The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 12

12 -r Monday, October 11,1971 The great cripplers 0 grip A 1 mulibns mencans OJ.Jl DOCTOR HOLDS PLASTIC HAND by Dr. Swanson III I I I DR. GERBER IN LABORATORY treated 70 people inflamed arthritic joints, gains which Reynolds said "offer hope that we 'can develop new and safe drugs to prevent or block that process." Early, encouraging results have been achieved with sev eral new experimental drugs including two. histidine and cyclophosphamide. Only a few doctors so far have tested histidine.

a duplicate of an amino acid occurring in human and animal protein, but one researcher indicates it could have safety advantages. Dr. Donald A. Gerber of New York's Downstate Medical Center said he has treated 70 rheu matoid arthritics with histidine almost all of them far advanced cases, and has achieved encouraging, though still-tentative, results withnaadverse side effects. But Gerber, waiting for results of more scientifically stringent tests, cautions, "we've been through honeymoons with certain (experimental! drugs before.

So far, all those honeymoons have ended in divorce." He notes that arthritics may experience symptom-free remissions of their illness for months and even years without any kind of treatment. Cyclophosphamide, previously used against leukemia and certain other forms of cancer, appears to have a unique bone-protecting action in arthritis cases, but can produce serious side effects. Two New York University re-, searchers seeking to control arthritis are testing a group of fatty chemicals called prostaglandins that occur naturally in the human body. Other scien- searchers found effective drugs for controlling gout, their work constituted" medical science's first victory over a major form of arthritic disease. Gout, whose sufferers have ranged from Sir Francis Bacon to Benjamin Franklin, is an intensely painful, usually inherited disease 4hat most often attacks small joints such as the toe.

Now known to be caused by overproduction of uric acid that deposits needle-like crystals in joints, gout affects at least one million mostly males. The optimism that the cause, of rheumatoid arthritis may be uncovered by the end of the decade is based on signs it may be due to: A still unidentified, slow-acting virus. A disturbance of the body's normal immunity mechanism so that a person becomes dangerously allergic to his own tissue. A combination of the two. Further optimism about helping arthritis sufferers is based on four factors.

One is the consistent successes at special arthritis clinics in controlling rheumatoid arthritis with conventional drugs, notably aspirin in doses up to 16 tablets daily. This has prompted private arthritis experts to urge the government to provide more such centers. Another is the increased understanding of the self-perpetuating inflammatory process that characterizes the rheumatoid type of arthritis. A third results from new insights into how drugs work in discouragingly on dead center. But now and it seems to have happened almost overnight-most of the authorities in the arthritis field are feeling new optimism, a sense of being at long last on the trail to the-answer." Much of the optimism centers on newly envisioned possibilities of unveiling, perhaps by 1980, the cause of rheumatoid arthritis.

The most dangerous, destructive and disabling form of the disease, it afflicts at least 5 million Americans. But newexperimental drugs, surgical techniques and novel research concepts also are creating optimism. Ranging from psoriasis, a common skin disease affecting 4 million Americans, to gout, the term arthritis covers nearly 100 conditions throughout the human body. Most cause aching and pain in joints and connective tissue. Besides rheumatoid arthritis and gout that makes a special target of the big toe.

the other most widespread types of arthritis are: Osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease of the joints that accompanies the aging process. Ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic inflammatory arthritis of the spine that affects men 10 times as often as women and usually begins in the 'teens or earlv 20s. Arthritis related to rheumatic fever, a systematic disease that frequently damages the heart. Victims often suffer arthritis as a complication, but it subsides quickly and never cripples. When in recent years re By FRANK CAREY A i a ted Press Science Writer NEW YORK (AP) Arthritis deforms limbs, inflames joints, inflicts pain and has done so beyond history's bedeviled cavemen and even'lhe dinosaurs they fought.

But almost overnight, to quote one authority, there's optimism, "a sense of being at long last on the trail to the answers." An answer would be welcome. Of all mari great cripplers cerebral palsy, cerebral stroke, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis arthritis is the most universal, wrenches the bodies and lives ot more persons. It affects 50 million Americans to some degree. About 17 million require medical attention: nearlv 3.5 million are disabled. Arthritis' cost to the national economy is $3.6 billion annually in lost wages and medical expenses.

A spokesman for the National Health Education Committee. a voluntary organization that surveys crippling diseases, said "rheumatologists concur arthritis research is at long last on the right track and making good progress where until recently investigators were, in effect, flying blind." And Dr. William E. Reynolds, director of medical and scientific affairs for the Arthritis Foundation, chief voluntary arthritis organization, said in an interview: "Efforts by scientists and doctors to find the answer to the arthritis riddle have seemed for years to limp along and thumbs deformed to resemble a swan's neck. Knees, ankles and hips become weak and normal activities are impossible in thousands of Nearly everyone suffers at, least a' little'osteoarthritis if they live long enough, and the malady usually is mild and not generally inflammatory.

But pain and severe disability grad. uallv may develop. Among the latest surgical developments in treating arthritics is a technique that involves use of silicone rubber implants as substitutes for diseased finger joints. Dr. B.

Swanson Blodgett Memorial Hospital in Grand Rapids, says the technique he developed is for selected patients only, and cau tions it's not a wonder substitute for the normal finger. He has rerjorted the tech- tists earlier have envisioned these versatile chemicals for a wide range of possible uses, from treatment for a stuffy nose to a "morning after" birth control pill. 1 The fourth factor making researchers optimistic are surgical results that Arthritis Foun-jlatipn experts say were "undreamed of a few years ago." They say it's now possible to correct the deformities and disability of rheumatoid arthritis and, to some degree, of osteoarthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis can affect the whole body, but primarily attacks the joints, specifically the protective cartilage surrounding bone-ends. Cartilage literally is eaten away, leaving raw bone on raw bone.

Javits program harbors Nixon's "obsession about high wages and about inflation" while failing to. recognize the problem of unemployment. "What about the fact that we have perhaps as many as nine or ten million people in this country who can't find jobs?" McGovern said. "That's the No. 1 problem, and I don't find anything in the President's economic game plan that's going to put those people back to work." McGovern said on ABC's "Issues and Answers" that money should be put into "job-creating enterprises" instead of a $5 billion investment tax credit.

Affecting women three times more than men. and farmers and factory workers more frequently than other occupational groups, it tends to subside and flare up unpredictably, causing progressive damage to tissue. Hands- can become misshapen, sometimes claw-like. (Continued From Page 1) ruinations of the tripartite board on pay and the commission on prices will not be vetoed or overruled by the Cost of Living Council, and I am clear that ihis is the intention of the President," Javits said. A spokesman for Meany said the.AFL-CIO leader is unlikely to have comment until after the meeting Tuesday.

Meany had been expecting clarification Friday by Secretary of the Treasury John B. Connally at his news conference. Connally had said the council will not veto decisions of the board or commission. However, he went on to say: "But if it becomes apparent that their actions are not consonant with the President's announced goal of holding down inflation, then, frankly, some action will have to. be taken.

The government is not getting -out of this picture." Sen. George McGovern, said Sunday the economic nique has enabled a secretary with increasingly crippled fingers to return to an 80-word-a-minute pace at a typewriter. In the still controversial field of hip-joint replacement by metal and plastic ball-and-socket substitutes, researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles are experimenting with a relatively new material, pvrolytic carbon. The material first was used in the nose cones of space rock ets to protect them from the wear and tear of atmospheric fftction and still is in the labo-; ratory stage. But researcher Martini Rubinfield and his UCLA associates believe they have devel-; -oped an- improved, more anatomically correct version of ar-1 tificial hip joints, already implanted in thousands of arthri-; tics, mostly in Britain.

TOMORROW: MUSCULAR DISTROPHY. Taiwan trails Peking in support Asspmhiv untoH Ri-io The other nine who have reo Peking and smce Ni-the Assembly decided earlier in0 are Cameroon, Senegal, offer the Red regime membership and expel the Nationalists, listed 60 members that recognize Peking and 56 that recognize the Taiwan government. Sierra Leone, Togo, Austria, such mai session that any change would require a two- UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (AP) Four more U.N, members recognize Communist China than recognize Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist regime, researchers reported today. The United Nations' Dag Hammarskjold Library, in a "reference aid" prepared in advance of the General Assembly debate next week on whether to seat both Chinas in the Assembly and give Peking China's permanent seat on the Security Council.

Another U.S. resolution would make any attempt to oust Taiwan an "important question," requiring a two-thirds vote for passage rather than a simple majority. Ten of the countries that recognize Peking have done so since last November when the Explosions In the debate beginning next Monday, the 130 U.N. members must decide whether to pass an Albanian resolution which would seat Peking and oust Taiwan or a U.S. proposal to thirds majority.

Not all of the 10 are certain to vote this year for the Albanian resolution or against the U.S. plan. One of them, Mauritius, is cosponsoring both U.S. proposals. SHOWS AT 6:20,7:45, 9:20 in i i (Continued From Pace 1) structed 13 years ago.

The building's janitor was notified shortly after 11 to check the boiler when steam was spotted seeping out of the room. According to police reports, the is dying to meet Argentine president stronger following overthrow attempt Ceasefire appeal issued PARIS (AP) An appeal for a cease-fire in Vietnam, with the United States taking the initiative, was launched today by the International Committee of Conscience on Vietnam. The appeal calls on the United States to "declare unilaterally an immediate ceasefire" and to "specify an early date by which its military withdrawal will be complete perhaps six months after the cease-fire becomes effective." The appeal said South Vietnam must join in the cease-fire and that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese "must respond in kind." Committee officials said signers included Archbishop Helder Camara of Brazil, French biologist Jean Rostand, Pastor Martin Niemoeller of Germany, Gunnar Myrdal of Sweden, and Arthur Schlesinger and Clark Kerr of the United States. There was no immediate comment on the appeal from officials on the U.S. delegation to the Vietnam peace talks.

The United States has frequently proposed to the Communists an all-Indochina cease-fire but the Communists propose a ceasefire in stages after the United States announces a pullout date. "C00D3Ycaninr Turkey, Kuwait, Iran and Peru. Although their links with Communist China might incline them to vote against the "important question" resolution, current indications are that some of them are likely to abstain from voting on it. One or two may even vote for it. Nationalist Chinese efforts to keep the Communists from taking over China's seats in the United Nations were reflected Sunday in the changed emphasis of speeches marking the Nationalist regime's 60th Double Ten, the anniversary of the revolution against the Manchu emperors that began in 1911 on Oct.

10th, the 10th day of the 10th month. The speakers repeated the customary calls for the return of the Nationalist government to the mainland but also stressed appeals for the economic buildup of Taiwan and the unity of the Taiwanese and the mainlanders who fled with Chiang to the island. The return to the mainland, from which Mao Tse-tung drove the Nationalists in 1949, had always dominated policy speeches in the past. Chiang in a holiday message called on his people to "meet changes with a heightened alertness and adaptability." He also promised victory and the success of national recovery" in the next decade. Gnds TUES.

C3 Analysis BUENOS AIRES (AP) -President Alejandro Lanusse appears to have emerged stronger than before from the attempt Friday to overthrow his government. This makes it easier for him to fulfill his promise of general elections in 1973. Nearly 50 army officers and retired officers were jailed on charges of leading the attempted coup or of plotting against Lanusse 's seven-month-old government. All were on record in favor of continuing the authoritarian military rule water temperature read iw degrees, about 30 degrees above normal. The explosion was the second major tragedy to hit the Ohio River community of Marietta within two years.

Twenty-two months ago a nursing home fire on the city's west side claimed 32 lives and sparked a nationwide investigation into nursing home safety. In the Georgia blast and fire that followed, 18-year-old Patsy Harris was injured and another child, 16-year-old Ronnie, was not hurt. Sherif Jim Wheeler said the frame house was leveled by three explosions, which occurred about 6:20 a.m. Flames engulfed the house immediatey, Wheeler said. Firemen reached the scene soon after the blast.

About two hours later, the five bodies were removed from the ruins. Cause of the explosions were not known immediately. two rural army bases, took control of radio stations in the pampa cities of Azul and Ola-varria and broadcast demands for Lanusse's resignation. Behind the generalized rhetoric loomed the election issue and Lanusse's rapprochement with ex-dictator Juan D. Peron, who is still feared and hated by many top military officers.

Lanusse spent four years in jail while Peron was president, but he feels now that parliamentary government won't work without the cooperation of Peron's many followers. The rebels had 1,200 troops Argentina has had since 1966. Lanusse has promised to turn over the government to civilian leaders elected in March 1973. The most prominent prisoner is ex-President Roberto M. Le-vinpton, a retired general who was the nation's chief executive until Lanusse ousted him in a palace coup last March 23.

The rebels, operating from and a dozen tanks, but no one joined them. By 11:30 p.m. Fridayeight hours after the revolt began Lanusse was the winner. He angrily told a nationwide radio and television auduence that the rebel leaders were "reactionaries," "total-itarians," "rightists" and "enemies of the great popular majority and of democracy." Student organizations, labor unions, political parties, businessmen associations and even the Communist party issued public statements during the night endorsing Lanusse and urging defeat for the "fascist" rebels. Almost 10,000 troops had surrounded Azul by dawn.

The rebels surrendered without firing a shot although they did try to dynamite a bridge to slow the advance toward Azul. The only casualties were a woman TONIGHT "I LOVE MY WIFE" Plus "ONE MORE TRAIN TO ROB" With Giorge Ptppard Mrs. Cobbs Dock WATER WEIGHT PRODLCM? 3 "LD Cw One of the prime nonmoney issues has been an ILWU claim to jurisdiction over the loading and unloading of cargo containers. The Teamsters Union also claims the work, Start! Oct. 13th.

GETS A NEW HERO LONDON (AP) Westminster Abbey is putting a head on Britain's King Henry after 425 years. The original silver head and hands were stolen in 1546 from an effigy of the king above his tomb in the church where British monarchs are crowned. The new head and hands are being made from polyester resin. They have been designed according to contemporary descriptions and portraits of the king, who died in 1422. "The new "crowning" will be Oct.

24 with some pomp. (jm witir In tht body cm un-eomforUblc I4JM will help you lOtl turn water nlhl Wo rtcommind it bus passenger killed when the bus collided with a tank, and two enlisted men injured in the collision of two army vehicles. Lanusse, 52, who is the army commander in chief as well as president, directed attack against the rebels and the arrests. He remained at army headquarters for 25 hours, leaving only after the last arrest had been made. He also transferred two garrison commanders suspected of sympathizing with the rebels.

fart II Jittsk I Plus At 9:301 I riftiiM lit ah mi 1 1 Only Q1.C9 ECKEXD DRUGS ANNISTON PUZA DUTY D.J INCH 'S LENGTH The length of an inch, originally laid down in a statute by King Edward II of England in the early 1300s, equaled three grains of barley laid end to end. It was divided into three parts called barleycorns. DOZEN XT (Continued From Page 1) military ships, unaffected by the strike, and two vessels whose owners are not PMA members. U.S. District Court Judge Spencer Williams of San Francisco signed the temporary order Wednesday night directing longshoremen to return to work immediately under a contract which expired June 30.

His order will remain in effect pending a court hearing Friday on President Nixon's request for a Taft-Hartley injunction providing) an 80-day cooling off periocr while longshore work continues. Meantime, 1,000 longshoremen were on the job in San Francisco and Oakland Sunday, compared with the normal 100. They were working 20 of the 68 ships which had stacked up in San Francisco Bay from July 1 until dock crews began work again Saturday morning. Portland and Seattle each reported 500 men on the docks, while TacomS, had 275 and Longview and Kalama, 150. The ILWU wants a $1.60 wage hike the present $4.28 hourly base in a new two-year contract, along with a guaranteed 40 hours of pay a week and increased fringe jnwnjMi: ICHEAHAII SHOWS AT (Continued From Page 1) childhood," King said this morning, "and she has always been an outstanding person.

Her contribution to the community has been unexcelled." MRS. COBBS was 57, and the widow of William W. Cobbs. She was educated in Anniston public schools, and the University of Alabama and returned here to teach. She headed the speech department at Anniston High School for nine years.

Employed later as a life underwriter with an insurance company, she joined the Anniston National Bank after working briefly for the Carnegie Library. A founder and past president of the Anniston Personnel Association, Mrs. Cobbs was a member of the Wednesday Study Club, Business and Professional Women's Club, and Knox Music Club. SHE WAS currently chairman of the Alabama group of the National Association of Bank Women, an organization which is to convene here in March. Mrs.

Cobbs was a member of the board of directors of the Anniston Little Theater and a chairman of 1971 ticket sales. Funeral arrangements are Incomplete. Services will be at Grace Episcopal Church. The family requests no flowers. 6:30 8:45 DOUBLETS JOE ZIC You can meet them for a CUntEastwood captor or i mix captive? price! II Adeline V- 1 D07J1H lfMn.

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