IMPORTANT FACTORS IN CHECKING DISEASE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18644, 22 December 1928, Page 5

IMPORTANT FACTORS IN CHECKING DISEASE.

DIET AND FRESH AIR PLAY VITAL PART. (Issued by the New Health Society. London.! How to Avoid Cancer. “It is a matter of common knowledge that our health and happiness depends largely on what we eat, and .that any excess in the matter of food or drink brings with it a certain retribution in the guise of some intestinal or general disturbance. The public are perfectly aware that indigestion and constipation are very general, and those who think at all realise that the habitual flooding of their tissues by poisons, picked up by blood vessels and lymphatics from an intestine whose contents are stagnant and decomposing, results sooner or later in degenerative changes in every tissue in their bodies. These are called diseases. . . “ By paying more attention to diet and fresh air, but more especially by availing ourselves of the remarkable health-giving rays of the sun, which exert a most important influence on diet and the tissues of the body, the incidence of tubercle has been steadily diminished, year by year. The public generally is quite able to form its own opinion on the vital part played by these agents in the causation and prevention of this disease, and hardly a single member of it would be impressed by the statement that diet and sanitation play no part in the development or cure of tubercle. . . “At this period of the world's history it should hardly be necessary to tell the public that Hippocrates taught the Greeks 2300 years ago; namely, that diet, habits and the sun play a most vital part in the maintenance of health. For anyone, therefore, to assert that these factors exert no influence oil the incidence of that most hideous of complaints—cancer—or, indeed, of anj r other result of intestinal auto-intoxicaticn, is utterly futile. . . “It cannot be impressed too much on the public mind that cancer never attacks a healthy organ, and that the only certain way of ensuring immunity to its attack is by keeping the body in a state of perfect health. The cancer cell will only grow in a .suitable soil, and that soil can only be provided by the prolonged action of poisonous elements upon every component tissue.”—From “Cancer: llow to Eliminate It.” by Sir W. Arbuthndt Lane. Bart., C. 8., in the November issue of “ New Health.” Cleanliness Institute. “ Financed by the Association of American Soap and Glycerine Producers, the Cleanliness Institute will be devoted to research and public? education. The purely commercial interest of the soap manufacturers in this promotion is plain, and is, indeed, the foundation of the whole scheme, but it is commerce gone beyond the sphere of business as ordinarily conceived into the atmosphere of social service. The U.S.A. manufacturer would certainly tell you that ‘ social service ’ pays. But it is none the less an extremely interesting development of ‘ capitalist organisation.’ In another sphere of ‘ cleanliness ’ a great deal has already been done by the advertisement of tooth-pastes and propaganda of tooth cleanliness to secure a high standard of dental hygiene. And the direction oi the campaign of the Cleanliness Institute seems likely to produce a great improvement in standards of cleanliness among sections of the population in the U.S.A. difficult to approach by other methods.”—From “ Selling Cleanliness.” by Dr L. Haden Guest, M.C., in the November issue of “ New Health.” Deep Breathing. “ Another absurd superstition is that the practice of deep-breathing, unaccompanied by strenuous exercise, is useless, dangerous and will cause dizziness. No doubt forced deep breathing might cause dizziness, but deepbreathing carried out in an intelligent manner is a wonderful health-bringer, and has restored many sedentary workers to health when hardly any other means of exercise was available. And as many keen sporting youths are engaged in sedentary occupations, the regular use of deep breathing will not only do no harm, but assist in retaining thoracic suppleness in constant readiness for the fuller respiration demanded by strenuous activity.”—From “ The New Health Sportsman,” a new monthly feature starting in the November issue of “ New Health.” Bone Structure. “ The skeleton is usually regarded as being a dead framework, and after a bone has been boiled vigorously a number of times, as in soup-making, it must be admitted that there is not much life left in it. But the state of a bone taken away from the living body to which it belonged cannot be compared with its state while a member of that living machine; and, as will be shown later, the bony framework of the body is intensely alive. An army of millions of tiny bone-producing cells is constantly at work, altering the structure of the bones, repairing weak patches, and ensuring growth at the right times and in the right places; and the bone material is traversed in all directions by thousands of nerves, blood vessels and other lines of communication. The lower end of the thigh-bone, for example, is an entrance door for more than 200 small arteries alone.” —From Chapter 11. of “ The Human Machine,” by J. S. Bainbridge, 8.6 c,., in the November issue of “ New Health.” Food Preparation. “ In failing to can balanced meals, the English canners are missing a golden opportunity. Great Britain should import dried beans and other degumes by the thousand tons from overseas parts of the British Empire, and can them in England so as to give employment to British workers. The beans should be mixed with suitable starch foods (such as macaroni made in England) and suitable cellulose (such as onions grown in England), plus the usual bacon and tomato flavouring. Just as spinning and weaving have passed from the home to the factory, so cooking and food preparation generally are being socialised, and the home workers are being released from their artificial, and often very mischievous.'kitchen activities. ” It is- quite a delusion to imagine that mankind has subsisted on the products of the individual kitchen. Individual food preparation by individual .women is quite an innovation; a feature of modern civilised life; but certainly not a feature of ancient native life. In such native life the body is regarded as sacred; the food which goes into the body is also sacred, and the organised production and preparation of that food is noble work. Not the meanest minds and characters, but the noblest, were devoted to the maintenance and renewal of health and life through food.” —From the third instalment of “ Man’s Energy Foods,” by Ettie A. Rout (Mrs F. A. Hornibrook*, in the November issue of “ New Health.”

Diphtheria in Children. “It was shown some years ago that when a very small amount of diphtheria toxin—that is, the substance produced by growing the diphtheria germ artificially—was injected into the skin of individuals, certain of the injected persons showed an area of redness round the point of injection, within 24 or 48 hours, whereas others did not. This test is known as the Schick test, and those persons in whom the injection produces this red area are said to react to the test and to be Schick-pos»-tive. Such individuals are susceptible to diphtheria, and may readily contract the disease if they come in contact with persons suffering from it, or with those harbouring the germ (the socalled “carriers”). On the other hand, individuals in whom the injection produces no redness, are said to be Schicknegative. and are not liable to contract diphtheria.”—From “Controlling Infectious Diseases,” by Dr David Nabarro and Dr A. Lignv in the Child Health Section of the November issue of “New Health.” Exercise for Baby. “W T e know so well that sleep is allimportant for baby, that we are apt sometimes to forget the equal importance of giving him a chance to exercise his growing limbs. From the first month the napkin should be loosened. to enable him to kick and stretch, tw i or three times a day. and as he grows older make a regular play time for him before the evening wash and bed, when he can thoroughly exercise his little limbs kicking and stretching and dancing on mother’s knee. "From seven months onwards a plav pen is most useful, for baby can lie, roll and kick to his heart’s content in perfect safety, gradually learning to crawl and pull himself up by the bar-. Either a mattress or a folded blanke; can be put in the pen to prevent him from hurting himself. Be careful the pen does not stand in a draught, but let it be near a window. In the summer time it can well stand on a verandah or in the garden. “Between eight months and a year he will probably start to crawl. Between a year and fifteen months he should have started to take his first steps alone. Do not force him in these things, lie will do what he can accoriing to the strength of his own lit.ll 2 body. Give him plenty of chances to do them when he begins of his own accord."—From “The Baby: A Guide to Mothers,” by Viscountess Erleigh and Mrs Henry Ilaldin, the second instalment of which appears in the Child Health Section of “New Health.” New Forms cf Cancer. “Not only are we not preventing tvpes of cancers which have long ex isted and could be prevented, but we are developing new forms of cancer, such as lung cancer. Not that lung cancer is wholly new; but the increase in cases is undoubtedly new and very marked. This increase formed the sdLject of a useful discussion in a section cf the International Cancer Conference, Dr Robert Hutchison, of the London Hospital produced records hearing on this subject. Xo such increase was reported from Singapore by a speaker, who told us that they have there no taired roads. Lubricating oil was al. • discussed as a cancer-producing factor, and reference was made to such modern developments as the tarring of the roads, and. the filling of our urban air not only with the soot and smoke, against which I have protested for 26 years, but also with the products of petrol combustion in motor-car engine*, as possible causes of the great increase in lung cjncer. In America, as all recent visitors to that country are aware, the pollution of urban air by motorcars is even worse than here, and pnmarv cancer of the lung is rapidly increasing there.”—From “The International Cancer Conference," by Dr C. \V Saleehy. F.R.S..Edin., in the November issue of “New Health.”