MEDICAL GYMNASTICS IN EARLY MYOCARDIAL INCOMPE-TENCE WITHOUT VALVULAR DISEASE

ROBERT H. BABCOCK
1909 American Journal of the Medical Sciences  
romtEBLT yRorrsaoa or diseases or toe chest and or clinical medicine in the COLLEGE or PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, TJNTVEEAITT Or ILLINOIS, CHICAGO. There is a large and important group of cardiopathies which is encountered among business men, and which furnishes such a great contingent to the increasing number of deaths from heart disease as to call for preventive and therapeutic measures. The cases referred to are found especially among men of affairs who, in response to the demands of modern
more » ... mercial methods, lead very strenuous lives. The high tension under which professional and business men work nowadays is, of course, not the only, nor perhaps the chief, factor in producing myocardial incompetence, but it contributes power¬ fully to this end, no doubt. We may never be able to discover the cause or causes in more than a general way, as at present, and, moreover, we must not ignore the role played by acute and chronic infections in the etiology of cardiovascular degenerations, but in studying the class of cases that form the subject of this paper, with a view to therapy as well as etiology, it will be well to bear in mind the teachings of pathology. The eardiopaths now considered are generally men of large phy¬ sique, who, in addition to an occupation necessitating many hours daily at the office desk or in the counting room, are generous livers and often heavy smokers. Accordingly they take on weight, and very commonly display an abdominal girth out of proportion to their chest measurements. In a proportion of the cases these men, en¬ dowed with a magnificent physique, have been athletes in college, but on entering professional or commercial life have neglected phy¬ sical exercise because of the ardor with which they devote their energies to their chosen careers. In the majority of instances these individuals possess indomitable energy and almost tireless activity, and display a systolic blood pressure that is well up toward, if not actually above, normal limits. Such, in the main, are the physical makeup and business conditions of these men who, in the late fifties or early sixties, consult us for symptoms which betoken long-endured and at length injurious cardiac strain. Regarding the pathology of these cases, it need only be pointed out that the whole cardiovascular system is a sufferer, though not uniformly. The kidneys, too, participate in this degenerative process" but in the cases especially referred to in this paper, renal inadequacy is not marked and is overshadowed by that of the heart. The coronaries do not escape, but only occasionally are so involved as to occasion, the symptoms of angina pectoris. The heart muscle
doi:10.1097/00000441-190901000-00002 fatcat:6dqmgw3mt5cnrg4iu4z6x2dily