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Show e t Advice on Your Health By Morris Rshbein, Editor, Journal American Medical Association This is the first of three articles in which Dr. Fishbein discusses advances reported at ths American Amer-ican Medical association convention. conven-tion. Two new advances in medicine accent themselves smong the more than 300 discoveries announced an-nounced by doctors gathered in St Louis this week at the annual convention of the American Medical Medi-cal association. They sre: A new trestment for sudden hemorrhage caused by ulcers of the stomach. Revelation of the beneficial effect of sulfapyridins in treating treat-ing pneumonia. Ths method for treating ths hemorrhage involves administration administra-tion of small feedings of gelatin, transfusion of blood directly into the veins and repeated light feedings feed-ings a few days after ths hemorrhage hem-orrhage hss stopped. The effect of sulfapyridine, a derivative of the sulfanilamide 'Wonder drug." ia hardly short of tor but the severe symptoms csuss t him concern. If patients turn blue because of the effects of ths drug on ths blood, if they have severe vomiting vomit-ing or diarrhea, if there are changes in the blood cells or men- - e tal disturbances following the ad- , ministration of the drug, the doctor doc-tor will probably stop administration administra-tion immediately. Therefore, whenever a patient Is receiving large doses of sul fanilamide or its derivatives, the , doctor examines ths patient every . day, makes frequent studies of ths blood, avoids other dru?s which may form dangerous com-binatlona com-binatlona with the sulfanilamids ' stfd may giva large doses of , t sodium blcarbonats to overcome , any acid effects of sulfanilamide. Striking were the announce- ' menta about oxygen which is developing de-veloping increased uses in medicine, medi-cine, particularly for shock snd for ths relief of headache after s any of the procedures affecting the brain. Specialists in diseases of ths am axing in treating pneumonia. Uniformly It was reported that this drug produces a prompt fall in the fever and that patients feel better. If patients are In fairly good condition and if they are given prompt treatment the recoveries from pneumonia under this new method of treatment are remark-- remark-- ably numerous. Sulfanilamide appeared in many papers. As in all remedies which have grest value, there is also the possibility of it harming people peo-ple who are oversensitive to the drug and whom it affects adversely. ad-versely. . Many people have mild symptoms symp-toms like weakness, headache or nausea after taking the drug. These milder symptoms sre not a matter of great worry to the doc- eye sre now greatly concerned with glaucoma, an insidious condition con-dition in which tbs drainage of e fluid through the eya is blocked ' with increased tension and eventual even-tual loss of sight Nowadays, we know that early detection is of ths utmost importance impor-tance if sight is to be saved. Eye surgery specialists hsvs developed s new operations which can be applied ap-plied with little danger. In over 90 per cent of esses the progress of ths disease was stopped by such operative pro- i cedures snd in 00 per cent of cases s the condition of the eye was restored re-stored to normal after the opera- ' tion. In one operation narrow I strips of magnesium, sn unusual j metal, were implanted in ths I course of the operation In order J to arrange a drainage canal with- 0 in the eye. Strange cases in which humen beings turned blue after ths use of preparations containing silver within the noss were shown to ( ths specialists in diseases of the noss and throat Experiments ' now ars being performed on animals ani-mals to determine how silver salts are absorbed in this way. It seems likely that new Investigations will lead to suitable control of thess conditions. Ths problems of ths care of ths aged received special attention wnen Dr. E. L. Touhy pointed out that the diet of older people needs even mors vitamins than ths diets of younger people. He cited, too, that the fields, ths gardens or ths grocery stores are still ths correct place for supplying ths foods that contain the vitamins. For normal people these foods are better than vitamin tablets purchased either from ths drug store, the grocery store or ths barber shop. There is ae need for people to develop vitamin-tas-let habit People were eating food for a long time before ws knew there were vitamins. ' |