HIGH-PLANE LIVES

Otago Witness, Issue 3594, 30 January 1923, Page 42

HIGH-PLANE LIVES

VALUE OF EXCITEMENT. Mrs Lloyd George has testified recently that her husband is never so well as when he is engaged in a fierce political' battie. It is a piece of observation which deserves the attention of everyone interested in the maintenance of health, for it runs entirely counter to the views which prevailed a generation ago, says a medical correspondent in the London Times. It means that health and activity are one arid the same thing, 'and that the more we have of the latter tne more of the former we are likely to retain; or, in other words, that doing is being. This doctrine has been set forth before. The writer has urged, his readers to realise that work is not something which detracts from health, or even from energy, but something which adds to both. The old simile of the “bank of nature" on which we are supposed to draw for strength is quite out of date. For that simile implied that while man is working he is “running down” like a clock. The truth is, rather, that he is recharging himself. Work is not an expenditure in the strict sense, but only in the commercial sense. It is an outlay of capital on which there is sure to be a return. Not only so, but during work the great self-cleansing processes of the body are most active. Sleep is the period of repair and recharging; but in effort the system rids itself of the poisons which accumulate during our waking hours. Herein is to be found the explanation of the great deterioration of health which so frequently attends the change from an active, energetic life to what is erroneously spoken of as “a life of ease.” Hundreds of men and women, too, who retire into what is commonly spoken of as well-earned leisure literally lose their lives for want of the daily inward cleansing afforded them by their work. These people would be saved if only they could, like the ex-Premier, plunge once more into some absorbing occupation. If we search the records of incapacity in the middle-aged and in those passing from middle-age we find always that the first cause of default in a physical sense is auto-intoxication. The hardening of arteries, which is the preliminary stage of apoplexy in so many instances, is brought swbout by poisons which activity drives from the system. So also is the breakdown of activity of such organs as the kidneys, the heart, and the liver. At one time the view was widely held that only bodily exertion could protect against these dangers. Now, however, we are beginning to realise that mental exertion also exercises a potent and beneficial effect. Thoughts as well as deeds have the power to quicken the heart, to "stir” the blood, and to expand the lungs. The man whose faculties are whipped to activity is not less going “all out” than he whose muscles tighten at their accustomed task. In other words, the “game of work” may offer many, if not all, of the advantages of outdoor sports. It may even, in the case of some men, offer more advantages. For games which fail to interest and excite are but feeble aids to a healthy life. It is perhaps for this reason that, instinctively, we welcome and enjoy the adventure of a political crisis. Englishmen exhibit towards a general election very much the same spirit as they exhibit towards a football match or a prize fight. • They take sides and get thoroughly excited over the fortunes of their particular candidate or party." All this excitement acts on : them like a good holiday. When it is over they are refreshed in body as well as in mind. It is a matter of some interest in this respect that most old men are enthusiastic politicians. This inclination to be excited is normal and healthy, and one which is denied at peril. For it brings about a fuller ventilation of the lungs, a better charging of the blood with oxygen owing to the increased ll depth of the breathing, and a swifter removal from the cells of the body of the carbonic acid gas which is their chief waste product. Over and over again the writer has observed the excellent effects on oldish men of the occurrence in their lives of some unexpected difficulty or some fresh focus of interest. Even while friends were shaking their heads over the “strain” thus imposed, new vigour seemed to come to the “threatened” individual. The dictum “Never retire” is justified on this showing. It need not, however, be interpreted too literally. It is not retirement which matters, but the loss of interest in life which is so often consequent on this step. A better way of putting it would be: Never retire unless you have a real big interest to retire towards. If that exists, leaving an occupation does not matter. But the second interest must he not less absorbing than the first. It must be a hobby or pursuit which has been “knocking at the door or the mind” for many a year. What is usually fatal is the process known as “taking up” some interest in order to fill in the time. People who retire and then “take up” golf or fishing, or even politics, seldom live long enough to enjoy their new avocaticn. People, on the other hand, who have been amateur politcians all their lives and who finally retire in order to go into Parliament grow younger and stronger in the process. They have added to their interests, and so to their physical activity. Life is being lived on a higher plane. It is the “high-plane lives” which endure into ripe old age.