HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 9, 11 September 1945, Page 3

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

SIMPLE GOITRE (By the Department of Health). Simple goitre should be easy to abolish in any country. Wc knew that the immediate cause is the fail" ure of the thyroid gland in the neck to obtain enough iodipe from the food and water we eat and drink to keep its normal structure and function. This failure is caused by an iodine deficiency in the soil and therefore in the food and water of that area. Sometimes this deficiency is so bad that most people in the area get goitres. At other times there's a mild deficiency t and the thyroid gland manages to get along except at times, of special such as child-bearing in Avomen and puberty in children, Wherever there's a deficiency of iodine the thyroid gland enlarges in an endeavour to oA 7ercome. the shortage in iodine supply to the body. A simple enlargement of the gland in the neck happens, called a goitre. There are goitrous areas in New Zealand. Animals as Avell as human beings are affected. Lambs in goitrous areas maj' be lost from difficulty in breathing caused by the neck sAvelling. One fai*mer t who lost lambs, from this cause one season j gave his ewes iodised pellets next season and had a good lambing. He kept this up for several | then missed giving the iodised pellets l'or a season and immediately lost several hundred lambs; from goitre. In this country of ours avc are trying to abolish goitre by asking eA'erybody to use iodised salt for cooking and table use. England lias goitre belts, and it's estimated there are half a million goitres there in the 5-20 year age group. England has not got round to iodising its salt yet but the Medical Research Council is urging the authorities to copy those countries such as ourselves, using iodised salt. We are proving that goitre can be reduced by using iodised salt. Enough of us are buying only iodised salt to do this, but not enough yet for complete success. Use only iodised salt,