Fat and Blood: An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and HysteriaMitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Science
Fat and Blood: An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria
Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Hysteria; Neurasthenia; Rest
If we attempt to make so speedy a change in weight while the patient is
afoot, the loss is apt to be gravely felt; but with the precautions here
advised it is interesting and pleasant to see how great a reduction may
be made in a reasonable time without annoyance and with no obvious
result except a gain in health and comfort.
Cases of anæmia in women with excess of flesh have to be managed in a
somewhat similar fashion, but with the utmost care. In such persons we
have a loss of red blood-globules, perhaps lessened hæmoglobin, weak
heart, rapid pulse, and general feebleness, with too much fat, but not,
or at least rarely, extreme obesity. The milder cases may profit by
iron, with rest and very vigorous massage, but in old cases of this
kind--they are, happily, rare--the best plan is to put the patient at
rest, to use massage, restrict the diet to skimmed milk, or to milk and
broths free from fat, and with them, when the weight has been
sufficiently lowered, to give iron freely, and by degrees a good general
diet, under which the globules rise in number, so that even with a new
gain in flesh there comes an equal gain in strength and comfort. The
massage must be very thoroughly done to be of service, and it is often
difficult to get operators to perform it properly, as the manipulation
of very fat people is excessively hard work. As to other details, the
management should be much the same as that which I shall presently
describe in connection with cases of another kind.
I add two cases in illustration of the use of rest, milk, and massage
in the treatment of persons who are both anæmic and overloaded with
fat.
Mrs. P., æt. 45, weight one hundred and ninety pounds, height five feet
four and a half inches, had for some years been feeble, unable to walk
without panting, or to move rapidly even a few steps. Although always
stout, her great increase of flesh had followed an attack of typhoid
fever four years before. Her appearance was strikingly suggestive of
anæmia.
She was subject to constant attacks of acid dyspepsia, was said to be
unable to bear iron in any form, and had not menstruated for seven
months. She had no uterine disease, and was not pregnant. Two years
before I saw her she had been made very ill owing to an attempt to
reduce her flesh by too rapid Banting, and since then, although not a
gross or large eater, she had steadily gained in weight, and as steadily
in discomfort.
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