Evening star., 1937-09-16
DOCTOR ADVISES
FIVE MEALSADAY
system Needs Nourishment
More Often, Yater Tells
6. u. Clinic.
BY THOMAS r.. HENRY.


Five meals day instead of the
customary three were recommended
today by DR.. Wallace M. Yater, pro-
fessor Of medicine at Georgetown
Medical School, speaking at the uni
versity's post-gra duate clinic.
Americans would do well to ADOPT
the English "tea" custom of snacks
between regular meals, DR.. Yater said.
The common habit of American city
dwellers of skipping breakfast or
lunch was characterized as per
nicious.'
The advice, DR.. Yater explained
afterwards, is based on the body's
sugar metabolism. Most Of the food
eaten, he said, eventually is trans
formed into blood sugar. or glucose.
This transformation is performed in
the liver. the great chemical labor
atory of the body. The liver stores
this glucose and feeds it into the
blood where it serves as the fuel of
the human furnace.
Now. DR.. Yster explained, there is
come evidence that the liver gets
sluggish in the course of day. 1t is
stimulated by the injection of food
through a glandular hook-up. Thus.
DR.. Yater said, frequent meals proba-
bly, tend to keep the liver working
regularly. With only three meals a
day it may loaf on the job.
Eating - Stimulant.
It Is well known. DR.. Yater said,
that eating when one is tired acts as
stimulant and hitherto the reason
has not been clearly understood. This
does not mean, DR.. Yater stressed,
that one should eat more, but should
distribute the same amount through
more eating periods.
This advice was given in discussion
following paper on the use OF prota-
min zinc insulin, chemical combina-
ton with the hormone, in the treat
ment Of diabetes, distinction of the
sugar metabolism of the body. When
straight insulin is given the blood
sugar falls almost immediately and
there is considerable shock to the
system which reacts on the heart and
circulatory apparatus. With the new
form the insulin is fed out slowly,
there is a more gradual decline in
the blood sugar, and the effect last
several times as long.
But, 1t was stressed by DR.. E. Clar-
ence Rice, who presented the paper,
the use Of the new form OF insulin
must be accompanied by careful regu-
lation Of the diet and meals at fire.
quent intervals during the "A hours to
Offset the danger Of coma through al
most complete exhaustion of the sugar
In the blood. The normal system re-
acts in much the same way, on a re-
duced scale, DR.. Yater stressed.
The three day" system, it
was stressed, has been accepted in
America, not because 1t is the natural
way Of eating, but because of the
hurly-burly Of American life, which
regards time taken from work as
gross waste. The idea of British
soldiers actually stopping in the midst
Of q battle for tea" is a frequent
subject OF American humor. It is
apt to prove plain common sense,
according to Dr. Yater's idea.
Pneumonia Serum.
A serum for type pneumonia,
frequent and exceptionally fatal, will
soon be available to the practicing
physician, DR.. Lester Neuman told
the postgraduate clinic.
Altogether there are 80 types, or
species. Of the pneumococcus, the
bacterial organism responsible for SO
per cent of pneumonia cases. For
six Of these types-1. 2, S, 7. s and H.
potent serums are available. They
are obtained from the blood of horses
which have been inocculated with the
organisms.
Type 3 has been bugbear 1t can
not be made from horse blood because
horses apparently are not susceptible
to the infection. 1t can be made from
the blood of rabbits, but the rabit has
relatively little blood. This has made
the economical preparation of the
serum Impractical up to the present
and 1t has not been available to the
family doctor. This has rendered it
essentially useless because the success
Of pneumonia serum treatment de-
pends to large extent on how soon
it is administered.
The other types OF pneumonia for
which no serum exists are very rare
and almost never would be encoun-
tered in ordinary practice.
DR.. Neuman told of newly devel-
oped method by which the particular
type Of pneumococcus injecting the
patient can be determined by micro
scopic examination in an hour or so.
Hitherto this determination has taken
about six hours and required injections
into rats. Thus much precious time
was lost while the natural resistance
Of the patient was being undermined.