HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 June 1943, Page 4

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

HOW TO TREAT BOILS. (By the Department of Health.) Many people still cling doggedly to the old idea that boils “are good for you.” This is nonsense. Nature does not use boils and carbuncles and pimples as a means of getting rid of body poisons. This form of skin eruption is anything but “good for you.” It is definitely dangerous. Boils are caused by certain germs called staphylococci—lough germs that survive drying and blow about in the air. These germs are nearly always somewhere on the skin of even a healthy person, and*they enter by way of the sweat glands, hair follicles or perhaps skin abrasions. They are, in short, localised infectious processes in the skin.

Uncleanliness and lowered vitality are predisposing causes, and the germs generally attack the part of the body offering the least resistance. On infection, Nature at once combats the germs by sending an extra supply of blood to the snot, and this causes the slight swelling, inflammation and pain that are typical of boils. A boil must be allowed to run its course. On no account should it be pricked or squeezed to relieve the pus. A good treatment of an early boil consists in covering the boil with two or three layers of elastoplast or plaster. This protects and splints the inflamed area. Cut a small circular piece and cover the whole boil. Put a much larger piece on top. Should the boil be discharging, cut a hole in the centre of the first piece, and change the top as it gets soiled. The pus, which is composed of dead germs, destroyed tissue and white blood corpuscles, is a fertile source of infection, and if allowed to spread may give rise to a painful crop of boils. Also, be very careful of tonics for the blood. Som# poor ones marketed may do harm. In short, treat a boil as a very serious complaint, because it is.