The Alaska citizen. (Fairbanks, Alaska) 1910-1917, 1913-01-27

forty or tor,yijye. and i'm good
health. may abuse that health as
much as he or she pIeases. ana stil
live 10 be sixty or siXsy-five Con
trariwiso. one may be careful and
temperate in all things one may
avoid everything injurious religious
ly follow all general rules for the
preservation of health. and still ncv-
er reach sound old aGe This
sounds more disoouraeing than it
really is
In the first place. anyone con
templatine entering the race with the
object OF reaching the goal of old
and efficient age. should begin his
cndeayors not later than forty. and
certainly not later than his fiftieth
year There are special perils in
the "iifties." and mos Of what fol
lows applies With special force 10
that period Hut barring accidents
and by accidents We include AMI
mean such common affections rs
pneumonia. etc enc Vie has safe
" rounded the stormy cape of the
"fifties" should be abe, by persist
ing in following certain definite and
specific rules. to attain the scientific
time allotted TO mans years not the
traditional three score and ten-hu
we'll filled and rounded out cen
Jury.
Science often confirms the truth
OF many old savings That a man
is as old as his arteries is the
last word of science as we'll as the
! current expression of common hear
say. Old arteries are literally hard
arteries brittle and shrunken in
aalibre; Young arteries are soft"
+ and elastic This difference is due
o the difference in amount of fill
"ous tissue contained in the two
kinds of arteries the hard or soft
This fibrous tissue which is found in
the principle organs Of the hodr l.
tHf ShtItioil VI ~ 81 W Nl'dA III 'litSt-
various organs. Il bears the same
relation and purpose 10 the organs
relation and purpose 10 the organ of
which il is the framework tina Ill"
wax in a comb of honey bears TO The
honey-containing cells. Any increase
IN this fibrous tissue whether /
lie in the liver. kidneys. or arteries
is sure 10 cause serious trouble
sooner or later because of the hard
ening" it Hndergoes Useless in il
self except as Il framework. any ma
terial increase in its quantity T.
+ terferes with the proper working o
the body cells in it's immediate V
cinity, limiting their nouTishment and
endangering their very life So that
i speaking literally as we'll as scien.
/ so much because of his years II
numbers. but according to wether
or not he has an abnormal or ex-
cessive amount of "fibrous" tissue
+ somewhere in his system. This eX-
cess generally manifests itself first
in the arteries. as an outward eX-
! preston of Hardening" in other
tissues. Consequently man with
soft" arteries at seventy Is lIterallr
still a youth; while man of forty
with hardened arteries is TO all
intents and purposes a man of sixty
I five or seventy. excepting always
! intellect The immediate cause o.
old age, then. is an increase OF the
body's "fibrous' tissue. which. by
reason of its very excess. encroaei'
es on the bounds of the soft delicate
cells whose functions are so import
ants that they constitute the very es-
sence of life. BY this constant en-
c1oachment for a long period OF
time. these vital, essential life-aells
are squeezed and twisted aud
starved until they can carry on heir
work no longer.
But what causes this unnatural
increase OF ''fibrous" tissue? In the
answer to that lies the whole Sc
cret both of the prevention of an
early" old age, and the prolonsa
ton of life to the limits propoundea
by science.
There is one main cause which is
no respecter of persons. and is con
stantly operative in all of us, as
will be shown in detail few steps
further on. II is most closely related
to the problem of defeating Father
Time. To a more limited extent.
though of great importance. the
teries and other tissues. ard obtrude
on the life of the body cells, are
meat eating. alcohol and that mon
strous social disease which false
modesty and hypocrisy decree shall
not be mentioned except in a Whis-
per or in medical books. But. if the
ravages of this horrible disease We're
oftener openly referred TO. and there
fore more widely understood the
necessity of mentioning it would be-
come proportionately less frequent.
However. we must repeat. old age
is brought on prematurely in the
case of hundreds of thousands of in
dividual as a result of this disease,
and with that none too emphatic