Suka is You!

In The Art of War (a very good read by the way...or so I was told.  haha.  I cheated and listened to it on tape), Sun Tzu wrote "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.  If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.  If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle".   So, in my Tony Montana voice, "Shay ello to my lil frien"; Diabetes Mellitus!!

Who (yes, I'm referring to Suka as a who instead of a what) is Diabetes Mellitus/Suka?   Diabetes, derived from diabetes in Greek which means siphon or pass through and mellitus is of Latin origin which means honeyed or  sweet.  So, in diabetics, there's excess level of sugar/suka in both the blood and the urine, a condition that was once referred to as "pissing evil" (excuse the language).  Originally, the condition was first referred to as diabete in English, but a certain Thomas Willis added "mellitus" in 1675 due to the sweet taste of urine.  Willis, however, was not the first to discover "sweet urine".   The Greeks, Indians, Persians, Chinese, and Egyptians did centuries prior  (wonder how they determined that one!).  I am certain that my Polynesia Ancestors discovered this too and somewhere in our vast oral histories and legends are clues.  Ok, getting back to the point; At its most basic definition, it is the condition where the body "does not properly process food for use as energy".   

At the Physiological level (bear with me as I try to avoid medical jargons and gibberish), diabetes is a disorder where there's a defect in Insulin secretion, insulin action or both.  This is referred to as type 1 (lack of insulin production, a condition which you are born with) or type 2 diabetes (insulin is made but body isn't responding to it, a condition you acquired), thank to Sir Harry Himsworth and his work which he published in 1936.  

Insulin, a hormone that is produced in the pancreas (known in Tongan as 'Ate Pili or 'Ate Loi, I could be mistaken) facilitate the entrance of suka/glucose from the blood stream into the body cells for energy production.  So, it's like what they teach at 'Iate University; "No work, No dinero".  No insulin, no sugar going to body tissues.  Simple! Right?

So, what's the big deal if the suka/sugars are NOT getting "out of my dreams and get into my car"?  Wait....that's a cheesy song from the 80's.  I mean out of the blood and into the body tissues?  Well, I wish I could say that it's no big deal.  I desperately want my Southern born-n-raised patient to be right when she said "It just means I'm extra sweet".  But no, it is a big deal and no, it doesn't mean you are extra sweet.  It is quite the contrary...it is a slow-acting poison, and it was William Shakespeare who asked "If you poison us do we not die?"