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From: werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Sweet Cheat Sweetener. (Diabetes)
Message-ID: <1822@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Jul-85 23:27:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: aecom.1822
Posted: Wed Jul 31 23:27:36 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Aug-85 08:11:47 EDT
References: <1799@aecom.UUCP> <2202@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 33

> I have a friend who is diabetic (hypo).  She cannot, as a rule, drink regular
> sodas.  She can drink diet sodas.  The above mentioned laboratory test makes
> me think that both regular and diet sodas would have the same effect.
> 
>  As I understand it when she drinks a regular soda her body produces more
> insulin that is needed and the result overcompensates for the increase in her
> blood sugar level and causes her blood sugar level to drop below her usual
> (albiet low) blood sugar level.  This causes problems for her. 
> 
> Can someone please enlighten me ?

	The problem in Diabetes is not that the body makes too much Insulin,
but rather that it 1) does not make enough, or 2) it does make enough but the
cells are insensitive to it.
	Since Insulin causes Glucose to be absorbed from the blood into the
cells (this is a generalization), Insulin lowers blood Sugar.  In Diabetes,
the problem is too much Sugar in the blood -- hyperglycemia.
	A problem in TREATING diabetes is that, despite the best efforts,
replacement of what the body lacks is not as fine a control as a healthy
body, so in trying to lower blood sugar, the medication may cause it to
go too low.  I believe this is where the confusion arose above.

	Incidentally, the term 'diabetes' has nothing to do with sugar 
regulation at all. It actually derives from the fact that the kidney cannot
not reasbsorb all of the sugar in the blood and it leaves in the Urine,
carrying water with it.  It used to be diagnosed by excessive urine and by
a sweet taste of the urine (and a generation of Doctors breathes a collective
sigh of relief that this is no longer the diagnostic method of choice.)

-- 
				Craig Werner
				!philabs!aecom!werner
		"The world is just a straight man for you sometimes"