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The heart is a pump and regular, sustained exercise makes the heart work harder and so improves its efficiency.
The heart rate slows and the stroke volume — the amount pumped with each beat — increases. The coronary arteries dilate and become permanently wider.
Arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, is associated with a laying down of the atheroma or fatty tissue along the inner walls of the artery. This — like rust in a pipe — narrows the artery and can obstruct the blood flow. Widened arteries can take a great deal more build-up of atheroma before the narrowing obstructs the blood flow.
The lungs become more efficient and develop a greater capacity. But exercise also has other effects on the body.
Those who exercise regularly appear to become addicted to it. Certainly it gives a good reason for stopping smoking. You can’t really become fit while you continue to smoke.
Some experts have come up with a reason why those who push themselves hard with physical exercise seem to enjoy it despite the pain of aching limbs and a panting chest.
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If the woman is not awake for several hours after the birth, she may be separated from her baby and miss the initial “bonding” or closeness to the baby.
Following a general anaesthetic and a caesarean section, the woman may be nauseated and the bowels may not start working for one or two days. The abdomen is full and bloated. It may be necessary for her to have intravenous feeding. Despite all this, it is still possible for her to breast feed.
If time allows, most surgeons use the “bikini” cut. This incision is transverse across the abdomen and low so that it is hidden in the pubic hair. Despite having had a caesarean section, a woman can still wear brief bathers without a scar showing. Under emergency situations, the doctor may have to work through the older incision from the navel down.
Caesarean births are increasing, and this is not just for the convenience or financial gain of the doctor. Because modern medicine has made this operation so safe, it can be used more frequently in the interests of the baby.
Because of the possibility that what is hoped to be a natural birth may run into complications, all pregnant women should discuss a caesarean with their doctors.
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In case you still believe that experts always make better decisions than you could, here are some actual examples of what can and does happen. Some surgeons do pointless extensive and mutilating operations to remove secondary growths. Doctors often recommend intensive chemotherapy to patients with cancers for which it makes no difference to the average length of life. The only ‘benefit’ is that the growths of a minority of patients get smaller for a short time. Thus, chemotherapy is often recommended when it has only, say, a one in twenty chance of temporarily (for a few weeks or months) shrinking cancer growths and no chance at all of curing the cancer. Doctors sometimes continue patients on chemotherapy while their cancer growths are actually getting bigger and more extensive. Practitioners whose patients’ cancers continue to grow while undergoing treatment with cleansing diets usually still exhort them to persevere with their diets and take no medications at all, not even painkillers.
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