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Show sugar causes diabetes. In a composite com-posite analysis of the occurrence of diabetes in the adult population popula-tion from various large diabetic clinics, only 8 were under normal weight standards, 15 of the 5.000 cases were normal in weight, and 77 were overweight prior to onset of diabetes. In another an-other large series, less than 1 of the patients developing diabetes were 20 underweight. The figures clearly show that obesity is a real health hazard as a predisposing pre-disposing cause of diabetes. Once the diabetes has appeared, obesity still remains a factor. Insurance In-surance statistics compiled by all of the major American companies, com-panies, show that the death rate for the overweight diabetic is 136 per 100.000, for those of normal weight 23 per 100,000, and for those fortunate enough to be underweight un-derweight only 6 per 100,000. Clinical experience in the treatment treat-ment of diabetes, in the thirty years that insulin has been available, avail-able, has shown that the obese diabetic can greatly lower his insulin in-sulin intake by reducing. The majority maj-ority of this group have found that in most cases, they can omit the use of insulin and control themselves on a diabetic diet alone, once they have reached a sub-normal weight. This freedom from the expense and bother of daily insulin injections, is the reward re-ward for the hunger pains suffered suffer-ed during the months of reducing. Obesity, then, becomes a chal- Your Doctor Says . . . The following is one of a series of articles ar-ticles written by member! of the Utah Slate Medical Association and published in cooperation with your local newspaper. These articles are scheduled to appear every other week throughout the year in an effort to belter acquaint you with problems of health, and designed to improve the well-being of the people of Utah. Weight in Diabetes The problem of body weight in diabetes assumes prime importance, impor-tance, in that it is a precipitating factor in the occurrence of diabetes, dia-betes, and also because it increases in-creases the death rate in the known diabetics. Before progressing with the danger of obesity as regards to diabetes, a few factors about heredity in this disease should be discussed. Obesity and heredity are intimately concerned in the cause of this disease, transmitted as a recessive gene. This means that all children of two diabetic parents will have diabetes eventually, even-tually, that half of the children of a known diabetic and a diabetic dia-betic carrier will have diabetes, and that two carriers, without outward evidence of diabetes, will have one fourth of their children with diabetes. It is estimated that one out of every four people in the United States has a diabetic relative, thus the possibility of iny parent carrying the diabetic trait unknowingly is of real importance. lenge in preventive medicine. An individual can never safely assume that his obesity may not be plunging plung-ing him into diabetes, merely because be-cause his parents weren't diabetic. One can never be sure that .both parents may not have recessive factors for diabetes, and that he is hastening the appearance of diabetes by overeating. It goes without saying that those individuals individ-uals who have diabetes in the family are truly bringing on diabetes dia-betes by their joy of eating. In summary, it has been shown that obesity is the biggest factor causing diabetes in the hereditarily heredi-tarily predisposed individual. Maintenance of an underweight condition in the adult, will not only aid in preventing diabetes. ut if diabetes is already present. ,vil increase life expectance and uaoicase the insulin requirement There is no laboratory test to determine which individual may be carrying a recessive diabetic trait without showing evidence of diabetes. dia-betes. It is only when the offspring off-spring develops diabetes that it is known that both parents are carriers. car-riers. It is in these persons with "hej inherited diabetic trait, that the, control of weight can mean the difference in having or not having diabetes. In children, the occur- rence of diabetes is not associated with obesity, as only 27c of child hood diabetics are overweight. Obenity is considered to be '.he most important factor in the oc- currence of diabetes in the aduii population. There is no scientific basis for the conception in tlv public mind that eating u- m,.... |