6.-CURE OF ECZEMA

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1902

6.—CURE OF ECZEMA.

Can eczema be cured? If so, what is the remedy?

J. W.

ANSWER.—This skin disease indicates a general lowering of the vital resistance, poisons in the blood, improper food, and poor elimination of waste matter from the body. When these conditions are removed, eczema, in the majority of cases, will disappear. Certain forms of eczema in old age are difficult to cure.

Eat pure, wholesome food, avoid meats and much fat, make a practice of drinking water freely between meals and at bedtime, keep the bowels active, avoid irritating garments, be out of doors as much as possible in the sunshine, bathe the skin frequently, and apply friction to the parts not affected; avoid rubbing the diseased areas.

To the diseased part apply hot and cold water daily, in the form of a hot and cold pour, using a dipper; or apply hot and cold compresses in alternation, twenty minutes at a treatment. If the eczema is quite general, a full bath at 95° for thirty minutes at night is very effective. After bathing apply an ointment containing the following: salicylic acid, twenty grains; ichthyol, sixty grains; oxide of zinc, sixty grains; vaseline, one ounce. This may be applied at bedtime or during the day.

7.—TREATMENT OF DIARRHEA.

What is the treatment for diarrhea of several months' standing in one who is fifty-seven years old, and otherwise in good health?

L. Y.

ANS.—In such cases rest is very necessary. Keep off the feet for several days. Take a very hot enema two or three times a day; apply fomentations to the abdomen fifteen minutes three times a day, each time following with a towel wrung out of water at 55°, placed on the abdomen for thirty minutes, and covered with a dry flannel. Eat toasted bread or zwieback, or toasted wafers, eating slowly and chewing thoroughly. Avoid fruits, but one or two glasses of blackberry juice a day probably will be a benefit.

8.—TREATMENT OF CATARRH.

What is the treatment for catarrh of the nose and throat? I have a dropping into the throat, inflammation and burning.

M. L. T.

ANS.—Catarrh is a local malady, but it indicates a general lowering of the vitality, with poor circulation. Catarrh attacks the parts that possess the least resistance. Hence the treatment must be such as to build up the general health, as well as to give attention to local measures. A change of climate will frequently effect a perfect cure.

Of all measures nothing is more effective than the morning plunge or cold-friction bath, followed with vigorous rubbing. This electrifies the entire system, improves the circulation, and relieves the congestion of the mucous membrane of the nose and throat. It should be taken every morning. Also take equal parts of borax, salt, and bicarbonate of soda; mix well, and put one teaspoonful in a cup of water, and use three times a day as a gargle and as a nasal wash. It may also be used in an atomizer. Follow this with a spray of camphor, menthol, and eucalyptus, twenty drops each, in four ounces of albolene. This may also be used in a nebulizer. A vaporizer containing menthol and eucalyptus, if used several times a day, is very helpful. Keep the feet warm, and avoid overdressing.

9, 10.—INHALER PRESCRIPTION—TREATMENT OF HARD COUGH.

Please give (1) a prescription for the inhaler, and (2) the treatment for a hard cough with bronchial irritation.

G. H. M.

ANS.—1. Equal parts of camphor, menthol, and eucalyptus, with a few drops of the oil of cinnamon.

2. The cough will probably be relieved by inhaling the vapors of a pint of boiling water, in which has been placed a teaspoonful of the compound tincture of benzoin, or a teaspoonful of the oil of tar. For the bronchial tubes the nebulizer is of much greater service than the inhaler. Fomentations to the chest and between the shoulders frequently relieve a cough and the irritation. Also sip freely of hot water.

11, 12, 13.—PEANUT BUTTER AND RHEUMATISM — USE OF MAPLE SUGAR — SUBSTITUTE FOR CANE SUGAR.

1. Will peanut butter made from roasted peanuts cause rheumatism? 2. Is maple sugar wholesome? 3. What can we use to take the place of cane sugar?

C. R. Y.

ANS.—1. Peanuts are highly nitrogenous, and any nitrogenous food, if used excessively, has a tendency to increase uric acid in the blood and tissues, and predisposes to rheumatism. Roasted peanut butter, if used at all, should be used with great moderation. When used in excess, it is a common cause of indigestion. Peanut butter made from boiled peanuts is much more wholesome. Those who eat peanut butter ad libitum, as they would sauce, are sure to suffer from indigestion sooner or later.

2. Maple sugar possesses all the properties of cane sugar. For household purposes it is not so serviceable as cane sugar. Cane sugar, when used in moderation and not combined with milk, does practically no harm in a healthy stomach.

3. Malt honey. This is made from grains, and is a delicious sweet, free from many of the disadvantages attributed to cane sugar.