The Nome daily nugget., 1936-01-17

return 1t to the heart. The heart Is itself part of the blood vascular sys tenn.
 The heart consists of left and a right chamber. The muscle coat Is very thick, and, In comparison, the out side covering and the inside lining are very thin.
 Contracting normally 72 times per minute the heart acts as pump be- tween the veins and the arteries. It maintains constant pressure of blood in the arteries.
 The arteries. however. are not pas sive in this matter of pressure. They are made up of muscle tissue with a dense outside coat to prevent over. diStension and an inside lining that Is thin and slick. This muscle coat gives a little with each heart beat so as to absorb the shock and to keep the pres sure of the blood constant.
 The arteries are constructed upon the principle of tree. The big trunk Is attached to the heart. and the large branches go to the stomach. the in testines, the kidneys and other body organs. and one to each arm and leg. The large branches in turn break up into smaller branches. which finally result in microscopic capillaries. These capillaries have gossamer thin walls, through which food substances pass out of the blood stream into the body tissues. Put another way, one might say that the large arteries are the wholesale food houses. while the capil laries are the small retail stores.
 When the blood Is distributed prop ,rly. all the capilaries have an even supply of blood. But after a meal. the stomach requires more than normal amount to circulate through it. so less blood circulates in the brain.
 Now hardening of the arteries means that the walls of the arteries have lost their power to expand with the beat If the heart and to contract with its rest period. So instead of absorbing the shock of the rush of blood with zach beat of the heart, as Nature in tended. they simply act as a rigid tube that passes this strong force unabated )n to the smaller arteries which in turn pass 1t on to the tiny capillaries. And the thin walls of these smaller arteries and capillaries were never meant to withstand such high blood pressure. So there is apt to be trouble. One of the tiny blood vessels may break. If this happens in the brain, we call 1t apoplexy and say the person has had stroke. The seriousness of the stroke depends both upon the size If the blood vessel and the pressure within the circulating system.
 The valves of the heart are thin walled. leaf-like structures that close the chambers of the heart. Sometimes bacterial infections cause inflammation If these. and the healing process leaves scars. The effect of these scars Is to shorten the valves and pull them out If place, with the result that there Is T leakage between two of the heart chambers. Now the muscle wall of the heart always has to thcken to force blood through the heart. The leaking valves cannot hold the blood back as they should, so the heart be romes thicker and larger than is nor nal for it to compensate for the de feet. Then In later life. when the arteries become hardened. the blood pressure is increased. and the heart .las difficulty in thlckening fast enough 10 carry the pumping load due to back How through the leaking valves.
 Sometimes, too. the heart muscle it. self may have been damaged from some infection in early life, such as diphtheria. Then when hardening of the arteries causes changes in circula- lion and in blood pressure. the heart cannot compensate fast enough and a condition called myocariitis develops.
 The whole circulatOry system acts s well-organized unit. The heart cannot be separated from the arteries and capilaries, and the arteries cannot be separated from the heart and capil laries. When one part becomes ab normal. the whole system must read just itself to the new conditions. Ordi narily the abnormality is progressive and hence there Is persistent effort y the remaining parts to compensate nd function aa nearly as possible un Ter the handicap.