6. Medical Diagnosis

The physician has several diagnostic methods for diabetes and none are foolproof. The most widely-used methods are the serum blood glucose test and the urine test. The presence of glucose in the urine indicates that the body is attempting to maintain balance. When glucose levels reach a certain point in the blood, excess will be eliminated by the body through the urine. This is a bodily mechanism to keep itself in a stable condition and is a positive sign of self repair. However, this homeostatic mechanism can be exhausted if causes are not removed.

Testing of the urine for levels of glucose is one of the most common but least effective methods of screening for diabetes. The urine test will be positive for glucose only after the blood glucose values have become sufficiently elevated to allow glucose to spill into the urine, usually a blood glucose value of 180 mg/dl or more. Thus the urine test will be positive in advanced states of disease. However, there is also the possibility of obtaining a false positive indication. If an individual has recently eaten a breakfast of sugar-coated cereal, this would be enough sugar to cause a false positive test. A false negative can also result and does not outrule diabetes.

The fasting blood glucose test is probably the most frequently-used laboratory test for diabetes. It is still not totally reliable. A patient is given a sugar-type drink after fasting 10 to 16 hours and his blood is tested after 1, 1 1/2, 2 and 3 hours. If the glucose level rises and remains high, diabetes is suspected.

There are other tests utilized but they are meaningless here. Diabetes or any disease cannot be corrected by suppressing one symptom. The total person must be considered since the total organism is involved. Insulin will get rid of the glucose in the blood but it does not correct the condition and does not remove the underlying cause (toxicosis).

Diagnosis is a useful tool if diabetes is detected early and he person becomes aware of the results of his wrongdoing. and can then remove the need for disease and regain health without using insulin or any other drugs. The diabetic can then completely regain health. If nothing is done and the unhealthful lifestyle is persisted in, diabetes may progress and ketoacidosis may result. The possibility of ketoacidosis is suggested by

  1. confusion or coma, the person becoming extremely ill with changes in sensory mechanisms;
  2. air hunger (this is an attempt to compensate for metabolic acidosis through rapid breathing in order to eliminate as much carbon dioxide as possible to increase alkalinity);
  3. fruity acetone odor on the breath (acetone is produced in excess in diabetics when the fats are not properly oxidized, due to inability to oxidize glucose in the blood);
  4. nausea and vomiting;
  5. abdominal tenderness;
  6. extreme thirst and dry mucous membranes, reflecting water depletion due to loss of sodium and potassium as the body tries to buffer the acid condition with these base minerals;
  7. weight loss.

Do the above symptoms indicate anything other than systemic involvement? No. Then we should consider the body as a whole and not as separate units.