What is Diabetes and How to Diagnose?
Sufferers from diabetes should become as well acquainted as possible with their problem. Many false ideas about this disease are prevalent and as a result mismanagement is too often seen. There is much that is not understood about it, but the basic facts are simple and should serve as a guide to every patient. Doctors are anxious to teach basic facts to a diabetic, especially those facts having to do with home-administered therapy, for they know they cannot watch him constantly and check on his diet and habits day after day. Volumes have been written but basically all of them deal with a few important principles that should guide any diabetic on how to live a healthy, useful, and happy life.
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a disorder in which the pancreas does not produce enough insulin for the body’s needs. Contrary to what some may have believed, it is not a condition in which the kidneys are diseased. The pancreas is a fairly large gland located behind the stomach. When it does not produce enough insulin all the sugar in the blood is not utilized and thus begins to build up an over-supply which the kidneys have to throw off as excess. Normally the blood stream contains 100 to 120 mg. of sugar per 100 cc. of blood. When insulin is insufficiently produced this amount may increase to 300 or 400 or even higher. When sugars are not oxidized as they normally should be, fats also are incompletely oxidized. As a result diacetic acid and acetone are produced. These substances absorbed into the blood cause one to go in to coma.
Diagnosis
Usually a diabetic condition can be correctly diagnosed by doing a simple urinalysis, but this does not always reveal the presence of the disease. The absence of sugar in the urine is no absolute proof that one does not have diabetes. The positive test is done by studying the blood sugar level and the way the body handles sugar. If an examination of blood sugar done under fasting conditions reveals a level of 70 to 120, one is considered normal. A very good screening test is also being done nowadays, which consists in doing a blood-sugar test 2 hours after administering 100 grammes of carbohydrate. A reading of 150 or less ‘is good evidence that the patient does not have diabetes.
Some symptoms that may cause one to suspect diabetes are passage of large amounts of urine, increased thirst, excessive appetite and loss of weight and strength. Others are itching of the skin, infections that do not heal disturbances of vision, numbness and tingling and neuritic pain, especially in the legs.
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