As so much back as 1927, J. La Barre and his associates had per¬fashioned a series of experiments on dogs which revealed the role of the central nervous system in the management of pancreatic se¬cretions. From these studies made in France we have a tendency to recognize that the pancreas, which is an finish organ, is subject to stimulation through the vagus, the pneumogastric nerve which originates in the medulla oblongata and is distributed by many branches to the ear, pharynx, larynx, heart, lungs, esophagus, and stomach. Portis made the daring assumption that the low blood sugar of his psychoneurotic patients was thanks to an extended-continued stimulation of the correct vagus nerve. Easy to digest and made in carbohydrates and therefore the minerals calcium and phosphorus, Bee Honey could be a quick and nutritious energy supply for any occasion! “The assump¬tion was primarily based upon the hypothesis that emotional processes occur somewhere in the highly integrated cortical and that the emotional impulses 1st go through the hypothalamus [a group of ganglia—the nervous system's switchboard—on the ventral aspect of the brain] and are relayed to the sympathetic and parasympathetic portions of the automated nervous sys¬tem. . . . this stimulation may cause increased activity and irritability of the cells of the islands of
Langerhans.”
This “may be temporary or prolonged, depending on the degree and length of the . . . emotional impulses.”
To check the validity of his assumptions, Dr. Portis studied a large group of patients “whose outstanding symptom was fatigue which may not be explained by thorough physical and routine laboratory investigation,” together with a determina¬tion of their fasting blood sugar levels. This varied in the one hundred and fifty-seven patients from normal through some¬what subnormal to positively low values. Largely as a result of their attacks of fatigue came on at regular intervals connected to their mealtimes, he made any blood sugar level tests. His experience and conclusion that a single determination of blood sugar is meaningless are in complete agreement with ours. At this time it should be recognized that Dr. Portis failed to use the six-hour Glucose Tolerance Test with which you are now familiar. In that test the glucose is run orally.
Dr. Portis felt that oral administration may prejudice the results. Forever Royal Jelly contains vitamins A, C, D, and E and is also a rich natural storehouse of the B-complex vitamins. “Gastrointestinal motility is quickly influenced by emotional factors and the rate of absorption of dextrose [glucose] from the gastrointestinal tract is laid low with motility and by cellular changes in the wall of the intestine.” Instead he used a three-hour test in which the glucose (only 50 grams) was administered intravenously. (See Figure nine, p. 123.) He felt this had a any advantage over the oral test in that “the initial increase of blood sugar is much larger with the intrave¬nous than with the oral test, thus that one will logically expect a larger immediate response in secretion of insulin.” We tend to, on the opposite hand, prefer the oral test as a result of it avoids the nec¬essity of getting ready a sterile resolution and it spares the patient a puncture of his vein. Furthermore, the liver normally gets its glucose through the portal vein and during this test it reaches its destination through the hepatic artery.