MEDICAL.
Troubled One.—Yours is a complaint which often causes great uneasiness to girls of your age. It is usually of very little import, and its greatest harm results, not from the condition itself, but from the patient’s fixed idea that she is suffering from some serious ailment. Almost anything can cause it. Indigestion and anæmia are among the most common causes. You will probably find that carefully treating your indigestion will cure your trouble. A short course of iron, if your digestion will stand it, will do you good.
Kanowna.—Try washing your face with warm water and sulphur soap. A very little sulphur ointment applied to your face at night-time will help you.
S. D.—1. Yes; vaseline is not a bad preparation for the hair. It is rather messy, and does not suit some persons’ hair. As regards the question, “How often should you wash your hair?” it depends a good deal upon yourself and the condition of your hair. If the hair is quite healthy, it need not be washed more often than once a month.—2. Simply a curiosity. It means nothing.
Mavis.—Read our advice to “Troubled One.” Of course, in a case like that of your friend, the question of a local cause for her symptoms must be considered. A course of iron, or of iron with some astringent, such as aromatic sulphuric acid is often of extreme value when the annoyance is due to constitutional causes. When taking iron in any form, constipation must be carefully guarded against.
Anxious Topsy.—Drinking excessively does cause profuse perspiration. But profuse perspiration produces excessive thirst; so that it is difficult to say which is the cause and which the effect. People who perspire freely should avoid tea and coffee, as these stimulate the sweat glands. They should wash in warm (not hot) water, and sponge over those parts which perspire most profusely with toilet vinegar and water. When the hands and feet are the members chiefly at fault, a powder consisting of one part of salicylic acid to ninety-nine parts of powdered silica may be dusted inside the gloves and socks. When the face perspires more freely than the other parts of the body, sulphur soap should be used to wash with, or the face may be bathed occasionally in toilet vinegar and water.
Muriel.—We see alas! that constant repetition is forced upon us in this column. One would have thought that every one of our readers had by this time grasped the chief points in the treatment of chronic indigestion. But we see that we are mistaken! And that we must repeat time after time. Well, here is the treatment of indigestion in a nutshell! We can divide indigestion into three grades of severity. First, those forms which need merely a few hints about diet; secondly, those forms in which a considerable amount of care must be taken, but which do not completely incapacitate the sufferers; and thirdly, the most serious cases which require great skill on the part of the physician and the patient to keep the latter from starvation. It is to those suffering from the second of these grades that the following remarks are addressed. As regards diet and eating. Take three, four, or five meals a day; but let them be small meals, and the intervals between them of nearly equal time. Eat very slowly; masticate properly. Give twenty bites to each mouthful of solid food. Never eat in a hurry or bolt your food. Sit down and do nothing for at least half an hour after each meal. Avoid pastry, cheese, potatoes, the coarser vegetables, pork, veal, made dishes (except such as are very simple), liver, kidneys, goose, duck, and sweet puddings. Take white bread in preference to brown or patent breads, for it is more digestible and more nutritious. It is preferable to have it toasted. Bread, biscuits, and any foods containing sugar must be partaken of in moderation. As regards liquids. Drink little, never more than half-a-pint of fluid at each meal, and drink it when you have finished eating. Avoid alcohol in all forms, tea, coffee, and cocoa—all of these are indigestible. Never take soup, beef-tea, or meat essences. Let your chief drinks be warm milk and aerated waters. Never drink anything very hot or very cold. Ices are especially to be avoided. In addition look to your teeth; have any bad teeth which may be present removed. Where you have lost teeth have false ones put in. Beware of tight lacing. Corsets are a fertile cause of indigestion, and are one reason why dyspepsia is so much more common in women than in men. Take a good walk every day. Guard against constipation from all causes. A little stewed fruit and plenty of green vegetables will help to relieve this complication. When intractable, a teaspoonful of liquorice powder or a pill of aloes and nux vomica may be taken at night. A glassful of hot water taken the last thing at night is also of value. As regards drugs, the first necessity is to point out that these are very commonly the cause of indigestion, and the less that dyspeptics have to do with them the better they will be. Never have a “bottle of medicine” as a “cure” for dyspepsia. Indigestion cannot be cured by drugs. Above all, avoid pepsin, and acids and bitters. The former drug relieves indigestion for a time, but makes it worse afterwards. It is only when normal digestion is impossible that pepsin should be used. In nine cases out of ten acids make indigestion worse; in the tenth case they are unnecessary. But unfortunately we must occasionally resort to drugs to relieve indigestion. A tablespoonful of bicarbonate of soda, or a “tabloid” of sodamint, taken when fulness, or flatulency, or oppression, or nausea is severe will often give instant relief. The severer grades of dyspepsia require further treatment, but we are not considering them now.