Word: hypoglycemia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...maladies have certain common characteristics: controversy over the extent to which the ailment exists; symptoms so variable that diagnosis is difficult; no simple sure cure, so that everyone from surgeons to quacks feels free to offer therapy. And oh, yes, it helps if someone famous suffers from the affliction. Hypoglycemia fit the bill in the 1970s. The '80s have brought two new worries, fatigue syndrome and something known as TMJ, a painful condition that affects the joints...
...manipulate their blood sugar by varying their diet. Food rich in protein, she points out, causes blood sugar to peak about three hours after it is eaten; carbohydrates produce a much swifter rise. When blood-sugar levels are too low, producing a weak and dizzy state called hypoglycemia, Turro recommends drinking milk, which contains carbohydrates to produce a quick rise and protein to sustain...
...standard method of diagnosing hypoglycemia is the glucose tolerance test (GTT). After an overnight fast, the patient is given a high-glucose solution to drink. Blood samples are then taken at intervals over the next five to six hours and analyzed to see if the glucose content drops below normal levels...
...many doctors believe the test does not diagnose hypoglycemia so much as cause it. For one thing, interpreting the results is difficult because no one is sure what the normal level of glucose really should be. Depending on the specialist, the lowest "normal" can be any point between 35 mg and 60 mg of glucose in 100 ml of blood. Doctors now stress that the diagnosis cannot be based on numbers alone; the data must be matched to symptoms. One study found values as low as 22 mg per 100 ml in apparently healthy women. Says Endocrinologist Simeon Margolis...
...some physicians believe that even if symptoms do show up, the test is so artificially structured that the results are suspect. Declares Internist Leonard Madison of Southwestern Medical School in Dallas: "Hypoglycemia is a normal response to the glucose tolerance test. Man was not built to take an overload of glucose like that. Look at it this way: if you run up a flight of stairs and find yourself short of breath, it does not mean you have heart disease." Madison, like others, believes that the GTT should be junked in favor of taking glucose measurements after normal meals...