The Starvation Treatment of Diabetes - Lewis Webb Hill (the unexpected everything .txt) 📗
- Author: Lewis Webb Hill
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(3) The stationary stage, when the diet is kept at a constant level. The patient is at home and going about his business. Most patients may be taught to test their own urine, and they should do this every other day. If there is sugar in the urine, the patient should go back to a lower diet, and if he cannot be made sugar-free this way, he should be starved again. A semi-starvation day of 150 grams of vegetables, once a week, whether or no the urine contains sugar, is of value for the purpose of keeping well within the margin of safety and of reminding the patient that he is on a strict diet.
It is very important for a diabetic to take a considerable amount of exercise: he can utilize his carbohydrate better, if he does.
If this treatment is to be successful, it is absolutely necessary for the patient to adhere very strictly to the diets, and to measure out everything very carefully; the meat especially should be weighed.
It will be noticed that in some cases the calories in the diets do not tally exactly with the protein, fat and carbohydrate values. The reason for this is that for the sake of convenience the calories have been given in round numbers—5 or ten calories one way or the other makes no difference.
The essential points brought out by Allen's treatment are as follows:
(1) It is not dangerous to starve a diabetic, and two or three days of starvation almost always make a patient sugar-free, thus saving a good deal of time, as contrasted with the old treatment of gradually cutting down the carbohydrate.
(2) It is not desirable for all diabetics to hold their weight. Some cases may do much better if their weight is reduced ten, fifteen, or even twenty pounds.
(3) After starvation, the diet must be raised very slowly, to prevent recurrence of glycosuria.
(4) An excess of protein must be regarded as producing glycosuria and an excess of fat ketonuria, and the protein and fat intake must be restricted a good deal more than has usually been the custom in treating diabetes.
Case Reports.It is thought worth while, for the sake of illustration, to include a few case reports. The adults were treated at the Massachusetts General Hospital, the children at the Children's Hospital.
Two charts are kept for each case: one a food chart, with the amounts of the different articles of food taken each day, and the protein, carbohydrate, fat and caloric value figured out for each foodstuff; the second (see below) a more general chart, which shows graphically the progress of the case.
The first three are cases which were treated first with the old method of gradually reducing the carbohydrate intake and could never be made sugar-free, running from 0.1% to 0.2% of sugar. On the new treatment they responded promptly and were discharged sugar-free.
Case 1. A woman of 64, diabetic for two years. She was sent in from the out-patient department, where she had been receiving a diet of 50 grams of carbohydrate and 50 grams of protein. On this diet she was putting out 8 grams of sugar a day with moderately strong acetone and diacetic acid reactions in her urine. When the carbohydrate was cut in the ward to 30 grams, she put out 3 grams of sugar a day. She complained of severe pruritus vulvae. After sixteen days of this treatment she continued to put out from 0.1% to 0.2% of sugar a day. Allen's treatment was then started, and after one day of starvation she was sugar-free and remained so for four days on a diet of carbohydrate, 20 grams; protein, 30 grams; fat, 150 grams. The itching had gone. Then the protein was raised to 80 grams, with the carbohydrate at 20 grams, and she immediately showed 1.5% of sugar. This is very important; the protein should not be raised too quickly. This we did not realize in our earlier cases.
A second starvation day, followed by two vegetable days, and a more careful raising of the diet—as follows—kept her sugar-free, and she was discharged so. Her diets were:
Carbohydrate, 20 grams.
Protein, 30 grams.
Fat, 150 grams—1500 calories. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 30 grams.
Protein, 30 grams.
Fat, 200 grams—2000 calories. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 30 grams.
Protein, 40 grams.
Fat, 180 grams—2000 calories. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 40 grams.
Protein, 40 grams.
Fat, 180 grams—2000 calories. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrates, 50 grams.
Protein, 50 grams.
Fat, 180 grams—2000 calories. No glycosuria.
Weight at discharge, 116 pounds.
Case 2. A Jew of 49, at entrance had 175 grams of sugar (5.5%), acetone slight, diacetic acid absent. Treated for three weeks with the old method, he got down to a diet containing carbohydrate, 15 grams; protein, 50 grams,—but still put out from 3 to 8 grams of sugar a day. By the old method we could not do away with the last traces of sugar.
The Allen treatment was started with two starvation days. On the second he was sugar-free—but showed 2.6 grams of sugar the following day on 12 grams of carbohydrate and 40 grams of protein. (This was one of the earlier cases when the diet was raised too quickly after starvation.) After one more starvation day and two vegetable days he stayed sugar-free while the diet was raised slowly to 30 grams of carbohydrate and 45 grams of protein, calories about 2000. Discharged sugar-free on this diet.
Weight at discharge, 110 pounds.
Case 3. A man of 35, a severe diabetic, entered Dec. 28, 1914. He had been in the hospital the previous July for a month and could never be made sugar-free with the old method of treatment. At entrance he was putting out 2.5% of sugar (135 grams) per day with strongly positive acetone and diacetic acid tests. Two starvation days made him sugar-free, but we made the mistake of not using twice boiled vegetables for his vegetable day after starvation. So on this day he got about 30 grams of carbohydrates, and for a few days he showed from 0.2% to 1% of sugar. Another starvation day was given him and he became sugar-free. This time his vegetables were closely restricted and he was given only enough twice-boiled vegetables to provide about 15 grams of carbohydrates. After this the diet was raised very slowly. He remained sugar-free for three weeks and was discharged so on,
Protein, 40 grams.
Fat, 200 grams.
At no time did he receive more than 2200 calories.
Weight at discharge, 138 pounds.
These three cases were the first ones we tried, and in each one of them we made the mistake of raising the diet too quickly—either allowing too many vegetables on the vegetable day, or raising the protein too quickly afterwards. With the later cases, after we had more experience, there was no more trouble.
Case 4. A Greek (male) of 48, diabetic for two months, entered Jan. 14, 1915, with 3.8% (65 grams) of sugar and moderate acetone reaction. There was no diacetic reaction present at entrance. After one starvation day he became sugar-free, but was kept on starvation one day longer and then started on vegetables in the usual way. After the third day a moderate amount of diacetic acid appeared in the urine and continued. The ammonia rose from 0.7 grams per day to 2.6 grams per day, and then varied from 0.3 to 1.5 grams per day. No symptoms of acidosis.
Carbohydrate, 15 grams.
Protein, 25 grams.
Fat, 150 grams—1360 calories. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 15 grams.
Protein, 25 grams.
Fat, 200 grams—1571 calories. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 25 grams.
Protein, 35 grams.
Fat, 200 grams—1760 calories. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 35 grams.
Protein, 40 grams.
Fat, 200 grams—1838 calories. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 45 grams.
Protein, 50 grams.
Fat, 200 grams—2194 calories. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 50 grams.
Protein, 60 grams.
Fat, 200 grams—2347 calories. No glycosuria.
Weight at entrance, 160 pounds.
Weight at discharge, 156 pounds.
This was not a severe case and responded very easily to treatment.
Case 5. A female of 59, a diabetic of two years' standing, excreted 2.6% of sugar on Jan. 16, 1915, with no acetone or diacetic acid reactions in the urine. Severe pruritus vulvae. Starved two days; sugar-free on the second starvation day, with disappearance of the pruritus.
Carbohydrate, 15 grams.
Protein, 25 grams.
Fat, 150 grams—1595 calories. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 35 grams.
Protein, 45 grams.
Fat, 200 grams—2156 calories.
Weight at entrance, 135 pounds.
Weight at discharge, 133 pounds.
Case 6. A man of 52, entered Jan. 10, 1915, with 1% of sugar. He entered for arteriosclerosis and hypertension, and the sugar was found in the routine examination of the urine. He was kept on house diet for a few days and his sugar rose to 3.5%. No acetone or diacetic acid. After two days of starvation he became sugar-free and continued so as the diet was slowly raised. He was kept sugar-free in the ward eighteen days and was sugar-free on Feb. 6 with a diet of
Protein, 60 grams.
Fat, 200 grams—2280 calories.
On Feb. 7 the protein was raised to 80 grams and 0.2% of sugar appeared in the urine. The protein was then reduced to 60 grams and he remained sugar-free on this diet and was discharged so.
In this case, after starvation, a moderate amount of acetone appeared and continued. No symptoms of acidosis. The ammonia ran from 0.3 to 1.0 grams per day.
Weight after three weeks' treatment, 156.
Maximum caloric intake, 2525.
Case 7. A young man of 25, diabetic for eight months, entered Jan. 20, 1915, with 6.6% (112 grams) of sugar and strongly positive tests for acetone and diacetic acid. After a period of two starvation days he was sugar-free and actually gained three pounds in the process of starvation (probably due to water retention).
His diet was then raised as follows:—
Carbohydrate, 15 grams.
Protein, 25 grams.
Fat, 150 grams. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 20 grams.
Protein, 35 grams.
Fat, 175 grams. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 20 grams.
Protein, 45 grams.
Fat, 200 grams. No glycosuria.
Carbohydrate, 30 grams.
Protein, 45 grams.
Fat, 200 grams. No glycosuria.
At entrance his ammonia was 1.7 grams per day; after the starvation days it ran from 0.9 grams to 0.3 grams per day. The acetone was a little stronger than at entrance; the diacetic absent except on three days.
On Feb. 5 he was still sugar-free having been so since his starvation days two weeks
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