1. Introduction

The word diabetes is from the Greek word meaning to siphon and refers to the marked loss of water by urination, polyuria. The word mellitus is derived from the Latin word for sweet and thus diabetes mellitus—sweet urine disease.

Diabetes mellitus ranks among the leading factors of death in the United States. It is estimated that approximately 10 million Americans have diabetes. It is regarded as a metabolic disease of unknown cause resulting from a deficiency of the pancreatic hormone insulin and an irregularity in the release of glucagon, a polypeptide hormone, and other hormones.

When you become enervated due to unhealthful living habits, a state of toxicosis develops. This situation will result in a lowered function of all cells and organs of the body. Certain tissues or organs may be more noticeably affected than others if they are inherently weaker, but the fact still remains that the entire system is affected.

Diabetes is a symptom of toxicosis. Often, the sufferer of this "disease" has been consuming large amounts of refined sweets such as cakes, pies, ice cream, candies, pastries, refined wheat products, etc. Under these conditions, the pancreas is continually stressed to secrete its hormone in order to eliminate the excess glucose from the blood. This results in enervation of the gland and exhaustion leads to decreased insulin output. The fact still remains that all organs are involved and this is seen in the many other symptoms manifested by the diabetic such as arteriosclerosis, blindness, etc. One problem with refined sugar is that it goes immediately into the blood without digestion. This flood of sugar is very enervating to the pancreas.