BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



The opposite condition to acidosis is alkalosis. This 

 occurs rarely and usually because the person has been 

 taking too much alkali or too much baking soda or bi- 

 carbonate of soda to overcome what he thinks is an acid 

 condition. Many people who suffer occasionally from 

 ulcers of the stomach or from hyperacidity, take immense 

 quantities of soda for the correction of the condition. 

 Obviously, alkalosis can easily be controlled by cutting 

 down on the amount of alkalis being taken, both in the 

 form of drugs and foods. 



When alkalosis is due to excessive breathing, such as 

 occasionally occurs in hysteria and other diseases, the 

 patient may be given air to breathe which contains an 

 abnormally large amount of carbon dioxide until the system 

 is brought under control. 



The Body Weight. It might seem, from all of the discussion 

 and disturbance that has taken place in recent years on the 

 subject of overweight, that all of the problems of over- 

 weight have been fully settled by the investigators of 

 medical science. There are, however, still many unsolved 

 problems which disturb the physiologist as well as the 

 clinician. 



It has been argued that overweight is merely the result 

 of bad psychological bookkeeping; in other words, that 

 overweight is practically always due to overeating and 

 that it nearly always can be controlled by proper diet. 

 The majority of medical opinion to-day is against that 

 point of view. 



Obesity, or overweight, is usually due to an accumula- 

 tion of large amounts of fat distributed in the places 

 where fat is usually distributed, but particularly in the 

 abdominal wall, so that the obese person develops the 

 appearance indicating that "coming events cast their 

 shadows before." Women normally have a little more 

 fat under the skin than do men. 



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