MORE PEOPLE DIE NOW THROUGH HEART DISEASE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 7, 8 March 1950, Page 7

MORE PEOPLE DIE NOW THROUGH HEART DISEASE

Five times more men than women die from heart disease between the ages of 40 and 50, according to an article in the “Medical Journal” and there is a progressive increase in the number of people afflicted by it. The speed of modern life is blamed. Professional men, particularly doctors, are said to be the most common victims. Quoting latest overseas \ figures, the journal says the 'Standardised mortality ratio for doctors from coronary disease is 368, for the legal .profession in England and Wales 227, for coal miners 40, and for agricultural workers 32. “Modern transport, telegraph, telephone and typewriter have all contributed to multiply the intellectual units which can be compressed into a single day,” says the journal, “not to mention the constant interruptions and irritations which are inseparable from the use of all this executive equipment. The contrast over the years in pace and tempo of work is nowhere greater than in medicine, which of all the professions/ shows the highest mortality from coronary disease. “Out of the present difficulties there can be no easy way; no antibiotic or any other drug will come to stem the rising coronary tide. What is required is an altered way of life . . . Even in the fact of activating conscience or ' ambition, people should regulate their, lives more rationally; in the field of personal hygiene the organisation of holidays, leisure, exercise and pleasurable relaxation is as sensible as attention to saniary habits and balanced dietries. j !■ “The majority of doctors will readily accept this doctrine for their patients, but : are unlikely to apply it within their own ranks.”