Mary Lincoln and the American "Sweet Tooth"

[LincolnToddFan]

Thanks Betty O!

I have a cousin who was diagnosed with juvenile onset diabetes at age 13, and he had to give himself insulin injections several times a day until his death last December at age 46. It's a merciless disease. You can go into coma at any time.

I can not imagine how sufferers in the 19th century coped. If Mary did indeed suffer from this illness(in addition to her well documented emotional problems) it explains a lot. The horrific headaches, the mood swings, the problems with her vision, the incontinence, also the considerable weight loss in her final months. She weighed barely 100 pounds and had to remove her wedding band because it kept sliding off her finger.

Poor Mary.