The Relationship Between Blood Sugar and Lymphocyte Levels in Normal Individuals

IN PREVIOUS investigations it has been our experience that in the majority of cases the sugar tolerance of subjects afflicted with mental disturbances is decreased as compared with that of normal subjects (4). In view of the relationship of the adrenal cortex hormone to sugar metabolism (5) it has been suspected that differences in the rate of adrenal discharge may play a part in determining these differences in the reaction to ingested sugar. Since adreno-cortical activity is reflected by the level of the absolute lymphocyte count (1) a study was made of normal subjects in whom simultaneous observations were made of the blood sugar levels and the absolute lymphocyte counts during the course of responses to ingested glucose. A group of 21 normal subjects was studied, of whom 19 were males. These included university students and personnel of the hospital and were presumably free of any organic illness.