Ben Bald treats his thinning hair to a series of expensive scalp treatments, while Susie Sallow spends plenty of hard-earned money for creams and lotions advertised as "rejuve­nating" sallow, wrinkled skins. Both of them are deluded into attempting these costly, last-ditch measures for regaining a youthful appearance because they believe that the hair and the skin can be ''nourished" from the outside. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

Not one single product or method you are persuaded to try in an effort to "feed" your body externally can erase those tattletale marks of the accumulating years.

For by the time these signs of premature age show up on the outside, you may be sure that you've also started to age quite a bit on the inside. A youthful appearance begins inwardly—with healthy, properly nourished endocrine glands.

Before my efforts to help you recover your lost youth can progress any further, you must realize that these endocrine glands of yours are the dictators which determine whether or not your all-out campaign to look and feel younger will succeed or fail. These eight endocrine glands are the very core of your existence, your appearance, your sex life.

There's no denying that some of us are born with healthier glands than others. Yet the fact remains that even an ordi­narily healthy set of glands can be neglected and ill-nourished to the point of beginning the aging process years before it normally should set in.

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce you to your endocrine glands and their functions, and to provide you with an outline of their food requirements. For your glands must be nourished with the proper food elements or you can't depend on them to lend you much aid in the effort to regain your vanishing youth.

If a part of the human body could be described as "tem­peramental," then I would say the word was coined to fit our endocrine glands and their hair-trigger sensitivity.

I always approach this subject of the endocrine glands with something akin to awe, for this group of eight vital little organs is the keystone of your health and happiness. They hold unlimited power over every human being, keeping one person young and vigorous despite the passing years, con­demning another to a premature old age and thrusting a third into a morass of depressed thoughts and nagging ill health.

Your endocrine glands are tyrants that must be propitiated and appeased. Otherwise their revenge is swift and relentless.

The names of these eight glandular despots are pituitary, thyroid, adrenals·, pancreas, thymus, pineal, parathyroids and gonads.

Eight strange names that mean all the difference in the world between life and death, happiness and misery, youth and old age.

How do these eight glands hold such vast control over your life? Hormones are the answer—a word that has become headline news in recent years.

When it came time to name the secretions of these all-powerful endocrine glands, some imaginative scientist chose the appropriate Greek verb "hormon," meaning "I excite." For that, in brief, is the intended function of all hormones— to excite your bodily organs into performing at maximum efficiency so you may possess all the vitality, all the mag­netism, all the radiance of a healthy, happy person.

Each one of the endocrine group empties its precious hormones directly into the bloodstream without the ducts (tubes) which characterize most other body glands. For this reason you may often see the endocrines referred to as the "ductless" glands.

No person can say with authority that any one of these glands is the "most important," because every one of the group has its work so closely tied in with that of the other seven that a slight upset in one member of the endocrine family reacts almost immediately on the efficiency of the others. What one gland does, or does not do, is registered without fail in the activities of the entire clan.

Unlike your digestive tract which can rebel with pains and rumblings because of the ill treatment suffered at your hands (with a knife and fork in them), your endocrine glands suffer in silence.

The only way you can tell when your glands are not func­tioning up to par is when you begin noting the effects of their suffering. These effects often put in an appearance in spots quite remote from the seat of the original trouble.

For instance, the two adrenal glands (each about as large as a bean) are suspended one above each kidney. Yet when these adrenal glands are not behaving as they should, the skin becomes dark and sallow, with deep lines. Note, please, that the adrenals don't advertise their upset by a pain in the small of the back where they are located. Instead, the warn­ing signs show up in a wrinkled, sallow, deeply discolored skin.

As a further example of the devious ways in which the endocrine glands proclaim their unhappiness, there is the unpredictable thyroid, located at the front of the neck. Fre­quently any change in the normal functioning of this well-known gland may bring on ulcers in the stomach, or in the upper intestine.

The pituitary gland, located behind the nose at the base of the brain, if seriously starved or injured, may cause you to lose all sexual power, since the sex glands (gonads) in men and women alike receive their impulses from the pituitary.

Here is the outstanding fact about this group o£ glands which you need to keep uppermost in your mind as you read through this chapter—and as you sit down to the table at your next meal: Your endocrine glands, as well as their youth-giving hormones, are made of protein. Protein foods are hormone builders and conditioners. Therefore, a continued lack of high-grade food protein in your diet can weaken these glands so seriously that old age has gained a head start on you almost before you realize it. Feed your glands—not your stomach—if you want to look and feel younger than the cal­endar says you are.

Nor is protein the only item on the "menu" for your en­docrine glands. Foods—or concentrated diet supplements—· that provide you with all the minerals and vitamins essential to keep a body glowing with health are likewise "musts" in your program for feeding your glands.

Let's take time for a simplified "close-up" on each gland as it relates to your goal of Eat-and-Grow-Younger.

The Pituitary, Your "Boss" Gland

The pituitary is no larger than a small-sized pea and lies at the base of the brain, immediately behind the root of your nose. The pituitary is the gland that bosses all the other glands, and helps keep them on the job.

Although one of the smallest of the group, the pituitary is the hardest-working of them all. No fewer than 12 different hormones are secreted by this master gland, meaning that the pituitary has at least a dozen different tasks to perform for your body.

Despite its miniature size, the pituitary is divided into two distinct parts, called lobes (anterior and posterior), each of which is a separately functioning organ.

To simplify the many and complex functions of the two pituitary lobes, it's sufficient for you to have this summary, showing some of the blessings bestowed upon you by a healthy, properly nourished pituitary gland:

1.  Normal blood pressure

2.  Good muscular tone

3.  Sturdy bones

4.  Normal nerve tension

5.  Efficient senses of sight, sound and smell

6.  Normal flow of urine

7.  Plenty of initiative

8.  Zest for work and play

9.  Sustained interest in life

10.  Vigorous sex tone

11.  Prolonged youthfulness

Whenever you see a person in the eighties or nineties whose youthful appearance belies his or her calendar years, and whose enthusiasm for living remains keen, you may be sure that this person has a healthy, well-nourished pituitary gland. Dr. Herman H. Rubin, distinguished gland specialist, says of the pituitary: "While the thyroid makes available the supply of crude energy by speeding up cellular processes, the pituitary is responsible for the transformation, expendi­ture and conversion of that energy into healthful, youthful vitality.”

Many persons are the nervous, worrying type (and please tell me, if you can, what ages a man or woman more than continual worrying) because their pituitary gland does not produce enough of the special hormones that feed the brain. Such persons are likely to become quite irascible, especially toward those closest to them.

The pituitary gland, through the little-known hypothal-amus that lies directly above it, is also the appetite center and the sleep center o£ the body. Loss o£ appetite, and in­somnia! Two universal complaints found in thousands o£ the past-forty group who have strayed from the rules of good nutrition.

Exhaustive research has discovered that the pituitary is extremely sensitive to diet.

If you do not eat enough high-protein foods (meat, espe­cially, seems to have a stimulating effect on this gland), then your pituitary cannot produce a normal supply of its own dozen or more vitally needed hormones which, themselves, are made of protein.

In addition to protein, the pituitary is stimulated by vitamin E (richest source is wheat germ); and increased amounts of vitamin A either in foods or in concentrated form, have directly beneficial effects on the entire endocrine group.

Also essential to a healthy pituitary gland is the mineral manganese. Foods rich in this mineral are citrus fruits, outer coatings of grains, green leaves of edible plants, egg yolk and all fish, especially those from salt water.

It might be well to mention here that a derangement o£ the posterior (back) lobe o£ the pituitary gland always causes an abnormal craving for sweets. And again we see the old vicious circle beginning to form—too many starches and sweets, and too little protein resulting in a starved, deranged pituitary gland; and then a still greater craving for more and more of the same high-starch foods that caused the trouble in the first place.

Your Thyroid Sets the Pace

This well-known member o£ the endocrine family is located in the front of the neck. (A goiter is nothing more than a greatly enlarged thyroid gland.) The thyroid is larger in women than in men, and becomes still larger during adolescence, menstruation, pregnancy and menopause.

Thyroxine, as the hormone secreted by the thyroid gland is called, is about 60 per cent iodine. This vital hormone is formed when organic iodine combines in the thyroid gland with an amino acid (protein), assisted by still another amino acid. From this, we establish the fact that protein is essential to a healthily functioning thyroid gland.

Chief task of the thyroid hormone is to determine the speed at which you live—in other words, the rate at which your body consumes its oxygen. For this reason, the thyroid gland has the power to increase your sensitivity to all normal mental and physical stimuli. To an astonishing degree, the thyroid also governs the constantly changing flow of your emotions.

When functioning normally, the thyroid keeps you from becoming either too fat, or too thin.

Texture and quality of your skin and hair is regulated by the thyroid hormone. Surest symptoms of too little thyroxine in the blood are dry, coarse, goose-pimply skin; and dry, lifeless, brittle hair.

The thyroid gland is also closely linked with the normal functioning of all other glands in your body. Because the thyroid gives your body much of its energy and virility, serious interference with the work of this gland causes the sex glands to slow down, even to lose all functioning powers. That is why the sex instinct is very often dormant in a grossly overweight man or woman—their abnormally fat bodies bespeak a diseased thyroid gland.

From the foregoing, you can begin to appreciate that the thyroid gland determines to a marked degree how youthfully attractive you are—and remain.

Since the thyroid hormone helps regulate the texture of your skin and hair, controls your weight, determines the amount of energy you possess and stimulates your sexual powers, it's no exaggeration to say that the first outward signs of premature old age have their beginning in an under-par thyroid gland.

When secreted in normal amounts, the thyroid hormone helps you stay mentally alert and physically attractive—two things that comprise the very essence of youth.

A healthy, properly nourished thyroid gland is especially important to the woman who is either approaching, or going through, her menopause. The thyroid hormone helps com­bat the overweight, dullness and apathy that commonly afflict a woman during this emotionally trying period. A serious decrease in the thyroid hormone at this time is also known to bring on arthritis.

A normal thyroid gland can also help maintain sexual desire in a woman during the menopause, and for years after she has passed through her climacteric. The same holds true for sexual power in men, who must also undergo a climacteric that usually sets in from about fifty to fifty-five.

I don't need to dwell at length on the fact that a normal sex life does more to help a man, or a woman, maintain a feeling of youth than any other single factor. And not only do they feel young, they actually look younger. The sense of loving, and being loved, brings a sparkle to the eye and a spring to the step that no other tonic in the world can bestow, whatever your age.

Protein has a specific and dynamic effect on all the endo­crine glands, but particularly on the thyroid. This is true because protein activates the thyroid, keeping it from becom­ing sluggish, from atrophying. Gland specialists will tell you it is a well-known fact that the thyroid glands of senile per­sons are almost invariably atrophied. Further, these same specialists will tell you that keeping the thyroid gland healthy will prevent the dry and flabby skin, thinning hair, poor circulation, sensitivity to cold, easy fatigue, faulty elim­ination, lowered body metabolism and total loss of sexual powers which not only are characteristic of old age, but which are also the unmistakable symptoms of an underactive thyroid in a prematurely aging body.

The foods, then, that are necessary for proper nourishment of your thyroid gland include high-grade proteins; iodine as found in sea foods, in vegetables grown near the ocean, and in mineral concentrates; and thiamin (vitamin B-i) which is especially abundant in millet and sunflower seeds, in all gland meats such as liver, heart, brains, in lean beef and lamb, in egg yolk, sardines, fish roe, codfish and chicken, together with whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables.

If there is any doubt at all in your mind about obtaining generous amounts of either iodine or thiamin in your diet (the soil in which foods are grown determines the actual quantities of a mineral or a vitamin available to you), then I would advise supplementing your meals with these two nutrients in concentrated form. Your thyroid gland needs both these food elements too urgently for you to "guess I'm getting enough."

The Adrenals, Your Glands of Survival

These bean-sized glands are located one above each kidney; they are called your "emergency glands."

It is adrenalin, one of their hormones, that spurs every nerve and muscle into immediate, perfect coordination when you face a crisis or a great danger. That split-second leap to safety from the path of a speeding auto; that burst of energy to save a loved one in peril—these are the kinds of super­human reactions which adrenalin gives you.

When adrenalin is poured into the bloodstream from your adrenal glands at the moment that some emergency message is telegraphed to them by your brain, your entire nervous and muscular system grows tense, prepared for instantaneous action. Your brain becomes more alert; your senses of sight and hearing become acute; your heart beats more rapidly; your breathing becomes faster; and your blood pressure rises.

As an added safeguard during any emergency, adrenalin (secreted by the medulla, the pulpy inner part of the adrenal glands) sends continuous supplies of quick-burning glucose as fuel for your greatly speeded-up heart muscle. Then, after the crisis is over, the thick outer part of the adrenals, called the cortex, immediately takes command and calms down all the organs which adrenalin has excited into great bursts of superhuman activity.

Healthy adrenal glands are one of the most effective beauty aids you could desire, since the color and quality of the skin is one indication of the way in which your adrenal glands are performing. A clear, rosy color usually indicates properly functioning adrenals; whereas dark, sallow skin, heavily lined, should warn you that all is not well with them.

The adrenal glands also have a lot to do with helping your hair remain young. The cortex is suspected of being the culprit when your hair starts to become gray, since the pig­ment which colors hair is partially formed and stored in this outer layer of the adrenal glands. Obviously, sluggish adrenals would more than likely be unable to provide enough pigment to keep your hair colored, and this "rationing" of normal pigment would result in faded or gray hair.

This pair of little glands also helps neutralize any poisons that may sneak into your bloodstream—and believe me there are hundreds of them waiting to destroy you every second of your life. A disease such as blood poisoning or influenza, as well as surgical operations, places such heavy demands on the adrenal glands to "clean up" the bloodstream that the glands afterwards become weary, and their hormone secre­tions fall far below normal. That is one reason why acute nervous symptoms or severe physical exhaustion nearly always follow a surgical operation or a serious illness.

The hormone that controls your amount of pep, as well as your ability to fight off disease, is called cortin; it is secreted by the cortex (outer layer) of the adrenals. Even a mild upset of the adrenals—chances are pretty good that you're suffer­ing such an adrenal upset at this very moment, since it's a common ailment in today's world—will cause lack of pep, and what is mistaken for "plain laziness." That is, you can't bring yourself to plunge into the round of ordinary social, domestic and business activities that face you.

So beware I Whenever you tire too easily and seem to need more than seven or eight hours' sleep night after night, then the chances are you may be suffering from what is called hypo-adrenia. Other common warning signs of this glan­dular disturbance are cold hands or feet, and low blood pres­sure. Along with this mistakenly called "physical laziness" comes a marked mental lethargy that leaves you unable to think clearly, or to concentrate on important matters.

Since poorly functioning adrenal glands are certain to make you lose your youthful appearance and to expose you to chronic disease, you'd be well advised to pamper these two bean-sized glands—that is, if you don't relish the idea of an early, ailing old age.

The adrenals, especially the cortex or outer layer, are usually the first gland to be damaged by injury. (Because these two small glands are not very well protected within the body, they usually suffer from any blow that damages the kidneys.) These sensitive glands are also injured by disease, and by certain chemicals. We know that lead poisoning, or excess amounts of nicotine, severely damage the cortex. This is also true of the sulfa drugs in large doses, and the same can be said for potassium chlorate, a chemical most unwisely used in some toothpastes.

The adrenals, particularly the cortex, are also the first glands to be damaged by malnutrition.

A lot of intensive research has been done in recent years on the effect of diet on hormone production, especially the hormones secreted by the adrenals. The conclusions reached were that through proper diet it is quite possible to renew the vitality of the adrenal glands. Protein, together with vitamin C, seems to have the most beneficial effect on the adrenal glands. This is true because high-protein diets have been found to be the best measure for successfully combating hypo-adrenia—the ailment that keeps your blood pressure too low, your hands and feet like ice, and your mind and muscles about as peppy as those of a sloth.

The adrenals themselves have a very high content o£ ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Since we know that vitamin C is used in large doses to help combat infections, the conclu­sion now is that this vitamin helps stimulate the adrenal glands into producing more cortin, the hormone that fights off disease.

Because this pair of glands was designed by nature to pour forth adrenalin in times of physical danger, or emotional crisis, continued mental or emotional tension overworks your "emergency glands" to the point where your nerves and vital organs are constantly kept keyed-up to fever pitch owing to too many fake "emergency" messages from the brain, thereby sending the powerful adrenalin hormone shooting into your bloodstream when it isn't actually needed. In times of stress, the adrenal glands also release into your blood­stream a substance called cholesterol (the waxy substance now blamed for causing hardening of the arteries. See Chapter 9). For this reason, many doctors believe that arteriosclerosis, and other "diseases of age" such as coronary thrombosis and cerebral hemorrhage, may develop as a result of this constant overstimulation of the adrenal glands by high-tension living, and day-in-day-out mental or emotional strain.

This emergency function of the adrenals to act as a power­ful stimulant upon the organs of the body is a holdover from the days when man needed instantaneous physical and mental reserves to save himself from animal or human enemies. But today, when most of our emergencies are chiefly emotional or mental, this continued outpouring of the high-powered adrenalin into your bloodstream causes the heart and blood vessels to take a fearful beating. And because adrenalin is continually being squirted into the blood under the stress and strain of our highly emotional civilization, cortin is likewise constantly needed in big doses to get the body machine slowed down to normal again.

Since we know that the adrenal glands use vitamin C to manufacture the cortical hormone, it's not difficult to understand that continued high-tension living (either physical, mental or emotional) uses up a lot of vitamin C and releases a lot of cholesterol into the bloodstream. The result is depleted vitamin C reserves, unless special attention is given to replacing this vitamin through the diet; an increased tendency to infection (witness how easily an epidemic of influenza knocks over its victims during times of a local or national crisis); and high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries—that surplus amount of cholesterol from the overstimulated adrenals has to land some place, and where more convenient than on the walls of your arteries where it clogs the free flowing of the blood, causing the arteries to "harden"?

If you want to feel and look younger than you are, you'd better stop setting off those mental and emotional "false alarms" that keep your body wound up as tight as a main spring.

The old proverb that "worry kills more people than can­nons" was unconsciously aimed right at the adrenal glands, since the unwise use of their powerful hormone by an emo­tionally unstable mind is equivalent to killing off your youth—yourself as well—by inches.

A final word of advice on the care of your adrenal glands: Feed them plenty of high-grade protein; provide them with ample vitamin C (best sources are citrus fruits, melons, apricots, strawberries, green vegetables, and particularly toma­toes); make sure that foods rich in Vitamins A and B-com-plex are eaten at least twice a day; and provide them with the minerals magnesium and silicon (richest sources are citrus and other fruits, green and leafy vegetables, yellow vege­tables, walnuts and egg yolk).

The Pancreas, Your Insulin Factory

To impress you with the importance of this endocrine gland, I need only mention the word "diabetes." Although diabetes was for years blamed on the kidneys, medical science has discovered that this stealthy disease actually starts in the pancreas, that is, after the pancreas falls down on the job of secreting insulin, one of its hormones.

When not enough insulin is produced, the bloodstream becomes overcharged with sugar. Insulin helps the body "burn" its sugar, converting it into energy. When not enough insulin is produced because of a sluggish or diseased pancreas, unused sugar lies in the bloodstream like unburned coal in a stove.

The quickest way to put your pancreas out of order is to stuff yourself continually with sweet and starchy foods. After you have committed this dietary crime for years on end, the pancreas becomes discouraged and gives up trying to produce enough insulin to burn all the sugar piling up in the blood­stream. Then, my friend, you have diabetes—a controllable disease, but definitely not curable, and a potential killer at any unguarded moment.

As though the job of burning sugar isn't work enough, the pancreas must also pour enough enzymes (substances that speed up digestion in the body) into the upper intestine to help digest starches and sugars before they can be con­verted into blood sugar.

From this you can readily appreciate what an endless task it finally becomes for the pancreas of the heavy sugar-and-starch eater: Work hard to produce enough enzymes and insulin to take care of a high-carbohydrate meal, and then be compelled to do the same thing over again in a few hours —not just today, or tomorrow, but year in and year out. Any organ or gland of the body is bound to wear out under the burden of a job greater than nature designed it to perform.

If you want to show a little consideration for your hard­working pancreas, give it plenty of protein foods, since protein is necessary in the body to assure a normal produc­tion of the hormone insulin. The minerals sulphur and chlorine (found in green vegetables, all berries, fresh coconut, egg yolk, cheese—particularly Roquefort, dairy products, lean meats, salt-water fish, lobster, crabs, mussels and shrimp) are all stimulating to the pancreas.

Three Other Members of Your Gland Family

The four tiny parathyroid glands (two on either side of the thyroid gland) are mainly concerned with regulating the supply of calcium in your body. For this reason, the para­thyroids are an important quartet, since calcium is so vital to a healthy heart, nerves, muscles, teeth and bones—all o£ them your foundation for a youthful mind and body. It takes the parathyroid hormone to unlock the calcium stores in your bones before this essential mineral can be delivered into the bloodstream for distribution to its "regular cus­tomers." All the food calcium, calcium tablets or mineral concentrates in the world are of no use to your health, if your four tiny parathyroid glands can't secrete enough of their hormone to get that calcium out of your bones and into the bloodstream where it can be utilized.

It's worth remembering that while controlling the body's supplies of calcium, the parathyroids themselves need calcium to keep healthy. Hence, a diet poor in calcium is a two-edged sword: Not enough calcium for the parathyroids, which then retaliate by failing to produce the hormone that releases bone calcium into the bloodstream for your nerves, muscles, heart, teeth and bones. In addition to meat and eggs, the best sources of food calcium are found in dairy products such as powdered skim milk, buttermilk, yogurt and cheese.

The thymus gland lies in your chest not far below the thyroid. When you are born, the thymus weighs about half an ounce, then increases to almost triple its weight up to the time of adolescence, after which it begins to shrink again, until by the time you're fifty, the thymus is back to its original size. The complete functioning of this endocrine gland is not as yet fully understood by medical science, although it is suspected of helping control the body's use of phosphorus and calcium, and of taking some part in producing white blood corpuscles, one o£ your guardians against infection. Also, we know that any failure of the thymus to behave properly is caused by improper development of the front lobe of the pituitary gland. The primary precautions for normal behavior of this gland involve keeping your pituitary gland healthy and well-nourished with high-protein foods. Most mysterious of all your endocrine glands is the pineal. This is a cone-shaped little organ, no larger than a grain of wheat, suspended by a stalk just behind the mid-brain. It is known that some connection exists between the pineal gland and your brain, as well as your sex organs. Sometimes the pineal will shrink and fill up with deposits of salts known as "brain sand." This abnormal condition is caused by faulty nutrition, and recent scientific experiments have demon­strated that a degenerating pineal gland will respond to a protein diet within a remarkably short time. The minerals potassium and sodium are also known to feed the pineal gland. Richest sources of these minerals are potato peelings (potassium especially), eggplant, celery, corn, green vege­tables, berries, melons, black olives, citrus and other fresh fruits, lean beef and lamb, cottage and other cheeses, butter­milk and powdered skim milk, lobsters and oysters.

Your Sex Glands (Gonads)

I've left until last the glands which perhaps should rank first in your effort to retain the appearances and sensations of youth, since staying young is equivalent to saying "remain­ing sexually attractive and sexually capable."

What qualities or attributes make people say of a certain man or woman: "He (or she) is so young for his (her) age"?

My first answer would be sexual vibrancy—for in these two words are contained the confidence, inward feeling of power, energy, vitality, enthusiasm, mental alertness, sense of attractiveness, assurance, stamina and radiant glow which are gifts to the young in years, and which may also be found in persons of any age whose sex glands are healthy.

If there is such a thing as "youth everlasting," then surely it must center in your sex glands, for they determine your youthfulness. The hormones secreted by the gonads {ovaries in women; testes in men) exert a tremendous influence on your physical health, as well as on your ability to retain a youthful appearance and to live a long, useful life.

Testosterone, the hormone secreted by the male sex glands, is the dominant factor in producing and maintaining a man's vitality, strength and sexual powers—in brief, his maleness. In men whose natural powers of producing testosterone have been destroyed through disease, injury or a premature old age, science has experimented with a hormone made from the sex glands of bulls. But experience has shown that this synthetically produced testosterone frequently has seriously undesirable results when used in doses large enough to be effective.

Therefore, a natural source of testosterone, such as the root of the sarsaparilla herb, is not only safer but far less expensive than the synthetic male hormone produced in the laboratory. Dr. Rubin, eminent gland specialist whom I men­tioned earlier, says that one of the most hopeful items of news in recent years is the fact that testosterone can be ob­tained from plants; and the plant from which testosterone can be best extracted is none other than sarsaparilla root.

Sarsaparilla root also contains cortin (similar to the hormone secreted by the adrenal glands), and progesterone, one of the female sex hormones. From this natural combina­tion of these three hormones in one source, it's logical to assume that the male hormone needs progesterone and cortin, in balanced proportions, to prevent the testosterone from running wild and causing trouble in the body.

A natural balance between the male and female hormones (a balance that is maintained in all healthy men and women, since hormones of both sexes are present in the bodies of men and women alike) is assured by the hormone extract obtained from sarsaparilla root. This desirable natural balance between the hormones of both sexes is not possible when isolated testosterone is used, such as that manufactured from the sex glands of cattle.

So, if you feel that your health would be improved and your vitality increased by using testosterone, my advice to you is to consult a reputable physician with a view to taking the male hormone extracted from the root of the sarsaparilla herb.

Female sex hormones, secreted by the ovaries, are proges­terone (mentioned above) and estrin. It is estrin that increases a woman's vitality and sexual desire; it is estrin that produces the femininity which attracts the male.

Although the chief function of progesterone is to help provide the best conditions for pregnancy, this second ovarian hormone also combats fatigue, irritability, insomnia, headache and backache—all of which are common female ailments, brought on by an upset in the female sex glands.

A normal, happy life is next to impossible, unless your sex glands do their work properly. They are the real arbiters of your physical and mental well-being. How young you remain, in mind and body, despite the remorseless calendar, is con­trolled mainly by your sex glands.

Sex and Diet

Several years ago a group o£ sexually normal men were placed, as an experiment, on a diet containing extremely low amounts of protein. Their appetites were satisfied with meals of high-starch foods.

Within a short time they lost all interest in women: bath­ing beaches, windy corners and ringside tables at night clubs held no special appeal for these protein-starved, yet other­wise normal, males.

Even mice, those useful little laboratory animals that obligingly develop human diseases and respond to human nutrition, will lose their fertility, go through an abnormally early change of life and become aged and decrepit if kept on diets low in protein. Yet when fed liberal amounts o£ the protein in animal foods, they enjoy a remarkably extended period of sexual activity, and develop no signs of premature aging.

Because we know that an extremely close bond exists be­tween the thyroid and the sex glands, it's logical to assume that any continued diet low in protein affects the sex glands through a slowing down of the thyroid. One of the first symptoms of an underactive thyroid is decreased sexual powers. But when the thyroid is stimulated into again secret­ing normal amounts of its hormone, an early revival o£ sexual activity usually takes place.

In addition to protein foods, the minerals iron and cop­per are particularly important to the health of your sex glands. Rich sources o£ iron are beef liver and other organ meats like heart and kidney, dark poultry meat, lean beef and lamb, egg yolk, apricots, prunes, raisins, cane or sorghum molasses, whole grains, lettuce, beet tops, leeks and radishes. Copper is usually present in the foods containing iron, but especially in almonds, dried beans, whole wheat, prunes, calf and beef liver, shrimp and egg yolks.

And then there are the vitamins. Vitamins and hormones are interdependent.

Vitamin A, because it keeps all the mucous membranes o£ the body in good condition, helps your sex organs stay healthy. This vitamin also reinforces the functioning of the sex glands, especially the testes.

Thiamin (vitamin B-i), when insufficiently supplied by the diet, causes the pituitary gland to produce fewer hor­mones which stimulate the sex glands; this results in seriously decreased sexual desire in men and women alike.

Vitamin D seems to have a chemical kinship to the sex hormones, and is known to increase sexual desire. The old "prescription" of oysters and eggs to strengthen sexual desire unknowingly took advantage of the fact that both these foods contain vitamin D, as do all fatty fish, tuna, salmon, sardines, cod and halibut liver oil, butter and cheese in varying de­grees. Sunflower seeds are an unusually rich source of vitamin D. Many persons notice, too, that an outdoor life in the sun­shine increases sexual appetites, and no wonder since the action of sunshine on the human skin oils produces vitamin D without the need to obtain it from food sources. Exposing portions of your body to the sunshine for a few minutes each day, so that the ergosterol in your skin may be converted into vitamin D, is one of the best ways to assure enough vitamin D for your sex glands. (Don't bathe immediately before sunning yourself, or you will wash off the skin oils, thereby losing this benefit.)

However, please don't overload your body with vitamin D capsules in order to stimulate your sex glands. This would be dangerous, since vitamin D is one vitamin you can get too much of—and the one vitamin that may result in an unpleasant reaction if you "gorge" yourself on it. Eat nor­mally of the vitamin D foods, and try to get a normal amount of sunshine on your bare skin. It may be necessary to take a small amount of vitamin D in a scientifically balanced con­centrate during the winter months, if you live in the colder climates where you can't wear light clothing and be outdoors at this season.

Vitamin E is best known as an aid to keeping the sex organs in good condition. A serious lack of this vitamin may cause sterility. About the best sources of vitamin E are raw wheat germ (not the toasted, long-lasting variety found on grocery shelves), or wheat germ oil available in capsules.

Hundreds of cases of so-called "impotency" in men, and * 'frigidity" in women have responded to diets purposely planned to provide generous amounts of foods rich in high-proteins, iron and copper, and vitamins A, D, E and thiamin. Fortifying these planned diets with supplemental amounts of all these vitamins in concentrated form, along with the minerals iron and copper, often brought quicker and more lasting results.

A good motto would be: Take special care of your sex glands, and they, in turn, will take care of your youthfulness.

You can't be any younger than your glands. And your glands can't stay young and healthy if they are starved. Foods that befriend your glands are the youth-guards that build up vitality, physical attractiveness and sexual powers for you now and in the years to come—in short, the best youth insurance you can buy.

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