Aktuelle Probleme der Diabetesforschung. Neue Gesichtspunkte zur Vitaminversorgung

After a definition of diabetes and a short description of its pathogeny, its steadily increasing frequency in all civilized countries is emphasized. It has become a real people's disease. The reasons for this are 1) The success of medical treatment, 2) A change in the population's age structure (diabetes is a disease main1y affecting the higher age groups), 3) The ability of young female diabetics to conceive: they are now rescued from premature death, and as a result can pass on the disease to their chi1dren. The total number of diabetics in the civilized countries of the wor1d is high: tests show an estimate of 1 % of the total population. The number of undiscovered cases is also very high. The problems arising as a re suit of the now frequent cases of pregnancy in female diabetics call for special treatment during pregnancy and con­ finement. Through this special study the condition that we call pre-diabetes was first recognized. In the pre-diabetic phase serious symptoms of disease may already appear without any evident disturbance in the body's carbo­ hydrate balance.