Worry can make even the most stolid person ill.General Grant discovered that during the closing days of the Civil War.The story goes like this：Grant had been besieging Richmond for nine months.General Lee’s troops，ragged and hungry，were beaten.Entire regiments were deserting at a time.Others were holding prayer meetings in their tents-shouting，weeping，seeing visions.The end was close.Lee’s men set fire to the cotton and tobacco warehouses in Richmond，burned the arsenal，and fled from the city at night while towering flames roared up into darkness.Grant was in hot pursuit，banging away at the Confederates from both sides and the rear，while Sheridan’s cavalry was heading them off in front，tearing up railway lines and capturing supply trains.
Grant，half blind with a violent sick headache，fell behind his army and stopped at a farmhouse.“I spent the night，”he records in his Memoirs，“in bathing my feet in hot water and mustard，and putting mustard plasters on my wrists and the back part of my neck，hoping to be cured by morning.”
The next morning，he was cured instantaneously.And the tiling that cured him was not a mustard plaster，but a horseman galloping down the road with a letter from Lee，saying he wanted to surrender.“When the officer [bearing the message]reached me，”Grant wrote，“I was still suffering with the sick headache，but the instantI saw the contents of the note，I was cured.”
Obviously it was Grant’s worries，tensions，and emotions that made him ill.He was cured instantly the moment his emotions took on the hue of confidence，achievement，and victory.
Seventy years later，Henry Morgenthau，Jr.，Secretary of the Treasury in Franklin D.Roosevelt’s cabinet，discovered that worry could make him so ill that he was dizzy.He records in his diary that he was terribly worried when the President，in order to raise the price of wheat，bought 4，400，000bushels in one day.He says in his diary：“I felt literally dizzy while the thing was going on.I went home and went to bed for two hours after lunch.”
If I want to see what worry does to people，I don’t have to go to a library or a physician.I can look out of the window of my home where I am writing this book；and I can see，within one block，one house where worry caused a nervous breakdown-and another house where a man worried himself into diabetes.When the stock market went down，the sugar in his blood and urine went up.
When Montaigne，the illustrious French philosopher，was elected Mayor of his home town—Bordeaux，he said to his fellow citizens：“I am willing to take your affairs into my hands but not into my liver and lungs.”
This neighbour of mine took the affairs of the stock market into the blood stream—and almost killed himself.
Worry can put you into a wheel chair with rheumatism and arthritis.Dr.Russell L.Cecil，of the Cornell University Medical School，is a world-recognised authority on arthritis；and he has listed four of the commonest conditions that bring on arthritis：
1.Marital shipwreck.
2.Financial disaster and grief.
3.Loneliness and worry.
4.Long-cherished resentments.
Naturally，these four emotional situations are far from being the only causes of arthritis.There are many different kinds of arthritis-due to various causes.But，to repeat，the commonest conditions that bring on arthritis are the four listed by Dr.RussellL.Cecil.For example，a friend of mine was so hard bit during the depression that the gas company shut off the gas and the bank foreclosed the mortgage on the house.His wife suddenly had a painful attack of arthritis—and，in spite of medicine and diets，the arthritis continued until their financial situation improved.
Worry can even cause tooth decay.Dr.William I.L.McGonigle said in an address before the American Dental Association that “unpleasant emotions such as those caused by worry，fear，nagging ...may upset the body’s calcium balance and cause tooth decay”.Dr.McGonigle told of a patient of his who had always had a perfect set of teeth until he began to worry over his wife’s sudden illness.During the three weeks she was in the hospital，he developed nine cavities—cavities brought on by worry.
Have you ever seen a person with an acutely over-active thyroid？I have，and I can tell you they tremble；they shake；they look like someone half scared to death—and that’s about what it amounts to.The thyroid gland，the gland that regulates thebody，has been thrown out of kilter.It speeds up the heart the whole body is roaring away at full blast like a furnace with all its draughts wide open.And if this isn’t checked，by operation or treatment，the victim may die，may “burn himself out”.
A short time ago I went to Philadelphia with a friend of mine who has this disease.We went to see a famous specialist，a doctor who has been treating this type of ailment for thirty-eight years.And what sort of advice do you suppose he had hanging on the wall of his waiting-room-painted on a large wooden sign so all his patients could see it？Here it is.I copied it down on the back of an envelope while I was waiting：
Relaxation and Recreation
The most relaxing recreating forces are a healthy religion，sleep，music，and laughter.
Have faith in God—learn to sleep well—Love good music—see the funny side of life—And health and happiness will be yours.
The first question he asked this friend of mine was：“Whatemotional disturbance brought on this condition？”He warned my friend that，if he didn’t stop worrying，he could get other complications：heart trouble，stomach ulcers，or diabetes.“All of these diseases，”said that eminent doctor，“are cousins，first cousins.”Sure，they’re first cousins-they’re all worry diseases！
When I interviewed Merle Oberon，she told me that she refused to worry because she knew that worry would destroy her chief asset on the motion-picture screen：her good looks.