HEALTH AND AGE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 634, 14 January 1914, Page 2

HEALTH AND AGE.

We are apt to think sometimes that health can be attained by following carefully a certain set of definite rules, and that if everyone would only observe these there would be an end to all ailments. The only difficulty is that few tried to frame rules which would do for every state of ilfe, every age, every temperament, they would have to be so loose and general that they would lose all definite outline. Infancy, maturity, and old age have each different requirements, and even with each of these sections there are numerous varieties, according to the sex, constitution, and circumstances of the individual. In the case of infants we generally recognise this fact, hut as age creeps on we are apt to let its slide out of mind. We may say that almost always the middle aged and the old eat and drink far more than is good for them. Growth has ceased, usually exercise is diminished—often indeed reduced to a minimum, and the digestive function become less and less competent to deal with large masses of food. The general result are unwholesome fatness, shortness of breath, giridin ss, susceptibility too changes or temperature, irritability and mental sluggishness. Old people require more protection than the young and vigorous, but that is not saying they should coop thennevles up in stuffy, rooms. They require moderate exercise, avoiding violent exertion and arm chair laziness with equal caution. Nourishing food carefully prepared they must have, but they should err if at all in the direction of under eating. And lastly, it is the greatest mistake to give up using one's intellect and to allow oneself to sink into that unwholesome mental torpor which is so often associated with old age.