HEALTH NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 4031, 16 June 1931, Page 5

HEALTH NOTES

By

R. J. Terry.

I have been asked to say something about tobacco. I would like to state at once that I am not a faddist regarding tobacco smoking. I view the subject only from a health point of view, and freely admit that the effects of tobacco on individuals differ considerably. Tobacco does not contain a sedative element in anything like the degree that is imagined, neither is it anything like the stimulant’ it is supposed to be. As a matter of fact, it is asserted by those who have studied its effects that the unquestionably soothing effect of any form of its use is due not to any of its constituents, but merely to the suggestive effect of holding something between the lips and puffing at it. Others ascribe it to the hypnotic effect of the curling smoke. There can be no doubt that smoking is robbed of most of its effect in the dark. It must also be admitted by all thinking persons that the benefits of smoking are nil outside of its purely mental effect, and possibly the sociability of which it is an accompaniment. r ■ Although tobacco contains possibly the most potent poison known, and is rapidly absorbed by mucous surfaces such as that of the mouth, fortunately the poison known as nicotine is not present in great quantities and is got rid of quickly from the body. A man cleans out his pipe when it is foul, and is apt to get the impression that tobacco contains a great deal of nicotine, but the substance he extracts from the pipe is largely com posed of tar and other products, due to the burning of the tobacco. The actual nicotine, when extracted from the tar like impurities, is a straw coloured crystal and a - mere fraction would cause death. Although the poison is readily absorbed it is one of the toxins to which the bodv becomes acclimatised or accustomed There is nothing very remarkable in this tact, but I may point out that small doses of strychnine or arsenic are often used medicinally,. but that does not gel away from the fact that the continued i • them over an extended period does bring about serious results, and one . has to increase the dose to have anv apparent effect. That, to my mind, is the chief danger as regards tobacco. You are out to increase the quantities. You may quote the case of a friend who has been a heavy smoker for years. He is not dead, but if you had sufficient knowledge to diagnose you would find there were many things wrong with him.

Recently the suggestion has been put forward that where tobacco poisonin H does occur the harmful agent is not the nicotine at all, but carbon monoxide, a product of the imperfectly burnt vege table material of the weed. In the pres ent stage of knowledge it is not possibl ■■ to be dogmatic on this matter.. What ever the poison may be, there can be no doubt that the effects of over-indulgenc-are frequently seen. Common symptoms are nausea, excessive saliva, vertigo, ami headache, lack of appetite, chronic dyspepsia, waterbrash, and heartburn. There may be vascular symptoms such as irritability and even considerable irregu larity of the action of the heart ami shortness of breath.

Nervous symptoms also may appear shakiness of the hands, tremulousness of the lips, general irritability, and the inability to concentrate. There is no need to add to such a list, though it must" O'* understood that all the symptoms do no' necessarily appear in the same person Some people are constitutionally much more susceptible than others, and the sedentary worker in confined quarters much more than the out-of-door manual worker.

It is a matter of common experienc that smoking “ on an empty stomach ” can be more upsetting than after a meal Much discussion centres round the reia tive dangers of the cigarette, the pipe, and the cigar. This is a vexed question, and there can be no doubt that the worst effects will follow, and quickly, when liquid material containing nicotine <s taken into the mouth. This is most liable to occur accidentally with the “ wet ” pipe smoker and with the man who smokes too much of his cigar. The cigar, further, contains a much more higher proportion of the alkaloid. There is not a great deal in it, provided one is a tolerably dry smoker. The susceptibility of different individuals to tobacco is a variable thing, and it is not posible to lay down rigid rules as to what constitutes the perniis-

sible allowance of the various forms of smokes.

Few can have the slightest difficulty in deciding whether or not they are overindulging; the chief trouble is the remedy. Although there are paints for application to the throat to render tobacco smoke distasteful, the only practical solution is the exercise of will power. It is probably more difficult to reduce the number of cigarettes to a few a day than to break the habit off completely. Selfdiscipline is, perhaps, best exercised by determining to smoke only after the day's work is over, or after meals only. One thing is certain, the cigarette chain habit is most harmful. There is no need to fear any dangerous consequences following the complete and sudden cessation of smoking, such as occur after the stopping of alcohol and of certain drugs. LOCKJAW. ' I suppose 90 people out of 100 are much more frightened if they cut their thumb than if they cut any other part of their hand. Numbers would be really tortured by the dread of lockjaw if they wiuinded the web of the thumb. Now, a cut on the thumb is not any more liable to conduce towards lockjaw than any other cut; and lockjaw can only.be contracted if the germ of tetanus is allowed to enter the wound. BACKACHE. Some of you get a pain in your back, and you immediately think that you either have kidney disease or that you are developing it. The majority of pains in the back have nothing whatever to do with the kidneys. Among those painful conditions when the back is ach.ing Bright’s disease is least prominent; so cut your worries in this direction by at least 50 per cent. CANCER. Another widespread belief is that cancer is a painful disease. Though often agonsing in its termination, cancer in its beginning rarely causes more than slight discomfort. At the same time. I would point out that it cannot be too strongly emphasised that middle-aged folk who >ecome affected with an indolent, sleepy sore, a lump, a puckering of the skin, a bleeding from any part of the body orifices, or a disturbance of any of the normal functions of the alimentary canal in other words, the intestines—should have the matter attended to without delay. In many forms of cancer there is a very high cure rate, in expert hands, but only when the disease is taken in time. BRAIN INJURY. Another mistaken idea of which one sometimes reads in novels is that of a person who meets with an accident and his character becomes paralysed or normally altered, or he loses his memory owing to an injury to the head. , A doctor ernes along and performs the operation if trepanning, removing some small piece of bone which is pressing on the brain, and immediate recovery is the result, memory being restored and a change occurring in moral character Unfortunately, these happy results cannot be brought about, and in nearly all eases he changing character and loss of memory ire due to damage or destruction of brain tissue, which cannot be cured by the removal of the piece of bone. An ultimate ■ure might be brought about by making the blood very pure and the general health so good that nature would restore ‘he sufferer