A Handbook of Health by Woods Hutchinson (readnow TXT) 📕

keep yourself well supplied with plenty of nutritious, wholesome, digestible food, so as to give yourself, not merely power to do the work, but something besides to grow on.

Fourth, to avoid poisonous and hurtful things like the toxins of infectious diseases; and alcohol, tobacco, and other narcotics, which have a harmful effect upon the muscles, valves, or nerves of your heart, or the walls of your blood vessels.

Fortunately, the heart is so wonderfully tough and elastic, and can repair itself so rapidly, that it usually takes at least two, and sometimes three, causes acting together, to produce serious disease or damage. For instance, while muscular overwork and overstrain alone may cause serious and even permanent damage to the heart, they most frequently do so in those who are underfed, or badly housed, or recovering from the attack of some infectious disease. While the poisons of rheumatism and alcohol will alone cause serious damage to the valves of the heart and walls of the blood vessels, yet they again are much more liable to do so in those who are overworked, or underfed, or overcrowded.

The Disease of the Stiffening of the Arteries. The points at which our pipe-line system is most likely to give way are the valves of the heart, and, more likely still, the muscles of the heart wall and of the walls of the blood vessels. These little muscles are slowly, but steadily, changing all through life, becoming stiffer and less elastic, less alive, in fact, until finally, in old age, they become stiff and rigid, turning into leathery, fibrous tissue, and may even become so soaked with lime salts as to become brittle, so that they may burst under some sudden strain. When this occurs in one of the arteries of the brain, it causes an attack of apoplexy, or a "stroke of paralysis." Overstrain, or toxins in the blood, may bring about this stiffening of the arteries too soon, and then, we say that the person is "old before his time." A man is literally "as old as his arteries."

The causes which will hasten the stiffening of the arteries are, first of all, prolonged overwork and overstrain,—due especially to long hours of steady work in unwholesome shops or surroundings; second, the presence in the blood of the poisons of the more chronic infectious diseases, like tuberculosis; third, the waste products that are formed in our own body, and are not properly got rid of through lungs, skin, and kidneys; and fourth, the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other narcotics.

The Bad Effects of Alcohol. Alcohol is particularly likely to damage the walls of the blood vessels and the heart, first, because it is a direct poison to their cells, when taken in excess, and often in what may appear to be moderate amounts, if long continued; secondly, because it is frequently taken, especially by the poorer, underfed class of workers, as a substitute for food, causing them literally to "spend their money for that which is not bread," and to leave their tissues half-starved; and thirdly, because, by its narcotic effects, it decreases respiration and clogs the kidneys and the skin, thus preventing the waste products from leaving the body.

How the Heart Valves may be Injured. The valves of the heart are likely to give way, partly because they are under such constant strain, snapping backward and forward day and night; and partly, because, in order to be thin enough and strong enough for this kind of work, they have become turned, almost entirely, into stringy, half-dead, fibrous tissue, which has neither the vitality nor the resisting power of the live body-stuffs like muscles, gland-cells, and nerves. They are so tough, however, that they seldom give way under ordinary wear and tear, as the leather of a pump valve, or of your shoes, might; but the thing which damages them, nine times out of ten, is the germs or poisons of some infectious disease.

These poisons circulating through the blood, sometimes set up a severe inflammation in the valves and the lining of the heart. Ulcers, or little wart-like growths, form on the valves; and these may either eat away and destroy entirely parts of the valves or, when they heal, leave scars which shorten and twist the valves out of shape, so that they can no longer close the openings. When this has happened, the heart is in the condition of a pump which will not hold water, because the leather valve in its bucket is broken or warped; and we say that the patient has valvular or organic heart disease.

The disease which most frequently causes this serious defect is rheumatism, or rheumatic fever; but it may also occur after pneumonia, typhoid, blood poisoning, or even after a common cold, or an attack of the grip. This is one of several reasons why we should endeavor, in every way, to avoid and stop the spread of these infectious diseases; not only are they dangerous in themselves, but although only two of them, rheumatism and pneumonia, frequently attack the heart, all of them do so occasionally, and together they cause nearly nine-tenths of all cases of organic heart disease.

Should you be unfortunate enough to catch one of these diseases, the best preventive against its attacking the heart, or causing serious damage, if it does, is a very simple one—rest in bed until the fever is all gone and your doctor says it is perfectly safe for you to get up; and avoid any severe muscular strain for several months afterward.

This is a most important thing to remember after all infections and fevers, no matter how mild. Even where the heart valves have been seriously attacked, as in rheumatism, they will often recover almost completely if you keep at rest, and your heart is not overtaxed by the strain of heavy, muscular work, before it has entirely recovered. Ten days' "taking it easy" after a severe cold, or a bad sore throat, may save you a serious strain upon the heart, from which you might be months or even years in recovering.

But even where serious damage has been done to the heart, so that one of its valves leaks badly, nature is not at the end of her resources. She simply sets to work to build up and strengthen and thicken the heart muscle until it is strong enough to overcome the defect and pump blood enough to keep the body properly supplied—just as, if you are working with a leaky pump, you will have to pump harder and faster in order to keep a good stream of water flowing. It is astonishing how completely she will make good the loss of even a considerable part of a valve.

Doctors no longer forbid patients with heart disease to take exercise, but set them at carefully planned exercise in the open air, particularly walking and hill-climbing; at the same time feeding them well, so as to assist nature in building up and strengthening the heart muscle until it can overcome the defect. In this way, they may live, with reasonable care, ten, fifteen, or twenty years—often, in fact, until they die of something else.

Don't worry about your heart if it should happen to palpitate, or take a "hop-skip-and-jump" occasionally. You will never get real heart disease until you have had some fever or serious illness, which leaves you short of breath for a long time afterward.

Danger to the Heart through the Nervous System. The other chief way in which the heart may be affected is through the nervous system. Being the great supply pump for the entire body, it is, of course, connected most thoroughly and elaborately by nerve wires with the brain and, through it, with every other organ in the body. So delicately is it geared,—set on such a hair-trigger, as it were,—that it not only beats faster when work is done anywhere in the body, but begins to hurry in anticipation of work to be done anywhere. You all know how your heart throbs and beats like a hammer and goes pit-a-pat when you are just expecting to do something important,—for instance, to speak a piece or strike a fast ball,—or even when you are greatly excited watching somebody else do something, as in the finish of a close race.

Two-thirds of the starts and jumps and throbbings that the heart makes, are due to excitement, or nervous overstrain, or the fact that your dinner is not digesting properly; and they don't indicate anything serious at all, but are simply useful danger signals to you that something is not just right.

In work and in athletics for instance, this rapid and uncomfortably vigorous action of the heart is one of nature's best checks and guides. When your heart begins to throb and plunge uncomfortably, you should slow up until it begins to quiet down again, and you will seldom get into serious trouble. The next time you try the same feat, you will probably find that you can go a little farther, or faster, without making it throb. Indeed, getting into training is very largely getting the heart built up and educated, so that you can run or play, or wrestle hard without overtaxing it. Whatever you can do within the limits of your heart is safe, wholesome, and invigorating; whatever goes beyond this, is dangerous and likely to be injurious.