A Guide To Health - free ebook by Mahatma Gandhi

TRIPLICANE . . . . . MADRAS, S.E.

How much and how many times should we eat?...

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TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

In these days when the name of Mahatma Gandhi is identified with the momentous question of Non-Co-operation, it may come with a shock of surprise to most readers to be told that he is something of an authority on matters of Health and Disease as well. Very few of us perhaps are aware that he is the author of quite an original little Health-book in Gujarati. Those who think of him as a dreamy idealist or an unpractical visionary, with his head always in the clouds, will certainly be undeceived wh

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INTRODUCTION

For more than twenty years past I have been paying special attention to the question of Health. While in England, I had to make my own arrangements for food and drink, and I can say, therefore, that my experience is quite reliable. I have arrived at certain definite conclusions from that experience, and I now set them down for the benefit of my readers. As the familiar saying goes, ‘Prevention is better than cure.’ It is far easier and safer to prevent illness by the observance of the laws of he

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THE MEANING OF HEALTH

Ordinarily that man is considered healthy who eats well and moves about, and does not resort to a doctor. But a little thought will convince us that this idea is wrong. There are many cases of men being diseased, in spite of their eating well and freely moving about. They are under the delusion that they are healthy, simply because they are too indifferent to think about the matter. In fact, perfectly healthy men hardly exist anywhere over this wide world. As has been well said, only that man ca

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THE HUMAN BODY

The world is compounded of the five elements,—earth, water, air, fire, and ether. So too is our body. It is a sort of miniature world. Hence the body stands in need of all the elements in due proportion,—pure earth, pure water, pure fire or sunlight, pure air, and open space. When any one of these falls short of its due proportion, illness is caused in the body. The body is made up of skin and bone, as well as flesh and blood. The bones constitute the frame-work of the body; but for them we coul

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AIR

Of the three things that are indispensable for the subsistence of man,—namely, air, water, and food—the first is the most important. Hence it is that God has created it in such large quantities as to make it available to all of us for nothing. Modern civilisation, however, has rendered even fresh air somewhat costly, for, in order to breathe fresh air, we have to go out of towns, and this means expense. The residents of Bombay, for instance, distinctly improve in health in the air of Matheran or

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FOOD

It is impossible to lay down hard and fast rules in the matter of food. What sort of food should we eat, how much of it should be eaten, and at what times,—these are questions on which doctors differ a great deal. The ways of men are so diverse, that the very same food shows different effects on different individuals. Although, however, it is impossible to say conclusively what sort of food we should eat, it is the clear duty of every individual to bestow serious thought on the matter. Needless

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HOW MUCH AND HOW MANY TIMES SHOULD WE EAT?

There is a great divergence of opinion among doctors as to the quantity of food that we should take. One doctor holds that we should eat to the utmost of our capacity, and he has calculated the quantities of different kinds of food that we can take. Another holds the view that the food of labourers should differ in quantity as well as in quality from that of persons engaged in mental work, while a third doctor contends that the prince and the peasant should eat exactly the same quantity of food.

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EXERCISE

Exercise is as much of a vital necessity for man as air, water and food, in the sense that no man who does not take exercise regularly, can be perfectly healthy. By “exercise” we do not mean merely walking, or games like hockey, football, and cricket; we include under the term all physical and mental activity. Exercise, even as food, is as essential to the mind as to the body. The mind is much weakened by want of exercise as the body, and a feeble mind is, indeed, a form of disease. An athlete,

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DRESS

Dress is also a matter of health to a certain extent. European ladies, for instance, have such queer notions of beauty that their dress is contrived with a view to straitening the waist and the feet, which, in its turn, leads to several diseases. The feet of Chinese women are deliberately straitened to such an extent that they are smaller even than the feet of our little children, and, as a result, their health is injured. These two instances show how the health may be affected by the nature of

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SEXUAL RELATIONS

I would specially request those who have carefully read through the book so far to read through this chapter with even greater care, and ponder well over its subject-matter. There are still several more chapters to be written, and they will, of course, be found useful in their own way. But not one of them is nearly as important as this. As I have already said, there is not a single matter mentioned in this book which is not based on my personal experience, or which I do not believe to be strictl

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AIR-TREATMENT

We have now done with the discussion of the foundations of health, as well as the means of its preservation. If all men and women were to obey all the laws of health, and practice strict Brahmacharya, there would be no need at all for the chapters which follow, for such men and women would then be free from all ailments, whether of the body or of the mind. But where can such men and women be found? Where are they who have not been afflicted by disease? The more strictly, however, we observe the

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WATER-CURE

Since air is invisible, we cannot perceive the wonderful way in which it does its work. But the work of water and its curative effects can be easily seen and understood. All people know something of the use of steam as a curative agent. We often employ it in cases of fever, and very often severe headaches can be cured only by its application. In cases of rheumatic pain in the joints, rapid relief is obtained by the use of steam followed by a cold bath. Boils and ulcers not cured by simple dressi

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THE USE OF EARTH

We will now proceed to describe the curative properties of earth, which are, in some cases, even more remarkable than those of water. That earth should have such properties need not cause us any surprise, for our own body is compounded of the earthly element. Indeed, we do make use of earth as a purifying agent. We wash the ground with earth to remove bad smells, we put it over decaying matter to prevent the pollution of the air, we wash our hands with it, and even employ it to clean the private

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FEVER AND ITS CURE

We now pass on to consider some particular diseases and the means of curing them. And first, fever. We generally apply the term “fever” to a condition of heat in the body, but English doctors have distinguished many varieties of this disease, each with its own system of treatment. But, following the common practice and the principles elaborated in these chapters, we may say that all fevers can be cured in one and the same manner. I have tried this single treatment for all varieties from simple f

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CONSTIPATION, DYSENTERY, GRIPES AND PILES

It may at first sight appear strange to have four different ailments put together in this chapter, but, as a matter of fact, they are all so closely connected, and may be cured more or less in the same way. When the stomach gets clogged by undigested matter, it leads to one or other of these diseases, according to the varying constitutions of individuals. In some it produces constipation. The bowels do not move, or move only partly, and there is great straining at stools, until it results in ble

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CONTAGIOUS DISEASES: SMALL-POX

Now we will proceed to deal with the treatment of contagious diseases. They have a common origin, but, since small-pox is by far the most important of them, we will give a separate chapter to it, dealing with the rest in another chapter. We are all terribly afraid of the small-pox, and have very crude notions about it. We in India even worship it as a deity. In fact it is caused, just like other diseases, by the blood getting impure owing to some disorder of the bowels; and the poison that accum

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OTHER CONTAGIOUS DISEASES

We do not dread chicken-pox so much as its elder sister, since it is not so fatal, and does not cause disfigurement and the like. It is, however, exactly the same as small-pox in other respects, and should therefore be dealt with in the same way. Bubonic Plague is a terrible disease, and has accounted for the death of millions of our people since the year 1896, when it first made its real entry into our land. The doctors, in spite of all their investigations, have not yet been able to invent a s

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MATERNITY AND CHILD-BIRTH

Our object in the foregoing chapters has been to point out the unity of origin and treatment of some of the more common diseases. We are, indeed, fully aware that those who are the constant victims of disease, and who are constantly oppressed by the fear of death, will still continue to put themselves at the mercy of doctors, in spite of all that we might say against it. We venture to think, however, that there would be at least a few who are willing to cure themselves of their diseases by purel

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CARE OF THE CHILD

We do not propose in this chapter to describe the duties of a midwife or wet nurse, but only to point out how the child should be cared for after birth. Those who have read the foregoing chapters need not be told how injurious it is to keep the mother during the period of confinement in a dark and ill-ventilated closet and to make her lie on a dirty bed with a fire underneath. These practices, however time-honoured they may be, are nevertheless fraught with dangerous consequences. No doubt, duri

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SOME ACCIDENTS: DROWNING

We will now turn our attention to some of the more common accidents, and the methods of dealing with them. A knowledge of these things is essential to everybody, so that timely help may be rendered, and the loss of many precious lives averted. Even children should be taught to deal with these cases, as in that way they are the more likely to grow up kind and thoughtful citizens. And first we will deal with drowning. As man cannot live without air for more than 5 minutes at the most, little life

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SOME ACCIDENTS—(Contd.)

Very often when a man’s clothes catch fire, we get into a panic, and, instead of helping the injured, make matters worse by our ignorance. It is our duty, therefore, to know exactly what to do in such cases. The person whose clothes have caught fire should not lose his presence of mind. If the fire is only at one edge of the cloth, it should at once be squeezed out with the hands; but if it has spread over the whole cloth or a large portion of it, the man should at once lie down and roll on the

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SOME ACCIDENTS—(Contd.)

There is no limit to the superstitions current among us in regard to snakes. From time immemorial we have cultivated a terrible fear of the snake; we even dread the very mention of its name. The Hindus worship the serpent, and have set apart a day in the year ( Nagapanchami ) for that purpose. They suppose that the earth is supported by the great serpent Sesha. God Vishnu is called Seshasayee , as he is supposed to sleep on the Serpent-God; and God Siva is supposed to have a garland of serpents

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SOME ACCIDENTS—(Contd.)

Our familiar expression, “May God never give any man the pain of scorpion-sting”, shows how keen that pain is. In fact, this pain is even sharper than that of snake-bite, but we do not dread it so much, since it is much less fatal. Indeed, as Dr. Moor has said, the man whose blood is perfectly pure has little to fear from the sting of a scorpion. The treatment for scorpion-sting is very simple. The affected part should be cut into with a sharp-pointed knife, and the blood that issues from it sli

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CONCLUSION

I have now said all that I had intended to say on the subject of health. And now, before finally taking leave of my readers, I will say a word or two on my object in writing these pages. One question which I have asked myself again and again, in the course of writing this book, is why I of all persons should write it. Is there any justification at all for one like me, who am no doctor, and whose knowledge of the matters dealt with in these pages must be necessarily imperfect, attempting to write

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Ganesan’s New Publications

In this book Mr. Stokes shows how European civilisation by its prejudices of colour and race has miserably failed to satisfy the laws of true progress and needs of the modern world, and warns India of destroying her unique culture by falling a prey to white imperialism. Students of current Indian politics and workers for Swaraj will find in this publication a very useful discussion of India’s ultimate goal and the methods of attaining it. The author though an American is well known as a sincere

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