Temperance Exhibit these as drugs but they know that they must drink them to
have enough energy to get through the day.
Welcome to the Temperance Exhibit. In these exhibits we
have shown you many things you can do to have better
health as illustrated in these steps on the center panel. In
this exhibit we will emphasize temperance which simply
means self-control. True temperance is avoiding those
things which are harmful and using that which is good in
proper amounts.
There are some things which were never meant
to be put into our bodies. Most poisons make us sick
immediately and we label these as poison and try to avoid
them. But a few poisons make us feel good soon after taking
them and we can become addicted to them. Alcohol,
tobacco, narcotics, cocaine, and caffeine are drugs that ruin
the lives of millions of people.
Most people want to feel good. This is normal. To
feel good one must have good health. But these substances
give you a good feeling which is only temporary while at the
same time they are destroying your health. As you become
addicted to them they no longer make you feel as good as
they did and soon you must take more and more of them
just to feel normal or to keep from feeling awful.
Alcohol has been the ruin of many. Look at this
character here on the panel to your left. You can see
illustrated some of the damage which alcohol can do to
your system. The most prominent is the immediate effect
on the brain. It affects your frontal lobe first causing a loss
of the normal inhibitions meant to protect us physically and
socially. It also affects our judgment allowing us to do things
we would not normally do. Personality can be altered
resulting in much disruption and violence in our homes and
community. Our reflexes are slowed causing many
accidents.
But there are many more subtle effects which
alcohol has on your body. Did you know that scientific
studies have shown that as you continue to use alcohol you
lose neurons from your brain? This loss goes on with
continued drinking until the atrophied brain of the alcoholic
is much smaller than the size of a normal brain. Alcohol also
affects the stomach causing inflammation, gastritis and
finally painful bleeding ulcers. Alcohol can affect the
pancreas causing severe pancreatitis with severe pain and
vomiting. The liver is also poisoned by alcohol. And
although the liver can survive much abuse finally cirrhosis
of the liver causes the body to swell with water and the skin
turns yellow with jaundice. It weakens the heart, the bones
and just about every part of the body can be damaged by
alcohol. And the final result of all this misery is an early
death. So if you really want to feel good don’t be deceived
by alcohol’s promise to feel good now.
Smoking tobacco causes much disease and death.
We will tell you about this in much more detail at the Air
Exhibit so I will not go into more detail about that at this
time. But now I would like to tell you about another drug
that affects many. This drug is named caffeine. It is found in
coffee, tea, Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Most people don’t think of
Let me tell you how caffeine works on your brain.
The surface of the cells in your brain are covered with
receptors. When certain substances attach to these
receptors they work like little switches turning the cell on.
As more of them are turned on the activity level of the cell
increases. This is how your body controls its level of
alertness and activity. When you drink a cup of coffee the
caffeine binds tightly to every receptor in your brain turning
the cells on to high speed. You immediately feel alert and
awake and full of energy. Your imagination is more vivid.
Your mental ability is clear and active. You feel better. So
what is the problem? The problem comes when you use
caffeine on a regular basis day after day. Your body reacts
to this over stimulation. It does this by removing receptors
from the cell surface. Gradually the cells of your brain
become almost completely depleted of these receptors.
Now your normal body substances are not capable of
keeping your cells turned on and alert. You must have a cup
of coffee to wake up in the morning. And you must have
some tea or a Pepsi to give you the energy to keep going
through the day. The person has become addicted and he
cannot enjoy normal work and activity without the regular
use of this drug.
So if you are in this condition how can you restore
the receptors on the surface of your brain? You must stop
the use of caffeine completely! This is the only way you can
stimulate the cells in your brain to make new receptors. If
you choose to do this let me tell you what will happen. For
the first three days you will have a terrible headache. But
during this time your brain is starting to make new
receptors. And as new receptors are added the headaches
will decrease. For several weeks you will continue to feel
weak and tired. But don’t give up even though you know
that a cup of coffee would take away all your symptoms.
This tiredness and the headaches will get less and less as
your cells continue to make more receptors. Within a
month you will have enough that you will wake up
refreshed with plenty of energy to make it through the day.
In fact you will have more energy than you ever had while
on caffeine.
I’m sure you must have some questions you
would like to ask about what I have talked about so far. So
maybe we can take some time to answer those now.