The nerves of the human body are the most important, the most complex, and probably the least understood of any part of the human anatomy. In conditions of health they are never heard from, therefore every expression of the nervous system is a symptom of some abnormal physical condition.

The usual term "nervousness" conveys to the mind of the average person such conditions as sleeplessness, restlessness, lack of mental and physical tranquillity, but to the trained mind of the food scientist or physician, it means mental aberration, hallucinations, morbidity, mental depression, lack of self-confidence, uncertainty, loss of memory, fear of poverty, anticipation of accident, tragedy, death, insanity, and a multitude of things that never happen. Language cannot adequately describe or convey to the mind of another person the strange impressions that sweep o'er the mind - the mental anguish caused by an ordinary case of nervous indigestion. Those only who can understand why many good men and women sometimes take their own lives, or commit some great crime, are those who have experienced the same affliction.

If we could correctly interpret the various symptoms given to the brain from the nervous system, and would heed these symptoms, the body might be kept in almost perfect health under all conditions of civilized life.

The lack of fresh air and exercise is always told by nervous expression, but the most important and significant message conveyed by the nerves at the brain is that concerning food and general nutrition. Instinct often leads us to fresh air and exercise, but with our food it is vastly different. We acquire a taste for certain things; the habit grows upon us, and though the nerves tell the story to our senses over and over, we heed it not because we are held behind the bars of habit by the tyranny of appetite. In this respect the tobacco fiend, the drug fiend, and the food fiend are all in the same class.

Relation of nutrition to nervousness.

Causes

Nervousness usually begins in the stomach. The primary causes are overeating, combining foods which are inharmonious, and which set up chemical disturbance, or, the use of stimulants and narcotics. When we take into the stomach more food than the body needs, or can use, Nature calls to its aid an excess of hydrochloric acid, which irritates the walls of the stomach. The food then passes into the intestines supercharged with acid, which sets up a similar irritation throughout the intestinal tract, with the result that the millions of nerve fibers leading out from the stomach and the intestines to every part of the body, and from the stomach directly to the brain, cause mental unrest, and storms of depression popularly termed nervousness.

Effect Of Excessive Acid

As previously stated, the length of time food remains in the stomach is usually determined by the amount of hydrochloric acid present. An excess of acid hurries the digestive process in the stomach, and forces the food along too rapidly into the upper part of the small intestine. Here the acid partly neutralizes the lubricating fluids, the food becomes congested, and we have the condition commonly called constipation, which is one of the most prolific causes of nervousness known.

Constipation A Factor In Nervousness

The fecal matter being thus arrested in its passage, remains in the body over Nature's time-limit, and therefore undergoes a form of decomposition from which there arises carbon dioxid and other poisons which are absorbed into the blood, and which irritate the entire nervous organism. The expression of the nerves, or their protest against this condition, we call nervousness.

Primary Cause Of Nervousness

The use of tobacco, tea, coffee, all stimulating and sedative beverages, all stimulating and alcoholic liquors, have a tendency to irritate the nerve fibers the same as an excess of hydrochloric acid. To quiet the nerves with a tonic or a drink is temporarily to paralyze these sensitive organs, leaving them in a worse state of excitement and disturbance when the effect of the drug has passed away.

Many conditions of nervousness are attributed by nerve specialists and physicians to overwork, business worries, etc. With this diagnosis the writer does not agree. Long experience with these conditions has proved that if the body is correctly fed according to age, occupation, and temperature of environment, and stimulants omitted, one cannot overwork; sleep will come when Nature demands it, and the individual desiring to overwork will be forced to rest. When the body is properly nourished and cared for according to these laws, worry ceases; we become tranquil, thoughtful, and philosophic.

Effect Of Stimulants On The Nerves

Overwork, not a factor in nervousness.

The highest ideal in life is to produce a perfect specimen of man or woman, physically, as well as mentally. The only way to accomplish this is to care for the body; the way to defeat this purpose is to overwork and worry in order to accumulate the thing called property.

The desire to accumulate property has for its excuse immunity from work at some future time so that we can enjoy life, but experience teaches us that the physical cost of this effort defeats the very purpose for which we are striving.

Working for wealth alone defeats its purpose