faith in his prowess of those present. It is because of this that doctors often have to carry out all sorts of measures and give all sorts of things that even they do not consider needful to the case, simply because something spectacular is expected of them.
This sort of attitude is not the one for those who would carry out a scheme of natural treatment in a case of a fever. For it is precisely in these cases that nothing must be done—or, if anything, very little. The fever is a natural crisis, and all that the work of healing consists in is helping it to run its course completely and so carry out its allotted task, to the ultimate and lasting benefit of the sufferer.
The great thing in the treatment of all fevers is FASTING. It is by withholding all food from the patient that the natural cleansing activity taking place can be hastened to its healthful conclusion in the shortest possible time and with the greatest lasting benefit to the patient. It is because the medical profession will not learn this fundamental fact, and in addition to drugging them, persists in feeding its fever patients "to keep up their strength" (as far as they can be fed!), that the medical treatment for fevers is so unsatisfactory. Indeed, it can be said that most of the complications that arise out of the orthodox treatment of fevers are due more to the crass feeding that takes place during the fever than to any other single factor. The patient's system does not want the food—the last thing in the world the patient wants is to eat!—and so, merely so much more waste matter is added to the pile of refuse already being burned up in his tissues. The consequence is that the patient's temperature continues to rise (or refuses to come down), and this or that trouble sets in.
We have said that the last thing the fever sufferer wants to do is to eat, and this antipathy for all food during the course of the fever supplies the natural clue to the method of treatment required. The patient's instincts tell him to avoid food, and the avoidance of food is the key to the whole matter so far as cure is concerned. Let him only keep away from food, as his instincts demand, and the fever will soon have carried out its allotted task and all will be well again. Surely the whole thing is simple when we see it in the right light?
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It is worthy of note that fevers are most common in the young; this is because the vitality of the child is so much more in proportion to that of the adult. He has not yet frittered away his birthright of health on this form of wrong living or that. Every case of fever amongst children is due basically to the one thing: WRONG FEEDING.
Plan of Treatment for All Fevers
To begin with, the patient must be fasted completely, being given only water and orange juice. (No milk—nothing else at all.) According to the severity of the fever it may be necessary to carry on the fast for from a week to two or even three weeks. The signs which will tell those administering the treatment when to break the fast will be the clearing of the tongue of the patient and the steadiness of body temperature at 98 degrees F. The clearing of the tongue is an infallible sign to go by, as it shows definitely that all toxic matter has been burned up by the fever and the tissues are quite clear again.
During the fasting period the warm-water enema or gravity douche should be used every day—sometimes twice a day in serious cases—to cleanse the bowels. Once feeding is begun, it can be used less and less frequently until the time when normal bowel action has restarted, when it can be dispensed with altogether.
During the course of the fever the best way of reducing temperature naturally is by means of the cold pack. This can be applied to the whole body in the case of malaria, typhoid, etc.; to the chest in the case of pneumonia; to the throat in the case of diphtheria, etc. In general it is best to apply a body (or trunk) pack several times a day in all cases, with one to the throat, too, if needed. The pack is made by wringing out a sheet or other large square piece of linen material in cold water, wrapping it right round the body and legs of the patient (twice round would be best), and then covering completely with a small blanket or similar warm material. For the throat pack the linen may be covered with flannelling. Cold or tepid sponging of the whole body of the patient is also good; and, if the patient can stand it, a cold bath and a quick return to bed is very good too. (This can only be done in slight cases, though.) With regard to the packs, these can be applied every three hours during the day whilst temperature is high, and kept on for an hour or so. The body should be well sponged with tepid water after removing the pack. In cases where reaction to the body pack is poor, hot-water bottles may be applied to the feet, and also against the sides of the body.
The foregoing simple procedure is all that is required to cure—really cure—any fever, the patient being in far better health thereafter than for many years before, because of the thorough internal cleansing he will have received. AND NO COMPLICATIONS WHATSOEVER WILL RESULT. They cannot, because no suppressive measures have been employed to cause such complications. Of course there will be anxious times for those undertaking the carrying out of the treatment—it would be folly to deny this (in some cases there may be a crisis to pass through before the smooth waters of recovery are entered); but if the treatment is carried out as directed, and no feeding allowed or drugs or sera given, then a complete and perfect cure MUST result.
Unfortunately, many people are not quite sure of themselves when carrying out treatment of this sort, and if any untoward happening arises they are apt to get panicky and send for a doctor. This is the worst thing possible, for the doctor will at once insist upon the patient being fed, and will proceed to administer his drugs and sera. As no doubt the patient has already been fasted for a few days, the entrance of beef-tea or milk into his system, plus the drugs and other paraphernalia of orthodox medication, will at once cause matters to take a turn for the worse. (I have known of this happening in several cases.) The result is that the case often ends fatally; this, however, is blamed on the fasting and in no way on to the medical treatment employed, and the relatives responsible for initiating the fast are thus led to believe that it is due to their "faddism" and foolishness that this tragic end has been brought about.
From Everybody’s Guide to Nature Cure, by Harry Benjamin ND.
Cinnamon and influenza
In 1907 Dr. Ross reported on his use of cinnamon oil for 16 years to help patients quickly recover from influenza. Weeks of illness from the flu were reduced to three or four days.
Ross states that for nearly sixteen years he has employed cinnamon in various forms in treating this [influenza] disease, but for many years now he has always employed the oil of Ceylon cinnamon bark . . . We all of us have heard only too often of bad cases of influenza where the unhappy patients have been confined to their beds or their rooms for a fortnight, three weeks, a month, or even longer . . . he has invariably treated influenza with cinnamon, his patients have generally been perfectly fit to return to their avocations, whatever they may have been, within three or four days, and that in no single case has a patient suffering from influenza been on his hands for more than a week.
From Dissolving Illusions, by Suzanne Humphries MD, and Roman Bystrianyk.
And so, dear readers, I leave you to compare past and present. Thank goodness we no longer treat child flu with mercury.
But wait, we now put mercury and many other toxins in children’s bodies in the form of multiple “vaccines” instead, to prevent fever diseases that no longer exist due to improved living conditions…
(another) Great article! ThankU