Diabetes : $b Its cause and its treatment with insulinWilder, Russell M. (Russell Morse)
Science
Diabetes : $b Its cause and its treatment with insulin
Wilder, Russell M. (Russell Morse)
Diabetes; Insulin
Third, instruction in how to test the urine for sugar. This is a simple
task but of great importance. Sugar in the urine is the first signal of
inadequate treatment. To postpone correcting the mistake until other
signs appear such as thirst, excessive urination, and loss of strength,
is to court disaster. The sugar test can be completed in three minutes,
and should be made every day, preferably on a specimen of urine passed
just before the patient retires for the night. This specimen should be
sugar-free. If it is not, more insulin is needed or the diet requires
readjustment.
Fourth, advice concerning how to meet certain complications which I
shall discuss later.
TREATMENT IN CASES OF MILD DIABETES
There are instances of patients with diabetes who have lived for twenty
years or more without any effort at treatment. This consoling thought
must not make unwary the patient with a moderately severe or severe
form of the disease. It is safer to overrate the seriousness of the
condition than to commit an irreparable blunder and neglect the careful
management of a serious condition. Children and young adults, for
instance, may seem well during the first year after the appearance of
sugar, but with few exceptions they develop the severest form of the
disease later unless they are very carefully treated from the first.
A good many older persons may be treated satisfactorily with much less
dietary restriction than is necessary in the severe cases. When this
is possible, insulin is not needed and should not be used, or, in
other words, if a condition is serious enough to require insulin, it
is serious enough to require an accurately weighed diet. Occasionally
patients have so little intelligence that it is hopeless to expect
them to carry on the weighed diet in their homes. For such, and also
for patients with very mild diabetes, the following general advice is
usually beneficial:
1. Avoid sugar and all foods made with sugar, such as candy, jelly,
marmalade, syrup and molasses, pies, cakes, puddings and pastries.
Saccharin may be used if desired: one-fourth grain saccharin will equal
one teaspoonful of sugar in sweetening value.
2. Avoid cereals (breakfast foods) and cereal products, such as mush,
macaroni, spaghetti and noodles.
3. Use bread only in very small amounts, not over one ounce at a meal.
Whole wheat or white breads are preferable to any so-called diabetic
breads. Gluten bread, brown bread and corn bread vary widely in
compositions and it is safer to avoid them.
4. Potatoes, bananas, apples, peas, dried beans, carrots, beets,
turnips and onions should be used in small quantities, and not oftener
than once a day.
5. Dried fruits should be avoided. Use fresh fruits whenever possible.
Fruits canned without sugar are permissible. They may be purchased
on the market or prepared at home. Fruits may be taken every day as
substitutes for other desserts.
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