TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 March 1929, Page 4

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of people there are who imagine now, or have imagined at some time during their lives, that they have got consumption, that they are going into a decline, and that there is nothing to do on earth but to interview the undertaker in good time. I once conceived the plan of instituting an annual dinner to be attended only by those who have at some time entertained the erroneous belief that they were dying of tuberculosis. What a large assemblage it would be! How fat and jolly they would all look, gobbling up the viands and chaffing each other about their former mistaken views! “I remember the time when you thought you could not live six months, Mrs Brown; ' that was in 1892; and look at yourself now! Ha! ha! ha!” BOTH SILLY AND WICKED I should have a gallery for spectators, admission being limited to those who believed they were dying of consumption. I should be the attendant at‘the door; when anyone asked to be admitted to hear the speeches, the songs and the music, I should say, “Do you believe you are dying of tuberculosis?” “Yes, I do,” he would reply, and I should exclaim, “Pass in, and see the dinner and diners you will join next year.” It is both silly and wicked to cultivate false ideas about health or anything else; and it is still more silly and wicked to implant these ideas in the minds of others. Some misguided folk will actualy say in the hearing of a sensitive and impressionable young girl that they think she is going into consumption. They ought to be locked up.

ASK YOUR DOCTOR Finding yourself disturbed by the haunting suspicion that you may be consumptive, what steps ought you to take? First of all, march into your doctor’s consulting room and say, “Am I consumptive?” The doctor, if he thinks fit, will examine the sputum that comes from the lungs. Follow the doctor’s advice. But, remember, the doctor can only tell you what to do; the actual carrying out of commonsense measures must be left to you. Make up your mind to study your health steadily for one month or six weeks. If your are merely run down you will be cured in a few weeks. But rather take no trouble at all about your health than make a misery of your life by fidgeting, fussing and fretting. FRESH AIR AND GOOD FOOD It is an essential part of the scheme to keep your mind calm, cool and collected. Sleep in the open if you have a convenient verandah; keep warm by wearing enough sleeping clothes, and bravely expose yourself to the fresh breeze of heaven. If the verandah is not forthcoming, open all windows, doors and chimneys in the bedroom. If you fear that night air is dangerous, I have done with you; you really must not be so foolish as that in these days. Go to bed one hour before your usual time, and retire at the same hour every night. Eat very slowly, so that your system may derive all the goodness possible from the food you take. Fod that is hastily masticated is not nourishing. Drink as much milk as you can afford to pay for. SIX WEEKS’ TREATMENT

Give up smoking cigarettes for a month. Do not breathe the foul air of picture palaces or theatres. Take every opportunity you can of going off into the country. If your sleep is disturbed by an aching tooth, have it out. Breathe through your nose, and hold your head up and your shoulders back. Practise breathing exercises, and sing as much and as often as your friends and neighbours will allow you to. Wash your skin all over with soap every night—the skin helps to rid the body of impurities, and the pores must be kept clean. At the end of six weeks you will be agreeably surprised at the result. You will weigh a bit heavier; you will have more colour in. your cheeks; and, what is most important of all, you will be betterlooking; it will be a pleasure to look at yourself in the glass, and you will live to bless me for helping to knock out of your head the silly idea that you were dying of consumption. A DAY IN BED For the weary and worn I often commend with success the treatment of a day in bed. The complete rest to body and mind, the relief to the tired muscles, the taking off the strain from the back and spine, are all beneficial. Many hardworked people go through the year with insufficient sleep; the brain is robbed of its due amount of sleep, and the consequence is “that tired feeling.” A day in bed is most valuable, and .your bones and muscles will give you their everlasting gratitude if you will follow out the advice. It is often bettei’ than a tonic. Especially does this apply to tired mothers. Try and get a day off at your sister’s house, and spend your holiday resting.

STIFF JOINTS The question of stiff joints is always cropping up in some form. I have given up saying that prevention is better than cure. If you get an injury to a joint you must only hold it still for a short time; if you keep it still week after week you will find the joint so stiff as to be almost immovable. Then you come round to me and ask for help and sympathy, and I do not give you any, because you ought to have come six weeks ago; the harm is done for ever at the end of a few weeks. If you follow my advice and, slowly and carefully, under the dierction of your medical attendant, move the joint a little bit more each day from th© first, at the end of a few weeks you will have the full use of the complete range of movement.

TREATMENT AND EXERCISE But if the joint is very stiff without being hopeless, the treatment is to work the joint forcibly. There are two ways of doing this. One is for the doctor to give you gas, as though you were going to have a tooth out, and then wrench the joint while you are unconscious; this is often the best way; it causes a little pain for p. few hours, but it loosens the joint and effects a cure. The other way is for the doctor to give the joint a series of massaging movements every day, and for the patient to supplement his treatment with exercises at borne. The only thing needed is to see that the movement is carried out through a larger and larger range every day. If once you slip back and move the arm through an insufficient range, you are done. In the case of<

the shoulder, for instance, I am in the habit of making the patient put his hand on the wall as high as he can manage. A pencil-mark is made at the spot, and the next day ho must go one inch higher than the former mark. In due course the shoulder is ' cured.