p. 413 | Cautions for the Aged by Youth's Companion

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 8, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 26.

Cautions for the Aged.

By Youth's Companion

AGE works great physical changes, many of which are generally recognized. Some of them involve dangerous liabilities, and impose the need of constant caution.

One is to guard against undue exertion. The tough, elastic coat of the arteries is apt to become, on the one hand, chalk-like and brittle, or, on the other, fatty and weak. Nature seeks to guard against the consequent danger by rendering old persons less inclined to effort. But a little extra exertion put forth suddenly, may cause the weakened vessels to give way, from the increased force with which the heart throws the blood into them. Hence may result apoplexy or fatal aneurism—the latter being a sudden bulging out of arteries.

So, too, the heart itself (or its aorta—the great curved trunk which first receives the blood from the heart) may be in a similar condition, and suddenly fail because of undue exertion, when it might have been equal to the ordinary work of years. Such, no doubt, was the late case, where an elderly gentleman hurried to reach a railroad train, and fell dead on entering it. The aged should firmly refuse to hurry.

A like caution applies to whatever quickens the action of the heart. Every one knows the power of violent emotions in this respect. No one wishes to fall dead in a fit of anger. Undue eating, especially of stimulating food, is almost as dangerous. All the appetites need to be kept under control.

A special caution is needed in descending stairs. In our normal voluntary movements there are certain nice adjustments effected by unconscious mental acts. But age affects such a change in the brain substance that mental activity is lessened. An old man can no more think as quickly as a young man than he can run as fast, or jump as high. Aged persons, therefore, should form the habit of taking their bearing, so to speak, at the top of the stairs, and keep their mind on each step down by a conscious voluntary effort.

The aged should also most carefully guard against a chill. It is more dangerous for an old man to catch cold than for a young man to catch a fever.—Youth's Companion.