“THE PACE THAT KILLS”

Evening Star, Issue 19856, 3 May 1928, Page 4

“THE PACE THAT KILLS”

WORRY AND LATE HOURS TOLL OF HEART DISEASE “Too many people are the victims of heart failure in the prime of life,” stated an Auckland heart specialist to a ‘ Herald ’ reporter when commenting on the high death rate in New Zealand from diseases of the heart, “Men of commerce, who are subject to constant business strain, are dying young compared with their grandfathers. It is the pace of modern business life that kilts. These men should remember that their forefathers, subject only to moderate business strain, went to bed at 9 or 10 p.m,, and had a full night’s rest. 'Che trouble to-day is that business men do not get nearly enough sleep and repose.” Heart disease accounts for more deaths than any other disease. The last official statistics available, those for 1926, show that in that year 2,059 persons died in Now Zealand from heart disease in all its terms, the majority of them being males. Cancer ranked next in numerical importance with 1,341 deaths, while plain senility accounted ter 887.

SUSTAINED MENTAL ACTIVITY. Unduly sustained mental activity and excitement are contributory factors in most diseases of the heart, according to the specialist. “The avoidance of alcoholic indulgence need hardly be stressed,” he stated, “as its importance is well known, but the inroads made upon the constitution by continual mental worry are not so well realised. The only way to countci act its effects is to have plenty of sound, refreshing sleep. In Devonshire today, where village life goes on in much the same placid way that it- did 100 years ago, it is the common thing for people to live to eighty and ninety.’ These hale and hearty old people had been accustomed to go to bed soon after dark and rise with the dawn. He did not suggest that young city men could follow their example, but they could at least spend their evenings quietly at home instead of rushing out to theatres, pictures, and dances after a heavy day's mental strain at the office. “Midnight is too late an hour for such men to. retire,” he added, “yet great numbers of them are endangering their health and shortening their lives by doing so.” DEATHS IN NEW ZEALAND. Commenting on the assertion of an English medical man that heart disease had increased 400 per cent, within recent years, the Auckland doctor expressed grave doubt that the rate was anything so serious. It certainly did not apply to New Zealand, where the numerical increase was only slightly greater than the corresponding increase in population. The figures during the last ten years were as follow: Year. Deaths. 1917 1,492 1918 ... ' 1,585 1919 1,655 1920 1,794 1921 1,699 1922 1,889 1923 ... 2,023 1924 1,858 1925 1,931 1926 2,059 This represented an increase of 1.65 deaths from heart disease per 10,000 of population during ten years, from 13.67 in 1917 to 15.22 in 1926. The increase was small, but it had to be remembered that the tendency had been going on for decades and was showing no signs of slowing down. _ The last available figures showed an increase of 128 deaths from heart disease over those of the year before, constituting 17.4 per cent, of the total deaths in the dominion. It was the lowering of the age of death, however, which formed the real peril. That forty-three persons under the ago of twenty and seventy-three between the ages of twenty and forty should have died from heart disease in 1926 might not strike the man-in-the-street as peculiarly alarming, but for every young and middle-aged person who died there were scores who suffered from weak constitutions as a result of it. Men were more subject to the disease than women, a fact which the preponderance of male deaths over female deaths proved, pointing clearly to the damaging effect of constant business strain on the condition of the heart.