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Show Progress in Tuberculosis By DR. JAMES W. BARTON Bell Syndicate. WNU Service. ANYONE who has regularly regular-ly visited a relative or friend at a tuberculosis sanatorium sana-torium learns the names of patients in adjoining rooms and wards, and can see the progress toward recovery or otherwise from week to week. Of course the physician can see the record of each patient the range of tempera- y ..in ii.mii, 'i.i m ture, the amount of coughing, the amount of daily sputum, spu-tum, the number of times he breathes in a minute, and finally the X-ray film which shows whether the tuberculosis tuber-culosis process is spreading, healing, or standing still. . From the above Dr. Barton hg .g aWe tQ teU patient, or the family, just what to expect three months, six months, or a year to recovery, or It may be just a matter of months before he passes away, notwithstanding all that can be done by way of food, fresh air, rest, or collapsing the lung by artificial air or by surgery to give it rest. What should help the patient to fight and family to hope, despite all the other signs, symptoms, and tests, is recorded by Dr. Allan S. Kennedy of Mountain sanatorium, Hamilton, Canada, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Dr. Kennedy states that the blood pressure pres-sure low or high will give the physician a correct idea of the progress prog-ress of the patient. "It is an accepted fact that ac- 1 tive and progressing tuberculosis of the lungs is accompanied by lowering lower-ing of the blood pressure." "It is generally believed that tu-berc!sis tu-berc!sis patients with high blood pressure have very little tuberculosis, tubercu-losis, or, in any case, tend to heal the tuberculosis more quickly than people with normal or low blood pressure." Response to Cold Tells. The response of the blood pressure pres-sure to cold a test taken every few months, will show whether or not the patient is improving. Dr. Kennedy outlines the method used on 80 patients to obtain the blood pressure response to cold putting hand and wrist of one side in near-freezing water for 25 seconds sec-onds while blood pressure is taken on other arm. If the blood pressure response is poor does not increase a definite amount the patient is not improving; improv-ing; if , the response is good the patient is putting up a winning fight against tuberculosis. For Underweight Child. Some mothers are naturally distressed dis-tressed when they find that despite the amount and the variety of food eaten by their youngsters they still remain underweight. If the young-f young-f ster is wiry or resembles one of the parents in being underweight at his age, not much is thought of it, but often there is no history of extreme underweight on either side. If abundant amounts of meats, vegetables and fruits have been given giv-en to maintain body structure and also liberal amounts of bread, butter, but-ter, milk and cream to provide energy and store up a little fat, with no proper amount of increase in weight, there is something wrong with the youngster and he should be examined by the family physician physi-cian and dentist. For instance, there may be a history his-tory of thyroid trouble in the family and the youngster may be an early thyroid case. Should this be so, the amount of food eaten may be quite large, yet there will be no increase in weight; the youngster continues to be underweight. Another cause of underweight is infection of teeth and tonsils. So much of the body's energy is being used to fight this infection that there is not enough left for proper growth aside from any increase in weight. Sometimes the youngster will play so hard and so long, perhaps stay up so late at night, that he is actually tired all the time and the food eaten is not fully absorbed into the blood. When the cause for underweight has been removed fatigue, goitre, infected teeth or tonsils then what is called the upbuilding diet should be used. This includes all the usual foods proteins (meat, eggs, fish, poultry, cereals), all the starch foods (bread, sugar, potatoes), all the fat foods (cream, butter, egg yolks), and the minerals and vitamins vita-mins (fruits, vegetables, dairy products). prod-ucts). The next point is to give increased in-creased amounts of the foods known to be fattening; "an extra table-spoonful table-spoonful of butter with each meal adds 300 calories, and improves the flavor of cereals, vegetables, and desserts without being noticeable when used as a seasoning. A tabic-; tabic-; spoon of thick cream on cereal, or whipped cream on dessert, and of j mayonnaise dressing on salad, will add 300 calorics more. One or two tablespoons of olive oil at bedtime furnish 100 or 200 more calorics and may help relievo constipatirn. |