THE FRIEND THAT HURTS.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19765, 21 December 1935, Page 3

THE FRIEND THAT HURTS.

THE WARNING SIGNAL. Nobodv welcomes pain. Yet it can be a friend in disguise Without a sense of pain to flash "Stop!" at the first hint of physlca injury, we would be constantly burning, cutting or otherwise harming ourself Without pain’s insistent “Do something about it! A\hen thing g wrong inside the body, many serious conditions would not be disco\ered untiMoo natural impulse is to regard it simply as something to be stoppe , rather than a signal that other things may be radically wrong. And this is a mistake that sometimes proves serious. For, when pain is deadened by self-treatment, one can easily be lulled into a false sense of security. The warning has been stopped, but the trouble Moreover, pain has a mysterious side that makes self-diagnosis doubly dangerous. Some pains are “referred” or “sympathetic” pains; that is, they occur in one part of the body, but are caused 'by disturbances in an entirely different part. For instance, headaches need not start from trouble in the head. Frequently the primary cause is to be found in remote parts of the body; a headache is not -uncommonly the first symptom of one of the Infectious diseases. The stomach, too, is more often the seat of pain than of disease. Frequently when pain evidences itself there, it is because of trouble in the heart, appendix, intestinal tract or other parts of the body. When a pain persists, or recurs frequently, there is only one sensible thing to do—see your doctor. He can nearly always relieve your pain. What is more important, he can usually trace it lo its source. And having located the trouble, he can take the necessary steps to correct it.