TALKS ON HEALTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 10 December 1930, Page 9

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION Thcro may be different views about tho relative values of the various methods of treating consumption, but there is no difference of opinion about the urgent necessity of starting tho treatment early. It fills the doctor with despair when, at his first examination, ho finds signs of consumption, which must have been there for months. We ought to put up a better fight against tuberculosis than wo do, and it can only be dono by co-operation. We must work together. Ido not think you ought to say to yourself, "I have had a bad cough for months, but I am not going to do anything about it." In most cases it is a question of funk. You do not like to face the truth. If you have consumption you would- rather not know it. May I encourage you to be brave and face the truth? Remember that when you cough you are spreading the infection to those around you who ought to be dear and precious in your sight. You have no right to say, 'I know I may bo infecting my children by coughing germs over them, but I don't caro if I am." If we arc to euro you we must seo you early, not when the disease has got a hold of you. Consumption is no longer a mystery. We do not believe that it comes from sunspots or eclipses of tho moon or the evil eye of a witch. Everyone who has consumption, caught it from some other consumptive. If it were possible to take all the consumptivos out of England in a fleet of ships, we should never seo a ease of consumption again. Think of others; live for others; never mind about yourself. If you have any doubt about your own lungs you must seek immediate advice, for tho sake of others whom you may infect. THE PERSISTENCY OF GERMS i Germs aro mischievous rascals; they adopt all sorts of dodges to escape detectioa and destruction. They are so small that no one can see them, and they hido in tht most cunning fashion. Moreover, they can travel about. If they get into the body they try to reach the blood-stream. They do not want to stay in one part of -the body; they are adventurous, like the pioneers and explbrers of old. The little wretches are not content to stay in the tonsils; they try to reach the heart. They will not rest in the lungs; they strive to reach the voice-box and destroy the voice. No policeman can keep tho germs in the'finger; they insist on going up the arm to the arm-pit, or they swim in the blood from the toe to tho groin.

THE CARE OF THROATS

An examination into the history of a hundred cases of heart disease in children shows that 'many of the sufferers had tonsilitis. Wo therefore hope in the .future to reduce the number of children with heart disease merely by taking care of the throats. Healthy throats will prevent heart disease. Never talk to me about the tonsils being a long way from the heart, because I shall not listen to you. It takes a second or two for the blood that is now in the tonsils to reach the heart. If we can get the children's throats healthy we shall have done a grand piece of work in the prevention of illness. The mouth should be spotless. In fact, I will now call upon you to send for your children so that you may have a lo'ok at the inside of their mouths in a good light. If there is any sign of inflammation in any tooth or gum or tonsil, or if the child cannot breathe through his nose on account of adenoids, ho is running the risk of damage to the valves of the heart. How do I know ? Because I have performed post-mortem examinations on dead children and fouhd the same germs in the throat and in the heart —exactly the same, Ido not want to carry out a post-mortem on your child.

VALUE OF BROWN BREAD Please give your children brown bread. If they have it from the start they grow up with it and look upon it as the usual form of bread. It is only when they are asked to give up their old friend —the white bread—that they feel strange.. Brown bread contains more nourishment. The husks and portions that cannot be digested form a slight residue that acts as a natural aperient. Bread is deficient in fat; that is why it is the custom to eat butter with bread. Dripping is an excellent food for children. I was brought up on brown bread and dripping, and look at me! Bread forms such a large proportion of our diet that we ought to get the best. You like to see the flour nice and white, and therefore it is bleached for you, but it adds nothing to the nourishing properties of bread to have the flour whitened by And may I add that bread, of whatever colour or variety, must be well masticated if it is to form good blood? Gobbled bread is useless except to form flatulence. The mill-stones did not perform all the work. Your own grinders in your own. mouths must do their share.

THE NEED FOR REST Rest is a valuable form of treatment in these days of rush. Some of my patients quite agree with me. and they say they only wish they had the time and money. They would very much like to go away to a sunny spot'in the South, and bask and eat and sleep, and then sleep and eat and bask. I can give the advice, but I cannot always afford to give the patient the cash. So we have "to be content with second best measures. Rest restores the brain, the most important organ of the body; rest restores the heart. Never is a heart so grateful as when it is given a little peace instead of being made to rush about in a wild career. Rest restores the liver and digestive organs if a light careful diet is taken. Rest to the body should always bo accompanied by light food. If you are not doing a hard day s work the body does not require so much sustenance. Rest, restores the nerves; the ears, the eyes, and the whole nervous systm arc grateful for peace and quietDistracted parents are the ones who want rest.

WHY NOT CO-OPERATION ? There ought to bo a cooperative system. Mrs Brown and Mrs Jones should unite to arrange 'an alternate rest for each. A stitch in time saves nine. A rest now may save a nervous breakdown in three months' time. I have not so much sympathy with the men. Iney do not work very hard nowadays. But the women must have a rest. It is too much to have three young children and another one coming and all the cooking and washing to do, and her husband s strike pay to fetch while he goes to tho football match. Look back on your own career and on those of your friends Can you think of many an examplo of what I am trying to preach? Have not more than one of your friends broken

Dieting is a mistake for stoutness Take Youth-O-Form Capsules instead. Absolutely harmless.—Nces, Chemists, Hardy street,

down when a timely rest could have saved them? A rest is a good investment ; it brings in a good return. Health is money. Do write to kind Auntie Mary and ask her if she can put you up for a week and let you lead the life of an invalid just for a few days. Think 0 f jt—breakfast in bed ! Poached eggs on toast! And a nice-looking doctor to pop in to cheer you up, and all paid for by Auntie! A good deal of my life is snent in wishing I could put the clock back a few weeks or months. If only the poor woman I saw today had taken a rest a few weeks ago she would not have had to go to hospital