MEDICAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 147, 23 June 1934, Page 9 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

HOW TO LIVE LONG. mental and physical QUALITIES. HOLIDAY MISTAKES. (By PERITUS.) To honour your father and mother, you are told, is one way to attain old age, and to love God, honour the King, and obey the Golden Rule, is to have a mind at ease, and so assist the body to endure. We should all know tliese things, but there is a general demand for something purely material, somcconcicte directions, some definite details, winch in connection with daily life will carry the body (bar accident) far on the load to old age. Men have said that one word covers all such advices, tho word moderation. If there are any secrets of long life they are three in number. They are conservation of energy, moderation and system. 111 the ordinary way the end of life is the using up of the last ounce of energy. Normally slowly used in work, hurried in pleasure, and galloped away in disease. There is a common tendency among those nearing exhaustion, as in consumptives, and in many people of middle age, to go too fast. This is an extravagance in energy. The responsibilities of a large family, the cares of a great business, the pursuit of desired thing (wealth, love, pleasure) with too much eagerness uses up energy faster than it can be manufactured. On Holiday. If taken quietly with a minimum of anxiety, fear, or worry, the things of civilised life may be steadily sought, but at .the same time there is a, buoyance< in existence which tends to conserve energy. The reaction after the war has brought a crop of indifference, a what-does-it-matter outlook, and this, has resulted in prolonging life, and there are now more old people than before. Some holidays are a terrible mistake. A man works hard most of the year, and then works harder than ever, making holiday. He may travel, or camp near home, or join a party in some sport, or a tramping club, or make so dcter-•mino-1 an attempt to enjoy himself by

changes of environment that he is worn out by making it, or by getting to it. A holiday should be a period of rest, a time of recuperation, of contemplation, o: calming the mind, and resting the body, of more sleep and less thought of disturbing affairs.

Mental energy and bodily energy have a common source, and to work the brain all day and the legs at night is neither good for the man who takes long evening walks "for exercise," nor for the girl who dances for amusement. To be out "in fresh air may prolong life, but to mow tho lawn, or dig the garden, after a day's work will not. This kind of thing is burning the candle at both ends. The proper appreciation of rest is most important. Work is a blessing, and work makes the rest of value. You can overdo either. They should be proportionate, and in arranging this proportion is system. Eating also comes into system, for eating should be proportionate to the work done and the exercise takpn. Internal Rest. No old man I have ever met advocates any special diet, but most old men know that the stomach and bowel, liver and kidneys need a rest sometimes; and they know by experience what type of food gives their stomach and bowel most trouble and hardest work. It is curious that during holiday time tho internal organs so seldom get any rest, but are usually worked harder than ever. Once in the twenty-four hours the stomach should be well filled, and the other two meals-can be "sketchy," or if missed altogether no harm will result. My old medical principal, Dr. Ed. Sladc-King, who has died aged one hundred sinoc I have been in New Zealand, always missed three meals on Sundays, and sometimes remained in bed all day. He had a biscuit and a glass of water on Saturday nights, and nothing more until the following Monday morning. He had a glass of sherry or a glass of ale sometimes, but would be called an abstainer, as also was an old farmer friend of mine, who married at 72 and lived to be 90.

It is lierc that the teachinp; of moderation is of most value. Tobacco, .wine, spirits, beer, all in moderation, will not shorten life. You may be old with or without them, hut there must be no excess, ever. Tf you conserve your energy, bo moderate in food and drink, make work ancl rest proportionate, and have a clear conscience, you will be much more likely to escape -infectious disease, and, in a limited degree, accidents. To have a quick response to any threatened danger is to have a youthful

attribute, and this may be with you in old age, even when bruises remain for weeks, and cuts and scratches heal badly or slowly. Up to the age of 30 you can run many risks in health, at 45' you have gone downhill physically since 36, and from 45 onwards you will, if you watch .yourself, notice that you are no longer young. Well, don't try and scramble back. You cannot. By this time you should have wisdom and dignity, a- kindly manner, a sympathetic heart. Let the boys respect you and not see you attempting to be their equal. If* there is any longer anything for you to do 011 earth, you will probably live to do it, and if you do not know what it is. seek it.

There are advantages in advanced life. You lose and you gain, just as the growing boy loses his high notes and gains in the lower register. You can faco most things calmly. You can laugh at the days when you blushed "like a girl" (do they do that now?), when your hands were always in the way, your ties an anxiety, and your boots too tight. You can smile at the strango beliefs you once had, and be happy in having dropped the chaff and retained the grain. You find it is too much trouble to dislike anybody, and consequently you are at peace with everyone; you can do a good action without being too smug about it, and receive a favour without bubbling over; you can bo reserved without being cold, and helpful without being officious. Above all, you can live over again in many of tho enthusiasms of the young and help some of the bewildered ones on the road to such happiness as life allows. "Honour thy father mother that .thy days may be long in the land" may be directed as much to prospective parents as to children. A child may say, "How can I honour my father, who is a drunkard; or my mother, who is worse?" It is for the grown child to decide to become a parent worthy of honour.