European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 10, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday september 10, 1985 the stars and stripes Page 9 health & science news when a smoker quits fhe body goes through these changes we Khalfi 20 of autos of Tod Twne of my if left or to titty to amen and to us thing to Hance 72 hour bronchial tub Mac 2 Weka to 3 Moths drum ton Imprata Mung Tomoomi us Floi unneeded medical care costs $15 billion a year doctor claims Chicago up elimination of unnecessary medi Cal care in the United states could save More Tyfian si5 billion a year enough to pay for heart and liver trans plants for everyone who needs them a Boston physician says. Burgeoning medical costs have prompted some economists to suggest rationing expensive transplants and other operations but that would be irresponsible when so much Money is spent on useless medical care said or. Marcia Angell Deputy editor of the new England journal of Medicine. Tor the profession to take part in limiting benefits before dealing with waste is unseemly at Best Angell wrote in the september Issue of the journal of the Ameri can medical association. Angell pointed to three areas of in Neceta. Y care Little ticket items such As a rays which arc often of no Benefit to a patient. Big ticket items such As  bypass surgery which May be unnecessary for one fourth of Hose under going it. Aggressive treatment of the terminally ill. More than Sis billion a year could be saved by curtail ing such useless medical care Angell said. In comparison it would Cost about $7.5 billion annually to provide heart transplants for every patient who needed one and Sibil lion for All the necessary liver transplants. There i probably a Large Gray area Between lifesaving and useless medical procedures Angel conceded but she said there Are some Clear cases of waste. Zealous efforts to keep dying patients alive Are perhaps the most tragic because they arc both expensive and cruel to the patient Angell said. These patients suffer greatly at the hands of High technology Medicine she said. She said such a Case was that of William Bartling a lung cancer patient who Over his own protests was kept alive by a mechanical ventilator for five months at a Cost of $500,000. Bartling s Case is not unusual. Angel . Last year in a Large teaching Hospital in new York nearly 40 percent of the dying patients were known to be terminal when they were admitted he said. If this approximates the percentage throughout the country then about $8 billion each year is spent on the final admissions of patients known to be dying she said. Treating these patients much less aggressively and directing the treatment toward their Comfort would inmost cases be Kinder and would secondarily result in very Large  this Money combined with savings from eliminating other useless medical care could be used to pay for expensive operations that arc truly beneficial. Angell said. She said it should be easy to differentiate Between bar thing s Case and that of Jamie Fiske a lilt a girl who received a liver transplant last year after her father made a Well publicized Appeal to a meeting of the America Academy of paediatrics. The problem with liver transplantation is not that Jamie Fiske had one she said but that others who need it do  diet May help ease epidemic of schizophrenia official says new York up schizophrenia has reached epidemic proportions in the United states affecting one out of 20 people but a special diet May help Ward off the delusional mental illness a doctor reports. Recent research in the Field indicates that nutrition plays a key role in the Onset As Well As the recovery fro mental disorders said or. Michael Williams president of the american schizophrenia association. Williams whose work As director of the Coral Ridge  Hospital in Florida includes creating diets to it patients biochemical needs is co sponsoring a symposium in new York in september called the link Between nutrition and mental  the physician said the nutritional treatment programs that he tailors for patients have helped to prevent and in Many cases reverse the effects of mental diseases including schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a major mental disorder characterized by a patient s distortion of reality accompanied by Delu Sions and hallucinations. The exact cause of the disease is not known but recent research indicates faulty body chemistry May be a Factor Williams noted. It schizophrenia has now reached epidemic proportions in the United states victimizing mostly Young Pep Pic just when they Hope to begin productive lives Wil Liams said in a statement. More than one of every 20 americans suffers from some form of  Williams views Are not entirely accepted in the medical and psychiatric communities. Bad nutrition certainly does t help any illness including schizophrenia. Good nutrition is bound to be helpful for anyone. The question is whether there is a specific nutritional defect in schizophrenia said or. Samuel Keith chief of the Center for psychiatric studies at the National institutes of mental health. Although there Are Many proponents of the theory that nutrition is directly related to schizophrenia the Overall feeling is that it s not so he said because there has t been enough of the right kind of research to support it. On the other hand there is lots of room for study Keith said. Wisconsin Farmers rooting for chinese Halder wis. A some Farmers in this North Central area of Wisconsin the Beer and butter state Are learning to speak chinese How better to Deal with buyers from Hong Kong who annually Purchase at More than $30 a Pound a crop that in parts of Asia is reputed among other things to improve sexual performance the state is the world s richest source of cultivate american Ginseng a bitter Brown Root prize in China and other asian nations where it is chewed raw or brewed into Tea for its supposed medicinal value. The Plant also grows wild in some areas especially the Central appalachians. But Wisconsin Ginseng production has expanded so rapidly in the last 10 years that some growers fear the Supply will soon outstrip demand unless new markets can be developed. In addition seed exports to China have mushroomed in recent years. The cat s out of the bag and the cat had Kittens while it was in there said Jeff Schira president of the 400 member Wisconsin Ginseng growers association. In Marathon county seat of the state s Ginseng Indus try since the mid-1800s, approximately 1,000 growers expect to Harvest More than 800,000 pounds of Root this fall Schira said. There were fewer than 100 growers in the area 10 years ago. About 95 percent of the crop is sold to Hong Kong dealers. Because the Price is determined by bickering Between each buyer and seller about 20 growers and brokers have signed up for a course in conversational chinese being offered through the University of Wisconsin Marathon Center. Most of the Ginseng ends up in China Schira said but it also is distributed throughout Asia and even in Canada and Europe. Some Ginseng is consumed by americans usually i powdered form in capsules and Tea. But most processed Ginseng sold Here is Oriental Ginseng a different species imported from South Korea and China according to the . Agriculture department. American and Oriental roots both have places in chinese Medicine which strives to achieve a balance Between opposing natural forces called Yin and Yang. Both species arc believed to help achieve this balance but american Ginseng is considered a Cool Herb with calming effects while Oriental Ginseng is a hot her believed to invigorate the user. Beverly Braley director of research for the Ginseng re search Institute in new York said it is generally a tonic for the body that improves health and feelings of Well being when taken regularly Over a Long period of time