Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-03-18 | Page 54 | Sit Back "Loose as Ashes" Once in a While if you would Live to Old Age

SIT BACK "Loose as Ashes" Once in a Vhile if You Would LIVE to OLD AGE How Enough Energy Is Wasted to Do ilie World's Work Explained by Scientist By DR. EDWIN F. BOWERS. (Author of "Sidestepping III Health," "Alcohol; "Al-cohol; Jit Influence on Mind and Body.") IF WK took ns much Interest in preserving preserv-ing our energy as we do In preserving our clothes we would be far less interesting inter-esting ns medical "cases." And If we were mh saving of nervous and physical wear and tear ns many of us are of dollars and cents we would be much more profitable to ourselves our-selves and much less so to doctors and undertakers. un-dertakers. We waste. In a thousand useless ways, sufficient dynamic and physical force to do the work of the world many times over. We apply efficiency to about everything under the sun except ourselves. The alert chap who tells the gang Just how they should lay brick, swing shovels, drive spikes or what not does so between nervous bites on a wad of chewing gum, twitching fidgets at his watch chain- or some other energy-dissipating device. The well-meaning' friend who tells us "that everything will come ont all right" frequently does so to the accompaniment of n tattoo of foot tapping or a plucking at anything within reach. Unconsciously sh8 so irritates us that we would like to throw something at her head. The nervous, high-strung mother who is eternally admonishing the youngsters not to do whatever they are doing or about to do Is wasting her precious balance in the bank of health faster than two women could manufacture it. And the fussy, worrying individual, who has no more Idea of repose than has a Japanese Japa-nese waltzing mouse, is a source of anxiety to himself and a full-fledged cause of annoyance annoy-ance and irritation to every one who is penalized pe-nalized by having to associate with him. Few realize that we have but a certain amount of physical and nervous energy to expend, and that if we waste it in futile and nonproductive activities we certainly are going to run shy of "punch" when the real need comes to show efficiency. If every one could know the value of a few moments' complete relaxation the sensible utility of sitting back "as loose as ashes" every once in a while there would be a dearth of nervous breakdowns in the land. If the student, the mother, the brain . workers If every one who uses energy faster than he manufactures It would get We should preserve our energy as carefully as we do our clothes. Into the habit of "stretching out" and completely com-pletely relaxing when they begin to feel fatigued, and give nature a little chance to recharge the magnetic and nervous batteries, bat-teries, we wouldn't need to worry about the lack of insane asylums and sanitariums. These should be obvious facts. Perhaps we ignore them because they are obvious, and because to find out about them costs us nothing except a siege of illness or a ruc--tlon in the family. If nervous and physical conservation were something one could take in a pill, or if we had. to pay a specialist good money for capturing some for us, we'd all be falling over one another to get a supply. But we spend large amounts of grade A vitality which is the most valuable thing we own in soul-raclung worry, rapid-fire nervous explosions and fatuous overexertion. overexer-tion. And then we wonder why adult longevity Is decreasing 1 We wonder why we have to make an involuntary assignment in physical bankruptcy at 45 or 50, when we should tiave a plethoric surplus in' reserve. re-serve. Not all energy dissipation, however, lies within our own preventive power. An incalculable in-calculable amount of waste occurs because oar eyes are too civilized because we are overworking weakened external eye muscles mus-cles sixteen hours a day too long. Nervous exhaustion, epilepsy, "stomach trouble," rheumatism and even such gTave diseases as goiter, diabetes and Bright's disease are cured by correcting imbalanced ocular muscles. Also we pound a lot of energy out of our systems by decorating our heels with two chunks of leather Jammed full of large The fussy, worrying individual who has no more idea of repose re-pose than has a Japanese waltzing mouse is a source of anxiety to himself and annoyance to everyone else. And let us save our nerves just as we save our dollars. sill ' .p ' ' ' The nervous, high-strung mother who is eternally admonishing the children not to do what they are doing or are about to do is wasting her precious balance in the bank of health faster than two women could manufacture it. and very unyielding nails. We pursue the uneven tenor of our ways over hard, unsympathetic un-sympathetic pavements, Jouncing our internal in-ternal organs into a state of prolapsus (ptosis) and mauling our sensitive backbones back-bones and delicate nervous systems at every step. A pair of springy rubber heels would take the jar out of our Jaws and the shock out of our systems immediately, if not instantaneously. in-stantaneously. Now to prevent energy loss adds to the health balance. And to have a fine fat health balance is to own the highest dividend-producing investment in the bank of life.