In The Woman's Voice Clinic

Q — A woman sometimes feels, during her pregnancy, a great heaviness in the abdomen accompanied by pain in the thighs, which lasts until the end of the pregnancy and grows worse at night. What is the cause of this? And what is the treatment?

— The feeling of the heaviness of pregnancy has many causes, among them: weakness of the muscles of the abdominal wall, which increases the rounding of the lower abdomen in the last months of pregnancy. This condition is treated by using a belt wound around the abdomen to help support the womb throughout the pregnancy.

Among the causes of heaviness is severe stoutness together with weakness of the muscles. Its treatment is to keep away from starches and fats in the diet, with light exercise.

Another is diabetes, since it leads to a general weakness that heightens the feeling of any pain, and it also causes pains in the limbs. The treatment in this case is to follow the treatment proper to that disease.

Q — Is there a way to remove the abundant hair that grows on a lady's face and legs?

— Abundance of hair on the face and body is something that afflicts both sexes. But it pains only the fair sex, and with them it begins after puberty.

The treatment of this condition is to remove its causes; and when 'down' appears on their faces, girls should not risk removing it by the various means. It is better, instead of that, to rub the hairy areas with diluted peroxide.

Perhaps the ideal method of removing hair, especially from the face, is to destroy its follicles by means of an electric needle at the hands of a specialist — though it is a wearying method for doctor and patient alike, and it does not fully succeed unless the hair is limited in extent. So far as we know, there are in Beirut two young women who specialize in this art.

Q — My eyes water constantly, especially in the winter season or when cold winds blow. What are the causes, and how do I treat it?

— The causes of the streaming of tears from the eyes are many, and the chief of them, in our view, is infection of the eyes with granular ophthalmia and its complications. It may also result from narrowing, blockage, or chronic inflammation of the tear ducts. It is well to use drops composed of 10 grams of alum and the same of zinc sulfate in thirty grams of distilled water; and if the condition does not improve within a week or two, one of the specialists must be consulted.

Q — Is it true that drinking lemon juice affects the teeth?...

— Fifty patients who used to drink lemon juice as a remedy were examined, and it was found that their teeth had dissolved because of this liquid. In one patient it was found that the upper front teeth

had gone down to the gum. They examined his history and found that for years he had drunk lemon juice mixed with water on waking every morning.

Most of them drank it as a remedy for rheumatism, and some drank it as a remedy for constipation.

Dentists do not advise giving up the drinking of lemon juice, for it is a good source of vitamin C, one of the vitamins the body requires; but they advise changing the manner of taking it: it should be sucked through a straw, and thus it neither touches the teeth nor affects them.