IS YOUR job good for you?

YOUR’ WORK AND YOUR HEALTH

This is no rhetorical question. First of all, obviously enough, a job should provide reasonably adequate earnings to enable you and your family to afford good diet, good housing, health care, recreation, and other essentials. It should do more. Ideally, it should be interesting to you, should offer some challenge, should provide opportunities for advancement, and should provide an emotionally healthy rather than emotionally toxic environment. Physicians are increasingly aware that how a person feels about him- self or she heavily influences health as well as recovery from illness -and that high on the list of important feelings is self-esteem.

As one wise physician has put it, the man who is able to regard himself highly believes himself, capable of mastering the vicissitudes of life. He adapts by attacking his environment constructively and shaping it to his needs. He who has low self-esteem struggles valiantly but pessimistically, some- times passively accepting fact, sometimes destructively attacking. Self-esteem is the partner of hope, and hope is the chief agent of occupational mental health. 

More and more men and women now earn their livelihoods in organizations-companies, government agencies, educational and other institutions. And as their social and economic status becomes more dependent upon their roles in their work organizations, how they feel about themselves is related to a significant extent to what happens to them in those organizations. It is not always possible to fully achieve an ideal. Yet many of us could come much closer to it in our work than we do if we took real inventory -a hard look at our work, its satisfactions and dissatisfactions, specific possibilities for improving the job we have or finding something more satisfactory.

If your job does not pay you enough for your needs, is it possible for you to get a raise in salary? Are there courses you might take or other things you might do that could lead to promotion? If not, is it possible that you might find a job that has more to offer? Is there helpful information and possibly sound advice and guidance, you might get from a foreman or supervisor? In particular, perhaps these people or others could help you with an objective view of your situation, capabilities, and opportunities. Some cities have job counselors or provide other means to help you determine how to fit yourself for a better position. Vocational guidance has made considerable progress in studying the "square peg in the round hole" problem. 

What are the medicines to use in Vacations to relax your mind?

Some people never develop a tan but burn every time they stay out in the sun, and some others merely freckle. Fifteen minutes, for most people, is long enough for the first sunbath. Each day after that, exposure time can be gradually extended, perhaps by as much as 15 minutes. Time your sunbaths. Use a suntan preparation. 

Such a preparation can help guard your skin against burning, but even the best one will not provide complete protection, so watch the clock. If you want to stay in the sun without tanning or freckling, you will need a heavier preparation than the usual commercial ones.

Your druggist can make up a cold cream containing 15 to 20 percent zinc oxide, or titanium oxide, or calamine. A heavy cream of this type may be helpful for people with skin troubles that are exacerbated by sunlight, but should be used only on their own physician's recommendation. Drink plenty of water when sun tanning, to make up for fluid you lose. Even though you do not realize it, you can perspire profusely on a dry, sunny day. It's wise to replenish salt, too, by taking salt tablets or salty crackers, or tomato juice with salt added to it.

If you are called upon to help a person badly burned by the sun, don't hesitate about calling a doctor. Extensive, large blisters always need medical attention; there is danger of infection. In mild cases where the skin turns red, use a dusting powder containing equal parts of zinc oxide, boric acid, and talcum. For moderately bad burns, where the skin is red and slightly swollen, apply wet dressings of gauze dipped in a solution of aluminum acetate, 1 part in 500 parts of water. Another soothing dressing is made by soaking gauze in cold white mineral oil.

After the swelling goes down, replace the dressings with a soothing cream containing cold cream, 88 parts; methyl salicylate, 10 parts; and benzocaine, 2 parts. Any druggist will make these preparations for you. Being Wise about the Water It's essential today to make certain any body of water in which you are going to swim is not polluted. A clear blue lake or silver brook may be contaminated by germs capable of causing typhoid fever or dysentery. 

A swimming pool may be too crowded or its water changed too infrequently to protect you against many diseases. The local health department will know about the safety of pools and bathing beaches in its territory. Feel free to check with it. Don't venture into the water immediately after meals or when over- heated or tired from other activities. Always come out before you become tired or chilled. 

What is relaxation and how to acheive it?

HOW TO ACHIEVE RELAXATION

Someone has remarked that the doctor who tells a tense, nervous, high- strung person to relax might just as well tell him to stop breathing. But the art of relaxation can be learned. If the guidelines we give you here do not work, then some form of treatment is required. It may consist of a few talks with your sympathetic physician or, in extreme cases of compulsive inability to relax, may require psychotherapy.

Any medical advice must take account of individual differences. No two people react precisely the same way to a prescription for digitalis or other medicine. Similarly, there is a tremendous difference in the way people relax; in what makes them relax, in how much relaxation they take, in how much of a toll work takes from them. We know two surgeons who work the same long hours from 8:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. with some night calls. Yet one ends the week rested, happy, and ready to enjoy a fun weekend; the other ends the week a bundle of nerves, with a body so tired that it takes until Monday morning before he has recovered his stamina for the week ahead. We know two business partners, one of whom returns from a month's vacation perfectly rested while the other returns from his vacation more fatigued than when he left. To achieve suitable relaxation, each person must take an inventory of need.

One chronically fatigued person we know did so and learned that his really effective work span-the time he could work at peak efficiency and without fatigue-was only four hours. He rescheduled his life, put a couch in his office, and with an hour's rest every four hours has increased his work output and become thoroughly relaxed. Consciously or unconsciously, a relaxed person has carried out an inventory and knows when rest and change of pace are needed during his daily work. Some men like to spend part of their lunch hour at a gym or athletic club, taking a swim or engaging in other physical activity; others prefer a nap or a book; still others thrive on luncheon with friends. There is an almost endless variety to activities that can provide restful, relaxing change of pace during the day. It's the change that is important-and at the end of the day as well.

The sedentary worker may benefit from a long walk or some jogging or other physical activity; on the other hand, the person whose work is physically demanding may need a quiet hour, stretched out, perhaps napping briefly, or listening to the radio or watching TV. Some fathers find relaxation with their children; others need to be insulated from the demands of the children-and possibly from any of the wife-when they arrive home. The housewife, too, is entitled to, and no less needs, change of pace. And it doesn't matter what the change involves, so long as it is restful and relaxing to the individual woman. A break for coffee or tea! Fine. A pause to watch a favorite TV program, call a friend, read a magazine or book-all good if the individual finds them rewarding.

No less than the man who works away from home, the woman who works at the demanding job of running a home and caring for children needs to make her inventory of need and find activities that diminish her fatigue and renew her zest. And for both man and woman, important elements in relaxation are recreational activities, sports, and vacations.