YOUR HEALTH: HERE'S HOW!
Stafford, Jane
YOUR HEALTH: Here's How! By JANE STAFFORD ANEW KIND of exhaustion disease has been discovered. It is new in that no record of it appears in the medical literature before a case reported in 1940,...
...This raises the question whether we, as a nation, will have our eating habits changed and become habituated to four or five light meals instead of three squares daily...
...One case was that of a 135-pound bus driver who spent his spare time in a warehouse stacking 100-pound bags of flour...
...When her weight had dropped from 145 to 115 pounds, and she decided to eat more, she found she could not, and she had developed muscular twitchings...
...With rest and good food, patients suffering from this generalized neuromuscular exhaustion recover, but they never get back to their former level of efficiency, and remain sensitive to overwork much as victims of heat stroke remain sensitive to heat...
...J. M. Nielsen, of Los Angeles, in discussing it \t the meeting of the American Medical Association, said it seems impos-dble, in view of the extreme stresses to which men are subjected in war, that ather cases have not occurred besides those he saw...
...Whether the increased production is due to the food or to the enforced rest and diversion from monotonous or tedious work that benefits the workers and steps up production is not clear...
...Housewives growing faint or frantic at the prospect of having to cook or wash postwar dishes more than three times daily may take heart...
...In 1909, the statisticians recall, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in this country, with diabetes ranking 16th...
...He handled 1,000 bags, or 20 tons, in an eight-hour shift...
...One nutrition authority points out, however, that when we return to shorter working hours after the war, there may be neither time nor need for between-meals snacks in industries...
...He was overcome by exhaustion and it was not until February, 1944, that he could open and close his hands...
...It is new in that no record of it appears in the medical literature before a case reported in 1940, but Dr...
...Now tuberculosis ranks seventh and diabetes ninth...
...The growing proportion of older people in the population plus the improvement in the fight against infectious diseases explains the change in rank as killers of diabetes and tuberculosis...
...Finally, at the age of 16, she had gotten into such bad shape that she had to remain in bed...
...Between-Meals Snacks The war has made between-meals snacks G. I. in many factories, and many war plants are serving food at odd hours from mobile kitchens...
...This discovery, incidentally, was made by the British during the last war and a number of reports have been published on the subject...
...Its existence has perhaps been overlooked because exhaustion seems the natural cause of death under the circumstances...
...Even though deaths from diabetes are progressively increasing, while those from tuberculosis decline, the outlook for a normal lifespan for diabetics is now better than ever...
...Diabetes And TB NEW YORK—Starting about the year 1950, diabetes will begin to outrank tuberculosis as a cause of death in this country, statisticians of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company here calculate...
...Between-meals snacks in factories are probably here to stay, because they have been shown to increase production...
...The housewife of the future may get away from dishwashing by using paper cups and dishes, now employed so widely by war industries and armed forces that they are unavailable to civilians...
...In fact, Dr...
...Nielsen said, they rather ignore their disability in the early stages and "herein lurks ianger...
...Nielsen believes that in time of war and famine as well as in times of great disaster, there must be many victims of this condition...
...In the cases of workers who do not eat enough at their regular meals, skip breakfast, or, more rarely, burn up their food at faster than normal rates, the extra feedings are undoubtedly helpful because of the calories they supply...
...A 14-year-old girl joined a gymnasium class and went on a' strenuous diet to reduce...
...Every time she gained a little, she continued the exercising and dieting...
...The patients are not neurasthenic...
...In May, 1943, he did so for the last time...
...The exhaustion is one of nerves and muscles...
Vol. 8 • August 1944 • No. 35
