TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 289, 7 December 1939, Page 10

TALKS ON HEALTH

THE TONIC OE REST If you want a good tonic when you are feeling wearied out, try going to bed two hours earlier than is your usual habit for a fortnight. The extra rest, even if you do not. actually sleep, is beneficial. It. relaxes your nerves and your whole body to lie quiet on your back, and it, aids digestion to rest quietly alter a meal; and so get all I ho goodness out of the food you have swallowed. If you do manage to sleep the extra time it will do you a lot of good. Sleep is the panacea for all evils. I ought to add that the sleep should be natural; the sleep or rather stupor, produced by powerful drugs is not. nearly so beneficial, and such a sleep may be followed by a headache on waking. Harmful Drugs. Many of the drugs used for sleeping draughts are harmful in other ways; some weaken the nerves in the end, others are dangerous to the heart and upset the digestion. I am always very careful about ordering sleeping draughts. It is a real calamity when a patient, especially if she happens to be a highly-strung woman, is trained to depend on drugs for sleep—her last stage is worse than the first. A doctor knows when to order a soothing j draught, and he exercises due discretion, but the indiscriminate use of mixtures and tabloids to induce sleep cannot be too strongly condemned. Some Causes of Sleeplessness. If you cannot sleep 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 that you go to bed hungry, or wake up al two in the morning feeling hungry. Some people find that a satisfactory sleeping draught is to be found in a couple of biscuits, eaten slowly when sleep deserts the pillow. I have known cases where the stuffy air has awakened the sleeper early in the morning; the air is used over and over again and the stuffiness makes the lungs cry out for fresh air; in some houses there is so much anxiety to keep air out that even the chimneys are blocked up. Sleep with the windows open. It is easy to say “Don’t worry,” but not so easy to carry out the injunction. Still, some effort should

be made to keep worries outside the bedroom door; you can either welcome and brood over your troubles or you can make a resolute effort to throw them off. If the sleeplessness cannot be overcome, it is a good plan to try a change of air. If you lead an indoor life, a sharp walk for an hour or two may act as a sleeping draught. Teeth in A.D. 3939. An examination of a number of young men shows that we ar* a long way yet from understanding the importance of the care of the teeth. I do not despair, because I have always written that it will take a thousand years to drive this simple thruth into the heads of the public. It is about four or five thousand years since the Ten Commandments were given to the world, but one does not see much evidence to-day of the commands being obeyed. I am far from being impatient let us make it two thousand years, so as to give people time to turn round before deciding to take care of their teeth. When you descendant in the year of Grace 3939 comes down to his bacon and eggs, anu opens his paper to see how the world is going on, let us hope that his smile of joy will reveal a nice white row of healthy ivories. Perhaps the museums of that day will show jaws of “Ancient Britons” of 1939 with foul complement of rotten, blackened .slumps, but

(the good people will pass by such ex- I jhibits as too disgusting for polite eyes. Parental Neglect. Now there is a large amount oi l preventable illness in the country, and 'much of it is due to parental neglect. A mother will know all about her household linen, but nothing about I 1 her own children’s teeth. A woman would be ashamed to have a dirty doorstep but she is indifferent about the teeth, which form the doorstep! into her own child’s system. Ask any. mother you meet if she knows the condition of her child’s back teeth, and in ( nine cases out of ten she will be ig- • norant. Or take spines as another , instance. How many parents examine ( their children’s spines to see if they ( are straight? Very few, I am afraid. Yet curvature of the spine can only be cured in the early stages. If the i precious years of childhood are allow-; ed to slip by the harm is done and can 'never be undone.

Bill’s Own Fault

Go to the police court and you will j see shoals of men and women who , never have been honest and never will ! be; they hate the word honesty, and ' the robbing of the savings of some: poor old woman is their idea of living. ■ But they are punished. Go into the i hospitals and you will see shoals of | . people who are ill through their own ( fault; they give no end of trouble, 1 much good money is wasted on them, and yet nobody catches them and punishes them. Directly a man falls sick and applies to the friendly society you say, “Poor old Bill is on the sick list again.” I assure you that in hundreds iof cases it is not “poor old Bill.” It is careless old Bill, stupid and ignorant ‘old Bill, dirty old Bill, drunken, gor'mandising old Bill. I am naturally icruel, and like to spend all my vindictiveness on such men. who are ill 'from their own fault, and then come 'sneaking round to dip their fingers in the funds subscribed by their fellows. Old Bill has been a “punisher” for i years, and if I had my way he would iget a rap over the knuckles when he stretches out for the club’s money. A Tittle care, forethought and self- ; restraint, and he need not be seedy. !So I have decided to start a cam- | paign all through the country directed inot so much to the cure of existing 'complaints, but to the prevention of i illness. Put all your money on preand begin with the children.