Saturday, January 12, 2013

A CHAMORRO TERM FOR DIABETES

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Mames meme'.

Mames = sweet.

Meme' = urine.

Sweet urine.  This is one of the old Chamorro terms for diabetes.

Glycosuria is the English medical term.  It means "sugar in the urine."

Diabetes is often one of the medical conditions responsible for high sugar content in the blood, but it is not the only one.

Nevertheless, older Chamorros described diabetes this way.

I even heard of an old method of diagnosing diabetes.  The person's urine was spilled on the floor.  If the ants came and surrounded it, that was confirmation of mames meme'

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1 comment:

  1. I also heard another inelegant thing about diabetes. In the old days before lab tests, doctors used to taste a bit of the urine.

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