Diabetes affects an estimated six million Americans.
It is a chronic ailment for which, there is good treatment but no known cure.
It is a formidable disease because of the possible complications.
Fortunately, we can do many, now in areas of both primary and secondary prevention.
In diabetes something wrong with the body's ability to use, sugar.
In a typical, overt case of diabetes, the level of sugar in the blood will be too high and sugar will spill over from the blood into the urine.
On the other hand, in many cases of diabetes, the defect in sugar utilization will become apparent only with a glucose tolerance test.
Blood sugar is first determined after several hours of fasting and then again at intervals after the patient is given one-half ounces of glucose solution to drink.
By studying, the curve drawn between the measurements at various times, the doctor can detect a diabetic tendency.
If the test is positive and the patient yet has no symptoms of diabetes, he is said to have preclinical or chemical diabetes.
What causes the defect in the body's use of sugar? Insulin is the sugar-regulating hormone produced by the islets in the pancreas.
Insufficient insulin production may be the problem, or the body may be resistant to the effect of insulin.
It is now known that two quite different types of diabetes.
One, the juvenile type, affects children, adolescents, and young adults and involves a definite lack of insulin secretion.
The other maturity onset tends to occur in middle life, in this type insulin, production is adequate, but for reasons that are still not clear the body does not properly respond to the insulin.
Major symptoms of diabetes include increased thirst and urination (in some children, bedwetting may be due to diabetes) loss of weight, sometimes with increased appetite and excessive food intake; fatigue; weakness; itching of genitals and rectum; decreased resistance to infections such as boils and carbuncles and to general infections such as tuberculosis.
There is a tendency in diabetics towards atherosclerosis of heart, leg, and brain arteries.
Sometimes diabetes may announce itself by poor leg circulation, angina pectoris, or a frank heart attack.
Diabetics should avoid, as much as possible, people who have colds, fevers, sore throats, flu, pneumonia.
When an epidemic of respiratory infection occurs in the neighborhood or community, it is a good idea to avoid crowded places.
A diabetic should avoid getting chilled and rain-soaked.