TO PREVENT HEART-STRAIN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13394, 30 May 1914, Page 9

TO PREVENT HEART-STRAIN.

"Dr. J. Strickland Goodall, in reading a paper on 'Heart Strain and Its Prevention' before the Institute of Hygiene, drew attention to the enormous amount of work done by the heart," says the Post. "From before birth until, usually, a short time after death it beats uninterruptedly at rates varying from 70 to 150 or more contractions a minute, doing at each contraction enough work to raise a 21b weight through a foot.

"Some conception of the work done could be gauged by placing a 21b weight in the palm of the hand, resting the elbow and raising and lowering the weight from tlie level of the elbow and shoulder. , Acute heart strain was difficult to produce in a young, welknourished and healthy adult, but it was very easy to produce if the heart muscle was anaemic, poisoned, or the seat of degenerative change. When the heart was strained it lost its power of doing extra work. He had seen cases in which tho heart had actually , burst, and one case in which an animal had Tuptured its heart, and died from emotion. Heart strain might be induced in some of the common, thoughtless actions of everyday life, as, for instance", in the action of running' to catch a train.

"In an actual experiment, made on a person with a healthy heart, before the run th-;> heart rate was 76 per minute, and the heart- w;i3 doing 152 foot lbs of work a minute; after the run the heart rate- was ISO per minute, and the heart was doing 360 foot lbs a minute; an increase 1 (if 228 foot lbs per minute. Cireat strain might also bo imposed upon the heart by asccndiiv? stairs hurriedly. Hmotions affected the heart, and as the result of angn- the work of the heart might be increased from 152 to 224 foot lb-s per minute. 'Keep your temper,'' was, therefore, good physiological advice.

"When the cardiac 'rate and work was increased by strenuous exertions, it was not only during the actual exertion" that the heart's work was increased, but extra work continued .to be done for some time after the cessation, of the exertion. The enormous amount! ' of total extra work done by the heart was shown in the experiment of riding a bicycle uphill, the gradient being I in 10, the length 2904ft, and the time of the ride 34 minutes. Ih a tested example the extra work would have raised 1^ tons through one foot^ . '. " - ' lf The work m the, heart could" be economised in many "ways. If one went to bed every night at ten instead tof twelve, the heart would be saved 876,---000 foot lbs of work in a year ; by laying down half an hour daily there would be an annual economy of 219,000 foot lbs : an hour's rest every Sunday would save 62,400 foot lbs, and by spending every Sunday in bed instead of only sleeping eight hours, the saving -in the year would be 998,400 foot lbs. y '