Talks on Health

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16902, 29 November 1922, Page 4

Talks on Health

By a Family Doctor

BRAIN MESSAGES. | Various messages are being carried 6 to the brain along the nerves all day ■ and ail night as long as we live. The 1 v-tather turns cold, and the nerves I from the skin immediately inform the brain, who deals with the matter, and takes steps to make us warm. A motor horn blows, and the ear in forms the brain, which gives orders to lxi«; legs to hurry out of the way. It is, however, not enough for the brain to receive the message; we must, in addition, pay attention. For instance, you may be listening to a very dull sermon. The words are spoken, they i'al’ on the ear and they are telegraphed to the brain, but they arc not oonJ sciously heard. The attention was | wandering, and, at- the end of the serI moil, you cannot recall what it was I about. Stick a pin half an inch through | the fleshy part of Uncle Tom s calf, and [ be will jump out of his chair. His I brain informs him that he has been | pricked, and the pricker should, be | adequately punished. But consider the | case of Uncle Toni’s nephew, who I went through the war. On one occasI inn. full of excitement, ho went over | the top with his comrades. A bullet went through the fie-hv part of his calf. He ran on; hU brain was occupied. with only one thought, and that was to reach the German trench and | stick his bayonet in as many Huns as he could reach. He fights and fights, S I and when it is all over for the time j 1 being ho walks back to bis dug-out and I l discovers lo his surprise that his boot i i> full of blood. The passage of the j bullet through his calf had not been 1 registered on his consciousness. KEEP YOURSELF OCCUPIED. From ail this we learn liow importcan be enraged by a pin-prick; we can disregard a bullet-wound. Take a 'Simple example. Our hearts beat before we arc born, all through ou r lives, and a*: or we aro dead, and wo arc not eo.tscious of it. The brain nay be informed that the heart ?s beating, but we disregard the information and go on our way. Occasionally a patient comes .along and exclaims: “ Oh doctor, my heart is beating.” Tho patient has worked her brain up into a state where every message from the heart is magnified and exaggerated. 1 The cure lies in calming the brain j down, or in occupying it with such in- | tevesting thoughts that the heartheats are forgotten. Forget the heartI beats and tho heart-beats will forget j you. If you sit down and wait intently for some manifestation from the nervous system, you are sure to feel it. Either your nose will tickle, or you; leg will jump, or your heart will beat, or the wind in your stomach will become ‘ “ agonising.” The best way to j get rid of nerves is to have a healthy ! occupation. If you are out of work, work for nothing rather than rust. Tr ke reasonable care of yourself, but tr\ to attune your brain to taking no notice of such trifles as bullet wounds when there in a. great and noble work to be done. DON’T GROUSE. Have you got all your limbs, your back?' If so. don’t grumble. grateful. Look at poor little Miss Smith. She is a hunchback and struggles most bravely to support herself and her mother. Look at that man with a club foot limping along in slow and { painful fashion while you whisk by him 1 carrying your tennis racquet. How dare you grouse at your circumstances ! j If does me good to see men and women triumphing over physical disability The world is tli-e better for their presence. Ihe services to humanity performed by blind people are wonder-

| ful. The knowledge of the splendid work done by maimed people teaches us the great lesson that we should never take our disabilities lying down. If a man could not swim when he had two arms, and then loses one in an accident. he should take up swimming to keep himself fit. 1 know a man who worked as a pattern-maker after liis right, hand had been partially paralysed. Another case was an old lady whose hands and fingers were so teruhly crippled with chronic rheumatism that she could not dress herself. But she to stick crochet hooks and knitting needles between her gnarled fingers and she earned her living by ’ making babies’ vests. The human . body shows an incredible degree of j adaptability if only the willpower is j there to act asj a driving force. things not to do. i You must not nierce the ears of a | child in the hope that this foolish proj codure Mill e>i rongth-en th-e eyesight. ; You must not pick at vour ears with ; hairpins, gouges, matches, pickaxes, nr ! any other kind of fearsome instrument. Aim will damage the drum Even if i ax is present von will not get it outyour way The oars must be syringed ‘•y a doctor. You must not try to iced up a patient who is suffering from a bilious attack: starvation H the right line of ;rentment Sins of l ot water mav ho given, but ; noth in omore until tho attack has subsided nod the natural appetite returns. You I must not put tobacco in your ears ’Vn;-r ohiMrpr: must, not wear other . b.Mrons caps, ovfn inf„„ : vine-™" mav be spread that nay You must pot neglect the advice of the schoo' doctor. T lie sav. your child nen-ls classes or a small operation on the throat, you must see that it is d-one. HO AY TO', DIET A PATIENT Patients are always complaining that a milk diet is so sickly, and that they get so tired of taking nothing but milk that they hate the sight of the stuff. It is a most important maxim that the food a patient takes should he attractive. It helps both appetite and digestion. Therefore the ‘ milk should ho flavoured with all sorts of ingredients to make it more palatable The first feed should be plain milk. Yon can flavour the second with a little tea. or coffee, or cocoa, nr vanilla, or nutmeg. A clever nurse will disguise the flavour of the- milk in various TREES AND SUNSHINE. T like to see plenty of trees in n town. They are healthy and beautiful. and afford grateful shade on hot days. Trees around a house are for those reasons desirable, but they should 't be so closely clustered round tho dwelling that they exclude light and sunshine. Trees overshadowing a house make it damp, and are. for that reason. unhealthy. Plenty of green leaves hv all mean s :, but not the exclusion of light and air. BE SENSIBLE. Aon know you .sometimes strongly oppose the suggestion that an abscess should be opened with a knife. You | say you hate- the knife. But surely ion hate abscesses more? How muen better to throw the matter from the abscess into the dustbin than to have it inside your body. But vou trv to wheedle me. You say, “ Leave it till to-morrow,” or “ Can I not poultice [ it? ” .And from sheer cowardice yo:_ I run the risk of the poison getting up your arm and into your general system. As soon as an abscess is formed L ought to be freely opened. It re lieves the hot feeling and the burning and tension. If I can persuade you to consent to the only sensible treatment you are grateful in the end.