When we are fatigued or ill, we fear everything that seems threatening; we shrink from all that seems hard for us and our efficiency suffers, as does our earning power and zest for life.
When we are functioning up to our normal capacity, then life is all zest, all enjoyment. We are ambitious, eager for action, alert, clear thinking. We make decisions easily and promptly. We are able to reap the rewards of correct living.
There are two types of fatigue: one is physiological, the other pathological. The first is a natural result of exertion physical or mental. It is nature’s warning that we have expended enough energy for now and must rest until the body has eliminated most of the debris created by our activities. On the other hand, pathological fatigue is a disease much the same as smallpox or tuberculosis are diseases. It does not result from effort that is then relieved through rest. It is with us all the time. Pathological fatigue is created in many cases by the accumulation of the acid end products of digestion and metabolism.
In extreme states of pathological fatigue there is a continual weariness. Even thinking becomes burdensome; and no amount of rest results in relief from this condition.
The diagnostic difference between the two types of fatigue is this: complete rest quickly relieves the sense of fatigue if it is physiological, but it does not if the cause is pathological.
If you always awaken in the morning weary and unrefreshed, then you are probably experiencing abnormal fatigue and should do something about.
Many are familiar with the sensation of mental fatigue and its paralyzing effects, yet fatigue of either brain or physique comes often from a toxic state of the body.
When muscular activity breaks down fuels to furnish energy, carbonaceous materials created through oxidation leave behind an acid ash. This residue must be constantly eliminated from your body if you’ are to remain healthy. However, if your bloodstream becomes saturated with debris, your body will eventually be unable to discard all of it.
The brain’s mental activity must also be supported by oxidative processes, so this too results in the production of acidic debris.
Because of this, it is not difficult to see the connection between food and mental activity. For just as the body is less subject to fatigue if not intoxicated, just so is the brain. Clear thinking depends far more on the right foods eaten in the right way.
We do use energy in thinking, but in such relatively small amounts compared to that used for physical activities. A momentary rest from concentrated thinking may be enough to restore the brain to a state of normal activity.
If the tissues are laden with toxicity, little energy can be developed unless the tissues are detoxified of waste.
The body writes in no uncertain language on its exterior the story of its internal conditions. The state of the skin, the appearance of the eyes, the texture of the fingernails, hair, gums and tongue are external signs worth far more in determining internal conditions than many of the findings of the best equipped clinical laboratory.
If the external evidences of internal chaos are plain and unmistakable, it matters nothing that the laboratory findings are negative, as they will be until disease is well on the way.
