The Development of Insulin Treatment for Diabetes |
Diabetes is a disease that has been known for thousands of years. People with insulin dependent,
or Type I, diabetes suffer rapid weight loss, tiredness and pass large quantities of sugary urine.
Type I diabetes is rapidly fatal unless treated with insulin injections.
The photograph below is of a young girl aged 13 years suffering from diabetes. She weighs just 45lbs
and her chances of surviving for much longer are very, very poor. She was one of the first patients to be
treated with insulin extracted from the pancreases of slaughtered cattle. Much of the early work leading to
the identification and extraction of insulin involved experiments using dogs and rabbits.
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Many scientists were involved but the two most well known for this work were Fredrick Banting and Charles Best
who work worked in Toronto, Canada. Below is a photograph of them with one of their experimental dogs, Marjory.
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Below is a picture of the young diabetes sufferer a few months later after treatment with insulin extract that
resulted in a dramatic recovery.
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The young girl survived to lead a full life as shown by the photograph of
her years later.
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In Britain today there are about 300,000 diabetics who have to inject insulin, and worldwide there may be as
many as 30 million people who need insulin. Injected insulin is not an ideal treatment and research continues
to find better treatments and hopefully a cure.
Without the use of animals, which also naturally develop diabetes, none of these advances that have saved
millions of lives would have been made.
More detailed information on the discovery of insulin
can be found on the RDS web-site
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