Medical Notes

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 7 (Supplement)

Medical Notes

EXAMPLE OF NEURITIS WHY POISON OURSELVES? By SIR WILLIAM ARBUTHNOT LANE, E.T., C.B. No. IX. T\TE now know that by altering the vitamin content of the diet we can completely change the human constitution. Solely by tampering with the foods we eat we can produce crippling and deadly diseases. It is no exaggeration to say that there is no single factor which pliays a more vital part in human destinies than diet, or the quantity or quality of our food. There is istill a woeful ignorance on the part of the public of the nutritional needs of the body, and much preventable ill-health exists in consequence. It will bo profitable to study the origin, manifestations and prevention of one of the most prevalent and one of the most painful diseases which afflicts' mankind, namely, neuritis. Neuritis is the medical term which donotes an inflammation of a part of the nerve structure —either the sheath or the delicate filaments which transmit the nervous impulses. In the early stages, this inflammation is generally revealed by pain in the courso of the affected nerve, the pain being variously described as shooting, darting, burning, or merely as a tingling sensation, which is usually worst at night and is accentuated by warmth. In most cases, after the acute symptoms subside, a feeling of numbness is loft behind. Should the inflammation be very severe and prolonged, destructive changes occur in the nerve and this leads to impairment of the functions controlled by this nerve. For example, if the muscle-supplying nerves of the arm are degenerated from prolonged inflammation, the: arm muscles become partly paralysed and waste, causing wrist-drop. A Warning At this point I should like to sound a warning note.. Neuritis is a popular term and it is a popular failing to label all kinds of sharp limb pains as "neuritis." Now, this condition is generally regarded lightly, as it docs not as a rule Beriously incapacitate the sufferers and, as tho pain may actually bo produced by some grave internal disease, there is a danger of that disease going undetected. Gnawning pain in the back of the thigh may bo due to a truo neuritis of tho sciatic nerve, but it might also be caused by a growth at the lower end of tho large bowel pressing on that nerve. Again, darting pains in tho legs may be of neuritic origin, but a disiease of tho spinal cord, known as locomotor ataxy, might also bo responsible. Concerning the cause of neuritis, there is not mucih divergence of medical opinion. It may be summed up by saying that inflamed nerves are firstly ill-nourished nerves and secondly poisoned nerves. We may make our own poisons within our bodies or we may imbibe already manufactured poisons from without. As examples of the second group, mention may be made of tho commonest, namely, alcohol, lead, arsenic and mercury. Alcoholic neuritis is prevalent in excessive drinkers of all classes and coexisting malnutrition predisposes to it. Arsenical and mercurial neuritis sometimes .arise .when .these substances are

Diet and Human Destiny

used in the medicinal treatment of disease, while lead neuritis may effect workers in the painting, plumbing and pottery trades who aro also suffering from poor nutrition. However, the majority of cases of neuritis in adults owe their origin to what is best described as self-poisoning, and immediately we are up against our übiquitous foe —constipation. In the first place, constipation is evidence of faulty dieting. There is no doubt on this point. If we eat foods from which tjhe mineral salts, vitamins and roughage are removed, we not olily fail to provide adequate and suitable nutriment for our body cells, but we also fail to give our intestines a chance to operate in a satisfactory manner. In consequenco the undigested food remains accumulate, stagnating and putrefying, allowing the intestinal germs to multiply and flourish, and so generating poisons which have a peculiarly damaging effect on the delicate nerve tissue. Headaches aro one of the most constant accompaniments of constipation, and they are simply warnings that the sensitive brain cells aro being poisoned. In much the same fashion, aching nerves are evidence of poisoned nerve fibres and the nerves aro most susceptible to these intestinal poisons when they aro exhausted from overwork and from lack of pure nourishment. Lowered Vitality Before these various poisons can produce their dire effects, the nerves must be unhealthy through lack of proper nourishment. The faulty dietary which causes constipation also causes a lowering of the vitality of all the tissues in the body. In particular, there is impoverishment of the quality of the blood, with tho result that tho nerves are starved of their vital requirements and aro readily affected by circulating poisons which otherwise might have little or no effect upon them. Absence or deficiency of vitamin B in the diet has a speciiic action in causing neuritis. Complete omission of this vitamin from the dietary leads to the most dangerous form of neuritis, which is a symptom of the disease called beriberi. When we bear in mind that vitamin B is removed along Avith the greater part of the roughage and mineral salts in the modern practice ol rclinjng cereals and that refined white bread is still tho staple food of millions, it is easy to understand tho prevalence of neuritis and to realise how justly it is classified among tho dietetic diseases of civilisation. Some other forms of self-poisoning remain to bo mentioned. Tho so-called "focal infections" aro sources of poisoning and aro important causes of neuritis in people wnoso nutrition is undermined. By a focal infection is meant a localised area of the body that has become infected with disease germs. Poisons are manufactured and poured into tho blood stream to bo circulated to susceptible tissues, which aro thus damaged. Tho corners of tho body where such foci of infection are commonly found include the teeth, gums, tonsils, air cells in relation to tho noso, and the genito-urinary tract. Now an unfortunate feature of focal infections is that they are apt to be overlooked because they aro mostly painless. A dead tooth with a painless abscess at tho root may bo a cause of neuritic pains, and such a source of nerve poisoning is very liable to be ignored, the sufferer seeking to allay the pain with drugs.