Disturbances of the Heart: Discussion of the Treatment of the Heart in Its Various Disorders, With a Chapter on Blood Pressure — John Shaqi
Disturbances of the Heart: Discussion of the Treatment of the Heart in Its Various Disorders, With a Chapter on Blood PressureOsborne, Oliver T. (Oliver Thomas)
Science
Disturbances of the Heart: Discussion of the Treatment of the Heart in Its Various Disorders, With a Chapter on Blood Pressure
Osborne, Oliver T. (Oliver Thomas)
Blood pressure; Heart -- Diseases
The physical methods of lowering the blood pressure are
hydrotherapeutic, whether by warm baths or more strenuously by
Turkish baths, by hot air baths (body baking) which is occasionally
very efficient, or, perhaps more now in vogue, by electric light
baths. The duration of these baths, and the frequency, must be
determined by the results. If the heart is made rapid, and the heart
muscle shows signs of weakness, the duration of these baths must not
be long, and they may be contraindicated. These baths are most
efficient in lowering the blood pressure when the patient reclines
for several hours after the bath. The amount of sweating that is
advisable in these cases depends on the condition of the heart. If
the heart muscle is insufficient, profuse sweating is inadvisable.
Also if the kidneys are insufficient, profuse sweating is
inadvisable as tending to concentrate the toxins in the blood. On
the other hand, when the surface of the body tends to be cool, and
there are internal congestions, the value of these baths is very
great. Sometimes the electric light baths increase the tension
instead of diminishing it, and when properly used they may be of
benefit in some cases of hypotension. The frequency of the baths and
the question of how many weeks they should be intermittently
continued, depend on the individual case. After a course of such
treatment sometimes patients have a diminished systolic blood
pressure not only for weeks, but even for months, provided they do
not break the rules laid down for them.
The Nauheim baths, while stated not to raise the blood pressure, are
not much advocated in hypertension, and Brown [Footnote: Brown:
California State Jour. Med., November, 1907, p. 279.] who made more
than 500 observations of patients of all ages, found that the full
strength Nauheim bath would raise the blood pressure in all feverish
and circulatory conditions. He also found that a fifteen minute
sodium chlorid bath, 7 pounds to 40 gallons, at a temperature of
from 94 to 98 degrees F., lowered the pressure from 10 to 15 mm.
This is not different from the effect obtained from a fifteen minute
warm bath at from 94 to 98 degrees F., or a fifteen minute mustard
bath of the same temperature. In other words, the slight irritation
of mustard or of salt in a warm bath made no special difference in
the amount of lowering of the blood pressure. On the other hand, he
found that a fifteen minute calcium chlorid bath, 1 1/2 pounds to 40
gallons, at 94 degrees F., raised the blood pressure 15 mm.
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