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A fairly simple laboratory test, called a glucose tolerance test (G77), has been developed
to identify a person who is prediabetic. The subject either swallows a drink containing 75
grams of glucose or is given the same amount intravenously. Thereafter his blood sugar is
determined at set intervals over a two-hour period. If his blood sugar level remains
abnormally high for too long, he is said to be a prediabetic or to have chemical diabetes.
All adults should have their urine tested at least once a year for the presence of sugar.
Some adults and younger persons should have more frequent urine tests and perhaps
periodic glucose tolerance tests. Both of these possibilities have to be determined
individually by the attending physician.
Genetically, diabetes has many characteristics of a Mendelian recessive inherited
disease. Theoretically the chances are one in four of a child developing diabetes if
one parent has the disease it is almost inevitable if both have it. These are obviously
important factors for diabetics to consider before they have children, particularly when
both prospective parents have diabetes.
The person who develops diabetes today has a far better chance for a normal life than
a patient of only one generation or two ago. The development of insulin therapy in the
1920s and oral hypoglycemic drugs in the late 1950s has made it possible for victims of a
still very serious disease to add many active, productive years to their lives. Current
research in the field of carbohydrate metabolism offers the promise of still more effective
control of this insidious ailment in future years.
(adapted from The New Complete Medical and Health Encyclopedia,
edited by Richard J. Wagman and J. G. Ferguson, 1986)