THE DIARY OF A DOCTOR WHO TELLS

Evening Star, Issue 24138, 7 March 1942, Page 3

THE DIARY OF A DOCTOR WHO TELLS

A.B.C.D. HEALTH POWERS Monday, March 2. “You ought to try to sell them to your patients as the A .BCD Health Powers,” said Alina Aimsley brightly when 1 said she was eating wrong food and that it was deficient in vitamins. “ The description would he accurate,” I replied. “ .lust as in the case of the political A B C J) Powers, their force for good increases when the full quota of.each is at work.” “ You mean that you can have an abundance of three vitamins, but you’ll still get sick if you lack the fourth? ” “ Quite right,” I said, “ and in your case the one that’s lacking is vitamin B, the most common absentee in the dietary of civilised man. ...” “ And now comes the old story of fruit, vegetables, dairy products, meat, and fish,” said Alma. “ I’ve read it so often in the Press I know it by heart.” “ That’s the worst of it.” I retorted. “ Everyone's read it so often, yet the majority of the population still do little, if anything, about it. Take your own case.* Do'you have salads and a glass of milk every day? Do you eat any liver? ” “‘Why liver? ” demanded Alma. “ Because it is rich in vitamin B.” 1 replied, “ and probably has a good deal to do with preventing neuritis.” “ I don’t like liver,” said Alma complacently. . “ Well, try, .wholemeal bread and plenty of salads,” I suggested. * * » * Do we really know our A.B.C.D. of health? Briefly, here’s the summary : Vitamin A; Air pilots are eating carrots. So is the civilian population of England. The vitamin A in- carrots prevents night blindness. An excess of it helps to see better in the blackout. Vitamin A helps you fight off infections like the common cold. Dairy products, leafy vegetables, carrots, and eggs contain it. Vitamin B: The one most of us could use more. It prevents certain diseases affecting nerves, like Beriberi. It prevents Pellagra, literally “ rough red •skin,” an unpleasant disease which wilt occur in some countries before the war is over. You find this vitamin in green vegetables, again slightly in milk and eggs,' but particularly in certain meats like liver, kidney, and heart. Whole wheat bread and grain cereals contain it. Over-refining is deleterious. Xeuritis inky be due to an absence of vitamin B. Vitamin C: The vitamin Captain Cook found, unknowingly, when be ordered his sailors to eat something else besides salt meat during their journey round the world, it prevents scurvy and helps us keep healthy in a general way. Foods containing vitamin C are good for constipation. It is found in all fruits and tomatoes. Canning will not destroy it. Vitamin D: This prevents rickets. It is essential for children, for it helps their bones and teeth to grow straight and true. Cod-liver oil is a valuable source, and so is butter-fat. And milk is still making the grade in vitamin D just as it did in vitamin A. Suh-bathing.also helps the work of this vitamin. Tuesday, March 3. Kobert Burns certainly knew something about psychology when he wrote: “ O wad some po’er the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us.” Unless wo are superlatively honest, we never know a great deal about ourselves. A constant companion could give a better self-analysis. We think we’re pretty good fellows, and we’re mostly sure that our intellect is a bit above that of the chap next door. We can think more readily of that vast army of people who haven’t our virtues than of the fcwjwho have more than we have. People don’t appreciate us. Only whqn we die will the world discover just how useful, good, and noble we were. I thought of these things to-day after Herbert Sanwell left. He’s complaining of dyspepsia, headaches, and being generally out of sorts. His trouble is that he can’t get his mind off himself. He worries about his failure to reach, where he thinks his talent and personality should get him. He is sure that fate has been unjust. Since the world refuses to take notice of him, he has decidted that at least a doctor, his family, and some of his intimate friends will realise that lie is worth attention —even, if they only say “ Poor Herbert . such a martyr to his stomach lie’s been X-rayed, bismuth-mealed, gastric-meal-tested, and so on, but all to no avail. He won’t see a psychiatrist. All he asks of life, since life won’t give him anything else, is quiet sympathy and a weekly bottle of medicine.

There are many like him.

Wednesday, March 4. There is joy in the hearts of the Tywells this evening. This morning I was called to see tho wife, and jt was my first visit to tho home, though both she and her husband had visited my surgery on a number of occasions. The door was opened by a wizened little man who looked K) and was probably 20. He smiled dully and asked me distinctly to enter. He seemed an obvious mongo] typo—suffering from thyroid gland deficiency. “ I’m sorry Harry had to lot you in, Doctor,” said Airs Tywell uncomfortably. “ He’s my brother. Wo prefer to look after him rather than have him put away.” Examination -revealed nothing much wrong with Airs Tywell. She was nervy, unhappy, and without appetite. Wo had a heart-to-heart talk. I told her she wanted an interest in life other than her husband. “ Yon mean children?” she said bitterly. “Do you think I could risk giving my husband something like my brother Harry?” “ There’s practically no risk, I said. “ But surely mental weakness is hereditary?” she asked. “ Frequently it is not,” I replied, “ hut certainly not so in the ease of someone like your brother. I see no reason why you and your husband could not expect perlectly normal children.” “Yon mean that?” said Mrs Tywell, incredulously. 1 nodded. &he hurst into a long fit of weeping. “ Tell your husband to see me.” I said, after a while. “ We’ll talk it over.” _ , Tywell came to-night. Ho left a happy man. » • • • Mongolian children can occur in families which are perfectly normal, eleven brilliant. Sometimes a mongol is the youngest in a large family. 1 know of no reason why the other members of that particular family should expect a similar accident in their own instance. Thursday, March 5. “A sister of mine has written to say that her husband has phlebitis,” said Airs Drakson, as she paid her bill this afternoon. “ Just what is it?” “ Literally, it is merely inflammation of a vein,.”" I replied. “ The vein can bo anywhere in the body, but mostly

it’s a vein of the lower limbs. A clot is formed, and there’s some infection. It often occurs during an infectious disease like influenza, typlniid, or pneumonia, but it can occur in other conditions as well.” . “ I suppose it’s something like the • white leg ’ which mothers get?” asked Mrs Drakson. 1 told her “ white leg ” was just another name for phlebitis of the leg. It can occur about two or three "weeks after child-birth. The patient gets a numbness, and then a painful sensation in her leg, which becomes so heave that she can’t move it, Mrs Drakson wanted to know howlong her brother-in-law would be ill, and I said I couldn’t tell, though he nihdit have a temperature for two or throe weeks. I added that they’d probably immobilise the affected leg. Actuallv, it might he some little time before he walks again. Friday, March 6. “ The hovs say I’ve had a night out, but I swear I haven’t. The blisters just came of their own accord. Can you lix them up for me?” Thus did Harry Quellen introduce himself this evening and presented a blister eruption covering his lips. “ They’ll be gone soon,” I comforted him. “ You’d better take the day off to-morrow and have a quiet week-end. Then you should be all right for w-ork on Monday.” “ What are they called?” asked Harry. “ Herpes Lahialis,” I replied. “Is it serious?” 'asked Harry. “It sounds so with a name like that. “ The name merely moans ( blisters of the lips.’ ” I said. “ They can occur in perfectly healthy people, especially if thov happen to he a hit run down.” Harry wanted to know if they were contagious, and 1 had to give him one of those yes-no replies that patients find so unsatisfactory. It is said that all forms of herpes are due to some infective agency, even the ordinary herpes lahialis that most of us get with a common cold. Certain sorts of attacks seem to be of the epidemic kind, just like colds. It is said that soldiers in barracks are liable. Probably this is because) they sleep in lints and_ are more likely to puck up infections things. On the other hand, mini hors of people have a single attack, and nobody else is infected. Harry also wanted to know if his herpes lahialis was a mild form of shingles fher|ies zoster), hut T told him that it had nothing to do with it whatsoever. . . “ Don’t put anything on it. T said to Harry. “ hut it’s rather important you build yourself up a bit with good foods and plenty of rest.” (Names in this diary are fictitious.)