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started by baysw465 pds on 06 May 11
started by baysw465 pds on 06 May 11
Start a New Topic » « Back to the 5-A Why Diabetes is the Worst Disease group
started by baysw465 pds on 06 May 11
Nobleprize.org says, "Before the discovery of insulin, diabetes was a feared disease that most certainly led to death. Doctors knew that sugar worsened the condition of diabetic patients and that the most effective treatment was to put the patients on very strict diets where sugar intake was kept to a minimum. At best, this treatment could buy patients a few extra years, but it never saved them. In some cases, the harsh diets even caused patients to die of starvation." This statement is saying that Diabetes was the worst disease back before insulin with the strictest diet called, "The Starvation Diet," and still is today. Except today we have better technology to fight Diabetes, but the biggest thing of all was the discovery of insulin. Diabetes has evolved through the years, but it still has ups and downs let me show you about them all.
The Starvation Diet was grueling people with Diabetes that had to live through it didn't usually live very long after going on the diet. Before Insulin Diabetics had to be on a strict diet of three to eight grams of sugar a day, so they would not hurt their internal organs, eyes, and nerves [The Starvation Treatment of Diabetes Rena S.
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Eckman, Lewis Webb Hill]. Scientists were trying to find a substance to use to stop the terror of Diabetes. The scientists had to keep making changes to the diet to try and slow up the death of a Diabetic. They tried adding sugar and more exercise, that gave a little more of an extension of life but not very much. Then two scientists named Fredrick Banting and Charles Best started their experiment to find the cure to do so they took the pancreases out of dogs to try and get insulin [http://nobleprize.org Diabetes and Insulin Page 1]. It took a while but they found insulin that didn't kill animals and started making it in factories to produce more of it. There was hope for Diabetics because insulin was coming.
Insulin had a big affect on the face of the world and medicine because even though insulin is not a cure for Diabetes it is the biggest accomplishment in medicine ever [http://nobleprize.org Diabetes and Insulin Page 1]. This discovery by Fredrick Banting and Charles Best millions of lives have been saved because now you can eat more than then eight grams of sugar a day and more carbohydrates. Everyone new it was a success from the moment
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Banting and Best announced their discovery. They first had to test it on humans close to death. In January 1922 was the year that the first person tested insulin, and the person was a 14-year old boy Leonard Thompson. This had a favorable outcome for Leonard he made a swift and speedy recovery from when he was close to death. Then Banting moved on to other patients with his new discovery and had the same success as he did with Leonard. The same result ended up happening [http://nobleprize.org Diabetes and Insulin Page 1]. Except there was still a strict supply of insulin to go around, but once they started making insulin factories insulin made the biggest and still is making the biggest impact in the history of medicine by saving millions of innocent lives. Kids, teens, adults, and senior citizens have all been saved because the discovery of insulin by Fredrick Banting and Charles Best, but the discoveries by people for Diabetes were not over yet.
No, after insulin the discoveries were not over you still did not have away to tell what your blood sugar, so you could fix your blood
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sugar. One day Tom Clemens and Michael Miller had the idea of a device that tests your glucose. He tested lots of different variations to increase accuracy and decrease amount of blood needed, but he needed a patient to test this marvelous machine on and that persons name was Dick Bernstein [http://www.mendosa.com/history.htm]. When Clemens finally released his invention and idea his tag-a-long partner Michael took credit for the whole discovery of the blood sugar monitor. People were not done with their discoveries. One drop out student in 1970 named Dean Kamen thought that if you created a device that spread out insulin over time that would help manage the glucose of a human being [http://diabetes.ygoy.com/2010/20/who-invented-the-insulin-pump/]. With the pump, you can spread your insulin out, have it all at one time, have a certain percent at one time and have a different at another, and you have basil insulin going in all the time to keep your blood sugar right. You have a sight where you have to change it [stab yourself] every three days unlike shots where you have to take at least seven shots every day. There is also a third
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substantial discovery that has not quite been perfected, but it is already a monumental discovery. This invention is the continues glucose monitor it tells you trends your glucose is doing at certain times, so you can fix your basil insulin at that time in the insulin pump. This also protects you from going too high or too low. These immense discoveries have helped fight, save, and alter the battle of Diabetes.
There have been points in the timeline of Diabetes where there have been ups and downs, but there is still one spot missing in the timeline the cure. We don't know when to expect it. We just know that it started at the gruesome Starvation Diet where millions and billions of Diabetics died and then when Fredrick Banting and Charles Best invented insulin every Diabetic rejoiced, and finally where we are today with all the technology of insulin pumps, blood sugar monitors, and continues glucose monitors. It has all made a difference in the fight of Diabetes. Millions and billions have died in this fight and few have succeeded in it. Some people have left their own mark on it like Fredrick Banting, Charles Best, Dean Kamen, Leonard Thompson, Micheal Miller, Tom Clemens, Dick Bernstein, and Dog 92 [Loved by
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Fredrick Banting in the testing for insulin], but we are all still waiting for one hero to rise above all others and find the cure for Diabetes.