HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2705, 17 January 1906, Page 66

HEALTH COLUMN.

A Wap After a Meal.

The 1-ia.jerity of people/ take a meal of some kind between the hours of 12 and 2 i daily (says a physician). With a number I of persona this meal assumes the form of a substantial dinner, while with others it amounts to nothing more than a light luncheon. In either ease, however, the repast requires to be digested, and this necessitates some modification of the activities of the brain, since neither that organ r.or , those concerned in the processes of digestion are capable of good work when an ; attempt is made to put forth their energies simultaneously. The exceedingly complex processes of d.gestion and assimilation whereby dead animal and vegetable matters are transformed into living human tistues dema.iJ for their rapid and healthy performance an increased circulation of blood in the stomach and ancillary organs as well as a concentration of nervous energy in the same region. Now, increase of circulation in one organ or set of organs entails a diminution in the others. Consequently the supply of blood to the brain is curtailed immediately after a meal has been eaten, and since the blood is the life the higher functions of that great orga i are performed only with difficulty, if at all. A tendency to drowsiness, confusion of thought md inability to make any great mental effort are among the results of a diminished* cerebra^l circulation. These feelings are, therefore, experienced by most persons after a meal, and they are the more pronounced in proportion to the greater i amount of digestive energy expended. I Since brain work of good quality cannot bo produced while the processes of digestion aro in active operation, it is wiee not to attempt it. It is never prudent to thwart the beneficent intentions of Na- ' ture. Many persons strugglo against the mental and physical lethargy that accom- ; pany the earlier stages of the digestive act," apparently under the delusion that all time gnen to the important business of building up and repairing their tissues is time wasted. So far from this being the case, a. well-spent post-prandial interval tends to the preservation and prolongation of life. If a tendency to drowsiness is felt, sleep should b© allowed to prevail, for the pro•\erbial "forty wink>'' is justified by science. A ten or fifteen minutes' nap after a meal, curiously enough, will enable many a brain voiker tc arise refre«h°d who might have 6f<?nt an hour or two in a vain and mentally confuted struggle against the "drowsy tod." A cup of tea or <offe*> about on hour after a light luncheo.i will facilitate and expedite tho la«t btages or gastric ditrestion, and so assist in the rapid re-establi-h-n>onf of mental vigour and clearness of nind. There are somo poison? who instead of letting af'or luncheon or early dinner take some form of exercise, such as walking or cycling:. If the meal has beon at all substantial, muscular exercise must tend to U'iard and weaken digestion by withdrawing a certain modicum of nerve energy to the lower limbs and the centres which goiern their movements and diminishing tie circulation -n the alimentary canal by increasing it in the legs and arm*. Unless their digestive powers are very keen people who take actne exercise after food find that the process of digestion is thereby only {jiolonged. On many grounds iest after food is gwr«

in accordance with physiological requirements than exercise, and the afternoon nap, so scoffed at by the heedless, is a measure to be not only defended, but recommended. It is a practice beneficial, not. only to digestion, but to many of the other functions of the body. Rest is the one thing needful in this restless age, and it is never so necessary as in the small hours of the -afternoon. Among the many generally unsuspected benefits conferred on the post meridian sleeper rest of the heart and systematic circulation must be placed in the front rank. Now, the more rest, within the limits of health, the heart is able to obtain the more efficiently and the longer will it continue to carry on its work, for th/* heart is, with most people, a muoh overworked organ, and any indulgence given it will be repaid several times over. Another very important organ which obtains a much needed rest during the afternoon nap is the eye. There is no reason why people should be constantly laying v.aste the powers of the organ of vision, the optic nerve, and the visual centres of the brain itself by continually gazing at ■whatever trivial objects chance to present themselves within the" field of vision. lL\en the most casual of "things seen" entails an expenditure of nerve energy, and an adjustment of accommodation, wear and tear of the exceedingly fine and complex ocular mechanism, and a corresponding- exhaustion, of the nerve cells ing the visual centres of the brain, all o r which must tend ultimately to curtail the ix'iiod during which the visual sight should be at its best.