Health and Medicine

What has amazed thoughtful people throughout the world is that her general comments on health, science, or environment have stood the test of the years—something that probably cannot be said about any other writer in the nineteenth century. That in itself is a remarkable achievement. More than that, her writings contain certain principles and developments that were not common in her day but today are well-validated.MOL 162.1

For example, note her profound emphasis on how the mind affects the body in producing sickness; ^{73Testimonies for the Church 1:566 (1867); Testimonies for the Church 3:184 (1872); The Ministry of Healing, 241 (1905).} her warm concern for prenatal influences, including drugs and alcohol; ^{74Selected Messages 2:442 (1865); Patriarchs and Prophets, 561 (1890).} and her monumental, interactive system of dietary principles that are increasingly supported by nutritional research. ^{75See on pp. 320-336 her insights on the dangers of the free use of sugar and animal fats, the problems of obesity and irregularity of eating, the towering value of exercise, the challenge of childhood diet patterns, the dangers in flesh food, tea, and coffee, etc., in Counsels on Diet and Foods (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1938).}MOL 162.2