On Bed

Rest in bed will do more for more diseases than any other single procedure--Dr. Logan Clendening.

The only perfect climate is bed.--Anon.

Too much rest becomes a pain.--Homer.

The recent attack on rest by Dr. William Dock, Long Island College of Medicine pathologist (TIME, April 24), started a hot debate among doctors. Last fortnight a full-dress symposium on "the abuse of rest," by a group of eminent specialists, was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The specialists were almost unanimous in feeling that Dr. Dock was right.

Heart Man. In heart cases particularly, many doctors insist on prolonged rest in bed. But Dr. Tinsley R. Harrison, a heart specialist of Southwestern Medical College, Dallas, said this was just a newfangled notion. He cited the cases of two famous physicians--Sir James Mackenzie, "the father of modern cardiology" (1853-1925), and John Hunter (1728-93)--who lived strenuously for many years with serious heart diseases. He mentioned also the angina pectoris patient of the famed 18th-Century physician, William Heber-den, "who set himself the task of sawing wood for half an hour every day and was nearly cured."

Dr. Harrison and a colleague tested the rest theory with laboratory rats. After injuring the rats' hearts by burning the surface of the left ventricle, they made some of the rats lie quietly in straitjacketing cages, allowed others the run of full-sized cages and forced them to swim a few minutes every day. Result: the resting rats had a much higher death rate. Dr. Harrison pointed out that he does not advocate immediate strenuous exercise for human sufferers from heart attacks (it takes longer for a human heart to heal than a rat's), but he thinks that those with certain heart diseases should get out of bed very soon (sometimes in a few days) after acute symptoms have subsided. Too much time in bed, he averred, causes anxiety (bad for the heart), lung trouble, dangerous blood clotting. Bed is especially bad for oldsters. (Other doctors, agreeing generally with Harrison, emphasized that some kinds of heart diseases--and some patients--require more rest than others.)

Obstetrician. The notion that expectant mothers should quit work and take to their beds was attacked by Dr. Nicholson J. Eastman of Johns Hopkins. Deploring the common industrial practice of discharging pregnant women, he cited wartime findings that light factory work does them no harm, that they can safely work until six weeks before delivery. Dr. Eastman added that women do not need as much rest between babies as commonly supposed; a study of 38,000 mothers showed that the optimum interval is one to two years (TIME, May 22).

Surgeon. The most surprising testimony was offered by Surgeon John H. Powers of the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, N.Y. He described an experiment in which 100 patients undergoing major operations (appendectomies, abdominal surgery, etc.) were allowed to get up and walk the day after the operation. They had only about one-third as many post-operative complications, spent less than two-thirds as much time in the hospital (average: ten days) and took only half as long for convalescence (six weeks) as a comparable group who were kept in bed.

Among others who joined in the denunciation of too much rest were famed Orthopedist Ralph K. Ghormley of the Mayo Clinic ("the day an arthritic patient gives up and goes to bed is the day he becomes a total cripple") and Psychiatrist Karl A. Menninger of the Menninger Clinic ("an automobile whose engine has become overheated as the result of being driven with the brakes set cannot be cured by resting").

Dr. Menninger added that bed is a very poor place to rest, anyway; the trouble with most people is that they do not know how to relax, in or out of bed.

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