DIABETES MELLITUS by RAJ KUMAR MUKHERJEE
Diabetes is a nutritional disease characterized by polyuria i.e. large quantity of urination which may range from 3 to 20 litres during 24 hours. As a consequence the patient has instance thirst. There is the presence of sugar in the urine but this sugar is not like the ordinary cane sugar. It is he sugar that is contained in fruits and in honey. It is known by the name of Glucose. The patient has also excessive hunger which is perhaps the result of denutrition for the loss of sugar which is important for the general nutrition of the muscles of the organism.
In very ancient times the Greeks knew this disease and it is Dr. Arete gave and name diabetes, a name of Greek origin which means passage through Diabainein.
Sometimes the thirst is not increased. In such a case the diabetes should be diagnosed from other symptoms of which the most important one is sugar in the urine, which may be temporary. The other symptoms are soft and bleeding gums, dryness of the mouth, early loss of teeth, continual itching of the body without eruption. Sometimes local eczema such as of the penis or of the vulva, multiple boils, weakness of the eyesight, diastase for reading etc.
Some nervous troubles are also seen. Sudden feeling of weakness, general lassitude, cramps, neuralgic pains, loss of memory, somnolence, inaptitude for work etc.
In the developed cases of diabetes there are several complications Pulmonary, cardiac, digestive, renal, nervous, ocular and finally coma diabetes which is the result f acidosis and is extremely dangerous.
The evolution of diabetes is slow, specially when the individual is kept on a rational diet. But in modern times, when the paradox of pleasure and the stress have become almost a necessity for the relaxation of he individual mental and physical existence, may suddenly cause to flare up the disease.
There is benign and a grave form of the disease. In the first case the glycosuria may disappear completely and the patient may think that he is completely cured. But a simple stress or shock, overeating or overdoing of the mental and the physical sphere may bring back the disease. the very grave form is particularly seen in children which leads to coma and death.
Sedentary habits overeating, alcoholism, abuse of sweets, heredity and also metal and physical overwork are incriminated as the causes of this disease. The upper class of the society and in modern times the middle class suffer more from this disease.
This disease is generally seen from the age of 40 upwards but the children are not also safe from this disease. This disease is more frequent in man than in woman.
This disease also appears sometimes in course of an infectious disease, acute or chronic as for example, mumps, typhoid, measles, syphilis etc. In these cases the pancreas are generally affected, a gland which is responsible for the proper distribution of sugar in the organism.
We have said that diabetes means passage through “. Passage through what? Passage through the kidney into the bladder for expulsion.
But not only the sugar is in this way passed. When Phosphorus is in this way passed through, we call it phosphaturia or phosphoric diabetes, or it may be only the liquid passed in a great quantity which we call diabetes, or it may be only the liquid passed in a great quantity which we call diabetes insipidus. These types of disease though not glycosuria, are not less dangerous.
Our liver has several functions. One of these functions is is called the glycogenic function. That is to say the transformation of the feculent matters of the food into sugar. It does not let pass all the sugar thus manufactures. Only the quantity necessary for the purpose of the nutrition of the organism is given out. The remaining portion is reserved in the form of glycogen which becomes immediately sugar when there is the need for it i.e., when the muscles have burnt up the sugar circulated, because of their excessive activity.
The liver has by its side, the pancreas which helps the liver in its glycogenic function. This gland secretes two kinds of substances The one helps the digestion of fats in. food and the other which is more interesting for out study, is circulated in the blood. This product has a triple functions i It dissolves the sugar in the blood; ii) It regards by mysterious means the formation of t glycogen in the love and iii) It diminishes for the kidney the permeability of the sugar.
The active substance which represents this secretion was the extract of the pancreatic tissues, found by Banting in 1922, who named it INSULIN.
Its chemical composition is not exactly known. It has the remarkable-quality of decreasing the quantity of sugar in the urine of a healthy animal. But where the rate diminishes at 4 for 1000 thee appears violent convulsions, of which the result is dangerous. But if at that time some sugar is given to the patient the danger may be warded off. It is for this reason the use of Insulin is to be done very carefully and in limited quantity.
But the homoeopaths, can we eliminated insulin from our therapeutics. We may of course use insulin in dynamised form. We think that we may dispense with this hormone. But it is used with homoeopathic treatment, it is better to maintain its habitual dose at first and progressively diminish the dose late on and finally on stop it watching over carefully carbohydrate diet.
We think that Insulin may be used as palliative in cases of glucosuria or acidosis. Also one should try to find out how much albuminoids and fat the individual can assimilate. the pancreas is insufficienty on all points. We may reduce hydrocarbon but the glycosuria will remain and if for nutrition we add more meat and fat we will have the risk of acidosis which is more dangerous. The urines are to be analysed regularly from the point of view of sugar and albumin because it is an important diagnostic element in therapeutics.
The children are to be carefully watched over as regards diet because diabetes is dangerous in the case of children. In the case of children Homoeopathy acts marvelously for the very fact that they are only in the present. Homoeopathy will give tangible results in their case.
Let me say again that in Homoeopathy every case should be individualized basing on the personal symptoms. But I must be individualized basing on the personal symptoms. But I must also mention the fact here that a human organism is a unity of contradictions. So, if we only take into account the unity then we may not get always good results. We must also take into account the contradictional and use some other homeopathic remedies for diabetes which have organotropic action and these remedies are generally the Simile of the Simillimum i,.e, they are remedies helping the simillimum remedy to act more remedies helping the Simillimum remedy to act more surely and more effectively. This is what the French doctors call drainage.
This is all for the introduction. In this pamphlet Dr. Bernoville will speak to you about the complete treatment of diabetes. I have added also a chapter on the Diseases of Pancreas by the same deficients of the pancreas and of the liver.
Bernoville was a major lecturer in homeopathy, and he was active in Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis, and a founder of the le Syndicat national des médecins homœopathes français in 1932, and a member of the French Society of Homeopathy, and the Society of Homeopathy in the Rhone.
Fortier-Bernoville wrote several books, including Une etude sur Phosphorus (1930), L'Homoeopathie en Medecine Infantile (1931), his best known Comment guerir par l'Homoeopathie (1929, 1937), and an interesting work on iridology, Introduction a l'etude de l'Iridologie (1932).
With Louis-Alcime Rousseau, he wrote several booklets, including Diseases of Respiratory and Digestive Systems of Children, Diabetes Mellitus, Chronic Rheumatism, treatment of hay fever (1929), The importance of chemistry and toxicology in the indications of Phosphorus (1931), and Homeopathic Medicine for Children (1931). He also wrote several short pamphlets, including What We Must Not Do in Homoeopathy, which discusses the logistics of drainage and how to avoid aggravations.
He was an opponent of Kentian homeopathy and a proponent of drainage and artificial phylectenular autotherapy as well.