Health and Happiness, Number 36.
Why Die Before Your Time?
HOW TO BAFFLE BRIGHT’S DISEASE.
By Henry Smith Williams, M. D., LL.D.
Hearst's
Magazine.
The old Romans had a saying to the
effect that many people dig their
graves with their teeth.
This rather vulgar phrase proba-
bly expressed a profound truth in that
day, and it is equally true in our own
time. I presume it would not be an
over-estimate to say that about half
the people in Christendom shorten
their lives more or less by over-eat-
ing or by perverse eating.
To make the paradox complete, we
may recall that a pretty large pro-
portion of the other half of humanity
suffer from an inadequate ration—a
shortage of some dietetic essential.
Half of the world dying of gluttony,
the other half of starvation! An
incongruous situation, is it not?
I speak, of course, of conditions be-
fore the war—conditions of so-called
normal life; which, if the paradox be
permitted, are abnormal enough. That
we should yearn for long life and then
should day by day permit ourselves to
indulge habits that inevitably shorten
life, constitutes perhaps the most co-
gent indictment of our status as “ra-
Yona! animals,” that could be present-
ed.
To offset this indictment it must be
recalled that, for the major part of
the adult population, eating is the,
greatest and the most abiding source
of pleasure. The short-cut to the
grave has at least the merit of being
a pleasant pathway.
Not quite all the way, however.
There comes a time when penalties
are exacted in the way of disturbing
and painful maladies. For example,
Bright's Disease—inflammation of the
kidneys, technically known as nephri-
tis—may develop. In fact, this is
precisely what does occur to a large
proportion of the great army of gor-
mandizers. And Bright’s Disease is
not at all a pleasant condition. It is
a lingering but insistent type of mal-
ady, with many exceedingly disagree-
able symptoms. When fully develop-
ed it cannot be shaken off. It causes
the death of about one individual in
fourteen in the entire population.
_ A redeeming feature of the malady
is that it is largely preventable.
Moreover, its progress may be retard-
ed and its symptoms made more bear-
able by the application of rules of hy-
giene that every individual may ap-
ply for himself.
In order to apply the rules intelli-
gently, however, it is necessary to
understand clearly the causes of the
malady; and that brings us back to
the question of intelligent eating,
which I purpose now to discuss some-
what in detail.
There is no more important topic
before the public in these days of food
shortage, whether considered from
the standpoint of individual welfare
or of public policy.
The essence of the matter is that
the human body is a heat engine, and
that edible foods are its fuel. When
you burn wood or coal in a furnace
you produce waste products—ashes
and cinders. These must be removed
if the fire is to be kept up. When you
burn food in the human engine—your
body—you produce waste products—
organic ashes and cinders—that must
be removed if your life processes are
to be kept up.
From the present standpoint the
essential fact is that certain of the
most important of these waste pro-
ducts are removed from the body al-
most exclusively by the kidneys.
When the waste-products are in ex-
cess undue strain is put upon these
organs Of elimination. Thus over-
worked, the kidneys may develop the
disturbed conditions that underlie
Bright’s disease. That is the story in
a nutshell. But it will bear elaborat-
ing.
The particular waste-products that
are removed from the body by way of
the kidneys are the end-products of
the digestion of protein-bearing or ni-
trogenous foods (meats, milk, eggs).
These end-products contain an incre-
ment of nitrogen that has either serv-
ed its purpose in the bodily economy
or has proved unavailable for the pro-
cess of tissue-building. This nitro-
gen is combined in organic salts, the
most familiar of which are known as
urea, uric acid, and creatinine. These
are dissolved in the blood, and are fil-
tered out through the kidneys.
The bulk of nitrogen thus removed
as a, waste-product from the average
human system every twenty-four
hours is only about half an ounce, but
even this small quantity, if retained
in’ the body, would constitute a fatal
poison. So the kidneys must be per-
petually on duty, never for a moment
Jelosing their activities. The ex-
treme importance of their functions
is doubtless the reason why two of
these organs are provided, either one
of which is competent, under normal
conditions, to do the entire work of
both.
Incidentally, the fact that even this
double equipment so commonly proves
inadequate suggests the magnitude of
the dietetic over-indulgence of the av-
erage individual.
To get still nearer the heart of the
matter, it should be observed that
over-eating of animal foods is the par-
ticular kind of dietetic indulgence
that is the preponderant cause of
Bright's disease.
To be sure, the text-books mention
hypertrophy: of the heart, hardened
arteries, and rheumatism among the
causes of nephritis. But these condi-
tions, as we have seen, all hark back
to disturbances of assimilation, and
are to be considered as companion
disturbances rather than as causes;
altheugh of course the different bodi-
ly processes are so linked and asso-
ciated that a disturbance of any one
of them necessarily implies a resul-
tant disturbance of others.
It is axiomatic to say that anything
which tends to weaken the kidneys or
to put exceptional strain on them may
contribute to their overthrow. Acute
infections, certain poisons, such as
bichloride of mercury, chronic ma-
laria, and exposure to cold are among
such factors. But the fundamental
fact, let me repeat, is that the chief
work of the kidneys consists in the
elimination of nitrogenous waste-pro-
ducts, and that the amount of work
they are called upon to do, month in
and month out, is determined primari-
ly by the amount of nitrogenous food
digested.
This is equivalent to saying that
the amount of ashes in your furnace
depends upon the amount of fuel you
burn.
To illustrate the excessive work that
the average diet puts upon the kid-
neys, we may recall that the physiol-
ogists speak of a nitrogen output of
from 14 to 16 grams per day as rep-
resenting the average for a man of
ordinary size. This would be the
equivalent of from about 90 to about
100 grams of proteins in the diet, or
from three to three and a half ounces.
But some convincing experiments sug-
gest that about half this quantity is
sufficient for the needs of the average
individual. Some investigators be-
lieve that even less than this would
suffice.
Taken at face value, these data
seem to imply that the average indi-
vidual eats twice as much nitrogenous
food as is needed, and thus puts dou-
ble work on the kidneys day by day.
Perhaps it is not to be wondered at,
{under such circumstances, that so
large a proportion of kidneys prove
inadequate to meet the strain. The
kidney that is inherently rather weak
may show its exhaustion by develop-
| ing an acute inflammation. A strong-
! er kidney may gradually develop what
is known as a chronic parenchyma-
| tous inflammation resulting in dan-
| gerous modifications of its cellular
| structure. Yet another kidney may
| become, in effect, prematurely old
| from overwork, developing what is
| technically known as chronic intersti-
tial nephritis, which is regarded as an
evidence of premature senility.
But all these modifications fall
within the general classification of
Bright’s Disease, and are associated
with a variety of general disorders
(dropsy, heart affections, high blood-
pressure, headache, difficult breath-
ing), terminating in general toxicity
commonly known as uraemic poison-
ing, due to retention of urea and oth-
er nitrogenous waste-products.
Meantime the kidney which is so
damaged that it no longer adequately
eliminates the nitrogenous waste-pro-
ducts may permit the passage of al-
bumens which are found in normal
blood, but which do not normally pass
through the kidney membranes.
When Bright's Disease is thus ful-
ly established, it is universally admit-
ted to be an incurable condition in the
present state of our knowledge. No
way is known of restoring the chron-
ically perverted tissues of the kidneys
to normality. Nevertheless palliative
measures may be employed that may
greatly benefit the patient and, in
many instances, prolong his life al-
most indefinitely.
The essential object of all such
treatment is to reduce to a minimum
the work put upon the kidneys. Some-
thing toward this end may be accom-
plished by urging the skin and the
intestinal tract to undertake vicarious
activities. By wearing woolens next
to the skin, thus inducing a relatively
free perspiration, a certain amount of
fluid may be removed from the body
that must otherwise pass through the
kidneys. Similarly the use of mild
laxatives may be of service. Vigor-
ous exercise is a sine qua non. But
in the last analysis it appears that no
other organs of the body can fully
take the place of the kidneys in se-
lecting, and removing from the blood,
urea and the other end-products of the
broken down protein molecule. So no
treatment can be considered in any
wise radical that does not give. first
consideration to the amount of such
products that the system is called up-
on to carry off.
AVERAGE AMERICAN DIETARY.
This obviously leads to the ever-
present problem of protein foods; and,
specifically to the question of a meat
diet, since there is comparatively little
danger that the average individual
will take an excess of proteins except
in this form.
One need only glance at the menu
card of the average hotel or restau-
rant, or observe the food on the table
of any well-to-do family, to realize
that the typical dietary of the Amer-
ican of today is built upon a founda-
tion of animal proteins. The conven-
tional table d’hote dinner
includes
sheep, ending with cheese. Here are
five animal proteins. Even a very un-
pretentious dinner is almost certain
to contain three or four, one at least
of which will be taken in relatively
large quantity.
Yet it is fairly certain that the din-
ers who partake of this fare with such
relish include some individuals who
are thereby poisoning themselves and
putting upon their kidneys a task that
these much-abused organs are able
to carry out with difficulty if at all
The broad general result of these
unfortunate dietetic habits, combined
with sundry other abrogations of com-
mon sense and rational hygiene on the
part of the American people, is that
there are now approximately 350,000
deaths in the United States annually
from organic diseases of the kidneys
and urinary system and of the heart
and circulatory system (including ap-
oplexy and paralysis), and that there
is an apparent increase of 40 per cent.
in such deaths in this country within
the past twenty years. By way of
contrast it may be noted that similar
mortality tables for England and
Wales, and in Prussia, Denmark, Swe-
den and France, show a slight down-
ward tendency. Mortality from the
organic diseases just mentioned has
increased in Massachusetts, in thirty
years, by 86 per cent; in fifteen
American cities by 94 per cent. While
the death toll from tuberculosis and
most communicable diseases has been
falling, the curve that records the
deaths from the diseases enumerated
oysters, fish, fowl, and flesh of ox or |
above has gone up with surprising
regularity and alarming rapidity.
PROTEINS NECESSARY TO LIFE.
If, as has just been suggested, this
increase of “degenerative” diseases is
associated with the over-eating of pro-
tein foods, it certainly will not be
amiss to examine in brief detail the
role of such foods in the bodily econ-
omy, making specific inquiry as to the
amount of protein needed in a really
normal dietary and the kind of pro-
tein that may best serve the purposes
of the system, with particular refer-
ence to the shielding of the kidneys
against undue activities. In so doing
we shall have occasion to examine
certain theories of bodily action that
have been put forward very recently,
but which are coming to be accepted
as throwing new light on the entire
problem of protein assimilation in
health and in disease.
Stated in the fewest possible words,
the situation is this: Every living
basis. The chief constituents of this
molecule are carbon, hydrogen, oxy-
gen, and nitrogen. It is the nitrogen-
ous element that distinguishes protein
foods from other elements of the di-
et, namely the carbo-hydrates and the
fats, both of which comprise carbon,
hydrogen, and oxygen, but neither of
which contains nitrogen.
The muscular and glandular sys-
tems of the body, and the main con-
stituents of the blood, are proteins,
or nitrogenous substances. The ac-
tivity of these organs and tissues im-
plies the breaking down of their pro-
tein molecules. It follows that the or-
ganism must constantly have a fresh
supply of proteins brought to-it in
the food, else its tissues would waste
away, leading to early death. So we
cannot possibly get along without a
certain amount of protein food.
On the other hand, it is now known
that the muscular tissues do not ex-
haust their nitrogen supply rapidly,
even when they are in very active ex-
ercise. Apparently some of the nitro-
gen atoms in a muscle-cell are used
over and over, only a residual number
being eliminated to form the nitrogen-
ous waste-products that the kidney
handles. Meantime, however, the
pounds in the average body, are ni-
trogenous bodies that are constantly
being destroyed in vast numbers in the
liver. They must be recruited with
equal rapidity from the parent cells
in the bone marrow if normal condi-
tions are to obtain.
And of course the corpuscle-build-
ing cells in the bone marrow cannot
work without nitrogenous material,
which must be supplied from the di-
gestive tract.
In cases of slightly different type,
the primary digestion of starchy and
fatty food may be very defective, or
there may be excessive demands upon
the energy of the system, so that such
foods are burned up and eliminated,
the by-products being water and car-
bonic-acid gas, the latter of which es-
capes by way of the lungs. In such
a case, anaemia is more generally
recognized because the patient is thin
and obviously bloodless.
A not-unnatural assumption on the
part of the patient, which the physi-
cian often substantiates, is that such
an individual needs “good red meat”
and plenty of it to “make blood” and
“build up his strength.” Yet in point
of fact, where the origin of the diffi-
culty is as above outlined, meat is of
all things the one that the patient does
tissue has the protein molecule for its |
blood corpuscles, which in the aggre- |
gate make up a bulk of about four
not need, and one that he cannot take
without positive detriment.
Placed on a vegetable diet, with the
protein intake at a minimum, and giv-
en treatment to stimulate the blood-
forming organs to renewed activity,
such a patient may recuperate rapid-
ly, gain weight and strength, and have
his blood brought back to normal,
while the kidneys are relieved of ex-
cess work and given the best possible
opportunity to become rehabilitated.
As to the particular line of medica-
tion that may best contribute to stim-
ulate the blood-forming organs to
' bring about this restoration of normal
| bodily conditions, I shall speak briefly
{but explicitly. Recent experience
suggests that all the older remedies,
| including iron, ‘arsenic, and sundry
digestive tonics, are of negligible im-
portance, as stimulators of the blood-
forming mechanism, in comparison
{ with the hypodermic use of non-spe-
cific vegetable proteins.
As I have personally been respon-
sible, jointly with my office colleague,
for the inauguration of this line of
| treatment, I would speak with due re-
serve concerning its possibilities. But
as we have now made careful obser-
vation of not far from five hundred
cases, extending over a period of three
years, and as, in our experience, a
radical modification of the blood-count
under protein treatment that would
seem miraculous by any other method
has become a commonplace, I may be
excused for speaking with a measure
of confidence.
RESULTS OF THE NEW TREATMENT.
I have observed the red corpuscles
of a patient suffering from a grave
form of anaemia increase from three
and a half million to five and a half
million to the cubic millimeter in ten
days, with absolutely no treatment
except the hypodermic injection, on
alternate days, of five or six drops of
a two-per-cent. solution of vegetable
proteins extracted from such common-
place substances as mustard seed, al-
falfa meal, and millet.
1 have previously explained the ac-
tion of the proteals as based on the
fact that any proteins in the blood-
stream are attacked by certain of the
white corpuscles, and subsequently by
the red corpuscles, and that the de-
struction of the assailants stimulates
the blood-forming organs to produce
‘their successors, on a well-known
physiological principle. The proba-
ble reason why the introduction of the
proteins hypodermically produces so
| spectacular a result is that these are
| proteins to which the system has not
i become accustomed or immunized as
it has to the ordinary food proteins.
| As a matter of course the function-
al activities of the various organs and
tissues of the body, all being in the
last analysis dependent upon an ad-
| equate blood supply, respond to the
improvement in blood conditions. It
goes without saying, also, that while
administering the treatment that
| leads to such improvement in the
| blood, one is careful to remove, if pos-
sible, the causes of the original dis-
- order.
{| An ordinary slice of bread contains
five or six grams of proteins; an or-
‘ dinary helping of potatoes, carrots, or
| parsnips, four or five grams; of beans
| or peas, eight or ten grams each. By
| bearing these figures in mind, you
| may estimate the amount of proteins
‘in your individual diet. By limiting
| the’ protein intake to 40 or 50 grams
| the destruction of blood corpuscles
| will be minimized, and the work put
upon the kidneys reduced by perhaps
| 50 per cent.
RECOVERS FROM KIDNEY AND
STOMACH TROUBLE AFTER
FOUR YEARS’ SUFFERING.
Mrs. S. D. Haines, of Mill Hall, Prais-
es Goldine—What it Has Done for
Her is Enough to Make Any One a
Friend of Such a Remedy.
She says: For four years I suffered
with stomach, kidney and bladder
trouble, I had such a pain in my back
all the time I could hardly do my
work. Nights it would ache so badly
I could not sleep and at times my
shoulders and limbs would pain. The
doctors said it was rheumatism and
perhaps it was but since I have been
taking Goldine Alterac it is all gone.
My stomach gave me a great deal of
trouble. I bloated badly with gas, be-
come short of breath at times and fre-
quently had bilious headaches, I was
scarcely ever free from a feeling of
dizziness. My appetite was not good
and I became weak.
I got a bottle of Goldine for the
stomach and nerves, I am surprised
at the results. I haven’t had a spell
of indigestion or shortness of breath
since taking it. My appetite is good
and I feel stronger.
spells of headache either, which is a
great relief to me.
Before I got Goldine and Goldine
I have no more bo
ETE EET
The Goldine Remedies are made from roots, herbs, barks and berries,
and are as pure as nature and scientific chemistry can make them.
What Do You Know About Goldine?
Why That is the Remedy That Gave Me Back My
Health When All Other Remedies Failed.
Alterac my kidneys were so bad I had
to get up from three to four times
every night, but now I never get up
more than once and some nights not
at all. I am more than satisfied with
Goldine and glad to recommend it to
any one.
MRS. S. D. HAINES,
Mill Hall, Pa.
THIS IS THE GOLDINE MAN
—a1at—
GREEN’S PHARMACY.
Call and see him and let him explain
this new herb treatment free of all
charges. It has helped thousands;
will you let it help you?
GOLDINE is used in the treatment
of stomach, heart, nerves, indigestion,
physical decline and debility, to build
you up and create strength. Liquid.
Price $1.00 per bottle.
GOLDINE ALTERAC is used for
catarrh, kidney, bladder, liver, blood,
rheumatism, weak back, eruptive and
skin diseases and to purify the entire
System; Liquid. Price $1.00 per bot-
e.
GOLDINE LAXATIVES, are used
for constipation, costiveness, liver
trouble, gall troubles, congestion of
the liver and for cleaning the organs
of digestion and excretion. 25c¢ per
box.
Goldine or Goldine Alterac will be
expressed to any address in the Unit-
ed States at $1.00 per bettle, six for
$5.00. Laxatives mailed at 25c¢ per
x,
GOLDINE COMPANY, N. C,
(Eastern Ohio Division)
Youngstown, Ohio.
—— mmm
Shoes. Shoes.
wm»
Come to the “Watchman” office for High Class Job work.
.
FEBRUARY
SHOE SALE
eS AT es
YEAGER SHOE STORE|
PD the month of February I
will reduce the prices on all shoes.
This is not a sale of another store’s
stock, but a sale of my own good quality
of shoes at Reduced Prices.
NOW IS YOUR TIME
to purchase your needs in the shoe line,
even though you may not need them for |
months to come.
|
Girls $7.00 Tan, High Top, Low Heel
Shoes Reduced to $5.00.
YEAGER'S SHOE STORE
THE SHOE STORE FOR THE POOR MAN
Bush Arcade Building 58-27 BELLEFONTE, PA.
—-
LYON & COMPANY.
Spring Coats and Suits
We are showing the latest styles in
Ladies’ and Misses’ Coats and Coat Suits.
Every week something different and ex-
clusive in this department.
Spring Goods.
We are receiving every few days a
large assortment of new Dress Fabrics in
wool, silk and cotton.
Owing to inventory of stock, we are
making big reductions on Shoes for men,
women and children.
{
Winter Coats and Suits.
Our entire stock of Winter Coats and
Suits must go now. Save money and get
the best values. This season’s goods at
less than cost of manufacture.
9 handsome Plush Coats, 12 Cloth
Coats in all colors, 7 Black Kersey and
Chiffon Broadcloth Coats, all this sea-
son’s styles and all sold at sacrifice prices.
A cordial invitation to all. The best
styles and qualities always sell first.
Lyon & Co. -.~ Bellefonte. | ~