“Disease and Modern Life”

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 175, 27 July 1938, Page 13

“Disease and Modern Life”

DR. K. DEAN’S ADDRESS TO GUILD The speaker at tho Townswomen’s Guild on Monday afternoon was Dr. Ivenrick Dean who gave a thoughtful address on “Disease and Modern Life. ’ ’ Primitive life was a life of instinct, Dr. Dean said at the outset, tho getting of food out-of-doors inviting adventure, exercise, and fighting. There was no set work and marriage and child upbringing wero largely impelled and conducted through tribal custom and instinct, medicine the science of herbs and primitive suggestions of the witch doctor. There was ample leisure, too, the speaker said, and ample sleep aud congenial jjlay. There were primitive sports, too, feats of strength, wrestling and running and tests of speed, power and agility and dancing and simple music. Primitive people lived like plants, being true to their natures just as a tree was true to its nature in its growth from a seed in response to the environment it lived in. Those men that persisted did so because they were true to their natural instincts in avoiding excesses and perversions; in keeping pleasure in its proper place and thus being true to their natural instincts and in harmony with their environment. This, the speaker illustrat ed with references to life in the South Sea Islands, where due to right living there was no high blood pressure, hardly any heart disease, no appendicitis, kidney diseases and no “nerves.” Contrasting primitive and modern life, the speaker said that life to-day was more complex and nervous systems wero more complex. Our brains had developed and our powers of speech, our capacity to read and write and invent things of great complexity. Years were spent at sports aud amassing lots of learning. All this we did in virtue of the great development elasticity and sensitivity of the central nervous system as it was called.

Two hundred years ago, Dr. Dean continued, life was comparatively simple compared with to-day. Very few went to school, and schooling was a leisurely affair. Work was not intense and food was natural and unrefined. Leisure was considerable. Physical exertion was suitable if deficient for those of middle life. Nerves were largely unknown and diseases due to bad sanitation, poor housing and poor ventilation, were common.

To-day tho diseases due to poor housing, ventilation and sanitation —plague, typhoid, dysentry and malaria—had been largely arrested in moat countries but we had new diseases in their stead. It was said by Lord Horler, the King’s physician, that fully 60 per cent, oi modern disease was due to nervous causes. Nerves and the diseases resulting from nervous causes were the great problems confronting thinkiu'.» people to-day, Dr. Dean contended. Tho great feature of modern life was speed and change. It was an age of commerce, of rapid travel and exchange of goods. People toured widely and often. This meant an ever acceleraing speed of life, with people emotionally tensed to maintain their positions in tho quickly flowing and eddying stream of progress. A certain amount of tension was normal but like tne first test there should bo a corresponding relaxation readily and habitually, to maintain rhythm and proper function in the body. The tension originated in the nervous system and as the nervous system went to tho muscles, spine, bowels and stomach and in fact, all the organs of the body, tho result was constant strain, leading to nervous exhaustion and eventually to organic disease “What can we do about this?” the speaker asked. “We all want to keep our health, we all want to get the maximum of happiness from our living, but nervous tension can prevent this consummation. llow can we deal with this condition of nervous tension? Wo cannot very well escape from modem life. There are attempts to escape—for example the experiment in England at Laxton —20 people living a simple, selfcontained life on a 44-acre farm. They have fled from the life of tho cities. “But we do not all want to give up ali that is good in city life for a primitive life with all its paucity and drawbacks. That would mean doing away with machines, but machines are our slaves and why should we get rid of such valuable aids? They are like the slaves of ancient Greece who did all the uncongenial work so that their masters might have their energies free for other things. So we want all the benefits of tho primitive life, plus the use of the machine to -do the things wo do net want to do. If we can get that then we shall have a real civilisation far better than the one the ancient Greeks built up. Two things arc needed for this: (1) To remake society so that it is suited to human nature. Human nature must not be subordinated to a system or a creed or an organisation. Tho system must serve human nature and if it really doe 3 so, then the keynote of society’s activity will be joy or happy living. The second thing is to promote health in tho individual by the cultivation of relaxation, and how is this to be done?” The speaker submitted tho four essentials ho considered necessary to relieve nervous tension: (a) Adequate nutrition. Much had been written lately about nutrition, Dr. Dean said. (b) Physical recreation was another essential and must be of a kind that suited the physique and temperament and ago of the individual. The proper sort resulted in a pleasant kind of fatigue with relaxation. The unpleasant fatigue meant that it did not suit the individual, and a physician’s advice should be sought on this question, (c) of securing social intercourse was another important factor. This meant the mectiug together of people in groups to promote fellowship and friendliness. Every individual should belong to a club of some sort. The individual must also have suitable expression for his or her talents, arid the woman in the home not liking domestic duties faced a real problem. Dr. Dean said, and a job suitable for her talents, either part- or full-time, would relieve nervous tension. If a job did not suit a person there was excessive nervous tension and a change of occupation was a treatment and a cure.

In conclusion, Dr. Dean pointed out that civilisation was likely to maintain the speed of change. Two great revolutionary changes were needed if civilisa-

tion was to survive and if we were to get that personal development out of life that was within our powers. Our innermost natures cried out for complete expression, for full and joyful lives. Dr. Dean urged hiß listeners to keep two allimportant objects in view: (1) To remake society to suit human nature and (2) to build health in themselves and others with whom they camo in contact and influenced.