ABOUT HEALTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19986, 30 June 1928, Page 6 (Supplement)

ABOUT HEALTH.

MEDICAL RULES FETISH, BX FRANK HUISH. A Harley Street specialist tells us that we need open windows in the spring because we are "sometimes enervated by the low physiological saturation deficit." If you were to quote that statement to the average man he would gladly sit in a hurricane.

But if you suggest to him that he open the windows to enjoy the spring air, he will stifle the house till it feels like the inside of an oven.

People of to-day like to have a technical medical reason for all their actions. They scorn to do anything merely because they enjoy it. It must be good for them, and they must be able to quote a string of medical statistics to prove that it is. If a friend is telling you about his new car, the betting is 100 to 1 that he will first say how much better he is keeping for the drives in the fresh air. Only on second thoughts will he tell you how pleasant they arc. I have heard quantities of people say that they only play golf because it is a more amusing form of exercise *!ian walking. One gathers that they piefer to do a hole in six than in three, because it requires moro exertion. A headmistress recently told a parent that her pupils made their _ beds themselves "because we think it such good exercise." Had the mother been told truthfully that the beds were made to save the servants' work she would have been highly indignant. But as it was for their health, what could she do but smilo and say it was a splendid idea! Business men have grasped that health has a publicity value to-day, and they drag it into their advertisements. Most materials are recommended, not as being artistic, but as keeping away winter colds and preventing over-heating in summer. And desirable residences are even more desirable when they are "healthily situated" than when they "stand amid beautiful scenery." Taking health as a basis for ■. all our actions is a wise course in some ways, but it has one or two serious disadvantages. It makes people' neurotic through worrying too much about their constitutions.

Unless they have medical approval for everything they do, they are terrified that"they are leading unhealthy lives, and worry themselves into a state of nerves.

And it prevents us enjoying life simply for enjoyment's sake. It is an unforgivable sin nowadays to say: "I did enjoy it so much." without adding in the same, breath: "And I felt so much better for it." In other words, health and pleasure are commonly regarded as irreconcilable — especially in the matter of food. A raw carrot must be good for everybody, because nobody likes it.

I cannot believe, for my part, that Nature meant us to do penances so incessantly !