This is not a medical or technical story. It is not related for medical men - except those who secretly wonder sometimes if that little feeling of fullness in the back of their heads or the ringing in their ears means anything and are loath to find out. This story is written in the hope that it may be of interest - and possibly value - to the many men who knowingly or unknowingly, carry a blood pressure far higher than it theoretically should be and yet must go on about their daily affairs. And if the personal pronoun I is used too frequently for "good form," please excuse it, because this story is true; and it applies, I am sure, to many more of us than you suspect.

I was born in I870. I went through the public schools in a small, country town, through college and then medical school, and begin to practice general medicine, back in the country where I came from, in 1896. No help, no roads, no automobiles. It was hard work every day in the year, and I loved it. I liked to be outdoors, I liked to hunt whenever I could, and so I had a good time for the next twenty years in spite of what might be called hardships, and I never missed a day from my office. I wasn't sick, and I was contented - so much for that.

In September, 1918, when I was 48 years old, and in the midst of all the community activities of world war times, my blood pressure was 136. All of you people to whom "blood-pressure" is more or less of a hob - goblin know that is entirely satisfactory, to say the least. Then, as a climax to all the other nerve-straining events of 1918, I was put in charge of an absolutely unequipped emergency hospital, a four-story rooming house, that held 200 sick boys, just taken into the U. 3. Service, in the influenza epidemic of that year. I shall not describe my life for the next three months, with an average of 150 sick boys inside, their parents and relatives outside, and my own professional business in the community. I only mention it because of its Influence on my own condition.

About January 1 1919, I thought I had better increase my life insurance, I had seen a lot of people of all ages die in the last four months, and I was so physically exhausted that I felt as if I would never get rested again so I applied for another life insurance policy, and was promptly and firmly rejected because I had a blood-pressure of 196. A rise of practically go points in less than four months, Forty-eight years old, a wife and two children to take care of and educate, no more insurance to be had, no reserve capital, no debts, a fairly good professional income which would stop of course if I stopped - and a blood pressure of 196. There was the "set up," fifteen years ago. That's why I'm writing this now, in the hope it may interest you.

From professional observations of my own patients, I know it wasn't any use to get soared. I had already seen that do individuals damage that couldn't be overcome as long as fear and worry existed. Next, I knew, that when I went to my doctor - which I was going to do at once - the first thing he would ask me was what difference I had noticed in myself. I had been too busy to notice anything about myself for the last year; but I looked back as carefully as I could - I had no headaches, no dizziness, no shortness of breath; no indigestion, no anything except fatigue - and I certainly had reason for that. I was never off duty one day or night during the months of those epidemics in the last month I remembered that a ringing in my ears, when I lay down had developed, and if I leaned over suddenly, there was a slight feeling of pressure in the back of my head, which promptly disappeared when I straightened up. And I had been irritable and "snappy" to people for no apparent reason this wasn't natural and looked to me the most characteristic sign of the increased tension. And that was all.

My vast professional friend, and family physician, was still in France. I didn't care to have anyone else in my community know about me. I happened to go through college with a man-now-dead who was one of the best real medical consultants in Chicago, and so I went to see him. I with that I could broadcast that visit; it would help more people who are worrying over their blood-pressure than all the medicine which was over swallowed.

Pe gave me a complete, thorough physical examination; he dug out all he needed to know of how I had lived for the last twenty years. He hadn't used any alcohol, hadn't abused myself in any way, except work. And he knew I'd had a delightful family life, and a lot of outdoor fun as its gone along so he lit a cigar, and leaned back in his chair, and asked me if I remembered a most unique and disreputable looking sweater that I used to wear when I played ball with him? I did. "Have you got it yet? Lord, not when I got married and my wife found that sweater she said she, and it, could'nt live in the same house - so the sweater moved." Have you got one now "For Sure - also a shot-gun, and some golf clubs, and places to use them if I ever get a chance again."

"All right - use them. There isn't a thing the matter with you organically. Your blood-pressure is up, probably for good - that is, it will never go down where it was. But you know, as well as I do, that It isn't a disease of itself, that it's just a report of what you've been doing to yourself. Now you let up some - eat, drink, and do the things you have always done, in moderation, go back in physical training again, and don't pay any attention to your blood-pressure except to take it once in a month or two to see how well your other program is working. Mental strain and worry has done this thing to you. Avoid that as much as you can - a man in our business can't avoid it all. And try to always have something that you are really interested in besides the practice of medicine.

Since that day, I took that advice as practically as I could and I better say here, before I forget it, that I havn't missed a day's work in the fifteen years, kept when on an occasional vacation. I got out the sweater, and I began to take some physical exercise again. All I could do in the winter was walk frequently I couldn't till eight or nine o'clock at night, but I did. Whenever I had a chance to go watch a ball-game, to sit down in the sun and relax and look on, I went. I played golf, and do yet, two or three or four times a week, after office hours from spring until late fall. I got all over the idea that if I didn't do all the work in the vicinity it wouldn't be done, and became perfectly willing to let the other fellows do as much worrying as they wished. I kept out of debt and took no chances on the worry that speculation brings; I've kept comfortably busy and had a lot of fun from that day to this, and I'm doing very well.

Ever since I was a boy, I have been interested in farms, and have wanted one of those to own, Three years ago I converted bonds enough into cash to buy a good farm within half an hour's ride. I can, and frequently do, skip my lunch, go out there for an hour and be back on time for my afternoon office engagements. I had really an enjoyable family on the place and I'm having fun that I've waited forty years for - and I'm not losing any money there, either. So I've had fifteen years with a blood-pressure of 160 to 190, kept busy, and had a good time - and I feel better, mentally and physically, then I did fifteen years ago, I think it's about 170 now.

I have in my professional records, the cards of dozens of businessmen with blood pressures all the way from 96 to 270. No two are alike - no two have the same likes, or physiquest or hobbies, or mental characteristics. But there is no doubt of one thing, and that is that worry and nerve strain bring on more blood-pressure symptoms than all other anuses put together. The man who worries, or broods over, himself, either secretly or openly, simply aggravates his own condition. And by that same token if be will take care of himself physically and save himself mentally net try to interpret his own sensations, but have some level-headed physician do it for him three or four times a year, his blood-pressure need not give him much more concern than the bald spot on his head.