Healthful Living
Chapter 14—Causes of Disease
Predisposing Causes
248. Satan is the originator of disease.... There is a divinely appointed connection between sin and disease.... Sin and disease bear to each other the relationship of cause and effect.—Testimonies for the Church 5:443. HL 60.1
249. Disease never comes without a cause. The way is first prepared, and disease invited by disregarding the laws of health.—How to Live 5:70. HL 60.2
250. Sickness is caused by violating the laws of health.—Testimonies for the Church 3:164. HL 60.3
251. The majority of diseases which the human family have been and are still suffering under, have been created by ignorance of their own organic law.—The Health Reformer, October 1, 1866. HL 60.4
Heredity
252. Through disease transmitted to them from their parents, and an erroneous education in youth, they have imbibed wrong habits, injuring the constitution, affecting the brain, causing the moral organs to become diseased, and making it impossible for them to think and act rationally upon all points.—The Review and Herald, March 11, 1880. HL 60.5
253. Many are suffering in consequence of the transgressions of their parents; they cannot be censured for their parents’ sins, but it is nevertheless their duty to ascertain wherein their parents violated the laws of their being; and wherein their parents’ habits were wrong, they should change their course, and place themselves, by correct habits, in a better relation to health.—The Health Reformer, August 1, 1866. HL 60.6
Impure Air
254. The effects produced by living in close, ill-ventilated rooms are these: The system becomes weak and unhealthy, the circulation is depressed, the blood moves sluggishly through the system because it is not purified and vitalized by the pure, invigorating air of heaven. The mind becomes depressed and gloomy, while the whole system is enervated; and fevers and other acute diseases are liable to be generated.... The system is peculiarly sensitive to the influence of cold. A slight exposure produces serious diseases.—Testimonies for the Church 1:702. HL 61.1
Imperfect Breathing
255. Stomach, liver, lungs, and brain are suffering for want of deep, full inspirations of air.—Testimonies for the Church 2:67. HL 61.2
Indoor Life
256. Close confinement indoors makes women pale and feeble, and results in premature death.—The Health Reformer, April 1, 1871. HL 61.3
Improper Diet
257. Indulging in eating too frequently, and in too large quantities, overtaxes the digestive organs, and produces a feverish state of the system. The blood becomes impure, and then diseases of various kinds occur.—Spiritual Gifts Volume 4a, 133. HL 61.4
258. The time women devote to studying how to prepare food in a manner to suit the perverted appetite is worse than lost; ... for they are only learning the most successful way to tear down and debase the physical, mental, and moral faculties by gluttony. Then, as a natural result, comes sickness.—The Health Reformer, October 1, 1866. HL 61.5
259. It is the wrong habit of indulgence of appetite, and the careless, reckless inattention to the proper care of the body, that tells upon the people. Habits of cleanliness, and care in regard to that which is introduced into the mouth, should be observed.—Unpublished Testimonies, July 10, 1896. HL 62.1
Overeating
260. What influence does overeating have upon the stomach?—It becomes debilitated, the digestive organs are weakened, and disease, with all its train of evils, is brought on as the result.—Testimonies for the Church 2:364. HL 62.2
261. And the dyspeptic—what has made him dyspeptic is taking this course. Instead of observing regularity, he has let appetite control him, and has eaten between meals.—Testimonies for the Church 2:374. HL 62.3
262. They closely apply their minds to books, and eat the allowance of laboring men.... The liver becomes burdened, and unable to throw off the impurities of the blood, and sickness is the result.—Testimonies for the Church 3:490. HL 62.4
263. Scanty, impoverished, ill-cooked food is constantly depraving the blood, by weakening the blood-making organs.—Testimonies for the Church 1:682. HL 62.5
264. The free use of sugar in any form tends to clog the system, and is not unfrequently a cause of disease.—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 57. HL 62.6
265. A great amount of milk and sugar ... clog the system, irritate the digestive organs, and affect the brain.—Testimonies for the Church 2:370. HL 62.7
Flesh Foods
266. The liability to take disease is increased tenfold by meat eating.—Testimonies for the Church 2:64. HL 62.8
267. The eating of flesh meats has made a poor quality of blood and flesh. Your systems are in a state of inflammation, prepared to take on disease. You are liable to acute attacks of disease, and to sudden death, because you do not possess the strength of constitution to rally and resist disease.—Testimonies for the Church 2:61. HL 63.1
268. When we feed on flesh, the juices of what we eat pass into the circulation. A feverish condition is created, because the animals are diseased, and by partaking of their flesh, we plant the seeds of disease in our own tissue and blood. Then, when exposed to the changes in a malarious atmosphere, to prevailing epidemics and contagious diseases, these are more sensibly felt, for the system is not in a condition to resist disease.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 63.2
269. Flesh meats constitute the principal article of food upon the tables of some families, until their blood is filled with cancerous and scrofulous humors. Their bodies are composed of what they eat. But when suffering and disease come upon them, it is considered an affliction of Providence.—Testimonies for the Church 3:563. HL 63.3
270. Rich and complicated mixtures of food are health destroying. Highly seasoned meats and rich pastry are wearing out the digestive organs of children.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 63.4
271. Simple grains, fruits, and vegetables have all the nutrient properties necessary to make good blood. This a flesh diet cannot do.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 63.5
Stimulants
272. It is these hurtful stimulants that are surely undermining the constitution and preparing the system for acute diseases, by impairing nature's fine machinery, and battering down her fortifications erected against disease and premature decay.—Testimonies for the Church 1:548. HL 63.6
273. A tendency to disease of various kinds, as dropsy, liver complaint, trembling nerves, and a determination of the blood to the head, results from a habitual use of sour cider. By its use, many bring upon themselves permanent disease. Some die of consumption, or fall under the power of apoplexy from this cause alone. Some suffer from dyspepsia. Every vital function refuses to act, and the physicians tell them that they have liver complaint.—The Review and Herald, March 25, 1884. HL 64.1
Improper Clothing
274. The fashionable style of woman's dress is one of the greatest causes of all these terrible diseases.—The Health Reformer, April 1, 1872. HL 64.2
275. More die as the result of following fashion than from all other causes.—The Health Reformer, November 1, 1870. HL 64.3
276. Women especially are the victims of various maladies which might be lessened, if not entirely prevented, by right habits of life. Half their sufferings may be attributed to their manner of dress, and the insane desire to conform to the fashions of the world.—The Health Reformer, February 1, 1877. HL 64.4
277. In order to follow the fashions, mothers dress their children with limbs nearly naked; and the blood is chilled back from its natural course and thrown upon the internal organs, breaking up the circulation and producing disease.—Testimonies for the Church 2:531. HL 64.5
278. The chief, if not the only, reason why many become invalids is that the blood does not circulate freely, and the changes in the vital fluid, which are necessary to life and health, do not take place.—Testimonies for the Church 2:525. HL 65.1
Exposure to Cold
279. When we overtax our strength, and become exhausted, we are liable to take cold, and at such times there is danger of disease assuming a dangerous form.—Testimonies for the Church 3:13. HL 65.2
Damp Rooms
280. Rooms that are not exposed to light and air become damp.... Various diseases have been brought on by sleeping in these fashionable health-destroying apartments.—How to Live 4:62. HL 65.3
281. Choice, closed rooms, deprived of the health-giving rays of the sun, seem like damp cellars.... The air in unoccupied rooms may be cold; but this is no evidence that it is pure.—The Health Reformer, April 1, 1871. HL 65.4
Drugs
282. 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 65.5
The Condition of the Mind
283. There is another class whose highest aim in life is physical labor. This class do not exercise the mind. Their muscles are exercised, while their brains are robbed of intellectual strength.... This class fall more rapidly if attacked by disease, because the system is not vitalized by the electrical force of the brain to resist disease.—Testimonies for the Church 3:157. HL 65.6
284. That which brings sickness of body and mind to nearly all, is dissatisfied feelings and discontented repinings.—Testimonies for the Church 1:566. HL 65.7
285. Nothing is so fruitful a cause of disease as depression, gloominess, and sadness.—Testimonies for the Church 1:702. HL 66.1
Secret Vice
286. This vice is laying waste the constitution of very many, and preparing them for diseases of almost every description.—A Solemn Appeal, 53. HL 66.2
287. Some of nature's fine machinery gives way, leaving a heavier task for the remainder to perform, which disorders nature's fine arrangement, and there is often a sudden breaking down of the constitution; and death is the result.—A Solemn Appeal, 64. HL 66.3