The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-07-13

blood vessels which carry the
great sheet Of blood around the
surfaces of the body. are capable
Of contracting or dilating so that
the sheet Of blood is small and
thin or large and thick.
These varying diameters re-
spond to various factors-emo-
tons and temperature to name two
familiar ones. The emotion Of
embarrassment will result in dila-
ton of the capillaries of the face
which is blushing. Hot weather
temperature will cause the capil-
laries Of the skin all over the body
to dilate, more blood is brought to
the surface and exposed TO cooling
breezes and your bodily comfort
in hot weather thus maintained.
Human beings vary a great deal
in the amount Of response on the
part of these small blood vessels.
One fellow in cold weather overly
contracts and he has cold hands
and feet. It is not too much TO sup
pose that some have capillaries in
the brain which do not expand
under the influence of good COM
pany, joke, or a good movie, they
do not laugh so readily, so l am
not exaggerating when say that
a man is as happy as his capil-
laries.
Raynaud's Disease
Besides such purely functional
changes due to the influences Of
weather and emotion and environ
ment, there are conditions which
go over this borderline and can be
said to be diseases. Such as the
people with what is known as Ray
naud's disease, in which the fin
gers or toes. turn white and blood
less and in some cases for so long
a time that the Skin becomes
gangrenous and liberated. Such
possibly are the people with nil
graine headaches. And such are
the people who have persistently
low blood pressure with no dis
cernible cause that can be ascribed
for it.
A test for vascular tone in q
person susceptible TO these condi-
tons has been devised by Drs.
Meyer and Made, of the Univer-
sity Of Pennsylvania. 1t consists
in determining the rate Of fall Of
temperature in the extremities
during the application Of cold 70
the abdomen and the rate of rise
of temperature on the application
Of heat.
1t was found that normal per-
sons varied enormously in their
response. So much so that it il
possible to grade individuals into
seven groups running from very
low to very high vascular tone.
Blood Pressure Changes
OF interest to most of US are the
groups that have blood pressure
changes. The doctors have nick
named these patient groups. There
are the "would-be top dogs" for
the fellow who is inclined to have
q little high blood pressure all the
time. 1t is no accident that the
doctor who specializes in the treat
ment of high blood pressure has .
bunch Of Federal judges and top
flight executives and corporation
lawyers as his clientele. Every
once in a while one Of these high
vascular tone guys turns up with
q couple of hundred thousand
dollars in his pocket-so l don't
see any real good reason for dis
covering a cure for the condition.
The low blood pressure group
are nicknamed by the psyche
somatists teachers pets, or
martyrs, or "muddlers". didn't
think up those names, so don't
blame me. They would have .
pretty good time II by some I'M
lucky chance somebody didn't take
their blood pressure and find II
was low. They begin to worry
about that which is the only thing
they ever worried about in their
lives. Otherwise you would find
them on the wharf doing a little
quiet fishing. They do not run for
elective Office much.
The grand philosophical specu-
lation along these lines would be
TO try TO arrange all marriages
so a hypertensive would marry .
hypotensive. But Nature has other