Talks on Health

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17036, 9 May 1923, Page 11

Talks on Health

By a Family Doctor £

HOW TO KEEP HEALTHY. 1 think some of you feel seedy and depressed because of the accumulated effect of a number of small faults. One fault by itself seems almost negligible, but all of them ta,keii together make a decided impression on your health. You go to bed a. little too late and get up a little too early, robbing your system of an hour or two of health? sleep every day for years. You eav a little too fast j-ind t little too much, throwing a strain on the digestive organs every day for ten years, when you begin to lecl it. You smoke rather more than good for you, and you drink a little too much whisky Oh, I know you will stoutly deny it, and I am quite sure you have never been drunk in your life; but probably if the yearly consumption of whisky' Avere reduced by a few bottles you would be none the worse. You Worry a little too much, and you laugh much too little. Your boots are a little too tight, and your tea is a little too strong; you spend a little too much on cheap sweets; and your room is a little too stuffy. 1 don t want you to wOrr y about putting the doctor out of employment : the old men’s home in my district is yeally very comfortable. And then most of us doctors arc very rich, because although we are the first to be called, we arc also the first to be paid. Sometimes. HAVE A COLD BATH. Everyone has some plan or fad whereby we may never have colds again as long as we live. My own fad is that everyone who /?an stand it, and most of us who are in ordinary health can, should have a cold bath in the morning. Do not grumble and shiver; just go and do it. Have a good rub down and make your skin glow, and sing at the top* of your voice, because it is good for you. Stop singing when the neighbours complain. Aly other recommendation is to have a warm overcoat. When you are sitting in a room beautifully wanned by a lire you do not really need those enormously thick underclothes that you wear. As a matter of fact, the temof the room with a live is higher than the summer temperature. No, it is not in the house that you need so much extra clothing; it is when you go out. It is wiser to spend money on a warm overcoat than on warm underclothing. The men who go seeking for the Poles in frigid temperatures do not suffer from colds even when they sleep, in the snow. It is astonishing that so long as we are in health our temperature is always the same, viz., between 98 and 99 degrees Fahrenheit. That is whv the doctor takes your temperature with a clinical thermometer. Unless you are ill the thermometer ought to register 98 degrees. OUR EVEN TEAIPERATURES. It does not matter whether it is in mid-summer or mid-winter; it matters not whether you are in the cricket field making a century or whether you arc shivering in an east wind watching a football match—your temperature is always the same. The nigger sweltering on the Line and the Eskimo sitting on the North Pole are both of exactly the same temperature as registered by the thermometer. One’s feelings are deceptive. It is well known that in a paroxysm of malaria, when the temperature is mounting up and the patient is nuite hot, he will j shiver till his teeth chatter again, and he will draw his bed-elotlies around him closer and closer to try and keep warm. FLAT FOOT TROUBLES. Flat foot may affect- anyone from babyhood to advanced years. Babies’ feet, sometimes turn in at the N ankle

joints, and the condition grows worse when they begin to walk. It can be remedied by haring a piece of leather put on the sole of the shoe on the > inner side only, so as to throw the ankle in the opposite direction, viz., outwards, instead of inwards. A few weeks will make a great difference, and the shoe may be soled in the ordinary way when the foot is straight. Flat foot may appear in an adolescent at the age of fifteen or sixteen. At this age a great strain is placed on the general system, as the growth is so rapid, and it is often at this age that the youth undertakes some heavy job, perhaps necessitating, standing long hours or carrying heavy weights. The strain on the arch of the foot is too much; the ligaments give way, and the foot becomes flat. At the same time there may be other evidence that the bones and ligaments are being overstrained. The spin© may begin to bend ; the lad may become knock-kneed, and he may be pale and ameinic. He n ay have to*work in a. basement where the sun never penetrates. It is difficult ho cure these eases of flat foot unless the causes that produced the conditions are removed. Good food, regular meals, rest, fresh air, and sunshine, and suit-' able exercises are wanted, but cannot always be obtained. FOOT WEAKNESSES. The next class of man who gets flat footed is the man who has reached the age of forty, and whose bones and ligaments are just beginning to lose their elasticity. Long standing, such as policemen have to put up with, or bearing heavy weights, such as porters have to carry, throws too much pressure on the arch of the foot ancl a flattening is the result. Pointed boots that compress and distort the toes arc also responsible for weakening of the ligaments of the foot. Treatment consists of rubbing the feet with some stimulating liniment, such as turpentine liniment. For those that are on their feet all day rest is the best treatment. but for that class of patient who is suffering from flat-foot in consequence of weakness, exercises are tli© best. Raising one self on tiptoe several times, or turning the feet in and cut, or skipping in moderation, may strengthen the feet. Metal pads may be worn inside the hoots, the pad should be as low as possible consistent w ith the proper support of the arch ; ic is not necessar-r to wear a highlyarched pad for a slight degree of flatfoot-. THE ’CUTE CHINESE. In China the patients pay their doctor a steady income all the year round so long as they are well; when they fall ill and have to call the doctor in, his income stops automaticlly. How would you like that arrangement? I am sure you would not- mind paying the doctor while you were quite well ; you would be in such a good temper that it- would be a pleasure to help the doctor on his path. And when you fell ill, what luxury to get your doctor for nothing; no doctor’s hills at the end of the illness! Shall we start it in New Zealand? 1 do not think l should object- if my patients would agree to be examined by me once a year. I should have to safeguard myself. If I saw a rotten tooth and reported it to the patient, and six months afterwards he cam© to me with an abscess of the jaw, [ should want to be paid double instead of having my money stopped. And if the man were ill from overeating. 1 think 1 should grumble, because it would be his own fault. And if the over-eating took place at some festival, I should want to charge him double again, because it is so wicked Well, 1 must think it over; you pay me so long’ as you art? well; you stop paying when you are ill and I am attending you ; and I charge you double when it is your own fault. Any offers?