HEART FAILURE FROM OVEREATING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7383, 8 February 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

HEART FAILURE FROM OVEREATING.

The heart is about as perfect an organ as any in the body, and one that rarely shirks its duty. It commences its labours during the early infancy, and goes on until the last moment of life, without intermission. At every beat it propels two ounces of blood through its structure. At seventy-five pulsations per minute nine pounds of blood are sucked in and pumped out. Every hour, 540 poivnds; every day, 12,960 pounds; every year, 4,730,400 pounds; every hundred years, 473,040,000 pounds.

Now, the heart has for a neighbour an organ, the stomach, very fond of self-indulgence. The stomach lies directly under the heart, with only the diaphram between, and when it fills with gas it is like a small balloon, and lifts up until it interferes directly with the heart's action. The stomach never generates gas, but when filled with undigested food fermentation takes place, and gas is formed, and the interference depends upon the amount of gas in the stomach.

To overcome this obstruction the heart has to exert itself in proportion to the interference, more blood is sent to the brain, and the following symptoms are the result: A dizzy head, a flushed face, loss of sight, spots or blurs before the eyes, flashes of light, zigzag lines or chains, etc., often followed by the most severe headache.

The symptoms are usually relieved when the gas is expelled from the stomach. Now, when this upward pressure upon the heart becomes excessive, more dangerous symptoms supervene, a larger quantity of blood

is sent to the brain, some vessel ruptures, and a blood clot in the brain is the result, and the person dies of apoplexy, or, if he lives, is a cripple for life. When a sick person, or an old one, or one with feeble digestion, sleeps, digestion is nearly or quite suspended, but fermentation goes on, and gas ■is generated, as before stated.

A man was found dead in bed, and the physician pronounced it the result of heart failure. Now, the man was out late maybe, and partook of a large dinner. Again, a man is sick with typhoid fever or pneumonia, or almost any other disease, and dies of heart failure, but what has his diet been during the sickness? At present it is very fashionable to commence at once with what might well be called the stuffing process. Iced milk, which is so cool and grateful to the patient, from three pints to one gallon during the day and night. How unwise! Moral: If you don't want to have your heart fail don't abuse it; don't overload it. (The above article, from one of our exchanges, contains information which should be of great value to many.)