Protecting your heart / Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

Date:
[1940?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Protecting your heart / Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Rate of the Heartbeat The heart is constantly pumping blood at a rate which increases or decreases with the varying activity of the body. From experience you know that muscular exercise increases the rate of the heartbeat. This insures the pump- ing per minute of an amount of blood which may be four times as great as when the body 1s at rest. By increasing the amount of blood pumped by the heart, increased supplies of oxygen and food are rushed to the working body cells and waste removal is speeded up. As a rule, the healthy heart can accommodate itself without difficulty. to the varying requirements of the body in action. But unusual or unduly violent or prolonged exertion may temporarily damage the heart. A safe rule to follow is to stop exercising when you begin to feel too tired. Before engaging in any form of severe exercise to which you are not accustomed, have a physician examine your heart. During illness, especially an illness with fever, the rate of the heartbeat may be greatly increased and the heart temporarily weakened. This explains why the physician may keep a person in bed for some time after a severe illness in order to give the heart plenty of time to recover its strength. The heart is able to keep continuously at work driving forth a heavy load of blood at each beat because it rests between beats. The slower the heart beats, the longer the rest periods will be. When the heart must beat for a long time at a rapid rate, it may not have enough time to rest and to restore itself. The heart beats more slowly during sleep than at any other time. One of the most important things you can do to keep your heart in good condition is to get a good night’s rest each night. A heart that is given a chance to
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