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Diseases of Ductless Glands--Signs in Iris The child is dwarfed and very ugly. The tongue is too large for the mouth, and the voice is harsh and squeaky. The hair is coarse, the abdomen prominent, hernia is common. The sexual organs remain undeveloped, so do also the mental functions, and the vocabulary is very limited. A few cases reach adult life, but the majority die in childhood. The regular medical treatment consists in the administration of thyroid extract daily throughout life. Better and more permanent results are obtained by thorough, all round Natural Therapeutic treatment. The diet must be carefully regulated. The little patient must receive a generous supply of the positive mineral elements. Careful massage and neurotherapy treatment, consisting largely in stimulation of the nerve centers which supply the thyroid gland, has a wonderfully vivifying effect in such cases. Magnetic treatment also is very beneficial in this as Well as in all other forms of thyroid disease. Cold water treatment, sun and air baths, and the indicated homeopathic remedies all help to make the dormant organ more alive and active. I always find that the plastic, sensitive organisms of children and infants respond much more readily to the natural influences than the coarser and more heavily encumbered bodies of adults. Thyroid deficiency in adults may result from many different causes. Pathogenic matter may clog or gradually benumb and paralyze the glandular structures. Poisonous drugs may produce similar results more quickly. The nerve supply of the gland may be greatly interfered with by luxated spinal vertebrae or through pressure on the nerves by contracted or strained muscles, ligaments or connective tissue growth. While hyperactivity of the gland often results in great emaciation, deficiency of thyroid secretion tends to cause the opposite condition, namely, obesity or excessive flesh and fat formation. This in itself proves that the secretion of the thyroid promotes the processes of oxidation. One of the principal causes of excessive fat formation lies in defective oxidation of protein, starchy and fatty materials. In such cases small doses of thyroid extract, carefully regulated, help to reduce excessive fat formation. This treatment is at best only palliative, the underlying causes of the ailment must be overcome by natural living and treatment. Natural diet and treatment must bring about greater activity of the organ and improve the processes of digestion and elimination. Symptoms Peculiar to Diseases of the Thyroid Gland Many people suffer more or less all their lives from severe headaches which defy all sorts of treatment. A great deal of this lifelong torture is due to either temporary or constant inactivity of the thyroid gland. Deficiency of thyroid elements in the circulation interferes with the oxidation of food materials as well as of systemic poisons, causing, on the one hand, nerve starvation, and on the other hand, brain and nerve poisoning. See nerve rings, Fig. 32, left and right. We have cured many such cases in individuals who had suffered all their lives either at intervals or continuously with headaches resulting from such causes. The accumulation in the system of nitrogenous waste due to insufficient activity of the thyroid also becomes frequently one of the contributing factors in asthma and in other chronic diseases of the respiratory organs. The pathogenic materials in the circulation are not oxidized and eliminated from the system on account of the deficiency of thyroid and adrenal secretions in the blood. Therefore they accumulate in the circulation and clog and benumb the tiny air passages, capillaries and nerve filaments in the bronchi and lungs. This results in all kinds of acute and chronic diseases of the respiratory organs and intensifies oxygen starvation. Here, as in many similar instances, we observe the see sawing between cause and effect. A disease producing cause sets up a certain ailment. This in turn aggravates and intensifies the primary cause and both together create new troubles, until the entire organism becomes disordered and incapacitated. Myxodema. This ailment is due to more or less complete inactivity of the thyroid gland. The disease is much more frequent in women than in men, mostly in those women who have borne children. The disease is characterized by the accumulation of colloid materials in the circulation. This causes capillary obstruction and dropsical swelling. Frequently the hair and eyebrows fall out, the nails and teeth loosen and drop out, while the skin takes on a very peculiar texture and appearance resembling leather. After extirpation, or complete inactivity of the gland through other causes, death follows usually within a week from the manifestation of the first symptoms of myxodema. Chlorosis, eclampsia, eczema, epilepsy, hysteria and other forms of diseases are undoubtedly more or less aggravated by either hyperactivity or inactivity of the thyroid gland. We of the school of Natural Therapeutics have the satisfaction of knowing that even when we do not understand the exact causes and multiform effects and complications of these and other disorders, we can always apply the best treatment possible under the circumstances by overcoming with our natural methods of living and of treatment the three primary manifestations of all physical disease. (Vol. I, Chap. V.) Addison's Disease. Synonyms: melasma, suprarenalis, "the bronzed skin disease". (Fig. 32, Area 19, right.) Allopathic definition and description: A constitutional disease characterized by degenerative changes in the suprarenal capsules or semilunar ganglia, accompanied by pigmentation of the skin. Causes unknown. There is said to be some connection between Addison's Disease and tuberculosis. Pathological changes are found also in the semi-lunar ganglia and branches of the sympathetic nerve. The skin assumes a peculiar bronze or blackish pigmentation. The backs of the hands, for instance, look as black as those of a negro, while the inner surface looks pale and white. Duration about two years. Prognosis, incurable. The treatment (as in all cases of chronic disease) must be symptomatic. Natural Therapeutic Description and Treatment. The adrenals are two little bodies situated one above either kidney. Their function is to supply to the blood certain substances which produce, as we have learned (page 258), profound effects upon the vital economy of the body. Extirpation or total inactivity of these tiny organs, as well as of the thyroid gland, is followed by rapid decline and death. The secretions of the adrenals have a powerful effect upon all the processes of oxidation in the body. They are to the body what the igniter is to the automobile. As the latter ignites and explodes the gas in the machine, so the secretions of the adrenals in the circulation make possible the combustion of food materials and of morbid waste in the body. The symptoms following the sudden or gradual destruction of the adrenal glands have been named Addison's Disease. The onset is gradual and the patient develops a feeling of weakness and languor. This is followed by extreme muscular prostration. The pulse becomes weak and irregular, with feebleness of the heart's action. Lowered blood pressure is due to the depression of the nerve centers which control the compression of the blood vessels and the heart action. There may be gastro-intestinal disturbances resulting in nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The skin becomes bronzed or blackish in appearance. Temperature subnormal. This ailment is rather rare and occurs mostly in men between twenty and forty years of age. Pressure upon the semi-lunar ganglia, due to connective tissue adhesions, is a possible cause by creating interference with the blood supply to the suprarenal bodies. Postmortem examinations have shown that frequently the degeneration of the suprarenal bodies is of a tuberculous nature. When the destructive changes in these ductless glands are too far advanced, even the most thorough natural treatment may fail to arrest the degenerative processes. If, however, the patient is placed under natural treatment during the initial stages of the disease, improvement and cure are sure to follow. We have proved this to be true in many cases. Several patients of this type that came under my observation exhibited drug signs in the iris in the area of the kidneys. The degenerative processes may also be caused or aggravated by interference with the nerve or blood supply through impingement by mechanical lesions or contraction of connective tissues. Thorough systematic natural treatment by all approved methods will meet and overcome the causes of the disease whatever they may be, if this is at all possible in the nature of the case. If systemic toxins or poisonous drugs are paralyzing or destroying the glandular structures, natural diet and all methods which promote elimination of morbid matter and poisons will bring about the desired improvement. Mechanical lesions and interference with blood and nerve supply must be corrected by manipulative treatment. It will be found in such cases that a diet low in protein and rich in mineral salts is more advisable than fasting, because the disease itself produces great weakness and emaciation.
Signs of Glandular Lesions in the Iris The chronic signs in Fig. 32 right, areas 21 and 15, respectively, showed in the eyes of a man forty-five years old. He had contracted several gonorrheal infections, which were suppressed in the usual manner. The sign in 15, right, testes, shows that the disease and drug poisons caused atrophy of the sex glands. This explains why he became impotent within a year after the disease was cured (?). He also has suffered since that time from chronic rheumatism of the arthritic type, especially in the lower extremities. This is indicated by the chronic signs in area 18, right and left. In many instances of suppressed gonorrhea and syphilis I have noticed that the patients were sterile (unable to produce offspring) while still capable of performing the sex act. Many of these cases showed lesions in area 15, right or left. The sign of an acute lesion in area 23, right, Fig. 32, I observed in a patient who had sustained a severe fall, striking the end of the spine and bending the coccyx inward. This caused irritation of the coccygeal gland, resulting in inflammation of the tiny sympathetic ganglion. This in turn caused excruciating pains, contraction of the sphincter ani, stubborn constipation and hemorrhoids. Allopathic physicians had recommended surgical removal of the gland. The coccygeal lesion was improved by manipulative treatment and the tension relieved by dilatation of the sphincter ani. This overcame the constipation and cured the hemorrhoids. The chronic lesion in area 23, left, Fig. 32, was visible in the iris of a patient who had suffered for many years with paralysis agitans, the result of mercurial treatment for syphilis early in life. In this case the sphincters of the anus and the bladder were so relaxed that feces and urine were discharged involuntarily.
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