HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 58

HEALTH COLUMN.

Ouo 5 aiisc ol' Ind'g'CSiioiu

The prevalence of indigestion, not merely in a nuld and occasional foim. but of a severe and chronic i-j'pe, leads one to think that there mv.st be some gro>s abase of food among oil clasf-es. With few exceptions, children, are born with hculthy stomach's. We cannot complain of lack or variety cf wholesome food, nor dar j '\ c say that we cannot lejm. how to coo]; «li food so as to prefccnt it in it^ most -'^c-stible form; yet there are few grown-up people v/ho can say truthfully that they never suffer pain oidiscomiui't in the region ox their stomach ; and in almost every case it is caused by ignorant abuse ot that organ. Perhaps that abuse may have begun in childhood, so thai the person who suffers is not primarily to blaino. A doctor mv.s to a mother — "Don't tempi/ your children with fine things, or they will eat too much.' 1 That is the keynote of the trouble throughout life. We ore tempted to eat too much of fine things. Nobody is at all likely ever to cat too much of porridge, or plain scones, or broth, or roa^t mut'.un, or to drink too much water or milk. The most nourishing and sustaining diet decs not tempt the appetite overmuch.

A doctor comes into a house where there is no warn; ; a plentiful table, and great variety of food every day ; and his chief prescription sounds iionicai: a generous diet of plain food, not forgetting milk — milk, morning, noon, and night. Why, we dn not live in the slums ! Is not our diet always generous? Yes ; but we are too much enamouied o± our skill in cookery. There is a vast amount of talk nowadays about the importance of good cooking ; but there is this danger, that we count it an accomplishment, almost a iiue art. and adorn our table to the hurt of our household. Fancy cakes and puddings, and things of that sort, often cause indigestion, noL because they are indigestible, but because they are partaken of after the appetite has been sati.-fied with plainer dishes. We can eat a piece of tasty cake when we havo no desire for another half slice of plain bread. We are like childien ; we are tempted by good things to eat too much. When uny ot your men folk complain, oi.' some symptom of indigestion, how do you act? I know one household where the supply of cakes is immediately cut short, and* the tea table for weeks offers an uninteresting display of bread and scones. l J astry and cakes would seldom hurt if eaten fiist, when the appetite is keen. I have frequently taken tea in an English farm kitchen, where the burly farmer made his meal entirely off fruit and pastry cake. That was very much safer than disposing of several slices of bread and butter, and finishing off, when the appetite was satisfied, with two squares of cake.

People with delicate stomachs will tell you that the3^ are very careful of what they eat, and never indulge in rich dishes or cakes ; so it cannot be the cause in their case. That is very true ; but what I am thinking of is the prevention of indigestion, not its cure. When once the stomach has been seriously hurt by indiscreet eating, it never quite recover? its tone, though with care one ma i - licw to keep it in good order. I knou a ense of a, child who had a serious gastric disorder through eating a large lump of cheese. He is now a perfectly healthy man, but he cannot eat even a small piece of cheese, without suffering pain. Another growing boj>- took an overdose of plum pudding, and for many years afterwards sickened at a spoonful. Nature will have her revenge to the full, and indigestion is her revenge for overeating and indiscreet eating. The old folk tell us that in their youth — when porridge, pease brose, broth, and mashlain scones, and kindred articles wer.e tiie monotonous dishes of the year, they nev ie\i indigestion, or heard of it. Does no that teach us a lesson, we who boast of our skill in cookery?

Old Age. — Old age results from the body becoming too heavy and clumsy for the muscles and sinews which are necessary to healthful activity. In all the food we eat there -cream proportion of lime. Ho lon^, - - muscles are actively employed, this lime is worked out" of the system. If the body becomes inactive, it accumulates about the joints, and makes it more and more difficult to move them. Some of it gets into the muscles themselves, making them hard and inflexible. This is the reason why heart disease proves so often fatal to old peojDle. When the muscular valves of the heart cease to work freely, there is danger at almost any time of fatal results. If any man could exert enough will power to make himself take a certain amount of exercise every day, barring accidents, lie would live for ever. Influenza. — This complaint need not he the deadly malady it is, leaving such serious and disastrous consequences behind it, if we would only take it more seriously in the beginning. We do not take pains enough to stop its beginnings, partly because we do not recognise it. Sometimes it shows as sore throat ; sometimes, with a young child, as a sort of croup, or with intense pain in the limbs ; another time with terrible frontal headauhe, or in its French form as "la grippe " — that is, in the old form of diarrhoea, and sickness. Any and oil these forms are accompanied by high temeprature, and the excessive and sudden weakness which is its peculiar maik. In any case bed is the right place, and a diet for a few days of nourishing hot slops (hot milk being a wonderful restorative) the right food. Patience, warmth, and lying still will do far more at this stage than any drugs; thus, handkerchiefs, etc., sprinkled with oil of eucalyptus are a greit relief to the patient's eyes and head, and prevent the spicading of the influenza to others. Breathing an Art. — Look at the great singers. Their lungs spread out their ribs from top to bottom ; proper breathing has thrown the head back and brought the chest out. They are different creatures from the narrow-chested men who take in air in .stuffy rooms and wonder why they suffer. If you breathe through your mouth while asleep, try to correct this habit. Breathing through the no.se will of itself do away with much physical di&tre««, -.\ ith colds and that languid feeling in the

morning makes you feel as though sleep had tirerl instead of benefited yon. Lie in bed in such a way as to lei the lungs expand with the breath.. Do not pull tlie h-rdc-lothes up over your face. It you sleep with insufficient supplies of .>' in your ]un;-s you lose half the benefit vi y. uv rest. Bieathe &lo\vly ; breathe regularly. Take two or three hundred deep, slow breaths every morning and every evening on ths way to and from business. Remember that the blood runs through your body \ip and down from brain to toes incessantly. It starts on its journey a clear, bright, clean fluid. It comes back dnrk and murky, laden with impurities that it has collected on ils travels through your system. It is cleaned and purified by the air as it passes through your lungs. Take in plenty of air to clean it, and to clean your mind as w ell.