HEALTH HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 205, 28 August 1909, Page 13

HEALTH HINTS.

, ; A DANGEROUS HABIT. "Boy 3 and girls undeT eighteen i . ■ should be strictly forbidden," says Dr. | i Huco Feilchenfeld, of Berlin, "to read | jin bed. In the case of young persons j J whose eyes are not fully developed, the | ' practifce is likely .to induce myopia,,, ,; or near-sightedness." While young j i people run the greatest risk, Dt. _£eil- j I chenfeld thinks that reading in bed is i ! undesirable for persons of any age, and I i J states that "in the case of aged, anxi- | 'ous. worried, and bedridden people, to i \ whom it would seem cruelty to deny i what may perhaps be almost their only , i luxury, for fear of inducing some slight error of refraction, care should be taken that the light is -sufficiently brilliant, , the eyes being shaded from it. and that , the patient lies on his back with head and shoulders raised." DIETING FOB. RHEUMATISM. "How I cured my is , the title of an interesting article in , the "Daily Express," in which the wrl- ; ter details his personal experience. ; "Two years ago," he say 3, "my arms and , leg 3 were habitually so sore with • rheumatic pain that they might have ; been beaten and bruised. My body i was at times wrung with the prolonged, ' but not the less acute, rheumatic \ twinge, and I had most of the unplea- \ sant symptoms that accompany the dis- ! ease. To-day, and foT many months , past, I have been entirely free from [ these ills, and I can only explain it by the fact that I have adopted generally a diet which is uric acid free. Such a r diet, while it eschews meat, ra not nei cessarily or properly "vegetarian." It . simply divides all foods (irrespective of i their other qualities) into those which - do or do not contain xanthin —chemical- j - ly the ally of uric acid. Nitrogen is as j ; necessary to the body as oxygen, if strength is to be maintained, and we > find the nitrogen we require in albu- ; minous food. But we must eat albu--3 ruinous food, which is xanthin freenot, that ia, the albuminous meats and { j pulses through which such quantities of » uric add are generated, but those a-U----i buminous cereals and caseins which do 1 not produce uric acid. And, although this diet, when strictly adhered to, ex- ■. eludes meat, it is by no means monoa tonous or restricted. It includes milk jt and milk products, such as cheese, g which I usually take in considerable j quantity in a cooked form with vegen tables and cereals; it embraces all the t breadstuff's, such as oatmeal, cornflour, r barleynieal, rice, flour, arrowroot, maca- \ roni, vermicelli, and sago; it contains s all forms of bread and most kinds of s cake and rolls; and it makes great use " of all nuts, fresh and dried fruits, and c —for bulk and certain mineral proper- " ties —most vegetables, and especially s potatoes. Peas, lentils, beans, and d pulses generally, as "well as asparagus t and mushrooms, are anathema to the s rheumatic on account of the xanthin i. they contain, and for the same read son tea, coffee, and cocoa, are geaerally rejected from my diet. .. > • . t\