April 14th, 2011
1. If the patient has symptoms such as thirst, polyuria (increase in frequency of urine), unexplained weight loss, and marked glucosuria (increase in urine sugar), the diagnosis of diabetes can be made by fasting hyperglycaemia. If fasting venous plasma glucose concentration alone is in the diagnostic (140mg%) range or random venous plasma glucose concentration is 200 mg% then an oral glucose tolerance test is not required. (According to ADA 1997 Fasting Blood Sugar if > 126 mg% diagnosis of diabetes can be made).2. If a patient is asymptomatic or has only minimal symptoms or fasting venous plasma glucose levels are not unequivocally in the diagnostic range then a glucose tolerance test is required to establish or exclude the diagnosis of diabetes.3. A glucose tolerance test is necessary to establ ish the presence of IGT (Impaired Glucose Tolerance).*21\329\8*
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March 12th, 2011
A study at Erasmus University in Rotterdam on linoleic acid makes it likely that evening primrose oil will also slow down the development of damage to the eyes and to the heart in diabetics.
The Dutch researchers conducted an important five-year study. Diabetics were divided into two groups, one taking a diet with four times as much linoleic acid as the other. At the end of the five years, diabetic eye disease was half as common in the high linoleic acid group as in the group taking normal amounts of linoleic acid.
New heart disease was three times as common in the group taking normal amounts of linoleic acid as in the high linoleic acid group. This meant that large amounts of linoleic acid could sharply reduce the risk of long-term eye and heart damage in diabetics.
The Dutch researchers also found that the diabetic patients on the diet high in linoleic acid needed less insulin. In another study, in which patients received a high linoleic acid intake over seven years, diabetic retinopathy was substantially reduced.
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