Maybe you have diabetes and don't know it
Maybe you are one of 1,250,000 unknown diabetics living in the nation today.
Well, here's your chance to find out.
Diabetes Prevention Week begins this Sunday. During the week you can obtain a diabetes testing kit free of charge from your corner drug store. All you have to do is take the testing kit home, read the directions, then m&ke-use of the testing strip it contains.
The next morning you place the testing strip in an envelope and mail it to the testing laboratory of the Tulane university medical school. That's all there is to it.
At the laboratory, a group of | hard-working doctors from the Orleans Parish Medical Society will determine results of the test. They will send you a report on their findings; send a copy of thef report to your family physician. No one else need know a thing I about it.
FIRMS OFFER TESTS
In preparation for Diabetes Prevention Week, the New Orleans chapter of the Louisiana State Pharmaceutical Association has ordered 5000 of these kits to be distributed by pharmacists who are members of the association. The pharmacists will also distribute brochures urging their customers to make use of the kits.
Ben Bavly, secretary of the American Pharmaceutical Association and Sal D'Angelo, vice-president of Districts 1 and 2, Louisiana State Pharmaceutical Association, are in charge.
This is just one phase of the week's observance. In addition to distribution of testing-strips by pharmacists, approximately 13,-475 employes of 17 business-industrial concerns are scheduled to take the simple tests. This means
more firms and more employes] participating than last year.
Co-operating firms include Kaiser Aluminum and Chemicals Corp., Falstaff Brewing Corp., Louisiana Power and Light Co., Rheem Manufacturing Co., Jackson Brewing Co., New Orleans Public Service, Inc., Haspel Brothers, Inc., Famous Sternberg, Wembley Tie Co., A. and P. Food Stores, Todd-Johnson Corp., New Orleans fire department, Eustis Engineering Co., Maison Blanche Co,, Godchaux's, Woodward Wight and the Borden Co.
Dr. Robert Haspel is chairman of the diabetes detection drive committee of the Orleans Parish Medical Society. Other committee members include Drs. Robert R. Burch, Jofen E .Garcia. Lawrence G. Bole and Daniel W. Hayes. CITES 'SIGNALS'
Dr. Haspel said this year's drive is very important since the incidence of diabetes has increased 37 1/2 s per cent.
"Our aim is to find the unknown diabetics and alert them to the need of prompt medical care," he explained. "I use the word alert rather than alarm be cause diabetes is dangerous only when neglected. A diabetic who is brought under prompt medica care almost always continues to live a normal life.**
The physician said signals o: the disease include excessive thirst, excessive urination, loss o: weight, intense itching, slow heal ing of cuts and bruises, changes in vision, easy tiring and pain in the extremities. Dr. Haspe said sometimes a person wil have diabetes and yet show no symptoms.
Under good medical care, to added, a diabetic is as"acceptable as a non-diabetic in practically every type of employment.
Dr. Haspel said more than 120C positions in the federal govern ment have been classified by, the medical division of the U. S. Civil Service as being suitable for dia
betics. He said the new oral drugs, though limited in. usefulness, may well mark the beginning of a new era in the management of the' disease. He said such drugs are particularly effective among some older and milder <!l-ibetics in reducing blood sugar evels. But they do not eliminate he need for dietary restriction, he added.
' 'These drugs represent the first major advance in diabetes research since the discovery of insulin 39 years ago," explained the physician. "They do not, of course, represent the answer for all diabetics, many of whom must still rely upon insulin."
MORE EFFECTIVE
Dr. Haspel said the recently developed oral drugs include tol-^utamide, chlorpropamide and phenformin. He said chlorpropamide and phenformin were released for general use only during the past two years.
"Tolbutamide is used mainly for adults who have relatively mild diabetes and require little or no insulin," he explained. "All such patients do not respond to it. It is usually not given to children and adolescents or to any severe diabetic. And it is used with extreme caution in cases of patients who depend on insulin."
Dr. Haspel said chlorpropamide is related to tolbutamide and is more effective in much smaller doses. He said phenformin is chemically unrelated to tolbutamide and has worked in some cases, including cases of young diabetics where the other compounds failed.
'Diabetes is a chronic condi* tion which develops when the body can't use some of the food you eat, particularly the sugars and starches," the physician explained. "It is a hereditary disease and ranks seventh in the list of causes of death by disease. Most likely targets are persons past 40 who are overweight and-related to diabetics. It can strike at any age."
Dr. Haspel said diabetes can be controlled by diet, exercise and, when necessary, By insulin. He said neglect of the disease may lead to such complications as heart trouble, failing eyesight, hardening of the arteries,, kidney disorders, gangrene, cerebral hemorrhage: and diabetic coma. PHOTO: FREE KITS FOR DIABETES TESTS Ben Bavly (left) and Sal D'Angelo check them.
