Talks on Health

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18182, 15 June 1927, Page 3

Talks on Health

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR

Anaemia is one of the commonest of complaints, and, there is more ignorance about its cure than on any other medical subject. \ou may remember that that blood consists of a pale liquid in which float tiny red discs. These discs serve the purpose of conveying the fresh air from the lungs to all the parts of the body. In anaemia there are too few of these discs, and they are too pale in colour. The commonest symptom of anaemia is breathlessness; the blood cannot aerate the body properly when the discs are so few. Puffing and blowing at the top of the stairs is the consequence. The heart and the lungs work in unison; both the .heart and the lungs are disturbed in anaemia. A pain in the back is also commonly felt. This is due to the weakness of the large muscles of the back. It has nothing whatever to do with the kidneys, as is so often said. Pain in the back is ver3% very seldom a sign of kidney disease. The brain is not supplied wtih a rich quantity of blood as it ought to be, and fainting is the consequence. Anaemia is far commoner in the female sex than in the male. Any irregularities should not be treated as such. - The anaemia should be treated first, and the irregularities will look after themselves. I The Worship cl Medicine. Now for the words of wisdom which none of you will take to heart. The treatment of anaemia is good food and fresh air. You will never believe that. You must and will have something out of a bottle, or die in the miserable attempt. The Israelites of old worshipped a golden calf, some to-da> r worship money, others worship their stomach, but you people worship bottles -of medicine. You thoroughly despise the gifts of God—no good food for us, thank you; a cup of stewed tea and some bleached flour is all the food we want. “ Oh, no, sir” the modern mother says to me, “ she don’t eat enough to keep a canary, but then I give her lots of I pills, and I can’t understand why she is ill.” I wish I could kill once and for all the ignorant trust that you all have in a box of pills. You make no trouble about your diet, and remain perfectly satisfied that you have done your duty if \-our inside rattles with a bushel of pills. Things You Did Not Know. Now for some more words of wisdom, which yon will trample under foot. There are all the drugs you need in good food. Is it iron 3*ou want? There is iron in bread, iron in meat, iron in gra\'3', iron in green vegetables. You never knew that. You thought the Creator had made a terrible mistake and forgotten to put blood-making materials in good food. And so you toddle off to the chemist’s shop to buy some chemicals to make good the deficiency. Is it phosphates you want? There are phosphates in milk, phosphates in meat, phosphates in potatoes, and, indeed, in every mouthful of food vou have ever taken 3’ou have taken in phosphates. What a pity you will not try and learn something useful! If only 3 r ou had known, or been taught at school, that all the essentials for building up good blood are to be found in food, including iron and phosphates, you need not have spent four»shillings and elevenpence halfpenny on iron and phosphates. I will give another useful piece of knowledge. The water secreted by the kidneys contains a lot of salts besides the pure water. If you take a teaspoonful of phosphates they are thrown out of the body bykidneys as useless. It is no good to but an excess of phosphates into the blood. All you do is to waste your money and put a lot of extra work on the kidneys. Too Much Iron. Constipation is alwa> r s associated with anaemia. It is present as part of the disease, and you make it ten times worse b>' taking an over-dose of iron, which is very constipating. Then, having filled 3'ourself up with iron, 3-ou have to take an enormous dose of sonic aperient to correct the effect of the iron, and so your inside, which was built to absorb good food, becomes a chemist’s shop of drugs. The constipating iron, washed down with stewed tea and acid pickles, has a battle ro3 r al with the salts and senna that were washed down with {jinger

beer and cucumber. That is treatment for anaemia, but it is not mine.

A Mistaken Idea. It is well known that anaemic girls do not drink enough liquid; all they drink is tea. They ought to drink four large tumblerfuls of water a day. The body is more than half water. A large quantity of water is needed to make blood. . Blood is a liquid, and the water in the blood is its most important constituent. I said “ water,” not beer, or ale, or port. It is a curious tiling that red wines are alwa>'s recommended for anaemia. lam afraid it is through the mistaken idea that the red of the wine will make the red of the blood. Of course, the red colouring matter of the wine is not a bit like the red colouring matter of the blood. •» Those Teeth. If you were a doctor at a hospital, and in the course of a month had to examine one hundred people suffering from anaemia, you would find that eighty of them had bad teeth. 80 often does one find anaemia and bad teeth associated in the same person that it must be more than a coincidence. I have cured a good many cases of anaemia by recommending attention to the teeth. It may be unpleasant to go to the dentist, but it is far more unpleasant to be ill for months. It may be expensive to go to the dentist, but it is far more expensive to lose your job through illhealth. Dear old mother goes to market and buys good food, and she comes home and cooks it, and then her aiuemic daughter swallows it in lumps because she has no sound teeth to masticate with. Good food swallowed in lumps is poison. It lies in the stomach and ferments, and gives rise to wind and catarrh.