Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-06-14
TO PREVENT GOITRE
BY H. ADD1NGToN BRUCE

= JUDGING from a report issued by tho
United States Public Health Service, o
- means would indeed seem to have been
found for unfailingly preventing the occur.
renee Of goitre.
This, of course, is of general interest. IT,
is of special interest to the people Of certain
regions of the United States and Canada. In
these regions-the basin of the Great Lakes,
the basin of the st. Lawrence, and the PACIFIC
NorthWest-goitre is common malady, and
in some districts distressingly prevalent. 40
AS long ago as 1909 two American physi-'
clans Drs Marine and Lenhart aware that
the great cause of goitre is iodine deficiency.
undertook some interesting experiments at
the state fish hatchery at Shady Grove, Pa,,,
where goitre had become SO serious fish
malady that it was thought the hatchery.
would have to be abandoned. In the hope
of arresting the epidemic small amounts OF
iodine were added to the food provided for
the fish. ~
At once the situation began to improve
By 1911 goitre had become almost nom
existent among the fish of this hatchery. So
impressive were the results that DR.. Marlnes'
did not hesitate to make the bold declara-
ton Nh
Simple goitre is the easiest known dis
ease to prevent" -
But would similar measure bring SINH
larly beneficial results when it was ques-.
ton of preventing goitre in human beings?
In 1916 an examination of several thousand
girls in the schools of Akron, Ohio, showed
that IS per cent of them had enlarged thy
roids. DR.. Marine and the writer of the
present Public Health Service report, DR..
o. P. Kimball were called upon to attack
the problem thus raised
From 1916 to 1920 they administered to
all girls whose parents gave consent period
ical doses of sodium iodide, three grains once
each day for two weeks, spring and fall.
About half of the girls examined during this
period-or 1000 out of 000-elected to
take the iodine treatment DR.. Kimball thus
summarizes the outcome:
"Of those taking the prophylactic dose OF
iodine not a single normal girl developed
thyroid enlargement goitre, although two
girls in very poor health did develop small
goitres This latter occurrence merely shows
that in some unusual cases 1t takes more
iodine than we were using to keep the thy
roid saturated.
Among the girls not taking the iodine ~
a preventive, 27.6 per cent of those without
goitre in the beginning developed gottres,
and in many of these the goitres became
quite large. The goitres disappeared in over
go per cent of the girls who had goltre at
first and took the prophylactic iodine, while
among those who had goitre at first and did
not take any iodine the engagements d1sap-
peared in very few"
Moreover, as an outcome OF the Marine
Kimball work in Ohio, large-scale use or To-
dine as preventive was begun in goitre dis
tricts in Switzerland. Again astonishing results
were obtained. In the canton of st. Gall, for
sample, in January, 1918, nearly 80 per
cent of all school children were found to
have goitre In January, 1922, following
iodine treatment, the goitre victims were less
than Is per cent of the school population.
1t is important to add thrt while goitre
is by no means sex-limited disease it does
show far greater occurrence among women
than among men. Also it is most likely to
develop in women during adolescence and at
time of pregnancy.
Co ,quently, in the light of the Ohio and
Switzerland results, it is hardly surprising
that DR.. Kimball urges as a routine precau=
tionary measure the administering of iodine
to all adolescent girls and all pregnant wom-
en-, especially when they reside in districts
in which goitre IS common. -
Copyright, 1928, by the Associated Il
NEWSPAPERS. -