TALKS ON HEALTH.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 82, Issue 305, 24 December 1938, Page 15 (Supplement)

TALKS ON HEALTH.

Made 11l By

Suggestion

'T'HE power of suggestion is very 1 strong. Suppose a number or men conspired to greet one of their mutual friends with a look of concern, and to assure him, one after the other, that he was looking very ill, the poor object of their commiseration would soon be alarmed at his direful condition, although as a matter of fact, he was in perfect health. The oft-repeated assertion that he looked ill would in the end send him home to bed and cause him to send for the doctor. A doctor never goes into a sick room and declares there is no hope for the patient. It would be a nice state of things if the physician gazed into the patient's face and said, “Well, you have got it bad, you will soon be in your grave.” We always endeavour to look cheerful, even when we are hungry and want our dinners. But the most unfortunate feature about this power of suggestion is that the patient may suggest things to himself. He may say to himself all day and every day that he knows he will never recover, and that he may as well give up hope. If only he could find out in what part of the brain this settled conviction was lodged and cut it out, the patient would be cured at once. It is a difficult task to banish these fixed idea... it can only be done by faith. If the patient has faith in his doctor, ms word that there is nothing the matter will bring about a cure, if he has faith in medicine, some coloured water wili make him feel better, if he has faith in a clergyman, a straight talk to the effect that it is a sin to groan overimaginary troubles may induce him to cheer up. A Kink in the Brain A man with an imaginary illness must have a kink in his brain somewhere. To prefer an imaginary illness to a state of health argues a mild degree of insanity, and such a man is the most likely to be worked upon by some bizarre treatment. He must be more or less of a weak-minded person to indulge in the belief that iris ill, and he may be weak-minded enough to believe an old witch who lives in a cave and who tells him that if he climbs a hill without looking backward and drinks at a certain well; at five o’clock in the morning he will' find sudden and complete relief. This is one of the legitimate doctor’s difficulties, a man with a reputation to lose cannot adopt these weird measures. If a doctor told a man to bowthree times to the east and say “Abracadabra” and he will be well, he would be laughed out of court, but the wise woman living in the cave can, and she may be successful. Apoplexy and its Causes Apoplexy means a sudden seizure caused by the bursting of a blood ves-1 sei in the brain. As we grow older I our blood vessels lose their elasticity and suppleness, they begin to get stiif and chalky until instead of being like india-rubber they are more like pipestems. When they are in this condition they are not so well suited to bear the presure of the blood inside the vessels. If any of you have seen

I an artery spurt you will know what 1 high pressure the blood works under. The brain is so soft that it affords no support to the blood vessels running through it, and so it is in the brain that we most often find the vessels bursting. Old age is the commonest cause of apoplexy, but the decay of the walls of the arteries is hastened by drink, above all things, and the process is helped by gout and a hard life. Fit or Accident If you are present when a man has a seizure, the first thing, if it is possible, is to prevent him falling to the ground with a crash. Put your arms round him and gently lay him on the ground. A severe wound of the head may be inflicted if the m i falls heavily on the curb. Th— a common experience. A lorry- . • _ , for instance, may have a 1.. on the lorry, and fall off, striking his head on the ground. When he is picked up it looks as though the wound on the head had made him unconscious. As a matter of fact, the bursting of the blood vessel made him unconscious first, and then he fell, so that really the wound on the scalp has notu to do with his unconsciousness at all. First Aid When the patient is on the ground, loosen everything around his neck, carry him into a shady place out of the sun, place a coat under his heaa to prevent him from bruising himself, but do not roll the coat too high, splash some cold water on the head and face, make no attempt to pour brandy down his throat, and after he has lain quiet in a safe place for about half an hour, have him removed with all care and gentleness to a hospital. It is not much good waiting for him to recover consciousness, as he maybe in a sleepy condition for hours. It is sometimes important to put the tongue forward if the face is blue and the breathing of a snoring type. Babies and Clothes A growing child needs full play for all its limbs, and the enormous quantity of clothing that some mothers think is necessary to swathe their children in hampers all the movements, and is of rio service in protecting the child against chill. There is no use in wearing too much clothing, any more than there is in eating too much food. I have often counted as many as seven garments on one child. The poor little thing is smothered. It is weakening to have that great weight hanging on its shoulders, and has the bad effect of making the child too hot when it ought to be just comfortably warm. When the weather is warm the fewer clothes the better, and when the winter comes rounc. again be content with about half the quantity of clothes that were worn last winter. Being a man, I am not supposed to know anything about children’s clothes, but 1 find I have the support of all the visiting nurses, who quite agree that the commonest fault of mothers who wish to do their best for their offspring is to bundle them up in too many clothes.