An Illusion

3. An Illusion

According to the Law of Dual Effect, “The secondary effect upon the living organism of any act, habit, indulgence, or agent is the exact opposite and equal of the primary effect.”

This means that when you take a drug of alcochol, caffeine, etc., the first effect will be that of stimulation. But the second and lasting effect will be just the opposite—depression. Enlarging upon this subject, Dr. Shelton states, “Tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, spices, meat, etc., which appear to give strength (their first effect), invariably as their secondary and lasting effect, weaken in proportion to the strength they appear to give.”

“Alcohol which apparently strengthens and which, for a very brief moment increases function, results in diminished function and weakness. Alcohol, like ether and chloroform, does not add power to the system. It only occasions the expenditure of power already possessed. It is properly classed as a caustic irritant and the exalted function, which first follows its use, is not due to any power it communicates to the body and mind, but to the vital resistance and consequent expenditure of vital power its irritating effects occasion. Its secondary effect is due to the exhaustion of the vital powers and its destructive effects upon the tissues of the body.

“Opium permanently produces sleeplessness, nervousness, and pain because it temporarily relieves these conditions. Give opium to cure a man of pain! Who has pains equal to those of the opium addict? The nomenclature of medicine needs revision. Opium and other anodynes and antispasmodics should be classed as odynes and spasmodics. The whole class of tonics should be classed as atonics. “Stimulants” should be called depressants. These substances should be classed according to their secondary and lasting effects and not according to their primary and temporary effects.

“A cup of coffee will relieve a headache but in so doing it permanently fastens the headache habit upon the patient. It will relieve mental depression, but when the user is deprived of his coffee he becomes doubly depressed. Tobacco steadies the nerves only to unsteady them. Tonics strengthen only to debilitate. Purging produces constipation, diuretics produce inactivity of the kidneys, expectorants result in dryness of the lungs. If the habitual user of any drug will cease its use for a few days, he will experience in their fullness all its secondary effects. If he then returns to his use of the drug, he will be delighted to find that these secondary effects are ‘cured’ by it. The disease is ‘cured’ by its cause—coffee appears to cure the headache it produced; whiskey seems to restore strength it has wasted; tobacco seems to restore steadiness of nerves it has destroyed.”

With these facts in mind, we must be sure that our foods do not contain equal stimulating qualities.