Word: organ
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Even after complications develop, the prognosis is not unrelentingly grim. Laser surgery is saving eyesight. Bypass surgery is salvaging hearts and feet. Dialysis machines and organ transplants are pinch-hitting for nonfunctioning kidneys. Most important, insulin pumps and home-monitoring kits are enabling diabetics to control their blood-sugar levels more precisely than ever before. With good control, diabetic women, once cautioned not to have children, are now delivering healthy babies. Says Dr. Gordon Weir, medical director of the Joslin Diabetes Center: "Patients are finally tuning in to the fact that high blood sugar is serious business...
Even with all these tools, McDonald can only approximate what a nondiabetic pancreas does naturally. A pinkish-yellow organ the size of a banana, the pancreas contains millions of specialized cells that continuously manufacture insulin and package it in microscopic granules. In response to rising blood- glucose levels, these tiny factories release the granules into the bloodstream. As glucose levels fall, the insulin release tapers off, thus preventing blood sugar from plummeting to dangerous levels and starving the brain of fuel -- and consciousness. Fortunately, this life-threatening condition, known as hypoglycemia, can easily be countered by eating or drinking something...
...cells begin to stop functioning. One intriguing, if controversial, hypothesis suggests that obese people may produce large quantities of amylin, a protein made by the same cells that secrete insulin. Some researchers believe that amylin deposits in the pancreas contribute to diabetes by interfering with the functioning of the organ...
...time religion. The church had 500 members in 1974; today it boasts more than 7,000. The average age of members is 35, and nearly half are men. Bethel is proudly Afrocentric -- a bright mural of African faces is painted over the altar -- and has traded its pipe organ for a jazz band. Pastor Frank Reid, 39, holds degrees from Yale and Harvard Divinity School...
...them: your wallet from the back of your trousers or your manhood from the front. The rumor about vanishing male genitalia started sweeping Lagos two weeks ago, and by last week the capital was in a panic. Frightened mobs lynched or beat to death at least a dozen suspected organ robbers in crowded markets and bus stations, where being jostled by strangers is a fact of life. Nigerians were convinced that magicians could remove the male jewels at a touch, making them reappear in Lagos' witchcraft markets on sale for thousands of dollars...