HEADACHE AND GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 141, 18 June 1927, Page 20

HEADACHE AND GOLF

BESTTIjT OBV FATIGUE.

Lord Dawson of Perm, in tho course of a lecture o;» " Some. Varietios of Headache," which is reported in a recent issue of tho "British Medical VWnal," remarks that the incidence of headache is variable. The same chain of events would lead to soyere hßadach? in pp( j patjpjit, B iight iieailache .in. another, and in yet another no headache at alj. "There is the disciplined man," said Lord Dawson, '''with a fiigh-sfrung. nervous syptem, who has ha 4a. heavy peck's work and perhaps M congratulating himself how.well" he has stood it. Ho plays a game of golf on Sunday. Ho may then plume himself on the fact that he is as young as' ever and play a second round. Ho then eats freely.- Then comes the downfall—migraine. What happens? Heis a man in whom the burden of fatiguo falls on his plain muscular tissue. As. the week advanced his stomach and- intestine. lost tone, and tho functional capacity of digestion and metabolism deteriorated. The physical fatigue of the golf on the top of the week's duties lowered his blood pressure and put his digestion out of business. Here the sequence of events was: —Exhaustion—failure of digestion toxaemia—headache. One round of golf followed by a light meal and recumbency would have done him good. In very marked cases of gastro-intes-tinal- responsiveness to fatigue, associated as they often are with low blood pressure, I;he pn]y way is to let the man rest on the Saturday, tako his exorcise, on the Sunday, and thea he wi]l be a kjng on Monday. Treatment is,:in large measure a study of causes which are variable for different people, but fairly constant forgone infil/idual. In those-people in whom the headache stands alone, and is the result of responsibility and stress, tho day ,of rest is needed, but still more the right way of using it. So often tho day of rest sees the same strenuousness and feverish'activity, as the day of work.: It is relaxation which is needed, and its art requires stuly. Exercise to be beneficial must bear relation to the frame, physiological habit, and tho •week's work. There are jsimes when the subject prone to headache needs a day or half a day in bed with windows ppen, the lightest of diet, and a diverting book. It is to bo remembered that some headache .victims have no twilight, no forewarning of fatigue, and in extreme cases their.lives alternate between orgies of activity and prostrar tion,. The best treatment is to shpw them the \ nature of the problem. In Bome.eaaeß si unusual eomijqlence, with or without yawning, in others an exaltation of fitness, may be danger sigt nals, but often there iB no warning. Some people must have fresh air. In tho war many migraine* subjects during their time in the trenches were immune from attacks. Eye-strain is an accepted exciting'cause which needs no comment. Tobacco may be a cause, also alcohol, and—which is interesting rr-some victims aro vulnerable to certain kijyls of aJcohod and not to jothcfs." ,