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Show To Know, To Act - That's Health Too A fever can be killed by drinking whiskey. A communicable disease can be inherited. Raw beefsteak reduces the swelling of a black eye. Each of those statements is false, and yet half of all college freshmen questioned over the past 25 years thousands of them by Dr. H. Frederick Kilander, professor of education at New York University, said they were true. Does this indicate a breakdown in health education? To a large measure, yes, according to Dr. Kilander. He told the Research Council of the American School Heath Association, "Few individuals are adequately informed in all of the various areas of health knowledge to be able to act wisely for his own personal ned. Older adults continue to hold onto many misconceptions. mis-conceptions. A college education per se does not necessarily add to the health information of college students." Even health knowledge is valueless unless it is acted upon. The U.S. Public Health Service reported recently that because of broad public failure to use new research findings, each year 40,000 persons die of cancer, 20,000 die of rheumatic heart diseases, and millions more suffer needlessly from other ailments. It is a costly time lag, and combined with inadequate health education in too many schools, it may well signify our society's greatest waste. |