TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 September 1940, Page 10

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR. THE HUMANE MACHINE. If you leave a bicycle out in the rain for a few weeks and never use it, it will go to rack and ruin. It will be too stiff to ride; the wheels will not go round, the bell will not ring, and the tyres will not inflate. A human body is a sort of machine; it is use that keeps it in good order. Many an old man has been in good order so long as he has kept to work, and has. collapsed when.he has retired on his pension. I have been rather shocked to note the deterioration that takes place in a man who is put aside from the ranks of the workers. I refer particularly to cases of injury that are the subject of a legal action. If the case is going to be heard in August, no power on earth will induce the litigant to go back to work before that date. He wants his damages; he wants to have his revenge on the motorist that ran him down; he begins to think himself a very important person when he can talk about “my solicitor,” and when the judge in his wig and gown is going to sit in court all day long for no other purpose than to hear his case.

WAITING FOR DAMAGES. The man is injured in February; unable to work through February and March; could get about during April; could begin work in May if he wanted to and would make an effort. In May his muscles, have fallen away to nothing, and he is encouraged to gp back to work and do his best. He says, “How can I work with my muscles as weak as this?” In June he ha's had another month to go to rack and ruin, and, like the bicycle, he is g’etting altogether out of order. Soon he will be not only unemployed, but unemployable. In July he does nothing; his advisers tell him he is foolish, and that he must make an effort; but no, in August the case is to be heard, and he is going to wait for his damages. It is a miserable state of affairs. I wish the law did not have such long delays. If he had gone back to work after two months’ rest he would have been all right by now. HAIR AND THE HEALTH. Never make the mistake of confining the treatment of the hair to the scalp alone. The general health has an enormous effect on the condition of the hair. The body, with all its different organs and structures, is one. You cannot pick out one isolated part for treatment; you must treat the whole. The hair grows because its root is supplied with blood. The blood is enriched from the alimentary canal; if the food is badly digested, the blood will suffer in quality, and when the blood after a meal reaches the roots of the hair, these offended structures will say, “Here, I say, call this blood? W.e call it very inferior stuff.” If, the milkman brings you watered milk you can change to another man. The poor little hair follicles cannot change their blood supply,, they have to -put up with what they get. Give them a chance. Wash away the accumulations of dead scales from the scalp, and give them a fresh, bright, pure, bloodsupply to their roots, and you will be rewarded by a more beautiful growth of hair. If you pick up one hair and pull it you will see that the skin •around the base grows white. Try it on the back of your hand or somebody else’s hand. That whiteness

. I means that the blood-supply is practically cut' off; the little blood- 1 vessels are'distorted and compressed,] and the blood cannot flow through I them properly. j “THE. CUP THAT CHEERS.” Tea in moderation can do no harm. Life without tea is , unthinkable to most of you. But do exercise a little restraint. You must not take tea more than ten times a day. I am shocked at the way you drink tea. Tea in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, and at night. You will turn into a. teapot if you are not careful. Tea. can cause anaemia and sleeplessness if taken in excess. Trying taking a quarter of your usual amount of tea, and see if you are not better for the change. You keep the teapot on the hob and keep on adding hot water and putting your lips to it when you feel “dispossed.” Stewed tea is poison. And please remember that tea is a stimulant; there is no nourishment in tea. Tea does not build up bone or muscle. Growing children should not take tea; milk and cocoa are better. If you must give them tea against my advice, put only a little tea in the cup and add a lot of milk and sugar, which are real foods. A tired horse needs a rest and a feed of corn, not a whip. Tea is a whip. Some of you are very intemperate with your tea-drinking. I know you will say that doctors take a fiendish delight in forbidding everything that is nice. But nd, we are not so bad as that; I take tea myself, but look at me and observe how healthy I am. I should be anaemic, like you, if I drank tea all day. Tea contains tannin, which has a constipating effect. ■

. ULCER OF THE TONGUE. Never neglect an ulcer of the tongue. The tongue is a very common site for cancer, especially in the male sex. The ulcer may be merely the outcome of rubbing against a sharp tooth. Attention to the tooth will cure the ulcer. But if the ulcer is neglected and allowed to persist until it becomes chronic, then there may be danger ahead. Always show lumps, ulcers or tumours to a surgeon at the earliest possible moment. To get rid of an ordinary ulcer of the tongue, you should avoid very hot food, cayenne pepper, curries, pickles, sauces, and also sharp crusts. Smoking should be given up altogether, and spirits are to be avoided. It is impossible to apply any ointment to the tongue, but the surface of the ulcer and the whole mouth should be frequently cleansed by the free use of an antiseptic mouth-wash. A solution of carbolic in the proportion of one part in sixty of water is a useful and simple mouth-wash. Doctors are willing and able to prevent you from getting ill -if you will go to them. It is a poor way to carry on a doctor’s business to wait until people are ill, and then step in when, it is too late. I am hoping that my* plan of punishment for avoidable illness will be adopted one day. When I see a young man, who ought to be| working and, supporting his family, lying at home ill when a little care and forethought might have kept him. healthy, then I have no sympathy for him, and'l think he ought to be rebuked. Keep your sympathy for the people who are ill through no fault of their own, but fine those who allowed themselves to get into a weak state through neglect of the ordinary rules of hygiene.