TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 October 1927, Page 4

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR. A Restful Holiday. My advice for the jaded worker is to have a restful holiday rather than a round of sight-seeing. My advice to you is to imitate the common or garden cow. The cow spends much time in ea.ing and sleeping and lying about in the fresh air. The cow does not Quarrel or wrangle, or talk unkind scandal about her neighbours. She does not vie with her friends in wearing showy clothes; the cow is natural in all her ways, and does not try to Improve on nature by painting herself a different colour. Really young ladies, I am shocked in my old age, to watch you on the esplanade, in showy uncomfortable clothes, tight, high-fieelcd shoes, and with a complexion that does not’owe its colour to healthy sunburn. Do be a little more natural. Believe me, you will look just as pretty. My strict orders, then; a. simple, natural holiday, spent in the open air, and in the water, and resting on your back. A Cure for Snoring. .Some of my readers may perhaps bo interested in a short discourse on the subject of snoring. If you open your mouth wide in front of a looking glass you will see at the back of the throat a little red curtain hanging down, which has received the name of the soft palate or uvula. Snoring is caused by the vibration of this soft palate, and to produce a. good, fullblown snore the mouth must be open. So the problem of curing snoring is simple—the mouth must be kept shut. Now, how are we to manage to keep the mouth shut during sleep? It is very difficult if once the habit of keeping the mouth open is acquired. Of course, as is always the case, prevention is better than cure, and careful mothers train their children to sleep with their mouths shut. If you go into the bedroom and gently close the lips of your sleeping babe, you are doing something which will earn the everlasting gratitude of its future husband or wife.

Danger of Mouth-breathing. Mouth-breathing is not merely a bad habit, it is a definite source of danger and leads to bronchial catarrh and many other troubles. We are meant to breathe through our noses just as horses do, even when they are blown and out of breath. Sleep with your mouth shut and you will not snore. We have only two possible passages to breathe through, one is the nose and the other is the mouth, ‘so if you have to keep your mouth shut you must respire through your nose. And that is where the trouble comes in—there may be some obstruction to the free passage of air through the nose. So the next point we arrive at in thinking out the treatment of snoring is that the inside of the nose must be put in order. Obstructions. The commonest form of obstruction is a growth at the back of the nose called adenoids; these may be removed by a small operation. Other forms of obstruction occurring more commonly in grown-up people are polypi and some deformity in the cartilage inside the nose; these defects must be remedied by an operation. We must, therefore, be careful to distinguish between the two very different classes of mouth-breathers. On the one hand are those who could not breathe through their nose if they would because of the obstruction, and on the other we have those who could breathe through their noses if they ■would; and they ought to train themselves to do so. Much can be done by constant training and perseverance. When I used to sleep with my mouth open T used to snore and wake up in the morning with a dry, unpleasant mouth; now that I have trained myself to sleep with my mouth shut I no longer snore, and T feel pleasanter when 1 wake. I recommend you to keep your mouth shut at night.

A Small Operation. The nose is divided into two halves by a median wall or septum. This septum should be quite straight and flat. But after an accident or a punch on the nose in boxing, the septum may be cockled up or bent over. The result of this is that it is almost impossible to breathe through one side of the nose. This is noticed when there is a slight catarrh present. The inside of the nose cannot be seen by the ordinary observer; it has to be examined properly by a doctor using a searchlight. No applications or lotions arc of any avail in removing the obstruction; the only thing is a small operation to put the septum s-traight. tt is not painful and it is soon performed without cutting the outside skin at all. No scar is left, and the comfort when the defect has been put right is well worth the trouble of undergoing the slight operation. Nasal Douche for Catarrh. The naso-pharynx is the name given to the part of the anatomy situated at the junction of the nose and throat. It is just behind the little soft' curtain that hangs down at the back of the throat. It is often the seat of catarrh. This catarrh cannot be treated by mouth washes or gargles, as they do not reach the ( naso-pharynx—it is too far back. Hence it is that the catarrh goes on for months and months, and nothing seems to cure it, because it is so difficult to get at. The only way the trouble can be reached is through the nose. If a probe were to be pass- ' ed through the nostril and pushed in for about three inches, its point would then be at the naso-pharynx. The real importance of the naso-pharynx is sometimes overlooked. The following is a useful prescription for a nasal

douche; Bicarbonate of soda, seven grains; borax, seven grains; listerine, two teaspoonfuls; and water to one ounce. The best way to use it is to dispense with all douches , and syringes and simply sniff the solution but of tile palm of the hand. Jt should be used twice or three times a day. A Scalp Wound. In treating a scalp wound, it is useful to remember that the first thing to be done is to cut the hair, so /hat you can see what you are doing. One blade of a pair of scissors should be slipped under the hair,' so as to lie flat on the scalp, and the bloodstained hair gradually snipped away, until you get a clear view of the wound. If the blood is flowing freely you should take a piece of clean lint, or a handkerchief or anything handy, and apply it exactly to the bleeding point, and hold it there firmly w.ith the thumb. By this means you stop the flow of blood which may dangerously weaken the

wounded man, and it gives you time to think. It is no use mopping up the blood with half a dozen handkerchiefs; you would mop up all the blood in his body. It is worse than useless to wipe away all the blood that flows. Wiping will not stop the flow. No, you must find the bleeding spot, if necessary by cutting away the hair, and then apply firm pressure with the finger.