Word: livers
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...victim of starvation burns up his own body fats, muscles and tissues for fuel. His body quite literally consumes itself and deteriorates rapidly. The kidneys, liver and endocrine system often cease to function properly. A shortage of carbohydrates, which play a vital role in brain chemistry, affects the mind. Lassitude and confusion set in, so that starvation victims often seem unaware of their plight. The body's defenses drop; disease kills most famine victims before they have time to starve to death. An individual begins to starve when he has lost about a third of his normal body weight...
...acids-found in milk, meat, fish, beans and nuts-can bring on kwashiorkor, a wasting disease that kills tens of thousands of children each year in Africa, India, Southeast Asia and parts of South America. Kwashiorkor victims, whose tissues are usually swollen with fluid, develop a scaly rash and liver troubles. They are most easily recognized by the characteristic that gave the disease its Ghanaian name of "Red Johnny"; for reasons unknown, their hair turns a coppery color...
Other deficiency diseases can be equally deadly. Rickets, which results from a lack of vitamin D, can produce soft, deformed bones in children. Beriberi-caused by too little of the thiamin normally found in vegetables, liver, pork, eggs and whole grains-affects the heart, the circulatory system and the brain. Its victims are unable to remember and prone to confabulation, the concocting of stories to fill memory gaps. A lack of niacin (commonly found in brown rice, fish and meat) can produce pellagra, a deficiency disease characterized by the "four Ds": dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia and death...
Their deaths will result not simply from the growth of the cancer in the breast, but from the invasion of other parts of the body by the malignant cells. Untreated breast tumors can metastasize, or spread, rapidly-invading the lungs, skeleton, liver or brain. The spreading cancer can also kill by interfering with the production of substances the body needs for normal functioning, thus weakening the victim and leaving her unable to resist infectious disease...
Once again, Gore Vidal proves that in a market crowded with literary hook ers, he is a true courtesan. He respects the values of entertainment and can de liver a novel for practically any taste...