Causes of Disease

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Predisposing Causes.

248. Satan is the originator of disease. . . . There is a divinely appointed connection between sin and disease. . . . Sin and disease bear to each other the relationship of cause and effect.— T., No. 32, p. 200.

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249. Disease never comes without a cause. The way is first prepared, and disease invited by disregarding the laws of health.— H. to L., Chap. 5, p. 70.

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250. Sickness is caused by violating the laws of health.— T., V. III, p. 164.

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251. The majority of diseases which the human family have been and are still suffering under, have been created by ignorance of their own organic law.— H. R.

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Heredity.

252. Through disease transmitted to them from their parents, and an erroneous education in youth, they have imbibed wrong habits, injuring the constitution, affecting the brain, causing the moral organs to become diseased, and making it impossible for them to think and act rationally upon all points.— R. and H., 1880, No. II.

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253. Many are suffering in consequence of the transgressions of their parents; they cannot be censured for their parents’ sins, but it is nevertheless their duty to ascertain wherein their parents violated the laws of their being; and wherein their parents’ habits were wrong, they should change their course, and place themselves, by correct habits, in a better relation to health.— H. R.

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Impure Air.

254. The effects produced by living in close, ill-ventilated rooms are these: The system becomes weak and unhealthy, the circulation is depressed, the blood moves sluggishly through the system because it is not purified and vitalized by the pure, invigorating air of heaven. The mind becomes depressed and gloomy, while the whole system is enervated; and fevers and other acute diseases are liable to be generated. . . . The system is peculiarly sensitive to the influence of cold. A slight exposure produces serious diseases.— T., V. I, p. 702.

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Imperfect Breathing.

255. Stomach, liver, lungs, and brain are suffering for want of deep, full inspirations of air.— T., V. II, p. 67.

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Indoor Life.

256. Close confinement indoors makes women pale and feeble, and results in premature death.— H. R.

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Improper Diet.

257. Indulging in eating too frequently, and in too large quantities, overtaxes the digestive organs, and produces a feverish state of the system. The blood becomes impure, and then diseases of various kinds occur.— F. of F., p. 133.

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258. The time women devote to studying how to prepare food in a manner to suit the perverted appetite is worse than lost; . . . for they are only learning the most successful way to tear down and debase the physical, mental, and moral faculties by gluttony. Then, as a natural result, comes sickness.— H. R.

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259. It is the wrong habit of indulgence of appetite, and the careless, reckless inattention to the proper care of the body, that tells upon the people. Habits of cleanliness, and care in regard to that which is introduced into the mouth, should be observed.— U. T., July 10, 1896.

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Overeating.

260. What influence does overeating have upon the stomach?—It becomes debilitated, the digestive organs are weakened, and disease, with all its train of evils, is brought on as the result.— T., V. II, p. 364.

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261. And the dyspeptic—what has made him dyspeptic is taking this course. Instead of observing regularity, he has let appetite control him, and has eaten between meals.— T., V. II, p. 374.

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262. They closely apply their minds to books, and eat the allowance of laboring men. . . . The liver becomes burdened, and unable to throw off the impurities of the blood, and sickness is the result.— T., V. III, p. 490.

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263. Scanty, impoverished, ill-cooked food is constantly depraving the blood, by weakening the bloodmaking organs.— T., V. I, p. 682.

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264. The free use of sugar in any form tends to clog the system, and is not unfrequently a cause of disease.— C. T., p. 57.

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265. A great amount of milk and sugar . . . clog the system, irritate the digestive organs, and affect the brain.— T., V. II, p. 370.

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Flesh Foods.

266. The liability to take disease is increased tenfold by meat eating.— T., V. II, p. 64.

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267. The eating of flesh meats has made a poor quality of blood and flesh. Your systems are in a state of inflammation, prepared to take on disease. You are liable to acute attacks of disease, and to sudden death, because you do not possess the strength of constitution to rally and resist disease.— T., V. II, p. 61.

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268. When we feed on flesh, the juices of what we eat pass into the circulation. A feverish condition is created, because the animals are diseased, and by partaking of their flesh, we plant the seeds of disease in our own tissue and blood. Then, when exposed to the changes in a malarious atmosphere, to prevailing epidemics and contagious diseases, these are more sensibly felt, for the system is not in a condition to resist disease.— U. T., Nov. 5, 1896.

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269. Flesh meats constitute the principal article of food upon the tables of some families, until their blood is filled with cancerous and scrofulous humors. Their bodies are composed of what they eat. But when suffering and disease come upon them, it is considered an affliction of Providence.— T., V. III, p. 563.

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270. Rich and complicated mixtures of food are health destroying. Highly seasoned meats and rich pastry are wearing out the digestive organs of children.— U. T., Nov. 5, 1896.

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271. Simple grains, fruits, and vegetables have all the nutrient properties necessary to make good blood. This a flesh diet cannot do.— U. T., Nov. 5, 1896.

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Stimulants.

272. It is these hurtful stimulants that are surely undermining the constitution and preparing the system for acute diseases, by impairing nature’s fine machinery, and battering down her fortifications erected against disease and premature decay. — T., V. I, p. 548.

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273. A tendency to disease of various kinds, as dropsy, liver complaint, trembling nerves, and a determination of the blood to the head, results from a habitual use of sour cider. By its use, many bring upon themselves permanent disease. Some die of consumption, or fall under the power of apoplexy from this cause alone. Some suffer from dyspepsia. Every vital function refuses to act, and the physicians tell them that they have liver complaint.— R. and H., 1884, No. 13.

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Improper Clothing.

274. The fashionable style of woman’s dress is one of the greatest causes of all these terrible diseases.— H. R.

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275. More die as the result of following fashion than from all other causes.— H. R.

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276. Women especially are the victims of various maladies which might be lessened, if not entirely prevented, by right habits of life. Half their sufferings may be attributed to their manner of dress, and the insane desire to conform to the fashions of the world.— H. R.

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277. In order to follow the fashions, mothers dress their children with limbs nearly naked; and the blood is chilled back from its natural course and thrown upon the internal organs, breaking up the circulation and producing disease.— T., V. II, p. 531.

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278. The chief, if not the only, reason why many become invalids is that the blood does not circulate freely, and the changes in the vital fluid, which are necessary to life and health, do not take place.— T., V. II, p. 525.

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Exposure to Cold.

279. When we overtax our strength, and become exhausted, we are liable to take cold, and at such times there is danger of disease assuming a dangerous form.— T., V. III, p. 13.

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Damp Rooms.

280. Rooms that are not exposed to light and air become damp. . . . Various diseases have been brought on by sleeping in these fashionable health-destroying apartments.— H. to L., Chap. 4, p. 62.

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281. Choice, closed rooms, deprived of the health-giving rays of the sun, seem like damp cellars. . . . The air in unoccupied rooms may be cold; but this is no evidence that it is pure.— R. H.

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Drugs

282. Drugging should be forever abandoned; for while it does not cure any malady, it enfeebles the system, making it more susceptible to disease.— T., No. 32, p. 67.

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The Condition of the Mind.

283. There is another class whose highest aim in life is physical labor. This class do not exercise the mind. Their muscles are exercised, while their brains are robbed of intellectual strength. . . . This class fall more rapidly if attacked by disease, because the system is not vitalized by the electrical force of the brain to resist disease.— T., V. III, p. 157.

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284. That which brings sickness of body and mind to nearly all, is dissatisfied feelings and discontented repinings.— T., V. I, p. 566. 66

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285. Nothing is so fruitful a cause of disease as depression, gloominess, and sadness.— T., V. I, p. 702.

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Secret Vice.

286. This vice is laying waste the constitution of very many, and preparing them for diseases of almost every description.— S. A., p. 53.

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287. Some of nature’s fine machinery gives way, leaving a heavier task for the remainder to perform, which disorders nature’s fine arrangement, and there is often a sudden breaking down of the constitution; and death is the result.— S. A., p. 64.

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Exciting Causes. Unhygienic Surroundings.

288. Filth is a breeder of disease.— R. and H., 1896, No. 5.

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289. A neglect of cleanliness will induce disease. . . . Stubborn fevers and violent diseases have prevailed in neighborhoods and towns that had formerly been considered healthy, and some have died, while others have been left with broken constitutions to be crippled with disease for life. In many instances their own yards contained the agent of destruction, which sent forth deadly poisons into the atmosphere, to be inhaled by the family and the neighborhood.— H. to L., Chap. 4, p. 61.

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290. Many suffer decayed vegetable matter to remain about their premises. They are not awake to the influence of these things. There is constantly arising from these decaying substances effluvium that is poisoning the air. By inhaling the impure air, the blood is poisoned, the lungs become affected, and the whole system is diseased. Disease of almost every description will be caused by inhaling the atmosphere affected by these decaying substances.— Ibid.

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291. If a house be built where water settles around it, remaining for a time and then drying away, a poisonous miasma arises, and fever and ague, sore throat, lung diseases, and fevers will be the result.— H. to L., Chap. 4, p. 64.

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Flesh Diet.

292. The mortality caused by eating meat is not discerned. . . . Animals are diseased, and by partaking of their flesh we plant the seeds of disease in our own tissues and blood.— U. T., Nov. 5, 1896.

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293. The prevalence of cancers and tumors is largely due to gross living on dead flesh.— U. T., Nov. 5, 1896.

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294. The practice of eating largely of meat is causing diseases of all kinds,—cancers, tumors, scrofula, tuberculosis, and numbers of other like affections.— U. T., Jan. 11, 1897.

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295. The meat is served reeking with fat, because it suits the perverted taste. Both the blood and the fat of animals is consumed as a luxury. But the Lord has given special directions that these should not be eaten. Why?—Because their use would make a diseased current of blood in the human system. Disregard of the Lord’s special directions has brought a variety of difficulties and diseases upon human beings. . . . If they introduce into their system that which cannot make good flesh and blood, they must endure the results of the disregard of God’s word.— U. T., March, 1896.

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296. The eating of pork has aroused and strengthened a most deadly humor which was in the system. — T., V. II, p. 94.