Pedaling to Health

A PATH TO BETTER HEALTH, Was the byword last week as a horde of cyclists, young and old, gathered at Holyoke, Mass., for the official opening of ten miles of packed-dirt lanes, the town's "Healthway Bicycle Paths." On hand for the inauguration ceremony was Dr. Paul Dudley White, 77, or "Dr. Heart" to countless Americans. It was he who had promoted the idea.

Six years ago Dr. White formed the "Committee for Safe Bicycling." Hoiyoke's Chamber of Commerce, backed by the Western Massachusetts Heart Association, responded to the committee's urging and prepared a circuit of trails around Ashley and McLean reservoirs. While the cyclists waited impatiently, the grand old man of American cardiology blessed the enterprise with a physiological text.

"Our soul is in the brain," said Dr. White. "And this is a fact that our clergy and psychiatrists should pay more attention to: our brain is nourished by our heart and our heart is aided by active muscles." Bicycling was the answer for both mind and body: "The best antidote for nervous tension and insomnia is some sort of physical fatigue. The muscles become tired and relaxed. If more of us exercised like this, we'd have a sharp reduction in the amount of tranquilizers and sleeping pills in use today."

Cycling is good for men and women of any age who have remained active, said Dr. White. To Mayor Samuel Resnic, who said he had not ridden for 45 years, Dr. White suggested: have a checkup first, then start cycling regularly, building up the time gradually--"and you'll soon be in tiptop shape." The Holyoke wheelers were disappointed in one respect. Dr. White usually opens a bicycle trail by riding around it himself. This time he made the trip by car. The explanation: he had an urgent appointment with a heart patient.

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