**Introduction**

help those developing the condition. Further, it is also our hope that this book will offer illumination into the early mechanisms of diabetes and help us identify targets that, if ad‐ dressed early enough, might prevent us from ever having to use our present treatment pro‐

**Jeffery G. Grigsby**

**Andrew T.C. Tsin**

Edinberg, Texas, USA

Department of Biomedical Sciences

Vision Health Specialties, Midland, Texas, USA

College of Optometry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA Texas Tech University Health Science Center, Midland, Texas, USA

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, School of Medicine

cedures.

VIII Preface

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Diabetes, It is Always Something**

The diabetes world changed when Banting and Best reported on their success extracting insulin from a dog in 1922. Previous to that, the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes was a death sentence. In the 1800s, a 10-year-old diagnosed with type 1 diabetes would wither away and die within

6:00 AM, the alarm goes off. Time to get up and start another day. Shower, dress, and check blood glucose for the first time that day. A little low this morning. I will have to eat a little extra or cut back on the insulin some. Cereal, milk, and juice for breakfast. A bowl of cereal, 32 g of carbohydrate, 20 g of milk, and 30 g of juice. 82 g in total; ratios vary between patients, but let us use 1 unit of fast acting insulin for every 10 g of carbohydrate, so normally that would be 8.2 units of insulin to cover breakfast. Since we are starting a little low, let us just inject 6 units to cover the meal and the low. On and on all day. Every day. No time off just because

Diabetes is still no piece of cake. It is difficult, but doable. Today we even have a U.S. Supreme Court Justice with nearly life-long (diagnosis age 7) type 1 diabetes. Maintaining normal levels of blood glucose are a constant challenge to those with type 1 diabetes. In fact, achieving blood glucose levels equivalent to those considered normal for those without diabetes, may not even be a desirable goal. There are too many lows and then there is the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes Study (ACCORD) which told us those levels may not even

Type 2 diabetes is at epidemic levels in both developed and developing countries. Still the battle to level the highs and lows is difficult, but manageable; however, many do not even

know they have it and many do not have the resources or knowledge to deal with it.

a year. When the two Canadians extracted insulin, a very dark cloud lifted.

**Introductory Chapter: Diabetes, It is Always Something**

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.75687

Jeffery G. Grigsby and Andrew T.C. Tsin

**1. Where we are and how we got there**

Jeffery G. Grigsby and Andrew T.C. Tsin

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75687

it is Thanksgiving or your first date.

advisable.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

#### **Introductory Chapter: Diabetes, It is Always Something Introductory Chapter: Diabetes, It is Always Something**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.75687

Jeffery G. Grigsby and Andrew T.C. Tsin Jeffery G. Grigsby and Andrew T.C. Tsin

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75687
