Organon §260

Remove any obstacles to cure, especially in cases of chronic disease. 

For the chronically ill, it is all the more necessary to carefully seek out such obstacles to cure since the disease has usually been aggravated by such malignities and by other morbific actions. Often, these are errors in the patient's regimen which have not been discerned. 210

Comment

210 Patients with chronic diseases should avoid the following: Coffee; fine Chinese tea and other herb teas; beers adulterated with medicinal vegetable substances not suitable for the state of the patient; so-called fine liqueurs prepared with medicinal spices; all kinds of punch; spiced chocolate; many kinds of colognes and perfumes; strongly scented flowers in the room; medicinally compounded tooth powders and tooth spirits [mouthwashes]; perfumed sachets; highly seasoned foods and sauces; spiced cakes and frozen goods [ices and ice creams] prepared with medicinal matters (e.g.  coffee, vanilla, etc.); raw medicinal herbs on soups; vegetable dishes with herbs, roots or sprouting stalks (such as asparagus with long green tips); hop sprouts and all vegetables possessing medicinal powers (celery, parsley, sorrel, tarragon, all kinds of onions, etc.); old cheeses and meats which are putrid; foods which have medicinal side effects (e.g. , the meat and fat of pigs, ducks and geese; all-too-young veal; sour foods; all kinds of salads). All of these are to be removed from chronically ill patients, who should also avoid: every excess, even that of sugar and salt; alcoholic drinks not diluted with water; heated rooms; woolen clothing next to the skin; a sedentary lifestyle in closed quarters or, more often, only passive movement (through riding, driving, swinging); excessive breast-feeding; long afternoon naps lying down (in bed); reading in a horizontal position; keeping late hours; uncleanliness; unnatural voluptuousness; enervation from reading lubricious material; onanism, incomplete coition or abstinence from coition (either from superstition or to prevent the engenderment of children [pregnancy] in marriage; objects of anger, grief or vexation; passionate play; mental or bodily overexertion, especially immediately after a meal; dwelling in marshy regions and stuffy rooms; penury, etc. All these things must be avoided as much as possible or removed if the cure is not to be hindered or even made impossible. Some of my imitators, by forbidding far more, rather indifferent things, seem to make the diet of the patient unnecessarily difficult, which is not to be sanctioned.