To the editors.
I’m afraid you’ve goofed again. In your September 16th column [The Straight Dope] you use the phrase “the whole thing is so ironic it’s an instant cure for pernicious anemia.” I’m surprised you didn’t know that pernicious anemia is caused by a deficiency in a protein called intrinsic factor which carries Vitamin B12 to the ileum, the last segment of the small intestine, where the complex binds to a receptor and is absorbed into the blood. No amount of iron would cure it but a good shot in the arm of B12 would do a lot of good. Would you please set the record straight?
Larry Greenblatt
Junior, Northwestern University Medical School
Cecil Adams replies:
Get lost, kid, you bother me.