Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-08-23
Old Folks Are Advised
To Eat Their Spinach
Vegetable Is No Cure
But Is Aid in Arthritis
By Thomos R. Henry

Dut Us Ato III AttuTlItS
By Thomas R. Henry
Old folks should eat their spinach.
It doesn't make much difference
whether children do or not.
This is among the findings Of expert
ments with the body's disposition Of
the old age element, calcium, in the
diet which have been carried out by
Georgetown University doctors by
means of q radioactive form of the
material.
Calcium, of course, is essential for
the growing body. It is q major ele-
ment in bones and teeth.
But it also. according to the testi-
mony of DR.. Charles r. Geschickter of
Georgetown Medical School, is sig
nificant factor in some forms Of arthri-
tbs. hardening of the arteries. high
blood pressure, and possibly cancer.
One Of the effects of lot of spinach
in the diet, the work on experimental
animals with radioactive calcium 40
has shown, is to pull calcium out of the
circulation through a chemical COM
bination with oxalic acid. and thus
prevent excessive amounts getting to
the bones which no longer require 1t.
A spinach diet, DR.. Geschickter tes-
titled at q recent Congressional hear
ing, increases the rate at which cal
cium disappears from the blood stream
through excretion and not bone alb
sorption.
After the Age Of As.
Practically 100 per cent of the pop
ulation gets osteoarthritis after the
age of 49," he said. "The majority of
cases, however, do not have the symp-
tomato form. The disease is char
acterized by spur formation around
the joints, It gives creakiness and
eventually painful joints to many peo-
pie as they get older, especially If they
are overweight. Calcium deposition
also occurs in hardening of the arteries.
or arteriosclerosis as we pass through
the later years Of life. It also is instru-
mental in formation of kidney and
gall stones.
1--WE have treated number Of cases
of osteoarthritis by asking them to eat
spinach, frozen. canned or raw. at least
once a day five days q week and to
restrict the quantity Of eggs. milk and
cheese in the diet. A remarkable i'm
provement occurs in one to two weeks
in many of these patients. It Is the
old people who don't bother to eat it
that need it. Young people should not
eat 1t because 1t completes with their
bones for calcium. Children need twice
as much calcium as adults"
This DR.. Geschickter emphasized.
was just chance observation from
the radioactivity experiments. He is
not proposing spinach as cure for
arthritis, but only as something that
might do good and cannot do any
harm.
is the new light thrown on hardening
of the arteries, the arteriosclerosiS
which Isl a rapidly increasing cause of
death in the American population.
which comes from the radioactive cal
cium experiments.
This disease is due primarily to depo-
sition of calcium in the walls Of the
arteries with increasing age. This pro-
cess is universal. Probably everybody
would die of it if they lived long
enough.
1t has been known for long time
that there are substances which will
make hard water. which contains con-
siderable calcium, soft without forming
chalk-like scum which makes the
water useless for industrial purposes.
These are known as chelating agents.
They combine chemically with the call
cium. A notable one is ethylenedia-
mentetracetic acid. It has much the
same general effect as spinach. only
much more pronounced.
Used in Experiments.
DR.. Geschickter and his colleague ex-
perimented with the use of this in other
chelating agents in hardening of the
arteries The treatment was accom-
panied by some complications but it
did result in greatly slowing down the
deposition of calcium in the artery
walls. The damage already done, and
the resulting high blood pressure, re-
NAMED.
But when calcium is reduced in the
blood stream magnesium tends to take
its place, if any is available. This has
precisely the opposite effect on the
arteries. 1t makes them soft and flabby.
An obvious procedure was to reduce
the calcium in the blood stream, by
spinach, chelating agent or any
other means. and supply magnesium.
This has been tried in a few cases
with dangerously high blood pressure
where strokes were threatened. Re-
suits. DR.. Geschickter said, have been
quite encouraging but the procedure
is dangerous and can be attempted
only In hospital where a patient is
under constant observation. Blood
vessel walls can easily be made so
flabby that blood pressure is reduced
far below the danger point-in some
cases to zero.