Appears on Elliott Show
Palmore Airs Plight of American Elderly
In America it would earn you an
icy stare. But in Japan, asking an
elderly person how old he is would be
taken as a compliment, says Dr.
Erdman Palmore.
Palmore, a professor of medical
sociology, was interviewed Aug. 7 on
Channel 5’s Bette Elliott show.
He told Miss Elliott: “Most people
in the U.S. are ashamed of their age;
we spend billions of dollars dying our
hair, for instance. But in Japan, most
people are proud of their age.
“It’s a very polite thing to do to
greet somebody with, ‘How old are
you now?’
“He might respond, ‘I’m 70, going
on 71.’
‘‘Then you respond,
‘Congratulations! You’re reaching
the honorable year.’ ”
Palmore has written a book, to be
entitled “The Honorable Elders,” on
how the Japanese treat their older
citizens. The Duke Press plans to
publish the book next January.
Palmore said a Japanese law states
that the elderly are to be honored.
“They’re guaranteed the right to
work and to contribute to society,” he
said.
The professor said mandatory
retirement at age 65 is “one of the
most outrageous things in our
society.” Older workers, he said, are
“in many ways, superior to younger
workers; they’re more experienced,
they’re more stable workers, and they
have a low absentee rate.”
Almost 80 per cent of Japanese
older people live with their children,
he said. “Rather, their children live
with them —it’s their household,” he
added. Jn America, the percentage of
elderly citizens living with their
children falls to 20-25 per cent, he
said.
Turning from Japan, Palmore
attacked myths about older people.
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duke univcusity mcdicM ccnteR
VOLUME 22, NUMBER 31
AUGUST 15,1975
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
He asked Miss Elliott to guess what
percentage of Americans over 65 are
in a nursing home or other
institution. She guessed 25 per cent.
“Some people guess 60 or 75 per
cent,” the professor said. “The
correct figure is only 5 per cent.
Ninety-five per cent are out in the
community taking care of
themselves.”
Palmore said it’s not true that old
age has to mean mental decline. An
elderly person “may maintain a
steady state of functioning for years,”
he said.
Those who do slip mentally, he
said, may be neglecting their bodies
“because of a combined loss of
income and a loss of some of their
health.”
“They give up; they retire to a
rocking chair; they don’t get any
exercise. When you don’t use a
muscle, it deteriorates and this
happens to the brain. If you sit in a
stupor all day, your brain
deteriorates.”
Being “over the hill” needn’t be a
curse, Palmore said. He recalled an
older man who beamed, “When
you’re over the hill, you pick up
speed.”
Prof Explains Link Between
Diabetes, Excess Weight
Registration Begins Monday
Motor vehicle registration for medical center personnel begins Monday.
The registration fee is $20 and may be paid in cash or by payroll deduction.
The motorcycle registration fee is $10 and must be paid in cash.
Documents and information that must be presented at the time of
registration include a valid driver’s license, current state vehicle registration
card and a social security card.
All members of the house staff should register their vehicle at the House
Staff Office, Rm M-131 of the Davison Bldg.
For the convenience of other medical center personnel, the Parking and
Traffic Office again will send registrars to buildings throughout the medical
center campus.
The registration schedule is as follows:
HOSPITALr—In Medical Center Board Room (first floor, yellow zone, next
to chapel), Monday, Aug. 18, through Wednesday, Aug. 20, from 8
a.m.-Noon, 1 p.m.-4:30 p.m. and from 7 p.m.-l a.m.
NANALINE H. DUKE BUILDING—F irst floor, main entrance,
Thursday, Aug. 21, 8:30-11 a.m.
ALEX H. SANDS BUILDING, RESEARCH PARK, VIVARIUM, ALIF
BUILDINGS—Sands Bldg., first floor, main entrance, Thursday, Aug. 21,
1-4:30 p.m. and Friday, Aug. 22, 8:30-11 a.m.
EYE CENTER—C'onference Room, second floor, Friday, Aug. 22, 1-4:30
p.m.
PICKENS BUILDING—(Conference Room, Monday, Aug. 25, 8:30-11
a.m.
CHILD GUIDANCE, CIVITAN BUILDINGS—Child (.uidance, first
floor, main entrance, Monday, Aug. 25, 1-4:30 p.m.
HANES HOUSE, HANES ANNEX, GRADUATE CENTER—Hanes
House Lobby, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 8:30-11 a.m.
BELL BUILDING—Room 314, I'uesday, Aug. 26, 1-4:30 p.m.
BELL BUILDING—Room 314, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
HANES HOUSE, HANES ANNEX, GRADUATE CENTER—Hanes
House Lobby, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (registration for
nursing and graduate center students)
New parking decals must Ix; displayed by SeptemlK'r 1. All others who want
to register vehicles may do soon Wednesday, Aug. 27 in R(M)ni 314 in the Bell
Bldg. (as listed) or thereafter from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Fritlav.
A Duke physician says some adults
can get rid of diabetes simply by
losing excess weight.
Shedding pounds, said Dr. Jay
Skyler, can unlock a natural supply of
insulin that a diabetic can’t use as
long as he’s obese.
“Here’s a 34-year-old man who had
diabetes for 10 years,” he said,
picking up a patient’s chart. “He went
from 280 pounds to 168 pounds, and
his diabetes went away.”
Skyler is an assistant professor of
medicine. He spoke recently at a
workshop sponsored by the National
Commission on Diabetes. The Duke
physician was a workshop
co-chairman.
“Diabetes is a hormone imbalance,”
Skyler explained in an interview. “It
prevents a person from burning
sugars and other nutrients for body
energy. It’s recognized principally by
high sugar levels in the patient’s
blood or urine.”
Too much sugar in the blood for a
prolonged period can kill, he said. It
makes a person more prone to heart
attacks, strokes, kidney failure and
blindness. He said diabetes is the
second leading cause of new
blindness.
Insulin—a hormone produced in
the pancreas—keeps the blood sugar
level in check for most people, Skyler
pointed out. But in obese persons,
this balance is upset.
“Obesity causes resistance to the
action of insulin,” the physician said.
He explained that insulin must link
up with body cells before it can do its
job. This linking ability is impaired in
overweight people, he said.
Losing weight, he pointed out, can
end the resistance. And the patient’s
diabetes may vanish.
Eight out of 10 people with
diabetes are ol)ese, he said. A (juarter
of the American population inherits a
tendency to have diabetes; obesity
brings out the disease in those with
this tendency, he added.
Skyler also had this tip: Adults who
don’t have diabetes may be able to
avoid it by keeping their weight
down.
Doctors “could prevent most of the
diabetes we see,” he said, by
convincing their overweight patients
to stick to a diet.
Adams Earns
Cancer Grant
A federal grant announced this
week may help a Duke researcher
beef up the body’s defenses against
cancer.
The researcher, Dr. Dolph O,
Adams, said he hopes to make
disease-fighting white cells in the
body attack tumors more fiercely
than they do now.
Adams is an assistant professor of
pathology. The National Cancer
Institute awarded him $87,480 for
his study.
Some scientists believe the body
destroys as many as 1,000 cancer cells
every day. White cells called
macrophages should take part in this
destruction, but sometimes don’t,
Adams said.
“People know very little about what
makes macrophages kill better,” he
said. “We do know, however, that if
macrophages are activated, that is,
altered metabolically, they will kill
better.”
Working with mice, Adams will be
testing ways of pepping up the white
cells. He will try to equip the cells
with compounds (antibc^ies) that will
help them sense the target cancer
cells. Macrophages without these
antibodies seem to have a harder
(Continued on page 4)