GOLF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19844, 19 May 1927, Page 5

GOLF

HEADACHE AND GOLf RIGHT USE OF REST. RELAXATION NECESSARY TO HEALTH. Lord Dawson of Penn, in the course of a lecture on ‘ 4 Some Varieties oi Headache,” which is reported in the current issue of the British Medical Journal, remarks that the incidence of headache is variable. The same, chain of events would lead to severe headache in one patien., slight headache in another, and in yet another no headache at all. ‘‘There is the disciplined man,” said Lord Dawson, ‘‘with a high strung nervous system who has had a heavy week’s work and perhaps is congratulating himself how well he has stood it. He plays a game of golf on Sunday. He may then plume himself on tho fact that he is as young as ever and play a second round. lie then eat;, freely. Thon comes the downfall —migraine. What happens? He is a man in whom . the burden of fatigue falls on his muscular tissue. As the week advanced his stomach and intestine lost tone, and the functional capacity of digestion and metabolism deteriorated. The physical fatigue of the golf on top of the week’s duties lowered his blood pressure and put his digestion out of business. Here ihe sequence of events was: exhaustion—failure of di-gestion—toxaemia-headache. One round of golf followed by a light meal and recumbency would have done him good. In very marked cases of gastro-intes-tinal responsiveness to fatiguG, associated as they often are with low blood pressure, the only way is to let the man rest on the Saturday, take his exercise on the Sunday, and then he will be a king on Monday.. . . . ‘‘Treatment is in large measure a study of causes which are variable for different people, but fairly constant for one individual. In those people in whom the headache stands alone, and is the result of responsibility and stress, the day of rest is needed, but still more the right way of using it. So often the day of rest sees the same strenuousness and feverish activity as the day of work. It is relaxation which is needed, and its art requires study. Exercise to be beneficial must bear relation to the frame, physiological habit, and the week’s work. There are times when the subjet prone to headache needs a day or half a day in bed with windows open, the lightest of diet, and a diverting book. It is to be remembered that some headache victims have not twilight, no forewarning of fatigue, and in extreme cases their lives alternate between orgies of activity and prostration. The best treatment is to show them the nature of the problem. In some cases an unusual somnolence, with or without yawning, in others an exaltation of fitness, may be danger signals, but often there is no warning. Some people must have fresh air. In the war many migraine subjects during their time in the trenches were immune from attacks. Eye-strain is an accepted exciting cause which pceds no comment. Tobacco may be a 1 cause, also alcohol, and—which is interesting—some victims are vulnerable to certain kinds of alcohol and not to others.”