TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 November 1934, Page 4

TALKS ON HEALTH

FIND THE CAUSE (By a Family Doctor). 1 have often to tell my patients that it is useless to attempt to ti eat a symptom unless I first understand its real cause and origin. How can I treat a. case of lameness unless I know whether the lameness is due to tubercular disease of the hip or water on the knee or a, nail in the boot? I cannot advise vou on the treatment ofi headache un-i less I am first informed of the cause of the headache. How foolish it would be to attempt to qure the headache by a powder when all that was needed was a proper pair of spectacles! THE EVIL DRUG HABIT People often write and ask me what drug to take for sleeplessness. Nothing will induce me to suggest drugs for this complaint. I have no sympathy at all with the drug habit. Without any recommendation from a doctor, people buy a packet of digestive tablets, a bottle of liver pills, a box of tonic powders, a phial of patent corpse-revivers ro cure anything and everything, and, last, and worst, they buy a pocketful of sleeping powders. Away with them all' To my dying day will I protest, against this pernicious habit, of buying up the contents of a drug shop and emptying them into your stomachs. When you tell me you arc sleepless vou tell me nothing. I must enquire into the cause. You are mistaken w vou think a doctor has a book on lus shelf giving him the name of the complaint in one column and the suitable drug in a parallel column. Our work is not cut and dried. That is the interest of my profession. Having hoaid that you are sleepless, Ury to find out the cause. A number of cases ai e explained by indigestion. Sleep may be disturbed by the presence in the stomach of a mass of undigested tood.

THE TREATMENT / lt> the treatment a sleep-powder? Go on with you! The treatment is to recommend moderation in the quantity of food taken —most of us eat too much —to insist on good cooking and slow mastication; to suggest that the last meal should not be taken so late m the evening; to avoid indigestible food and strong tea; to ask the patient to give up coffee at night and smoke fewer cigarettes. Sleeplessness can often be cured by attention to the digestive organs. In other cases the insomnia is due to an apposite cause. Instead of the stomach being overloaded it may be too empty. In such examples the eating of a.biscuit is often all that is needed. TOO MUCH MEAT If I were to offer a general criticism! of the average diet.of the ordinary individual I should say that the prevailing fault was that of eating too much meat. Especially does this apply to elderly people who are beginning to give up. some of their physical activities. The older we get the less, do our bodies require to keep them going. Compare the activities of the rollocking grandchild of eight years old who is on the jump all day long, and the inactivity of the old grandfather sitting quietly in his chair and only walking a short distance each day. The active, jumping, growing child really needs more than the old frame of the grandfather.

WHY BE FAT? Unfortunately. the older a man gets more does he become wedded to the pleasures of the table. The food absorbed by his digestive organs is not needed; it cannot be used up in doing useful work, and it is stored up as pounds and pounds of useless, cumbersome fat. Why carry three stone of fat around with you? You weigh thirteen stone, and you would be happier if you were only ten or eleven. Most of us eat too much, and all of us eat too much strong meat. The kindly fruits of the earth, the green vegetables, the cereals, dairy food and eggs are not given their proper place. THE FARMER AND THE CLERK Of course, a great deal depends on the sort of life you lead. A country farmer driving over his lands in all sorts of weather in an open cart needs a different diet from a clerk who sits in a stuffy office all day long and can only dream of fresh air and green fields. The farmer can do with more strong meat than the clerk. But in towns and cities I am sure we have all been accustomed to eating too much meat, and have suffered for it in many ways. It is the duty of the kidneys to examine the blood that comes from the digestive organs and throw out what is useless. In a heavy meat diet the blood is overloaded with products that have to be cast out, and the kidneys, after a number of years of this, bad treatment, begin to feel the strain.

A SWOLLEN KNEE If you. find your knee is swollen after an injury, however slight, I advise you to rest and let a doctor see it. Place your two knees together and compare them. If it is obvious that the injured ono is swollen it is probable that a collection of fluid has formed within the joint; this condition is generally known as “water on the knee. What I want to protect you from is the danger of making matters worse by going to work; every step you take jars the knee, and recovery is delayed. It saves time in the long run to give the knee a chance by lying up. It may be plucky to struggle to work, but it is bad surgery. In not a few cases a knee-joint is permanently weakened, ami once or twice a year the knee may give way. This permanent weakening may generally be traced back to the original injury. many years ago it may he, when the”knee was not allowed (o recover its full strength before being walked on.