Chapter I Why and How This Book Was Written
To know arthritis, you must experience it. As I have. I have felt the pain personally. During the course of my laboratory experiments, I purposely developed an arthritic condition within my own body. You don't have to tell me that this disease "hurts." It does, terribly.
Even worse than my own feelings, I have had a serious case of arthritis strike in my family. My mother became wracked with arthritic pains, and I saw her suffer for 10 long years. I have lived with this disease -- and I know the damage it can do within a family and home.
For all these reasons, I decided to devote my life to fighting this illness. To tell you what I've done in the field of arthritis, and how I've done it, let's go back to the beginning. Back to a day in 1929.
It was then, 24 years ago, that I remember the onset of my mother's first aches and pains. They started in her shoulders, and at that time I heard her ailment called "rheumatism." My youth and inexperience left me in a sympathetic state, wanting to help, but unable to do so.
Back in those days, the use of heat was suggested and the usual electric pad was bought. So were salves, ointments and soothing oils of wintergreen. The relief felt from the externally applied heat was only temporary. The other medications did nothing.
Since the small town in which we lived did not have a specialist, mother went to a larger city to seek help. On the advice of a doctor there, she had X-rays taken. From the pictures came his decision as to a cure: tooth extraction. Every last tooth came out. The dentist was merely following orders, but I can still see the disappointment in my mother's face. Her teeth had been taken, but the arthritic pains remained as bad as ever.
Years later, I was to read many reports on how tooth extraction to cure arthritis was rampant in the 1930's. Not only teeth, but also tonsils and the appendix were considered to be the offenders -- and were removed surgically. How many countless thousands of people with rheumatism sacrificed their teeth in this futile war against the disease!
Science has since established that arthritis is not infectious and that surgery on such organs is not necessary. Tooth extraction as a "cure" is frowned upon today. But every night the dish of water in which mother's teeth reposed reminded me of the foolishness to which she had been subjected.
For the next six years, she accepted her painful shoulders. Then, she went out again and sought medical advice. This time my mother brought home some little white tablets. No one knew what they were. But she took them whenever she had extreme pain. No improvement.
By 1940, mother's condition was changing rapidly. In addition to her earlier rheumatism, her hands were now swollen. She could no longer be the mistress of her kitchen. What she enjoyed doing most, her cooking, became a trial. She could not open and close her hands. Stairs were an effort to climb, because her knees were bothering her so much. The family never heard her complain. She suffered in silence.
To watch the agony of a loved one is heartbreaking. To know that there is practically nothing one can do about it is maddening. For every disease that exists, there is an army of men working to learn its cause and its cure. Each contribution, be it large or small, is of the utmost value. So, the thought occurred to me that perhaps I, too, could give something -- to help my mother and all others like her who were afflicted.
Since that moment of realization I have been dedicated to this cause. My whole lifetime has been spent searching for the answer to arthritis.
To enumerate the countless experiments, the hours, days, and years of study and research...to tell how many authorities I have questioned on the subject, my making coast-to-coast trips...to describe the laboratory tests I made would fill a book. It has. This book. The book you are now reading will tell the whole story.
I will say, however, that before I subjected others to my discoveries, I applied my new theories to myself. By diet and other means I created arthritic symptoms and pains in my own bodily joints. I did this so that I could actually know the suffering an arthritic bears. So that I could better understand this affliction and its effects.
Later, by using my own discoveries, I defeated any "arthritis" and regained full health!
As added experience I attended Trinity College, studying the pre-medical course...and then pursued my search in the laboratories of the Air Force General Hospital, San Antonio, Texas. After taking courses at Columbia University, I collaborated for two years with an orthopedic surgeon in New York City and saw my work being carried on under medical supervision. The next three years were spent in the laboratories of a Connecticut hospital. There were so many questions to be answered, so many answers to be questioned.
The summary of my fourteen years' work is in this book. It is written for other mothers -- and for all arthritics -- to spare them untold miseries and perhaps a crippled or invalided body. This book is written for the medical profession, too. It has been read by scores of alert doctors who are interested in every new approach to arthritis. Many professional men already agree on its value.
Whether you are reading this book because of your own arthritis -- or because one of your loved ones has it -- it is my fervent prayer that this contribution of mine may be the missing piece to solve your arthritic problem.
Copyright © by Dan Dale Alexander
