TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 March 1930, Page 4

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR. HOW TO KEEP HEALTHY. I think some of you feel seedy and depressed because of the accumulated effect of a number of small faults. One fault by itself seems almost negligible, but all of them taken together make a, decided impression on your health. You go to bed a little too late and get up a little too early, robbing your system of an hour or two of healthy sleep every day for years. You eat a little too fast and a little too much, throwing a strain on the digestive organs every day for ten years, when you begin to feel it. You smoke rather more than is good for you, and you drink a little too much whisky. Oh, I know you will stoutly deny it, and I am quite sure you have never been drunk in your life; but probably if the yearly consumption of whisky were reduced by a dozen bottles you would be none the worse. You worry a litle too much, and you laugh much too little. Your boots are a little too tight, and your tea is a little too strong; you spend a little too much on cheap sweets, and your room is a little too stuffy. I don’t want you to worry about putting the doctor out of employment; the workhouse in my district is really very comfortable. And then most of us doctors are very rich because although we are the first to be called we are also the first to be paid. Sometimes.

HAVE A COLD BATH. Everyone has some plan or fad whereby we may never’ have colds again as long as we live. My own fad is that everyone who can stand it, and most of us who are in ordinary health can, should have a cold bath in the morning. Do not grumble and shiver, just go and do it. Have a good rub down and make your skin glow’ and sing at the top of your voice, because it is good for you. Stop singing when the neighbours complain. My other recommendation is to have a warm overcoat. When you are sitting in a room beautifully warmed by a fire you do not really need those enormously thick underclothes that you wear. As a matter of fact, the temperature of the room with a fire is higher than the summer temperature. No, it is not in the house that you need so much extra clothing; it is when you go out. It is wiser to spend money on a warm overcoat than on warm underclothing. Then men who go seeking for the Poles in frigid temperatures do not suffer from colds even when they, sleep out in the snow. It is astonishing that so long as we are in health our temperature is always the same, viz., 98 and 99 deg. Fahrenheit. That is why the doctor takes your temperature with a clinical thermometer. Unless you are ill the thermometer ought to register 98 deg.

OUR EVEN TEMPERATURES. It does not matter whether it is in midsummer or midwinter; it matters not whether you are in th© cricket field making a century or whethei’ you are shivering in an east wind, watching a football match—your temperature is always the same. The nigger sweltering on the Line and the Eskimo sitting on the North Pole are both of exactly the same temperature as registered by the thermometer. ( One’s feelings are deceptive. It is well known that in a paroxysm of malaria, when the temperature is mounting up and the patient is quite hot, he will shiver till his teeth chatter again, and he will draw his bedclothes around him closer and closer to try and keep warm.

FLAT FOOT TROUBLES. Flat foot may affect anyone from babyhood to advanced years. Babies’ feet sometimes turn in at the ankle joints, and the condition grows worse when they begin to walk. It can be remedied by having a piece of leather put on the sole of the shoe on the inner side only, so as to throw the ankle in the opposite direction viz, outwards, instead of inwards. A few weeks will make a great difference, and the shoo may be soled in the ordinary way when the foot is straight. Flat foot may appear in an adolescent at the age of fifteen or sixteen. At this age a great strain is placed on the general system, as the growth is so rapid, and it is ofen at this age that the youth undertakes some heavy job, perhaps necessitating standing long hours or carrying heavy weights. The strain on the arch of the foot is too much; the ligaments give way, and the foot becomes flat. At the same time there may be other evidence that the bones and ligaments are being over-strained. The spine may begin to bend; the lad may become knock-kneed; and he may be pale and anaemic. He may have to work in a basement, where the sun never penetrates. It is difficult to cure these cases of flat foot unless the causes that produced the conditions are removed. Good food, regular meals, rest, fresh air and sunshine, and suitable exercises are wanted, but cannot always be obtained.

FOOT WEAKNESSES. . The next class of man who gets flat footed is the man who has reached the age of forty, and whose bones and ligaments are just beginning to lose their elasticity. Long standing, such as policemen have to put up with, or bearing heavy weights, such as porters have to carry, throws too much pressure on the arch of the foot, and a flattening is the result. Pointed boots that compress and distort the toes are also responsible for weakening of the ligaments of the foot. Treatment consists of rubbing the feet with some stimulating liniment, such as turpentine liniment. For those that are on their feet all day rest is the best treatment, but for that class of patient who is suffering from flat foot in. consequence of weakness, exercises arc the best. Raising oneself on tip* toe several times, or turning the feet in and out, or skipping in moderation, may strengthen the feet. Metal pads may be worn inside the boots, the pad should be as low as possible consistent with the proper support of the arch: it is not necessary to wear a highly-arched pad for a. slight degree of flat foot. THE ’CUTE CHINEE. In China the patients pay their doctor a. steady income all the year round so long as they are well; when they fall ill and have to call the doctor in. his income stops automatically. How would you like that arrangement? 1 ami sure you would not mind paying tho doctor while ydu afe quite well; you! would be in such a .good tetnpSr that

it would be a pleasure to help the doctor on his path. And when you fell ill, what luxury to get your doctor for nothing; no doctor’s bills at the end of the illness: Shall wo start it ih England? 1 do not think I should object if my patients would agree to be examined by me once a. year. I should have to safeguard myself. If I saw a rotten tooth and reported it to the patient, and six months afterwards he came to me with an abscess of the jaw, I should want to be paid double instead of having my money stopped. And if the man were ill from overeating I think I should grumble, because it would be his own fault. Andi if the over-eating took place at some festival I should want to charge him double again, because it is so wicked. Well. 1 must think it over: you pay mo so long as you are well: you stop paying when you are ill and I am attending you; and I charge you double when it is your own fault. Anv offers?