Home Health Guide

Northland Age, Volume XVII, Issue 62, 7 May 1948, Page 3

Home Health Guide

(By the Department of Health) HEALTH IN STORAGE Although the hottest part of the year is over, there should still be plenty of opportunity of building up in sunny weather for the demands that winter will make on our constitutions. At first glance you’d hardly think that the body’s interior is exposed to the air, would you ? But there certainly is a large area—tqe surface of our lungs which can benefit from clean, fresh, sunny ah if we give it the chance of propei exposure. These surfaces and the surface of our skin play a large pa v i in the resistance we build up against disease. Everyone should take outdoor e; ercise as often as possible within the limits of our age and the facilities available. Even a regular wall; is better than nothing at all. The skin is liable to suffer from gross neglect. Yet it’s the most important barrier we have between the inside of our body and the outer world. The skin needs exercise, too, if it’s to be kept in good trim. The best and cheapest treatment is to expose it to ai r outside the house, and to sun *in reasonable doses, and to bathe in either salt or fresh water. These three things stir the skin into activity and flush the surface of the body wdth eager blood. They stimulate the nerves in the skin and bring back tone to the body. The ultra-violet rays of the sun change a substance in the skin into vitamm D, which prevents rickets and builds up strength generally. This is of particular importance to growing children. The sw’eat that helps to cool the body passes through innumerable pores like little pipes, which are distributed over the entire skin area. Exercise in the fresh air gives them a chance of being flushed through instead of accumulating stale sweat and causing skin complaints. But don’t overdo this business of exposure by sitting too long in the sun, playing games that are too strenuous for you, or staying too long in the sea. Fatigue and exhaustion from such causes are not beneficial like the healthy tiredness that gives a feeling of lazy coiltentment. DANGER FROM BROKEN GLASS Every year there are reports of feet cut from broken bottlis. Not so long ago Auckland and Wefffftgton Hospitals had a busy time stitching and mending, the results of crashing beer-bottles. The person who throws a beerfbottle about is no credit to our homes or schools. He deserves detection and a penalty. There’s another citizen who maims children with broken glass and jagged tins. The one w r ho throws his

rubbish into a vacant section, instead of keeping a rubbish tin and looking after it properly. All kinds of stuff is pitched over the fence jagged crockery, glassware, wire ends, rusty tins. Soon the grass grows and conceals the danger. Along comes some children playing, and a foot or hand contacts the unseen menace. Not only does the rubbish-throwing citizen endanger children, he also encourages mosquito and rat breeding —even if he avoids throwing foodstuffs, he gives a rat cover, and anything that holds water will allow mosquitoes to breed. If your child should come home with a gash of either limb, or hand or foot, from standing on broken glass, stop the bleeding by the firm pressure of a pad bandaged over the v. ound. If it’s a big gash and apparently a severe wound, leave the 'earsing and dressing to a doctor who may think it requires stitching. Smaller wounds can be dressed at home. Cleanse the wound, after bleeding has stopped, with warm boiled soapy water, till you get all the dirt away. Plush the wound with cool boiled water or an antiseptic solution. Finally dab the surrounding Skin with iodine and cover with a sterile dressing, secured with plaster or bandage. And draw the moral in a teachable moment —never throw glass about.