Good Health and How We Won It, With an Account of the New Hygiene

by Upton Sinclair; Michael Williams

It is very obvious how deep breathing will thus influence the vigor of the blood’s army of cells. Deep breathing forces the blood to rush into the lungs, there to be charged with oxygen. Without this oxygen the white cells die. Vigorous breathing also directly aids digestion, and promotes the absorption of food materials. Those who have slow digestion will find that breathing exercises will be of especial benefit. In ordinary breathing of a quiet person, the movements of the chest are so slight as to be scarcely noticeable, but when vigorous breathing is indulged in, the diaphragm as it moves up and down kneads the stomach and its contents and, very materially, assists the digestive organs.

HAVE FRESH AIR AT NIGHT

During sleeping hours the breathing movements are slighter and slower than when one is awake and active. It is necessary that the activity of the body should be lessened in order that rest may be secured; and yet the work of the liver, kidneys, and other organs which are engaged in throwing off poisons goes on continually; as does also the repairing work of the living cells, which are forever building up the parts of the body broken down by work or sickness. For some six to nine hours the body is thus occupied in resting and repairing itself, in order that on the next day it may respond like a living machine to the demand of the conscious mind. We should do all in our power to help on this recuperative process; and no way will be more effective than to sleep, out of doors, or with the head at a window, or at least in a well-ventilated room.

There are a great number of breathing exercises described in various books on the subject, but the best breathing exercise is natural breathing. If the head is kept erect, and the shoulders low so that the chest is upright; if breathing is carried on through the nostrils, and the habit of deep breathing carefully cultivated—there will be no need for special exercises, save in the case of invalids. The most effective of all breathing exercises is to run or walk rapidly, or walk up a hill, or up stairs, if these be in the open air, with the head well back. This exercise heightens the action of the lungs, and all parts of the body are flooded with fresh air.

HOW EXERCISE AIDS THE BATTLE OF THE BLOOD

The question of breathing properly is intimately bound up with the question of exercise. The best of all exercise is play. All games in the open air which a person takes part in for the love of them far surpass the cleverest and most scientific sets of rules which physiologists have ever evolved. Unconscious performance of all the functions of the body is the ideal of hygiene. Exercise aids the battle of life within us in a direct manner. Exercise breaks down worn out tissue, making room for new and healthy tissue. It increases the rate of oxidation or burning up of fuel within us, and this in its turn enables the body to get rid of waste of material. Exercise also increases the strength and endurance of the muscles and fibres.

When muscles become weak, they relax and allow various portions of the body to drop into positions which are not only ungraceful, but are decidedly injurious. When the muscles are not used and become flabby, the shoulders get rounded and drop forward through the weakness of the muscles which are intended to hold them back in position. The ribs which form the framework of the chest not being properly sustained by the muscles attached to them, gradually fall inward, thus flattening the chest, and compressing the lungs. There is a very close connection between gracefulness of carriage and sound bodily health.

The person who lounges, or slouches, be it ever so picturesquely, does so at the expense of the body. Proper exercise will prevent these physical defects, and will remedy them in most persons who have not yet attained middle age. Even in advanced years, say the physiologists, much may be done to correct these physical deformities by properly directed and systematic exercises.

EXERCISES MAKE NEW BLOOD

Exercise has another most important task in supplying an adequate amount of blood to the bones of the body, in order that these bones may carry on their work of manufacturing fresh blood for the use of the body. Unless these bones are bathed with the already existing blood of the body, which carries to them oxygen and nourishment, the process of manufacturing new blood, which goes on within the marrow of the bones, would quickly cease. It has been demonstrated by science that muscular activity increases the blood flow through the muscles as many as six times.