Kent Multer wrote:

>
> Can anyone here give me a quickie explanation of the difference between
the
> two types, and let me know whether Bernstein's book will work for types
> other than I?


Hello, Kent!

Greetings from Co. Kildare, Ireland.

Basically there are two main forms of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 11.
Type 1 usually occurs in people under the age of 40. Now, when I say
'usually' there are cases of this happening in people over the age of 40
who contract different viruses or who have organ transplants or who are on
medications which makes them Type 1. Type 1 is where the pancreas does not
produce any insulin whatsoever and so the 'patient' has to inject
themselves with insulin. Insulin is needed to transport sugar (glucose)
from the blood into the cells. If this didn't happen there would be too
much glucose in the bloodstream and this is very dangerous. Usually in an
undiagnosed Type 1 this manifests itself by an unbelievable thirst and
frequent urination.

People will say that the frequent urination is caused by the amount of
liquid imbibed, to quench the thirst, but really the opposite is the case.
You see when you're diabetic and your bloodsugar rises to a certain level,
the sugar crosses the tubes of the kidneys and causes the kidneys to flush,
draining the body of much needed fluids. This sends a signal of thirst to
the 'patient' because the body is dehydrating after the flush and so the
'patient' will continue to imbibe liquids to quench the thirst and this in
turn continues the cycle. I don't know about the States but you know the
men's lavatories' tanks that fill with water 'drip by drip' and when a
certain threshold is reached the toilet automatically flushes? Well this is
similar to what happens to someone with diabetes. When the level of sugar
floating around in the blood reaches a certain threshold the kidneys drain,
causing thirst. Eventually in a person with type1 they start to lose an
enormous amount of weight and may just collapse, before a diagnosis is
made.

 So the standard treatment for this form of diabetes is injections of
insulin to bring the sugar levels down. Now this is a very fine art because
if there isn't a lot of sugar in the blood because maybe the 'patient'
wasn't ingesting a lot of sugary foods and too much insulin is injected the
blood sugar level can go down too low and cause the 'patient' to go into
'diabetic shock' which usually means they collapse and you have to give
them something sweet to revive them. This brings their sugar levels to a
more normal picture. But when they collapse you don't know if they're in
'diabetic shock' or whether their glucose levels have gone through the roof
so it can be very dodgy.

But, if not enough insulin is administered the 'patient' will not have good
control.


Now is everyone still awake? Because I'm starting to feel 'a bit jet lagged
meself at this stage'.