Internal medicine is full of many different kinds of patients. It ranges from things like Diabetes Mellitus to pancreatitis to high blood pressure to abstract diseases like hereditary spherocytosis and Sjogren's disease. The hardest diseases for me are ones in which I know are completely avoidable and yet still occur. When I was on my sub-internship in internal medicine I ran across a patient which, upon first walking into his room, was evident what was going on. I looked at him and noticed that his skin was completely orangish-yellow in color. Upon further examination, he had all the typical signs and symptoms of someone in liver failure. He had abnormal bleeding problems because his liver was not producing the factors needed to stop bleeding; he had large, visible abdominal blood vessels evident on his skin because the blood flow through the liver was obstructed resulting in backflow through other vessels. He also had mild confusion because of the inability to clear the ammonia in the blood, which was going to his brain causing confusion. When asked, he stated he had been drinking alcohol for many years and even though he had been warned of the risks of this habit, he had continued until it had reached this point where he now needed a liver transplant in order to survive.
I thought to myself how sad this was! This man had the potential the rest of us had to succeed in life, but had squandered in the habit and addiction of alcoholism. As I pondered this situation, I became more and more grateful for the Word of Wisdom revealed to us by the prophet Joseph Smith. Because of this wonderful revelation, we know how the Lord wants us to take care of our body. He tells us what things we are to take into our body and what things to avoid in order to take the best care of our bodies, thereby having good health.
Before I delve into how the Word of Wisdom blesses our lives, it is important to understand a little bit about our body. This wonderful gift was given to us by our Heavenly Father in order to let us come to earth to become as He is. In Genesis 1: 26-27 we read, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." God created us in His image in order that we may become like Him and have the joy that He has. In the Pearl of Great Price, we find the record of Abraham. In it we find just a snippet of the purpose of this when he says, "And they who keep their first estate (meaning their spiritual life and the pre-mortal life) shall be added upon...and they who keep their second estate (meaning our mortal life, or the life we now live) shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever" (Abraham 3:22-26). President Spencer W. Kimball expounded this scripture by saying, "God has taken these...spirit bodies, and given them instructions and training. Then he proceeded to create a world for them and sent them as spirits to obtain a mortal body, for which he made preparation. And when they were upon the earth, he gave them instructions on how to go about developing and conducting their lives to make them perfect, so they could return to their Father in heaven after their transitions."1 Having a knowledge that we are here on this earth and are given a mortal body in order to become like our Heavenly Father and then return to live with Him again in the fullness of joy makes the purpose of our life very different. It also adds new meaning to the purpose of the physical body we are given.
Paul states regarding the sacredness of our mortal body, "Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). So Paul is telling us a number of things here. First of all he states, "...your body...which ye have of God...". So God gave us our body, it is a gift that He has given to us. Second of all, he tells us that it is a temple, a sacred place where the Holy Ghost can dwell. When we think of our body as a holy place, why would we want to put things into or do things to our body that will hurt our ability to have the Holy Ghost dwell within us? Since it is a gift from God, it is our responsibility to treat it well and live so we can have the Holy Ghost with us to guide us in our lives. Sister Diane Spangler has stated:
The body is not merely a mobile unit for the head nor a carnal vexation for the spirit, as some believe. Rather, it is an integral, powerful component of the soul, for 'the spirit and the body are the soul of man' (D&C 88:15). Being privileged to know about the literal embodiment of God and the progressive nature of the body gives us a rare vantage point from which to comprehend and enjoy its tremendous capabilities.2
Knowing that we are capable of this type of progression should help us understand the tremendous magnitude of this gift. As such, Heavenly Father wants us to use it in the way that is best for us, so He has given us special insight into the best ways to take care of our bodies in order for it to function at its best. This instruction came by way of Joseph Smith in 1833 called the Word of Wisdom. This came as a revelation that, as I stated earlier, gives promises of blessings if we take certain things into our bodies and avoid others. We are taught in D&C 89:10-17 about what things will give us better health. It states, "...all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man - Every herb in the season thereof and every fruit in the season thereof...yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air...for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly...all grain is...to be the staff of life...all grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the vine..." (D&C 89:10-17). We are taught here that eating things like whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and eating meat sparingly will give us good health. Is this something new? If you look at the majority of the research out there, this is true!
Next, the Lord then teaches us in D&C 89:5-9 about the things we are to avoid to obtain optimal health, which is where my patient went wrong. "That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father...and, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies. And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle...and again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly." There is a lot of doctrine in here. First of all, it states that wine or strong drink is not good for us. This means wine as well as "strong drinks", meaning beer, vodka, rum, tequila, anything of that sort. This is a highly debated topic in the research literature these days. It seems every other day some new article will come out telling us the benefits of alcohol on the heart or other aspect of the human body. So some wonder, how can this be that God has instructed us not to use this when it has health benefits? If you look at some of the main articles citing the health benefits, it states that it is never okay during pregnancy because of the risks alcohol has on the fetus. Furthermore, the studies are usually dealing with a specific type of patient. For example, one study3 used elderly males as their only group and found those that drank between 3-7 glasses of a certain form of alcohol per week had less heart attacks than those who drank only one glass per week. The media then proceeded to go wild about the fact that alcohol is good for the body! When in reality, this study is not able to prove that. They did not have a control group of individuals who did not drink alcohol at all. Who is to say that not drinking had greater benefits than anyone who drinks alcohol, yet it was untested? Also, this study was performed on male health professionals, so it is impossible to know if this is good for the general public, or just this select group of individuals who had a higher likelihood of being healthy by their mere knowledge of the health as a health professional. Lastly, the number of conflicting variables that could have occurred during this study is high. They kept track of how much alcohol and the number of heart attacks without measuring the amount of exercise, the stress levels, type of diet, etc. So other variables likely played into the equation yet were untested. So we can see that we really don't know from these types of studies.
Beyond that though, who wants to take the risk of having these select benefits when the opposite statistics4 include such things as over 17 million alcoholics in the US (which brings on spousal and child abuse as well as alcohol-related deaths), over 15,000 alcoholic liver disease deaths, and over 24,000 deaths from alcohol, not including accidents? Finally, the CDC5 states a total of over 75,000 alcohol-related deaths including accidents and over 2.3 million years of potential life lost had those deaths not occured. Are these benefits really worth all this?
Next the Lord tells us that tobacco is not for the body, and as stated, "is not good for man." To put this into context, this revelation was given to us in 1833. At the time period, the thought was that tobacco was good for the body and there were benefits of tobacco use. Only later on have we since learned of the extreme harm that it does have. It can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, lung cancer, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, cervical cancer, kidney cancer, stomach ulcers, COPD, asthma, stroke, infertility, preterm labor, SIDS, need I go on? The point I am trying to make here is that even back in 1830's when the popular idea was that it had benefits, the Lord knew it was harmful and told us to abstain from such use. Look at what He was trying to prevent for us? This type of logic may be needed for some regarding alcohol. Some still think it has health benefits, but when we realize God must have a reason, who knows what we may find out someday like we have found out about tobacco.
Lastly D&C 89 tells us that "hot drinks are not for the body or the belly." The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has come out to say this means tea and coffee. These substances are stimulants which have a powerful effect upon the mind and body to increase your thinking and metabolism for a short period of time before leaving you tired afterward. They also have a powerful ability to addict the body to their use. Any type of addiction that keeps us from truly using the agency the Lord has given to us is to be avoided. This is, I'm sure, one of the reasons these are to be avoided.
The blessings that come from the Word of Wisdom are innumerable. D&C 89: 18-21 tells us such blessings include "...health in their navel and marrow in their bones; and [they] shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; and shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint...and...that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them." I don't know anyone who does not want to have greater wisdom and knowledge, let alone the ability to run and not be weary. These blessings are more powerful than any of the so-called benefits of any of the substances discussed above.
1. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1977/04/our-great-potential?lang=eng&query=%22become+like+god%22
2. http://www.lds.org/ensign/2005/07/the-body-a-sacred-gift?lang=eng
2. http://www.lds.org/ensign/2005/07/the-body-a-sacred-gift?lang=eng
3. Mukamal KJ, COnigrave KM, Mittleman MA, Comargo CA Jr, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC, Rimm EB. N Engl J Med. 2003 Jan 9; 348(2): 109-18.
4. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/alcohol.htm
5. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5337a2.htm
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