Medical Question Corner by Dr. P. S. Bourdeau-Sisco

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 28, 1912

Medical Question Corner

By Dr. P. S. Bourdeau-Sisco

Answers by Dr. P. S. Bourdeau-Sisco, head lady physician of the Washington (D. C.) Sanitarium

Obesity

“COULD you advise me what to do to reduce my weight, as life is becoming a burden? I have gained thirty-five pounds in four months. Am constipated and eat very rich food, but try to eat just enough to keep up. Mrs. L. B.”

TREATMENT.—The accumulation of fat beyond a certain point is a disease. It should be treated as such. The best measures to use are increase in muscular exercise and decrease in the amount of food taken.

To be effective, the exercise must always be graduated and often strenuous. Walking long distances in the open air, or hard physical work, or vigorous gymnasium exercise is necessary. Exercise

to the point of profuse perspiration is excellent. Fat is stored-up energy, and the expenditure of this energy is the expenditure of fat. Deep massage may in some cases be used as an adjunct to the exercise. Sometimes fasting for a period of days is very helpful. In all cases the food intake should be lessened to such an extent that none of it will go to produce fat. One should reduce the amount of starch and sugar eaten, for these are the main fat-makers. An exclusive fruit diet will serve to keep the bowels more regular. The intake of fluids should also be restricted.

Brief, cold water baths followed by a brisk hand rub several times a week are of value, as also one or two profuse sweating-baths. You should seek relief from the constipation and avoid rich foods.

Epilepsy

“My boy is twelve years old. He has spasms, sometimes one and sometimes three a year, but they have been increasing. Excitement seems to bring them on. He staggers, screams, wants some one to hold him, froths at the mouth, and is very sick. A doctor here wants to give him medicine. Mrs. C. S.”

TREATMENT.—Your boy probably has epilepsy. If so, the treatment should vary according to the exciting causes. These causes, such as fright, fear, emotion, excitement, gastric troubles, intestinal absorption, should be removed as far as possible. No doubt a faulty heredity forms a background for many cases of epilepsy. Many children of epileptic tendencies make marked improvement when withdrawn from all excitement, both physical and mental, and placed on a simple diet. Overeating should be avoided. No meat should be used, and all rich foods and pastries should be forbidden. The bowels should be kept regular, skin active, and moderate systematic exercise should be taken.

A rigid diet of fruit and milk only, taken at separate times, is often very effective. The fruit may be either cooked or uncooked, fresh fruit or dried, but not preserved. Milk may be used in any form, also buttermilk or kumiss. The fruit and milk diet may be alternated every three or four hours. This diet helps to clear the system of waste materials, which are at times responsible for exciting the attacks. Patients should have two or three thorough sweats a week to eliminate the toxins from the body. The child is usually better off if away from his own home and in an institution; or if he is in his own home he should be under very careful discipline, for many persons thus afflicted have little power of self-control. Medicines are very unsatisfactory in this disease.