Word: hypoglycemia
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...response to rising blood- glucose levels, these tiny factories release the granules into the bloodstream. As glucose levels fall, the insulin release tapers off, thus preventing blood sugar from plummeting to dangerous levels and starving the brain of fuel -- and consciousness. Fortunately, this life-threatening condition, known as hypoglycemia, can easily be countered by eating or drinking something sweet...
Intensive insulin therapy may prevent or delay complications, but it also sharply increases the likelihood of hypoglycemia. For this reason, in 1982 the National Institutes of Health launched a clinical trial to assess the connection between blood-sugar levels and the development of complications. Half the 1,441 volunteers are following the standard policy of two insulin * shots a day. The rest belong to an intensive-therapy group that tries to keep blood sugar as close to normal as possible. Some participants, like Ken McDonald, are using insulin pumps. Others inject themselves with insulin four times a day. The results...
...maladies have certain common characteristics: controversy over the extent to which the ailment exists; symptoms so variable that diagnosis is difficult; no simple sure cure, so that everyone from surgeons to quacks feels free to offer therapy. And oh, yes, it helps if someone famous suffers from the affliction. Hypoglycemia fit the bill in the 1970s. The '80s have brought two new worries, fatigue syndrome and something known as TMJ, a painful condition that affects the joints...
...manipulate their blood sugar by varying their diet. Food rich in protein, she points out, causes blood sugar to peak about three hours after it is eaten; carbohydrates produce a much swifter rise. When blood-sugar levels are too low, producing a weak and dizzy state called hypoglycemia, Turro recommends drinking milk, which contains carbohydrates to produce a quick rise and protein to sustain...
...some physicians believe that even if symptoms do show up, the test is so artificially structured that the results are suspect. Declares Internist Leonard Madison of Southwestern Medical School in Dallas: "Hypoglycemia is a normal response to the glucose tolerance test. Man was not built to take an overload of glucose like that. Look at it this way: if you run up a flight of stairs and find yourself short of breath, it does not mean you have heart disease." Madison, like others, believes that the GTT should be junked in favor of taking glucose measurements after normal meals...