The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1889-10-05
HEAD AND HEART ACHES.
The Brain Demands Rest, While
the Heart Needs Exercise.


the Heart Needs Exercise.
There are a good many kinds of
headache. In these days the nervous
headache is a Very distinct variety. 1t
Is generally in the front of the head,
across the forehead. over the eyes.
But ii may BE- id other parts at the
Top of the heal, at one or both sid es. at
the back, or all over. 1t is p'inful.
depressing, disabling. A man feels.
at the height of the paroxysm, like a
hunter who has gallopod his legs clean
off and who could no It leap three foot
ditch to save his life. The spur is OF
no use; neither is the whip. The pain
In the head is worse to bear than
either, and the patient will rather en-
dure both whip and spur than make
any kind of effort which will make the
head pain worse. Physic by itself is
of no use. There is not single drug
known to medical science which will
of itself at once and permanently cure
a nervous headache. On the other
hand, drugs are not always needed. A
complete change OF air and circu m
stances will usually take away the pain
In ten or twelve hours. Perfect rest,
Of duration proportional to the
severity and long continuance of the
symptoms, will make the cure per-
manent. There are, of course, methods
of relieving or diminishing the pain
until such time as may be possible to
obtain the complete rest. But the rest
is the thing to be secured at all costs.
If not, the pain goe5 from bad to worse.
and the risk from less to greater. The
final consequence it is impo ssible to
predict, except that breakdown is
sooner or later inevitable, and the
breakdown may be for a year or for d
lifetime A nervous headache is q
dangerous signal. II it be frequent,
the danger is increased; if it be con-
tinuous, a catastrophe is imminent.
The driver must put on his brake at
all hazards, or he will probably soon
have to leap for his life. There are
very few sets of circumstances in which
it is mans duty to go on with his
work when he is in this condition, at
all risks. Even a threatened bunk
ruptcy had better be riskei than a
threatened life. Beside, man who is
in the unyielding grip OF a permanent
nervous headache is not really the
best Judge of his own circumstances.
He magnifies and distorts things
amazingly. He takes counsel OF his
fears, and alb ndons his hopes and
courage altogether. Rest, we repeat
immediate and sufficient rest-is the
sovereign remedy. A fortnight at
once may be better than a year six
weeks hence. A weak heart seems to
be decidedly moro practically incon-
venient than welk heal. Ii a man
or women be little feeble about the
region of the brain, it is generally OF
little moment Soma post or other
will be provided if the conduct be res
pectable; and lack of brains is too
common to excite any particular at
tention either in the person concern
ed or in those about him. But weak
heart insists upon putting itself in evil
dence at all sorts of convenient and
inconvenient times. If its possessor
finds himself rather late for
his morning train and makes
"spurt" to recover lost time,
the exertion is usually followed
by such "bad quarter Of an hour"
that he resolves in future rather to
lose dozen trains than to risk temper
airy suffocation or permanent syncope
again. The practical evils which are
associated with feeble heart are in
Vulnerable, and will readily suggest
themselves to those who possess so I'M
satisfactory a pumping engine. Weak
hearts are by no means so common as
is often supposed. Many a man who
thinks he has got one is merely dys-
peptic; many woman owes her symp-
toms to tight lacing or insufficient feed
ing. II the dyspepsia be cured or the
tight lacing be dispensed with, the
symptoms of heart weakness will dis
appear. Even when the heart is gen u
inely weak, the weakness is not always
due to special disease OF that organ.
1t may be only a part of a general
weakness of the whole system, which
is easily durable. The late Sir Robert
Christison, one OF the most eminent OF
British physicians, used to smile at
certain persons who were always COM
planning of weak hearts. Gentlemen, )"
he would say to his students when lee
turing on digitals, gentlemen, the best
tonic for weak heart is cool brisk
walk Not doubt of it. The ma
jority of week, fabby hearts are weak
and flabby because every other muscle
in the body is weak and fabby. and
this general weakness and flabbiness
is due to want of vigorous use. Exer-
else of the legs and back and arms
gives additional and much needed exer-
else to the heart, and the heart grows
strong by vigorous exercise exactly as
every other muscular organ does, for
the heart is a muscle. If a man
has no organic dise1se OF the
heart, no enlargement and no function
al disorder, plenty OF brisk walking,
with occasional running, will soon dis
pei his breathlessness and heart weak
ness, other things being equal. The
muscular inactivity of the modern
town man is the parent of more ill
health than any other single cause
whatever American Analyst.