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

72 страница из 141

We have also frequently seen a marked improvement in the mental faculties of adults through thyroid treatment. Thus last winter, during a stay in Nice, we were consulted by an American lady of 69 years who was suffering from arteriosclerosis and dizziness. Through thyroid treatment the intelligence of this lady improved so much that it became very noticeable to her English trained nurse, who told us that whereas before she could do anything with this mentally torpid woman without comment, now she first demanded to know the reason for everything before she complied with the dietary and hygienic measures the nurse wanted her to follow.

That the thyroid gland affects the intellect is also proved by the very important fact that the serum of animals whose thyroid has been extirpated, and which is thus antagonistic to the thyroid gland, is able to impair the intellect. Dürig^[92] noticed this after using large doses of such serum in a woman with Graves’s disease, thereby causing an appearance of great stupidity, loss of memory, and incapability of thinking, so that he had to suspend the treatment. These symptoms continued for fourteen days after the treatment had been discontinued.