Effect of Wheeling on the Heart.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 50, 6 May 1899, Page 1

Effect of Wheeling on the Heart.

Dr Sehott, of Nauhelm, Germany, who has devoted consideiable time to the study of bicj cling trom a hygienic point of view, gives these facts as the results of his studies :—: — Bicycling, just as mountain climbing, accelerates the heart, and thus quickens the pulse. This naturally tends to enlarge the heart during action, a process which during rest takes a backward turn, and the vital organ resumes its normal state. By violent, or, sny, excessive exercise on the wheel, when the pulse beats at 110 per minute, the conditions change. The expansion of the heart does not fall back to the normal, as is best pi o veil by the ' used up ' look ot the cycle racers after a tournament. Should tins strained exercise continue the enlargement of the heart continues with it, and fatal results are mew table. The older the wheelman the easier do the muscles of the heart assume undue proportions, and, the arteries becoming less clastic with age, the life of such a man is greatly endangered. There is a certain note in breathing which is an infallible sign with turners and climbers, which, however, very often fails its purpose with the cj chht, for in his case the great draught caused by Ins run supplies him with more owgen than is necessary. All these things should be taken in due consideration bv ardent wheelmen. Bicvchng as an exeicise should be taken only by persons w hose heart and lungs in the best natural condition.