TALKS ON HEALTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 10 February 1938, Page 9

TALKS ON HEALTH

By A FAMILY DOCTOR THE QUESTION OF WEIGHT Keep a record of your weight; it may be useful. It is astonishing how people get fancies about their weight. ”1 am sure l have been losing flesh for several weeks, doctor,” is an often-heard cry, but the belief of the patient is not always borne out by the facts. When the test of the weighing-machine is applied it is found that the weight is about the same. It is not necessary to he weighed more than once a quarter. I have known ladies weigh themselves on Saturday and then rush round again to the weighing-machine on Mqnday expecting to find some terrible evidence of wasting. Let us put aside that silly superstition that a man weighs less after a meal than before it. WASTING DISEASE In the diagnosis of some diseases wasting may he an important sign; the doctor would be glad to know if there is clear evidence of a steady loss of weight. It, relieves the doctor s anxiety if the body-weight has been well maintained during the last six months. In any specin' course of leatmeut, for instance, dieting, or perhaps physical exercise, it is always interesting to note the effect on the system. A loss of weight in itself may he of good of had import. If the body contained ail excess of useless fat a loss oi weight would be beneficial. No important organ would be interfered with by a loss of fat. But suppose the patient had some wasting disease. First of all the superfluous fat would disappear, then the fat that is not superfluous (we all ought to have our bodies well covered) would go, and finally the muscles and solid flesh would begin to fade away.

THE SHOULDER-JOINT The shoulder-jont is very loosely put together, so as to allow free movement; the arm can be whirled round like a windmill and turned in every direction; the socket is a very shallow one. Next time you go to a museum, you must have a look at the human skeleton. You will see the upper end of the arm-bone or humerus swollen out into a knob or head. This head of the humerus forms a hall and socket joint with a shallow depression on the shoulder-blade or scapula. The free movement is now explained ; the head of the humerus is not enclosed in the socket, it only rests against the socket. THE HIP-JOINT Now turn your interested gaze to the corresponding joint of the lower limb—the hip-joint, hut note the difference. The socket is deep, and completely encloses the head in the hip-hone. It is very nice and convenient to have shoulders that can he moved in every direction, but we have to pay a price for the piivilege—the shoulder-joint is one of the commonest joints to he dislocated, whereas the hip-joint is very rarely dislocated. The socket of the shoulder is flat, like a saucer; the socket of the hip-joint is hollow, like at cup. A DISLOCATION W lien you see the skeleton in a glass case it looks as though it would be a simple job to put hack a hone that had been displaced by some sudden wrench. But the surgeon lias something more to deal with than a skeleton; the bones of a joint are held together by strong hands called ligaments. These ligaments are torn when a joint is dislocated, and they must he given a chance to heal before the joint is freely used again.

A WARNING 1 want to give you one warning. When the bone is replaced the patient feels so much better that lie thinks the joint is restored to health, lie uses Ins arm freely, and out comes flic hone again, and each time the hone comes out it leaves the joint weaker. The torn ligaments must be given a chance to heal up, and the movements of the arm must he very gradual and very gingerly performed at first. If care is not taken in this respect, (lie result will he that a slight injury will cause a dislocation, and the damaged shoulder will be a nuisance all through life. VARIED DIET BEST A varied diet is the diet we are meant to eat. The shape of our teeth tells us that. We have neither the long, tearing teeth of the purely meat-eating animal, such as the tiger, nor have we the flat, grinding and nibbling teeth of a sheep or a horse. We come betwixt and between. Uierefore 1 object to people telling me

they never touch meat, or cannot hear fish, or they don't like vegetables. A hit of all sorts’ in season is the correct diet. But I wish to emphasise the values of I fresh things. The chemical foods contain- | ed in fruit and vegetables arc preventives j against any important hlod disease like ; scurvy. A BOOK AT THE BEDSIDE j In case you find it impossible to sleep I well, you must have a lot of tilings by your bedside. A few biscuits, a warm covcring in case you wake up cold, a glass o: water, an easy means of turning on a light, a good hook, and a volume of poetry. I said a book, not a penny dreadful, or “The Ghastly Crime of Deadman’s Gulch.” Surely you have some favourite that is restful. Was all your education useless? Did you not meet one hook you loved when you were young? Sometimes people cannot sleep because they I are not really tired ; they just sit about ali day looking at the wallpaper or walking to the corner of the street and hack ; they do not deserve sleep. Sleep is a re- « ward for the active and the free. THE GREAT RESTORATIVE Sleep in grown-ups is always a pleasant topic to write about. It is the great

restorative. I fry very hard to get tired mothers to have a vest in the middle of the. day. After dinner is finished and the children have been sent off to school, so clean that the nurse knows that she need not trouble to examine them (!), the n other should try and snatch a little peace and quiet. I think it could be arranged. A nap would give the brain a rest; hut. what is more important, the reclining posture would give the hack a rest. A pain in the hack may often be relieved by a rest. The muscles of the spine, constantly on the stretch as they maintain the spine in a vertical position, give a sigh of relief when the overfatigued woman lies down. The muscles are then no longer under the necessity of doing their work, and may knock off and take a spell of rest. It is almost hopeless to write this, because you do not believe that the muscles of the back can be relieved in this way; you place all your faith in a pill. I wish the muscles could speak when you offer them a very nice pill with a lovely pink coating instead of a rest. There is no substitute for sleep—it is no good saying there is something that is just a good—it mut be sleep or nothing. If you are run down, try going to bed two hours earlier than usual for a fortnight.