Headaches and indigestion are among the first ailments resulting from a lack of exercise. A brisk walk of twenty minutes or half an hour is often sufficient to dispel a headache. The exercise flushes the parts most actively engaged, and so depletes the brain. The same exercise stimulates the action of the lungs, makes better blood, quickens the activity of the other organs, and so tones up the whole man.
A young man, whose Christian zeal prompted him to devote all his spare time to religious work, ignoring the demands of health, broke down, and after a prolonged sickness, followed by a slow and tedious convalescence, was heard to remark, “Well, this experience has taught me one thing; the Lord has no use for a sick man.” Had this young man taken a reasonable amount of exercise, he would have lost no time from his business, would have accomplished vastly more work for the religious organizations to which he belonged, and would have saved himself the pain, suffering, and expense of his sickness.
If the man who has eight or ten hours of busy brain work in-doors daily, and who, when his duties are ended, has no heart for physical exercise, would, every hour or two, turn aside from his work, and take even two minutes’ vigorous exercise, in his office or in the adjoining hallway, he would return to his labor with brain considerably refreshed, and at the close of the day, he would enter upon his half hour’s walk with spirit and alacrity, and welcome his sleep at the end of the day.
=Business Men.=--Who does not know, among his business acquaintances, men whose faces show that they are continually overworked? They have no time for systematic physical exercise, but go dragging through their duties as well as their low physical condition and tired brains will permit. The noonday lunch is bolted, or is omitted entirely, for want of time.
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, a specialist in nervous disorders, speaks of the numerous instances of nervous exhaustion among merchants and manufacturers. He says: “My note books seem to show that manufacturers and certain classes of railway officials are the most liable to suffer from neural exhaustion. Next to these come merchants in general, brokers, etc.; then, less frequently, clergymen; still less often, lawyers; and, more rarely, doctors; while distressing cases are apt to occur among the over-schooled young of both sexes.”