Evening star., 1960-07-26

peCCer tnan exercise IN pre-
venting such trouble. Mr..
F., Miami, Fla.
BASICALLY, writing this
column is serious business.
1t has to be when one deals
with life and death; with
illness and incapacity.
1t is true that occasional
ly a bit of humor creeps in
for which I am thankful.
1t helps to tighten the
heavy load at times. But
please believe me, Mr.. F.,
when l make specific state
ments about illness-espe-
cially about such serious
ones as heart disease. I am
not taking any liberties
with established scientific
beliefs or principles.
Some (not alb doctors
believe that people who sit
around most of the time are
more likely to come down
with a coronary thrombosis.
Therefore, they prescribe
exercise. They tell middle
aged persons to keep going.
To walk a lot, golf, play
tennis, ride bicycles, climb
mountains and otherwise
throw their arms and legs
around.
1t happens that I don't
agree. I have said-and
still do-that you can be
just as fit land stay that
way) without going out of
the way to exercise. People
get more exercise than they
realize in just living. All
you need for fitness is nor
NAL weight (which means
not overeating), getting
sufficient rest at night.
taking frequent short vaca-
tions, if only on week ends,
and learning how to relax
during the day. And last
but not least, trying to
keep your emotions under
control by developing a
philosophy which prevents
undue anxiety, hate or
resentment.
AS for the rocking chair
Cor for any large, comfort
able, well-padded chair let
me give you some scientific
proof that resting in a
chair for a few hours a day
is even better for your
heart than lying fiat in bed.
For it is a physiological fact
that your heart does 2O-25
per cent less work if you sit
comfortably in a chair with
your feet on the floor than
when you are lying down
fiat.
M a ny heart patients
know this without being
doctors. Sometimes the
heart muscle fails while the
patient is resting in bed. He
suddenly can't breathe; his.
lungs begin to fill up with
fluid.
What does he do to get
comfortable? He jumps up
to a sitting position on the
edge of his bed. Within
minutes breathing comes
easier. If you give such a
patient morphine he may
get over his attack of heart
failure within half an hour.
But suppose you keep him
fiat in bed? 1t may take
hours or days for similar
improvement. The scientific
name for this kind of heart
failure is "pulom onary
edema." Ask your doctor if
it doesn't work out that
way in his experience.
Dear DR.. Steincrohn:
This may sound like a small
worry to you, but it has
become a large one to us.
An elderly member of our
family is completely deaf.
We have finally got him to
stop talking so loud that it
nearly bursts our ear
drums.
But he grunts at the
table until it is almost
more than we can take. He
grunts when he gets dressed
and at other times, but this
grunting when he eats lis
about to ruin each evening
meal. Is there anything
you can suggest? Mrs. K,
Indianapolis.
WHAT ELSE CAN I say
but to grin and bear it?
There would be less
imaginary heart trouble if
people didn't know the diff
ference between left and
right. It's often the harm
less "twinge" IN the left
chest that scares people
and upsetS their emotional
equilibrium.
The difference between a
bill and a pill is that The
bill is sometimes harder to
swallow.
A man will grippe at the
telephone book long, before
he has begun to grope for
his eye doctor.
I am all for conSulta-
tions during severe illness.
Two heads are better than
one; and sometimes, three.
But four and five often get