...This large and expensive stock of drugs will be unnecessary. By...doses of...medicines...multiplying...combining them properly, 20 to 30 articles, aided by the common resources of the lancet, a garden, a kitchen, fresh air, cool water, exercise, will be sufficient to cure all the diseases that are at present under the power of medicine.
Interpretation
Health can be maintained with simple, natural resources rather than relying solely on expensive medicines.
Benjamin Rush emphasizes the idea that many diseases can be treated effectively using a few essential remedies drawn from nature and common resources, such as fresh air, exercise, and basic cooking ingredients, rather than relying heavily on complex pharmaceutical interventions. This perspective advocates for a more accessible and holistic approach to health care.
In practice
During a health seminar, to emphasize simplicity in treatments.
The Bible, when not read in schools, is seldom read in any subsequent period of life...The Bible...should be read in our schools in preference to all other books because it contains the greatest portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and public happiness.
The gospel of Jesus Christ prescribes the wisest rules for just conduct in every situation in life. Happy they who are enabled to obey them in all situations!
Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of the seats of diseases, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions. How often are we disappointed in our expectation from the most certain and powerful of our remedies, by the negligence or obstinacy of our patients! What mischief have we done under the belief of false facts and false theories! We have assisted in multiplying diseases. We have done more — we have increased their mortality.
Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them.
The art of healing is like an unroofed temple, uncovered at the top and cracked at the foundation.
[W]here there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community.
The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend.
The first law of dietetics seems to be: if it tastes good, it's bad for you.
To safeguard one's health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness, indeed.
If you don't make time for exercise, you'll probably have to make time for illness.
It is easy to lay the blame on successive governments for failing to address health as a fundamental right for the Indian people. But the real tragedy is that we, the people of India, have not taken our government to task for this catastrophic failure.
Drugs and alcohol are not my problem, reality is my problem, drugs and alcohol are my solution.
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