A Diabetic Manual for the Mutual Use of Doctor and Patient (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ...to increase the amount of exercise. An advantage which the omission of fat from the diet affords is the rest which is given to the digestive tract. Former treatment, which increased the fat in the diet, was the converse of this, and frequently led to vomiting, with the result that patients on the verge of coma fell into it. In every way seek to prevent worry on the patient's part, and from the start give them to understand that they are at school rather than at hospital. Patients upon a low diet should be guarded from infections. If a nurse has a cold she should be relieved from duty, certainly from duty near diabetics. For this reason, when on a low diet, patients should keep out of street cars and shun congregations of people. It is surprising how variable is the period required to render the urine sugar-free. Frequently a urine which contains 7 per cent. of sugar becomes free from sugar after fasting for four meals, and, conversely, a urine with only 3 per cent. of sugar may still retain traces after the patient has been deprived of food for three or four days. Cases presenting acidosis I believe invariably require longer to become free from sugar. In general, cases seen soon after onset become sugar-free promptly, whereas the reverse is true for those of long duration. However, Case No. 733, age at onset seventeen years, was fasted twenty-six months later, when he showed 6.6 per cent. of sugar and became sugar-free in two days. The explanation in this instance was apparently the fact that the case was remarkably mild, being of the obesity type; in fact, the patient's highest weight--196 pounds--was reached when he first came under observation, and during the preceding twenty-six months he had gained twenty-six pounds. Children showing...