The General Problem of Keeping Well : Part 5

Physiology and Hygiene for Secondary Schools
by Francis M. Walters

(Page 27 of 30)

A Special Problem for the Brain Worker. - Farthest removed from those forms of activity which harmonize with the plan of the body, and which therefore are most hygienic, is that class of workers known as the professional class, or the "brain workers." This class includes not only the members of the learned professions - law, medicine, and the ministry - but a vast army of business men, engineers, teachers, stenographers, office clerks, etc., a class that is ever increasing as our civilization advances. It is this class in particulary that must give attention to those conditions that indirectly, but profoundly, influence the bodily well-being and must seek to obviate if possible such weaknesses as the occupation induces.

The Remedy lies in two directions - that of spending sufficient time away from one's work to allow the body to recover its normal condition, and that of counteracting the effect of the work by special exercise or other means. In many cases the first symptoms of weakness indicate a suitable remedy. Therefore exhaustion from overwork suggests rest and recreation. The diverting of too much blood from other parts of the body to the brain suggests some form of exercise which will equalize the circulation. If feebleness of the digestive organs is being induced, some natural method of increasing the blood supply to these organs is to be looked for. And effects arising from lack of fresh air and sunlight are counteracted by spending more time out of doors.

Exercise as a Counteractive Agent. - In counteracting tendencies to disease and in the maintenance of the functional equilibrium of the body, no agent has yet been discovered of greater importance than physical exercise, when applied systematically and persistently. This may consist of exercises that call into play all the muscles of the body, or which are concentrated upon special parts. When general tonic effects are desired, the exercise should be well distributed; but when counteractive or remedial effects are wanted, it must be applied chiefly to the parts that are weak or that have not been called into action by the regular work. Unfortunately, health is sometimes confused with physical strength and exercise is directed toward the stronger parts of the body with the effect of making them still stronger. Not only is health not to be measured by the pounds that one can lift or by some gymnastic feat that one can perform, but the possession of great muscular power may, if the heart and other vital organs be not proportionally strong, prove a menace to the health. This being true, one having his health primarily in view will use physical exercise, in part at least, as a means of building up organs that are weak. Since the body, like a chain, can be no stronger than its weakest part, this is clearly the logical method of fortifying it against disease.

Value of Work. - Although there may exist in one's vocation certain tendencies to disease, it must not be inferred that work in itself is detrimental to health. Health demands activity, and those forms of activity that provide a regular and systematic outlet for one's surplus energy and compel the formation of correct habits of eating, sleeping, and recreating best serve the purpose. Work furnishes activity of this kind and serves also as a safeguard against the unhealthful and immoral habits contracted so often from idleness. Even physical exercise which has for its purpose the reinforcement of the body against disease may frequently consist of useful work without diminishing its hygienic effects.

The Mental Attitude. - While a proper thoughtfulness and care for the body is both desirable and necessary, it is also true that over-anxiety about, or an unnatural attention to, the needs of the body reacts unfavorably upon the nervous system. Observance of the laws of health, therefore, should be natural and without special effort - a matter of habit. The attention should never be turned with anxiety upon any organ or process, but the mental attitude should at all times be that of confidence in the power of the body organization to do its work. Fear and morbidity, which are disturbing and paralyzing factors, should be supplanted by courage, cheerfulness, and hopefulness.

Let it be borne in mind that hygienic living requires nothing more than the application of the same intelligence and practical common sense to the care of the body that the skillful mechanic applies to an efficient, but delicate, machine. And, just as in the case of the machine, care of the body keeps its efficiency at the maximum and lengthens the period that it may be used. This end and aim of hygienic living is best attained by cultivating that attitude of mind toward the body that avoids interference in the vital processes and permits the natural appetites, sensations, and desires to indicate very largely the body's needs.

Attitude toward Habit-forming Drugs. - Among the different substances introduced into the body, either as foods or as medicines, are a number which have the effect of developing an artificial appetite or craving which leads to their continued use. Since the effect of such substances is usually harmful and since they tend to engraft themselves upon communities as social customs, they present a twofold relation to the general problem of keeping well. The individual may be injured through the personal use which he makes of them, or he may be injured through the effect which they have upon relatives or friends or upon society at large. Since our social environment is a factor in health little less important than our physical environment, the conditions that make for their continuance should be more generally understood.

How Social Agencies perpetuate the Use of Habit-forming Drugs. - When the use of some habit-forming drug has risen to the importance of a general custom, a number of conditions arise which tend to continue its use, even though the fact may be quite generally known that the substance does harm. In the first place, those who have formed the habit suffer inconvenience and distress when deprived of its use. In the second place, a number of people will have become interested in the production and sale of the substance, and these will lose financially if it is discontinued. In the third place, those of the rising generation will, from imitation or persuasion, be constantly acquiring the habit before they are sufficiently mature to decide what is best for them. Therefore may the use of a substance most harmful, such as the opium of the Chinese, be indefinitely continued - a species of slavery from which the individual finds it hard to escape.

D.C. Heath and Co. - Publishers
Original copyright 1909