The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1942-02-07

Dr. Clendening VIII answer
questions of general interest
only, and then only through
his column.
is true. The words heart disease"
are fearsome sounds TO most pco-
pie and it is no wonder when some
doctor makes a. careless remark
about a dropped beat in the pulse
or a'little rise in blood pressure or
a queer sound in the heart, that
this should create dread and fore
boding.
Many kinds Of instruments have
been placed in the doctors hands
20 use in examining the heart, and
sometimes one doctor or another
hasn't learned how TO use these
wisely. It was this sort of practice
that caused an eminent American
medical man to wish that the blood
pressure instrument had never
been invented and caused Sir
James Mackenzie to say that the
stethoscope had done more harm
than good.
| find much wisdom in the list
given by a Boston physician Of
various signs and symptoms ap-
parently produced by the heart
IL its complicated work, but which
do not necessarily mean heart
disease.
Slow Pulse
For instance, there is slow pulse.
A pulse as slow as fifty is common
ly found in young athletes. Slow
pulses are also regularly found in
elderly people and in convalescents
from any illness. Irregularity oil
the heart doesn't mean heart dis
ease. There is one form Of irregu-
larity that occurs in over seventy
five per cent Of young people in
which the pulse is faster during
inspiration of the breath than in
expiration. At the other extreme
OF life, seventy-fve per cent Of
people over ffty-fve years old
have an irregularity of the pulse
in the form Of dropped beat.
Disturbances Of the heart sounds
may be mistakenly called muir
murs. The physician who tells a
patient that he has a heart MUIR
muir or a valvular disease of the
heart should be very certain Of his
ground. The heart makes all sorts
Of queer noises.
Twenty Abnormal Heart Sounds
Last week in pursuit of some
studies in the auscultation Of the
heart, made list of some twenty
abnormal sounds which the heart
makes and which are not murmurs
and are not dangerous and which
nobody very thoroughly under
stands.
Pain in the chest nowadays is
almost invariably put down to
angina pectoris or coronary artery
disease. AS a matter of fact, pain
and tenderness in the chest in
young people is almost always
functional or nervous in origin.
Discomfort in the chest which is
not due to heart disease is almost
constant in some people and in
most of them is usually aggravated
by exertion.
Even if organic heart disease
exists, it is not incompatible with
long life. saw a review in a medi-
cal journal the other day Of the
histories of twenty patients, all
Of whom were over eighty years
Of age, and all Of whom had had e
a heart disease for some thirty to
sixty years.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Z. Z. B.:-"What causes a sty,
are they contagious, and what is
the best thing to do for them"
Answer: Sites are caused by a
staphylococcus infection in the
hair follicle Of the eyelash. They
ere not likely to be contagious to
others, but when one Of them comes
along, it is very likely that self
contagion will occur by rubbing
the eyes so that other eyelash fol-
licles are infected. In the way Of
prevention, the best thing | know
is to get a ten per cent solution Of
alcohol and small camels hair
brush and when a person has a
sly, brush the edges Of the eyelid
lightly two or three times a day
with the brush after it has been
dinnnd In ikn alrnhni