HEALTH FOR ALL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4700, 19 May 1924, Page 4

HEALTH FOR ALL.

FBABS THAT KILL.

(By

Dr. Lechmere Anderson.)

Co worry about one’s health, to live in a slate of anxiety as to whether this or that symptom, or peculiar feeling bodies some disease oil serious import, is to ask for trouble and is the cost certain way of getting it. Hundreds of men and women go through life believing they arc victims of some serious- disease, making their lives, and frequently the lives of those with whom they are closely associated, wretched and depressing when all the time there is practically nothing wrong with them, or merely some more or less trivial disorder which would be readily curable or at all events alleviable if they could only be brought to believe it. The fear of heart disease is perhaps the most common. 1 alpitatioii, slight irregularity of the heart’s action, 'uniting feelings, pain in Urn heart regions, and so on, are all common adjuncts to digestive disorders which, when not ascribed to their proper cause, may easily lead to the fatal error of considering them positive indications of heart mischief. Oi'ce this belief has obtained possession of the mind it is extremely dillicull to shake it, for even after the fears have been pronounced unreal by a medical man a slight recurrence of the symptoms is often sufficient to raise them again. The fear of lung disease, and especially of consumption, is an almost equally common dread. Many people suffer from slight chronic catarrh of portions of the respiratory systeip. and this' naturally tends to give rise to more or ctflglil ■ bre exertion, with Tilt the parts. may ,3C t,Ue 1111U1 ' j'cauSeS, and* when these are detected ’frequently yield promptly to simple treatment, but failure to recognise the proper .cause, or more generally failure to -give up some bad habit which may be the root of the complaint, leads to its continuance, until in time the mind becomes obsessed with the idea that the lungs are delicate and that consumption has laid its grim hand upon them.

Over-smoking, intemperance, overspeaking, as with clergymen, schoolmasters, and tire like, are illustrations of the bad habits that may and do set up such symptoms, while general inattention to the laws of health, lack of fresh air, 'insufficient exercise, unsuitable clothing, etc., are fruitful factors in the production of such throat and lung disorders. The fear of brain disorder, of hnpehdii g insanity, is another dread tli.it of late years has become somcwiiat ; prominently mjticeable. The dread of madpess is the more distressing because as a rule the unhappy sufferer, terrified that his fear should

be confirmed, does not take advice, but nurses his fears and broods over them until there is some danger that the phantom he has created may become real. Cancer ,is another drejad disorder of winch many people have the utmost terror. The disease, from whatever reason, has been making rapid increase of late, being, in fact, seven times more frequently met with than it wa.s one hundred years ago. In 1838, .173 persons out of every million died from cancel’, while in 1921 more than 1000 per million succumbed to the disease. Probably part of th’s greater mortality is due to increased skill in the recognition of the disease, but a great part is due to increased length of life whicn has occurred during the past hundred years. Cancer rarely attacks young persons, but becomes more and more fatal with advancing years, and therefore as the number of old persons increases the proportion of cancer cases must also extend. The dread of such a disease as cancer must not be overlooked as a possible factor in its production. 'The mind has a great power over the body, and its concentrated attention on any portion sets up influences that cannot fail to have a greater cr less effect. For this reason those who fear the disease, who are apt to dwell on this or that symptom, should not hesitate to take advice. In the great majority of cases their fears will be allayed at once, but even in the unhappy event of their suspicions being verified early recognition of the disease affords the greatest and, indeed, the only hope of euro. The attention of many scientists is now being stronglv directed, to, the nature of tin; malign affeitipn}*. and the prob--tettrr d [.will be-inclftdcnJ-tiISQIHf the list of. dismedical skill has van-

To dread disease never aid anyone the slightest good. To recognise that good health is the result of good habits is a totally different thing from rearing lest disease should com* 1 . Imaginary fears may cause more suffering than the actual disease itself Many a man lived a long and happv life whose heart was in such a condition that no insurance company wohld accept him. Many other men, on the contrary, whose hearts were perfectly sound and normal, have gone through life terrified by morbid fears without really having spent a happy day, and when the end came have sbullled off this mortal soil from complaints of which they have never had the slightest dread. The bravo din orce, the coward dies a hundred times, is a truism which the man fearful about his health would do well to recognise.

Fear is a bad habit, and like all other bad habits is must be overcome. Those who suffer from the particular form of cowardice to which 1 have been referring may not find it a •simple task, but it can and must oe overcome if life is to be what it is meant to be, a joyous thing.