HAYFEVER

What a blessing the great outdoors is and what a delight to get out into the open to walk through some country alone or beflowered part; or to enjoy the shade of a free in mid-summer. But a near-tragedy befalls hundreds of thousands of people every year under just such circumstances. For them such places are regions inhabited by a source of torment. Why? Because in these surroundings is incubated that bane of their existence--hay fever. Wherever those so affected may go, however careful they may be to keep away from Nature, many are attacked yearly by this aggravating, painful, distressing affliction. For the pollen of flowers and grasses and the dust of the earth are broadcast practically everywhere on wings of the wind. Those predisposed to hay fever can not escape it if they remain within the range of these causative irritants. Once contracted it usually remains with the civtim for six to eight weeks or longer. Never make light of hay fever to one of these victims. There may be long or short periods when he is an well as anyone, or be completely over it within a few days toward the end of the season for it, and be as normal as ever, but this does not mean that the conditions insignificant and that he does not suffer while the disease is with him. He does suffer. This disease begins, in different localities, from about June first to the latter part of August, and lasts from about the second week in September to about the end of October. At these times, Victimes of hay-fever are sniffling, sneezing, snuffing and sniveling their very hearts away. The disease usually begins with a feeling as if a stray hair were brushing over the face, especially over the nose, and an uncertain itch within the nostrils. The sensation rapidly increases until it is well nigh unbearable. Spasms of sneezing come on with “running nose,” and watery eyes that are very painful in the light. These people are truly unwilling mourners at the shrine of the almighty pollen. But why do these hundreds of thousands of people suffer from the condition while the rest of the millions who breathe the same air, containing the same pollens, dust, odors, animal emanations, etc., go free? Certainly if these things cause the disease everyone would have it and we all would be a bunch of wheezers for two months or so each year. There is a great deal more at work to produce the disorder than these. Without a doubt goldenrod, ragweed, various grasses, asters, animal fur and many other things are causative factors, but they are only the match which sets off the brush into a huge flame that does not burn itself out until the first frost. Instead of being the real cause, they are merely exciting irritants which affect the already somewhat inflamed or later oversensitive membrane that lines the nose and throat. But neither is the inflamed membrane the real cause. We mush go farther back than that. What is the cause? Very likely this is a morbid condition of the blood--a hyperacidity, resulting from abnormal cell-processes, or metabolism, possibly the result in part of an excess of certain food elements, a deficiency of other elements needed by the body, and insufficient elimination. In other words the “end-products” (final digestive products) of abnormal protein digestion fill the blood and cause the irritation of these sensitive membranes, which are doubtless improperly supplied with normal nerve and blood supply, as a result of some interference at or about the nerve origin--the vertebrae or the spinal muscles and ligaments. Others may have the same protein poisoning, but without the same conditions of the nerves, they may escape similar results. Again, some may be subject to these nerve conditions and yet not to such protein poisoning, hence may escape hay fever. Susceptibility or what is termed allergy to certain proteins is a factor, and persons who have the morbid state of the blood mentioned above plus susceptibility to these certain proteins are the ones most seriously affected. The fact that the treatment here given produces he desired results in many case shows that the above theory of cause must be largely correct. Spinal treatments will be valuable, as the vicious circle must be broken somewhere. But the majority of cases will require direct purification of the blood-stream. The absolute fast or fruit diet should be employed for at least several days. Many patients have fasted on water for from ten to thirty days for the eradication of this disease. It is often permissible in this condition to use a saline laxative in one large dose to cleanse the intestinal tract as much as possible at the very onset of the fast. It this fact is taken from three to six weeks prior to the expected onset of the attack, the attack may be aborted or minimized. After the fast or fruit diet, the buttermilk or sour milk diet may be taken with great benefit. It should continue for at least three or four weeks. Following this the diet should be Very light and free from any foods containing a large reapportion of protein. Breakfast may be merely one portion of fruit or all that is desired of one kind o fruit or fruit juice: or there may be any fruit desired and a glass of milk. It is well to have only one other meal, which may be taken at regular supper time (the breakfast being taken later than the usual breakfast time). This may consist of cooked and raw vegetables with whole wheat toast or whole rise or backed potato and fruit, with as much buttermilk or sour milk as is desired. After two or three weeks, this may be gradually amplified and the meals placed farther apart, so that a third meal may be taken if desired. The daily enema, used after the third day of the fruit diet, should be dispensed with as soon as possible on the later diet. It is well to use a daily cold or short hot and cold shower, sponge or other bath--but the cold bath should be taken whether or not the hot is taken. There should be sufficient relaxation and sleep, and spinal treatments may be taken daily or as often as the spinal therapist considers advisable. Many people who have had hay-fever yearly for a number of years and have hit the trail for the White Mountains or the Thousand Islands or elsewhere to escape it as much as possible, hobnobbing during the sojourns with others of the hay-fever aristocracy, have been able to escape this aggravating disease by following rigidity such a treatment as is outlined above. Of course, relief in any case is attained least in locations where vegetation of a nature to cause hay-fever is found. It may be necessary to repeat such a regimen prior to the onset of the season of vegetation for two or three years, but usually one or two courses of this type of treatment will correct the tendency to its development.