HEALTH HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 70, 21 March 1908, Page 11

HEALTH HINTS.

NIGHT TERRORS. l True night terrors may occur in a , •hild who has gone to bed in apparently ' lerfect health, and has slept peacefully or some hours. Then suddenly the child vill wake with a terrified scream and a ixed delusion that something horrible md menacing is in his room. Some;imes after the initial cry the child will 3e found crouching in a corner of the room in an agony of real fright. If gently put back to bed and talked to soothingly by mother or nurse, the little patient will frequently fall asleep in a i few moments, and in the morning may i not remember his fright at all. These j attacks sometimes are caused by gastrointestinal disturbances, and in all cases the diet should be carefully looked into. Adenoids or mucous membrane growths at the back of the throat or nose may also be factors. Never scold children for crying out at night when it is obviously a case of "night terrors." A dim light should be left in the bedroom, so that familiar objects may immediately be recognised on waking.

CHEW FOR YOUR LITE. Dr. Horace Fletcher is a great believer in the thorough mastication of food. Detailing his own experience, lie says that he found by this means that many substances ordinarily considered tasteless were quite sweet; that much less food satisfied the appetite; he lost some of his fat, and after four 01 five months recovered sufficiently his former health to be accepted by a life insurance company which had formerly refused him. He found himself able to take vigorous exercise without fatigue. The amount of food had been lessened with only beneficial results. Our authority refers to series of experiments which have been made along these lines at various educational institutions, and finds in them confirmation on a scientific basis of what he had already learned in his own case. There is no doubt, Dr. Fletcher says, that meat or any such form of superabundant proteid gives certain immediate stimulation, and socalled systematic physical training, or hard work of any kind, will throw off or burn up the products of such poison, breeding metabolism (tissue change), but the result of a 'let up" in work is disastrous. On the other hand, nutrition that has been prescribed by a healthy earned, appetite, lV*ed by an appetite which has been allowed to discriminate through careful chewing treatment, and the whole blessed with true epicurean enjoyment, accommodates itself to the bodily and mental activities of the moment, and the body thus nourished, whether the possessor of big muscles or small muscles, is always in training and ever ready to endure unusual strain in cases of emergency. MUSCULAR RHEUMATISM. Muscular rheumatism with some people simply means a slight stiffness and pain in an overworked muscle that has become chilled when overheated. With others, particularly those of a rheumatic or gouty tendency, muscular rheumatism is a serious disease that may confine the patient to bed for a week or more. In these severe cases the pain ca,used by using the affected muscles may be excruciating, and the discomfort of the condition may be heightened by a fever of three or four degrees. Unfortunately, the medicines that are so useful in relieving pain in acute rheumatic conditions are practically worthier here. Blisters and counter-irritant lotions painted along the course of the affected muscles may bring some relief, and in less severe cases gentle rubbing with stimulating embrocations is useful in j bringing the muscles back to their usual I state. In lumbago, which by many is j considered a form of muscular rheumaI tism, puncturing the sheaths of the back muscles with long, sterilised pins thrust in vertically, often brings immediate relief from the pain. Practically nothing is known of the changes that take place in the muscles during an attack of muscular rheumatism, and little more is known about the treatment. Besides warmth, protection from draughts, coun-ter-irritants, and massage when not too painful treatment usually consists oi little more than waiting until Nature I effects a cure in her own way.

i DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. ' "People do not drink enough'water to ' keep healthy," a well-known authority tells u=. ,"Tlie numerous cases of stomach trouble, kidney and bladder diseases, and rheumatism are mainly due to the fact that the drinking of water, nature's crrcatest medicine, has been neglected." When requested for a prescription for the cure of rheumatism and kidney trouble, i the answer was, " You must malce the kidneys do their work; they are the filters" of the blood. They must be made to strain out of the blood the waste matter and acids that cause rheumatism; the urine must be neutralised so that it will no longer he a source of irritation ; to the bladder, and, most of all, you . must keep these adds from forming in the stomach. This is the canse of stomacn trouble and poor digestion."