DIABETES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 367, 5 July 1946, Page 33

DIABETES

(Written for "The Listener’ by DR.

H. B.

TURBOTT

Mirector of the "Livision Of ochool Mygiene, Health Dept.)

OST of us are familiar with the word diabetes. Briefly it is a disease which prevents the body making proper use of sugar, and it afflicts many people. Certain cells in our bodies, in the pancreas gland, make a substance called insulin. This insulin passes into the blood stream and makes it possible for the body to store sugar, and when the call comes for energy, it helps, to convert this sugar into muscle energy. If this agent insulin was not on the job, the sugar would simply pile up in our blood instead of being stored or burnt as energy. The kidneys would be asked to try and excrete the excess of sug‘ in this condition. More water would be wanted to enable the excess sugar to stream out through the kidneys. The sufferer would become terribly thirsty, and hungry almost all the time, because that sugar from the carbo-hydrates that were consumed would not be turning into calories of energy. Instead, it would be unused and wasted. In effect, he would be eating a great deal more than usual and losing weight all the time. That, in short, is diabetes. Now what is it that predisposes some people to suffer from this disease? Heredity has something to do with it. It does seem to run in some families/ Hence, any family in which the father or mother is diabetic will need to rec: nise this fact and guard against overeating and overweight, and have a medical examination from time to time. The disease is more prevalent among those between the ages of 40 and 60, and commoner in those in that period of life who eat too much carbo-hydrate and sugar foods, and who are overweight. Onset May Be Sudden Diabetes may come on suddenly, with a great thirst, though usually it starts gradually, with tiredness, skin irritation and a state of no energy for anything. This weakness, coupled with a_ large appetite and a thirst that cannot be satisfied, and frequency of urination, drives the sufferer to the doctor. The

diagnosis is easily made by testing the urine for sugar. In less severe cases the disease may be present for a long time and remain unsuspected if there is no medical check-up and no testing of the urine for normality. Twenty years ago a diagnosis of diabetes condemned the patient to a life of drastic dieting; with no promise of survival of more than a few years. In 1921 the discovery of insulin gave new life to diabetics. It was a discovery that gave a wonderfully increased life span to sufferers and has enabled them to lead almost normal lives again. Nowadays great attention is still paid to diet, but insulin has made the task easier. A diabetic is able to control his disease by proper diet, the use of insulin, and exercise. And carrying out this control intelligently he has a good chance of living as long with diabetes as he might without it. Science extracts the insulin, which the patient’s body cannot manufacture, from the pancreas of certain animals and it is given to him in the form of an injection. The patient can once again use the sugar and carbohydrate in his food, and may even, in some cases, learn to do without the added insulin after a while. While we do not know how some people develop diabetes, we do know it hits middle-aged, overweight folk more than others, and also those with an hereditary tendency. Annual medical examination with urine test should be made a rule in diabetic families. Middle-aged overweights should eat less sugar, starch and fat, and exercise more, and have an occasional medical overhaul: