Under this heading our contributor, Dr Valentine Knaggs, deals briefly month by month, and according as space permits, with questions of general interest to health seekers and others.
In all Queries relating to health difficulties it is essential that full details of the correspondent's customary diet should be clearly given.
Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on one side only of the paper, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a stamped addressed envelope must be enclosed.—[Eds.]
EXCESSIVE PERSPIRATION.
Miss R.E.N. writes.—I am troubled with excessive perspiration. I neither eat meat nor drink tea. I have a cold sponge bath down to my waist every morning, and I change all my clothes when I go to bed. My diet is, roughly, as follows:
Breakfast.—Oatmeal porridge with toast or bread and jam or golden syrup. Hot water.
Lunch.—Peas, beans or lentils, eggs, cheese. Vegetables: potatoes and onions, or carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips. Puddings, fruit or milk wholemeal bread, not much sugar except for sweetening fruits, etc.
Tea meal.—Wholemeal bread and butter, nuts, jam, cake, pastry; hot water.
At bedtime.—Hot water or coffee.
If our correspondent wishes to remedy this excessive perspiration she must get a hot towel-bath daily (all over),[14] wearing porous linen-mesh underclothing next the skin. She should also discontinue the soft sugary and starchy foods, and not mix fruit with other foods (it is best taken by itself, say, for breakfast). She needs more of the cooling salad vegetables. The following diet would be a great improvement:—
On rising.—Half-pint of hot boiled water, sipped slowly.
Breakfast.—Wholemeal bread or biscuits and butter (all made without salt), with salad or grated raw roots. Stop porridge, jam and golden syrup. Avoid drinking at meals.
Lunch.—Two eggs, or 2 oz. of curd cheese. Two vegetables cooked in casserole without salt; wholemeal bread or biscuits and butter; a few figs, prunes, dried bananas, or raisins, washed but not cooked. Avoid milk puddings or stewed fruits as too fermentative and heating.
Supper meal.—1 to 2 oz. flaked nuts, some crisp “P.R.” or “Ixion” biscuits with nut butter. Some fresh salad or grated roots. Stop jam, cake and pastry.