SUDDEN DEATHS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 26, 30 December 1925, Page 3

SUDDEN DEATHS

VICTIMS ON THE INCREASE. SPORT AND OVERWORK. Is the successful man of affairs today working himself to a premature death ? The question is prompted by the increasing number of deaths from heart seizure among middle-aged men who appeared to, be in perfect health. The latest example is that of Mr Fred Bramley, the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, says a London paper. “The increased pace at which \ve live,” says a London physician'in discussing the subject, “is too much for the man of middle age and over. His digestion cannot stand it, the heart is weakened, and when hi# constitution is put to the test in an illness he has no chance. “The trouble to-day is that middleaged men refuse to recognise that they are growing olddr, and will persist in playing strenuous tennis, badminton and thirty-six holes at golf in one day, and indulge in other sports with the vigour of men many years their juniors. Sports should be indulged in sparingly by the man of middle age and over. “Deaths from heart attacks are far more frequent than they used to be. There is less leisure and more work. The average man of affairs, to-day is showing great carelessness in his diet and meals. “The quick lunch of to-day is entirely a modern proceeding, unknown to our predecessors. These ratals are hurriedly taken, and people rush off to work directly afterwards. It is better to go without food at all than to satisfy oneself hurriedly and ruin one’s digestion by working at top speed immediately afterwards. “A thing that is puzzling the medical profession is the number of deaths due to acuto blood poisoning. , Men apparently in the best of health have died quickly from mosquito bites and other forms of blood poisoning. Such people have really overstrained themselves, and when a call is made on reserve powers they are not there.” The physician spoke of a prominent athlete and doctor who died recently, and said: “This man worked hard directly ‘after meals, and strained even his robust constitution, with the result that when attacked by illness ho died. “Tho busy man of affairs of to-day is indulging in risks which only a much younger man can take with impunity. “Trade unions see that the manual worker does not overwork himself, but tho man of affairs has no one to regulate his hours.”