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Show Your Dorter Says... The following is one of a series o article! written by member of the Utah State Medical Association and ftublithed in cooperation with your ocal newspaper. These articles are scheduled to appear every other week throughout the year in an effort to better acquaint you with problems of health, and designed to improve the well-being of the people of Utah. Anemia What Is It? One of the chief functions of the blood is to carry oxygen from the lungs about the body to the various tissues where it is needed. The oxygen oxy-gen is transported by forming a loose chemical combination with a pigment called hemoglobin. This pigment is carried in the red blood corpuscles. Anemia is that condition in which there is less than the normal nor-mal amount of hemoglobin and red corpuscles in the blood. The presence pres-ence or absence of anemia can only be determined definitely by examination exam-ination of the blood. The appearance appear-ance of a person does not necessarily neces-sarily indicate whether anemia is present because some people are pale without being anemic while others do not look particularly pale and yet may be moderately, or even occasionally, severely anemic. Anemia is a symptom, not a disease dis-ease in itself. Like" other symptoms it should not be treated superficially superfici-ally but its cause should be looked for. There are many different kinds of anemia. It is important to determine det-ermine what kind or anemia a person per-son has before initiating treatment because the proper treatment depends de-pends on the kind of anemia. Thus, only one kind of anemia, perni- that more realistic prices, coupled coup-led with a vigorous educational and promotion program stressing stress-ing the value of dairy products, will go a long way toward reestablishing re-establishing the industry on a firm and profitable basis. I am required by law to fix dairy supports at a point between be-tween 75 and 90 per cent of parity that will assure an adequate ade-quate supply. In view of both the large surpluses and a production pro-duction rate exceeding consumption, consump-tion, the solicitor of the Department Depart-ment of Agriculture ruled I would have to set the supports for the coming year at 75 per cent. There has been some complaint com-plaint that under the President's new farm program, the reduction reduc-tion in dairy supports should have been gradual. Actually the Presicfent proposed gradual charges in moving basic commodities com-modities from a rigid to flexible support program and from old to modernized parity. There was no such recommendation on dairy products, which were already al-ready on a flexible basis. There is considerable difference differ-ence between the basic commodities commod-ities and dairy products. The Dasics are sioiaoie hiiu mey aie subject "to production control. Dairy products are perishable. In fact they are the only perishable per-ishable commodity on which price supports are mandatory. In addition, there is no' control of production-While production-While it would appear that the dairy supports were cut 15 points, the actual reduction is 12 and 9 points. Because of wider wid-er marketing margins last year, 90 per cent supports reflected 87 per cent of parity to the farmer on butterfat and only 84 per cent on manufactured milk. As I understand the law, the full 75 per cent of parity must now be passed on to the farmer. I will see that this is done. cious anemia, is treated effectively effective-ly by injections of liver extract or vitamin B12. This type of anemia is not very common. It is obvious, t'lerefore, that in the majority of cases of anemia, the injection of liver extract or B12 is of no value. One of the most common causes of anemia is loss of blood. This may be obvious and rapid or it may be relatively moderate in degree but may have been taking place for a long period of time. In the latter case, the patient may not realize that blood-loss has been occurring although he or she may have a variety of complaints as a consequence. The anemia resulting from blood loss can be treated effectively ef-fectively by taking tablets of ferrous fer-rous sulfate or ferrous gluconate by mouth. It is important in addition addi-tion to find the cause of the blood loss since this should be corrected also. Thus the cause may be a bleeding ulcer in the stomach or cancer in the bowel or there may. be excessive blood loss in association associa-tion in menstruation (periods) as the result of some disease of the womb or other female organ. Anemia may be caused by or associated as-sociated with such a large variety of conditions that these cannot be listed in detail. Mention should be made, however, of the anemia that accompanies serious kidney disease, dis-ease, the anemia associated with chronic infection, the anemia caused cau-sed by sensitivity to certain drugs, and anemia associated with various diseases of the blood forming organs or-gans such as leukemia, Hodgkin's disease and disorders of the spleen. Accurate diagnosis in cases of anemia depends not only on a thorough thor-ough history and physical examination examin-ation by an M.D. but also on accurate accu-rate laboratory work. There is no short cut to a thorough thor-ough examination. This costs more than a prescription but it costs much less than the wrong diagnosis diagno-sis and the wrong prescription for months and years. |