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DIABETES
This is now not an important cause of death, but it will be seen from Table IV that one
Diabetic died quite early in life and that three more died in their late fifties. The disease
still shortens life.
DIPHTHERIA
This death was only indirectly due to Diphtheria, This elderly lady developed Pneumonia
and it was thought that the Tracheotomy scar which she had carried since childhood, as a result
of Diphtheria then, had contributed to her death.
GASTRITIS, ENTERITIS AND DIARRHŒA
The deaths in this group were all due to infection, although in two cases the inflammatory
response was of a chronic nature. Death before the age of 65 occurred in three cases. This
little group represents a pocket of resistance to medical advance which needs to be mopped up.
HYPERTENSIVE HEART DISEASE
Hypertension is more generally known as high blood pressure and a person is said to be
hypertensive when he or she has an arterial blood pressure permanently above the highest limit
known to be normal, for a person of that age and physique. No definite cause has yet been incriminated,
but one type of hypertension is partially due to fatty change in the lining of the
arteries, accompanied by a raised blood Cholesterol (Cholesterol is an important constituent
of many fats). Lack of sleep, worry and lack of exercise have also been incriminated here as
in Coronary disease. Deaths from hypertension with heart disease are generally deaths from
heart failure. The heart, in the end, is unable to cope with the output of work Hypertension,
however, does not kill only by overstraining the heart; it may kill by rupturing the blood
vessels, particularly in the brain, Most of the deaths from Vascular Lesions of the nervous
system were due to this catastrophe. A high arterial blood pressure may restrict the supply of
blood to vital organs, such as the Kidneys, and some of the deaths due to other circulatory
disease are due to this type of circulatory failure. It is unnecessary for the ordinary man to
worry about his blood pressure, but clear answers to the problems of hypertension would enable
us to prevent much premature death.
INFLUENZA
Edmonton was hit by the pandemic of Asian Influenza as much as elsewhere, but the permanent
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