TO KEEP FIT.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17937, 4 December 1923, Page 2

TO KEEP FIT.

PROBLEM FOR MIDDLEAGED. AVOID UNUSUAL EXERTION. (By the Medical Correspondent of "The Times.") Two middle-aged men, both of them members of Parliament, have set the world discussing the capacities of the man of forty. These two men marched from Banbury to Oxford in full marching kit, arriving at their destination in a state of great exhaustion. So far as is known neither of them is much the worse for the experience. The question naturally arises: Is it worse for a middle-aged man than for a young man to exert to the utmost? It is not a very easy question to answer. Some middle-aged men are eo fit that any effort seems possible to them. In the case of other men there is literally no margin of safety; For this reason all attempts to lay down rules are futile. Indeed, the recent discussions have served to emphasise the impossibility of such a course. In the last issue a man is fit to do what he can do without damage. Most men, fyowever, "wish to have some guiding principle in this matter, and in consequence doctors are often asked: "How am I to know' when I am overdoing it?"

Bed Lights. There are two great cardinal signs of over-exertion. The first is breathless-nef-s, and the second pain over the left side of the chest. These two signs indicate weakening of the circulation. Curiously enough, they are not always present in the same individual at the same time. A man may have pain in his chest and no breathlessness, or breathlessness and no pam. But in either case he had better accept the warning. For breathlessness reveals an indequate blood flow through the" lungs ; and so an inadequate "ventilation" of the blood. Fain, it is believed, indicates a weakening of the blood supply to the heart itself. These are different aspects of a similar deficiency. They mean that the pumping system of the body is insufficient for the muscular needs of the body—those engines, the muscles, a>c being "run" short of power. In other words, the individual is at the end of his resources. Collapse is bound to occur if exertion is pushed further at the moment. On the other hand, there ig no reason why the "limit" of to-day should be the limit of to-morrow. Everyone must have noticed that even so commonplace an illfaess as a cold on the chest, during its period of acubeness, greatly "shortens" the Breath, is due to the fact that the circulation in the lungs is poisoned and thrown out of gear. Very little further strain can be tolerated. When the cold passes off, however, the breath becomes "longer" again.

Safe Exertion. In the same way an athlete training himself frojtn a "soft" condition finds that, day by day, his power is increased. He seems, us it were, to push back the limits of his capacity and so to enlarge his margin of reserve of power. . Here is the secret of safe exertion at any age. The difference between twenty and forty is not a difference of muscular strength. It is a difference of "educability." The younger man can increase his strength much more easily than the older man. Therefore, because of his greater "elasticity," he can afford to take risks. At forty a strain is less likely to result in a subsequent increase of strength; it is more likely to result in a break. At fifty the chances are much more heavily against improvement. In other words, the middleaged man must train slowly and carefully for anything he proposes to do. Provided he has gradually added to his strength, he is as fit as any other man to act strenuously within the limits of that strength. Wear-and-Tear Bisks. To the boy who has exhausted himBelf in a strenuous effort one can safely say: "It doesn't matter. The effect will probably be to make you stronger. You possess elastic arteries mad© of 'new' material." But in the case of the boy's father such optimism would not be justified. Some part of the older body may be weak. Insurance companies refuse to accept the risk of a motor-car over four years of age, so far as wear and tear are concerned. It, is not that they doubt the power of the old car to run well, but that they fear something may break during the running. There is the danger. Happily, as has, already been_ said, breatnlessness tc u pain are re^la ble danger signals. If they are not neglected comparative safety is assured. Once that has been obtained exercise is entirely beneficial to men and women of all ages. For only by means of "exercise is the body able, to maintain itself in fitness, generally, older people should avoid sudden starp efforts -they hare no fear of prolonged effort which is undertaken in • comfort. T*W+^° e + eXtent ' to °.' thev ®honld be t? ? nga « e m forms of activity It is a curious fr.ct that a blacksmith who may he breathless while :ninning upstairs will still probhis hl,mmer " ith -

which , we are accustomed imposes on us much less strain than new forms of exertion.