Insulin and its Value in Medicine

Abstract

CARBOHYDRATES are essential in the chemical processes upon which life depends. Not only is the glucose, the form in which they are mainly absorbed into the blood, the source of muscular energy, but it is also in some way necessary in the oxidation of fats. Preceding its oxidation, glucose undergoes a series of preliminary changes which proceed step by step in such a manner that a long series of intermediary substances is formed; and when anything interferes with the process at any stage, as in diabetes, glucose accumulates in the blood and tissue fluids, causing the main early symptoms of the disease, hyperglycsemia and glyco-suria. Later involvement of the oxidation of fats results in the accumulation of the ketone bodies in the organism, and these, by their toxic action, cause the often fatal condition of coma.