DISEASE AND DIET

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 188, 29 October 1927, Page 7

DISEASE AND DIET

FUTURE OF MEDICINE APPALLING GROWTH OF CANCER “It would at first strike one as being of an optimistic character, suggesting that possibly too much stress has been laid upon the matter of diet, and especially upon the burning question of the relative value of white versus wholemeal bread.” So says Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane, in his comment on the report of the public Health in England and Wales. “While everyone is anxious to be relieved from fear, one is appalled by the terrifying statement that cancer, that dread scourge which appears to be inevitably associated with civilisation, is claiming greatly increasing numbers of victims every year. The figures Sir George Newman supplies show an increase from 274 a million in 1847-1850, to 1,362 a million in 1926.

This immense rise in mortality from this appalling disease has occurred in spite of all the research work done in innumerable laboratories. both in Great Britain and elsewhere, and of the increasing knowledge, experience and skjll of the surgeon .n his operative measures for the removal of the disease as soon as it is recognised. Operation Inevitable “As the report indicates, the main incidence of cancer is in the digestivetract, a situation in which its recognition is never possible in an initial stage, and when operative measures can alone effect its removal with any prospect of success. “Naturally, one shares Sir George Newman’s hope that some means shall bo discovered by which cancer can be treated by methods other than operative, but both common sense and experience offer little prospect of success.

“This report strengthens immeasurably the attitude taken up by the New Health Society, since it demonstrates unmistakably the intimate association which exists between food and disease —a fact proved conclusively by the experimental work of Colonel McCarrison. Professor Plimmer. Dr. M. J. Rowlands, and a host of distinguished observers.

“All this affords the strongest evidence in support of the view that the future of medicine lies in prevention. Again it emphasises the vital and urgent importance to the British public of the formation of Chairs of Dietetics not only in London University’, but in ail the medical schools in the country, in order that every doctor shall be thoroughly’ familiar with that factor which is most responsible for the health and happiness of the public.”