SELF-DOCTORING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11732, 23 June 1916, Page 5

SELF-DOCTORING.

SOME EXPERIENCES. Duty must be everyone's watchword now, and I decided to do my duty in a way which, beside helping tho State, would benefit myself. My health, only good on tho average at ordinary times, should be brought "to tho highest pitch of efficiency," as tho doctors say. g This was what 1 told myself a fortnight ago after hearing a lecture on the needs of the State. We middleaged weaklings left at homo must tako Uio placo of the younger lit men fighting across the Channel for us all. xU the start i may as well confess that I have two besetting sins from the health standpoint: I hato ail exercise, outdoor games, and the like, and 1 do like my whisky-and-soda at lunch and dinner. I also have a secret vice of which only the intimato members of my household have the slightest suspicion: 1 close my bedroom window all but tho tiniest crack ! A fortnight ago I started on my new leaf, initiating the new no-liquor diet regime at Monday's lunch. On Monday night I heroically throw the bedroom window open to t»ho top. The exigencies of my office life forced mo to postpone tho beginning 6T my exercise cure till the following Saturday. The waiter at my restaurant in the city looked rather surprised when I ordered milk instead of my customary whisky-and-soda at Monday's lunch, but I eyed him sternly and offered no explanation. One good thing the war has done for us: nobody nowadays is ashamed to aot as if ho were economising; You hnve no idoi how good that glass of milk tasted ! To think that all these •years I had been poisoning myself with wbiskies-and-sodas at 9d each I could have been building up my health with nourishing and delicious 2id glasses of milk. At dinner at home on Monday -mgjht my glass of milu did not somehow tasto qflito as delicious, but I finished it readily, and when I got into bed that night, and with a real gale howling in through my wide-open window, I enjoyed the true virtuous feeling of the man who has seen diis duty and lias at any rate begun to do it. THE STRUGGLE. On Tuesday I woko a bit " snufHy " and had a slight earache, but I am rather subject to colds and neuralgic 'attacks at all times, and every doctor will tell you that fresh air'is the best of all germ-killers, particularly deadly to those varieties which attack the lungs and air passages. Throughout Tuesday and Tuesday night I kept, valiantly to« my new regime. Wednesday an unlooked-for complication arose. I had, unfortunately, to stay in bed all day, as I had a very bad cold, and while I lay a helpless prisoner my wife, contrary to my protests, insisted on closing the window except for a little crack at the top. I triumphed over the milk question, however, having "slops" and milk food in one form or another all day.

On Friday-morning, befvo she would admit that I wa.s well enough to go to the office, my wife made mo agree to postpone any further experiments with the bedroom window until ic.y cold was quite gone. Saturday was the day I had tarmaiked for beginning my exercise cure. T>n o'clock found me on th-j first teo at our local golf links. My appetite at lunch time and my thirst 'for ir.ilk) were proof enough that it was vigorous outdoor ' exercise that I needea. A second round after lunch tired me somewhat, I must admit, but then ours ar*> very hilly and sandy links (I found most of the bunkers) and one does not get fully fit in a day. On Sunday I repeated my two rounds, but'unfortunately I could not get to sleep that night for hours aftei turning in, so I did not feel any too spruce when I came into the office on Monday morning. I was not prepared, however, to have several of the fellows there come up durin% the morning and tell me " how ill I looked," and " I>id I think I was sickening for something?" and all that sort of talk. THE DOCTOR'S VIEWS. Tho worst thing, however, was the heart attack (so it was named by tho doctor they had to call in), which caused me suddenly to feel faint shortly after lunch and scared the whole office nearly into fits. The chief gave me some brandy O was too dazed to tell him about tho milk), and when tho doctor came he sent mo straight home in a taxi-cab to bed, saying ho would come and see mo that eveningOn his arrival he catechised me m detail as to my way of living. With some pardonable pnefo I told him of mj "new leaf." Would you believe it, instead of praising my self-forgetful strength of mind ho told mo plainly that niv attack was all my own fault, and that I deserved even .worse tor being such a ninny as to thing that I was strong enough at my time in lite suddonlv to go in for hard exercise. > " What you need is ease ana' rest in your week-end leisure," he said. " A flabbv midle-aged heart will do its work competently for years if not suddenly overburdened by unaccustomed muscular effort. You're lucky that I got you in time to stop your two rounds ot sou on Saturdavs and Sundays before they have done your not over strong heart irreparable harm." . . At any rate, I could go on drinking my milk even if my bedroom window was closed and my golf forbidden. The trouble was that after the first week it seemed to lose, its savour. However, the tvro-birde-with-one-stono idea, economy and good health, in one gloss of milk appealed stroncly to me, and for twclvelunolies and dinners milk was niv onlv beverage. And it would be still but for a most unfortunate and untimely bilious attack which completely floored me last Saturday. Then soda water, whey, broths and barley water took its place, by doctor's orders. Milk, he told my wife, is terribly bilious for those not accustomed to its use. After pondering over this devastating Fact on my bed of naiu I resolved', as convalescence allowed' me more normally to weigh niv thoughts, to scrap my original '"' health regime " and seek anew one from the doctor. His advice was sinvnle and not difficult to follow: —Avoid muscular exertion of aU kinds and so save wear and tear on the heart, take a little whisky at meals fa good' tonic and digestive for. mnnv middle-aged persons), and avoid all draughts in the bedroom. Since taking up this new resrime T al'-eadv feel vonr* younger —A.P., in the "Daily Mail" '