Some Common Winter Diseases and Their Treatment by Alfred B. Olsen, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 12, 1911

Some Common Winter Diseases and Their Treatment

By Alfred B. Olsen, M. D.

ALFRED B. OLSEN, M. D.

Although frequent enough all the year round, diseases of the lungs and air-passages are most prevalent in winter. Colds, nasal and throat catarrhs, bronchial disorders, and pneumonia are perhaps the most common of these diseases. It is easier to prevent bronchitis than it is to cure it, and so with the other diseases of this class. Therefore we will begin with a few hints about winter hygiene.

A Few Hints

Cultivate an outdoor life, taking care to avoid exposure to wet and cold.

Ventilate your rooms freely. Let the fresh air in both day and night.

Take a tepid or cold sponge-bath each morning, followed by a vigorous rub-down.

If the weather is cold, have a fire in the grate, but keep the air pure.

Breathing foul air in a warm, close, stuffy room, and then going suddenly outdoors, insufficiently clothed, is an excellent way to take cold.

Let the temperature of your living-rooms stand at 65° or 66° F. At night it may be much lower without harm.

A hot, close room relaxes the skin, and poisons the blood and tissues. Beware of it.

Clothe the body equally. It is a mistake to pile the clothing about the waist and hips, leaving the ankles, arms, and upper chest almost bare. Such treatment can not be persisted in with impunity.

Some Don’t’s

Don’t sit with cold or wet limbs. Change the clothing or keep moving. The exercise will prevent taking cold.

Don’t take a hot bath, and then go directly out in the cold. A warm bath should always be followed by a cold application.

Don’t stay indoors simply because the weather is inclement. Dress warmly, and go for a brisk walk in the middle of the day.

Don’t sleep in a damp bed. The spare bed is responsible for many a premature grave.

Don’t overeat. Too much food, even though it is perfectly wholesome, clogs the blood and invites disease.

Don’t sit or stand in a draft.

Don’t neglect a cold; for if no active measures are taken to drive it out, it may develop into something far worse.

Finally, don’t coddle yourself, unless you really want to be ill.

How to Treat a Cold

Now for some general directions as to treatment. When you find you have taken cold, or feel it coming on, stop eating, cleanse the bowels with a full soap enema, and take a warm bath. Then go to bed and rest. Drink water freely, and go on a light fruit diet for a day or two, adding a little stale brown bread or zwieback.

The chilly feeling one has in the early stages of a cold in the head or on the chest is due to a rush of blood to the internal organs. Warm treatment, followed by a cold spray or a wet hand-rub brings the blood back to the skin, and thus equalizes the circulation of the body.

After the cleansing enema give a hot mustard foot-bath, with a cold compress to the head, and hot water or hot lemonade to drink. Have the water as hot as the feet can bear, and add more hot water every three or four minutes. After free perspiration administer a cold-mitten friction, and dry with a coarse towel. Finish with an oil rub, using cocoanut-butter or olive-oil. Put the patient to bed between warm blankets, with a hot-water bottle to the feet. The room should be well ventilated, and the window open. Water may be taken freely, but no food should be taken till the following day. Fruit, both fresh and stewed, with a little well-cooked rice, zwieback, and gluten gruel, should constitute the diet for a few days.

Chronic Nasal Catarrh

This often follows a cold or acute catarrh if it is not properly treated. It is very annoying, and renders one more susceptible to colds. Chronic catarrh is an obstinate thing to deal with, whether it involves the nose, stomach, or some other organ.

Obtain a good vaporizer, and inhale some mild antiseptic, such as equal parts of menthol and oil of eucalyptus. Inhale the medicine for ten minutes three or four times a day. Improve the general health by tonic measures, and a liberal but wholesome diet.

Influenza

Since the epidemic of 1889, influenza has been more or less common, especially in the winter. Most persons have influenza at one time or another during their lifetime.

It begins with severe prostration, intense aching in the head, back, large joints, and bones, a rather high fever, constipation, and sometimes nausea.

Give the patient a warm, full bath or a blanket pack. This will produce perspiration, bring the blood to the skin, and relieve the pain. Put the patient to bed, and give a liquid diet. Fruit juices, malted nuts, gluten gruel, plain custard, junket, and similar preparations may be taken.

Heat applied to the spine in the form of fomentations or a spine-bag will relieve the pain. A hot leg-pack will ease the pain in the lower extremities. It should be followed by a cold-towel rub. The alternate hot and cold compress will relieve the headache.

Acute Bronchitis

There is inflammation of the large bronchial tubes, with mild fever, and mucous expectoration. Exposure to cold, or breathing dust or irritating gases, may excite an attack. Heart-disease and gout predispose to bronchitis.

The inflammation begins with a feeling of chilliness, general weakness and discomfort, fever, soreness in the chest, and a dry, painful cough.

In the earliest stage a hot mustard leg-bath, fomentations to the chest, free hot-water drinking, and an enema, with

rest and a light diet, will often check the attack. Bronchitis is most severe upon the young or the aged, and they require rest in bed, and a course of hot applications and tonic measures.

The difficult breathing may be eased by the use of a steam vaporizer.

Sweating baths eliminate the poisons from the body, and stimulate the excretory organs.

The chest-pack and cold compress, and drinking water freely, will relieve the cough.

Winter Cough

Acute bronchitis in the aged is prone to become chronic, and then it is sometimes known as winter cough. It is aggravated by changeable weather and a cold climate. There is a very annoying, persistent cough, and thick, slimy expectoration. Some soreness may be present in the chest, which is more noticeable on coughing. Otherwise the general health may be very fair.

Chronic bronchitis in old people with small vitality is very obstinate. By means of good hygiene and various tonic measures endeavor to improve the general health. The patient should be warmly clad, and engage in light outdoor exercise, such as walking. Fomentations and hot chest-packs will usually give relief. In some cases nothing short of change of residence to a more favorable climate will afford permanent relief. Inhalations and the use of an atomizer are helpful in certain cases.

Pneumonia, or Inflammation of the Lungs

This is the scourge of the aged and feeble, and the greatest care and most rigid hygiene should be used to prevent an attack.

Pneumonia is an inflammation of the proper lung tissue, and consequently involves the air-cells by which we breathe. The affected area becomes solid by the throwing out of fluid, and hence useless for breathing purposes.

A high fever, with chill, great prostration, and painful cough, ushers in the inflammation. There is considerable difficulty in breathing, and a characteristic “rusty” sputum, showing intense inflammation.

The digestive organs are also disturbed, as indicated by the furred tongue, eruption upon the lips, and constipation of the bowels.

Hydropathic remedies are most efficient in treating pneumonia. It is important to keep the skin warm and active. Give special protection to the chest, shoulders, and neck, to avoid further chilling.

To relieve the congestion, give fomentations to the chest, or better still, hot chest-packs at intervals of three or four hours. In the intervals apply cold compresses, which should be changed every fifteen or twenty minutes. Sweating packs for three or four hours, followed by cold-mitten friction, are valuable in eliminating the accumulated poisons from the system.

To strengthen a weak heart, apply cold compresses or an ice-bag to the left side of the chest for ten or fifteen minutes every three hours, or oftener if necessary.

Empty the bowels daily by cold enemas.

Hot packs to the hips or legs will relieve the headache. Treat the pain in the back by fomentations to the spine or a hot trunk-pack.

The Importance of Fresh Air

While using these remedies, do not neglect supplying the patient with an abundance of fresh air. This rule holds good for all pulmonary affections. The organs and tissues require oxygen; but on account of the inflammation of the air-cells, a larger or smaller section of the lungs is of no use. Consequently, the remaining portion must do extra work, and requires plenty of oxygen.

A physician should always be called at the outset; for the disease is a very serious one, especially in the weak and aged.

Caterham, England.