TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 February 1937, Page 11

TALKS ON HEALTH

j DISEASE A CRIME (By a Family Doctor). The time will come when those suffering from disease will be regarded with suspicion and distrust. In a great many cases blame is more de'served than sympathy, and yet we ! live in such a soft-hearted age that everyone feels sorry for a man who is laid on a bed of sickness. This is not as it should be. of illnesses would be prevented if it were thought that to fall ill of one’s own fault would meet with general condemnation. Suppose a man has twelve decayed teeth in his head, hurries over his meals, eats the wrong food, eats at irregular times, takes uo i trouble to avoid constipation, and in i- consequence of this gets a bad pain inside and has to go to bed to be nursed by his overworked wife. I am not at all sure that the best treatment for his disorder would not be a good I thrashing three times a day after [food. | PUNSHMENT FOR ILL-DOING , A man’s business is to do some usei ful work in the .world and support his wife and familyand he ought to understand that it is his sacred duty to look after his health. If he neglects i his health he deserves to suffer; the ’ pain serves him right, and the worse it is, and the longer it lasts, the more valuable will be the lesson. Unfortunately, it is the poor wife who has to , suffer. Her household duties are quite I enough to keep her busy without a I querulous dyspeptic husband to at- | tend to. If a man squanders the mon- • ey belonging to somebody else he is j hauled up before the magistrate and ' punished. And so he ought to be if he squanders the health which should be used to provide for his wife and family. Health is worth money in the bank. A man has nQ right to throw away his health any more than he has the right to throw away the. money in the bank. So please remember that, in the future, everyone who falls ill of his own fault will be severely punished, and anyone offering sympathy to the sick man will be punished, too.

HEALTH IS WEALTH I wish my readers would give a moment’s thought to the financial cost of sickness. If all the money lost by illness in one year could be put together it would astonish you. Certainly it would amount to many millions of pounds. It would be worth spending ten million pounds a year if you could save a hundred millions. Money spent on health is not wasted; it is saved, invested. It is a paltry and misguided spirit that prompts you to be stingy in matters of health. You refrain from spending a shilling or two on having your boots soled apd heeled, and lose three poxinds in wages because you get wet feet and catch a severe cold. A .restful weekend may just stave off a breakdown. A couple of days in bed may save you a fortnight’s illness. Of course, it requires judgment to manage your finances. You-,have to strike the happy mean between niggardliness and extravagance. But I know I am right when I say that you do not spend enough hard cash on preventing illness. We do not enjoy putting our hands in our pockets, but we have to put them in deeper and more often if we are laid up through illness, and have nothing but insurance money for ten weeks.

THE BEST INVESTMENT How many of us, if we had our time over again, would have taken a little more rest and saved all the money we lost and spent in getting our bodies back into working trim once more! Money spent on health is the best investment you can make on behalf of your offspring. Health is hereditary. “My father left me no money when he died, but I derived from him ten thousand pounds worth of health.” Who would accept ten thousand pounds on condition that he became a diseased and pain-racked wretch instead of a healthy man-? Your health is worth a good deal more than ten thousand. Your dear old missus would not have married you if you had been a puny specimen of humanity, and she alone is worth a million, isn’t she now? This is a mercenary age; we are all grabbing as much money as we can; and if only money-grubbing could be changed into health-grubbing we should be better off than we are by a long chalk. CHILD WELFARE The results of the treatment of school children are more hopeful. It is still deplorable that so many children are found with defects, but the efforts put forward are bearing fruit. Parents are taking a more lively interest in the welfare of their children. This was the pious hope of the founders of the scheme. An intelligent child, having had its eyes and ears and teeth cared for at school, grows up and is anxious that the same care should be extended to her own offspring. It is all very wonderful and unbelievable, this talk about parents beginning to take an interest in their children. The ground is being cut from my feet. When I did not know what to write about in the old days • I used to pen a few virulent and sarcastic lines about tigers in the jungle tenderly caring for their cubs with untiring zeal and devotion. My word, 1 1 was cruel in my young days! I used to come home tired and disappointed because not one of the children had been attended to that I had picked out as needing operations. That was a long time ago.

KNOCK-OUT BLOWS I can scarcely believe my eyes when I read that parents are really waking up in the matter of caring for the child. It’s too good to be true. It is rather a knock-out blow for me that I shall never be able to write about tigers again; I rather liked that bit about tigresses and their cubs. Never mind; give me a few more knock-out blows; I shall put up with it. The final knock-out will be when 1 am finally counted out because there are no more diseases to write about. But you must hurry up; I shall not live for ever, and there are still a few diseases left.

REST FOR ULCERS The importance of rest in the cure of sore places and ulcers on the feet and legs is not sufficiently well recognised. When the blood circulates through the ulcerated area it perforins a double function: it brings nourishment to the diseased tissues to build them up, and it carries away the poisonous product of the ulceration. The faster the blood circulates the better are these two functions performed. But the foot, being the low-

est point of circulation, is where the blood has most difficulty, and where the bloodstream is most sluggish. In order to get back to the heart it has to climb uphill. That is why the ulcers always occui’ in the legs and feet; you never saw one on the top of the head. If you lie down, with the foot raised on a pillow, the is no longer the lowest point of the circulation; it is on a level with the head. Hence the circulation is encouraged, and the rapid supply of healthy blood does more to heal the ulcer than any application. Rest is the essential for sores on the legs, especially in elderly people-.