The best remedy is suitable osteopathic treatment for the spine, supplemented by either very hot or quite cold spinal sitz baths, by acetic acid skin treatment, or by any other means which will have the effect of disencumbering the spine. By means of our treatment we free the painful nerves from harmful pressure and promote an increased blood circulation in the parts affected. In this way the cause of the disorder is removed.
A diet along the following lines would be better
than the present
one:—
8 A.M.—Tumblerful of hot distilled water.
9.30.—One raw egg beaten up with
cream and vegetable juice or clear
vegetable soup made without salt. Wholemeal
bread with plenty of
butter and some celery or watercress.
1.30 P.M.—Two conservatively cooked
vegetables done without salt,
with grated cheese as sauce and a Granose biscuit
with butter.
4.—Tumblerful of hot distilled water only.
6.30.—2 oz. of cottage cheese or
cream cheese, salad and Granose
biscuits, or “P.R.” crackers, with
butter.
9.30.—A raw egg beaten up with cream and vegetable juice or soup.
I think dried milk preparations are inadvisable in such cases as these (especially when taken as beverages, as the “milk sugars” present are very prone to ferment and to hinder the cleansing of the digestive tract), and that the required proteid is best obtained from eggs and curd cheese. Fat is very necessary in nervous troubles; hence plenty of cream, fresh butter and cream cheese should be taken; also pure oil with the salad.
MALT EXTRACT.
L.F.H. writes.—Is malt extract a good thing to take daily with an ordinary non-flesh diet, two teaspoonfuls or so at breakfast? And is the desiccated or dry malt extract to be preferred to the ordinary sticky article?
Malt extract of good quality, containing an active form of diastase, is a good form of relish to take with meals. The diastase promotes starch digestion and makes a good addition to foods of the cereal order. The thick sticky form is the best because the diastase is then in an active condition. Dried malt usually will have this diastase destroyed, hence, although much more convenient to handle, it is not so good dietetically as the sticky original extract.
ABOUT SUGAR.
C.T. writes.—I have read the article on sugar with considerable interest. I have noted nervous disorders, etc., manifest in cases of excessive consumption of manufactured sugar. I have been an abstainer from cane sugar (all commercial sugars, though I do not know of any objection to milk, sugar) for many years, regarding it as an unnatural excitant and stimulant as well as being inimical to digestion. As a physiologist I have taken immense interest in longevity, feeling that an active life past the