HEALTH NOTES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5395, 4 March 1929, Page 4

HEALTH NOTES.

LONG LIFE.

(Contributed by the Department of

Health.)

“Give me health and a day,” wrote Emerson, “and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.” Health is the normal ideal condition, of that physical mechanism we call the human body, aud an important means; of maintaining this desirable condition is by the means of a periodic medical examination. The idea of a health examination is not new, but .only within comparatively recent years has tiie movement received such impetus as to make it a necessary and important factor in the physical welfare of a nation. It is a wise and useful innovation, growing apace, and it is evidtent that it will in time become a part of community life. No one would now wait for a toothache to drive him to a dentist. The same idea is. sens-, ible, and will obtain with, other structures and functions of the body. EARLY DIAGNOSIS. The reasons why health examinar tians are beneficial are so obvious that hardly any arguments for them, are necessary. They are, of course, advantageous to the individual in that they serve to detect the beginning of organic disease or to discover the existence of definite physical impairments of whic.h the person may have been unaware. Finally, personal habits of living, errors .of hygiene, and P° s ‘ sible shortcomings ip environmental conditions are frequently brought out. For instance, the opportunity of completely reviewing the physical condition of recruits by military boards in New Zealand during the Great War revealed the value and necssity of such examinations. The system of medical inspection of schoolchildren, affords another striking illustration of the value Of the early detection of physical deformities and disease. In this case the examination also serves a.s a guide for parents in the selection of suitable employment for 1 children with'known defects. 'As the public health movement lias progressed sanitary science has triumphed over environmental conditions, and broadly speaking, over many of t.he communicable. diseases. Such diseases as typhoid, fever are definitely the wane. The death-bell has been soundted for, hookworm, malaria, and yellow fever; diphtheria; is being conquered; man has vanquished smallpox, though this insidious, fete is ever watchful for the time when carelessness, apathy, and ignorance release it to ravage again. The venereal dis-, eases have been recognised as health enemies as well as moral ones. Tuberculosis is losing in its. light on human existence. Infant mentality is also succumbing.

As these diseases and their deathrates go down others rise up to take their place. Cancer, kidney diseases, hcar.t trouble, diabetes, apoplexy, and other organic digeasep seem to be on tiie increase. The death-rates from them are either rising or else the trend is stationary, or only slightly' downward. The secret in combating these maladies, in every case is in an early diagnosis. For that, matter, diagnosis at the very onset is important in checking any disease, and applies With special emphasis to many of those which have been previously mentioned, such as, tuberculosis.' The aveiftge -span of life in New Zealand j s increasing, blit it would ahead much faster if the present knowledge regarding communicable disease was universally applied., It will increase even more when the rules of personal hygiene are thoroughly emplotyed. • TAKEN IN TIME. What is the periodic, examina- the What is the periodic health examination ? By a’ periodic health ex--amination we mean the use of all those resources of a physician by question, observation, and tests, through the application of which he distinguishes between health and disease when applied; to persons -who, as far as they are aware, are not suffering fi;om any disability -cir disease. The physician is faced with a client, a pupil seeking guidance in health, rather than sought, by a patient who believes himself to be sick. The health client conies to learn whether in his happy disregard of, minor, discomforta—or, shall we say, while inattentive of slowlydevclbping and insidious disease—he is as we]l as he is capable of being, and by a better adjustment to his fellclws affd to> his, physical surrpiindings, anti to the obligations to his work and family, he may escape the too rapid advance of the infirmities of his years, and correct babitsjf at fifty which .may have been safe and useful at thirty. When people are subjectively aware of disease the time has usually passed for the most hopeful and effective curative or corrective treatment. Only by detecting, heart and; kidney lesions,, cancer or diabetes in the earliest stage, even when the patient is wholly saetasfiedi with his apparent state of health,, can we most nearly approximate cure by the use of the medical sciences. Enough has been indicated to stress the importance of -a periodic, physical examination of the human machine by the family doctor, ..more especially so from tiie age of forty years upwards, when the diseases mentioned often have their onset, Jtyr the protection of workers In whfat are known' as dangerous trades, in certain caves' such examinations are c.ompulspry DY law. It is realised in these traded from experience th at prevention is better than cure, a, ml the profoundwisdom of this old maxim equally applies to all walks o f life. However, one should' be undn} y and morbidly solicitious about one's health and drift ingloriouslv into the ranks of the valetudinarians. Yet; at the samel time, though death is a necessary and' inevitable end. it bc-ht wes all individuals to avail themse Ives of every means to prolong existence at least to three score years and ten; and one of the important means to tiffs end is an occasional overhaul by a qualified physician skilled by experience and training in. t'he < early signs of the ills that flesh isi hear to.