Medical replacements for heart, lungs, liver, pancreas

 Medical replacements for heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, and other important organs become routinely feasible. For your convenience, the diseases are arranged in alphabetic sequence and thus the order in which they are presented has nothing to do with I heir frequency or seriousness. In this part of our book we tell you about a number of diseases-some potential killers, others disablers, some just nuisances. You may be puzzled by our approach and by use of some words new to you in discussions about your health. For example, you will find mentioned scenario, also primary, secondary, and even tertiary prevention of disease.

We use the word scenario because it conveys the idea of the dynamic picture the physician can foresee for the course of a disease after he completes his questioning to understand the patient's symptoms, his physical examination, and his study of x-ray and laboratory reports. Sometimes, there can be no valid scenario until the physician sees the patient in several return visits. For example, two patients may have high blood pressure. 

Mr. One has a pressure reading of 164 over 98; so does Mr. Two. But in subsequent measurements of blood pressure, Mr. One's has settled down to 150 over 86 whereas Mr. Two's has gone to 190 over 110. Mr. One has no signs and symptoms, whereas Mr. Two shows a small hemorrhage in his retina and slight enlargement of the heart.

The physician will see very different scenarios or possible future courses for these two patients, and his preventive treatments will be much more active for Mr. Two than for Mr. One. By primary prevention, we mean measures that can be used to prevent a disease completely. A good example would be the use of the Sabin vaccine to keep polio from developing. By secondary prevention, we mean the use of measures to keep a disease that is already present from progressing.

 For example, for a patient with a definite ulcer of the duodenum, the physician can foresee and wants to avoid a scenario in which hemorrhage, perforation, or scarring and obstruction may take place; so he institutes diet and medical therapy as part of a secondary prevention program. We may be the first to employ the word tertiary for preventive medicine.

 Our concept is that when every type of secondary prevention may fail, there is still a chance of providing new health for the patient in a special way-that is, by giving him a new organ to replace the destroyed organ. For that, however, the patient's general health must not become so undermined that the new organ would be of little use. 

For example, suppose every effort has failed to stop the ravages of nephritis (Bright's disease); the kidneys have failed; the patient is in uremic poisoning. If the physician institutes tertiary preventive measures at this time to avoid damage to the heart and brain and eyes, then at a suitable time he can save the patient with a kidney transplant. In the future, this type of tertiary prevention may become very common as transplants or mechanical

THE LIVER

The materials absorbed from the intestinal tract and deposited in the blood go to the liver. 

THE LIVER

 If you place your left hand over the lowermost ribs on the right side of your chest, it will cover the liver, the largest internal organ in the body. In a baby, the liver makes up about one twenty-fifth of total body weight and occupies more than one third of the abdominal cavity, giving the child a pudgy appearance. In an adult, it weighs three to four pounds. It's a remarkably versatile gland, with dozens of functions. 

In its role as a digestive organ, the liver secretes bile, as already noted. Bill: flows (rom the liver through tubes which join to form the hepatitis duct. This duct joins the cystic duct, which leads upward to the gall- bladder. Between periods of digestion, bile backs up in the gallbladder and is stored there. As food passes from stomach to duodenum, the gall- bladder contracts and bile flows out the cystic duct, through the common bile duct, to an opening into the duodenum.

The liver serves as a storehouse for digested food-fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. It manufactures proteins, absorbs fat products, processes carbohydrates, and makes these available as fuel. It processes iron for the blood. It filters the blood, rendering harmless many poisons that may have entered the bloodstream. It is the liver that modifies various medicines, drugs, and poisons to make them innocuous. 

The liver can replace its own tissues. If nine tenths of the organ is removed, the remaining one tenth will undergo such active cell division that the original size will be restored within six to eight weeks. 

THE IRON-DEFICIENCY PROBLEM And the Causes in Our Body system

THE IRON-DEFICIENCY PROBLEM

 A deficiency of iron in the diets of young girls and women is a cause of growing concern. Iron deficiency can produce anemia, and the need for iron is universal. Generally, there is no problem in men, who require only 10 milligrams (1/3,000 of an ounce) of iron a day to maintain adequate body stores. 

But menstruating and pregnant women require 18 milligrams a day, and dietary analyses indicate that many adolescent girls and menstruating women have an iron intake of only 10 milligrams a day. Some studies reveal iron-deficiency anemia in as many as 60 percent of pregnant women. The problem centers around the fact, that overall iron content of foods on the market runs around 10 milligrams for every 2,000 calories.

Thus, unless she is paying particular attention to iron, a woman consuming 2,000 calories a day will not be getting adequate amounts of the mineral. The fact is that 50 to 60 percent of iron in the diet comes from cereals and meats, with nearly equal contributions from each, but the proportion of cereals and meats consumed by women varies widely. 

Whenever weight is a problem, too, the tendency is to reduce consumption of cereal products. Most meats provide 2 to 3 milligrams of iron per 3-ounce serving. Dry beans and nuts provide about 5 milligrams per cup. Most leafy green vegetables contain from 1 to 4 milligrams per cup.

Egg yolk, whole grain and enriched bread, potatoes, oysters, dried fruits, and peas are other good sources. There are on the market a number of prepared breakfast foods fortified with high levels of iron; some provide 8 to 10 milligrams per one-ounce serving. The use of iron-fortified food items when necessary to achieve adequate iron intake can be an important aid to health. For some women with high iron requirements-during pregnancy or because of abnormal menstrual losses-physicians may need to prescribe supplemental iron preparations.

WHEN TO EAT? TIMING MATTERS

WHEN TO EAT

Meal patterns generally are dictated by custom, work schedule, and personal preference. Most people eat a light breakfast, moderate lunch, and hearty evening meal. If you have a preference, however, for more but smaller meals, there is certainly nothing wrong with eating that way. 

In fact, we believe that, where feasible, more but lighter meals are desirable since they are easier to digest and put fewer loads on the body. The fact is that there is a limit to what the body's chemistry can take on at any one time. 

One can add to a fire a reasonable amount of wood The Food You Eat I 53 or coal and have a vigorous flame. But if too much fuel is added, the fire huffs and puffs, smokes and smolder’s inefficiently.

So, too, with the body when it is burdened with dealing with a big evening meal,

 For example, Quite possibly, too, if a large amount of fat or cholesterol is consumed at one sitting, the body may not be able to metabolize it completely, and it may overflow into vital areas such as the arteries. 

When obesity is a problem, the practice of eating five or six small meals daily may be helpful. There are fewer tendencies to overeat when smaller portions are taken more often-and fewer tendencies to indulge in snacks. When you know you will be eating again in two hours or so, the temptation to snack is not so great. 

WHAT CHOLESTEROL DOES ON OUR BODY? IS THERE GOOD CHOLESTROL

ABOUT CHOLESTEROL

Cholesterol has become a household word because of evidence indicating that excesses of it in the blood may play a part in producing coronary atherosclerosis, the narrowing of the coronary arteries which may lead to heart attacks. Cholesterol is present as such in some foods. It is also produced by the body. Actually, the soft, waxy, yellowish substance is an essential part of every body cell. It plays a basic role in the passage of substances through cell walls. 

One example of how cholesterol does this is readily observable: when you put your hand into a basin of water, little of the water soaks into the skin. The reason: cholesterol in the outer layer of skin cells makes the skin impermeable to water.

Since the material is essential, the body is equipped to produce a supply as well as use what comes in, ready-built, in food. The liver can make cholesterol from molecules of acetyl coenzyme A, a chemical derived from fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. It is not cholesterol per se but an excess of it in the blood which is the danger factor. 

And while an excess can be traced to some extent to a diet heavy in foods rich in cholesterol, a high-fat diet may raise blood cholesterol levels abnormally. This appears to be due to increased deposits of fat in the liver, providing an increased source of acetyl coenzyme A for liver manufacture of cholesterol.

Moreover, it is the nature of the fat in the diet that is significant. Some types of fat, known as saturated, increase blood cholesterol levels. Others, called unsaturated and polyunsaturated, do not-and, in fact, tend to slightly decrease cholesterol levels. The difference between saturated and unsaturated, from a chemist's viewpoint, is a matter of hydro-gen atoms: saturated fats are saturated with, or full of, hydrogen atoms; unsaturated fats have room for more hydrogen atoms. 

In everyday terms, the primary saturated fats are milk fat, meat fat, coconut oil, and cocoa fat.

 Milk fat includes the fat in butter, most cheeses, and ice cream as well as whole milk. Meat fat means primarily the fat of beef, pork, and lamb; veal has less fat, and chicken and turkey are low in fat and the fat they contain is less saturated. Polyunsaturated fats are the liquid vegetable oils such as safflower, soybean, corn, and cottonseed, the Food You Eat.