"FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH"

Shannon News, 15 January 1929, Page 4

"FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH"

SAN FRANCISCO. A despatch from Chicago says that x those roues and roystercrs and men who hnve been too much about town will , not find their lost fountain of youth 'id gait or monkey glands, but they may find it in the bath tub. That at least was the opinion of physicians at the session of the American College of Physical Therapy, for they laid great stress on the importance of the morning plunge in cold water, saying tbey were certain a course of them would restore something, if not all. Dr. Paul Roth and Dr. W. H. Riley, both of the well-known Battle Creek . Sanatorium, rebuilders of persons, were the cmos who discussed the subject. Dr Eiley read a treatise on it, and many of the physicians who heard it agreed with him. "The skin," said Dr Eiley "is intimately related to the entire body. Thus a short cold bath, lasting from a few seconds to not longer than three minutes, has wonderful lifting effects. There are definite reactions in the body, as we have found by experimentation on the human subjects, and if the plunge becomes habitual lasting effects for good may be obtained."

"I would say," interposed Dr Both, , "that a course of cold, short baths ,would do far more to rejuvenate a man than transplantation of glands or the taking of glandular secretion extracts: or serums." "Yes, "continued Dr Biley, "the cold plunge does a number/of beneficial ■things to the body. ■' First and foreMost it increases the circulation of the blood. It improves digestion and increases respiration. It stimulates the- skin and stimulates the kidney action. It improves the heart action and brings up the blood pressure, and it increases the haemoglobin, which is the oxygen carrier in the blood. In addition to all this, it normalises and brings u-p the metabolism, which means it stimulates tho rate at which the vital processes of energy are produced."