TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 March 1930, Page 9

TALKS ON HEALTH

DON’T BE LAZY (By a Family Doctor). When a man is reluctant to get up in the morning his will-power is at fault. It is not that he is paralysed; he could throw off the bedclothes and jump out of bed, but his will remains dormant. He is a lazy beggar. But we must not call him that. We must look on the poor fellow as a patient, and think out a special cure. We must ask advice. The man across the road says he has Fan electric belt that is guaranteed to get any man out of bed at seven o’clock; it only costs ten guineas, and is cheap at the price The clergyman says that the man should be taught self-control, and not allow his body to dictate to his mind: it. should be the other way round. The publican says: You must promise him some beer if he gets down before seven, and he will get up soon enough. Someone else suggests promising him a rise of ten bob a week if he will arrive at the factory half an hour earlier. The priest says he has known hundreds of cases just like his, and they were all cured by sprinkling with water from a holy well. The electrician suggests applying an electric current to his spine; the dear old lady from the mission leaves tracts to inculcate a better frame of mind; the psycho-analyst wants to inquire if he fell in love with his mother at the age of three; everyone wants to help this poor man who cannot get up in the morning. Learned societies meet round his bed and take his temperature and his blood-pressure, and each member has a different method of cure to propose. It is a very interesting case; the papers ought to take it up; it is of grave medical interest: what do the American doctors do in such cases? GET UP! One thing is certain. This inability to get up in the morning is due to a microbe, because it occurs in epidemics; half the men in our street notice a difficulty in getting up. Also it is hereditary. A woman, signing herself “Mother of Sixteen,” writes to say that she had ten boys, and none of them could get up in the morning, I and they took after her husband, who I had the same complaint. All the wis- , dom of the daily Press was brought 1 to bear on this terrible disease. And , ill the time this poor fellow I was | telling you about was suffering in the - most awful manner; he really could j not get up in the morning. I hate , to finish the story, because the cure J w ( as effected by his wife, who announc- . ed that she had a hard job to make both ends meet, and she was not going to have him lose his work through ’ being late. So she whacked him with ’ a rolling-pin as hard as she could until he jumped out of bed. This simple < treatment staggered the learned world; what could not be accomplished by 1 promises of beer, by entreaties and J persuasion, by belts and electrical f massage, was accomplished by his old woman with a rolling-pin.

NOBLE ART OF CURING ; Ah, my beloved friends, what a • beautiful lesson in the noble art of ? curing. It teaches us that what is ! needed in a great many cases of supposed illness is not any special form of medical treatment, but the exercise of commonsense and will-power. I have patented a rolling-pin method of ; treatment. A hospital for mental diseases is not a prison; the responsible relative can take a patient out if he wishes. The patient who has been ' certified insane cannot walk out of his own free will; he would be stopped. He is not in possession of his liberty in the sense that a free-born, sane Englishman is. It has been decided by the doctor, the magistrate, and the relatives that the patient is unfit to be at liberty because he is not responsible for his actions. In. allowed out he might commit a crime or cause public disturbance by his outrageous conduct. If a father wishes to take his son out of a mental hospital his first step should be to interview his son and talk to him on a variety of subjects to make sure that; his mind is sufficiently balanced to bear the responsibilities of mixing in the world. If the son fancies that the next-door neighbour is trying to injure him by wireless, or that he has put electric batteries in his bedroom to keep him awake, he may resent this conduct, and make for the unsuspecting neighbour with a carving knife. However, after seeing the son, the parent should then ask for an interview with the medical superintendent, and politely ask his opinion. It is as well to remember that the doctor in charge is a gentleman of great experience, with no other object than to help his patients. Please, therefore, do not abuse the poor gentleman, or call him rude names. The relatives of insane folk are often a bit touched themselves, and they give the unfortunate medical attendants a dreadful time; they argue, protest, grumble; they insult and attack the wretched man of medir cine until his patience is exhausted. Experience is the great teacher, and the medical superintendent has had thirty years of experience in dealing with insane persons. He has learned by his past dealings that it is often disastrous to let a patient, half-re-covered, go back to his friends; he comes back into hospital worse than ever in two weeks. Sometimes the patient is allowed out. for a morning, and then for a day, and so on, while the effect is watched. The last case I had anything to do with the patient was taken out by his friends against everyone’s advice, and in a week he was found wandering in the fields ten miles from his home with no clothes on. He was rescued by the police and delivered to his anxious friends. It is a great mistake to think it is a kindness to remove the patients from the hospital in all cases.

KEEP ON YOUR PEGS It is better for the legs to do their own work than that they should rely on crutches; it is better that the spine should do its own work than rely on special braces or steel supports; it is better that the abdominal muscles should do their own work than rely on belts. As we stand in an upright position, the force of gravity tends to pull all our organs downwards; and if the abdominal muscles are weak the stomach bulges forward in a very unsightly fashion. If now you abstain from exercise and cat and drink too much, fat will collect both inside and outside, and the bulge becomes greater, your discomfort increases with the increase in weight. Neglect of the laws of hygiene may damage the muscles beyond all hope o" recovery

and a belt will then give some relief. But no belt was ever so useful as a belt of muscle. I watch my girth and meastire my “lower chest” from time to time. I am not an aiderman, nor a beadle, and I want to keep active. As I walk along the street I draw my abdominal muscles in to preserve my figure and to exercise the muscles. I happen to be a man, and my figure is the pride of all the women, and the envy of the men in my town. I admit that women have a worse chance; oft-repeated child-bearing throws a strain on the muscles of the abdomen that they cannot withstand; a belt well fitted and made of stout material helps the elderly matron who has brought up ten children. Belts are useful after operations on the stomach. But though belts have their place in the medical armamentarium, I shall always maintain that self-de-nial in diet, a determination to check the bulging waistcoat by exercise, are more sensible methods of keeping the figure within bounds than the wearing of any belt, however many bands and straps and buckles and whalebone supports it possesses.