Written by admin on 2011-07-09T16:27:07+0000">July 9, 2011 – 4:27 pm
Anemia, or lack of blood, is a common condition in human beings, although many make such a diagnosis on themselves without proof. Mere pallor does not necessarily signify anemia; it may be due to lack of the ordinary amount of pigment in the skin. Conversely, in our modern days when our females have borrowed all the arts of the savages, the chief mark of this condition is well hidden by cosmetics. There are innumerable causes for anemia; certain severe diseases are associated with it, but the one outstanding cause is loss of blood. It is easy to recognize the condition when big hemorrhages occur, but far more often it follows small repeated bleedings from hemorrhoids, “stomach ulcers,” and other conditions of which the patient may not be aware.Hemorrhages cause loss of hemoglobin and practically that means loss of iron. Under ordinary conditions a good diet furnishes all the iron necessary, but an anemia is evidence that conditions are not ordinary. Granted that the hemorrhages are controlled, iron is almost a specific for rebuilding the blood. For over a century Blaud’s pill, which contains iron, has been famous. But iron is given in many other forms that possibly may be better, so understand that I am not writing a prescription.Although the anemias due to iron deficiency are easily the most important because of their great numbers, another type is more spectacular, and until recently, not amenable to treatment. Thomas Addison of London described it a century ago and it has been called pernicious anemia. A few years ago I heard Dr. William B. Castle, of Boston, one of the most brilliant of the men who worked on the problem, tell us the story which he called, “Fun in the Bone Marrow.”The red blood cells are formed in the bone marrow. If a patient has pernicious anemia, the number of cells in the blood is greatly reduced and the marrow is filled with unusual cells. Although Addison recognized the disease a century ago, no progress in the treatment of it was made until George Minot, of Boston, knowing that foods high in protein, such as meats, benefited a little, tried out a series and finally in 1925 discovered that a diet of liver controlled the disease.The trouble was that the patient had to eat about fifteen ounces of raw liver daily and most of them preferred to die rather than do this. So Dr. Minot extracted the juice and gradually concentrated it. Then with Edwin J. Cohn, Ph.D., of Harvard, he did a “chemical dissection” of liver. They finally produced a yellow powder, a few teaspoonfuls of which taken daily controlled the disease. They continued their refining, and now patients can keep free of trouble by having injected into their muscles a teaspoonful of liver extract every three or four weeks. But it was not really known what the substance in the liver was that produced the result; so doctors, veterinarians, and chemists kept hunting.Since persons with pernicious anemia have no hydrochloric acid in their stomachs, this organ was investigated. A substance known as folic acid was obtained. It will cure some anemias and help pernicious anemia, but it does not completely do the trick. Then the veterinarians got into the game. Animals called ruminants or cud chewers, such as cows and sheep, have four stomachs. It was found that bacteria acting in the first stomach, called the rumen, produce the substance that prevents anemia. This is then absorbed as it passes along the intestines. Man also produces plenty of this in his large intestine but it cannot be absorbed here.In certain parts of the world, as Australia and New Zealand, cattle have a disease with the signs and symptoms of pernicious anemia. It was shown that there is a lack of one of the minerals, cobalt. Give the cattle a minute amount of this and they are O.K.Now a substance called Vitamin B12 has been produced that appears to be the long-awaited liver extract factor. This has a purplish hue which is shown to be due to the cobalt in it. If you should take a lump of domino sugar and break it into four parts, then one millionth of one of those parts would equal the amount of Vitamin B12 which, given every few weeks, would control a patient’s pernicious anemia.Now all this may appear a little confusing to you. I merely wanted to hint how laboratory workers examining stomach and intestinal contents, practicing physicians, hen fanciers, cow doctors, geologists, etc., have all worked together as a team and in a quarter century have taken pernicious anemia patients off a diet of raw liver daily and kept them in good condition with an occasional injection of five-millionths of a gram (0.000005 gm.) of Vitamin B12.*14/276/5*
