Capsules

P: Alarmed at the growing fad of self-imposed low-salt dieting, the Illinois State Medical Society warned that the diets are futile as weight reducers and are a serious danger to health, especially in summer weather, when body salt is already depleted through excessive perspiration. "The only persons who might [benefit] from such a diet," said the society, "are those seriously ill of heart or kidney diseases [and who are] under the constant care of a physician."

P: Alfalfa-seed tea, long a favorite home "remedy" for arthritis and diabetes, not only lacks curative powers, but may give the user severe skin eruptions. So reported Dr. William H. Kaufman, after a study of six skin cases in Roanoke, Va. He added that such skin ailments may be hard to diagnose, since most alfalfa-tea enthusiasts are ashamed to admit that they drink the brew.

P: The term "athlete's heart" should be abolished, said the A.M.A. Journal, because it suggests conditions that probably do not exist: "Exercise, even when strenuous, will not damage normal hearts." Nevertheless, too-strenuous exercise may injure a heart already weakened from other causes; young athletes should have close medical supervision.

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