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Health Matters Trust Marandure
WITHOUT air, man dies. Air is the most vital element for man and animals. One may live for weeks without food or for days without water, but deprived of air, he will perish within minutes.

A little-known but perfect illustration of this is the horrifying and deadly balloon flight taken by Gaston Tissandier, Joseph Croce-Spinelli and Théodore Sivel more than a century ago. In a scenario reminiscent of a horror movie, of the three men who ascended to the heavens from Paris on that April day, only one would return alive – and he would be forever damaged by the experience.

The year was 1875, the place Paris, France. For more than two years, the three scientists had worked towards this day and they were now ready. Carefully, they climbed into the gondola of the balloon Zenith while thousands around them watched.

Determined to set a new altitude record, they wanted to go higher than man had ever risen above the earth, and they did just that, but at what a cost?

Slowly the large balloon rose into the air with its human cargo of three men in the basket-shaped gondola swinging just beneath it. All seemed well; they were well on their way towards the goal to climb higher than any man had ever gone.

Then at 24,430 feet it happened. Tissandier, one of the three later described it. Croce is gasping for breath; Sivel is dazed, but can still cut three sand bags loose in order to reach 26,240 feet.

At that point, Tissandier himself was overcome and slumped to the floor, losing consciousness. Sometime afterward, as the balloon freed from the sand bags continued its ascent, he awoke. They had attained a height of 8,600 metres approximately 28,000 feet, but two of the scientists lay dead in the gondola of the balloon.

Yes, they had conquered the heights, but before they were done, the heights had conquered them. There was no enough air with its precious life-giving oxygen to sustain life at that altitude.

Millions of people suffer from a wide variety of ailments that are partly caused by an insufficient supply of oxygen. The problem is that most people do not breathe correctly and this continually weakens their health, their happiness and their hold on life itself. One of the finest statements written on the importance of air is captured by an outstanding health educator, Ellen G White, in the book Ministry of Healing.

“In order to have good blood, we must breathe well. Full deep, inspirations of pure air, which fill the lungs with oxygen, purify the blood. They impart to it a bright colour and send it – a life-giving current – to every part of the body.

A good respiration soothes the nerves, stimulates the appetite and renders digestion more perfect and induces sound, refreshing sleep. If an insufficient supply of oxygen is received, the blood moves sluggishly.

The waste, poisonous matter, which should be thrown off in the exhalations from the lungs, is retained and the blood becomes impure. Not only the lungs, but the stomach, liver and the brain are affected. The skin becomes sallow, digestion is retarded, the heart is depressed, the brain clouded, the thoughts are confused, gloom settles upon the spirits, the whole system becomes depressed and inactive and peculiarly susceptible to disease.”

Every cell of your body must receive a constant supply of oxygen or they will weaken and die. But that air must be fresh in order to help you the most. When you breathe stale or polluted air, the supply of oxygen is insufficient to keep the cells strong and healthy. Apart from oxygen from the air you breathe, they die within a few minutes.

Air is a free blessing from heaven, calculated to electrify the whole system. Without it, the system will be filled with disease and become dormant, languid and feeble.

You and I must have fresh air. Fresh air will prove far more beneficial to sick persons than medicines and is far more essential to them than food. Thousands have died for want of pure water and pure air, who might have lived, according to the book Counsels on Health.

It is of the highest consequence to your life, health and happiness, that you keep fresh air in every room in your home, and especially in your sleeping room. If you are not able to have your windows open in very cold weather, then leave a door open into another room where a window is open. By day and by night, always keep a current of air flowing through the house.

You do not want to sit or sleep in a draft, but some air circulating throughout your home — a lot in the summer, less in the winter — is a necessity to good health.

The effects produced by living in close, ill-ventilated rooms are these. The system becomes weak and unhealthy, the circulation is depressed, the blood moves sluggishly through the system because it is not purified and vitalised by the pure, invigorating air of heaven.

The mind becomes depressed and gloomy, while the whole system is enervated, and fevers and other acute disease are liable to be generated.

Your careful exclusion of external and fear of free ventilation leaves you to breathe a corrupt, unwholesome air which is exhaled from the lungs of those staying in these rooms, and which is poisonous, unfit for the support of life. The body becomes relaxed, the skin becomes sallow.

• For feedback contact Trust Marandure on cell: 0772482382 email: [email protected]