Word: bloodedly
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...knows yet what causes this crippler, which afflicts perhaps 6 million Americans, but it seems to involve the immune system. Some white blood cells-part of the system's defenses-seem to go awry. Possibly because something appears "foreign" to them in the joints, perhaps a virus, they converge at these sites. That causes a chronic inflammation that may erode the cartilage and then the bones, leading to deformity...
...filter these cells out of the blood, or any of the foreign material that may be circulating in it, doctors have been turning to a special blood-separation technique. Used by blood banks for at least a decade and more recently as an experimental therapy for other immune-system disorders like lupus erythematosis, myasthenia gravis and polymyositis, it is somewhat similar to hemodialysis for kidney patients. For three or so hours, the blood is slowly tapped from the body, shunted into a centrifuge, spun and separated into its constituents by weight: heavy red cells sink to the bottom, white cells...
...Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Drs. Daniel Wallace, James Klinenberg and Dennis Goldfinger worked with twelve patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis, for whom medications, including gold and penicillamine, provided no relief. They removed either plasma (a process dubbed plasmapheresis) or the white blood cells called lymphocytes and plasma (lymphoplasmapheresis) in 20 sessions over eleven weeks...
Similarly, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., Drs. John Decker, Jacob Karsh and colleagues treated four patients-including Rachel-with lymphapheresis (removal of only the white blood cells) three times a week for five to six weeks. In all except two Los Angeles patients, the therapy provided startling improvement. Their stiffness and agony was relieved for a period averaging several months. An unexpected observation: some patients seemed to get help from drugs that had not been doing them much good, or were not expected to work...
...President's 80° proposal is intolerable," declared Houston Mayor Jim McConn. "With Houston's high humidity, it would cause the teak in Jones [symphony] Hall to fall off the walls, the glue binding books in the library to crystallize, clothing in department stores to mildew and blood donors to faint." He claims that his alternative-setting thermostats at 76° F, starting air conditioning later, shutting it off earlier and turning down lights-would save 25% more energy than Carter's proposal. Presumably, many citizens will merely resort to a simpler solution: electric fans in summer...