Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)

by Rasmus Larssen Alsaker

No matter what one's ideas may be on the subject of bathing, there can hardly be more than one opinion regarding the application of dry friction to the skin. Those who have noted its excellent results feel that it should be a daily routine. It should be practiced either morning or evening, or both. From five to ten minutes spent thus daily will pay high dividends in health. A vigorous rubbing is exercise not only for the skin, but for nearly every muscle in the body.

The dry rubbing keeps the surface circulation vigorous. The surface circulation, and especially the circulation in the hands and the feet, is the first part that begins to stagnate. Blood stagnation means the beginning of the process which results in old age. In other words, dry friction to the skin helps to preserve health and youth. Skin that is not exercised often becomes very hard and scales off particles of mineral matter.

If women would put less dependence on artificial beautifiers and more on scientific massage, they would get much better results. They would avoid many a wrinkle and save their complexions. The neck and the face should never be massaged downwards. The strokes should be either upwards or from side to side, the side strokes generally being toward the median line. Such massaging will prevent the sagging of the face muscles for years and help to keep the face free from wrinkles and young in appearance. The massaging should be rather gentle, for if it is too vigorous the tendency is to remove the normal amount of fat that pads and rounds out the face. Men can do the same thing, but most men have no objection to wrinkles.

However, most men do object to baldness, which can be prevented in nearly every case. To produce hair on a polished pate is a different proposition. It is indeed difficult. If you will look at a picture of the circulation of the blood in the scalp, you will notice that the arteries supplying it come from above the eye sockets in front, from before and behind the ears on the sides, and from the nape of the neck in the rear. They spread out and become smaller and smaller as they travel toward the top of the head, and especially toward the back. The scalp is well supplied with blood, but it is not given much exercise. The tendency is for the blood stream to become sluggish, deposits gradually forming in the walls of the blood-vessels, which make them less elastic and decrease the size of the lumen. The result is less food for the hair roots and food of inferior quality.

This process of cutting off the circulation in the scalp is largely aided by the tight hats and caps worn by men, which compress the blood-vessels. It is quite noticeable that people with round heads have a greater tendency to become bald than those with more irregular heads. The reason is probably that the hats fit more snugly on the round-headed people. There are many exceptions. Women are not so prone to baldness as men, because they wear hats that do not exclude the air from the hair nor do they compress the blood-vessels.

Let those men who dislike to lose their hair massage the scalp for a short while daily, beginning above the eyes, in front of the ears and at the nape of the neck and going to the top of the head. Then let them wear as sensible hats as possible, avoiding those that exert great pressure on the blood-vessels that feed the scalp. Thus they will not only be able to retain their hair much longer than otherwise, but the hair that is well fed does not fade as early as that which lives on half rations.

In the case of preserving the hair, an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure. The man who can produce a satisfactory hair restorer that will give results without any effort on the part of the men can become a millionaire in a short time.

The hair is a modified form of skin. Each hair is supplied with blood, and the reason that the hair stands up during intense fear is that to the lower part of the shaft is attached a little muscle. During fear this contracts, as do other involuntary muscles, and then the hair stands up straight instead of being oblique.

As a rule people protect the skin too much. The best protection they have against cold is a good circulation. With a poor circulation it is difficult to keep warm in spite of much clothing. Coldness is also largely a state of mind. People get the idea of cold into the head and then it is almost impossible for them to keep warm. On the same winter day we may see a man in a thick overcoat trying to shrink into himself, shivering, while a lady passes blithely by, with her bosom bared to the wind.

The face tolerates the cold, because it is used to it, the neck and the upper part of the chest likewise, and so it would be with the skin of the entire body if we accustomed it to be exposed. We use too heavy clothes. It is a mistake to hump the back and draw in the shoulders during cold weather, for this reduces the lung capacity, thus depriving the body of its proper amount of oxygen. The result is that there is not enough combustion to produce the necessary amount of heat.