COLD WEATHER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5287, 15 June 1928, Page 1

COLD WEATHER.

SOME MOKE BOATSTHE HAPPY MEAN. The following, contributed to the Waipa Post, is appropriate just now : I have just had a very serious case of pneumonia which began a week ago. The patient - : s a strong man, who has not until now known a day’s serious illness in his life. Last Tuesday he became thoroughly wet. and was advised by a friend to hurry home and change. He laughed the advice to scorn, mounted a bus. and,rode for half an hour in a biting wind. His case is by no means an isolated one. There are hundreds of men and women who believe that they me “too strong to fall ill.” They take pleasure in defying the weather. These people do not. as a rule, know the difference between the kind of defiance which is permissible and the kind of defiance which is merely foolhardiness. They sec no particular difference, for. instance, between walking in a cold wind ami ruling on a bus ip a cold wind l .

And yet there is all, the difference in the world between these two activities. The man. who walks keeps warm ; the man who rides soon chills. It is a rule which everyone knows that danger lies not in the cold or the rain, not even in the cold and the rar’n together, but in our feelings of cold. So long as. we feel warm we are safe. The moment we begin to shiver

J we are in. great danger. * Shivering is not the same thing as » feeling cold. Everyone feels cold at • first in cold weather. But everyone ; does not in cold weather experience that “inward chill” which is usually the first sign of trouble. > To sit stall, whether on a football ’ grandstand, park seat, or anywhere > else out of doors at the present time > is inevitably to lose heat more r,ap’dly > than the body is able to produce it. The result of that loss can only be an “inward chill.” ’ Another act of folly, which is too ■ often committed in winter, is to , hurry forth after, a full meal. To db this is to place a severe strai'n on the heart. I have little doubt that one of the reasons why. during spells of cold weather, we always hear, of eases ’of sudden collapse is that people do not know about the close relationship that exists between the. stomach and the heart. A full stomach interferes with the heart’s natural response to cold. It hampers the heart lit its struggle against the chill of a winter day. A heart so burdened, is liable to become unsteady' in its action. It is a good rule to wa>t for at least a quarter of an hour after eating before going out when the temperature is low. On the other hand, it is foolish to go out “on an empty 'stomach.” Most doctors, when they are called but in these winter nights, drink a cup of tea or bovril before leaving the house. Experience ha& shown that this precaution wards off the- danger of a chull. Here, again, a distinction must be drawn. A full stomach is dangerous ; and empty stomach is dangerous. Safety lies in the happy mean between the two. I .am no believer in alcohol as a means of getting warm quickly (says a Harley Street doctor), but I fell sure that if the sense of “inward chill” lias been experienced a little hot whisky is one of the best wavs to banish it. If you feel that most unpleasant sensation, go home as quickly as you •can, and either get 'into a hot bath or put your feet into hot water. Then take a hot whisky and go at once to bed with a hot bottle. As soon as you begin to perspire, but not before, you can count yourself safe. When, you do begin to perspire take great care not to chill again. l.t is better, to spend a day in bed than to risk getting an attack of pneumonia.