BAD HABITS OF LIFE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2207, 25 November 1920, Page 4

BAD HABITS OF LIFE.

CULTIVATE HEALTH. Those of my readers who, from time to time, glance through the correspondence attached to (his column will, no doubt, have been struck by the fact that the same advice recurs again and again (says the doctor who edits the "Talks with the Doctor” column in the “Weekly Scotsman,” Another thing they may have noted is that much ol it is very simple, and that the words "drugs will not help you” are frequently used. All these things are significant and point to one thing, that a great many people have tire same kind of ill-health. Over and over again 1 receive letters from readers stating that they have been out of sorts for many months, often formally years, and that innumerable remedies have been tried to no purpose. The trouble remains. . Hence that recurring- little prescription I have already mentioned, whose details you must know by heart, and arc probably a little weary of. It is a condensed form of much that I have expressed at greater length in the column itself.

"He advises walking!” you may say tlon to bowels, and so on!” And you may go on to say (hat you have tried these things, too, and- are little Hie belter for them; or that advice of that kind isn’t what you want. In the majority of eases that kind of objection is frankly untrue. If f wore to toll you to do something more dillicult or unusual, to swalow nauseous mixtures, abstain from food, repeat some mechanical and nonsensical charm, have your heads shaved or bo flayed, such advice would stand a bettor chance of being taken seriously. But because the advice is so simple, so lacking in mystery, it defeats its own ends. What most people who are Out of condition need is not a magical remedy, but ordinary commonsense conditions of life.

Aly profession does not lei me forget for very long together Unit flume is ei great ileal of real sickness in (ho world: and my experience as n doctor has taught me that ei good deal of it is duo. to a simple cause, namely, wrong hahits of life. People simply will not give themselves a chance to bo well and" to keep well. Instead of cultivating habits of health, Uicy cultivate the reverse. Persons who, in most other respects are sensible, prudent, and logical abandon all those desirable characteristics whore their bodies arc concerned. A man whoso hobby is the study of natural history knows that if for example, he keeps lish, they need water and a suitable environment. The man who breeds any kind of prize animals knows that his slock will deteriorate unless he pays particular attention to the conditions In which it is reared. Yet often enough the same man fails to apply the same principles to himself. He thinks that some drug or other will put right anything that is wrong. Such a man who expects to purchase health at the chemist's stands svs reasonable a chance of having his hopes realised as docs a child who cries for the moon. How can a person who seldom exercises a body that is both built for exercise and cannot function without it; who has lungs made for breathing fresh air; whose blood needs oxygen if it is to remain blood, and not become stagnant, sewage, whose whole" being, in short, needs simple, but definite conditions; how can such a person expect to substitute a pill or a potion for the very necessities of life? It is like trying to drive a locomotive with a match, or to keep a fish alive by damping its gills with h sponge. The thing is unreasonable. Does it not also stand to reason that bad habits of life cannot be changed in a day? > T o_ doubt many ot you do put into practice for a while the simple rules of life I have so often advocated. You do walk a mile or so every dav for a week, or may be ei month. But only too often this commonsense treatment is regarded as a “cure” rather than a habit. These things must become habits just as the indigestion, the bowel trouble, the headache, and so on have become habits. The body needs educating into better ways, not to be tantalised and discouraged by half-hearted measures, or allowed to revert because of the lack of determination and the faith to persevere. There are cases, I know, whore ago, infirmity, or serious disease not only prevent the adoption of a hygienic regimen, but would be proof against it. It is not of such cases that I am thinking. Fortunately, much of the trouble I am referring to is remediable, but it will yield only to the right treatment. The body will not function wholesomely unless it is given a wholesome chance, therefore breathe deeply as much fresh air as possible, eat sensible food, and masticate it well; take regular exercise and rest, and, above all, do not neglect the body’s master, the mind.