PHYSICAL ENDURANCE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 409, 16 April 1937, Page 3

PHYSICAL ENDURANCE

German Professor’s Method. A simple method of increasing physical capacity and endurance between 30 and 100 per cent, was or) - lined before . the Berlin Medical Socio y by Professor Helmut Dennig, noted director of the fourth medical university clinic of Robert Koch Hospital in Berlin, says the. New York Times. The method, which has been testYJ in numerous laboratory experiment's as well -as in the German sport fi t Id, consists of increasing the body's alkali content, fchus enabling it the more easily to rid itself of acids, especially lactic acid, which is one of the principal causes of exhaustion. The additional alkali content, said Professor Dennig, can be supplied in such a form as bicarbonate of soda, related prepare/ ions and special foods, such as soya-bean flour. This method, he insisted, is wholly different from “doping” by drugs because it does not increase but rather reduces the bodily effort required for certain tasks. To be effective, he explained, alkalisation must be produced suddenly and must not last longer than itwo to tour days. Experiments have shown hat a runner thus prepared was able (to run at full tilt for 42 minutes instead of 20, as formerly, and tnat a bicycle racer was able to maintain a sprint for 15.9 minutes instead of 10.9. However, said Professor Dennig, spout is not the primary consideration of these experiments, but rather the employment of this method “on other occasions.” Inasmuch as German science is co-ordinated with military economy, this method may well be used to increase the German soldier’s efficiency and endurance in attack. Professor pennig studied at' the universities of Tuebingen, Heidelberg and Munich. From 1919 to 1931 he Was assistant and first physician art 'he medical clinic of Heidelberg. He became assistant professor at the ihiversity in 1925 and associate professor four years later. He was appointed director at the city hospital of Stettin in 1931, and was transferred to Moabit Hospital in Berlin two years ago. Pifafetsor Dennig, who is a specialist in internal medicine, has frequently contributed to medical publications.