TALKS ON HEALTH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20295, 3 May 1934, Page 20

TALKS ON HEALTH.

One Must Keep Well to Keep Well. BY A FAMILY DOCTOR. There is an old saying that in order to keep well you must keep well. Elucidated rather more clearly, this means that you must prepare for the onset of an illness by keeping your standard of health so high that when the illness does come it is not of a severe nature. What determines whether a person with influenza gets pneumonia or not? A good deal depends on the previous history. Has the patient taken any trouble to keep well, or has he neglected his colds and filled his lungs with tobacco smoke? If you travel to business in the tram you will always notice several men and women who cough all the way tip. They have had winter coughs for ten years; they will get pneumonia if influenza catches them. Danger of Mouth-Breathing. I have often preached that breathing through the nose brings health and strength to the lungs; mouth-breathers will all get pneumonia. The cold air is warmed by being passed through the nose; if taken through the mouth the cold air gees straight to the delicate larynx and bronchial tubes. Stoppages in the nose, from whatever cause, must be cleared away; if the man or woman is a mouth-breather, he or she has not been carrving out the maxim of “ keeping well.” Hygiene of the Mouth. When you remember that the air passes through the mouth and over the teeth of these mouth-breathers, you will readily understand that the hygiene of the mouth ought to be absolutely perfect. The mouth ought to be as clean as a battleship on Sunday morning when the captain goes his rounds. Pneumonia is caused by the bad air, infected by a dirty mouth, being carried down to inflame the lungs. What we have to dread is the combined attack of several kinds of germs. The pneumonia germ is bad enough by itself; it is more deadly when combined with the poisonous influenza germ, and these two together are frequently fatal when mixed with the germs from foul teeth.

Things You Ought to Have Done. You began paying your subscriptions to the friendly society twenty years ago so that you might provide for the future. You have been lucky, and have not had to go on the funds all that time until this year. Nevertheless, for twenty years you have taken the precaution of belonging to a society. Now, you ought to take the same trouble over your health. You may not have influenza for twenty 3'ears. but one fine day it comes along and catches you nappjng. You ought to have had your decayed teeth attended to; you ought to have had the polypus removed from your nose; you ought to have had your enlarged tonsils removed; you ought to 1 ave moved from the damp district in which you lived: you ought not to have inhaled smoke into the lungs. It is too late now; but it is not too late to see that your children do not make the same mistake as you have made. How to Defy Influenza.

Fresh air is the greatest enemy of influenza. Keep in the fresh air. Will you really let the fresh air into your offices and workrooms, or will you only be content to read about it in this column? When you go to lunch open all the windows. Drive out the old air that has been breathed twenty times over by your comrades, and with the used-up atmosphere that disappears out of the room will go all the germs that might have gone down your throat and given you a bad cold. A conscientious worker does not like to stay away from his office if he can drag himself there, but he would be acting more wisely if he stayed at home when the disease is actually on him. It is no kindness to his colleagues to puff his infected breath in their faces. If the body temperature is raised it is folly to go out in the cold. It is a curious thing that when the fever first begins, although the body is hot, it may feel cold. A shivering fit is a common phenomenon at the beginning of an illness. Go to bed; drink lots of fresh lemonade; keep your temper; be grateful to your wife for the little kindnesses she shows you. Remember she has influenza, too. but she is bravely concealing it so that she may wait on you. If influenza softens your hard character and makes you understand what a treasure you have in your wife, it may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.