MORE than 2,000 years ago Hippocrates wrote as follows:
‘… it appears to me necessary to every physician to be skilled in nature, and to strive to know, if he would wish to perform his duties, what man is in relation to the articles of food and drink, and to his other occupations, and what are the effects of each of them to every one.
‘Whoever does not know what effect these things produce upon a man, cannot know the consequences which result from them.
‘Whoever pays no attention to these things, or paying attention, does not comprehend them, how can he understand the diseases which befall a man? For, by every one of these things a man is affected and changed this way and that, and the whole of his life is subjected to them, whether in health, convalescence, or disease. Nothing else, then, can be more important or more necessary to know than these things.’
It is strange that, although these words were written so long ago, it is only within the last quarter of a century that we have begun to pay attention to ‘what man is in relation to the articles of food and drink’, to ‘know what effect these things produce upon a man’, and, ‘to understand the diseases which befall a man’ in consequence of them.
I had not read this book but this datum from it totally validates the theory that it is not the germ but the terrain that is the principle determinant of wellness versus ill health. Keep the body exercised and well nourished and the frame of mind positive and you are more than half way there in my opinion!
