The Nature and Cause of Disease





From The Hygienic Dictionary

Toxemia. [1] "Toxemia is the basic cause of all so-called diseases.
In the process of tissue-building (metabolism), there is
cell-building (anabolism) and cell destruction (catabolism). The
broken-down tissue is toxic. In the healthy body (when nerve energy
is normal), this toxic material is eliminated from the blood as fast
as it is evolved. But when nerve energy is dissipated from any cause
(such as physical or mental excitement or bad habits) the body
becomes weakened or enervated. When the body is enervated,
elimination is checked. This, in turn, results in a retention of
toxins in the blood--the condition which we speak of as toxemia.
This state produces a crisis which is nothing more than heroic or
extraordinary efforts by the body to eliminate waste or toxin from
the blood. It is this crisis which we term disease. Such
accumulation of toxin when once established, will continue until
nerve energy has been restored to normal by removing the cause.
So-called disease is nature's effort to eliminate toxin from the
blood. All so-called diseases are crises of toxemia." _John H.
Tilden, M.D., Toxemia Explained._ [2] Toxins are divided into two
groups; namely exogenous, those formed in the alimentary canal from
fermentation and decomposition following imperfect or faulty
digestion. If the fermentation is of vegetables or fruit, the toxins
are irritating, stimulating and enervating, but not so dangerous or