Some time ago， a neighbour rang my doorbell one eveningand urged me and my family to be vaccinated against smallpox.
He was only one of thousands of volunteers who were ringingdoorbells all over New York City. Frightened people stood in linesfor hours at a time to be vaccinated. Vaccination stations wereopened not only in all hospitals， but also in fire-houses， policeprecincts， and in large industrial plants. More than two thousanddoctors and nurses worked feverishly day and night， vaccinatingcrowds. The cause of all this excitement？Eight people in NewYork City had smallpox—and two had died. Two deaths out of apopulation of almost eight million.
Now， I have lived in New York for over thirty-seven years，and no one has ever yet rung my doorbell to warn me againstthe emotional sickness of worry—an illness that， during the lastthirty-seven years， has caused ten thousand times more damagethan smallpox.
No doorbell ringer has ever warned me that one person outof ten now living in these United States will have a nervousbreakdown—induced in the vast majority of cases by worry andemotional conflicts. So I am writing this to ring yourdoorbell and warn you.
The great Nobel prize winner in medicine， Dr. Alexis Carrel，said： “Business men who do not know how to fight worry dieyoung.” And so do housewives and horse doctors and bricklayers.
A few years ago， I spent my vacation motoring through Texas and New Mexico with Dr. O. F. Gober， one of the medicalexecutives of the Santa Fe railway. His exact title was chiefphysician of the Gulf， Colorado and Santa Fe Hospital Association.
We got to talking about the effects of worry， and he said： Seventyper cent of all patients who come to physicians could curethemselves if they only got rid of their fears and worries. Don’tthink for a moment that I mean that their ills are imaginary，” hesaid.
“Their ills are as real as a throbbing toothache and sometimesa hundred times more serious. I refer to such illnesses as nervousindigestion， some stomach ulcers， heart disturbances， insomnia，some headaches， and some types of paralysis.
“These illnesses are real. I know what I am talking about，” saidDr. Gober， “for I myself suffered from a stomach ulcer for twelveyears.
“Fear causes worry. Worry makes you tense and nervousand affects the nerves of your stomach and actually changes thegastric juices of your stomach from normal to abnormal and oftenleads to stomach ulcers.”
Dr. Joseph F. Montague， author of the book Nervous StomachTrouble， says much the same thing. He says： “You do not getstomach ulcers from what you eat. You get ulcers from what iseating you.”
Dr. W. C. Alvarez， of the Mayo Clinic， said “Ulcers frequently flareup or subside according to the hills and valleys of emotional stress.”
That statement was backed up by a study of 15，000 patientstreated for stomach disorders at the Mayo Clinic. Four out offive had no physical basis whatever for their stomach illnesses.
Fear， worry， hate， supreme selfishness， and the inability to adjustthemselves to the world of reality—these were largely the causesof their stomach illnesses and stomach ulcers.... Stomach ulcers can kill you. According to Life magazine， they now stand tenth inour list of fatal diseases.
I recently had some correspondence with Dr. Harold C.
Habein of the Mayo Clinic. He read a paper at the annualmeeting of the American Association of Industrial Physiciansand Surgeons， saying that he had made a study of 176 businessexecutives whose average age was 44.3 years. He reported thatslightly more than a third of these executives suffered from oneof three ailments peculiar to hightension living-heart disease，digestive-tract ulcers， and high blood pressure. Think of it—athird of our business executives are wrecking their bodies withheart disease， ulcers， and high blood pressure before they evenreach forty-five. What price success！ And they aren’t even buyingsuccess！ Can any man possibly be a success who is paying forbusiness advancement with stomach ulcers and heart trouble？
What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world—and loseshis health？ Even if he owned the whole world， he could sleep inonly one bed at a time and eat only three meals a day. Even aditchdigger can do that—and probably sleep more soundly andenjoy his food more than a high-powered executive. Frankly， Iwould rather be a share-cropper down in Alabama with a banjoon my knee than wreck my health at forty-five by trying to run arailroad or a cigarette company. And speaking of cigarettes—thebest-known cigarette manufacturer in the world recently droppeddead from heart failure while trying to take a little recreationin the Canadian woods. He amassed millionsand fell dead atsixty-one. He probably traded years of his life for what is called“business success”.
In my estimation， this cigarette executive with all his millionswas not half as successful as my father， a Missouri farmer—whodied at eighty-nine without a dollar.
The famous Mayo brothers declared that more than half ofour hospital beds are occupied by people with nervous troubles.
Yet， when the nerves of these people are studied under a highpoweredmicroscope in a post-mortem examination， theirnerves in most cases are apparently as healthy as the nerves ofJack Dempsey. Their “nervous troubles” are caused not by aphysical deterioration of the nerves， but by emotions of futility，frustration， anxiety， worry， fear， defeat， despair. Plato said that“the greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to curethe body without attempting to cure the mind； yet the mind andbody are one and should not be treated separately！”