TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19846, 21 May 1927, Page 16 (Supplement)

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR.

CAUSE AND PREVENTION OF PILES. The most important causes of piles and varicose veins are constipation, congestion of the liver from overfeeding, a sedentary life, and perhaps heredity. The only possible way of preventing them is to prevent constipation, and this precaution must begin with efforts on the part of the nurse and the mother from the day the baby is born. No child is born with piles; they come as the result of carelessness in nine cases out of ten. A mother who carefully watches that all the important functions of the body are properly performed by her babies, infants, and children of any age, is adopting the best means of preventing piles in future years when the children are grown up. Regular habits should be ensured by correct diet, rather than by swallowing a host of pills, powders, and drugs in various forms. The Best Aperient. Aperient medicines cause constipation in the end. and they therefore cause piles. Ask anyone you know who suffers from piles, and they will tell you they have been taking opening medicine as long as they can remember. Drugs are. not necessary if proper care is taken, but one is sometimes compelled to order them when the patient has been brought up by a careless mother and has been more or less constipated for twenty years. It i is most difficult to treat a young man Jof twenty who. has been constipate,'! I for twenty years. I should want anj other period of twenty years to get him into good order again. If a drug must be used; I find the best aperient ! for piles is made by mixing equal parts of confection of senna and confection ' of sulphur; a teaspoonful or more to be taken at night. Care of the Eyes. ' The care of the eyes should begin at the moment of birth. Nearly half the children in a blind asylum owe their iterrible affliction to the infection of ' their eyes when they were newly born. Every monthly nurse and mother is 'now instructed to sec that the ey«s of the baby are thoroughly cleaned at • ■Her; they must bp sponged, and then a few drops of a weak solution of sih- r nitrate tin* put right into each eye. That is an absolute preventative, and tin* blind asylums would be much emptier if only that simple precaution IcrnH be taken. When you engage a nurse ■’’Ou must say before the interview is over, “And, oh. nurse, I do ■hope you are always very careful about ■baby's eyes.” I do not wish to be hard on a deserving set of women, but I the old-fashioned midwife, although I she may have a golden heart, has not had any really scientific training, and i does not put the drops in the baby’s eves. She has never done it before, an.! what was good enough foi her grandmother is good enough for her. The “new-fangled rubbish” is ignored, and the baby, a few years later, is refused entry to the blind asylum as there is no room to accommodate another case. Something in Your Eye. When a speck of dust or coal gets into the eye it is wiser to let it alone than to rub the eye. When you come home from a dusty bicycle ride you will see a little deposit of dust in the corner of the eye, and you will think how wonderful it is that Nature takes every speck of dust from the eye and deposits it neatly in a heap in the corner. If the speck of dust does not come out of its own accord the eye must be systematically examined. First the upper eye-lid must be turned inside out —this is not a difficult manipulation and can be soon learnt—and if nothing is seen, pull down the lower eyelid ant] tell the patient to look first one way and then the other so as to expose the whole eye to your view. Finally, look at the front of the sight to see if the speck is stuck on the sight. It is impossible to see the black speck against the black pupil unless you get the light right. Look at tin- eye sideways and also from below, then the light shines in a different direction and the speck may become visible. If it is embedded on the front of the eye do not attempt to get it off; it must be removed by a doctor, after a little cocaine has been instilled into the eye. Beware of making the mistake of thinKmg you have a cold in the eye when all the time there is some foreign body irritating it. Some Sleep Hints. If you cannot sleep, then an attempt should be made to discover the cause by experimenting. Perhaps you eat too much late at night; or, on the other hand, you may have your last meal too early, so ttiat by one or two o’clock in the morning you are hungry. Some people find a good “sleepingdraught” is to be found in a couple of biscuits, eaten slowly, when sleep deserts the pillow. In some persons, the air of a stuffy bedroom awakes them early in the morning—the air is soon vitiated by two or more people. The remedy is to sleep with the windoty open. A dry mouth may awaken the mouth-breather, and an attempt should be ma,do to cultivate the habit of respiring through the nose. I know it is useless to recommend you not to worry, but nevertheless, a groat ideal can be .lone by trying to put your worries aside. * ♦ * * Try a Day’s Rest. A day in bed occasionally is a remedy for many ills. So many of us are over worked at the present time that it is siffitll wonder our nerves are rasped and jaded sometimes. We do 1 not get enough time to eat our meals, and we have scarcely time to breathe; j certainly we have no time to breathe i fresh air. But just spend the day in bed with the window wide open, and i give your tired brain enough sleep and I to spare for once; take plenty of time Inver your meals, and your stomach will rejoice and be glad*. It will think the millennium has come if you lie still

after a meal and break your rule of bolting your food and bolting 1o the station to catch the morning train. Y es, a day in bed for the over-worked. I might add that when father takes a day in bed, the whole family waits on him, and, as he is away from the office, no business troubles can reach him. •But when mother takes a day in bed the servants and children pop in one after the other all the livelong day. When shall we have justice to women! Never mind, mother; when you want a day’s rest go to your sister’s house. You will be appreciated at home all the more after a day’s absence.