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ARE YOU IN HEALTH?
Ignorance Is Health's Worst Enemy
By Daniel H. Kress, M.D.

"How DO you do? is the greeting our friends expect when we meet them on the street.  It is the customary greeting in all civilized lands.  The response may be, "I am fine!" or "I am 100% fit!"  Then comes the customary "How are you?"  The answers received are not always dependable.  "I am well, thank you," may be the reply.  There are a great number of persons who are conscious of the fact that they are far from being well, and they do not hesitate to say, "I am not feeling well," or "I am all in," et cetera.  Partially, at least, they know their condition.  For such there is hope.  In all probability, they will outlive those who claim to be well.

One of the essentials to assure a good old age and a useful life is to know our physical condition and then guard ourselves on the points where we are weak.  In order to live to an old age it seems almost necessary to be rejected by a first-class life insurance company.  There are thousands of men walking our streets who are organically diseased but do not know it.

Some years ago a friend of mine, an editor, while on his way to his office was whistling as he passed a neighbor's home.

The neighbor remarked, "You seem to be in good spirits this morning."

"Never felt better in my life!" was the reply.
He never reached his office, although it was only a few blocks away.  Ten minutes from the time he made that remark he was dead. Friends were surprised.  I was not, for I knew something of his condition.

After completing a lecture tour with a friend who balanced the scales at 220 pounds, we started for our home cities.  He left at 7:30 A.M., and I departed an hour later.  He thought himself to be in good health.  I reached my home about 9:00 A.M. the next day.  At 10:00 A.M. I was called to the telephone.  It was a long-distance call from his son, saying:  "Father died suddenly on the street this morning at 8:30."  Should you have met him on the street one hour before death occurred, with the salutation, "How do you do?" the reply would have been in all probability, "I am well, thank you!"  He was not well by any means, and had not been well for several years.  He was unconscious of it.

A physical examination may not always reveal a man's danger.  For instance, the heart may appear to be sound, but there is a blood pressure, perhaps, of 190 or 200. By this we know that it will be only a matter of time until the heart will fail.  It cannot stand the continuous strain it is under without injury.  However, by ascertaining this condition by a medical examination, and then by living carefully, such a one may live to a fairly old age. 

I recall a patient, a prominent lawyer, whose blood pressure came down quite suddently from 200 to 100.  His heart was dilating and failing.  By absolute res
three weeks, and treatment, he mad
good recovery.  When he left me, 
cautioned him not to overdo.  I also informed him that it was necessary for him not to return to the use of tobacco.  He returned to his work and was apparently in good health.  About six months later I met him on the street.  He was smoking a cigar.  I said to him, "My friend, you ought not to smoke."  He replied, "Doctor, I am feeling well now, and I do not suppose an occasional smoke of a mild cigar would harm me.  I do not smoke nearly as much as I did."

I was absent from the city six weeks.  When I returned, I found that this man had been buried three weeks.  Three weeks from the time I met him he was in his restaurant taking his dinner.  After dinner, while conversing with a friend, he became suddenly ill and died within a few minutes.  His friends were surprised at the sudden death of a man of so robust appearance.  I was not.

During World War I, when a call was
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[[image]]
A contingent of American Negro nurses, all second lieutenants in the United States Army Nurses Corps, has arrived in Australia for training before they go to the hospitals of advanced sectors of the Southwest Pacific to care for members of our nation's armed forces.  Below are shown three fine examples of these valiant women who labor to save lives and preserve the health of our men on the fighting front.
ACME PHOTO

JUNE -- 1944  PAGE 3

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