The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-10
SAYS PLUMP AGE IS BY FAR MOST
 DANGEROUS AGE
Medical Director Blames Layers Of Fat For
 Many Ills

Wdny LIS
 NEW YORK, Aug. Glow much truth is there in the old saw, "A wom- an, poor thing, is as old as she looks but man is as old as he feels"? When do women feel that they are getting worn out? Is there dangerous age?' Is so, when, and why?
 When these and various other ques- toins were put to Dr. Eugene Lyman Fisk, medical director of the Life Ex- tension institute, he took fresh grip his inquirer with the clear, interested expression of a man who is preparing to talk about his speciality.
 "Well," he replied with smile, 'there is as much truth in that musical epigram as there is in most old saws. l In so far as a woman's appearance is an indication of her general health, which in turn affects the aging of her physical being, she is as old as she | looks. Age is not matter of years, but of tissue change of lowered vitality.
 According to statistics concerning death, sickness and rejection rates, women generally have reached the down | grade in vitality after thirty-one. The period officially known as youth is from twenty-one to thirty-one. But it l is impossible to place any arbitrary limits. Women have greatly heightened the span of their youth within the last | two generations.
 Any one who reflects on the attitude of the general public today as against that of even 30 years ago will real | ize that. When our grandmothers were young unless a girl was married by the time she was twenty-two she was classed as an old maid. Now we don't think of considering a person on the shelf as social or matrimonial possi- bly, for many years after that. And girls can succeed in looking young for so much longer; one of the prettiest, freshest, youngest looking women that ever was, who seems as if she might have been out of high school a couple of years, is within a snatched nose of being thirty.
 Not Necessary
 Tt is difficult to say definitely what dangerous age is. There need not be such a thing. But the danger sign is when a woman begins to take on | flesh. As soon as a woman has allowed herself to do this and gives up vigorous exercise and continues to eat foods which stuff her system with sugar, she has reached the dangerous age. A fat wom- an is an easy victim of cancer and diabetes. Both of these diseases are as mysterious as they are pernicious. It is hard to tell extactly when or where they will strike. But we do know that they attack fleshy, over-nournished tissue most disastrously.
 Middle age seems to bring with it a tendency to obesity. There is a per fectly obvious reason for this. When the children of the household have grown old enough to run the errands and help with the household to permit the hiring of a cook and q laundress, moth- CT settles back to enjoy what she con- siders q deserved rest. She does not worry so much any more about the preparation of meal. Instead she runs out of an afternoon to enjoy a game of bridge and eat delicious but un- healthy goodies.
 'Of course, the woman whose social position demand the constant draining activities of her circle, is not likely to put on the disastrous layers of fat, Nor is the woman who tolls daily in a business office a fit subject for obesity. She is constantly under strain and she has little excess enegry to turn into fat.
 '"The wealthy women of society be- cause of vanity and social pressure, rather than any other cause, retains her slim figures as long as dieting and exercise will permit her to. For she owes this obligation to her dressmaker, her tailor, who usually are enough in- terested to want their customer to ap- pear to advantage. For Fashion of late years has sternly insisted that her followers be girlishly thin.
 "Of course health is a matter of not only physical, but also mental condi- tions. There is a secretion within the body centered in the endocrine glands which we call the harmones. This scre- tion directly affects the cheerful, whole some, optimistic outlook on life which is necessary to keep the whole body toned up. When the load of sugar be- comes too great for the body to handle this important system breaks down, and we find the body a prey to disease germs.
 Tissue changes which make per son old, in the sense that we generally use the term, depend on the natural, Ol luC SySISIn anu on the environment which has sur rounded it from birth.
 There is no one cause of human troubles. We cannot say that alcohol or tobacco or bad teeth, are the reasons for all the ills that flesh is heir to. Each case differs. Of course any sen sihle person is quick to see the value of doing his best to clear up any un- healthy condition an dthereby add to the general strength of the whole sys- tenn. But it is foolish to try to pin everything to one cause. We all have our fads, and doubtless in many in- stances the fad does remarkable things"
 The doctrine of don't worry" has long been preached to us. We were told not to worry about anything, no matter what it was, because this mental condition was supposed to produce all sorts of evil maladies because of the way it had of draining our physical resources and making us susceptible to q number of undesirable ailments. But Dr. Fisk, being a practical medical worry is the result of poor physical con dition rather than the cause of it. Dr. Fisk, being a practical medical man, cannot bring himself to emphasize the psychic side of illness.
 SARAH MARTIN
 Sarah Martin was born in 1791. and was famed for her Christian bene- Volence Her father was q Door v,oo-