[Diabetes-talk] On this date in History: January 23rd 1922 Insulin Injection Aids Diabetic Patient

[Dr. Denise M Robinson]

Excellent article Cheryl--
Denise

On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 4:40 AM, cheryl echevarria <
cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> Good morning all:
> I have started this date in History for my Blog, and being Diabetic, I
> thought I would post this important date since I am also Diabetic.
> January 23, 1922:
> This comes from History.com
> At Toronto General Hospital, 14-year-old Canadian Leonard Thompson becomes
> the first person to receive an insulin injection as treatment for diabetes.
> Diabetes has been recognized as a distinct medical condition for more than
> 3,000 years, but its exact cause was a mystery until the 20th century. By
> the early 1920s, many researchers strongly suspected that diabetes was
> caused by a malfunction in the digestive system related to the pancreas
> gland, a small organ that sits on top of the liver. At that time, the only
> way to treat the fatal disease was through a diet low in carbohydrates and
> sugar and high in fat and protein. Instead of dying shortly after
> diagnosis, this diet allowed diabetics to live--for about a year.
> A breakthrough came at the University of Toronto in the summer of 1921,
> when Canadians Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolated
> insulin from canine test subjects, produced diabetic symptoms in the
> animals, and then began a program of insulin injections that returned the
> dogs to normalcy. On November 14, the discovery was announced to the world.
> Two months later, with the support of J.J.R. MacLeod of the University of
> Toronto, the two scientists began preparations for an insulin treatment of
> a human subject. Enlisting the aid of biochemist J.B. Collip, they were
> able to extract a reasonably pure formula of insulin from the pancreas of
> cattle from slaughterhouses and used it to treat Leonard Thompson. The
> diabetic teenager improved dramatically, and the University of Toronto
> immediately gave pharmaceutical companies license to produce insulin, free
> of royalties. By 1923, insulin had become widely available, saving
> countless lives around the world, and Banting and Macleod were awarded the
> Nobel Prize in Medicine.
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-- 
 Denise

Denise M. Robinson, TVI, Ph.D.
CEO, TechVision
Virtual Instructor for blind/low vision

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