HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 37, 8 January 1946, Page 8

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

POTATOES AND VITAMIN C (By the Department of Health). The season for new potatoes, is with us, and many of our women folk are afraid to eat too many because they think they’re fattening. Potatoes new or old, are not going to widen your figures, any more tiian

other food. If you’re getting fat through eating it is because too many calories arc being ingested daily—-you are eating too much total food and you have to retreat somewhat keening a balanced diet, but eating less total food. So you cannot dismiss potatoes for they are part of the. balanced diet. There is no need to deprive yourself of the pleasure of eating them, fresh and full of flavour from your own garden .

Potatoes arc good for us. Their carbohydrate gives us fuel for inus-i cular energy. They contain minerals, especially iron, and vitamins B and C. Now iron and vitamin B are inclined to be short in our diets, and anything with vitamin G is use r ful. There is no food that readily takes the place of the potato, so dips not encourage any funny ideas about it ! New potatoes are quite a good source of vitamin C. When we are hungry we would eat aboufl seven ounces of potatoes, and there is more vitamin G in that than in ty© juice of one lemon. Here is a little story. It is pretty bleak in Nova Scotia, and if the fishing harvest fails they haven’t much food to come and go on. Oine winter the people lived almost entirely on potatoes. Illness was pretvalcnt. Many people went down with scurvy. But one family remained well. On enquiry they were found to be eating their potatoes in their skins, while everyone else was pealing them. Potatoes store their vita* mins and minerals just beneath the skins. So eat them every day—enjoy them, new —bake old ones and boil new ones —in their skins.

ACUTE INFECTIONS OF THE

HAND

(By the Department of Health)

The old adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure should be remembered by everybody who sustains a scratch on the hands or fingers. It doesn’t matter whether you’re at work, in the garden or playing games—whatever you may be doing at the time it pays to stop for a few minutes and attend to scratches around lingers or hands, it’s a bit tiresome perhaps hut neglect can mean serit oils infection. The tendons running through the palm and the back of the hand to the lingers run in synovial sheaths. Should, infection get at all deep and travel along these tendob sheaths, it runs extremely rap* idly from fingers' to palm or back of the hand and thence on up the arm.

But this isn’t the worst trouble —if the infection is severe in these tendon sheaths the tendons them-

selves become infected and slough—that is they get eaten away and you’re left with stilt fingers and even a hand that is bent or crip,~ pled and only partially useful. All this can follow neglect of a simple scratch, or small open wound of finger or hand. Treat every scratch or slight wound immediately. The longer the delay the greater the risk of septic infection. What is a good first aid treatment? The scratch or small wound may have an antiseptic solution applied once —recommended are either 2% p.c. solution of iodine in spirit, or a one per cent aqueous solution of gentian violet—this last one doesn’t sting as tincture of

iodine does. Then cover with a sterilised dressing. Gotton wool and bandage can be applied over the sterile dressing if necessary. •• Some factory surgeons prefer to do without the antiseptic and immediately apply a sterile dressing, a compression bandage, and nothing more. You see, septic infection of a wound is caused by introducing germs into it—these germs can come from the mouths of attendants or from non-sterile dressings. Any scratch of the finger demands immediate attention and a sterile dressing if you expect always to dodge serious hand infections.

DIPHTHERIA PROTECTION

(By the Department of Health)

The U.S.A. and later Canada have long since proved that towns can practically free themselves of diphtheria if they have the majority of their children immunised. It needs at least two thirds of the pre-school population protected, with a re-in forcing dose on entering primary school, before diphtheria can be kept at bay. Now England which was slow to practise immunisation before the war, but which adopted it as a policy during this war is proving again that this injection business against diphtheria is very much worth while. While, diphtheria has been epidemic, on the nearby continent of Europe and there has been much coming anil going of people to carry infection since D,-Day, England lias escaped. In France, Belgium - and the Netherlands, where over recent years immunisation work was stopped, diphtheria has been epidemic. and serious. In England anil, Wales on the other hand, the incidence has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded, accounted for by the intensive immunisation campaign pursued within war years. From January 1010 to December 194.3 there were 4,800,000 children under 15 years of age immunised, of which number 1,080,000 were under 5 years. There w r erc 40,083 cases in 1940, anil 29,440 in 1944. The deaths in 1943 ivere 1370, the -snialkest ever recorded and this was slashed to only 805 in 1944—a remarkable tribute to. the skill and efficiency with ivhicli the Ministry of Health, London, has conducted its anti-diphtheria campaign. * Not enough pre-school children are being immunised in New Zealand. At 0 to 9 months of age, certainly before the first birthday, babies should be immunised. So should all children at or below 0 years of age if immunisation was neglected in infancy. To make it last through school life, children given an immunisation- treatment during infancy should have a single reinforcing dose on entrance to primary school.