The use of refined paraffin as a remedy for constipation is just now all the rage with the orthodox medical profession. There is nothing really to be said against its right use, provided it is made to serve as one of the means to an end. It has been proved that this paraffin, which is quite tasteless, odourless and easy to swallow, is not absorbed by the system but passes unchanged and unaltered through it. It acts therefore as a mere mechanical lubricant. The one thing to remember is that its use should be combined with a curative diet, so that it need not be taken indefinitely.
(1) DRY THROAT; (2) SACCHARINE; (3) DILATED HEART.
Mr L.S. writes:—I have read The Healthy Life from the appearance of the first number, and I have studied the Answers to Correspondents, but have not observed a case identical with my own, hence my reason for troubling you.
(1) The back part of mouth next throat has a curious glazed appearance—no cough or expectoration. I am inclined to think it extends to and includes the stomach. I have always a good appetite, but am not well nourished; much under weight. Age 44 years; school officer; cycle 25 miles a week.
Eat meat sparingly, not a pound a week. Live principally upon eggs and bread and butter—(three eggs a day): “Digestive Tea” two and three times a day.
2. Is saccharine less harmful than sugar for sweetening?
3. As the result of a nervous breakdown I had five years ago I suffer from a dilated heart, consequently—I suppose—I have palpitation occasionally, oftener when in bed. I don't think my heart is really normal since my breakdown five years ago.
4. Would bathing myself with cold water over the region of the heart strengthen the muscles? Would you please suggest anything for strengthening heart. Are lemons or eggs injurious to the heart?
1. The throat symptoms indicate a dry, irritable, heated condition of the mouth and throat which, as the correspondent surmises, equally affects the stomach and the rest of the digestive organs. He should have a breakfast of fresh fruit only, take salads and grated raw roots with his meals and stop tea altogether. He can drink distilled water and vegetable or lemon drinks (unsweetened) instead.
2. Saccharine is a mineral substance, a fossilised product of putrefactive action in the coal age. It is closely analogous to carbolic acid, which equally originates from microbic action. By leaving off sugar and replacing it by saccharine our correspondent gains nothing. He is simply leaping from the frying pan into the fire. It is best for him to cultivate a taste for unsweetened or even acid drinks.
3. A dilated heart is usually an after effect of a dilated stomach, which strains it, just as it does every other organ, whether in the chest or the abdomen.
4. Bathing the chest with cold water is not desirable. What is needed is that the correspondent should drink as little fluid as possible and pay close attention to the condition of his digestive mechanism. If the organs are dilated or misplaced he should wear a belt and take suitable gentle Osteopathic exercises.
TREATMENT FOR STAMMERING.
A.M.D. writes:—Could you kindly give in The Healthy Life magazine some suggestions as to the best method to follow in a case of stammering (slight) in a boy of ten or eleven years who has been rather left to himself, the hesitancy in speech being regarded as incurable?
This boy should be trained by someone who understands how to cure stammering. The correspondent would do well to consult Miss Behncke of 18 Earl's Court Square, S.W., who makes a speciality of treating such cases.