Practicing preventative medicine is just plain practical.
It not only helps you feel well, it saves you time and money stolen by illness.
Disease (caused by among other things germs and viruses from the outside) strikes easier, and is harder to fight when our resistance is down, due to fatigue, stress and/ or improper nutrition from careless eating habits.
In most instances, the doctor functions only to diagnose and cure you once you are already sick, not to advise you on how to stay well.
(In China the patients only pay their doctor when they are cured, so it’s to the doctor’s advantage to keep his patients healthy.)
But, just because the situation in this country remains backwards as far as preventative medicine, no one has to remain helpless. With a little knowledge and discipline most of us can be fit.
Remember, there are no cure alls and no short cuts to health.
Colds are a problem all year long, but may be aggravated by “St. Louis type pre-spring weather” when temperatures often flucuate rapidly and the body has trouble adjusting.
They are unpleasant, but unless serious and prolonged seldom warrant a trip to the doctor.
Here are a few things that can be tried to ward off this common curse.
Vitamin C–be sure you get plenty in the foods you eat (did you know a green pepper has twice as much as an orange?) and fresh oranges are much better than frozen orange juice.
Many vegetables like tomatoes, asparagus, cabbage, and carrots contain C but they must never be overcooked as 50% more vitamin content is lost in the process.
If you feel you need it, supplement your diet with Vitamin C tablets–many people swear by them.
Nothing is a guarantee, and if you “feel a cold coming on” cut out milk, cheese and chocolate from your diet for awhile These foods are mucous forming–that’s the stuff that clogs your nose and chest.
Try hot drinks or water with lemon, lime juice and a touch of brandy.
Don’t over exert yourself or your cold may return–your body needs energy to fight the cold.
Originally published in The Paper, April 1974.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1974_04.pdf, printed page(s) 3.
