CHAPTER IV 



THYROID INSUFFICIENCY IN LATER LIFE 



I HAVE dealt so far with thyroid failure, partial 

 or complete, in the first half of life, and I hope 

 have shown to some extent how much can be done 

 to aid proper development and to get a fair 

 average of health during those years. After 45 

 or 50 years of age we have a different but 

 almost a more interesting problem to solve. 

 In early life a faulty thyroid fails in development ; 

 in later life in maintenance. Subthyroidism 

 after 50 may be only the continuance of a life- 

 long state, but more often it is a new condition, 

 the earliest sign probably of premature degenera- 

 tion. It must be our work to arrest this degenera- 

 tion at the earliest possible moment, and not 

 only to arrest it but to set the endocrine life 

 going again in healthy harmony : and this we can 

 do. We talk learnedly of arterio-sclerosis : it 

 is a grand word, something like that blessed word 

 Mesopotamia, but it only defines a result and shows 

 naught of its cause ; nevertheless, it is a most 

 serious fact and a result that destroys life and 



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