Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 1958)
1 Here is a breakfast used in a test for diabetes. It in cludes orange juice, bread, cereal with milk and sugar, and coffee with sugar. If a urine analysis shows sugar two hours after eating, a blood-sugar test is sug gested. Early diagnosis is vital in controlling condition. 2 A diabetic diet usually minimizes the foods shown here. Too much starch and sugar is provided by the bread, potatoes, beans, ice cream, and sugar. The diabetic body is unable to convert them to heat and energy as needed. Here's why gives better TOTAL results in GEL3 Within a generation, it has been reduced from a deadly ravager to a controllable disorder, and even greater hope lies ahead. . H I .-.1 I M It-Vi'M. :J 5 11 I f 1 I I I I I I I J I s - u 1 ' 1 j u 1 1 ui csQnscBcsascB I M y iiacn Kyan A portly, middle-aged Chicago at torney stepped from his doctor's office recently and nodded to his wife, waiting anxiously in the reception room. "It's what we suspected," he said. "Diabetes." After a moment's silence, he added, "I wonder if I could have accepted the news as calmly in the old days." With these words, the Chicagoan ex pressed intimate knowledge of a once deadly ravager which, within his memory, had been reduced to a difficult but controllable disorder and may be curbed even further in the near future. Diabetes had developed in a paternal uncle when the attorney was still a youth. There were the usual symptoms acute thirst and hunger, loss of weight, drowsiness. The uncle's body was failing to change sugary and starchy foods into heat and energy, in stead burdening the kidneys with a destructive excess of sugar. The only treatments then available were "starva tion" diets and desperate "miracle" cures. In a year, the uncle was dead. A hereditary disorder, diabetes later developed in another uncle. But it was 1934 then, and the pendulum had started swinging toward a happier end ing. Insulin,, discovered by Canadian Arrlsvo 1TiA4n:n1.- DnMilw . 1 1 uvvhWAB x-icuuiiLiv, 4cui iui ciiiu. isiuiries Best in 1921. had become a lifesavini? . 0 part of diabetes treatment. Only unmodified insulin was known, U 3 :i . 1 -11 . uvwcvci, anu 11 aciea so rapidly in helping the bodv control its snear npprls that the uncle required two or three hypodermic injections a day. Research had given him and other diabetics new life; now it must give them a freer life. By 1936 researchers had produced the first slow-action insulin. For the uncle it meant reducing his injections to one a day. But diabetics vary in their in sulin needs; some were sensitive to the new insulin, others required doses with faster reaction or greater intensity. Through the years, three additional varieties of insulin were discovered, each tailored to specific needs of in dividual patients. They now permit diabetics like the Chicago attorney an almost normal life, with minimum re strictions on diet and use of the syringe. ""HE attorney has still another reason for optimism. An even better life may be offered him by a new development which one expert describes as "potentially the greatest find in dia betic research in the last 36 years," or since the discovery of insulin. These high hopes are pinned on the effectiveness of a small white pill. UI 1 This is the paraphernalia diabetics use to correct body's imbalance of insulin. Tnlron i.a1Kr i mirtUt A .1 1 r 11, Aiijgub uu uie wont OI insulin without the discomfort of a hypodermic injection. Several such tab lets previously reached the experimen tal stage, but all failed. Now a distant relative of germ-killing sulfa drugs has renewed hope in an antidiabetic pill. Initial trials indicate that the drug tolbutamide, may help 50 to 75 percent of our diabetic DODiilation. A "Fjirnroa-. a MuiVvaii discovery being tested by an American pharmaceutical house, tolbutamide 1 t .1 . . . . . snows none 01 me narmtul side effects of previous antidiabetic tablets and can be compounded in a pill about twice the size of an aspirin tablet. The drug offers little help in child hood diabetes, but seems moderately successful in the 20-40 age group, and appears very effective among the most diabetic-prone group, those over 40. Dr. Henry Dolger of Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City, treated nPnr1 700 patients with the drug and reported it effective with four out of five patients over 40. "Nearly half these patients," he says, "have been able to discontinue insulin entirely, even in cases of long duration or where large doses of in sulin had been required." Tolbutamide recently was released for preSCriotlOn hut urili Vo warn ing that it can be used only by certain types of diabetic patients and only with a physicians approval. The American Medical Association, in advising a cau tious approach to the drug, savs far more research is needed before tolbut amide's value is fully determined. TVlO Pkino 41 1- - oiiumey, or example, Still must facp a familiar to every diabetic. He will un dergo weeks or months of adapting to insulin types and dosage. He will learn how to Use a hvnnrWmi. naoAa on himself and 'live within a prescribed routine. He will conform to a strict ""i uiougn one tar more varied and tasteful than the fasting inflicted on diabetics in the past. Most diabetics today there are about 1,600,000, with 65,000 new cases dis covered a u.uouj dttcpi mis new stoically, realizing triPV nnro fnrfr1 a far more tragic fate. They have formed ciuds and associations to exchange health tips and confidence. For diabetic children, there are Summer camps. Strangely, the advances in diabetic 28 Family Weekly, January 12, 1958 f U Indict COO ms. t (-united bv Fnlml b i" s ftt. invMllml um ' 1 This small white pill may free many diabetics from the hypodermic needle. It provides insulin orally. Unlike previous antidia betic pills, it has shown no harmful side effects. O therapy are less inspiring to medical researchers than to laymen, because the scientist operates on a principle that demands greater achievement. "The ultimate goal of medical re search," says a member of a diabetic research team at a large university, "is not curbing a disease, but preventing and curing it. Until we do that with diabetes, past achievements must be considered as only stop-gap measures." Giving impetus to researchers is the fact that America's death rate from di abetes, though drastically reduced, re mains the highest in the world, 2 times larger than England's for ex ample. The disorder is directly respon sible for 25,000 deaths a year, and its complications kill another 25,000. In addition, diabetes., largely a disease of age, is increasing in America because we have an aging population. Respite its prevalence and a' 1,000 year medical history, we know little about the causes of diabetes. Normally our body uses sugar with the help of the pancreas, a large insulin producing gland behind the stomach. In some diabetics, this gland may be dam aged, requiring artificial introduction of insulin. Or perhaps the body makes more sugar than the pancreas can han dle, or neutralizes the natural insulin. The imbalance occurs twice as often in women as in men and is preceded by obesity in eight of ten cases. But statistical knowledge alone does not explain why diabetes occurs, and until we learn the cause, a cure or preventive appears far off. The American Diabetic Association stresses the importance of yearly tests, -particularly for persons past 40 who are overweight and have a diabetic history in the family. The association points out that perhaps one out of three mild diabetics can be controlled by diet alone if it is discovered early. Another tip for the potential diabetic is to avoid overweight. The National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Dis ease says, "Perhaps the most promising area for prevention of diabetes is the control of obesity. Striking decreases in the incidence and severity of diabetes accompanied loss of body weight in cer tain European countries during both World Wars, and when the food supply increased, so did diabetes." Obesity research may not provide the final answer. False starts and failures are expected. But from the still-fresh history of insulin, with its temporary disappointments and frustrations, to day's researchers draw encouragement that they, too, will reach their goal a preventive and a cure for diabetes. Family Weekly, January 12, 195 29 better than aspirin ... even with buffering action 1 I V rJ 1 1kJ i n i o- . . y I I - J L H BECAUSE ASPIRIN contains O v wljfone pain reliever ADD BUFFERING ACTION and you still have only one. ,r iU ) U i Relieves Pain Cains Nerves FifkU Depression - J 0 r BUT ANACIN V relieves pain, calms nerves, fights depression. Anacin is like a doctor's prescription. That is, Anacin contains not just one but a combination of medically proven active ingredients. Anacin (1) gives fast re lief from pain of headache, neuritis and neuralgia. (2 ) Calms jittery nerves leaves you comfortably re laxed. (3) Fights depression. Thus, Anacin gives you better TOTAL results in pain relief than you get from aspjrin, even plus buffering action. And Anacin does not upset the stomach. Buy Anacin Tablets today. 3 out of 4 doctors recommend the ingredients of ANACIN
