Fitness

Each of the 252,000 known cases of muscular dystrophy and atrophy in the United States should have been prevented.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association believes this figure to be only a fraction of the cases which actually exist. The incidence of this disease has apparently doubled in the last 10 years, running parallel to the numbers of fats which have been hydrogenated. The disease is little known because you rarely see these crippled people; most are too weak to leave their homes or to move wheelchairs. You do see a few but assume they are suffering from arthritis or the aftermath of polio.

The most depressing week end I have ever spent was last year when I was sent as a delegate to a muscular dystrophy conference in Atlantic City. Here were dozens of victims of this horrible living death; some were skeleton-thin; others appeared fat, bulky fibrous material having replaced normal muscle tissue. Many were pulled out of shape by muscles which had stopped growing long before the bones to which they were attached had ceased developing. It is almost unbelievable that weak muscles can pull the shoulder blades so close to the buttocks or can so disfigure the human form. One of their members, an eight-year-old boy, died that week end. Death occurred, as usual, from a slight cold; mucus cannot be coughed from the throat when muscles have given away. As this death was announced at the conference, one could see a look of dread and horror pass over the face of every parent in the room; you understood why each lived in deadly fear of colds.

All week end I talked with these people, admiring their spirit and marveling at their courage. I asked them about their food. Were any of them taking vitamin E in the hope of stopping the progression of the disease? Yes, a few. It has been known for years that muscular dystrophy runs in families. One Chicago family has six boys afflicted with it; a New York family, four boys. Were these people giving vitamin E to the other members of their families in the hope of preventing the onset of this disease? Not that I could find. Was one word said during the conference about preventing this disease? Not that I heard. These people want a cure, and may God answer their prayers!

It was not the contorted shapes, the emaciated forms or the useless limbs of these wonderful people facing the slow death they were all too keenly aware of which depressed me that week end. It was the mental picture of thousands upon thousands of similar children and adults who were yet to develop the disease and to suffer for seemingly endless years. As far as I know, not one step is being taken to prevent the onset of this horrible disease. Do you know of one obstetrician who routinely asks his patients to take vitamin E during pregnancy? I do not. Breast milk averages 40 times more vitamin E than does cow’s milk, but few babies are lucky enough these days to get breast milk. Do you know of one pediatrician who routinely gives vitamin E to the babies who must live on formulas? I do not.

Nothing is being done because there is no proof. In the name of heaven, how much proof is wanted? There is proof that pregnant women get little vitamin E. There is proof that children are undersupplied with this vitamin. There is proof that oils are refined and bread is white. Muscular dystrophy is produced in a dozen species of animals when the diets of both mother and offspring are undersupplied in vitamin E. Is there any proof that the muscles of these animals differ much from those of people? Since that week end I have been far more afraid of muscular dystrophy than of cancer or of polio.

Physicians have used vitamin E in attempting to treat many diseases. The most encouraging reports on its therapeutic use have come from a group of physicians in Canada led by Dr. Evan Shute (pp. 354-408 of ref. 1, p. 160). He and his co-workers have studied the effect of vitamin E on women who have had repeated miscarriages and on hundreds of persons suffering from heart disease, high blood pressure, peripheral atherosclerosis, Buerger’s disease, diabetes, diabetic gangrene, and gangrenous ulcers. Their results have been dramatic. It is proved that vitamin E fortunately decreases the body’s need for oxygen; presumably death from heart disease is caused by lack of oxygen. Gangrene, gangrenous ulcers, Buerger’ sdisease, and peripheral atherosclerosis are also conditions in which too little oxygen reaches the cells.

The work of these physicians has been confirmed in Canada, but in the United States it has met with bitter medical criticism. Several doctors have warned me that if I want physicians to respect my writing, I must not mention Dr. Shute’s name. Dr. Shute answers his critics by pointing out that if, in the early days of insulin, every physician had had all the insulin he wished and had given each patient the same amount, no two batches standardized, experimental studies could not have produced identical results. My feeling is that Dr. Shute’s work should be viewed with an open mind.

Although these Canadian physicians have found that they cannot obtain results with much less than 300 milligrams of natural vitamin E daily and that the need for at least adequate vitamin E is unquestioned, the diet used by physicians for high blood pressure (p. 303 of ref. 1, p. 160) contains only 7.22 milligrams per day. The reducing diet recommended by the American Medical Association (p. 303 of ref. I, P: 160), frequently given to persons suffering from heart disease or women wanting a healthy baby, supplies 4.3 to 6.6 milligrams. The diabetic diet in a textbook (p. 619 of ref. 1, p. 160) used in medical schools and by practicing physicians supplies 8.6 milligrams. A tablespoon of soybean oil, taken as salad dressing at lunch and/or dinner, could at least supply 30 to 60 milligrams of vitamin E for these patients and prevent the destruction of vitamin A in their bodies.

I have a hunch that vitamin E played a major role, together with the B vitamins and other nutrients, in the vital statistics published in Denmark after World War I; when no grains were milled, there were fewer cases of high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease, the very diseases Dr. Shute has found to respond to vitamin E. Another of my hunches is that these same diseases could be less common in the United States. If we applied what is already known, proof might soon be forthcoming.

My final hunch is that if people stayed on adequate diets including a generous amount of vitamin E, they, like the hundreds of animals studied at Columbia University, might retain their appearances of youth and their normal sexual functions to a late age; their life span, too, mi.ght be tremendously increased.