HEALTH NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3313, 12 September 1917, Page 58

HEALTH NOTES.

HOUSEMAID'S KNEE. "Housemaid's knee" —so called becausa it is usually, or, at any rate, very frequently, due to continual kneeling on , a hard surface—is a condition of the ioint in which the little sacs of fluid —called burse — which lie behind the kneecap, and help the free movement of one bone on the other, become inflamed and enlarged, producing the condition known as bursitis. The joint becomes swollen, red, and painful, particularly on movement or pressure, such a thing as kneeling being quit© impossible. The condition is very responsive to treatment, and is liable to recur if the circumstances which produced it in the first place- are again encountered. It may be partially prevented by the use of a small, lirm cushion when kneeling has to be done, and by avoiding kneeling on hard or cold substances, Blows on the knee are sometimes a cause of bursitis, but more rarely. Complete rest of the joint is an essential in the cure of the condition. Fomentations and compresses sometimes relieve the pain, but usually do no real good. THE ABDOMINAL MUSCLES. "Exercise" as a good thing in itself can hardly be over-valued. Brisk walking or other motion out of doors both helps to aerate the body, keeps the muscular system in good tone, and promotes digestion, and, consequently, a good and healthy appetite. But there is a direction in which especial exercises have their individual uses. One of the most important of these uses is the keeping in good and perfect condition of the muscles of the abdomen.

It must bo remembered that the muscles which constitute the abdominal walls arereally the recoptable of certain of the most vital, of our organs, and that if the containing walls are allowed to become lax and flabby these organs will no longer ba maintained in their proper positions, or in a proper relation one to the other. From this unsatisfactory state of things serious troubles, as well as a great many minor ones, may arise. To keep these particular muscles in really good condition we require something beyond the ordinary idea of "exercise," and we must employ some form of it which takes effect directly on the parts concerned. One of the very best and simplest of these is the following, which requires no apparatus, and can be performed in the bedroom as part of the process of dressing. The patient should wear as little clothing as the conditions allow, and that loose and unconstricting. He should lie on his back on the floor, with the body and legs stretched out and the toes placed under a low shelf or the lowest drawer of a chest of drawers, pulled an inch or two out, this being merely to prevent the feet from rising. With the arms l.ving close to the sides and the back straight, the knees being straight throughout the process, he should slowly raise himself to a sitting position, and as slowly lower himself again. When he comes to find this easy he should cross the arms on the chest, and later stretch them out stiffly above his head, in a line with the body. Tho exercise should at first be done only two or three times. When it can be done in tho easier forms several times without undue effort it should be tried in the next degree of difficulty, beginning this, again, with two or three repetitions only, and gradually increasing the number. A more luxurious method of using this exercise, though not quite so efficient a one, consists in throwing the bedclothes off the body on to the feet whilst lying flat in bed, and, using the weight of the clothe* to keep the feet down, proceeding as above.