Treatment Of Tuberculosis

Clinical experience with hygiene and diet have proved that they are the most important factors in the treatment of disease.

A certain class of patients who are in the early stages of this disease may be benefited by a liberal diet, but the larger percentage of sufferers really have indigestion and can only gain benefit by cutting down their diet and by living upon plain, non-stimulating food. The amount of carbo-hydrate foods should be decreased and the amount of fats increased. Olive oil in combination with raw vegetables, acid fruits and raw eggs and fat meats should be given daily. They are best taken for breakfast. The heavier protein foods should be eaten at the noon meal in combination with a small amount of cereals and raw greens. The evening meal should consist of broths with egg, cooked green vegetables, toast and bacon, or of milk foods. If extra milk is required it should be given with a keen appetite. Food eaten without relish cannot be properly oxidized and assimilated.

People who are compelled to work while sick should take some extra milk between 10 and 12 a. m. and during the afternoon. Milk may be taken raw or boiled, according to the individual requirements. The bowels should be kept in order by enemas and laxative foods.

Rickets

This is a condition where there is interference with the nutrition of the bones. The bones, like other parts of the body, are injured by lack of nourishment; they become soft and yielding like wax, and are drawn by the muscles into deformity. The animal matter which enters into the composition of the skeleton is in great excess, and the earthy (or mineral matter) is deficient in proportion. Causes for such conditions are: Lack of lime and minerals in the food, before or after birth; impure or inferior milk; fermenting foods; excess of starchy foods, sweets and meats; insufficient greens, legumes and nut-foods in the mother's food, and overwork of the mother before or after birth of the child; damp and impure air and unhealthy dwellings. The first symptoms of this disease or a tendency to it can sometimes be detected in a child during the first year by soft and flabby muscles, excess of fat, difficulty and backwardness of learning to walk, and in cutting teeth, extremely narrow chest, continual digestive disturbances with constipation or greenish looking evacuations, and catarrh of the bowels. Softening of the bones of the head is often present.

The prevention and treatment of this disease demands careful regulation of the diet, sufficient sleep, pure air, dry, sunny dwellings, warm baths, massage and salt rubs. If the child perspires much on the upper part of the body during sleep, avoid feather pillows and keep the lower limbs warm by artificial heat if necessary. Avoid pressure on the head by placing a narrow pillow about two inches in width under the neck, and no pillow under the head. Keep the child in the lying position as much as possible. Do not carry it on the arm except when necessary, and never force it to stand or walk against its own will.

The diet should consist of milk and cream with well cooked strained pearl barley and steel cut oats or bran, a moderate amount of toast, calf's-foot jelly, eggs strained legumes and fat meats. Raw greens, fruits and nuts should be given as soon as the child is able to digest them without difficulty. Always select the food in the right combination and never allow excesses of any kind. The bowels must be kept regular by enemas.