WHY WE GROW OLD.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 22, 26 January 1924, Page 12

WHY WE GROW OLD.

OVERWORK CHIEF CAUSE. EXCITEMENTS OF PLEASURE HARMLESS. REST AXD RECREATION ESSENTIAL There is an idea very prevalent among the steady-going folk of humble habits that this generation is rushing jat express speed towards old age be- [ cause of our "frantic search" for pleasure. They quote the jazz, the races, and the speeding motor as sappers of human vitality, and view with saddened and reproachful faces the exuberance of a youth which has extended to middleaged with short skirts and millinery a la mode at fortj- among the feminine, and clocked socks and Stetsons at fifty among the masculine gender. Yet in the newer and faster age the "expectation of life" has increased (vide insurance companies'reports), and youth continues now on to years at which our fathers were advised to make their wills. Age comes not so much with years as with the way in which those years have been spent, and to-day the old adage is more true than ever, that a woman's as old as she looks; a man as old as he feels. But you must take care, that you do not get old, for "the moving finger writes, and, having written, moves on—" In the first causes of age, medical men place worry or mental strain of any kind and from whatever cause, and disregard of the ordinary rules of life, which call for a certain amount of rest, sleep, exercise and regular diet. Overwork in allied to and interwoven with these causes. __ at Fifty. '"'The last tvi'* patients 1 saw to-day,'" said a well-known physician,"' arc victims of early age through overwork. Their history reveals that for year in and year out they have exceeded what is regarded as a reasonable performance for the ordinary, normal healthy man. In the case of the manual worker, this habit of life produces an overgrowth of ' the heart, for instance: in the case of the mental worker it produces excessive development of the more specialised structures, and particularly the nervous Rystem. The result is the same in both cases; cither the affected system gives out directly under the prolonged strain many years prematurely or the individual becomes the victim of a sudden illness which his overworked organs are unable to withstand —and he may die suddenly in the prime of life or make a partial recovery, with many years of semi-invalidism and depleted usefulness before him. It is ti common thing in the doctor's consulting room for men of fifty to present themselves for an examination which reveals that their organs and powers arc in a state usually found in men of 05 or 70 years of age. In other words. ' a man is as old as his arteries." I believe in the motto of the Labour party, to the accomplishment of which (the 'work' part, at least I they erected thai line, monument in the heart of Melbourne: 'Eight Hours Labour. Eight Hours Recreation. Eight Hour.- Uest." But it is hard for men to change their habits of life. Patients, who have never had a day's dissipation in their lives, who have led steady, hard-working, regular existences, and who have worked as member, of churches and social bodies ill the evenings, after their business labours of the day arc done, come to mc and cannot understand why they- are •breaking up'—they led such 'steady' lives. It is the constant work, without the relaxation of recreation, and the occasional abandonment to a period of existence without care, which ages these men. They are told to niter their ways of life and seek relaxation, but it is of no use; they cannot leave the beaten track, and titey either soon die or they linger as premature wrecks on the sea of life. A Hardier Generation. "With all vac greater stress and rush of modern life, I believe tbe modern young man and the modern maid are more virile, hardier, betterdeveloped, ami have a longer expectation of life than those of past generations. They do not, in the words of Tennyson, spend so long in 'poring over miserable books,' or sitting for hours, with hunched shoulders and cramped chests, engaged in needlework as their sule recreations. They walk, they swim, they jazz, they motor, and they enter into all the joys of life, after the work of the day, and though they tire themselves, the fatigue resultant from healthy recreation is soon overcome, and is not comparable in its evil physical and mental effects to the tiredness of worry or. over-work. They arc frequently refreshed bodily and mentally, and do not live in a groove. Take the Puritan outlook on the races, for instance. The races do not, with its patrons, involve merely the tote and the bookie Such forms of exeitemenot are but incidental to recreation which means a tremendous lot to men who are occupied in between with strenuous work. It is something for them to look forward to while they labour, and when it arrives the excitement and pleasure they derive are good for them. All outside interests and healthy excitements arc good for the worker as breaks in the monotony of a hum-drum life, and they promote longevity. The Aristocrat of Works. Lord Levcrhul-se and Lord lncheapc arc quoted as men who have always worked fourteen hours a day; but remember they are. men with tremendous and diversified interests, and while working hard they cap always get the balance, for maiiy branches of their work are purely matters of recreation to them. Such men preach early rising, but you may take it for granted that they invariably go to bed early. In regard to the 'wonder man,' Edison, a well-known psychologist declares that men of his type arc able to work such long hours (though I do not for a moment believe these hours are anything like as long as we are led to believei. because of their particular interest in the work in hand—work which is at once their pride and their recreation. ft is the recreative part that plays such an important factor in sustaining them. If you placed Edison at some piecework along with his own workmen, he would very soon require as much outside recreation and as much rest and sleep as any of them. '"But there is one important thing to remember in looking for the retention of youth, or rather, the staving off of age, and that is the part that is played in life by the stomach. There are well-known rules of diet to be studied, there are times to eat and limes when not to cat, and it is not so .much what a man eats as to how he masticates and digests it. A tired or worried man cannot digest his food, j Placidity and quiet should form ilicj atmosphere of the meal time. Napoleon ! was right when he said that an army j moved on its stomach."