My
First Fifty Years as a Diabetic /
Read It Online!
PAGE
1 2
3 4
5
 Get
Entire
Chapter
(37K)
Tip:
To save without viewing, right-click and choose
Save Target As from pop-up menu |
I submitted it
and its revisions to many medical journals over a
period of years—a period during which I was continually
improving in health, and continually proving to myself
and to my family, if to no one else, that my methods
were correct. The rejection letters I received are
testimony that people tend to ignore the obvious if
it conflicts with the orthodoxy of their early training.
Typical rejection letters read in part: "Studies
are not unanimous in demonstrating a need for 'fine
control'" (the New England Journal of Medicine),
or "How many patients would use the electric
device for measurement of glucose, insulin, urine,
etc.?" (Journal of the American Medical Association).
As a matter of fact, since 1980, when these "electric
devices" finally were made available to patients,
the worldwide market for blood glucose self-monitoring
supplies has come to exceed $3 billion annually. Look
at the array of blood glucose meters in any pharmacy,
and you can get an idea of just how many patients
use, and will use, the "electric device."
Trying to cover several
routes simultaneously, I joined a few lay diabetes
organizations, in the hope of moving up through the
ranks, where I could meet physicians and researchers
specializing in the disease. This met with mediocre
success. I attended conventions, worked on committees,
and met many diabetologists. In this country, I met
only three physicians who were willing to offer their
patients the opportunity to put these new methods
to the test.
Meanwhile, Charlie Suther
was traveling around the country to university research
centers with copies of my unpublished article, which
by now had been typeset and privately printed at my
expense. The rejection by doctors of the concept of
blood sugar self-monitoring, even though essential
to blood sugar control, was so intense, however, that
the management of his company had to turn down the
idea of making meters available to patients until
many years later. His company and others could clearly
have profited from the sale of blood glucose meters
and test strips. However, the backlash from the medical
establishment prevented it on a number of counts.
It was unthinkable that patients be allowed to "doctor"
themselves. They knew nothing of medicine—and if they
could, how would doctors earn a living? In those days,
patients visited their doctors once a month to "get
a blood sugar." If they could do it at home for
25 cents (in those days), why pay a physician? But
almost no one believed there was any value to normal
blood sugars anyway. In some respects, blood glucose
self-monitoring remains a serious threat to the incomes
of many physicians who specialize in the treatment
of the symptoms of diabetes and not the disease. Drop
into your neighborhood ophthalmologist's office and
you will find the waiting room three-quarters filled
with diabetics, many of whom are waiting for expensive
fluorescein angiography or laser treatment.
With Suther's backing in
the form of free supplies, by 1977 I was able to get
the first of two university-sponsored studies started
in the New York City area. These both succeeded in
reversing early complications in diabetic patients.
As a result of our successes, the two universities
separately sponsored the world's first two symposia
on blood glucose self-monitoring. By this time I was
being invited to speak at international diabetes conferences,
but rarely at meetings in the United States. Curiously,
more physicians outside the United States seemed interested
in controlling blood sugar than did their American
colleagues. Some of the earliest converts to blood
glucose self-monitoring were from Israel and England.
By 1978, perhaps as a result
of Charlie Suther's efforts, a few additional American
investigators were trying our regimen or variations
of it. Finally, in 1980, manufacturers began to release
blood glucose meters for use by patients.
This "progress"
was entirely too slow for my liking. I knew that while
the medical establishment was dallying there were
diabetics dying whose lives could have been saved.
I knew also that there were millions of diabetics
whose quality of life could be vastly improved, so
in 1977, I decided to give up my job and become a
physician—I couldn't beat 'em, so I had to join 'em.
This way, with an M.D. after my name, my writings
might be published, and I could pass on what I had
learned about controlling blood sugar.
After a year of premed
courses and another year of waiting, I entered the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1979. I was
forty-five years old. During my first year of medical
school I wrote my first book, Diabetes: The Glucograf
Method for Normalizing Blood Sugar, enumerating
the full details of my treatment for Type I, or insulin-dependent,
diabetes.
In 1983 I finally opened
my own medical practice. By that time, I had well
outlived the life expectancy of an "ordinary"
Type I diabetic. Now, by sharing my simple observations,
I was convinced I was in a position to help both Type
I and Type II diabetics who still had the best years
of their lives ahead of them. I could help others
take control of their diabetes as I had mine, and
live long, healthy, fruitful lives.
The goal of this new book
is to share the techniques and treatments I have taught
my patients and used on myself, including the very
latest developments. If you or a loved one suffers
from diabetes, I hope this book will give you the
tools to turn your life around as I did mine.
Theories, no matter
how pertinent,
Cannot eradicate the existence of facts.
—Jean Martin Charcot
PAGE
1 2
3 4
5
