HEALTH HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 141, 13 June 1908, Page 13

HEALTH HINTS.

THE AFTER-EFFECTS OF INFLUENZA.

Influenza deserves to be described as a feverish trouble of short and sharp nature as regards its duration, but it so happens .that it is a trouble which, despite its rapid progress and termination, leaves effects out of all proportion to the intensity of the original trouble. In this respect influenza differs very materially from such an ailment as typhoid fever. In this case not only is the fever of a prolonged type, lasting a very considerable period, but the subsequent weakness must be regarded as only natural considering the length of time the disease has taken to run its course. In influenza the real trouble in many cases only begins when, the fever having ceased, the intolerable weakness and depression remain to be combated.

There are four fashions in which influenza may seriously affect us in the way of after-effects. The disease may, through the poison it engenders, thus affect the heart. In other cases they attack the lungs. In a third series of instances they seize upon the nervous S3'stem, and tend to produce serious consequences in brain and nerve; whilst in the fourth and last/ case they upset the digestive organs, and entail many and serious consequences which have the effect of upsetting the general health of the body. The case becomes the more serious, naturally, when in place of one series of those complications, a double series has to be encountered.

Whilst it is undeniable that the afterconsequences of influenza, may result in instances where a patient has gone to bed after being seized, and where treatment has been promptly carried out, it is none the less true that in the vast majority of eases where serious consequences result, and a long convalescence has to be sustained, the patient will be found to have been neglectful of his case at the conunencement of his illness. It is this consideration or need! for husbanding the strength when influenza commences that lias caused physicians universally to warn the people regarding the high importance of taking to bed when the symptoms first appear. Rest in bed, the aplication of warmth, and the exercising vi care against chill may be said to constitute the main features of all influenza treatment. It would appear that this disease exhibits as a special feature the tendency to exaggerate on the system the effects of cold and chill, and w may possibly form an adequate idea of it? true nature when we conceive that the influence of the poisons generated in the attack is practically to render every system of the body more or less enfeebledl Out of this general enfeeblement of the frame arises the liability to the attack of other troubles. r

In' the case of recovery from an ordinary attack of influenza it is well that great care should be first of all exercised in avoiding a too early return to work and to the ordinary duties of life. This is precisely one of those troubles which it seems impossible to battle against, even if the patient has all the will in the worl«l to avoid the weakness which encompasses Mm. Hence an uncomplicated case of influenza requires careful attention when the active symptoms have passed away, and demands care in the due nourishment of the body and) in the avoidance of exposure to chill and cold. No rules need be laid down here for observance, save to remind ourselves that the food must be light, but nourishing. Strong soups, invalid extract of meat, fish and fowl, with a small quantity of butcher meat gradually added as the digestive system can bear an additional quantity of nourishment, constitute the main lines on which the system may be restored! to its normal strength. The moderate use of alcohol in many cases is recommended.

Undoubtedly also in influenza tonics are required. In the vast majority of cases an iron and quinine tonic will be found to be serviceable, whilst probably for allround use there is no better medicine than the compound syrup of the hypophosphites, which may be taken twice or thrice daily after food in a. teaspoonful dose in a little water. It is also needful to give the caution that all over-exercise must be avoidted during the . period of convalescence, whilst it may be well to insist upon the recognition of the fact that the typical treatment after an attack of infleunza has ceased is that of ilving what may be called a lazy life for a certain period. It will be well, for example, if the patient rests in bed a somewhat longer time than he feels is needful. The reason for this latter piece of advice if found in the fact that there is no better heart tonic than complete rest in bed, seeing that, as physiologists tell us, such a mode of repose saves a vast number of heart beats, and thus enables the organ, which may have been wearied by the influenza attack, to recover its lost i tone in the easiest and most satisfactory fashion possible. . Change of air also forms another important aid to complete recovery. It will be better, on the whole if a mild resort is selected as the scene of the temporary residence. TAis advice rests I on the ground that the risk of dulls, more Jiable to be incurred in the case of a bracing resort, must certainly be avoided. For the rest it may be well as a concluding hint, to advise that the use of tobacco should be strictly limited in cases of recovery from influenza, for the reason tiiat tobacco is apt to act as a depressent to the hear*..