BANEFUL HABITS..

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 258, 31 October 1929, Page 11

BANEFUL HABITS..

SYDNEY HAS A HEALTH WEEK

A DIETARY OF "DONT'S."

GREAT PUBLIC INTEREST.

(By the "Star's" Special Eepresentative.)

SYDNEY, October 25.

It is appalling—the number of things you must not eat. For this is Health Week in Sydney, and until to-morrow you are appealed to from platform and Press to be very careful of yourself, 60 that you may prolong your life and reach a healthy and happy old age. Lots of people are seriously determined to cut out all baneful habits that threaten to cut short their days, and most of them will rigidly adhere to their resolve until something more novel distracts their attention from the proper care of their bodies, or the depraved tastes of epicurean appetites tempt them to defy physicians and the world. None the less, we 6'houkl all be intensely grateful to the doctors, who, with such admirable abnegation, are blasting their own future prosperity by teaching people how to be healthy, and thus do without their services. Preventive medicine ie now the thing, of course, and drugs are rapidly falling into disrepute, not having proved _as efficacious as Sary Gamp's gin in "assistin' natur'." So the keynote of Health Week is that of "Keep well," not "Get well," for they tell you that you have no right to be otherwise than well if .you but follow the simple rules of life. Dr. Arthur, of. "Drink More Milk" fame, and our most energtic Minister of Health, is to the fore, of course, ably seconded by Dr. J. S. Purdy (Metropolitan Medical Officer of. Health). Dr. Arthur thumps on the public ear-drum, "Health is maintained by sunlight, fresh air, water, food, exercise and rest. Man's diet should be sufficient, sound in quality, appetising and digestible." And, ho might add, cheap enough to enable all to eat a sufficiency—but, of course ! Anyhow, you must have vitamins, the whole alphabet of 'em, from A to D —which is as far as they go. Why Have Poor Health? Dr. Purdy asks you straight—Why have poor health? Why die whilst you might still be living? Why not add 15 years to your life ? And now you get it— here's why. The chief caus'es of death in adult life and middle-age are: (a) Overeating, especially of highly seasoned foods; (b) badly balanced diets, too much meat, insufficient fruit and vegetables; (c) insufficient nourishment; (d) too little healthy exercise and recreation. There you are—one for each vitamin! As you walk the streets posters screech these"things at you: — "Ventilate every room. "Wear loose, porous clothing, suited to season, weather and occupation. "If you work indoors, get recreation outdoors. "Sleep in fresh air—in the open if possible. "Hold a handkerchief before your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze; and be sure and insist on others doing so. "Wash your hands before eating. "Eat some hard and bulky food each day; eat slowly, chew thoroughly.", If you want any more of this, all you have'to do is to write to the head office cf the Health Week Committee and they will forward you a large parcel of publications on how to keep well. There is an especial appeal to mothers. Every day and every night this week there were lectures for mothers on how to raise their children to be independent of doctors and become stout citizens. Baby health centres abound; preservers of baby's health canvass whole suburbs, door to door; a baby has but to be born for his parents to be flooded with literature regarding- his welfare &nd a nurse to call to inquire if all is well with the new arrival. Keep baby well and he will grow up well. That's the motto! Would you be well? Be moderate in everything; if driven too rapidly you will wear out too soon. But work, yes —if you don't work you'll rust. Only don't work too hard. Have You a Screw Loose? Be examined by a doctor at least once a year, to make sure you haven't a ! screw loose somewhere. As you grow 1 into years, you must adjust your exertions to your physical capacity. The good old doc will detect any strain or determine the cause of any infection you may have. He'll see you through! You have two million sweat glands (yes, that's the sort of stuff they are rubbing into us!), and you have to keep them healthy. with bathing and brisk rubbing. If you don't, the skin will become lazy and throw all the work on the kidneys, lungs and liver—which are likely to jib on the job and leave you stuck in a rut on the road of life. Germs live and multiply by countless millions in decayed teeth and sockets. See'the dentist* or you'll have gastritis, colitis, appendicitis, and any amount of other itises, any one of which may shorten your years and send you to the grave as one whom the gods loved. And they dig this one up again: "''Don't dig your grave with your knife and fork!" It used to be "with your teeth." But so few people now have teeth, excepting the kind purchaseable on the hire purchase system. But the main thing is the diet. The number of dietetic "dont's" flung about this week by doctors, professors and nurses is most discouraging to the weak stomach that craves for steak and oysters, with stout. You feel all shivery when you listen to Dr. Purdy. He tells you that although fifteen years have been added to the expectancy of life, this is due only to the decreased infantile death rate, and that the old Romans and the ancient Egyptians, at the age of forty, had a better chance of a ripe old age than the 40-year-oklers of Australia and New Zealand have now. ■ Quite a knock to our cocky optimism. Degenerative diseases, such' as those of the heart, kidneys, liver, arteries, and diabetes and nervous diseases have increased. The Fast Life. That's the fast life for you—that's your jazzing and your motoring and your "tod many parties." Yet there is hope for all. Preventive medicines, which aim at promoting health and prolonging life, will check disease at its source (if it detects it soon enough) and eliminate the. cause. But man must periodically undergo an overhaul, same as he-gives his car, so that if any trouble is brewing it can be nipped in the bud, so to speak. Dr. Purdy quotes Dr. Lesley L. Spooner, of the Boston Health Clinic: "The end justifies the means; organic disease is very frequently revealed when in a period distinctly amenable to treatment; factors leading to organic disease are discovered in time....^. 5, -

Thus comments Dr. Purdy: "Health examination not only means life-saving, but, as a corollary, extension of lite, extension ' of usefulness, lessening of suffering, lessening of financial loss to the individual and to the community." One American life assurance company, lie points out, claimed to have saved 52,000 lives in one year and added an average of 8J years to the lives of its policy holders, with a saving of twelve million, dollars ii: death claims. "It pays to have an annual overhaul," says Dr. Purdy. "Make it a birthday event, and you may have many more birthdays to celebrate." Health Week will be over on Saturday, but if only a small percentage of the public has profited by what it has read and heard, it will have had incalculable value.