Dietetics for NursesProudfit, Fairfax T. (Fairfax Throckmorton)
Science
Dietetics for Nurses
Proudfit, Fairfax T. (Fairfax Throckmorton)
Diet in disease
~Sugar in the Urine.~--The appearance of sugar in the urine may not
necessarily signify diabetes, it may be merely a temporary glycosuria
due to certain pathological conditions, such as infectious diseases,
diseases or trauma which affect the pancreas, and which disappear upon
the recovery from the disease. But any appearance of sugar in the
urine should be looked upon with suspicion, since the future welfare
of the patient depends largely upon an early diagnosis in any form of
diabetes.
~True Diabetes.~--Allen claims that true diabetes may always be
distinguished from nervous glycosuria by the application of the laws
governing these conditions (Allen's Paradoxical Law[137]), which is
"whereas in normal individuals the more sugar given the more is
utilized, the reverse is true in diabetes."
~Manufacture of Sugar from Other Foods.~--If the carbohydrate foods
alone caused all the trouble in diabetes, the disease might be more
easily controlled. This, we found, however, not to be true, since in
certain conditions the body utilizes the protein foods for the
manufacture of glucose also. Consequently in diabetes if the absolute
sugar output of the body is to be controlled, the intake of
nitrogenous foods must be likewise adjusted.
~Functions of Carbohydrates.~--In the chapter describing the
functions of the carbohydrates in the human body it was demonstrated
that their energy-producing properties did not cover the extent of
their usefulness. It has been proved that this food constituent
normally acts as neutralizing agent for the toxic acids produced
within the organism as a result of the breaking down of the _fats_.
Hence, when this function of the carbohydrates becomes impaired, these
acids, Oxybutyric acid, Diacetic acid and Acetone, fail to be
neutralized and are consequently absorbed into the blood stream,
giving rise to a form of intoxication known as acidosis. When acidosis
becomes extreme, the diabetic patient is apt at any time to succumb to
the dreaded diabetic coma.
~Keeping Urine Sugar Free.~--Thus it is seen that the treatment of
diabetes mellitus consists not alone of freeing the urine from sugar
and keeping it free, but of controlling the acidosis which may at any
time develop.
~Diabetic Cures.~--Numberless so-called diabetic cures have been
brought forward and more or less tested for years, but whether they
have really accomplished cures has not been satisfactorily proved. Not
until Dr. Allen instituted what is known as the Allen's Starvation
Treatment has the disease been so universally treated, at least by one
method or modification of one method. Dr. Joslin, who has used this
treatment most successfully, does not claim to have accomplished a
cure, but states that he is watching the results of the treatment in
his patients with interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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