VITAMINS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 3 June 1937, Page 8

VITAMINS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The infantile paralysis “epidemic” continues. Tne search lor the responsible germ has proved somewhat prolonged. Not unnaturally, since no such germ exists. “Infantile paralysis” is a deficiency ease, due to lack oi AGtamin B in the diet. Germs, when present at all, are secondary to this. The conventional diet, as misused by the great majority oi people, doctors, and the representatives of the Department of Health included, is dangerously deficient in Vitamin B; also, often, in Vitamins A, C, D, E, etc. Very large numbers ot young people live continually on the very edge of a breakdown due to vitamin and mineral starvationand a variety of fortuitous circumstances may suffice to precipitate an “epidemic” of cases. Children are more susceptible, because Vitamin B is the vitamin particularly concerned with growth. l r oung animals therefore suffer more severely when deprived of it. As Major-General Sir Robert McCarrison and many another since has shown, animals deprived of Vitamin B exhibit a train ot symptoms ending in paralysis, exactly similar to those in evidence in human beings. Before the Stage of paralysis is reached, the following unmistakeable warnings always appear:—(l) Distaste for food, loss of appetite, or depraved appetite. (2) Castro-intestinal derangements, indigestion, colitis and intestinal fluxes. (3) Loss of weight, weakness, lack of vigour. (4) Headache, anaemia, tendency to puffy swelling, and unhealthy skin. (5) Sub-normal temperature and depressing of circulation. He emphasises, further, that ill-liealth develops more rapidly and paralysis appears sooner, when lack of Vitamin Bis complicated by excessive and badly balanced diet, containing too much sweet, starchy, and fatty food. McCarrison deprived _ his animals suddenly and completely of A’itamin B. In human beings more gradually, and not so completely deprived, a variety of, other familiar symptoms make their appearance, such as paleness, undue fatigue, difficulty in concentration, irritability, bad teeth, defective vision, anaemia, enlarged tonsils and adenoids, vague “rheumatic” pains, etc. These are Nature’s shouted warniUgs., But cheer up, good people I Be confident, quiet, and contented in mind ; make wise use of natural unprocessed foods.; follow healthy habits; and “infantile paralysis” together with almost every other evidence of failure to observe natural law, will rapidly disappear.—l am, Ct< " DR. ULRIC WILLIAMS. 45' AVicksteed Street, AVanganui, May 31, 1937.