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Some interesting, but lesser known facts about Diabetes.

Did you know that…
• Insulin, was discovered by Dr. Frederick Banting and Dr. Charles Best in 1921 at the University of Toronto.
• In 1924, a 14 year old boy Leonard Thompson was the first human with diabetes to receive insulin.
• Eli Lilly was the first company to make insulin available commercially.
• Almost 1 in 17 people worldwide are diabetic. More than 1800 cases of diabetes are diagnosed everyday.
• India has the largest number of diabetics in the world; a total of 10 million.
• Vitamin D reduces the risk of diabetes.

Dairy food lowers diabetes risk in men ,
Consuming dairy foods, especially low-fat varieties may reduce the chances of developing type 2 diabetes in men.

Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston analyzed the data from 41,254 men who participated in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The subjects were initially free from diabetes, cancer, and heart disease and were tracked for 12 years.

A total of 1243 cases of type 2 diabetes were diagnosed during follow-up. After adjusting for weight, physical activity, and dietary factors, men with the highest intake of dairy foods were 23 per cent less likely to develop diabetes than those with the lowest intake. The data indicates that each serving-per-day rise in total dairy intake was linked with a 9 per cent reduction in diabetes risk.

Further analysis showed that the possible benefit of dairy intake was confined to low-fat items. Each serving-per-day increase in low-fat dairy intake cut the risk of diabetes by 12 per cent, whereas intake of high-fat items had no significant effect.

The findings were generalizable to men above the age of 40 with no history of type 2 diabetes. Further studies are needed to see if they apply to men with diabetes or to women.

The role of dairy foods in health is very complex and probably varies with the (makeup) of the individual. This study is a further reminder of the potential importance of dairy intake and the continuing value of research in this area.

What is Diabetes?
However, it was only early this century that Medical Scientists found that an inadequacy of INSULIN , a natural hormone, caused DIABETES . Normally, after a meal, the complex carbohydrates in food are broken down to glucose, a simple sugar, which is absorbed into the blood stream. This triggers certain cells in the PANCREAS , (15 cm long fish shaped organ) situated behind the stomach to release tiny amounts of INSULIN which ferries glucose from the blood into each of the thousands of millions of cells that make up the body's various tissues and organs. INSULIN also helps to burn up the sugar within the cells themselves, releasing the energy required to maintain vital functions.

When such a key element ( INSULIN ) is deficient or ineffective, the body's well-being suffers and with severe deficiency tissues starve ironically, amidst plenty, for blood sugar keeps on rising since very little can enter the cells. Consequently, a large amount of Sugar and the water in which it is dissolved, is filtered out of the blood in the kidneys, leading to excess urination. Deprived of sugar and fluids, the victim constantly feels weak, hungry and thirsty, the typical symptoms of Diabetes.