TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20127, 21 April 1928, Page 18 (Supplement)

TALKS ON HEALTH

I BY A FAMILY DOCTOB. i 1 1 -• 4 , " DEFENCE AGAINST MICROBES There is far more preventable illness in the country than there ought to be, considering all the advances that have been made in hygiene and education. It should be the aim of every in:e;ligent citizen to eradicate preventable disease, and in this sense we can all be doctors; at least, we can all do our best to keep our own bodies clean and healthy, and do our share towards lighting the wily microbe. It is a good maxim that microbes do not attack healthy bodies; or perhaps we ought to say that microbes attack al! bodies, but get repulsed by th c healthy ones. I well remember an incident that hap pencyl when I was a student. Every medical student has to go through a course of instruction in the infectious fevers, and for this purpose we all had to attend the wards of a fever hospital <hrce times a week for four weeks. Wj were all strong and healthy young men. and pretty tough nuts for the microbes —all of us except one man. who had just recovered from an attack of influenza. He was anxious to get his course of fever instruction done, as, if he delayed, he would not be aide to attend again for three months. Against the advice of most of us, this man insisted on coming to the wards, which were filled with scarlet fever cases, diphtheria, and other infectious complaints. Sure enough, he fell ill with diphtheria, and the rest of us escaped. So you see that very early in our careers, before ever we enter the wide world to earn our living as medical men. we learn from bitter experience the importance of keeping ourselves up to the proper standard of health. Ridiculous Extremes. Anxious as I am to persuade you to give a little more thought to the subject of health than you do, let us, by all means, avoid extremes. Extreme recklessness about reasonable precautions is wrong, extreme nervousness about illness is foolish. Some men are scarcely awake in thp morning before they rush to the glass to submit their tongues tu a careful inspection. Anxiously they try their own pulses; they stand before the chest of drawers trying to make up their minds whether to put on a thin or a thick vest, and, having decided or. the thin, they go down to breakfast, aud then rush up again to change to the thick. No doctor recommends such an apsurd amount of attention to the health; in fact, my advice to such men is to tell them to forget 1 hey have bodies at all and go about their work without worrying. We are a strange lot, we human beings who crawl over the surface of the planet called the earth. Each individual different from all the rest, and different treatment must be accorded to each. The State’s Example. Surely everybody knows by this time that the States give strict orders that every chiid should be examined in th® schools at least once a year, if not more often. Do you suppose that the Starr is advised by a committee of madmen? You laugh at me when J say that you ought to present yourself for examination; you say it is new-fangled nonsense. Anyway, it is quite certain you will not follow my advjce. But th*State adopts the plan. Ami gradually, lhe idea will sink in as the years roll) by. The children that were examined at school regularly will grow up with] the idea that it is lhe right thing to do.: It is all part 0/ the grand scheme of j prevention rather than cure, about I which I cannot convince you. T am willing and ab’e to prevent you from getting ill if yon will •ome to me. It ' is a poor way to carry on a doctor’s l) !<iness to wait until people are ill and; then step in when it is too late. See a Doctor Regularly I am always trying to remind yon j that health is important and worth i money in the bank, and anyone who, will also help me to slick pins in yon ' and encourage you to think how best | you can starve the dodor and raise the | standard of health among yours.dves I and your children will be welcomed a* j u brother by me. You believe me! when 1 suggest that, you should try | am] ruin the ductors by keeping well; I but you are not so much inclined to foi- : low my advice when I recommend that , you should go to the doctor more often. I Mark my words, the time will cornel when everyone will be examined by ■ his doctor three or four times a year I whether he is ill or well. Danger Periods In the female sex there are certain; periods that are the most likely times’ for a breakdown. The first period comes with the birth of the first child and the accompanying strain of the pains of delivery, and the long drain on the mother's strength in providing the sustenance for a lusty babe. The girl before her marriage may have gone placidly through life with no particular worries; sh' l was sheltered in her parent’s home. But. when all the trials, anr! troubles and pains of child-bearing and its attendant responsibilities come upon her her rope breaks; it was not o.“ steel, and it could not bear the weights that were put on it. She. should have wailed a few years; eighteen was too young 1o my,rry; she should not have been allowed to go on working in that factory so long when she was already pregnant. Anyone could have seen that she was anaemic and not in a fit condition to bear lhe added burdens of married life. But still, all these things should have been thought of before; now she is very ill. The other critical period is at the ago of forty to forty-five. Especial care must be taken to shield the woman from anxiety, worry, and from bearing heavy weights on the ropo of her nervous system. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Be on your guard when a change of scene and air and diet by that age is approaching. Perhaps moving to another locality may increase ! her nervous stability. Care and forethought may prevent a breakdown.! ich and indigestible fooid should be j