The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-09-27
v1TAM1N PLUS INsULIN

6OS @ANS
 Many modern students of dia- betes favor the opinion that oyer- eating and insufficient exercise are factors of the disease. Other fac- tors may be concerned - heredity, obesity, perhaps worry and anxiety or the emotional strain of heavy business responsibilities - this last factor Is questioned by 50 good an authority as Joslin.
 The work from which quote, by Prof. Elliott P. Joslin, is accepted as authoritative. What Dr. Joslin doesn't know about diabetes in children or adults is probably not to be found in any book. But what he desn't know about vitamins and their relation to diabetes is considerable, think. Prof. Joslin does mention vitamins in his mono graph, devoting a whole page or more to an elementary review of A, B, c, D and E--apparently he hadn't heard of G away back in 1885. He appears to think diabetes patients need not bother their heads about vitamins, because of the abundance of cream, butter, meat and green vegetables in the route diet" Yet evidently the Professors mind was not entirely easy about 1t, for he adds that Nearly all my children are given cod liver oil daily and many take liver once 8 week."
 Now cod liver oil Is not exactly tempting to the normal child'S ap. petite. It seems harsh to infiict 1t on the child with diabetes, in view of the many other restraints and requirements such a child must en- dure. Presumably Prof. Joslin's purpose is to insure an adequate ration of vitamin D for the child. After all, the few natural foods that contain any vitamin D (milk, cream, butter) do not contain enough for the needs of a growing infant or young child, and 1t Is to- day universal practice to supple ment EVERY infants diet with a daily ration of vitamin D in one form or another, fish liver oil or a concentrate made from fish liver oil or a preparation of synthetic vita min D made by irradiating ergos- terol with ultraviolet light. Vitaniin D is vitamin D, unit for unit, re- gardless of its source. Why can't the diabetic child, then, take his vitamin D in the form of tasteless few drops of irradiated ergoSterol in neutral oil or in the form of Q tablet or two of irradiated yeastp
 Dr. Joslin cites case reported by colleague, in which the patient, on restricted diet and before instllin was used, suffered with double wrist-drop, double toe-drop, edema and neuritic pain in arms and legs, yet with control of the dia- betes she made complete recovery in two months" A typical case of beri-beri or multiple l1euritis, and deficiency of vitamin B is the speci" flc cause of that. The recovery was in all probability due to increased intake of foods that happened to contain vitamin B, when the insulin reduced the sugar in the urine and the patient was allowed to take more of such foods. Had that pa- tients restricted diet been supple. mented regularly with Q good ra- ton of vitamin B, aS in dried brewers yeast or wheat germ daily, she probably would not have de- veloped the neuritis ct all.
 There is another reason, and q sound one, for including vitamin B in one form or another, in every diabetic's daily regimen. Both ex- perimentally in the laboratory and actually in practice 1t has been found that a dibetes patient who requires g certain daily dose of