The Benefits Of Banting Diabetes

In 1920 one of the biggest life saving inventions was created. Out of the University of Toronto Dr. Fredrick Banting and Charles Best were able to create a pancreatic extract that was successfully tested on a dog. Prof. J. J. R. MacLeod who provided the lad and the scientific direction to Best & Banting soon put his entire research team to work on purifying insulin. The first test was done on a man named Leonard Thompson in early 1922. It was a great success. The discovery of insulin, although not a cure, saves millions of diabetics a year and was the biggest medical invention of the 1920’s. (Discovery Of Insulin)

Without this discovery, people with diabetes would not have an ounce of hope. Even now, diabetes is not curable. There are ways to keep your sugar at steady levels, but those with diabetes do still suffer. Without the discovery of insulin in 1921, we would not have the knowledge on diabetes that we do today that helps us continue our research, and spread hope that one day there will be a diabetic-free

First and foremost, Dr. Frederick Banting was able to isolate insulin and use it to treat the metabolic disorder diabetes which has benefited Canada. As a result, numerous individuals have been able to receive treatment which has reduced the number of deaths. This decrease in mortalities has also lowered the number of debilitating conditions resulting from diabetes. In fact, the mortality rate for diabetes over the past forty-five years has dropped by over fifty percent (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). This decrease clearly indicates that the death rates for diabetes is gradually declining. This trend can be followed from the time insulin was discovered and has increased the prognosis and quality of life for many people. In addition, the number of diabetes cases in Canada has risen by almost thirty percent over the past twenty years (Public Health Agency of Canada 2). Although, the number of people living with diabetes is significantly

Diabetes is a disease that causes the human body to not create or not use insulin effectively. The body needs insulin to take the energy or sugars and turn it into energy. The human body needs energy to survive. Diabetes can be broken into three main categories. Type 1 diabetes is where the body makes no insulin at all. Type 2 diabetes is where the body does not produce enough insulin or it does not use it correctly. Gestational diabetes is more of a type 2 diabetes for pregnant women, which usually returns to normal after birth (Ruder 7-8).

After reading the first half of chapter two, The Analytic Project, I was most interested in the section titled, The Discovery of Insulin. I furthered my research of this area after reading and was able to better understand insulin and why it was such an important discovery. With that being said, diabetes was the result of malfunctions of the pancreas. Before the discovery of insulin, diabetes was a disease that usually caused death, especially during the late nineteenth century. Many feared this disease, and according to A Philosophy of Science, A new Introduction, most people lost their life within a year of being diagnosed with the disease, even with the best treatment available at the time.

Diabetes Mellitus is not a new disease. It was first recognized in ancient Egypt around 1500 B.C.E. It was considered a rare condition in comparison to present times. In 1812, diabetes was acknowledged as a clinical disorder. However, its prevalence at the time was not well documented. During those time periods, diabetes was considered fatal (Polonsky, 2014). The most significant progress came with the discovery of insulin. In 1921, Frederick G. Banting, MD and then student assistant, Charles H. Best, made the discovery of insulin. This discovery led Dr. Banting to being

The development of insulin saved many lives throughout the 1920’s. Insulin allows your body to turn blood sugar into energy, and diabetes patients don’t have an important hormone called insulin. In fact, thousands of people had this issue. In the 1900’s, the only treatments for diabetes were starvation diets and very strict exercise program. Dr. Frederick Bating, the inventor of insulin, had spent a lot of his time studying the disease of diabetes. He thought if he could isolate insulin in animals, it would be possible to use it to treat people with diabetes. Later on his theory proved to be correct. Dr. Frederick Banting needed a lab to test his theory and work on it so he could have insulin mass produced and treat the disease of diabetes.

regulate glucose levels had artificially been altered (“The Discovery of Insulin”). The results were groundbreaking and the diabetic dogs responded well to the injections, marking a major step forward in diabetes research (“The Discovery of Insulin”). Through the help of Professor John Macleod of the University of Toronto, they were able to continue their research (“The Discovery of Insulin”). Finally, in January of 1922, testing Dr. Banting’s developments in diabetes treatment on human beings had finally been completed and the results led to the ultimate development of the insulin treatment that is still used to this day (Simoni, Hill and Vaughan 31).

During the 1920’s, many discoveries happened in the medical field. In particular, a major discovery was insulin. It helps save many lives since the 1920’s until today. The discovery of insulin resulted in a Nobel Peace Prize. It is an extremely significant hormone in the body of humans and animals. There are many facts people should be aware of about insulin like how it became discovered, what it is, and how it helps treat diabetes.

In 1941, 20 years after the discovery, Banting was in a terrible plane crash during World War 2. His colleagues, J.J.R. Macleod, Charles Best and James Collip all remembered their partner as someone who “was determined, willful, and frequently difficult.” To others like Zulzer, he was “a disappointed and disillusioned man, . . . an unsociable creature… Not a great scientist, as scientifically trained people appreciate the word, he was primarily… a symbol of medical research”. This passage is important because one sees two sides of Banting and who he was as a scientist. One that was against Banting and his scientific discovery and the other supported him. It is also important to note that even after Banting’s death, he was still criticized for his discovery and that he was not the true person who discovered insulin. People considered him just a symbol of medical research and not one who actually discovered something that impacted many people all over the world in

The insulin pump took place of the injections, makes it easier for him to track his blood sugar and receive the needed insulin amount while being more discreet about it. During his time in high school he often felt embarrassed since he had to leave class early to test his sugar before lunch and other students noticed. When asked if he go back and tell his younger self something about this disease he stated, “I would tell myself it is not as bad as you think, yeah it sucks, but just stay on top of it and you will be fine.” If you work on controlling the disease, life is easier. Often diabetics get to used to how their bodies react to highs and lows and can then react to those signs and symptoms without needing to test. The pump helps people from getting complacent with their management and just basing their levels off how

Collips was able to purify Banting and Bests crude extract of insulin. By the 11th of January of the year 1922, a fourteen year old boy named Leonard Thompson, received the first pure extract of insulin. He was weeks away from death when he received the treatment. However, the first administration of the extract failed. A few days later, on the 23rd of January, they administered the extract again and this time it was a success! At this time, only a few patients were able to receive the insulin treatment because it could not be mass produced yet. In 1923, both Banting and Macleod were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine because of their discovery. (Turner, Novo Story of Insulin - Part 2, n.d.)

In the year 1891, on the 14th of November Frederick Banting was brought onto this world in a town 60 kilometres north of Toronto called Alliston. He was the last born of five other siblings and lived in a middle class family. Frederick Banting was an average student and had a hard time in completion of high school. He decided to study arts, however he failed. Banting always dreamt of becoming a doctor and in September 1912, the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine, accepted him as a student (Nobelprize.org the official web site of Nobel Prize). Banting took a strong liking to the disease known as Diabetes. His studies and research, led him to understand that insulin has control over the metabolism of sugar in the blood (Nobelprize.org the official web site of Nobel Prize). On the night of October, 31, 1920, Banting got an idea from a medical journal. He believes that if you could extract the secretion made by the pancreas, then you can further understand and advance in the treatment of diabetes ((Library and Archives Canada). Banting made the decision of moving to the University of Toronto to reveal and discuss his idea with J.J.R. Macleod. Macleod provided an opportunity for Banting and Charles Best (his assistant), to start the work on May, 17, 1921 (Library and Archives Canada). Good timing and luck were the main factors which led the Torontonian researches to announce their discovery first. This is due to the fact that many scientists in Germany and Hungary would

29.1 million people have diabetes in the US alone, and 371 million people in the world have diabetes. Before insulin was used to help fight diabetes, nearly everyone diagnosed with it died within a year. Then Sir Frederick Banting found that insulin helped keep people with diabetes alive for a lot longer. The upbring of this scientist, as well as his discoveries, have contributed to his popularity within the scientific community, as well as the world.

I am certain that in most circumstances, diabetics wish the cost of their insulin was significantly lower. Heck, many my clients on any prescription, chose the lower cost generic over the higher cost brand when given the choice. A couple of years ago, one of my clients advised me that there is an option on the market available for those that are insulin dependent diabetics. Of course, let me start this article with a short disclaimer; I am not a medical professional and any resources that I share in this article are for informational purposes only. If you are interested in exploring these options, I implore you to have a detailed discussion with your physician.