Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-06-21
DIET AND RHEUMATISM
BY H. Addington Bruce

~ OR some time there has been a no
II ticeable tendency among physicians
to pay little heed to the matter OF
diet in the treatment of rheumatism. The
discovery that rheumatism is usually, If not
always, a germ-caused disease has not un-
naturally modified greatly both medical the
DRY and practice.
Locate the seat of the Infection the cur
rent doctrine runs. "If you can find that,
and If you can eradicate it, the rheumatism
should not much longer give trouble.
In accordanc with this belief absce ssed
teeth have been extracted, infected tonsils
removed, vaccines administered, and other
operative or medicinal procedures adopted,
with no special attention to diet. Often re-
suits Of brilliant sort have been obtained.
But often, too, there has been unexr ected
disappointment, the rheumatism stubbornly
persisting.
To account for the failures it has been
suggested that in such cases remedial action
may have been taken too Iate to forestall
migration of notwithstanding germs from
accessible to inaccessible parts of the body.
More recently the further suggestion has
been advanced that perhaps, in addition to
after all to give dietetic treatment in order
to insure a cure.
At meeting Of the Philadelphia County
Medical society, for example, DR.. Ralph
Pemberton emphasized that in all cases of
rheumatism there is a lowered metabolism,
more or less disturbance of the body chemis-
try. This, he insisted, must be combated
partly by drugs, partly by exercise and mas
sage, partly by dieting.
And IT the same meeting, as reported in
the New York Medical Record:
"Dr. ]. Claxton Cuttings said that the re-
suit of reducing the demand upon the body
metabolism, in patients in whom all foci of
infection had been removed and all other
theoretical causes eliminated, was undoubt-
ed to his mind"
This does not neces arily mean advocacy
of return to the old-time custom of for
bidding rheumatic patients to eat red meats.
In fact, DR.. Penlberton specifically stated
that in his experience little was gained there
by.
Reduction of the food intake in general,
| the degree of reduction varying with the
individual patient, would seem to be the
procedure these specialists urge-suppleme
airy, of course, to any requisite medicinal or
surgical action And it would also seem, in
the light of the findings of other physicians.
that the food permitted should preferably
be such as to be readily digesteC and elm
mated.
The claim, for that matter, has been made
that chronic rheumatism may be provoked,
if not directly ca lsed, by CONSULTATIVE
diet, and that, to quote DR.. w. Middleto \
Fine:
Ceases with teeth loose in the gums, ac-
companied with bleeding gums and pus,
have cleared up when the pathological con-
ditions in the intestinal tract were elm
mated"
Possibly, in view of this, there is more
than a merely coincidental relation between
the prevalence of rheumatism today and the
CONSULTATIVE character of the average home
diet
Too few of us eat suffciency Of the
fresh fruits, green vegetables, and rough
cereals and breadstuffs that promote both
nutrition and bowel action. Too many sub
sst excessively on a meat, potatoes, over
prepared cereals and white bread diet.
Copyright, 1921, by The Associated News
papers.)