Читать книгу Old Age Deferred. The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures онлайн

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In patients with diseases of the kidneys, the condition of the skin is of the utmost importance, as the skin is our second kidney. Therefore patients with thyroid insufficiency have less chance of a long life if their kidneys are in any way incapacitated.

Besides the above-named vital organs, there are certain portions of our anatomy which are also of importance in the determination of our chances of life. Take, for example, the nose. In the children of parents with degenerated thyroids there is a great tendency to adenoid vegetations. These are, strictly speaking, not a disease of childhood alone, for often they may be met with in adults, even in middle age. If large they necessitate breathing through the mouth instead of through the nose, especially at night. Such children are liable to frequent catarrhs, and what is more serious, to pulmonary troubles. They are also liable to suppurative otitis media and frequent attacks of tonsillitis. These frequent attacks of tonsillitis may constitute a serious danger, as they may induce an inflammation of the kidneys. As a rule, in such cases the nephritis passes off in a few days, often without being recognized, the symptoms being ascribed only to the tonsillitis. Although the acute symptoms may have disappeared and nothing remain but a few red blood-corpuscles in the urine and occasionally a few casts and epithelial cells, yet under the ashes the fire may still creep on and chronic nephritis develop. In fact, a good number of cases of chronic nephritis whose origin is wrapped in mystery are due to such a tonsillitis.