TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 144, 20 June 1931, Page 7 (Supplement)

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOtMOtt

AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART. ! A word of comfort to those who . have heart disease or a murmur in th heart’s sounds. I know a great mail} people who are leading happy and sue eessful lives in spite of their heart - action being abnormal. It docs not fol low that, you cannot enjoy life because you are not physically fit to dash across a ploughed Jit-Id. or indulge in similarly exhausting efforts. So cheer up; you have a clean conscience, and that is one good thing. If your heart is not quite tho same as other people’s, it means that you must not rush for trains you must not gobble down your breakfast, and then run all the way to the station, you must not lose control of your temper, and in a paroxysm of frenzied rage shy the crockery at your wife. Always smile serenely when she is most aggravating; always beam on the man who asks you to lend him ten shillings on a Friday night; avoid political discussions; maintain an equable frame of mind aven when the man calls for the rent. Lie Down Awhile. Be very careful about smoking; the less you smoke the better; avoid cigarettes altogether. Pay reasonable attention to your diet and digestion; do not eat too fast of an indigestible diet, and then gasp because the wind presses on the heart and makes it flutter. When you are taking it easy at home, lie down as much as is reasonable. The, heart beats, on the average, about 72 times in a minute. But it beats faster than that when you are running or walking, and slower than that when you are lying down. Are you good at arithmetic? Suppose that by lying down instead of sitting your heart beats less often by two beats a minute P you then spare your heart, the exertion of driving lhe blood up to the top of the head for those two beats, and the heart is very much obliged. But two in a minute means 120 in an hour, and 1,440 in a day of twelve hours. There fore, if you get a day off now' and then, spend part of the time lying down- it wil rest your heart. This is good advice even to those whose hearts are uot affected. Moderate Walking Exercise. Never believe, because you have had rheumatic fever and have a defect of the valves of the heart, that therefore you may as well throw up the sponge. Nothing of the sort. Under your doctor’s directions you may try careful experiments. Walking is the best exercise. Do not rush off for a tcn-mile tramp. Walk to the pillar-box and hack. If no distress is shown, walk to the public-house; pass it, please ami walk back. Try a little farther until you find that you have reached your limit and that a feeling of fatigue comes over you when you get home. (Do not overstep that mark for the present, but go cautiously over the same ground for a few days without putting further strain on the heart. Patience and gentle perseverance, and an appeal to your doctor for guidance, will enable you to educate your heart to do much more work than you thought it would ever do. Reasonable exercise

without over-strain —that is the watenword. And always go slowly upstairs, resting at every few steps. Don’t G«t Too Fat. You must not allow yourself to get too fat. A collection of i’at may be deposited round the heart, just as you see it round animal’s hearts in the butener’s shop. Moreover, carrying weights put an extra strain on the heart, and the two or three stone that you are carrying in excess of the weight of a normal man of your height only distress the heart unnecessarily. Be very 1 kind to your heart; it beats long be- » fore you are born, and it works on holidays and Sundays and twenty-four hours out of the twenty-four. The Starvation Cure. ) 1 Eor a bilious attack or any de--1 arrangement of the interior from overt feeding, I heartily recommend the star 1 ration cure. You must understand ‘ that the liver is the storehouse where ■ food can be kept until it is wanted, r Half-way through your heavy meal rhe liver has had enough; its storage room : is taxed to its utmost. Your poor old ■ liver, gasping and apoplectic, and with perspiration pouring down its face, cannot cope with the work, willing servant though it is, and small wonder you get pains. In pity’s name try th* starvation treatment. Take nothing but hot water for 12 or 18 hours. Yourselves you only work six days a week, and shirk all you can even then; have you no mercy on your digestive organs that you make them work seven days a week? Wait till they form a trade union. Is Sunday e day ot rest for your liver? I don’t think. A Working Girl’s Lunch. I think some of you may not eat enough. Some of the young ladies who 3 get up early and work in an office 1.11 . day do not have enough at lunch. , They prefer to save their money tu s spend on clothes, and one fine day they • find they have no body to hang th ■ I clothes on. Sad! A miserable lunch of ( half a stale bun and some strong tei. t followed by three cigarettes, is io lunch for a hard working girl.