SANITY IS SUN BATHING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22847, 30 September 1937, Page 5

SANITY IS SUN BATHING

SUMMER PRECAUTIONS health rules for the beach With summer 'not so very far away, when thousands of people trek to the seaside for the holidays, it is perhaps advisable to repeat a few of tho simple precautions that should never bo forgotten, states a medical writer.

Let it be said at once that tho sun and tho sea are two of the most valuable and beneficent tonic agencies that Jfature has bestowed upon us, and the seaside holiday, given good weather, affords a splendid opportunity of allowing tho skin to perform and rejoice in its natural functions.

But care should be taken, especially ; hy town-dwellers, and by tho parents of Young children, to sec that skins and bodies are tuned in gradually to both !' these powerful sources of health, t A too abrupt and violent sun burning s enn be not only immediately very painful, but the origin of a general feeling of tiredness and ill-being due to a resulting mild poisoning by tho products of such sunburning. True Badge of Health > 1 The first exposures should therefore be brief and partial and confined to arms, legs and foot. Indeed, it is always better that bronzing should be tho rel suit of open-air exercise rather than ! of passive basking 011 sands and beaches, J with tho assistance of various protective oils and creams. Tho sun, wind and weather tan, • earned by the sweat of the brow, is the true badge of health; the other sort : is apt to be.no more than a spurious J decoration. | - As regards sea-bathing and swimming ' it must also bo remembered that sea- !' water is a very strong stimulant. |' For delicate people and young children the first two or three bathes

should be quite short, however tempting

j the conditions. They should never be i taken while the blood stream is engaged | with the digestion and absorption of a meal; and it is,-wiser never to batho until two hours after a heavy meal. It is also a mistake to remain in the v water after a sense of tiredness or chill has made itself / apparentand it ia . better not to/remain in the'water oven ! to such a point. After the Bathe Children absorbed in the delights of bathing or paddling are sometimes quite ■ unconscious of these feelings, and older people in charge of them should be careful-to see that they do not become blue, or to bring them out of the water for a good towelling at the first signs cf this. Since swimming and bathing and the * temperature of the water itself tend to an increased metabolism, or com- | ljustion of food.' a bnn or a glass of milk or a hot drink can often be taken vn'th benefit after the morning or afternoon bathe. Given these initial precautions for the first three or four days at the seaside, the norma! healthy body very quickly f responds to the new stimulating conditions, and after this both exposure to the sun and the water can be healthfully indulged in for increasing periods. \ The stimulated metabolism is met by a latter Uppetite. and the whole tone of the hody- is lifted on to a higher ' scale. aS it v were, of vigour arid excliange.* 'A wise use of the brake for the first few days is more thnn amply repaid by the ensuing access of wellbeing. r