The Nome daily nugget., 1936-01-22

It lSnt only the ayman, but the medical profession as whole has never paid any real attention to our bodies when they are we'll. There have been libraries and libraries written on disease, but the books written on what Is normal health are virtually non-existent
 The whole effort has been to study disease and then to cure it. It has been a good way and has accomplished very great deal.
 It has in fact increased the span of our life expectancy so that 1t now stands at approximately sixty years But now that we are reaching this ripe age, number of the medical profes sion are saying: Instead of waiting for a disease to manifest itself, let's see if we can't prevent 1t. Let's see if we can't keep people so healthy that they won't ever be laid up with long spells of sickness. We have cut down enormously the death rate from such contagious diseases as diphtheria. smallpox, rabies and measles. We have made progress with diabetes and per niciOus anema. Now let's see if we can't prevent the degenerative dis eases that break down the proper func. tioning of the organs of the body, or at least keep them faring up until Il person is well along in years"
 Obviously the first step in this ob- jective is to make a study of normally healthy individuals so that we can learn how a healthy body reacts to certain stimuli. In the hospital con. nected with the University of Illinois Medical school, we had recently for T continuous period of 45O days two men, one thin and the other stocky. They were both healthy and twenty years of age.
 We made many tests. We drew blood from each every other day, and sometimes twice daily. Stomach an alysis was done at frequent intervals. All urine specimens were saved and analysed.
 The stocky, bocky type proved stable sort of fellow. He did not vary from day to day. When put into hot room or into a cold room he was not uncomfortable. He showed little if any metabOlic change as result of these climatic environments. His urine was acid in reaction. He semed to have little use for the alkalines In his food. We gave him certain foods to determine just how stable he could maintain his equilibrium of chemical reactions. He can be summed up as a vegetable organism. He was a diges tive creature. He gained 20 pounds. He never did any type of work but stayed in bed all the time. To eat and sleep were his major functions in life. He would read little beyond the daily paper and he mapped between turning the pages. He was happy and con. tented.
 The tall man showed great variations in his body functions from day to day. His metabolism was unstable. His urine was always alkaline. He was uncomfortable in the hot room; he was excitable and uneasy; his temperature went up. His stomach stopped secret Ing acid and his urine became concen trated. He lost weight the day fol lowing and did not get back to normal weight for ten days. His whole water metabolism was upset. On the other hand, he Jared very well in the cold room. Changes in diet produced con siderable changes in his metabolism. His was a skin and nervous organism, and he was completely different from he stocky man. He was always up and about and looking for something to 1o. He never slept during the day.
 Then we made a study of a hay lever, migraine headache and hive group of patients, normal in other re- spects. These we found belong to the unstable types.
 Their various reactions charted upon paper look like profile of the Rocky mountains. They change more during he course of a day than the stable. .ype change after having been given he same stimulating medicine.
 We began these studies to gain better understanding of normal peO. )le. Much to our surprise we found he normal range of variations to be much wider than we had previously supposed. We have still much to learn.