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As an added iron tonic which you can prepare for yourself at home, buy some unsulphured apricots (usually found only in health food stores). If apricots can't be had, then the next best fruits in order are dried peaches or raisins. Put a handful of the fruit in a glass, cover with lukewarm water, stir, then let stand overnight. Next morning stir the mixture again, drain off the water into another glass, adding to it one tablespoonful of a pure cane or sorghum molasses. Prepare and drink this iron tonic several times a week (the fruit should also be eaten), then eat at least a handful of iron-rich, hulled sunflower seeds each day.

Because women, especially those nearing or passing through their menopause, tend to be far more anemic than men, this homemade tonic might well be used as a morning *pick-me-up* three or four times a week, while the sunflower seeds could form their between-meal confection. Up to this point I have been speaking exclusively of simple, iron-deficiency anemia which comprises about 95 per cent of all anemia cases. But there is another type of blood disorder called pernicious anemia that was inevitably fatal until some twenty years ago. Even now, unless diagnosed during its early stages and treated immediately, pernicious anemia can be a killer disease. The most important thing I can impress upon you about pernicious anemia is the urgent need for an early diagnosis. Don't neglect the symptoms which, in their early stages, may resemble those of simple iron-deficiency anemia outlined above. If taken in time, pernicious anemia is entirely controllable through the use of liver extract and the new wonder vitamin B-12 (a member of the B-complex family), supplemented with meals planned around high-grade protein foods and those rich in iron.

Another blood disorder is the inability of the blood to clot, meaning that a slip of the razor, or a kitchen knife, may cause death from loss of blood. Blood-clotting agents called prothrombin and fibrinogen are manufactured by the body from the food we eat, the principal nutrients used being protein and vitamin K. (This vitamin is supplied by green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, liver, eggs, rice bran and soybean oil.) The greatly lowered death rate from bleeding wounds among American fighters in World War II has been attributed to the high-protein meals fed all branches of the service. Edema, or waterlogging, is one of the commonest symptoms of a severe protein deficiency. Actually, this condition stems from a blood disorder, since the extremely delicate balance of water in bloody tissues is chiefly dependent on blood proteins. It is the duty of blood proteins to maintain sufficient pressure on the inside of the blood vessel walls to counteract the pressure from the tissues outside the walls. In this way, provided the blood protein is up to normal, the water in blood cannot escape into surrounding tissues and cause the body to become waterlogged. Not so many years ago, this condition was called *dropsy* and was a blood condition that caused untold needless suffering until nutritional science discovered that high-protein diets both prevented and helped clear up this potentially serious ailment.

Cancer, the second of the killer diseases among the older age bracket, will be discussed rather fully from a nutritional standpoint in a different article. Exhaustive laboratory studies seem to provide evidence that high-calorie, sugar-and-starch diets nourish the cancerous cells, thereby permitting them to compete with healthy cells, and to gradually reach the final stage when they kill off the healthy cells. The danger of cancer striking in any body, at any age, is too grave to invite it through wrong eating. Be wise now. Replace heavy starch meals with a low-calorie, high-protein diet, and lessen the chances of cancer ever putting its deadly finger on you. Infection is another of the principal causes, listed by the insurance company pamphlet, that bring death to older persons. Every one of us is ceaselessly exposed to attack by bacteria, viruses and other toxic agents. Yet if you are properly nourished, these lethal bodies seldom get the opportunity to pull off their dirty work. What holds them in check?

Nature provided you with antibodies, a first-line defense against infection. These antibodies are formed of protein. Your resistance to disease germs, and to various other toxins, actually rises or falls according to the amount of high-protein foods you eat. Dr. Paul R. Cannon of the University of Chicago declared that a high level of resistance to disease can be maintained only on meals containing ample proteins. Experiments have disclosed that in persons placed on a high-protein diet as many as 100 times more antibodies show up in the bloodstream within the short period of one week. If you*re not equipped by correct diet to resist infections, then you certainly can't hope to live a long time, or to look and feel younger than your years. Infectious diseases, even if they don't kill you, leave their mark on a body trying to remain youthful. The fourth of the killer diseases, circulatory disorders, I shall discuss fully under the Sixth Commandment.