Anemia literally means without blood. Though anemia may result from hemorrhaging, more often the cause is too little red coloring matter, or oxygen-carrying hemoglobin, inside the blood cells. At other times not enough red cells can be produced to carry the oxygen load; or these cells die while still young, stay alive but fail to mature, become misshaped or too large, or disintegrate after reaching the blood stream. Healthy blood cells are produced in the bone marrow provided ample raw materials are supplied.

Red blood cells, which normally live approximately 120 days, are constantly being destroyed and replaced. Each person should have 100 per cent, or about 15 grams, of bright red hemoglobin in a half cup of blood (100 cc) and a blood count of 5 million red cells (per cubic millimeter). Anemia exists when the hemoglobin is less than 80 per cent, or 13 grams, and/or the red-cell count is fewer than 4 million. In all anemia, so little oxygen reaches the tissues that energy cannot be produced normally, and constant tiredness, lack of endurance, pallor, shortness of breath, and perhaps dizziness, headaches, and mental depression result.

Weak and inefficiently functioning muscles often cause problems about which little is done until they become serious. Yet the strength and normal function of muscles can be judged by excellent carriage and grace of movement, both of which are rare indeed. In America, weak muscles are evident in all age groups, from the wobbly necks of the newborn to the stoop of the aged and far less than aged. And muscle diseases of every variety are said to be increasing rapidly.

Poor muscle tone interferes with the circulation of blood, inhibits normal lymph flow, prevents food from being digested efficiently, often causes constipation, and at times makes it impossible to control the passing of urine; or even to void. Not infrequently weak muscles allow the internal organs to sag or to loll about ,on each other like so many soft boiled eggs, thus interfering with the functions of these organs. Clumsiness, jerkiness, muscle tension, and lack of co-ordination, so frequent in the malnourished child and usually passed over with the statement that "Johnnie is not good at athletics," are symptoms frighteningly similar to those seen in muscular dystrophies and multiple sclerosis.

There are many reasons for fatigue, yet anyone can interfere with satisfactory sexual expression. Anemia, liver damage, a lack of B vitamins, nervous tension brought on by deficiencies of calcium or magnesium, the strain of holding in negative emotions, and adrenal depletion are all common causes. Millions of people endure daily fatigue due to low blood sugar, which often results from nothing more serious than having missed breakfast. A few months ago a pale and lethargic young woman told me she hated preparing breakfasts, and therefore ate none.

The symptoms of low blood sugar run the gamut of lassitude, fatigue, apathy, tension, nervousness, aimlessness, weakness, trembling, sweating, headaches, and a loathing of daily monotony; if little has been eaten the night before, these symptoms are usually present on waking and often remain throughout the day. Taking potassium chloride, which brings almost immediate relief, is preferable to pep pills, but it is not needed if small meals low in carbohydrate are eaten frequently and the diet meets the needs of stress. Foods rich in the B vitamins and protein, such as yeast, liver, and wheat germ, often give a marked pickup within a single day. A persistent low blood sugar, however, is typical of adrenal exhaustion, and calls for an increase in salt instead of potassium.

Because sex is a form of expressing love, it can continue as long as life itself, provided physical and emotional health permit. The late Dr. Flanders Dunbar, a noted authority on sex, collected data from 20 per cent of all individuals 100 years old and older in the United States. When asked at what age each had lost interest in sex, these delightfully honest oldsters answered to a person, "Never." Many of the men still retained their potency, and several had remarried after passing the century mark.

Men among the healthiest groups ever to have been studied, the Bulgarians of several decades ago and the Hunzas of today, are reported to have sired children after reaching the ages of 90 and 100 years, indicating that health makes for a prolonged and active sex life. It may be highly significant that the changes in the ovaries and testicles characteristic of senility are the same as those produced in experimental animals by diets deficient in various nutrients, especially vitamin E.

Because the decreased blood calcium acts as a stress, the production of cortisone and aldosterone are stimulated and salt and water are retained in the body, often causing the breasts, hands, face, and feet to swell, weight to increase 5 to 10 pounds, headaches to occur, and resistance to allergies and infections to decrease markedly. Crimes of violence committed by women take place mostly during this period.

The first day of menstruation the blood calcium takes a still-greater nose dive, causing muscular cramps in the emptying uterus and sometimes elsewhere in the body. Should the blood calcium drop dangerously low, convulsions result. Yet if adequate calcium is obtained and efficiently absorbed, both premenstrual tension and menstrual cramps can be prevented.

One of the tragedies of illness is that it usually prevents a normal sex life. Because sex is a means of expressing love and is perhaps the deepest form of human communication, a marriage without it is sterile and often an outright endurance contest. Although major sexual problems, such as impotency and frigidity, and a horde of minor ones are emotional in origin, intercourse is often not enjoyed simply because a partner is tired, has a headache, has not slept well the night before, or feels tense or depressed and wants nothing more than to be left alone.

Any person who is irritable, critical, nagging, or lacks the energy to take a bath is scarcely setting the stage for an evening of ecstasy. During my years of consulting work, dozens of men and hundreds of women have talked to me about their sex problems; and some of the commonest complaints I have heard are that feet smell bad and that the mate has halitosis. Such seemingly insignificant things can prevent a woman from having a fulfilling orgasm and a man a sustained erection.

Kidney and urinary-bladder stones, which range from grit, sand, and gravel to the size of bird eggs, are mostly formed of crystals of calcium combined with phosphorus or oxalic acid. They are often removed surgically, but more stones usually form within weeks unless preventive measures are taken.

A few stones are mostly uric acid or the amino acid cystine. To prevent such stones, large amounts of fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits, should be eaten, thus producing an alkaline urine which keeps crystals of these substances in solution. When a sodium-urate stone has been ill passed, the dietary measures suggested for gout should be followed. The loss of cystine in the urine is said to be a hereditary error, which often means an unusually high genetic requirement for certain nutrients; a few cases have been helped by giving large amounts of cholin. To limit the cystine intake, protein may be restricted to 70 grams daily. The more common stones formed from calcium phosphate or oxalate.

Because of stress, medications, and high urinary losses, a vitamin-C deficiency can be readily produced during any kidney disease; hence the danger of hemorrhaging is tremendously increased. Even a mild lack causes blood to appear in the urine.

The passing of bloody urine or hemorrhaging have sometimes been quickly stopped when huge amounts of vitamin C and/or "bioflavonoids" have been given to persons with severe nephritis.

Since a cholin or vitamin-E deficiency can also cause hemorrhages, large amounts of lecithin, cholin, and vitamin E should be given with vitamin C the minute kidney disease is diagnosed, and all increased immediately if blood appears in the urine. Kidney hemorrhages have sometimes been stopped by giving vitamin E alone.

Excessive water retention, spoken of as dropsy or edema, may be noticeable only as swollen ankles or puffiness around the eyes yet be so extensive that an emaciated person appears overweight. Such a condition usually indicates adrenal exhaustion.

Giving large amounts of pantothenic acid to young men under stress increased the excretion of sodium, which holds water in the body. A diet high in calcium and adequate in vitamin D likewise increases the excretion of salt, thus reducing edema, whereas one high in carbohydrate holds both salt and water in the tissues. The stress of nephritis may also cause the adrenals to produce excessive amounts of aldosterone, which holds so much salt and water in the body that edema and elevated blood pressure result. Animals given diets deficient in nutrients that limit cortisone production, such as pantothenic acid and vitamins B2 and B12 develop edema, which is corrected when the missing vitamins are supplied or cortisone is given.

Animals lacking magnesium also develop nephritis and show the same degenerative changes, made worse after the kidney has once been damaged, because this mineral is more readily lost in the urine. When the diet is only slightly deficient in magnesium, the kidneys become tremendously swollen, and 25 times more calcium than normal may be deposited in the kidney tissues. This condition becomes much more severe if phosphorus is high and calcium low.

When both vitamin B6 and magnesium are under supplied, the kidneys are further damaged by sharp crystals of oxalic acid combined with calcium, and as much as three quarters of the kidney may be replaced by scar tissue. Children with oxalic-acid kidney stones frequently have high blood pressure and kidneys so damaged that they become progressively worse, causing death from kidney failure early in life.