INERTIA AND HEALTH

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1927, Page 20

INERTIA AND HEALTH

DANGER IN POSSESSiON^OF 1 A: '■ MOTOR-CAR. •

Two; great sources of ill-health in middle life were strain on the one hand and inertia on the other, said Lady Barrett, M.D., in a lecture on ".The Hygiene of Middle Life" at the Institute of Hygiene, London, recently.

The danger of overstrain, either physical or mental, in middle life was greater than in youth because the reserve of energy was less, and though youth might, up to a point, flout the laws which governed fatigue, the man or woman who had passed forty could less afford to do so, if they wished to maintain perfect health. A rest when fatigue was evident saved time in the. long run, flfed, what was more important, it saved the organism from the damage that resulted from continuing the work after Nature had given her danger signal. Inertia, on the other hand, led to failing; vitality—in fact, a sort of gradual death in life. The. inertia, might be of mind, or body only; and in this-con-, nection' the possession of a motor-car was not without its evils; for it induced neglect of exercise, with the consequent accumulation of waste products in the system. Excess 1 and deficiency of activity, therefore, led to similar results. Increasing wisdom might guard us from either, and lead to well-ordered life. .. . '• : .'

"One of.the problems of to-day which affects the whole life of the nation," added Lady Barrett, ■"is the better provision of fresh foods, and their quick' delivery from producer to consumer;"