TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 291, 7 December 1929, Page 23 (Supplement)

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR.

TEETH AND INDIGESTION The statistics that the panel doctors have kept show that the commonest group of complaints is the indigestion group. Now, why'/ If we can answer that we shall eliminate at one fell swoop the largest item in our sick-list. And consider for a moment what that means. If one man is ill for a month, that makes four weeks lost; if another man is ill for six weeks and we add the two periods together we get ten weeks lost. And if we add together all the periods of all the people, men and women and children, when they are ill, do you know how much it all amounts to? Why, hundreds of years. All lost, useless, gone for ever, spent with nothing to show for it but a few doctors’ bills. We really must make an effort to help ourselves more than we do. Therefore, our task during the coming twelve months will be to cut down the years and years that are lost in illness. Begin with the teeth of yourselves and your children. The main reason why digestive disturbances come first on the list is that your teeth are I am ashamed of you; you ought to know better by this time, clean sound teeth mean good health, foul stumps’ mean ill-health. I knew it before, but now the collected items from the doctors’ lists prove it. Choose i'Our food better; eat more slowly; earn to cook better; keep your tempers and do not suffer the digestible ills that follow’ an outbreak of rage. Live in peace with your neighbours; rows always spoil appetites. Do not drench your insides with aperients, their long-continued use is not good for you; the pill quacks can afford to lose more than half their income and stilj be very rich. Eat less and reduce your fat. It is your own fault if you have appendicitis. Do not take too much tea; do not take too much beer.

What will Happen in 1950? I learn that, as a nation, we are getting healthier, and that the length of our lives is increasing. That is good news. I wonder what has brought about the change. Chiefly, I think, my articles. But what a responsibility! To think that dear old grandpa and grandma would have been dead by now if I had not taught them how to eat and sleep and breathe and clean their teeth. Well, we have made one step towards the millenium; the forces of sickness are being driven back. Their retreat is not so fast as I could have wished; but still, there is a movement; we are not all stuck in the mud; progress is being made. I hope the insurance companies will note that we ar e healthier and make their insurance policies cheaper in consequence. The companies get two or three more yearlv payments out of us now before they lave to brass up at our deaths. I always thought I should die in 1950, and now I find I shall hang on until 1953 or so. And all you good folk, I do hope you will reap the reward of all the care you have taken of yourselves in these difficult years. In 1950 the v will say of you. “Look at him, he has not lost a tooth in his head and he can walk ten miles a day.’' Septic Infection. Remember that the matter that comes from a festered finger is dangerous. Try not to get any of it on your own finger when you are dressing the sore for somebody else. Wash your hands both before and after. Burn the dirty dressings; do not leave them lying about. If you think the linen that you have taken off the wound can be used again, boil it first. Germs hate being boiled. Do not wipe the wound in such a way that you spread the matter over the surrounding skin. Take a dab of cotton-wool in both hands and squeeze the wound gently between them; then throw the dabs away. You must not turn them round and soil youj fingers with the poisonous matter. All bowls and utensils must be scalded out before and after the dressing. You sometimes see a second boil appear on the neck next door to the first. This should be prevented by careful dressing. The air f follicle s and pores are open, although they are so small you cannot see them, flatter can enter the pores very easily. If the hair i s long it is a good plan to shave the part; the hair may get matted with the discharge and form a breeding place for germs. Watch lor angry red lines running from the sore up towards the elbow or groin; they are danger signals, and a doctor should be called in without delay. A man in good health wil’. recover from a septic infection; a .nan who is run down may succumb Therefore, keep yourself fit and sfong; do not ask for trouble by al low. ng your health to sink below thp right level. Blood Contents Swimming about in our blood we have thousands of millions of little particles which have been named “red blood corpuscles.” Each one is so tiny that it can only be seen with the aid of a microscope. It is round like a muffin, and it is thinner in the middle than it is at the circumference. I. is elastic, and can be squashed when it has to go through a very narrow channel. Some of the smaller blood vessels are also microscopic in size, and the little red corpuscles can only just squeeze through. On c little chap by himself is coloured a pale yellow, but a heap of them has a deep scarlet colour. Seek Oxygen. Now listen to the words of wisdom. There is pne thing these red discs need, and that is fresh air. The fresh air contains a gas called oxygen; we live at the bottom of an ocean of oxygen. We must have oxygen or die. A walk gives intense delight to these blood cells. “This is something like,” they cry. They hate a journey in a smoking carriage; they ask for air and you give them smoke. They hate stuffy cinemas, evil-smelling bedrooms, illventilated classrooms. You do everything possible to deprive the blood of its fresh air, and when you feel ill you go to the doctor for a bottle of medicine. No bottle of medicine has ever been invented which is a substitute for fresh air.

To Wash Linen Blinds.—A good way to wash linen blinds is to lay them flat on the floor, scrub them with a brush not too hard, with plenty of soapsuds and a little ammonia, rinse with a sponge, and when nearly dry iron. Small holes in blinds can be repaired by sticking a piece of the same linen over them. Stick it on with seecotine; do not sew.