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Sunday 14 November is World Diabetes Day – a date commemorating the birth date of Canadian physician Dr Frederick Banting who, with biomedical scientist Charles Best, discovered how to extract insulin which could be injected into people with Type 1 diabetes and prolong their lives.
This year is the 100th anniversary of that discovery.
Until the discovery of how to withdraw the hormone insulin from the pancreas, the only effective treatment for diabetes was a strict low-calorie, no carbohydrate diet. But such diets, which often reduced the calorie intake to as little as 500 calories a day, had their own consequences – slow starvation draining patients of their energy and strength leaving them semi-invalids.
In 1921, at the University of Toronto, Banting and Best perfected extracting insulin from the pancreas of dogs which proved effective as treatment for Type 1 diabetes. The first recipient was 14-years-old Leonard Thompson who, in January 1922, had been admitted to Toronto General Hospital in a diabetic coma close to death. His father agreed to him being the recipient of a new treatment – an injection of the newly extracted hormone insulin. However initially the trial was not successful until chemist James Collip purified the insulin which, after more injections, allowed Leonard to live for a further 13 years.
Treating diabetes with insulin injections is now standard practice.
Diabetes Jersey, a registered Jersey charity (No. 110), was formed in 2004 having previously been a branch of the then British Diabetic Association. The charity exists to support the circa 4,500 people in Jersey who have either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. This support takes the form of funding staff at the Jersey Diabetes Centre, the purchase of specialised equipment and close liaison with the States’ health authorities to ensure that the plight of those with the condition, particularly at a time when Covid-19 has tended to dominate the headlines, is not overlooked. The charity also has the role of creating awareness not only of diabetes itself but also using media advertising to show how to minimise the risk of contracting Type 2 diabetes.
Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas; its role is to help the body turn blood sugar (glucose) from carbohydrates in food into energy. It also helps the body store glucose in muscles, fat cells and the liver to use later when the body needs it.
For his discovery Dr Frederick Best was ultimately knighted and received the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Disappointed that his co-discoverer was not similarly honoured, Dr Banting shared the sum received for his Nobel Prize with Charles Best.
