INSULIN CURE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 14 August 1924, Page 9

INSULIN CURE.

SUCCESS IN CHRISTCHURCH. DR. MILLIGAN’S EXPERIENCES. Dr. R. R, I>. Milligan, who is attending to diabetic patients at the Christchurch Hospital, gave an address on diabetes and insulin before the Canterbury Philosophical Institute on Wednesday night. He was unable to state how prevalent the disease is in New Zealand, but lie said that a considerable number of persons, especially older ones, went about with diabetes, but did not know what they were suffering from, if the disease was not making rapid progress. He would say, roughly, that there were 200 diabetics in Christchurch. He would not say that they had it in a severe form and were in imminent danger of death, but 200, probably, was the minimum number, ft attacked persons of all ages, but was not as severe in older persons as in younger persons. As far as was known, it was not due to a deficiency ; it was not an infection; it was a hardening and destruction of certain special cells for some reason which, at present, was unknown. The Official Year Book showed that slightly less than 200 persons in New' Zealand died of diabetes every year, about a fifth of the number that died in New Zealand of cancer. Next year, probably, there would be. a tremendous drop in the death rate Loin diabetes, and in a few years there might be no deaths .from diabetes in the Dominion. Ihe use ot insulin undoubtedly was keeping a number of diabetics alive in the Christchurch hospital. Except in young patients, once a diabetic always a diabetc. or a potential one at leas : t, but it was hoped that young people who were kept going with insulin would be able to regenerate the pancreas, which plaved an important part- in diabetes, and would get rid of the disease. The price of insulin was falling tremendously. ft would become more readily available, but. on the principle of once a diabetic always a diabetic, which was the only safe theory, the cost was continuous. Going into the -symptoms, hr* said that in diabetes, there was a failure of conditions or substances that aided chemical action, and those that tailed were necessary for oxidisation of the glucose molecules. The symptoms were a general increase in weakness, loss of weight, a. ravenous appetite and a great thirst, with the passage of a correspondingly large quantity of urine. The thirst was the result of the abnormal passage of urine. In addition, the quantity of sugar in a glucose form was large in a diabetic, compared with the ouantitv in a normal person, and the kidneys of a diabetic were continually -excreting sugar: but all persons who had sugar in their urine were not diabetics. In reply to questions. Dr. Milligan said that diabetics under hi<s charge treated themselves in their homes, and went about their usual vocations. Even a schoolboy treated himself. Insulin had_ been a great success not only in Christchurch, but in all other places where it Ava,s tried.