Heart and Blood circulatory system protective care

 PROTECTIVE CARE There is much you can do to guard the health of your heart and circulatory system. Contrary to what many people believe, the heart is a tough rather than delicate organ. Surgeons have successfully closed stab and other wounds of the heart; they have repaired the valves within the heart and corrected malformations. Protected by the tough ribs, the over- lying lungs, and its own surrounding membrane, the heart is rarely dam- aged by a blow. This fact should be reassuring to parents of football players, boxers, and other athletes. Guarding the health of the heart does not mean trying unduly to spare it.

Heart that a practice now accepted as a safeguard-a gradual return, after an actual heart attack, to active, even strenuous exercise-would, only a decade ago, have been considered medical malpractice if a doctor had prescribed it. Today, many cardiologists advise patients after heart attacks to get moving-to begin slowly, with extreme caution, gradually increasing their activity. With a gradual, well-tailored, well-supervised program, there is little or no danger of overstraining the heart. Many ex-heart cripples now are even playing strenuous games such as handball. It is now realized that such slow, gradual, progressive physical training can help the heart develop an increased network of blood-supplying vessels, sometimes a greater network than it may have had before the heart attack, and there is increasing evidence that such training may substantially reduce the risk of another attack. However, there are limits to the amount of strain that should be placed on a middle-aged, old, or damaged heart, particularly sudden strain. If you have been leading a sedentary existence, and now, wisely, you decide you need to increase your physical activity and overall physical fitness, you should by all means check with your physician first and, with his guidance, based on the health of your heart and whole circulatory system, map out a program which will lead gradually to your goal. 

Heart and blood circualtory system

 THE HEART'S OWN SUPPLY The heart, being a muscle, and a hard-working one, needs nutritious blood. And nature has seen to it that it gets it by special means. The heart's special system begins at the aorta, from which branch off two arteries, the coronaries, each about the size of a thick knitting needle. One enters the heart muscle on the right side; the other, on the left. And the two together form a kind of wreath about the heart. The coronaries divide and divide to feed every part of the heart muscle. And after the blood has deposited its oxygen supply and picked up waste, it is carried by a system of veins to the right atrium to be passed, along with blood returning from other parts of the body, to the lungs. As we have noted, the heart has remarkable ability to adapt to demands of the body-to beat faster, contract more completely, and thus pump much more blood when necessary.

 In turn, the coronary circulation has remarkable ability to adapt to the heart's needs when they increase. When the heart must work harder, it needs more nourishment -and the coronary circulation accommodates. Ordinarily, the coronary arteries take only a small fraction of the blood moving through the aorta. But when the heart is working harder, the arteries will take more, even up to half of the total flow through the aorta. An unusual feature of the coronary circulation is the presence of extra capillaries, many of which form connections between the two coronary arteries. These extra tiny vessels lie unused and empty except when you are exerting yourself to the point of putting bigger demands on the heart. Then they go to work to bring more blood and oxygen to the heart muscle. These same capillaries help, too, if some of the regular blood channels no longer function effectively because of disease. Then the spare capillaries go into regular use as substitute pathways. There is another safeguard in the fact that each coronary artery doesn't supply only its own side of the heart.

Branches extend over to the other side so that many heart areas have blood supplied from both coronary arteries. Thus, if one of these vital vessels should become dis- eased and narrowed, all is not necessarily lost.

Pulse blood system blood distribution blood pressure

THE PULSE You have undoubtedly noted physicians-and perhaps you have done the same yourself-place a finger on the radial artery ,It the wrist to "take" the pulse. The pulse is caused by the impart of blood on the arteries as the heart beats. It provides useful information about the strength and regularity of blood flow. Generally, for a person in good health, the pulse may speed up from around 70 a minute to more than 120 after vigorous exercise, but then, within three minutes, should return to the original value. There may be some quite normal deviations from average beat, deviations too from the beat with vigorous exercise, and deviations from the average interval required for return to the pre-exercise rate. If you have any doubt in your own case, you should check with your physician.

BLOOD PRESSURE Blood pressure is the force exerted against the walls of arteries as blood flows through. With each contraction of the ventricles, which is called a systole, there is a spurt of blood and this increases blood pressure. During the art of the cycle when the ventricles are not contracting, called the diastole, the pressure decreases. Thus, there is always pressure of blood, highest during systole and called the systolic pressure, lowest during diastole and called diastolic pressure. These pressures can be readily measured with an instrument, the sphygmomanometer (see page 24). And, as the discussion under high blood pressure indicates (page 596), measurement of pressure is an important means of determining the health of the heart and circulatory system.

BLOOD DISTRIBUTION The circulation of blood-so often dismissed as "blood from the heart into the arteries, to the tissues, then back to the heart through the veins" -is, in the human body, a really intricate and marvelous process. For it is remarkably adaptable. When blood moves from the heart into the aorta, it is at a speed of about 15 inches a second. Almost immediately, distribution around the body begins through arteries branching off from the aorta. From the smallest arteries, even smaller vessels called arterioles branch out. From the arterioles, blood flows to the smallest of all vessels, the capillaries. The capillaries transport blood to individual cells; and through microscopic spaces in the capillary walls, oxygen and other supplies are diffused to the cells and, in return, waste materials move into the blood- stream. The capillaries connect with venules, tiny vessels of the venous return system, which run into veins. The veins carry the blood to the great venae cavae, large vessels which empty into the right atrium of the heart.  

Alcohol -What is INTELLIGENT DRINKING and UNINTELLIGENT DRINKING?

 INTELLIGENT DRINKING

There are some people who believe that to touch alcohol at all, to take even the first drink, are to invite possible disaster. But there are many, including knowledgeable physicians, who believe that intelligent drinking has much to recommend it. Intelligent drinking is a matter of timing as well as moderation. The time to drink is at the end of the work day, not at lunch and not after dinner. Cocktail time, provided it involves an unhurried drink or two, can be a pleasant time. It can foster relaxation, especially if the atmosphere is quiet, peaceful. It can ameliorate some of the tensions of the day -in effect, ringing down the curtain on the work day, opening the way for a relaxed dinner and relaxed evening. Intelligent drinking of this sort, if your regular preventive medical checkups indicate that you have no health problem, is not likely to be a health hazard.

 UNINTELLIGENT DRINKING

It has been said that the road to alcoholism is an easy one to travel. And, indeed, some rules, seemingly facetious but not really so, have been suggested.

1.        Start each day right-by taking a drink as soon as possible after you get up.

 2.       Whenever you feel depressed or have a problem, take a drink or two. If you are alone, take more; who will know?

3.        If you take one drink and then feel like having another, and then another, you are on the right track. Keep it up.

 4.       When you serve drinks to guests, be sure to sneak a few snorts for yourself between regular servings.

5.        If you want to get up nerve or bolster your self-confidence, take a drink to get rid of your inferiority complex.

6.        Don't just take a cocktail or two before dinner; keep it up after dinner.

7.        No matter how many drinks you have had, if you can lie flat on the floor without holding on, you can regard yourself as OK. 

Despite their seeming facetiousness, these rules make an important point: It is easy for some people to slip into uncontrolled drinking and to delude themselves that it is still intelligent drinking or harmless drinking. 

Types of smoking- Tips to quit smoking

Along with determination to break the habit, you need deep motivation to sustain your determination. Think carefully and then write out for yourself a list of reasons why you smoke, and another list of reasons why you should give up cigarettes. 

Another Aid Get to know you-in terms of smoking behavior. You may well be able to place yourself in one of four categories of smoking behavior suggested by Dr. Silvan Tomkins:

1. HABITUAL SMOKING. If you are basically a habitual smoker, you may hardly be aware many times that you even have a cigarette in your mouth. Perhaps you once thought of smoking as a status symbol; now it is automatic.

If you fall into this category, it is important for you to become aware of when you are smoking; and knowledge of your smoking pattern will be a significant first step toward change.

2. POSITIVE EFFECT SMOKING. For this type of smoker, smoking seems to serve as either stimulant or relaxant. He or she may most enjoy handling of a cigarette or the sight of smoke curling out of the mouth. If you fall into this category and can persuade yourself to make the effort, you may find abandoning cigarettes relatively easy.

3. NEGATIVE EFFECT SMOKING. This is smoking to reduce feelings of distress, fear, shame, or disgust.

 If you are this type of smoker, you may not smoke at all when things go well-on vacations, at parties, etc.-but you reach for a cigarette when there are problems and when you are under tension. If you are, indeed, this type of smoker, you may find it relatively easy to give up smoking-only to reach for a cigarette on a tough day. For you, a strong substitute, such as nibbling ginger root, may be helpful. 

American Women smoking and the problems for non-smokers

 Women smoking a pack or more a day the risk is more than 4 times as great as the other women. Inhaling is a significant factor. Every smoker gets some smoke into his Lung, but purposeful inhalation multiplies the amount. Men who think they do not inhale or inhale only slightly have 8 times the risk and men who inhale deeply have 14 times the risk of lung cancer as against non-smokers. Women who do not inhale or who inhale only slightly have it and women who inhale moderately or deeply 3.7 times the risk in comparison with those who do not smoke. 

The earlier smoking starts, the greater the risk. Men who begin before 10 years of age have nearly 5 times as much risk as those who start after the women who start before 25 run twice the risk of women who start Liter. Although lung cancer sometimes does occur in nonsmokers, this is so relatively rare that it is estimated by authorities that at least 90 percent of lung cancer deaths would not occur if there were no smoking of cigarettes. Other cancers are associated with smoking.

The incidence of cancer of the larynx is 6 times as great and that of cancer of the esophagus 4 times as great in men cigarette smokers, aged 45 to 64, as in nonsmokers. Similarly, cancer of the pancreas is 2.7 times as great, cancer of the liver and biliary passages 2.8 times, cancer of the urinary bladder 2 times, cancer of stomach and kidney 1.4 times, and leukemia 1.4 times as great. 

Women smokers have death rates 1.8 times as high as nonsmokers for cancer of the mouth, larynx, esophagus, and pancreas. Pipe and cigar smokers have rates for lung cancer twice as high as nonsmokers; for cancer of the oral cavity, 4.9 times as great; for cancer of esophagus and larynx, 3 to 4 times as high. While the cancer death rates associated with smoking are not as high in women as in men, it seems likely that they will catch up because of the great increase of smoking by women in recent years. 

Warming And Cooling Off helps Muscles-Heart rhythm- streching-bending-excercises

WARMING UP AND COOLING OFF

Any time you are going to work out hard-when you have reached the stage where that is advisable as well as appealing to you-it is important warm up gradually first. Light warm-up-easy stretching, bending, I wishing, slow running in place-limbers up the muscles, prepares the heart and lung for exertion, and tunes up the nervous system. 

There is some controversy among athletic coaches as to whether warming up ever actually improves athletic performance, but there is evidence that it is valuable as a safety measure, a means of reducing risk of injury. As important as warming up at the beginning of a hard workout is tapering off properly afterward. During active exercising, the heart pumps blood out faster to keep the muscles supplied. And the muscles, HI they contract, produce a kind of pumping action on the veins that helps return blood to the heart and lungs.

 If you stop exercising suddenly, the heart will continue for a while to pump extra blood but the muscles, especially those in the legs, no longer dive, no longer squeeze on the veins. As a result, some pooling of blood may occur in the muscles, causing a temporary shortage elsewhere in the body, making you feel faint. Also, it appears that cramps and stiff- ness are less likely to develop if you taper off. To taper off, just keep moving about, in relaxed fashion. Instead of sitting down, walk about, lazily bend and stretch.

A few minutes of this will suffice. Do not rush into a hot tub or shower immediately after a workout or even after tapering off. Give yourself another 5 to 10 minutes to cool off. You need this time to radiate some of the heat you have worked up. If you jump right into a tub or shower, your body temperature will be above normal and the hot water will impede heat dissipation, so you will come out of the bath still sweating. 

Weight Loss - Causes and Food Control

 It took time to put on the excess weight you want to be rid of. Take time to reduce. Moderate loss, at the rate of one-half pound to one pound a week, is healthier loss and the fat lost is more likely to stay off than fat lost in a hurry. And a pound a week adds up to 52 pounds a year. When you lose weight slowly, your skin adjusts and you don't get that deflated-balloon look.

CALORIE CONTENT OF SNACK FOODS FOOD AMOUNT

Chocolate bar Chocolate creams Cookies Doughnut Banana Peach Apple Raisins Popcorn Potato chips Peanuts or pistachio nuts Walnuts, pecans, filberts or cashews Brazil nuts Butternuts Peanut butter Pickles Olives Ice cream Chocolate-nut sundae Ice cream soda Chocolate malted milk Eggnog (without liquor) Carbonated beverages Alcoholic Beverages Beer Wine Gin Rum Whiskey Brandy Cocktail 1 small bar 1 average size 1 medium size 1 plain 1 large 1 medium size 1 medium size 1/2 cup 1 cup popped 8-10 or 1/2 cup 1 4 whole or 1 tbsp. chopped 1 1 1 tbsp. 1 large sour 1 average sweet 1 1/2 cup 1 glass 1 glass 6 oz.  

OBESITY STARTS IN CHILDHOOD

The problem of overweight in adults may well have its roots in infancy and childhood. There has long been a tradition-certainly no longer valid in an age of modern medicine-that the plump child is better equipped to withstand disease. The practice of actually encouraging fatness in babies to help them withstand tuberculosis and other diseases is not only unnecessary; it is potentially dangerous. Recent scientific work provides some tentative new insights into how overfeeding of children in infancy and the preadolescent years may build up fat cells (adipose tissue) that may remain with them a lifetime. The studies suggest that once these cells are laid down, they never disappear.

When weight is lost, the cells shrink, but still remain.

 At times, they may send out signals demanding to be fed. This demand may help explain why many people find it difficult to keep their weight down after dieting. A constant craving for food may not be wholly psychological, as many have thought; it may be at least partly based on biological demand from deprived fat cells. A lean adult may have about 27 trillion fat cells in his body; an obese may have 77 trillion. Obesity, when it exists, can be and that involves childhood, even in early infancy.  But its prevention is far reasonable eating habits 

How eating binges, breakfast, beverages affect your weight loss, weight control, weight management

EATING BINGES

 Some dieters are able to go off their diets occasionally without ill effect. Their morale may even benefit from knowing they can do this every month, which is better than constant "cheating." But re- member that you probably have a great tendency to eat more than you need or you wouldn't be dieting in the first place, so be very careful.

TALKING ABOUT YOUR DIET

 If you do talk about it, some people may consider you a bore; some may try to get you to break your diet; some will help you to keep it. You have to know which kind you are with before you start discussing your diet. Sometimes, it may be just as well simply to say that your physician has asked you not to eat certain foods. As a general rule, the best social technique is to avoid calling attention to your problem. Simply eat very little of fattening foods placed before you.

BREAKFAST

 A reasonably healthy, high-protein meal in the morning keeps people from being hungry in the midmorning and from eating too much at noon.

BEVERAGES

As you can see from the listings in the table, alcoholic beverages are high in calories. They don’t expect perhaps when taken in excess. Three glasses of 76 / Building General Health as Preventive Therapy beer, at 120 calories per 8-ounce glass, will supply as many calories as a fairly substantial breakfast. An evening of cocktails can provide almost as many calories as a full day's reducing diet. Even more serious is the fact that the calories supplied by alcohol are empty ones, without necessary food values such as proteins or minerals.  

Many people have turned to weight-reducing clubs where join with others wishing to reduce. The clubs are helpful in pi t1viding motivation. But medical authorities have reservations about supervision provided.  This dubs vary considerably in their programs, but all emphasize diet. Coupled with lectures, literature, and experience-sharing, some prescribe particular exercises.

 Many require an initial medical certificate for membership, but few have continuing medical supervision. Physicians have reported that, because of the lack of medical supervision in some clubs, the condition of their heart and diabetic patients worsened as a result of diet advice given. If you are considering joining some diet club you may have read or heard about, the best policy is to check with your physician about that particular club and its standing and whether he advises that you join it. 

Food Intake Suggestions For Weight Control, Weight Loss

Weight Control, Weight loss Suggestions

Don’t taste while cooking and don't lick the bowl when finished cooking. It has been said jokingly, but not without a grain of truth, that half the overweight.

 House wives in this country have tasted or licked themselves. Add a great deal in calories. Are they worth it? If you happened to be a "snacker," you can study the snack chart. Consider that a cup of tea or coffee, without cream, with, spoonful of sugar, contains only 16 calories; it may satisfy yourself or at least take the edge off it, and provide the quick energy you.

On the other hand, a chocolate sundae will run between 300 and 500 calories, and half a brick of plain ice cream is 200 (and even low-calorie ice cream is 100). Nibbling between meals does help some people to diet by decreasing their appetite at mealtime.

 If you try this, keep careful count of calories  you will know whether or not it is really helping you. Nibbling also may be suggested by a physician for some heart patients, since the body can manage five or six very small meals daily more easily than the customary three, one or two of which may be fairly heavy.

The idea that you are helping your children when you sample their dinners or finish their portions is one that ought to be dropped. It helps neither them nor you-and can become a fattening habit. 

weight loss-fried foods-sweets-starches- diet control, natural diet

Avoid fried foods, especially those that are French fried. It is difficult to determine just how many calories these foods contain, since they absorb varying amounts of fat, but it is always a great deal. Boil or poach eggs; you won't mind unbuttered toast if you serve your egg on it. Try cooking eggs on a griddle or the type of pan that does not require greasing. If you cook stews ahead of time and let them cool, you can remove the hardened fat, at least from your portion-and stews often are even better when rewarmed. Trim fat from your meat, and omit rich gravy.

SWEETS

An artificial sweetener, in tablet, powdered, liquid, or crystal form, can be used in many ways in addition to sweetening beverages. It can be used with skim milk on cereal and on strawberries or other fruits, cooked or uncooked. (If you serve fruit stewed in sugar, give the syrup to someone who needs the calories.) Sponge and angel cake are not very high in calories if you separate out your portions before adding icing for others in the family or before adding jam or fruit syrup. Make your own gelatin desserts so you can use saccharin for your portion, sugar for the rest. Take very small portions of any dessert, and avoid soft drinks unless you use the low-calorie types.

STARCHES

Undoubtedly you are accustomed to getting bulk from starches. You can get it instead from leafy green vegetables. Don't munch on bread and butter. In restaurants, ask the waiter not to bring the bread until he serves the main course. In some areas, salads are served first-a good idea because salads take the edge off your hunger before you get to the higher-calorie foods. Use wine vinegar with herbs or lemon juice on your own salad while serving richer dressings to others. Good gravies can be made without flour; one way is to use powdered milk which is fat-free.

Vegetables, either dried ones or fresh ones cooked down, and herbs will thicken stews. Chinese restaurants serve bulky, low-calorie dishes-if you avoid the rice. Many Chinese vegetables can be purchased in stores. Avoid restaurants that have a strictly enforced "no substitutes" rule. Many restaurants will give you an extra vegetable or an extra serving of the one on your dinner, or a salad, in place of potatoes. When serving soups such as minestrone or chowder, take mainly the clear part for yourself, leaving most of the macaroni, potatoes, and so on, for the others. 

CALORIE COUNT - Weight Control - What Food to take? How ?Much Food to take?

Weight Control  

 CALORIE COUNT 

How do you determine the proper calorie level per day for you? Your physician can help, taking into account your present weight, desired weight, state of health, and normal activities. He may suggest perhaps as few as 1,200 calories per day if you are an adult woman, 1,500 to 1,800 if you are an adult man. These levels are about half those of non-dieters. 

Within these limits, you can diet reasonably happily on a wide variety of foods and obtain all essential nutrients. Or your physician may suggest a reduction of intake level by as little as 300 or 400 calories. It is usually not considered wise to depend upon a reduction of less than 300 or 400, since one or two miscalculations or indulgences may mean no weight loss at all.

Remember that the objective is permanent weight loss, not a flashy quick cut down, promptly followed by a return of the excess pounds. So what if it takes several months or even a year to reach your ideal weight -as long as you will be using a tolerable diet, one you can sustain, retraining you’re eating habits so you can enjoy the new habits and the desired weight level for the rest of your life. 

Always remember that only one-half pound of weight loss per week means 26 pounds for the year, and 1 pound a week means over 50 pounds lost. In setting up your diet, your physician most likely will move in the direction of a little of everything, to assure balance and variety.

He will make certain you get something from each of the four basic food groups (see page 49). He will be thinking in terms not merely of reducing but of general health, of reducing without risk of malnutrition or risk of fomenting heart disease. 

As an example, sample menus for 1,200 calories a day diet might go like this: 

Breakfast: 1/2 small grapefruit; 1 poached egg; 1 slice of toast; 1 small pat of butter or margarine; coffee or tea. 

Lunch: A 3-ounce cooked serving of lean meat, poultry, or fish; 1 serving of vegetable; 1 serving of fruit; 1 slice of bread; 1 small pat of butter or margarine; 1 glass of skim milk. 

Dinner: A large broiled beef patty; 1/2 cup of asparagus; 1/2 to 1 cup of tossed green salad with vinegar dressing; 1 slice of bread; 1 small pat of butter or margarine; 1/2 cup of pineapple; 1 glass of skim milk. Snacks, if desired, may consist of bouillon or consommé, tomato juice, raw vegetables, coffee or tea, or food saved from meals. 

You may find it convenient to use a mini-pocketbook calorie counter available in pharmacies and food stores. 

For your general guidance, the table lists the calorie content of many commonly used foods   

Appetite and exercise - IS MASSAGE A REDUCING AID? - CAN HOT BATHS OR SWEATING HELP?

As for appetite and exercise 

while it is true that a thin person in good condition may eat more after increased activity, his exercise will burn up the extra calories. But the overly fat person does not react the same way; only when he exercises to excess will he experience an appetite increase, since he has large stores of fat, and moderate exercise in his case is not likely to stimulate appetite. This difference between the response to exercise of fat and thin people is an important one.

There are many opportunities to be found throughout the day for using up calories through little extra bits of activity. You can, for ex- ample, use up 100 calories with 20 minutes of gardening, 30 minutes of ironing, or 30 minutes of playing with the children. Any time you get up from behind a desk, walk about the room, perhaps just bend and stretch for a few times, you will not be burning up great quantities of calories- but do this every hour or two, and at the end of the week you will have burned a significant number.

IS MASSAGE A REDUCING AID? No.

 Massage may tone up the skin and muscles and help the body adjust to its new, slimmer contours. Your doctor will know when to recommend massage if it would help. 

CAN HOT BATHS OR SWEATING HELP? 

Only temporarily, since they serve merely to eliminate water, which is almost immediately regained. Not only do these methods achieve no permanent results of value but they may put a strain on heart and circulation. Sauna baths, recently fashionable, expose the body to high temperatures to bring about violent sweating. This is a shock to the body, sometimes doubling the pulse rate, as much of a shock as sudden and violent exercise. 

To be sure, saunas have long been popular in Finland, but the Finns use saunas over a lifetime rather than starting suddenly in flabby middle age, and they dash water on heated stones, producing a more humid and more tolerable (and possibly safer for the lungs) type of heat than electrically heated American saunas. 

Exercises for weight control

THE EXERCISE FACTOR

 For years, the role of exercise in reducing has been misinterpreted. Today, regular exercise is known to be essential for maintaining good health and preventing many diseases as well as being a vital adjunct to dirt for weight control. As some put it, diet is half the battle for weight control; it helps you on your way. Exercise provides the vitality and the drive; it helps take you where you want to go. There are still two widely prevalent misconceptions about exercise and weight control.

 One is that it takes great amounts of time and effort to use up enough calories to affect weight significantly. The other is that exercise increases the appetite and the end result is increase, not decrease, in weight. The misconception about time and effort stems from the impression that any exercise has to be accomplished in a single uninterrupted session. To be sure, it takes an hour's jogging to use up 900 calories, but one does not have to do all the jogging in one stretch. 

One must walk 35 miles to lose a pound of fat, but walking an additional mile a day for 35 days will take off the pound.

One can lose 10 pounds in a year by walking an extra mile a day. In one dramatic demonstration of the value of exercise, the daily food intake of a group of university students was doubled, from 3,000 calories daily to 6,000. At the same time, exercise each day was stepped up. 

There was no gain in weight. 68 / Building General Health as Preventive Therapy Another fact about exercise that deserves consideration: Body weight affects the amount of energy expended whatever the activity may be -walking, jogging, tennis playing, or anything else. For example, a 100- pound individual walking 3 miles per hour will burn about 50 calories in 15 minutes; someone weighing 200 pounds would use up as many as 80 calories in the same period. 

Weight reduction

IS A DOCTOR NECESSARY? 

Weight reduction on a sound basis calls for the special knowledge of a physician. He will make certain that you do not lose your health while losing excess weight; that you do not reduce too rapidly and thereby put a strain on your heart and circulation; that you do not find yourself with a cosmetic problem because you have lost weight but have not regained skin tone and end up with flabby masses of pendulous skin. He will suggest proper exercise. 

He will also prescribe vitamins, minerals, and other substances, if necessary, to prevent weakening of bones and organs and to maintain resistance to disease. For example, if you use a "no-calorie" salad dressing made of mineral oil, your doctor may want you to take some vitamins, because mineral oil lends to prevent adequate absorption of some of the vitamins your diet would ordinarily provide. Moreover, it helps considerably if you can have your diet suitably adjusted to your eating habits.

You may be one of those who will be miserable if deprived of a bedtime snack. You may prefer a substantial dinner and be willing to cut down on lunch to have it. A physician can help you establish a sound diet and one best suited to your needs. He may, if necessary, prescribe sedatives for your use during the toughest phase of dieting; the psychological aspects of a relationship with a sympathetic, encouraging physician also can be of great importance during dieting and later on in maintaining low weight. A doctor's encouragement and praise of a patient's efforts in reducing, we have found, can be of major value.

PILLS AS PROPS

 Should you take drugs to reduce? Without a doctor's supervision, never. If, in an individual case, a physician feels that an anti-appetite drug as a temporary prop is justifiable, he will prescribe it-and it should be taken exactly as prescribed. Most physicians, however, prefer to have a patient Weight Control / 67 rely on willpower and determination rather than on drugs and to adjust the diet so this is feasible. In the past, medicines for weight reduction generally were based on amphetamine and so stimulated patients that physicians were reluctant to use them. Now, a number of appetite-reducing agents are available, free of the side effect of overstimulation.

These apparently safer agents are available only on prescription. Over-the-counter reducing preparations are big business. At worst, they can be risky business because of the possibility of side effects; at best, the money is foolishly spent because in and of them the medicines are not to be relied upon for effective permanent weight reduction. The problem with even safe reducing agents is that they are only supports that help temporarily. 

It makes much more sense-s-and has far greater chance of permanent success-to regulate your diet by a healthy change in eating habits which, once desired weight reduction is achieved, can be continued with some upward shift in calorie intake, to maintain you at proper weight. 

Weight Control - THE DANGERS OF UPS AND DOWNS

Weight Control  

 THE DANGERS OF UPS AND DOWNS 

The frequent weight gains and losses indulged in by. The many obese people who practice what one writer calls the "rhythm method of birth control" may actually be more harmful than maintenance of a steady excess weight. For example, it has been shown that serum cholesterol is elevated during periods of weight gain, thus increasing the risk that it will be deposited on artery walls? 

We have no evidence to show that once cholesterol is deposited it can be removed by weight reduction. And it is possible that a person whose weight has fluctuated up and down a number of times has been subjected to more Atherogenic (artery- hardening) stress than a person with stable though excessive weight- and such stress increases the danger of heart attack and stroke.

 Animal experiments have shown that animals of normal weight have a longer life expectancy than obese animals. They have also shown that if an animal has been obese and has been repeatedly reduced, it will have a shorter life expectancy than the obese animal that has never been reduced. Such evidence adds further question to the advisability of undertaking weight reduction that cannot be sustained.

 THE ONLY SCIENTIFIC WAY TO REDUCE

There is nothing complicated about the principles for safe, sound, and effective weight reduction and they are principles that rest on solid scientific study.

1.       There are no healthy substitutes for them, and any attempts to circumvent them are only invitations to frustration and failure.

2.       Without any equivocation but rather as forcibly as we can, we wish to emphasize that all else is bunk, junk, profitable only to the purveyors and never truly so to the believer-buyers-and this is the set of principles upon which you must, and can reliably, pin your hopes for safe and effective weight control: If the number of calories you eat averages more than the number your body uses, you gain.

3.      

        If calorie intake totals less than calorie use, you lose weight. If you are to lose one pound of fat, you will have to take in 3,500 calories less than you expend. And while a sound reducing diet should, of course, lead to weight loss, it must, in addition, have three basic characteristics:

It must produce loss of weight at a safe pace.

 It must offer variety so that it maintains health and provides some pleasure in eating as well as some satisfaction of hunger.

Building General Health as Preventive Therapy

It must teach new, and enjoyable, eating patterns so that you do not promptly slip back into old, weight-gaining eating habits. And, in most cases, coupled with a good reducing diet having such characteristics there must be a sound program of exercise or other physical activity that will increase the calorie expenditure level, ease the dieting regimen, and contribute to general health in the process. 

Heart problems and Sugar intake - Bodily reactions

SUGAR AND THE HEART 

Can consumption of large amounts of sugar be as much of a factor in coronary heart disease as cholesterol? So British investigators led by Dr. John Yudkin of the University of London maintain. They note that over the past 200 years in Great Britain sugar consumption has gone up almost 25-fold, from an average of 5 pounds per person in 1760 to 25 in 1860 and to 120 pounds in 1960. 

A sizable increase in sugar consumption in the United States also has been noted by American investigators. The British workers note that increasing affluence anywhere is accompanied by increased incidence of heart attacks and by diet changes which include greater consumption not only of fat but of sugar.

They point to studies showing that recent Yemeni immigrants to Israel have little coronary thrombosis but those who have been in Israel 20 years or more become prone to the disease-s-and the major change in their diet is increased sugar consumption. 

Among their own studies, Yudkin and his co-workers report one covering three groups of men, aged 45 to 66. Twenty had recently suffered first heart attacks, 25 had hardening of leg arteries, and 25 others had no health problems. The sugar intake of the first two groups customarily had been roughly twice that of the healthy group. 

Not all doctors agree with Dr. Yudkin. Much work remains to be done to identify the mechanism by which sugar in excess may produce artery disease. And a big question to be answered is whether reduction of sugar intake will reduce risk of artery disease. Still, even the possibility that sugar may be involved in this major disease adds another reason why moderation in its use appears warranted. Ordinary refined sugar is what nutritionists call an "empty calorie" substance. 

It provides energy-but no protein, no vitamins, no minerals. It can add to body weight but does not help the body repair itself. Sugar, as contrasted, say, with cereal, puts the body at a nutritional dis- advantage. 

Minerals Causes on our health

Investigations on Minerasls

Currently, scientists are investigating the influence on human health of many other trace elements, including chromium, manganese, cobalt, cadmium, copper, selenium, molybdenum, vanadium, nickel, and fluorine. Some preliminary evidence suggests that a deficiency of chromium may play a part in diabetes and, on the other hand, an excess of cadmium may adversely affect blood pressure. 

Even arsenic may be needed by the human body in these trace amounts. Trace materials occur in water and in soils, find their way into foods, and may be present in relatively large amounts in some foods, relatively small amounts in others.

Existing knowledge is still inadequate; there is enough to suggest the importance of trace materials but far from enough yet to provide a reliable guide to how much of them the body needs, how much of them can be dangerous, and their concentrations in various foods. Earlier, the discovery of the role of vitamins in human health under- scored the need for a balanced diet that would provide the vitamins. Now the work with trace materials underscores the need even more. 

Fever : Temperature to measurement and prevention of diseases

 If there is a severe chill or a rash, then no matter how mild the temperature elevation, medical help is needed. A stiff neck, even if the fever is slight, may be an early indication of meningitis. A fever that develops after an accidental cut or other injury which could have become infected may mean blood poisoning (septicemia). 

When a fever, even mild, is accompanied by nausea and pain in the abdomen, especially in the lower right part of the abdomen, the problem could be appendicitis. Appendicitis often progresses rapidly, and whereas it can be treated effectively early in its course, it may become a major problem if neglected for even a few hours. One final note about slight fever: If you have a chronic disorder such as rheumatic heart disease, asthma, diabetes, or nephritis, your physician may warn you to let him know the minute you discover a fever or even a common cold coming on.

PAIN

All of us have occasional headaches. And there are mild and fleeting aches and pains from unaccustomed exertion and even family arguments and business or other anxieties. These are certainly no medical emergencies. But any new or unusually acute pain in the chest or abdomen should call for medical consultation. Pain in the chest accompanying exertion may be due to heart trouble-but not invariably. Pain at its worst when you take a deepbreath may be due to pleurisy. Chest pain that develops upon bending over after eating may be due to a hernia of the diaphragm. Many relatively mild abdominal pains are associated with gas in the bowel; some stem from constipation; some are associated with fatigue, depression, or anxiety. 

Sometimes, aches and pains that appear to be originating inside the abdomen or chest are actually coming from the abdominal or chestwall as the result of fibrositis of muscles. Peptic ulcer pain usually comes with hunger and is relieved by food or an acid- neutralizing agent. Gallbladderpain often starts under the lowest right ribs in front and runs up under theright shoulder blade. 

How Blood tests helps in finding Urinary problems

Today there are sensitive blood tests for this; they measure the amounts in the blood of certain chemicals, called enzymes, released when the heart is damaged. Urine tests are helpful in detecting kidney disease and other urinary tract disorders and may provide clues to problems elsewhere in the body, such as diabetes. Today, radioactive isotope scanning is a sophisticated and vast new area of testing, useful for the detection of disorders in many different organs. Such scanning is based on the fact that certain chemical elements tend to be deposited in specific organs, and these elements can be made slightly and briefly radioactive; then their distribution in the body can be established with scanning instruments that can pick up their radio-activity and record it on film or paper.

Abnormalities become visible as areas of increased or decreased radioactivity. Scanning now can be used to pick up thyroid problems; brain tumors and abscesses; liver cancer, cysts, and abscesses; lung clots; bone tumors; kidney tumors, cysts, and abscesses; and many more abnormalities including those of the pancreas, spleen, parathyroid glands, and the heart as well. Judicious use of tests has always distinguished the best physicians. It would be a simple matter, of course, for the physician to just order, indiscriminately, a whole battery of tests-at considerable cost of time and money for the patient.

Rather than this, physicians have been selective, using the patient's case history and their personal examinations as guides, determining, from them what problems if any the patient might be likely to have, and, when justified, using supplementary tests to explore these problems.