Healthful Living

Chapter 36—Drugs

1038. Many, instead of seeking to remove the poisonous matter from the system, take a more deadly poison into the system to remove a poison already there.—How to Live 4:64. HL 243.1

1039. Many parents substitute drugs for judicious nursing.—The Health Reformer, September 1, 1866, par. 2. HL 243.2

Mode of Action

1040. Drugs never cure disease; they only change its form and location.... When drugs are introduced into the system, for a time they seem to have a beneficial effect. A change may take place, but the disease is not cured. It will manifest itself in some other form.... The disease which the drug was given to cure may disappear, but only to reappear in a new form, such as skin diseases, ulcers, painful, diseased joints, and sometimes in a more dangerous and deadly form.... Nature keeps struggling, and the patient suffers with different ailments, until there is a sudden breaking down in her efforts, and death follows.—How to Live 3:60. HL 243.3

1041. Every additional drug given to the patient ... will complicate the case, and make the patient's recovery more hopeless.... An evil, simple in the beginning, which nature aroused herself to overcome, and which she would have done if left to herself, aided by the common blessings of Heaven, has been made tenfold worse by introducing drug poisons into the system, which cause of themselves a destructive disease, forcing into extraordinary action the remaining life forces to war against and overcome the drug intruder.—How to Live 3:57. HL 243.4

1042. Sick people who take drugs do appear to get well. With some there is sufficient life force for nature to draw upon to so far expel the poison from the system that the sick, having a period of rest, recover. But no credit should be allowed the drugs taken, for they only hindered nature in her efforts. All the credit should be ascribed to nature's restorative powers.—How to Live 3:50. HL 244.1

1043. Powerful poisons are often administered, which fetter nature in all her friendly efforts to recover from the abuse the system has suffered.—How to Live 3:49. HL 244.2

Results of Drug Medication

1044. Drugging should be forever abandoned; for while it does not cure any malady, it enfeebles the system, making it more susceptible to disease.—Testimonies For The Church 5:311. HL 244.3

1045. There are more who die from the use of drugs than all who would have died of disease had nature been left to do her own work.—How to Live 3:61. HL 244.4

1046. Medicines have no power to cure, but will most generally hinder nature in her efforts.—How to Live 3:62. HL 244.5

1047. Medicine deranges nature's fine machinery, and breaks down the constitution. It kills, but never cures.—How to Live 3:57. HL 244.6

1048. The endless variety of medicines in the market, the numerous advertisements of new drugs and mixtures, all of which claim to do wonderful cures, kill hundreds where they benefit one.... Yet people keep dosing, and continue to grow weaker until they die. Some will have medicine at all events. Then let them take these hurtful mixtures and the various deadly poisons upon their own responsibility. God's servants should not administer medicines which they know will leave behind injurious effects upon the system, even if they do relieve present suffering. Every poisonous preparation in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, taken into the system, will leave its wretched influence, affecting the liver and lungs, and deranging the system generally.—Spiritual Gifts Volume 4a, 140. HL 245.1

1049. The sick are in a hurry to get well, and the friends of the sick are impatient. They will have medicine, and if they do not feel that powerful influence upon their systems which their erroneous views lead them to think they should feel, they impatiently change to another physician. The change often increases the evil. They go through a course of medicine equally as dangerous as the first, and more fatal, because the two treatments do not agree, and the system is poisoned beyond remedy.—How to Live 3:62. HL 245.2

1050. Although the patient may recover, yet the powerful effort nature was required to make to overcome the poison, injured the constitution, and shortened the life of the patient. There are many who do not die under the influence of drugs, but there are very many who are left useless wrecks, hopeless, gloomy, and miserable sufferers, a burden to themselves and to society.—How to Live 3:50. HL 245.3

1051. Everywhere you go you will see deformity, disease, and imbecility, which in very many cases can be traced directly back to drug poisons.—How to Live 3:51. HL 246.1

1052. Drugs given to stupefy, whatever they may be, derange the nervous system.—How to Live 3:57. HL 246.2

The Use of Drugs in our Institutions

1053. Our institutions are established that the sick may be treated by hygienic methods, discarding almost entirely the use of drugs. There is a terrible account to be rendered to God by men who have so little regard for human life as to treat the body ruthlessly, in dealing out drugs.... We are not excusable if, through ignorance, we destroy God's building by taking into the stomach poisonous drugs under a variety of names we do not understand. It is our duty to refuse all such prescriptions. We want sanitariums where maladies may be cured by nature's own provisions, and where the people may be taught how to treat themselves when sick; where they will learn to eat temperately of wholesome food, and to be educated to discard all narcotics, tea, coffee, fermented wines, and stimulants of all kinds, and the flesh of dead animals.—Unpublished Testimonies, December 4, 1896. HL 246.3

1054. Drug medication, as it is generally practised, is a curse. Educate away from drugs, use them less and less, and depend more upon hygienic agencies. Nature will respond to God's remedies,—pure air, pure water, proper exercise, and a clear conscience.—Unpublished Testimonies, 1888. HL 246.4

1055. To use drugs while continuing evil habits is certainly inconsistent, and greatly dishonors God by dishonoring the body which he has made. Yet for all this, stimulants and drugs continue to be prescribed and freely used; while the hurtful indulgences that produce the disease are not discarded. The use of tea, coffee, tobacco, opium, wine, beer, and other stimulants gives nature a false support. Physicians should understand how to treat the sick through the use of nature's remedies. Pure air, pure water, and healthful exercise should be employed in the treatment of the sick.—Unpublished Testimonies, 1892. HL 247.1

1056. Many physicians are not as thorough and intelligent as they should be in the practise of their profession. They resort to drugs, when greater skill and knowledge would teach them a more excellent way. Lives have been lost which might have been saved if drugs had not been resorted to. As a rule, the less frequently they are employed, the better the patient will prosper.—Unpublished Testimonies, 1888. HL 247.2

1057. Make use of the remedies that God has provided. Pure air, sunshine, and the intelligent use of water are beneficial agents in the restoration of health. But the use of water is considered too laborious. It is easier to employ drugs than to use natural remedies. HL 247.3

In treating the sick, the physician will seek God for wisdom; then, instead of placing his dependence upon drugs and expecting that medicine will bring health to his patients, he will use nature's restoratives, and employ natural means whereby the sick may be aided to recover. The Lord will hear and answer the prayers of the Christian physician.—Unpublished Testimonies, 1888. HL 247.4

1058. A great amount of good can be done by enlightening all to whom we have access, as to the best means, not only of curing the sick, but of preventing disease and suffering. The physician who endeavors to enlighten his patients as to the nature and causes of their maladies, and to teach them how to avoid disease, may have up-hill work; but if he is a conscious reformer, he will talk plainly of the ruinous effects of self-indulgence in eating, drinking, and dressing, of the overtaxation of the vital forces that has brought his patients where they are. He will not increase the evil by administering drugs till exhausted nature gives up the struggle, but will teach the patients how to form correct habits, and to aid nature in her work of restoration by a wise use of her own simple remedies.—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 121. HL 248.1

1059. The question of health reform is not agitated as it must be and will be. A simple diet and the entire absence of drugs, leaving nature free to recuperate the wasted energies of the body, would make our sanitariums far more effectual in restoring the sick to health.—Unpublished Testimonies, August 30, 1896. HL 248.2