Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Science
Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)
Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Diet; Hygiene
The face tolerates the cold, because it is used to it, the neck and the
upper part of the chest likewise, and so it would be with the skin of
the entire body if we accustomed it to be exposed. We use too heavy
clothes. It is a mistake to hump the back and draw in the shoulders
during cold weather, for this reduces the lung capacity, thus depriving
the body of its proper amount of oxygen. The result is that there is not
enough combustion to produce the necessary amount of heat.
Wool is warm covering, the best we have. However, it is very irritating
to the skin and has a tendency to make the wearer too warm. It does not
dry out readily. Consequently the wearer remains damp a long time after
perspiring. The result is a moist, clammy skin. A skin thus pampered in
damp warmth becomes delicate, and like other hot-house products unable
to hold its own when exposed to inclement weather. A good way to take
cold easily is to wear wool next to the skin. The best recipe for
getting cold feet is to wear woolen stockings. Wear cotton or linen or
silk next to the skin. Cotton is satisfactory and cheap. Linen is
excellent, but a good suit of linen underwear is too costly for the
average purse. Remie, said to be the linen of the Bible, is highly
recommended by some.
Those working indoors should wear the same kind of underwear summer and
winter, and it should be very light. If people use heavy underwear in
heated rooms, they become too warm. The consequence is that when they go
out doors they are chilled, and if they are not in good physical
condition colds and other diseases generally result. By wearing outer
garments according to climatic conditions one can easily get all the
protection necessary. Those who take the proper food and enough exercise
and dry friction of the skin will not require or desire an excessive
amount of clothing. The feel of the wintry blast on the skin is not
disagreeable.
If we would only give the skin more exercise, through rubbing, and more
fresh air, we would soon discard much of our clothing, and wear but
enough to make a proper and modest appearance in public, with extra
covering on cold days. Nothing can be much more ridiculous and
uncomfortable than a man in conventional attire on a hot summer's day.
Of course, thin, nervous people should not expose themselves too much to
the cold.
Most of the diseases known by the name of skin diseases, are digestive
troubles and blood disorders manifesting in the skin. As soon as the
systemic disease upon which they depend disappears, these so-called skin
diseases get well. Erysipelas is one of the so-called germ diseases, but
it is controlled very quickly by a proper diet. It can not occur in
people until they have ruined their health by improper living. Pure
blood will not allow the development of the streptococcus erysipelatis
in sufficient numbers to cause trouble. First the disease develops and
then the germ comes along and multiplies in great numbers, giving it
type.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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