36633 system 40

SPECIAL EXERCISES FOR SPECIAL COMPLAINTS

To cure a chronię ailment permanently, we must know the causes and then remove them, and thus eradicate the ailment and prevent it from developing again.

Now, one of the most common superstitions is, that to each ditłcrent ailment correspond one or two special exercises. by the practice of which such ailment may be cured. I think the idea originates from the old belief that an ailment is something which suddenly falls upon an inno-cent individual, and to make it disappear again one only has to open the right drawer, ńnd the right box and swallow the right pili or drug. which has been prepared especially for the ailment in ąuestion. 1’eople are often reallv offended whcn I tell them that it is not a special exercise lor the limb, or part of tiie body where the pam is felt, that they need, but a generał toning up of all the \'ital and eliminating organs.

Tnere are, of course, special cases of museular weaknessorbodily deformities where ccrtain cxercises havc a very good effect, sshercas others are better left alone, but even then generał exercises for strrng-thening the heart and lungs, improsing the digestion and increasing the circulation, are of the tirst importance ; otherwise the muscles and tissues at the weak spot will get no proper nourishment, but only become sore and strained by overdoing the " special " exercise, and e\’entually they will atrophy instead of growmg stronger.

Howes-er. all the common clironic complaints which arise from auto-intoxication ("self-poisoning" of the blood, and thereby the whole body, from the digestise channel, bad teeth and gums, old toxins or other sources) are simply cured and pres-ented by purifying the whole system. Rheumatic, uric acid or gouty pains may have verv various names and be felt in ditferent parts of the body and limbs, because the circulating poisons will alssays find the ss’eak, or accidentally damaged, spot and make an attack there.

Hence the best " special ” exercises for arthritis. lumbago, neural-gia, neuritis. sciatica, rheumatic gout and all other similar complaints, most diseases of the kidneys and many forms of boils, eczema, rash, palpitation of the heart, spots before the eyes and noises in the head, dropsy in the legs. etc., are deep breathing and skin-rubbing exercises, combined with bendings and twistings of the trunk, because such exer-cises enormously increase the activities of the three channels through which waste matters and poisons are got rid of, viz., the skin, lungs and bowels, and simultaneously the fourtb of the eliminating organs, the kidneys, are reliesed of the poisons with which they used to be over-loaded.

In the same way these trunk exercises (Nos. i, 3 4. 6, 7, ir. 12. 13, tó, 17 and 18) and knee-bendings. all with deep breathing. are really the U st “ specials " for remedying all the chronic ailments caused by