Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-03
HEART PAIN
BY H. Addington Bruce

DAIN in the region of the heart does not
necessarily mean disease of the heart.
In the great majority of cases it means
something else. 1t is important to make
this widely known For heart pain is a
common complaint. And those afflicted with
it are apt to get the idea that they have
some serious heart disorder.
This idea itself tends to aggravate the
heart pain, by keeping the attention fixed
on the region that distresseS and thus bring
ing into play the psycho-physical law that
sensations are the more keenly felt in pro-
portion to the attention paid to them. Nat
urally, the more the heart pains the stronger
grows the belief that it is diseased, and then
the attention is still more firmly fixed on it.
In this way there is set in motion vi
c1ous circle, as medical men call it. On a
basis Of nothing but the false fixed idea of
heart disease a chronic mal-functioning of
the heart may be established. Yet to cure
this, and to be rid of the alarming heart
pain, the one thing needful may be simply
persuasion that the heart is not in any way
diseased.
There are thousands of persons suffering
from so-called nervous heart" who might
ponder to their great benefit this statement
by that eminent English diagnostician, Sir
William Broadbent:
1.-The nervous system in large and in
creasing proportion of people is unduly SEN
s1t1Ye, and the reactions to influences of
OfO1J hAAu d1S GAdSS0IdISu. III some a lECl0
emotional excitement gives rise to palpita-
ton, and piece of bad news or the bang
OF door seems to stop the heart altogether
There is in such subjects no form or
degree of cardiac disease which may not be
stimulated. Add touch of a hysteria on
the LOOKOUT for symptoms and for some one
to give ear to the narration of the unpar-
alleled agonies of the sufferer, and the diff
ncultles OF the heart-and, it may be added
of dealing with them-are complete"
Or heart pain may be the result, not of
undue attention to sensations of no particu-
lar slgn1hcance, but of digestive trouble
rms, too, is an exceedingly common cause of
heart pain.
what happens in these cases is that gas
develops IN the stomach and presses against
the diaphragm. This means a mechanical in
reference with the action of the heart, Civ
ing rise to palpitatioh with or withou pain.
When the pain is severe and prolonged or
frequently recurrent, there is a not unnat-
uraI inclination to attribute it to disease of
the heart itself.
In some persons, moreover, distention of
the stomach by overeating may suffice to
bring on attacks of heart pain. These are
the more likely to be provoked if the heavv
eaters lie down shortly after their meals
Inc remedy, of course, is to break the habit
of overeating.
Still, since heart pain in some cases is
sympathetic of actual heart disease il will
naroIy no. even when one knows oneself to
be nervous, dyspeptic or heavy eater, to
attempt self-diagnosis and treatment of the
pain 1ek. The wise course is to have a med
lcal examination, in order both to gain as
surance that the heart itself is sound and to
learn precisely the course to be adopted in
order to be rid of the pain that has dis
tressed and terrified
thoughts roam at will through that bag and
play among its contents; missives wet with
tears; messages of joy; tender words of love;
shattered hopes and high ambitions realized?