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Show Family Weekly June 7, mo fretted Hfirfi is simnlJ Many doctors, including myself, believe there are many "silent heart attacks," attacks that actually damhimage the heart without the self knowing anything is wrong. Heart attacks are not rare among men under 35. The number increases sharply for men over 35 and reaches a peak in men between 50 and 60. v'-ti- Women Steady exercises such as bends strengthen heart muscle, enlarge blood vessels, increase blood supply and use up calories. sit-up- s, f''uf - knee- - V fare better, but their rate is growing. For reasons we don't entirely understand, women before suffer 13 times fewer menopause heart attacks than men. After menopause, the ratio decreases to men over women. After 65, the ratio is about the same. To find out whether you're a candidate to become one of these statistics, there are a few simple tests you can make involving your weight and your heart rate. Most people reach full growth in their early 20s. After that, unless you are involved in specialized acalmost all tivities like weight-liftinIs on the weight you put pure fat U you're in good condition, the skin over most of your body should be as thin as it is on the back of your hand when you pinch it. Get a good grip with your thumb and forefinger on a layer of skin in the area of your navel. If it's more than a half inch thick, you're carrying a ?ood amount of excess fat This is a better index of your health than the reading on the bathroom scales. two-to-on- e, V JiJ'. m BL ' VT g, or the man next to you die of a heart attack or some other disease of the You blood vessels. You probably already have disease in your arteries. Dr. Lawrence Lamb, now a professor off medicine at Baylor University's School of Medicine, Houston, Texas, is the former chief of the Clinical Science Division of the United States Air Force's School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. Under his guidance the school developed the rigid testing methods used to screen astronaut candidates for the Gemini and Apollo programs. Among his patients has been former President Lyndon Johnson. These are not scare statements, just simple facts. More than half the deaths in the United States today are caused by cardiovascular ailments, and the numbers are growing. Worse, these ailments are reaching younger and younger people. For this reason, contrary to the popular misconception, our life expectancy has not improved appreciably in the last two decades despite advances elsewhere in the field of health. 1'his is the richest nation on earth, where funds for medical research have grown from $1 million annually 20 years ago to $1 billion today, and where great strides have been made in producing new knowledge in the prevention and cure of heart disease. Should you be the victim of a heart attack, as a physician I can tell you that the help your doctor can give you is limited. You have about one chance in four of never even getting into a hospital heart unit alive after 4 Family Weekly, June 7, 1970 a heart attack, and less than one chance in two of surviving the episode to return home. A similar situation applies to strokes. These being the odds, the best approach is certainly prevention. The tragedy is that your doctor can't do it for you. Despite all the new knowledge now available on the cars of the heart and the prevention of its diseases, most of it is ignored by the individual. What can you do to reverse the trend? You can begin applying some of the knowledge that has come out of research laboratories and elsewhere in the fields of exercise, diet, and way of life. It is never too early or too late to start As long ago as World War II, it was discovered that even men under 30 were having fatal heart attacks, many of them in apparent good health right up to the time of their deaths. Autopsies on men killed in combat in Korea showed that 77 percent of them at an average age of 22 (including some in their teens) had definite signs of coronary atherosclerosis, fatty deposits in the major arteries serving the heart itself. This is a disease, not a product of old age. In my own work at the School of Aerospace Medicine, I saw many pilots, the best of American men, with heart conditions. All of those were young men and presumah'y in good health because they had passed rigid physical examinations. With this as a standard, what can the physical condition of the great bulk of our civilian population be like? The beginnings of heart conditions are gradual and insidious. They may not even affect the heart's action. The first indication may be sudden death. A second test checks the heart rate. Your resting heart rate should i ot be more than 70 beats per minute (for men) or 75 (for women). It should not increase over 15 beats a minute when you stand up. After mild exercise (like runninj in place for one minute), when you lie down it should be less than 100 beats. If this isn't the case, then you may have cause for concern. You are in greater control of your future health than the best doctor on earth. You cwi control the three most important areas your physical activity, your diet, and your living habits. In short, you can do more by way of prevention of heart attacks, than any heart specialist can do by way of cures. In the field of exercise, I doubt whether there is any one program that could be used by everyone every where, but I can make a few general |