lelliott19
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What do these Civil War personalities have in common?
- Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest
- Union Major General Fitz John Porter
- Union Major General Winfield Scott Hancock
- Union Colonel /Brvt Brig Gen Ely Samuel Parker served as Grant's Adjutant and wrote the final draft of the surrender terms at Appomattox Court House
- Confederate Lieutenant General Stephen Dill Lee
- Formerly enslaved, pilot of the Planter, and South Carolina Representative Robert Smalls
- Confederate Major General Robert Frederick Hoke
- Union Major General Gouverneur Kemble Warren
- Colonel, 47th New York Infantry James Leslie Fraser
How do we know that these men did not die from Type I diabetes? In Type I diabetes, the body produces little or no insulin. In the 1860's most patients who had Type I diabetes died. The rapid onset of symptoms, along with lack of effective treatment to lower blood glucose levels almost always resulted in diabetic ketoacidosis, loss of consciousness, coma, and death.
Type II diabetes usually manifests in adulthood and production of insulin gradually decreases and/or the body becomes insulin resistant over time. An elevated blood glucose level over prolonged periods can result in delayed wound healing, kidney, heart, and eye damage, and even a stroke.
At the time of the Civil War, medical professionals did not understand the insulin producing function of the pancreas or the important function insulin had. In fact, it would be SIXTY years later, in 1921, when insulin was "discovered" and purified. Injectable insulin was used for the first time to treat diabetes mellitus in 1922. By then, most of the men who had been participants in the Civil War were dead.
Please post other Civil War personalities who were diagnosed with diabetes and/or who died of complications of diabetes.