Fully developed cases of diabetes usually show urinary sugar consistently. Mild hyperglycemic patients are readily controlled by a low carbohydrate diet and usually have normal blood sugar levels on such a diet without the use of insulin, as shown in Fig. 7. It is important to recognize mild hyperglycemic individuals because, if neglected, they may become frank diabetics. The mild hyperglycemic individual has symptoms because of an inherent inability to utilize sugar and starch in the diet and because of the wide fluctuations in blood sugar levels. 7 shows how the blood sugar rises rapidly from a normal fasting level to an abnormally high level after one hour and then falls rapidly to around previous fasting level.
Symptoms usually occur during the period of rapid fall.
It has been found that symptoms depend not only on how low the blood sugar falls but also on the rate of fall in blood sugar level. Thus an individual with mild hyperglycemia may have symptoms while the blood sugar falls from 150 mg. Symptoms of hyperglycemia are readily relieved by a low carbohydrate diet because the wide fluctuations are prevented and the blood sugar becomes stabilized. This figure shows the stabilizing effect of a low carbohydrate meal on the blood sugar in a hyperglycemic individual. Symptoms exactly like those seen in hypoglycemia may occur during the period of rapid fall.