HEALTH NOTES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 225, 23 September 1907, Page 6

HEALTH NOTES.

(By Dr. Andrew Wilson, F.R.S.E.)

ON GROWING OLD

Most of us who are concerned in the business of teaching and promoting health knowledge have to deal with the prevention of disease in the young and in the adult body. -Ihere is, however, another aspect of liealtn science which should by no means be neglected by intelligent people, and more especially by those who have passed beyond the middle term of life and are getting on in years, as the phrase goes. We all desire to live as long and healthily as possible, : .and attention being paid to the rules of health—the avoidance of all excess in eating .and drinking, the breathing of pure air,, and the living m a healthy home, with the absence of overwork and worry, are the chief points on which reliance may be plac- t ■cd to secure an abundance of health ( at all periods of life. More especi- i .ally is it necessary to observe these j rules when we are young, m order , that Aye may build up for ourselves a : store of health which shall carry uj ; well over the allotted span of human life and enable us to enjoy a pleasant and healthy old age. xh- i Psalmist has declared that the years of iran are limited to three score and j ten, but we all know as a matter-oi fact that many persons far excocd this limit of age, arid many up to the age of eighty years, or over it, enjoy a fair measure of health. There is, indeed, no reason known/to science why human life should not be prolonged with care beyond the age of eighty years, and the fact that certain persons are able to enjoy the evening of life in a fair measure should be a sufficient answer to the somewhat silly opinion expressed some time ago to the effect that a man was too old when he attained the age oi 40 or 50 years. THE ONCOMING OF AGE. It is ouite true that the human }>ody is a living machine not meant or intendedHo last for ever. Growing old and dying are as much a part and parcel of our heritage as are iirth and -growth. Nature also teache3 us if we were inclined to doubt this fact that, the body is bound to undergo in "the course of Nature, a.'series of changes such as are characteristic of its having passed its prime. There happens to the human body when it grows old a series of changes -which the man of science dejßigiaatfis .under»the name ■and'title "of "degeneration." By this -term he means to imply that alterations take place in the tissues and organs of the body due to the age -they have attained, and to the fact that they ho longer exhibit the same working power or vitality which they showed in the earlier periods of life. Thus in old age the animal matter of the bones tends to disappear, leaving an excess of limy matter, which accounts for the fact that the bones in old people are more brittle than in youth and are more easily broken. The fat of the body also tends to become absorbed, and in this way we explain why the faces of old people become wrinkled owing to the loss of the fatty tissue which previoiisly supported the skin. The arteries of blood-vessels of the body also tend to become less elastic than in youth, and are therefore less well fitted to convey the blood easily arid perfectly for the nourishment of all the tissues. Again, the living cells of the body which are our bodily workmen and which perform all the duties incidental to life tend to close certain of the characteristics which are appropriate to their living matter in the period of their full growth and activity. The power of the heart also somewhat weakens, and the whole processes of life taken together are more slowed down in the old person compared with the rate at which they were carried on in early life or ,it the period of full growth. OUR REQUISITES. No doubt the first requisite for attaining a healthy old age is that we should be born with, should nourish and take care of, a good constitution. Soundness of body to start with is un.questionably the best foundation a 3iian can have for the expectation that he can live long arid healthily. I have also said that a man must cultivate and observe health laws through the whole of his existence. It is of little use, although certainly the practice may be recommended to a man who has neglected his health in early life, suddenly resolving to live according to health laws when lie has passed the meridian of his existence. In order that life may be prolonged and the prospect of death made remote, it is very obvious that great care must be exercised when a person is above the age of say 45 or 50 years, such care being devoted to the regulation of his life, and more especially in the direction of eating and drinking. It has been remarked that a very large number of us " dig our graves with our teeth." lam inclined to believe that this observation is only too true. Those who have plenty of food to eat generally exhibit a tendency to eat too much. Hence it is the somewhat spare livers and those who have erred on the side of 'extreme temperance who are most likely to feel the oncoming of age less acutely than those Avho, having exceeded in the matter of bodily nourishment, are liable when they pass their forties to be troubled with gout, rheumatism, and other diseases largely due to erroneous habits of feeding. I need not here refer to the question of temperance as regards alcoholic drinks. Without committing myself to the strong statement that alcohol is of no use at all, and that even when used in moderation it acts as a poison, one may nevertheless unhesitatingly declare that the man who bas before him the highest prospect, apart from accident or acute disease, or attaining long life is the. man who has been most temperate in his use of alcoholic liquors. THE END OF THE STORY. Care., therefore—and I would add, additional care in all the ways and works of life after a man has attained the age of 45 or 50 years—is the one essential for attaining a . hoalthy old age. It is no argument to be told that paupers in workhouses, who "by no means lived temperate or easy lives, have not unfrequently been found to live on even to the end of or over the century. These are exceptional cases no doubt of a strong constitution in which not even abuse of foods and drinks and hard living had the power of shortening life. The vast majority of men subjected to such influences would assxireclly succumb long before their appointed time. If we leave out the chances of fatal accident and the risk of infection from acute disease, a risk from which none of us are free, it may be said that large numbers of ii 3 invite an earlier end of life than is either desirable or necessary, dimply because we never think it nec-

essary in our oarlier days of laying up for ourselves that store of energy by careful living, on which store we may draw at the period when our strength begins to fail and we need all the support our vitality can secure. There is no royal road thus to attain a healthy old age, unless, indeed, we mean by a royal road a loyal attention, and what is more, a constant - attention, to the rules of health, which are , simple in themselves and are easily learned and obeyed.; If I. were asked to select from amongst these rules that which is most important than any other I should say the doctrine of temperance in all things would represent the best foundation on which hopes of a green old age would be built up.