Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-05-19 | Page 6 | Advice on your Health

Advice on Your Health By Morris Fishbein, Editor, Journal American Medical Association This Is the last of five articles . on the effect of exercise on th body. It's the night of a championship prize fight Two fine apecimens of physical fitness attack each other with their fists for 15 grueling gruel-ing rounds. Next day you will read that each of the gladiatora will take a three-month rest before be-fore resuming even light training. But do you know why they were ordered to the sidelines? Were they worn out? Yes. but th answer can be found in an examination of what happened to their blood during the battle. With each jab. each blow absorbed, ab-sorbed, each round, each knockdown, knock-down, those fighters used up an abnormally large number of the red blood cells in their bodies. If you are an average man or woman, during your average day you destroy in work and play, according to one expert 450.000,-000.000 450.000,-000.000 red blood cells, about one-aixtieth one-aixtieth of ths total number. But you are constantly building new one and are exerting yourself nowhere no-where near as much as the fight-term. fight-term. It would take about two months to replace all of the red blood cells in the body of a person- performing just an average clay's work. Men have an average of 5.000.-000 5.000.-000 red blood cells for every cubic millimeter of blood, women, 4.500.-000. 4.500.-000. Anywhere between 4,700.000 and (.300.000 is normal for a man, between 3.900,000 and 5,000,000 for a woman. You need plenty of red blood cells because they carry th oxygen oxy-gen which is absolutely necessary , for muscular activity. Th red blood cells have within them a substance called hemoglobin, red coloring matter. The oxygen- becomes be-comes attached to the hemoglobin 1 and is released to the cells of th body. Also In ths blood are while cells, varying in number from 6000 to 7000 for each cubic millimeter of blood. They protect the body 1 against germs and aaaist In various vari-ous other functions as the protective protec-tive agency of the body. They Increase slightly In number during exercise, digestion and cold hatha. Th volume of blood in your body is largely responsible for your resistance. If you are fat one-thirtieth of your body weight may be blood. If you are thin, the percentage may be one-twentieth. The short-windedness of fat persons is attributed to this 1 fact. When you exercise, the number of red blood cells in ths blood near the surface of the body definitely Increases. The amount of red material ma-terial in the red blood cells may ( also be Increased, perhaps a a result of ths concentration of tha blood that occurs in asaociatioa with exercise. If you sweat, the blood becomes more concentrated and thereby more efficient within certain limits. The efficiency of the flow of blood through blood vessels is dependent de-pendent largely on the aize and efficiency of your heart Unlee the heart ia functioning well, th blood will not flow through your , blood vessels as It should, and there will not be available to the tissues or cells the oxygen that is required.