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Show Yomf Heart! 6 By LAWRENCE E. LAMB, M.D. Airthof of Yw Noovf oool How to Uvo Willi If sound advice which might keep you from being a coronary victim statements. If you are not in good condition now, then I would strongly suggest moderation. Regardless of what some authorities say, exercise can kill you. Crash programs are ineffective, even dangerous, and the exercises like sudsporadic peak-loa- d out and denly getting shoveling the snow, are the most dangerous of all. Anything that significantly exceeds your daily activity should be avoided. Fad exercise programs may slim your waist or tone up the muscles of your body. These may do little or nothing for your heart The heart is a muscle, and its strength is built up by working the heart muscle, not the arm muscle or belly muscles. The work of the heart muscle is increased when it pumps more blood as in running, jogging, and cycling. Stoody-stnt- o, endurance-typ- e ex- ercises are the best. I usually recommend starting with a moderate walking program. After you have gradually built up to walking one hour a day and have done so daily for at least two weeks without difficulty, then you can start a jogging program or a running-in-plac- e program. If you use an it should be a gradual daily program. Exercise strengthens the heart muscle, enlarges the blood vessels, and increases the blood supply. It also burns up calories. This is great s for preventive therapy. You can't lose much weight by exercising one day but 80 minutes of steady walking every day can cause you to lose 10 pounds in a year's time. Heart disease can't be prevented by exercise alone, nor can any real program of weight control be achieved by exercise alone. Both problems depend a great deal on proper diet In the case of atherosclerosis, diet alone may be the major culprit Exercise can build up large healthy blood vessels, but improper diet can clog them with fatty deposits virtually negating the gains from exercise. The problem the average person has in finding a proper diet is wading through the welter of confusion that surrounds it. The most important point is to prevent accumulation of excess fat If you are accumulating fat you are eating too much or exercising too little. Calories are considered a major exer-cycl- e, villain, and indeed they are, but the body needs energy to produce work, and it needs calories to produce energy. Without some calories, it could not function. If you exercise to build up your cardiovascular system, you will need the energy. Excess calories, however, can lead to dangerous fat deposits. The body produces calories by digesting foodstuffs, specifically carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Carbohydrates do not always get as much favorable publicity as they should, but they are the staple diet of many nations with a low incidence of atherosclerosis. Fruits, vegetables, and cereals are high in carbohydrates. These are recommended foods in a proper diet Sugar is also high in carbohydrates, but is not recommended as highly. Why? Sugar is concentrated and does not contain other essential vitamins and minerals. It is one of the most easily absorbed foods (one reason it is recommended for quick energy for athletes) . Fruits and vegetables contain a lot of roughage and other essential foodstuffs besides carbohydrates. It is not so much the amount of food you eat s the type. Proteins are recommended in most diets, especially in this, a country. Proteins are found chiefly in meat fish, 'owl, milk, eggs, and beans. Not all of these can be recommended indiscriminately in a proper diet For instance, chicken and turkey can be recommended, duck and goose cannot; lean veal and fish, not bacon or shellfish; egg whites, not egg yolks. meat-eatin- g Fats cause the most confusion, probably because they are getting the most publicity, none of it good. One gram of digested fat produces nine calories, more than twice as much as carbohydrates or proteins. diet should be Logically, a low-fideal This is a good idea, but it's not that simple. If you cut down on meat to cut down on fat you're also cutting down on needed protein. But at we do need to limit our intake of fat Cholesterol is often associated with fat although it is not a fat itself. It is probably the major villain in atherosclerosis because if enough of it is allowed to flow through the blood stream for long enough periods of time, it can be deposited in the walls of the arteries and lead to a whole series of complications. Among them are limiting the flow of blood, or breaking off and blocking the flow of blood altogether. Yet cholesterol is essential to life. It is found in the brain, the adrenal glands, and in almost every cell in your body, and the body itself actually manufactures cholesterol How did such a villain get to be a villain? Again, it's not the substance itself but the amount The body needs some cholesterol, but the amount you eat should be controlled. Some foods are notably high in cholesterol and should be rationed, like dairy foods, especially egg yolks, and organ meats such as liver, kidneys, and brains. Shell fish should be used only in moderation. In addition to sensible exercise and proper dietary habits, you need to govern your living habits the other factors that can affect your health and longevity, notably smoking and drinking. One survey shows that men who smoke a pack of cigarettes or more a day die an average of IS years sooner than others. It is well established that nicotine increases the heart rate, increases the amount of blood pumped by the heart, and may cause a rise in blood pressure. In our studios, even young and otherwise healthy pilots who smoked often had resting heart rates of 90 beats a minute or more. When they stopped smoking, the heart rate dropped to about 60. Those who resumed the habit found their heart rates going up again. The evidence is too direct to be ignored. Nicotine itself is a poison, and like any poison it can kill tissue. Even small amounts used on a long-terbasis are not for the good body. Large amounts can be fatal. Excessive drinking includes more than alcoholic beverages. Chronic drinking of large amounts of coffee, tea, or cola drinks can do as much to elevate the heart rate as smoking. They all include caffeine a drug. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant Excessive intake can cause irregularities of the heart beat including palpitation or skipped beats. In general, five cups of coffee or tea a day is excessive. Two cups are usually enough for most people, and one is too much for highly sensitive individuals with evidence of a high heart rate or general nervousness. If you are hooked on these drinks, you are hooked on drugs and have a drug habit Alcohol is a loser on two counts. l It has no place in a diet end it has a poisonous effect on the heart muscles. Recent studios show clearly that large amounts of alcohol can damage the fibers. Eventually the damaged heart is no longer able to function efficiently, and heart failure may result Your own doctor can be a big help ia preparing a preventive program, and I strongly advise you to contact him before embarking on any drastic changes in your life style. But in the fnal analysis, you are your own doctor. It's your heart, and it's up to you to protect it m weight-contro- Xray is a helpful aid in the analysis I of patients' heart conditions. heart-musc- le Family Weekly, June 7, 1970 v. |