The man who brought us an awareness of the importance of exercise is almost 100 years old, still fit, and still working!

It was 60 years ago in 1949 that Jerry Morris considered the data that he had collected on the instance of heart attacks. He had decided to study men working on the buses, the drivers and the conductors. He found there was overwhelming evidence to support the theory that conductors, age for age were half as likely to suffer heart attacks as the drivers.  The conductors on the double decker buses whizzed up and down the stairs collecting the passenger fares, whilst their colleagues sat and drove the bus.

Morris then studied the postmen who had active jobs, delivering the mail, whilst those working in the Post Office behind counters were like the bus drivers in terms of suffering heart attacks.

In 1953 The Lancet published Morris’s work “Coronary heart-disease and physical activity of work”.

Since these days for many of us the living has become easy.

• There has been a decline in physical activity
• Affordability of the motor car
• Television in almost every home, with today 24 hour viewing
• Ready made meals, TV dinners
• Processed food
• Less sport in schools
• The popularity of smoking
• The rise in social drinking

Heart attacks were on the rise after the war as observed by Jerry Morris, but today as a result of the above life style, heart disease is one of the biggest killers in the developed world.

There are a number of sites on the internet about the energetic Professor Morris and his scientific findings. Let’s hope he makes his 100th birthday next May.