Educational Media Reviews Online

This film is an introduction to diabetes, including interviews with two diabetics, a Type 1 (insulin-dependent) and a Type II (non-insulin-dependent). Produced in England, some of the measurements used (millimoles per liter) in explanation of blood sugar measurement are unfamiliar to American medical practice, which employs milligrams per deciliter, but otherwise the film is entirely applicable to an American viewing audience.

Diagnosing and Treating Diabetes gives a very good and accurate overview of the nature of the disease and the various means of controlling it (diabetes is an incurable but treatable disease). Basic to diabetes treatment, whether the patient is Type I or II, is a suitable and measured diet and regular exercise, supplemented by insulin injections in the case of Type I and many Type II diabetics or oral medications, which are not insulin, in the case of many Type II diabetics. Some milder forms of Type II diabetes can be successfully treated simply with appropriate diet and exercise.

Included is a fairly comprehensive and understandable introduction to the biochemistry of diabetes, explaining how insulin enables the introduction of glucose into cells and the short- and long-term consequences of elevated blood sugar levels. A harrowing statistic from the United Kingdom, which probably would apply to the U.S. as well, is that roughly fifteen percent of all hospital admissions are for diabetics suffering from the serious complications--blindness, kidney disease, nerve damage, heart attack and stroke--resulting from extended periods of poor blood sugar management. The administration of insulin is given fairly detailed coverage in the film, and the many modern forms of insulin and the different means of injecting it are explained and illustrated.

This video would be appropriate both in a university health sciences collection and in a more general undergraduate collection, since much of the material presented is practical in nature.