Diabetes

“ Diabetes a disorder of metabolism.—What is this insulin and what does it do? Before this is answered, the nature of the chemical disorder that is called diabetes must be somewhat understood, and to supply this understanding, a partial review of the chemistry and physiology of nutrition must be made.
The processes of life are largely chemical. The warmth of the body is provided by combustion, oxidation of food. If the supply of food is discontinued, life ends, and the body cools exactly as a gasoline motor stops and cools off when its supply of fuel is exhausted. ”

“ As we have seen, thin people are not immune if the heredity tendency in them is strong; and they develop the severest form of diabetes at a relatively tender age, and yet [Pg 40] it is possible that even the number of these may be reduced in time. A leading authority once published the family trees of a number of diabetic families and these family trees suggest that the tendency to diabetes becomes stronger with each succeeding generation. In the grandparents the disease was mild and came on late in life—not until they had overeaten, presumably, for many years and were fat. ”

“ Diabetes is a very fatal form of disease, recovery being exceedingly rare. Over 50% die of coma, another 25% of phthisis or pneumonia, and the remainder of Bright’s disease, cerebral haemorrhage, gangrene, &c. The most favourable cases are those in which the patient is advanced in years, those in which it is associated with obesity or gout, and where the social conditions are favourable. A few cures have been recorded in which the disease supervened after some acute illness. The unfavourable cases are those in which there is a family history of the disease and in which the patient is young. ”

“ The disease is comparatively rare in the colored race; women more than men in the negro,- nine to six. In a considerable proportion of the cases of diabetes the patients have been very fat at the beginning of or prior to the onset of the disease. It is more common in cities than in country districts. The combination of intense application to business, over-indulgence in food and drink, with a sedentary life, seem particularly prone to induce the disease. Injury to or disease of the spinal cord or brain has been followed by diabetes. ”

“ The added danger of diabetes may be avoided if the patient is in good condition before he goes to operation, and if acidosis is promptly combated with insulin. It is wise for the diabetic patient to employ only a very skillful surgeon, and to make certain either that he is familiar with the treatment of diabetes, or that he has associated with him some physician who has had a considerable experience with diabetes. ”

“ Diabetes is a chronic illness affecting nearly 21 million Americans of all ages and backgrounds. It can cause blindness, nontraumatic amputations, kidney disease, and increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Though diabetes affects Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, certain groups are at higher risk, including Hispanic, Asian/Pacific, African, and Native Americans. A small percentage of people with the disease suffer from Type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes. These individuals are usually children or young adults whose bodies are unable to make insulin. ”

“ Sugar is the most desiccating of all salts; it sucks the liquids of the blood through the veins; hence the coagulation, and then the solidification of the blood; hence tubercles in the lungs, hence death. That is why diabetes borders on consumption. Then, do not crunch sugar, and you will live. I turn to the men: gentlemen, make conquest, rob each other of your well-beloved without remorse. ”

“ Doctors who suffer from diabetes are too prone to watch their urine carefully from day to day and this only emphasizes their solicitude about themselves, impairs their digestion, and produces such preoccupation of mind that all their functions are sure to be disturbed. After a time they learn that their general condition is a more important question than the amount of sugar in their urine. If they can maintain their weight with reasonable freedom from the secondary symptoms of diabetes, then the primary symptom—the amount of sugar in the urine—may be almost or quite neglected. ”

“ Again, it is well known that the later in life diabetes occurs the more amenable it is to treatment, and that if a proper diabetic diet be adhered to by the patient his life need scarcely be shortened. On the other hand, diabetes mellitus is a disease in which the expectant plan is dangerous. If it does not improve it usually gets worse; and many a patient has fallen a victim to his own indifference and indisposition to adhere to a regimen under which he could have lived his natural term of life. ”

“ Diabetes can lead to severe complications, including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, and lower-extremity amputations. Up to 1 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disorder that destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, while an estimated 16 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, in which the body does not sufficiently produce or process enough insulin. Type 2 diabetes is often related to obesity, and it is rising rapidly among men and women of all ages. Type 2 diabetes is also on the rise among children, for whom it was once extremely rare. ”

“ Each year, an estimated 500,000 more Americans are told by their physicians that they have diabetes. This chronic disease interferes with the body's ability to derive energy from glucose, a type of sugar and an important product of digested food. When diabetes strikes children, it is in a form that can soon be fatal without daily injections of the life-saving hormone insulin. Most people with diabetes have another form of the disease that begins in adulthood and that, over the years, can insidiously and progressively damage the heart, eyes, kidneys, and nervous system. ”

“ Diabetes
is a serious disturbance of nutrition. It is known and tested by the appearance of sugar in the urine. However, the conclusion should not be drawn that one has diabetes if the urine test for a day shows sugar. This may be due to an excess of carbohydrates, particularly of sugar in the diet a day or two previous and all trace of it may disappear in a day. If continued tests for some period show an excess, nutritional disturbances are indicated.
The most usual form of diabetes is diabetes mellitus. It is supposed to be due to a disturbance in the secretions from the pancreas. ”

“ If the diabetic tendency of an individual is marked, diabetes may develop, in very early life. The pancreas here is too weak to withstand the normal functional strain of growth. When this is the case, the disease is of extreme severity. If the diabetic tendency is slight, it may not show itself except as the result of long continued overeating. If the pancreatic islands are functionally strong, they withstand infections and injury from disease or poor blood supply; if weak, they fail and diabetes results. ”

“ Type 2 diabetes is more common and frequently occurs in individuals who have a family history of the disease and in people who are obese, inactive, or older. This form of diabetes stops a person's body from using insulin properly. By maintaining healthy eating habits and exercising daily, Americans can help prevent and reduce the effects of diabetes. Individuals should consult with their doctors and receive a preventive screening to help detect diabetes in its earliest stages. ”

“ Diabetes represents the absence from the body, probably as the result of disease, of certain substances which are responsible for the control of the digestion and use of sugar, and insulin cannot restore these tissues or substances any more than the injections of other glands can restore youth to the aged. ”

“ Juvenile onset diabetes is {104} usually controlled by means of regular injections of insulin.
Adult onset diabetes is less serious than juvenile diabetes; it occurs more often in the elderly and especially in people who are overweight. Diabetes can appear in a person after a traumatic event: great stress, a physical accident, surgery, infection, or a severe emotional disturbance. It may also appear after a person has gone through a long period of fatigue, depression, indecision, or sense of hopelessness. ”

“ Almost 17 million Americans have diabetes, a disease that prevents the body from using its own insulin to break down sugars. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. During National Diabetes Month, we recognize advancements in preventing, treating, and detecting this disease, and we renew our commitment to helping Americans with diabetes live longer, healthier lives. ”

“ Diabetes afflicts perhaps one in twenty Americans and is one of the leading causes of death in our Nation. Every year, diabetes takes more than 35,000 lives and contributes to the loss of another 95,000. Diabetes can cause complications such as blindness, heart or kidney disease, strokes, birth defects, and lower life expectancy. ”

“ If there were no other reason but the greater frequency of diabetes among the obese, this of itself would be sufficient to act as a strong deterrent motive. It may well be used as such, especially in families where a tendency to diabetes has been manifest. Diabetes figures as a cause of death in life insurance statistics five times more frequently among those who are over-weight than in the general population. ”

“ Actually a large part of the pancreas may be destroyed before diabetes results. In dogs, little more than one-tenth of the gland remaining intact is sufficient to prevent the excretion of sugar. Men are more susceptible to diabetes than dogs, but even in men the pancreas may be seriously affected by inflammation or cancer before its insulin capacity is reduced to the point where actual insulin shortage is manifest. ”

“ In a nutshell, they have established pretty well that diabetes is a disease in which there is an excess of sugar in the blood and urine because of an insufficient amount of the secretion of the islands of Langerhans in the pancreas. Removal of the pancreas makes the body, essentially the liver, unable to retain sugar, as well as unable to burn up sugar for energy. ”

“ Diabetes is a serious and widespread public health problem, resulting from the inability of the body to convert nutrients into energy. This debilitating and often fatal disease affects about 10 million Americans and is occurring among all age and socioeconomic groups at an increasing rate. More than 35,000 people die from diabetes every year, and the disease contributes to deaths from heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and blood vessel disorders. ”

“ Hardening of arteries a cause of diabetes.—The pancreas may be injured, as is true of all of the organs of the body, by disturbance of its blood supply, especially through hardening of the walls of the arterial tubes which bring it its blood, and narrowing of their lumens or passageways. Older persons with hardened arteries may develop diabetes in this manner. On the other hand, many persons have extreme arterial disease and consequent destruction of pancreatic islands without diabetes. ”

“ The Individual in Diabetes.—While diabetes is a question of glycosuria and usually of hyperglykemia, and the consumption of any form of cane sugar or of starch convertible into it, will usually increase the diabetic tendency, not all the forms of starch which may change into cane sugar have the same effect in all individuals or undergo the same modifications. Some patients, for instance, stand milk better than others and may take large quantities of it so that there is less craving for starchy foods. ”

“ CAUSES.——A diabetes is often the consequence of acute diseases, as fevers, fluxes, &c. where the patient has suffered by excessive evacuations; it may also be occasioned by great fatigue, as riding long journies upon a hard-trotting horse, carrying heavy burdens, running, &c. It may be brought on by hard drinking, or the use of strong stimulating diuretic medicines, as tincture of cantharides, spirits of turpentine, and such like. It is often the effect of drinking too great quantities of mineral waters. ”

“ Not since the discovery of insulin over half a century ago, however, has the outlook for advances in the treatment, cure and ultimate prevention of diabetes been as promising as it is today. In recent years, research has yielded new and exciting information about the causes and treatment of diabetes and its complications. ”

“ It is known as renal diabetes, is apparently harmless, probably not uncommon, and may represent the condition affecting most of those “diabetics” who can disregard diet with impunity. The blood sugar and plasma CO2 are usually considered the only safe guides in the treatment of diabetes mellitus and no extended medical treatment or surgical interference should ever be attempted without their estimation. ”

“ The effort to gain an understanding and a sure method of controlling diabetes has taken years, and while the scientist delved in his laboratory, the seemingly unconquerable disease continued to take an ever-increasing toll of young and aged victims. ”

“ Diabetes centuries old.—Now diabetes is no new disease.
It was described by Aretaeus, a Greek who lived in the third century, A.D., and hundreds of scientists have worked steadily on the problem ever since that time. Indeed the history of the discovery of insulin is typical of all great medical discoveries of modern times. It represents the summation of a vast amount of knowledge contributed bit by bit by scientists all over the world. When Banting conceived his idea, he took it to Dr. MacLeod, director of physiologic research in the University of Toronto. ”