CAUSE OF DIABETES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 30 April 1934, Page 6

CAUSE OF DIABETES

MATTER FOR RESEARCH INO R E ASING INCIDENCE (By Telegraph—Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, 28th April.' There was no cause whatever to suspect that tiie Blanket system of infant nutrition could be responsible for the increase in the incidence of diabetes in New' Zealand, said Dr. R. R. D. Alilligan, an authority on tlie disease, in an interview. He was asked to comment on a statement made by Airs J. A. Bean at a meeting of the Christchurch Hospital Board. Airs Bean bad said that during the past fifteen years a. diabetic trend had been noted in children. It might be only a coincidence, she said, but the Blanket system had been in operation during the time, and she thought the board should ask tlie Blanket people to investigate. At the same meeting Dr. Fox, tlie hospital superintendent, said that diabetes was increasing, probably clue to the improved standard of living, while it had become more prevalent particularly among children, constituting a serious and growing public problem. Dr. Milligan said to-day that the first and chief cause of diabetes was genetic or hereditary. Other causes could be grouped together as more accidental in nature, particularly with cases connected with unbalance or production of unbalance in the endocrine system. “For example,” he said, “it is possible that the i causes that produce goitre may also be connected with the production of diabetes. The matter should be more closely looked into in New Zealand than hitherto; it is a research problem which should, and con’d he, investigated.”