TALKS ON HEALTH.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 219, 12 January 1928, Page 2

TALKS ON HEALTH.

HAIR AND THE HEALTH. You must never forget how important the general health is in connection with the health of the hair. Numbers of people ask for the best application for falling hair. In the majority of cases the treatment must be two-fold—to the general health and to the scalp. It is not always possible to produce a beautiful head of hair for the asking; some people have coarse or poor hair, and nothing will alter it. But when we recall that the hair grows from a root, and that the root is nourished by the blood, it will be seen how important the condition of the blood is. Take an extreme instance, such as typhoid fever, when the patient's blood is thoroughly out of order: ,he hair all falls off. And what is the treatment? Nothing need be done to the scalp; as the patient recovers and the system gains strength, the hair begins to grow of its own accord. So you see the answer to your queries about hair may be and often is, “Look after your general health.” A girl with a tendency to anaemia may improve the quality of her hair by treating the anacinfa. An,d do not be impatient; even if the treatment is highly successful, it will take some weeks before the good effect is fully shown. A hair once grown is unalterable; the blood does not run up the hair as the sap runs a tree. You must wait for the old hair to fall off and the new hair to take its place. The inevitable.

Singeing the hair is useless; the treatment of hair is the treatment of the scalp; to burn a bit of hair three or four inches away from the scalp cannot possibly do any good. There conies a time when you must accept the inevitable; when once the root from which the hair grows is dead, no power on earth will resuscitate the defunct hair. You cannot grow a hyacinth unless there is a bulb to grow it from. Baldness, especially when it runs in the family, may occur very early in life, and it is often very difficult to overcome. Do not be deluded into thinking that a bald scalp can be covered with a luxuriant growth of hair. One of the commonest causes of the falling off is scurf. The best treatment is to wash the scalp with a solution of soft soap in rectified spirit. Once a week is often enough &

Neglected Teetn. and Disease. Neglected teeth are the cause nl more than half the disease that attack the English to-day. It seems pitiful to record this, remembering that foul teeth are easily curable. The ignorance of the public on matters of health is unfathomable. The examination of the mouths of a hundred average men and women would reveal scarcely one set of perfect teeth. Although there are signs of a faint dawn of intelligence is appearing in the minds of a few, it fills all health-re-formers with despair to note the ci finical neglect of the ordinary rules of hygiene that prevails in every class. When the public arc asked which they w r ould prefer—a clean, healthy mouth or a diseased mouth—they almost m variably reply that they prefer a diseased mouth, and they are prepared to show 7 you their dirty teeth in proof of the earnestness of their conviction.

Poisoning the Body. Who is so ignorant as not to know that the teeth are providcrl for masticating the food, and if the first process of indigestion is ill carried out the whole digestive apparatus is thrown out of gear? Moreover, the discharge that oozes from unhealthy gums poisons the whole body. The whole object of the complicated digestive apparatus »s to absorb iuto the bon>v whatever is put into the mouth as foou. But the same apparatus is taken advantage of by the poisons that exist in an unclean mouth. The poisons, too, are carried all roun/l the body in the blood stream, and lead to anaemia, inflamed joints, appendicitis, gastric ulcer, and a host of other complaints. _ The mouth cannot be isolated. The - circulation of the blood connects all parts of the body. The drop of blood that is running through the gums at this moment will be in a distant organ of the body two or three seconds after. It ought not to be a mystery to you, when you think of the rapid circulation of the blood, that a kneejoint can be infected by germs having their origin in the mouth. An cpi- ! domic of smallpox can be started by an infected patient coming by ship from thousands of miles away. The public have the matter in their own hands. In three months the amount of illness could be reduced by one-half if

every man, woman and child haid a clean, sweet, pure mouth. Treating a Scalp Wound. In treating a scalp wound it is useful to remember that the first thing to bo done is to cut the hair, so that you can see what you are doing. Ore a pair of scissors should be s!irm°rV under so as to be flat on the scalp, and the blood-fcta:i.cci hair gradually shipper; a wax until you get h clear view tf the v.utind 1/ tlic blooi :s flowing freely you should take a piece of too long they will be tough, thing handy, and apply it. exactly to the bleeding point, and hold it there firmly with the thumb. By this means i you stop the flow of blood, which may • and it gives von time to think. Bv ’ cutting away 'the hai>- and applying firm pr( ssuro with the fiugc.r, vou will ve:y Jik< iv save a life. Apathy of the Native ! The English have always been a great colonising nation, and, with com i mendablc zeal, they try to teach the natives some of the simple rules of health. Naturally, the rules suggested meet with apathy or opposition from

the wild, untamed natives and their medicine-men and witch-finders. But the witch-finders do not give half the trouble to the authorities that the English give. And there is always this to be said, that the natives of distant countries have had no chance to learn, whereas the English know perfectly well that they are doing wrong. The sad part of the story is that the men and women who have sufftred most from neglect of the teeth are tire very people to forget that thei r children have teeth that need attention from the first day that they show through the gum.