One Cause of Diabetes

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

According to Adano Ley (Swami Nitty-Gritty) …

“The liver is the furnace of the body, and the spleen is the incinerator.”

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Gustave Maré, M.D. (“The Glycogenic Function of the Liver and Its Relation to Animal Heat, Fever, and Diabetes Mellitus,” Medical Record, Jan. 11, 1890) wrote …

“Blood, average temperature, 98.5° F; hottest in the hepatic vein, where it reaches 107° F. Heat of the body due to the combustion within it of human sugar, or glycogen. Glycogen decomposed in the body into alcohol and carbonic acid. Alcohol undergoes decomposition, uniting with the oxygen of the blood to form water and carbon dioxide, generating animal heat. Liver generates glycogen, therefore it is the heat-generating organ of the body. Liver, in health, generates glycogen from the carbo-hydrates, taken as food and introduced into the circulation as glucose. Carbo-hydrates contain carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen in the proportion to form water. When from any cause the carbo-hydrates are no longer supplied to the liver, it seizes upon and causes the fats into glycogen, finally attacking the nitrogenized principles until, finally, when the patient’s weight becomes reduced about four-tenths, the individual dies.

“The quantity of animal heat depends upon the amount of glycogen poured into the circulation by the liver through the hepatic vein, and its perfect or imperfect consumption in the system. The quantity of glycogen produced by a healthy liver is dependent upon two things:

“I. Upon the amount of blood forced through the liver; and,

“II. Upon the degree of activity of its glycogenic-forming cells.

“The amount of blood forced through the liver depends upon:

“I. The force of the heart’s action.

“II. The amount of resistance offered to the entrance of the blood into the portal circulation, and the greater or less directness of its course in reaching it.

“The degree of activity of the glycogenic-forming cells depends upon the amount of controlling influence exerted over them by the right pneumogastric nerve. This influence is probably an inhibitory one, similar to that of the left pneumogastric over the heart-muscle. That the pneumogastric presides over the glycogenic function of the liver is proved by the fact that when its origin in the brain at the floor of the fourth ventricle is injured, by puncture with a sharp instrument, there is an immediate stimulation of the glycogenic cells, an over-abundance of glycogen is produced, it is eliminated by the kidneys, passes out in the urine, and we have diabetes mellitus. This irritation of the floor of the fourth ventricle can be produced in various ways: By certain drugs, such as ether, chloroform, etc.; by traumatic injury; by pathological changes of the spot itself. If the injury or irritation be only temporary, this over-activity will disappear after a time. If the lesion, however, be permanent, then the over-activity of the glycogenic cells becomes also permanent. The liver seizes upon the sugars, fats, nitrogenized substances, converting them into glycogen, until the patient dies from exhaustion, or the cells themselves may be destroyed by overwork, death ultimately closing the scene. Space does not allow here to treat of the intercurrent maladies which occur, such as phthisis [consumption], Bright’s disease [nephritis], colliquative diarrhœa, and in which the simultaneous injury to the other filaments of the pneumogastric nerve going to the lungs, kidneys, and intestines, plays an important part.

“That diabetes mellitus is always due to an injury of the floor of the fourth ventricle is not true. This injury is not necessary to the existence of the disease. Repeated autopsies have revealed lesions only in a certain proportion of cases. I farther on offer another cause for glycosuria. If the amount of sugar in excess instead of being thrown off by the kidneys, be consumed in the system, it would produce an extra amount of heat; hence, instead of diabetes, we would have fever. This intimate association of two great pathological conditions opens up a large field of investigation which will doubtless lead to great results.”

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