HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 207, 2 August 1941, Page 8

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

TREATMENT OF COMMON COMPLAINTS. No. 3: ACNE. (Prepared and " issued by the Health Department.) Acne is a little word that sometimes implies a lot of embarrassment and tears. It is the medical term ior that pimply and spotty condition of the face which develops in young adolescents, just when the self-conscious young high school miss is starting to take an active interest in her personal appearance—particularly her complexion. Jigt it is difficult to do much with a skin disfigured by persistent pimples and blackheads. Socially acne is a liability. and psychologically it is harmful. The only way to eradicate it is by going to a little trouble. Wash the inflected areas with hot water and soap daily.. There is no need to be worried about washing pimples and blackheads. It is an essential part of tho general treatment. Apply sulphur, preferably in the form of a milky lotion of zinc sulphate and flowers of sulphur. Your chemist will scout it to your fancy. Rub the lotion in after you have washed and dried tho infected areas, and allow it to dry on. When it is dry, rub the resulting powder into your skin, and remove the excess. Within about seven or ten days the skin gets tight and may have a slightly scaly look al>out it. Don’t be scared about it. Instead of cold cream, apply a cream containing salicylic acid and glycerine of starch. As lor the blackheads, lift them out with an expressor. Dab the spot with spirit, and apply the lotion. In a short time the benefit will become apparent, and a distressing condition, which might last for months, is usually corrected within a week or so. In addition to the external treatment, it is desirable to watch the diet a little. It should be plain and simple, with plenty of fruit and vegetables. Cut down on sugar, pastries and cakes, which cause an excess of carbohydrates. Don’t cat chocolate—it contains a fat predisposing to acne —and put the cheese out of sight for a while. It is important, too, that any constipation should be corrected. Sunshine and fresh air arc a groat help. Get as much as you can. Avoid tile use of greasy toilet creams or overdoses of oil when sunbathing. They merely encourage the little germ which causes acne. It is particularly partial to a greasy skin. (Next week: Diphtheria.)