PREVENTING RHEUMATISM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 7 (Supplement)

PREVENTING RHEUMATISM

AVOID ACID-FORMING FOODS / Far too many women are the unhanpy victims of rheumatism, and it is very hard to persuade a large percentage.of them that this dread disease is often caused by errors of diet. Cold, damp and exposure to the weather all get their fair share of blame for bringing it on, and while it has to be conceded that rheumatism is more prevalent in some localities than in others, nevertheless it is the acid condition of the blood which is the underlying cause. We have been told that there are very few middle-aged people to-day who are completely free from the twinges of rheumatism —a statement which/ doctors find it quite easy to explain. Few middle-aged people, they say, eat a diet which contains a sufficiency of the -alkaline, cleansing salts. Most people greatly prefer the acidforming foods, which are the direct cause of "rheumatism; also, too many people' eat beyond their powers of digestion and assimilation. Many doctors believe that meateating is conducive to the complaint, and certainly a large proportion of the women one comes across who suffer from it have a history of generous meat-eating and general high-living behind them. POSSIBILITIES OF CURE There is, unfortunately, too prevalent a belief that the disease is something of a-national heritage, and that those who become afflicted by it are simply unlucky and must make the best of it. The general outlook upon it is hot nearly serious enough, from the victims' point of view, many of whom need not suffer so acutely as they do if they would put themselves into medical hands in the earliest stages Which brings us to the question, can a cure really be effected ? It is certain that a great deal can be done to keep the disease in check. But the road to cure is a long and difficult one. Massage and the various types of baths are all useful in their way, relieving pain and _ discomfort, but unless a revision of diet is undertaken along svith them, their benefit cannot be anything but a temporary one. It is only common sense to tackle a disease which starts in the blood through that same medium, and although the present state of our knowledge about rheumatism still has many * gaps in it which research is doing its best to fill in, it seems to have been definitely established that dietetic errors 'on the part of victims, and often, too, on the part of their parents, are the real root of the distressing complaint. When the disease has gained a strong hold, the doctor will almost certainly rigorously revise his patient's diet, and will probably tell her that her only hope of permanent improvement lies in adhering strictly to it for a considerable length of time. It often takes years to undo the harm caused by wrong feeding. SEARCH FOR MAGIC HERB The discovery of what is known as * a magic herb," which only grows in the Nilgiri Hills, Madras Presidency, is the objuct o£ a .British expedition which recently left London for India. The according to Frederick Ramshaw, who is leading the party., is used for curing rheumatism. Ihe secret of it, he says, has been handed down by local healers from generation to generation, and has never been divulged. He is convinced that the use of this herb would be of great benefit to humanity. ; ' The party will embark for India from Brindisi. They will travel, not by steamer; but in a . collapsible rubber boat, loft, long, specially made for them in Italy. On reaching India they will go straight to the Nilgiri Hills to begin their- investigations.