Healthful Living
Causes of Nervous Diseases
839. Anything that hinders the active motion of the living machinery affects the brain very directly.—Testimonies for the Church 2:370. HL 196.4
Unhealthful Surroundings
840. It is destructive to the health and life of young children to sit in the schoolroom upon hard, ill-formed benches, from three to five hours a day, inhaling the impure air caused by many breaths. The weak lungs become affected, the brain, from which the nervous energy of the whole system is derived, becomes enfeebled by being called into active exercise before the strength of the mental organs is sufficiently matured to endure fatigue.—How to Live 2:43. HL 196.5
841. In the schoolroom the foundation has been too surely laid for diseases of various kinds. But more especially the most delicate of all organs, the brain, had often been permanently injured by too great exercise. This has often caused inflammation, then dropsy of the head, and convulsions with their dreaded results.... In those children who have survived, the nervous energy of the brain becomes so weakened that after they come to maturity it is impossible for them to endure much mental exercise. The forces of some of the delicate organs of the brain seem to be expended.—How to Live 2:43. HL 197.1
Abuse of the Mind
842. The mind which is allowed to be absorbed in story reading is being ruined. The practice results in air-castle building and a sickly sentimentalism. The imagination becomes diseased, and there is a vague unrest, a strange appetite for unwholesome mental food. Thousands are today in insane asylums whose minds became unbalanced by novel reading.—The Signs of the Times, January 4, 1905. HL 197.2
843. The memory is greatly injured by ill-chosen reading, which has a tendency to unbalance the reasoning powers, and to create nervousness, weariness of the brain, and prostration of the entire system.—Testimonies for the Church 4:497. HL 197.3
844. The exercise of the brain in study, without corresponding physical exercise, has a tendency to attract the blood to the brain, and the circulation of the blood through the system becomes unbalanced. The brain has too much blood, and the extremities too little.—Christian Education, 9. HL 198.1
845. Minds are often abused, and goaded on to madness by pursuing one line of thought; the excessive employment of the brain power and the neglect of the physical creates diseased conditions of the system.—Special Instruction on Educational Work 14. HL 198.2
846. Doubt, perplexity, and excessive grief often sap the vital forces, and induce nervous disease of a most debilitating and distressing character.—The Review and Herald, October 16, 1883. HL 198.3
Irregular Habits
847. The mind does not wear out or break down so often on account of diligent employment and hard study, as on account of eating improper food at improper times, and of careless inattention to the laws of health.... Diligent study is not the principal cause of the breaking down of the mental powers. The main cause is improper diet, irregular meals, and a lack of physical exercise. Irregular hours for eating and sleeping sap the brain forces.—The Youth's Instructor, May 31, 1894. HL 198.4
Insufficient Air
848. Stomach, liver, lungs, and brain are suffering for the want of deep, full inspirations of air.—Testimonies for the Church 2:67. HL 198.5
Improper Dress
849. Artificial hair and pads covering the base of the brain, heat and excite the nerves centering in the brain.... The heat caused by these artificial coverings induces the blood to the brain, producing congestion. In consequence of the brain's being congested its nerves lose their healthy action.—The Health Reformer, October 1, 1871. HL 198.6
850. Their limbs, as well as their arms, are left almost naked.... The heart, weakened by too great labor, fails in its efforts, and the limbs become habitually cold; and the blood, which is chilled away from the extremities, is thrown back upon the lungs and brain, and inflammation and congestion of the lungs or the brain is the result.—How to Live 5:71, 72. HL 199.1
Errors in Diet
851. The brain is closely connected with the stomach, and its power has so often been called to aid the weakened digestive organs that it is in its turn weakened, depressed, congested.—Testimonies for the Church 2:318. HL 199.2
852. The brain-nerve energy is benumbed and almost paralyzed by overeating.—Testimonies for the Church 2:414. HL 199.3
853. Your health is greatly injured by overeating and eating at improper times. This causes a determination of the blood to the brain. The mind becomes confused, and you have not the proper control of yourself. You appear like a man whose mind is unbalanced. You make strong moves, are easily irritated, and view things in an exaggerated and perverted light.—Testimonies for the Church 4:501. HL 199.4
854. If the stomach is burdened with too much food, even of a simple character, the brain force is called to the aid of the digestive organs. There is a benumbed sensation upon the brain. It is almost impossible to keep the eyes open.... The brain is almost paralyzed in consequence of the amount of food eaten.—Testimonies for the Church 2:603. HL 199.5
855. Nature bears abuse as long as she can without resisting, then she arouses and makes a mighty effort to rid herself of the incumbrances and evil treatment she has suffered. Then come headache, chills, fever, nervousness, paralysis, and other evils too numerous to mention.—Testimonies for the Church 2:69. HL 200.1
856. Children should not be allowed to eat gross articles of food, such as pork, sausage, spices, rich cakes, and pastry; for by so doing their blood becomes fevered, the nervous system unduly excited, and the morals are in danger of being affected.—Testimonies for the Church 4:141. HL 200.2
857. Some animals that are brought to the slaughter seem to realize what is to take place, and they become furious, and literally mad. They are killed while in this state, and their flesh prepared for market. Their meat is poison, and has produced in those who have eaten it, cramps, convulsions, apoplexy, and sudden death.—How to Live 1:60. HL 200.3
Stimulants
858. The appetite for liquor is encouraged by the preparation of food with condiments and spices. These cause a feverish state of the system.... The effect of such food is to cause nervousness.—The Review and Herald, November 6, 1883. HL 200.4
859. To a certain extent tea produces intoxication.... Tea draws upon the strength of the nerves, and leaves them greatly weakened.... When the system is already overtaxed and needs rest, the use of tea spurs up nature by stimulation to unwonted, unnatural action, and thereby lessens her power to perform and her ability to endure; and her powers give out long before Heaven designed they should. Tea is poisonous to the system.... The second effect of tea drinking is headache, wakefulness, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, trembling of the nerves, and many other evils.—Testimonies for the Church 2:64. HL 200.5
860. The influence of coffee is in a degree the same as tea, but the effect upon the system is still worse. Its influence is exciting, and just in the degree that it elevates above par, it will exhaust and bring prostration below par.... The relief obtained from them [tea and coffee] is sudden, before the stomach has had time to digest them. This shows that what the users of these stimulants call strength is only received by exciting the nerves of the stomach, which convey the irritation to the brain, and this in turn is aroused to impart increased action to the heart, and short-lived energy to the entire system. All this is false strength, that we are the worse for having.—Testimonies for the Church 2:65. HL 201.1
861. Tobacco is a poison of the most deceitful and malignant kind, having an exciting, then a paralyzing, influence upon the nerves,—Spiritual Gifts Volume 4a, 128. HL 201.2
862. Tobacco-using is a habit which frequently affects the nervous system in a more powerful manner than does the use of alcohol.—Testimonies for the Church 3:562. HL 201.3
863. While it [tobacco] acts upon some [infants who are compelled to inhale its fumes] as a slow poison, and affects the brain, heart, liver, and lungs, and they waste away and fade gradually, upon others it has a more direct influence, causing spasms, paralysis, and sudden death.—How to Live 5:68. HL 201.4
864. A tendency to disease of various kinds, as dropsy, liver complaint, trembling nerves, and a determination of blood to the head, results from the habitual use of sour cider.... Some die of consumption or fall under the power of apoplexy from this cause alone.—The Review and Herald, March 25, 1884. HL 202.1
Drugs
865. The drugs given to stupefy, whatever they may be, derange the nervous system.—How to Live 3:57. HL 202.2
866. The liver, heart, and brain are frequently affected by drugs, and often all these organs are burdened with disease, and the unfortunate subjects, if they live, are invalids for life, wearily dragging out a miserable existence.—How to Live 3:61. HL 202.3
867. Witness the mildest protracted influence of nux vomica upon the human system. As its introduction, the nervous energy was excited to extraordinary action to meet this drug poison. This extra excitement was followed by prostration, and the final result has been paralysis of the nerves.—How to Live 3:58. HL 202.4
868. Poisonous medicines, or something called a soothing cordial, ... is poured down the throat of the abused infant.... If it recovers, it must bear about more or less in its system the effects of that poisonous drug, and it is liable to spasms, heart disease, dropsy of the brain, or consumption. Some infants are not strong enough to bear even a trifle of drug poisons; and as nature rallies to meet the intruder, the vital forces of the tender infant are too severely taxed, and death ends the scene.—How to Live 5:70. HL 202.5
Vice
869. Impure thoughts lead to impure actions.... Some ... are in danger of paralysis of the brain. Already the moral and intellectual powers are weakened and benumbed.—Testimonies for the Church 2:408, 409. HL 203.1
870. Many sink into an early grave, while others have a sufficient force of constitution to pass this ordeal.... Nature will make them pay the penalty for the transgression of her laws ... by numerous pains in the system, ... neuralgia, ... affection of the spine.—A Solemn Appeal, 63, 64. HL 203.2