Brain and the Nervous System
165
When the system is already overtaxed and needs rest, the use of tea
spurs up nature by stimulation to unwonted, unnatural action, and
thereby lessens her power to perform and her ability to endure; and
her powers give out long before Heaven designed they should. Tea
[201]
is poisonous to the system.... The second effect of tea drinking is
headache, wakefulness, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, trembling
of the nerves, and many other evils.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:64
.
860. The influence of coffee is in a degree the same as tea, but
the effect upon the system is still worse. Its influence is exciting, and
just in the degree that it elevates above par, it will exhaust and bring
prostration below par.... The relief obtained from them [tea and coffee]
is sudden, before the stomach has had time to digest them. This shows
that what the users of these stimulants call strength is only received by
exciting the nerves of the stomach, which convey the irritation to the
brain, and this in turn is aroused to impart increased action to the heart,
and short-lived energy to the entire system. All this is false strength,
that we are the worse for having.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:65
.
861. Tobacco is a poison of the most deceitful and malignant kind,
having an exciting, then a paralyzing, influence upon the nerves,—
Spiritual Gifts Volume 4a, 128
862. Tobacco-using is a habit which frequently affects the nervous
system in a more powerful manner than does the use of alcohol.—
Testimonies for the Church 3:562
.
863. While it [tobacco] acts upon some [infants who are compelled
to inhale its fumes] as a slow poison, and affects the brain, heart, liver,
and lungs, and they waste away and fade gradually, upon others it
has a more direct influence, causing spasms, paralysis, and sudden
death.—
How to Live, 68
.
[202]
864. A tendency to disease of various kinds, as dropsy, liver com-
plaint, trembling nerves, and a determination of blood to the head,
results from the habitual use of sour cider.... Some die of consump-
tion or fall under the power of apoplexy from this cause alone.—
The
Review and Herald, March 25, 1884
.
Drugs
865. The drugs given to stupefy, whatever they may be, derange
the nervous system.—
How to Live, 57
.