WOMAN’S GREATEST ENEMY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 36, 5 September 1891, Page 349

WOMAN’S GREATEST ENEMY.

A FEW HINTS HOW TREAT SICK HEADACHES. BY LAURY MACHENRY. HUE headache par excellence, or, rather, ad libitum, among women is the ‘ sick headache,’ and by that, I find, is meant a headache which is attended in any stage of its action by a nausea which increases until vomiting ensues, when the patient’s skin becomes naturally moist again. She drops into a nap, and wakens to find the grinding throbbing pain much better, and herself on a short route to recovery for this time. Aye ! there’s the point ! She knows it only means/or this time, and that she must expect many, many times through her life to go through the agony of the past few hours. And yet I feel sure that every woman can lessen the number' and frequency of her headaches by simply taking care of herself. Now, the first thing is the diagnosis— You can’t take care of yourself unless you know what care you need, so let me help you out in this. Now we will divide our patients up into three classes : First—those inclined to be fleshy, full-blooded, sluggish and possibly slow and easy-going in all they do. Second—spare, quick active and nervous women who go round with a whiz, do forty things at once, and with faces whose lines and wrinkles show that they are worrying for all creation.

Third—those women who belong partly to both the first and second classes, and yet not strictly to either ; and this third class I intend to ignore completely, so far as talking directly to them goes. They are, usually, a reasonable class to get along with, and I have no hesitation about asking them to read what I write to their fleshier and thinner sisters, and pick out such morsels as they need for themselves. To my fleshy sister, then, I would say : Your trouble is, doubtless, a "eneral sluggishness of all of your internal machinery. You are lazy ! Not that you dislike work, but from a habit which has grown upon you. You need a great deal of will-power to induce you to take active exercise or do active work. You like work that you can sit still and perform ; you will sew all day, rather than do the housework ; you will not walk if there is a tram-car, and yet you can eat heartily, and you do relish good things. Now, of course, I will advise you to take more active exercise; but, don’t attempt it until you first have done something toward stirring into activity and health your individual organs. In nearly every case laziness is a disease, or a complication of ailments, brought on, I grant you, by habits of idle-

ness and ease, but a disease, nevertheless, and it is useless to attempt to throw off your slow and easy habits, and to assume a life of energy and activity while your liver is torpid and sluggish, and your blood thick and slow, and everyone of your organs gorged with bile. Of course you could, by a tremendous effort, put on a spurt of activity, if a sufficient incentive could be brought to bear upon you, but it wculd be at a great expense of will-power. Leave your sewing machine for a year, and the oil on its various bearings will dry up or gum up, and when you place your feet upon the pedal it will run hard. Now you can do either of two things : you can put on extra strength and make it run by sheer force ; or, you can clean it up and oil it, so that it will run with its old-time ease.

Do I make myself clear ? Now, to get your liver working and your blood in healthy condition, take laxative food, and adopt habits of exact regularity. There is nothing in our whole life so conducive to our health and happiness as this regular attention to the wants of the body. If mothers could only be taught to train up their little ones * in the way they should go ’ in this matter, we should soon have a population of healthy, brisk, red-cheeked men and women. No more yellow skinsand sallow complexions, languid manners and dyspeptic grumbling. Here is an excellent, cooling laxative, perfectly safe, and you can increase or diminish the dose in quantity or in frequency as best suits you :— Get a pound of Glauber salts and put it in a quart bottle ; fill the bottle up with water, shake it up well and let it settle. Take a wineglassful of the clear water every morning as soon as you get up, and, if you find it necessary, another after breakfast.

You can continue this course for weeks, and your skin will get fresher and healthier, your breath sweeter, your eyes clear, your headaches less frequent and less severe, and your indisposition to active exercise will be less pronounced. As soon as you commence the treatment, gradually increase your active exercise, especially out of doors. And then there is another important thing to remember. The waste products, which have been clogging your system, will also be expelled through every pore of your skin ; therefore bathe rather oftener than usual, especially the feet.

I wish I could induce you to try a brisk sponge bath in tepid water every morning.—(Remember 1 am speaking to fleshy sisters now. As a role, the thin, active, nervous women bathe too much). Just an all-over wetting and Chen a brisk rub off with a coarse towel. It doesn’t take ten minutes and you feel the invigorating effects of it all day. In cold weather add a little alcohol to the water, say a tablespoonful to each quart. If you feel disposed to be chilly or shivery, add a tablespoonful of tincture of capsicum, or of essence of Jamaica ginger to each quart. This water that I advise you to drink as a medicine will prove more palatable, and you will have more faith in it if you will compare it with a glass of any of the high-sounding foreign medicinal waters in taste, appearance and, especially in its effect.

In the matter of diet, I would advise you to abstain from rich pastry and cake, and indulge in fruit and vegetables. Eat slowly and chew well and long. This course that I have laid out is for a thorough curing of sick headache; but I suppose you will want to know a relief for the times when it comes on during the curing period. Well, when you feel your sick headache coming on, you can nearly always ‘head it off’ with an emetic. You know from experience that the vomiting must come sooner or later, so at the first approach of the headache, take a good emetic (ipecac, or tartar emetic), and lie down and wait for it to act. Drink warm water to help it. As soon as it is over, soak your feet and ankles in very hot water with mustard in it; then go to bed and take two or three swallows of hot water with a little solution of menthol in it (make it as strong as you can swallow), rub some menthol on your head where the pain is, make the room all dark, and you will be asleep in two minutes. When you waken, you will bless me for this advice. Please don’t take the different quick headache cures that are advertised, and specially avoid the little headache pills.

If, for any reason, it is inconvenient for you to take the mineral water recommended above, you can get some senna leaves and carry them with you, it is not at all necessary to make a tea of it —simply chew the leaves well and swallow juice, pulp and all. You can take a pinch—about as much as a man usually takes of tobacco—once or several times of an evening, and its effect will be noticed in the morning. This has also the advantage of not tasting very bad.