HEALTH NOTES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 110, 11 May 1908, Page 6

HEALTH NOTES.

(By Dr. Andrew Wilson, F.R.C.S.)

THE ADVANTAGES OF A STARVE. Few readers perhaps will read the title of this article without indulging in some measure of surprise. Starvation is as a rule associated in our minds .with a condition of body such as disposes towards diseas&7'and there is no doubt whatever that in a case of regular and systematic starvation the bodily powers soon fail for want of nourishment, and disease of various characters is thereby induced. The starvation' with which I am dealing to-day is, however, of a different kind, and it may be said to represent a form of rest applied to the digestive organs. I am prepared to show furthermore that such rest is net merely highly beneficial in certain cases of disease, but may be said to form a means of treatment vastly superior to all othors if it can be promptly applied. Considering in the nrst instance what nature herself teaches us when illness.attacks us, there are-few ii any diseases in which amongst the signs of illness the disappearance or the appetite does not mark the fti-st stages of the attack. Indeed, m very many complaints an absolute loathing for food may exist, and this remark applies to the food of which when in health the patient may be inordinately f°nd* AN EXAMPLE. Here nature is teaching us that part of the cure at which she is aiming is the avoidance of giving work to the digestive - system when it is unable properlynto perform its labours. Take next the example of stomach affections', and.1 begin with a simple case of indigestion. Here wefind that for months, or it may be for years, a perfioti has been groaning and suffering under the pains and pangs of. indigestion. Day by day he eats, knowing that he has somehow or other to keep up his strength; -but at the same time he fears to indulge what appetite he has because he knows that sooner or later, when the digestive organs get to work on the food, pain and misery will be his lot. Hence he struggles on and at last awakens to the facti that some radical change in his diet is necessary. The food is altered, light articles of diet are alone taken, yet still, because his ailment [has not been properly attended to in time, his sufferings' may continue. I believe that the real remedy that has been most effective and of the. simplest nature will be found in his giving to his stomach as nearly as possible' absolute ' rest. If such a person, for example, reduced his meals to one or two a day, and suppose that for some days, longer if, possible, he lived on milk alone (the milk, if it did not agree with him in the pure state, might be taken diluted with a little water, and' with lime water),1 what, it may be asked, would be the- effect of such practice? In the first foace, we see the stomach would" be relieved of a very considerable portion, of its labours. It would, in fact, obtain what it evidently requires, namely, a much needed rest:

AFTER-TREATMENT. If feeling that his pains and miseries were in some degree or altogether lessened by this radical change of food he then began to adopt his old method of diet, the probability _ is that his symptoms would again return. What he has to do in this case is to adopt a very gradual approach to a reason- ■ able dietary, and he should begin by taking food of as light a character as possible for a time. Let him continue his milk diet, adding thereto once a day at first a little boiled white nsh or altering the fish ■ every second day ■ with such a light diet as tripe well cooked constitutes. After a time of this diet if he finds- himself still improving he may then cautiously once or twice a week venture upon a little mutton, which is more digestible than beef,, and even preferable to mutton would be boiled iowl, because the flesh of the bird is more easily digestible than that of sleep. Later- on, he may indulge in his potatoes, fruits, and like articles of diet,) but it may be . that all his life' afterwards if he wishes to escape his ancient enemy he will require to exercise care in diet and to see that light foods alone are taken. .."The msin point, however, which I have been endeavouring to impress on the minds of readers to-day is the preliminary rest given to the digestive organs by what I have called the star^ vation diet in the early dayp of treatment.

PTHER. ILLUSTRATIONS

There are other diseases in which i the limitation of food proves to be of j immense advantage. Thus, for ex- j ample, people who are troubled with biliousness and like kinds of liver disturbance know perfectly "well that when they are affected all food is more o,r less loathsome to them. This, as I have said, is nature's way of teaching us that it is desirable in the view ~ -swt. of her curing our complaints by en§|P suring that .food' should not be taken j ■at all. Hence sufferers from liver' troubles should be carefulgfcp avoid as 1 far as possible taking any solid food until they are well. Indeed, *it will be impossible for them in their biilous condition to take more than foods of a very light character. These should be limited to milk and soda and to any other light articles of diet which they may be able to take. We thus see that it is not merely a question in treating our common ailments of taking the proper kind of food, but one rather of food fitted altogether in the ! early stages of our troubles. We itave scientific authority of the highest character for the assertion that a great many of us eat more food than | we really require. The exact measure-! ment of tlie work done by the human ; body and of the food materials needed ' to supply the body wiihthe power of doing such work, shows that even a so-called moderate diet often exceeds the body's wants. Evidently, there-! V fore, if food be taken in excess during ! \ a period of months or years the body j instead of being duly nourished must be subjected to a certain risk^of disease in the endeavour to get rid of the unnecessary surplus food we have consumed. I have no doubt that many cases of fatness and stoutness are to be explained on this latter ground i A person is perhaps inclined constitu- I tionally to be stout-bodied. He may be a small eater, but none the less he' is really consuming more food than he i needs. In such a case in addition to' adopting the remedies in the way of proper food for reducing his girth he i may be well advised if ne has regard i to the quantity of food he takes. An ! occasional day's starve in the sense of j a little milk alone, accompanied by a i' sufficient amount of exercise, would ■ have in many cases of stoutness, I am • persuaded, a most beneficial effect! where even a regulated diet may fail \ to reduce weight.