A NEW YEAR RESOLUTION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 912, 1 February 1957, Page 11

A NEW YEAR RESOLUTION

This is the text of a talk on health broadcast recently from ZB, YA and YZ stations of the NZBS by.

DR

H. B.

TURBOTT

Deputy- |

Director-General of Health

"| HE editor in a very recent issue of a medical magazine asks "Do doctors tell their patients enough about themselves?" He answers in the negative, and ends his. editorial thus, "the doctor is etymologically a Teacher . . . his duties as Healer are secondary to this." A farmer’s wife in our own land writes me an interesting letter. She says: "I wish more doctors would take an interest in the whole family and its environment as regards jllness. Too many women’s ills stem from too much rushing around or overwork and worry. The trouble is more mental than physical. Doctors should get hold of husbands and inform them their wives have to get away from everything occasionally and, of course, vice versa. They should refuse the bottle of tonic and make people cure their own ills. I have imagined all kinds of ills when really all I needed was a good rest and a bit of peace with a little fussing over." Now let us consider these two statements. I think most doctors would like to do more teaching. But if they were to tell you your illness was emotional and not physical, would you take it? Or would you go off down the road to the next doctor who might not be so frank, and who might give you what you expected, medicines or pills? Nevertheless, I personally think the medical editor has raised a question needing consideration. The farmer’s wife says she would welcome the assurance her ills were emotional, and that relief from tension was all she needed. However, she seems to be a very enlightened person. Are you? Do you admit to yourself the power of your mind and your emotions over your body-that aches and pains can come from feelings and emotions? Your muscles are always working, one against another often, to keep you tuned up. You really live in a state of muscular tension. When you enjoy yourself, there is relaxation ,in all your muscles; when you are upset mentally, maybe criticised, or failed with expected promotion or worried in domestic life, there

is increased tension in all your muscular tissues. This changes immediately to relaxation if you are praised, get the expected promotion and achieve happiness in your home life, Nerves and muscles are a team very directly linked with your feelings and emotions. Nerves work on muscles and "over-tense" the body when you fall out with people, ere in unsatisfactory work or unhappy in your job, or when you live unheal!thily through feeding wrongly and failing to take ‘enough rest and relaxation, If allowed to continue these "over-tensings" react on the mind. There may be just plain discontent, discouragement, fears about the future, or real depression. If the tense state and these unhappy feelings are allowed to continue too long, the body feels tired and it begins to feel real aches and pains-anywhere-maybe in joints, maybe in stomach or intestines. These real aches and pains have’ led to operations at which no physical defect is found. In some there may be an inner con-| flict of such long standing that the origin is forgotten and a_ psychiatrist’s help may lead to unravellment and recogni-_ tion, For the majority it is a question of recognising the power of the mind. over the physical body, and recognising the tenseness, the aches and pains, for what | they are. You may not be able to escape the causes, but have to put up with unhappiness in work or in domestic life. ‘Then the thing to do is to recognise this frankly, and seek to down this worry, with its resultant tenseness and apparent bodily troubles, by finding an outlet for the tenseness, in some new productive work or hobby, in some. form of play, both individual and competitive, that takes you out of yourself, and in deliberate rest and relaxation. Our farmer’s wife was right. Too many ills stem from too much rushing around or overwork or worry. Pain or discomfort can come from _ tenseness, from stress centred in feelings and emotions, and can be carried by nerves to. that part of the body or that organ in which you feel it. No treatment of the body or the organ cures this kind of pain. ' ;

Recognise its origin-loneliness, domestic quarreling, worry’ over money, just plain trying to do too much-and get. relief from the stress in something you do with your hands, some productive work or hobby, some play and relaxation. You won't find relief in medicines or drugs. Husbands, could you apply the farmer’s wife’s discovery, and make a New Year resolution to give your wife "a good rest and @ bit of peace with a little fussing over’? |