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Show Vitamin Fad Is Denounced We hasten to commend Doctor Herman L. Kretshmer of Chicago, who does not believe that the people peo-ple of this country are in such a state of malnutrition "as to require re-quire the use of $250,000,000 worth of vitamins." The doctor recently took office as president of the American Medical Med-ical Association and lost no time in condemning the widespread indiscriminate use of vitamins. He declares that "the excessive claims made for vitamins are beyond be-yond any basic medical evidence." Dr. Kretschmer says that the people of the United States have never enjoyed better health conditions. con-ditions. He cites the following facts : (1) The death rate is the lowest low-est in our history, except for a slight rise last year. (2) There have been no major epidemics such as the influenza epidemics in the last war. (3) Tuberculosis, which often rises during war, has reached an all-time low. (4) Pneumonia is no longer the danger it was before the advent of the sulfa drugs. (5) Ceremo-spinal meningitis, which formerly had a death rate of sixty to seventy per cent, now has a mortality of about five per cent. (6) More than three million babies were born last year in this country with the lowest maternal and infant, death rate in our en- tire history (7) The troops of the nation ' enjoy good health, with bullets killing more fighting men than disease, which is the reverse of previous wartime experiences. |