Salt Lake Telegram | 1934-04-04 | Page 8 | Daily Health Service

Daily Health Service Dy By DR MORRIS l In many wa ways machinery is Ing brought to the bedside to the hospi tal tal and to the laboratory to aid medi cat cal study and care or of the sick There arc microscopes microscope whIch ma mag- mag idly nUy the appearance of cells secretions secre secre- and excretions hundreds ot of times There are even ultra scopes which make malc apparent the pros ence of bodies too small to be seen with the most powerful ot of micro scopes There are arc electrically lighted machines ma ma- chines with which the doctor can look into all cavities ot of the human body There arc Xray machines which make it po possible ible for him to see the outlines ot of most of oC the or gans Other Xray machines are arc used to treat cancers and to destroy new growths on the surface ot of the body One machine measures ch chemical changes that go on oil in the body This device the basal metabolic apparatus is one or of the most important used in medicine today Its use is sImple You go to the theoffice theoffice office where the basal metabolic apparatus ap- ap par tu is 13 available You go 10 in the morning before eating breakfast so that your our body may not be busy at atthe atthe the time digesting food Now you lie down and rc rest for an hour so that your bOdy may not reflect reflect re- re activities assocIated with lar exercise Next you ou merely breathe through a tube into a closed system By the use or of certain chemicals and certain mathematical estimations I the doctor can measure the rate at which your body is using up oxygen I In some diseases particularly in very severe of the thyroid gland the basal metabolism rate will willbe be found to be high In other dis eases particularly in people who are very lat fat the basal metabolism Ire is found to be very low Methods have b en cn discovered for speeding up the basal One of these methods Involves the use or of extracts of the thyroid gland eland the other the use of dru drugs s. s such as which have been shown to have special power to raise the basal metabolic rate However Howe any drug strong enough to chan change e completely the speed ot of chemical reactions in the body is one that should not be taken except under un un- del der direction of oC a doctor People who are taking dru drugs of this kind for Cor reducing purposes should have their basal metabolic rates and their temperatures investigated regularly This is the only way to insure safety can speed up up the basal metabolism rate to such ex extent tent that it fairly burns up the bodY and produces a fever