TALKS ON HEALTH

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19237, 26 November 1930, Page 11

TALKS ON HEALTH

By

A FAMILY DOCTOR

Management of the Body. I should be a proud man if I could teach you the value of regularity in managing your body. The action of the bowels should be governed by regularity. If parents took that lesson to heart much ill-health and unhappiness would be prevented. At what age should this principle be taught to children ? The answer is, • “At birth.” It is astonishing how soon tiny babies will learn what it means to be held out. We learn habits in infancy which affect us all our lives. Mothers must watch the growing child and see that the regular habits are never forgotten. It is a miserable job trying to cure long-standing constipation. One wants to turn the clock back several years and adopt .the plan of preventing it. Xo one is born constipated. The young girl acquires constipation while she is under the care of her parents. Parents are not interested, in preventing constipation in their children. Many a man has lain awake wondering which side will win the football match; the constipation of his children has never been known to cause a wakeful moment. A thousand ills arise from failure of the bowels to operate regularly. Brown bread, lots of water, fresh fruit, and bodily exercises are the best forms of treatment, but nothing is of any avail without regular habits. I have been trying to -teach this for twenty years and more, and I think we are making a little progress. There are signs that women do not wish their little daughters to suffer as they have done. * Varicose Veins. Keep your varicose veins well guarded against injury. If you are a carman, or run any risk of getting your shins knocked, wear football guards for protection. An injury which might heal very quickly in an ordinary healthy leg takes four tifnes as long to heal in a man who is the victim of swollen veins. Or, if you do get a knock on the veins, it is wiser to rest at once than run the risk of getting an ulcer. The skin over varicose \eins should always be kept very If a _ dusty trouser leg rubs against the skin a sore place may form that will take weeks to heal. When you have finished the day s work do not rest with your legs hanging down in the usual sitting posture. Lie on a couch or with your feet on another chair. This position assists the circulation in-the swollen veins. If you are still young and have a choice of professions, you must be guided by your veins. If the veins are healthv they will allow you to do anything'; if they are varicose they will expect you to adopt a sitting-down occupation If varicose veins run in the family, and your own, at the age of eighteen, look rather prominent under the skin, you

will be wiser to become a clerk than a policeman. Some Short Cuts. \ ou will see in the papers from time to time descriptions of wonderful new treatments which are going to revolutionise the science of medicine and surgery. But you ought to refer to the files of the last twenty and then take note of how many have survived as real advances in the curative art. Very few, my friends, very few. If you read the medical papers you will never find extravagant claims made: a description of a new treatment is always accompanied by a faithful record of the cases, giving the number cured, benefited, or uncured. Of course, an imaginary illness could be cured by an imaginary treatment. I fear there is an unwholesome desire nowadays to achieve mental and physical salvation by short cuts. Value of Fresh Fruit. Do not forget the value of fresh fruit. The boys will be willing enough to cat apples if y ou provide them. We have too many articles of diet that are potted, preserved, pickled, chemicalised. A good old apple fur ever! It contains no artificial chemicals, no dyestuffs. It does contain chemicals, and many of them; but they are good New Zealand chemicals, blood-forming, rosv cheek-making chemicals. Please spend some of the housekeeping money on fruit. It is worth the money for what it does in cleansing the body and driving out disease. Keep the Pores Open. Take a lens and look at the skin. Your own skin is spotless, 1 know; but look at the skin on the back of the neck of one of your friends: you will be shocked to see ihat it is covered with black spots. Each spot is a gland with its opening blocked by dried perspiration. grease and dust. Squeeze one of the spots and you will see the contents of the gland come out. Those pores were meant to be open and freely acting: it is a shocking state of affairs when the pores are blocked. The more powerful the lens the more clearly will this defect in the pores be revealed. Put a hot fomentation on the clogged skin to open the pores as much as possible: then wash the skin with some antiseptic soap; finally, massage the skin, pressing out the glands. At the end of it all, take the lens again, and if you are not pleased you ought to be. We ought all to have healthy skins. Sometimes the blocked ports develop into small abscesses—spots. It is difficult to cure the .--pots; the blackheads should be cured and then the spots never come. The Body’s Secret Service. One of the mysteries of the human body is the secret connection between the various organs. The blood travels everywhere, and is able to carry the secretions from one gland to another in

a far distant part of the body. The sound of the dinner bell in the ear maycause a flow of saliva in the mouth in anticipation of the coming meal. The secretion of the gland in front of the voice-box: —the thyroid gland—makes the skin healthy and gives a healthy growth of hair on the head. An abscess of the foot may cause delirium of the brain. Disease of the kidneys may affect the sight. Cancer of the bowel may induce disease of the liver. All this may explain to you why a doctor likes to make a thorough examination in the case of any serious disease. It does not fol- ] low that because you have a lump in the neck that the disease is located in that spot; the true origin of the trouble may’ be in the stomach. You must never be surprised when the doctor discovers something in a spot distant from the actual site of your complaint. You know how often I have begged you to keep your mouths as spotlessly clean as mother keeps the doorsteps. Foul teeth with a septic discharge on the gums may affect the whole body, especially the joints. The body -is one, and you cannot allow a -defect in one part of it to continue without affecting the rest of the body. Cure That Cougli. Yes, I can cure your cough, but you must stop smoking cigarettes for a month. Otherwise, I will not undertake 3 r our case. 1 know you only too well; you want to go on smoking night and day, taking no care of yourself, breathing through your mouth and committing all sorts of hygienic crimes —and at the same time you expect me to cure you with a bottle of medicine. Xo, no, that won’t do. You must do : your share; you must practise a little ■ self-denial. Your throat is red with the irritation of tobacco smoke; your noisy cough keeps your wife awake at night Do stop smoking and let your poor • wife have an undisturbed night for a : change! Now is the time to get your ! bronchial tubes in perfect order. If ■ you do not cure your cough now you 1 will' have an unhappy time of it when l the fogs come.