Mahavira Jain Vidyalaya Rajat Jayanti Mahotsava

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 206

SILVER JUBILEEJ
THE WAY TO LIVE IN PERFECT HEALTH
49
days, the time comes when the excretion fails to keep pace with the assimilation and diseases appear. For aged persons to enjoy perfect health, it is necessary to take some exercise and to keep their excretary organs in perfect order with perfectly balanced diet.
POISONS
Were it not for the liver which destroys many poisons, and the kidneys, bowels and skin which eliminate poisons, we would die earlier. These poisons are the main factor, therefore, in causing old age and death. It will be seen, therefore, how extremely important it is to reduce our daily dose of poisons and to eliminate as thoroughly and promptly as possible those which are unavoidably produced. The chief organs for such elimination are the kidneys and water is the chiel agent of elimination. People who habitually drink too little water while otherwise living under hygienic conditions, often experience a remarkable increase of health and energy by attending systematically and several times a day to this simple but important need. The water taken in the morning helps to start the body to cleanse itself. Next to the kidneys, the bowels serve to eliminate body poisons. The delayed bowel action is perhaps responsible for a great number of common chronic ailments. It is necessary, therefore, that the evacuation of the bowels should be thorough and complete. Fating sulticient amount of vegetables helps in keeping the bowels clean as they supply sufficient amount of bulk.
Tea and coffee contain a poisonous alkaloid which is generally called caffeine. These drinks when first taken cause a gentle stimulation under which one feels better, but this is followed by a reaction, and then the power of the body and mind wane so much that the average output of work is less than when the body is not stimulated. All popular stimulants, refreshing drinks and pick-me-ups have two distinct and opposite actions.--an immediate exhilaration and a period of subsequent depression which is proportionate in degree to this primary stimulation. Tea diminishes the secretions of digestive juices and therefore often destroys appetite and desire for food. It is particularly injurious to the young children.
Tobacco contains a strong poison necotine. In the beginning it produces soothing effect on the nerves. This depression is greater than the initial stimulation, so there is actual loss.