Medicine: The Nonexecutive Ulcer

Peptic ulcer is far from being an exclusive ailment of high-tension executives, as popularly believed in the U.S. Elsewhere in the world, it shows up with surprising frequency among peoples as far removed as possible from the life patterns of Madison Avenue and La Salle Street. Other diseases present similar paradoxes. Last week, at hearings on a bill to set up a $50-million-a-year National Institute of International Medical Research, Senators heard Dr. Peter D. Comanduras of Medico, a voluntary aid group, cite these examples:

¶ Peptic ulcer is common among the illiterate people of India, who are not bothered by decision making, clock watching, jangling telephones or traffic jams.

¶ Coronary artery disease, associated with high-fat diets in the West, is also frequent among Indian peasants, who eat little fat.

¶Chronic sinusitis and respiratory infections afflict many refugee children in the dry climate of Jordan.

¶ Cancer of the mouth and pharynx, rare in the West as compared with cancer elsewhere in the body, is far commoner, both absolutely and proportionately, in Southeast Asia.