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Essay on Dr. Elliot P. Joslin's Contributions to the Diabetes Field

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Until the day of his death, Dr. Elliot P. “EPJ” Joslin remained committed to educating diabetic patients about both their condition and how to treat it. An exceptionally committed and kind individual, EPJ dedicated his life to helping patients live long, prosperous lives. He was the first doctor to specialize in the field of diabetes, beginning his rigorous research of diabetes care before the discovery of insulin, and started the practice that would ultimately become the Joslin Diabetes Center. Dr. Joslin’s benevolent nature and personal drive to help patients lead to him becoming the one of the first researchers to note the vital role of maintaining a healthy lifestyle in treatment and prevention of diabetes …show more content…

Displeased by the number of his patients who were dying in diabetic ketoacidosis, he began to look into the work of Dr. Frederick Allen, who at the time had applied the practice of prolonging the lives of diabetes’ patients by means of a closely-monitored diet that consisted of restricting carbohydrates, as well as other macronutrients. Individualized testing would be performed on diabetic patients to determine the lowest possible caloric intake a patient could survive on and then put him or her on an extremely strict diet regimen, accordingly. Food consumed would also be as devoid of nutrients as possible. Joslin combined “Benedict’s balance study format with the Allen diets to show that ‘undernutrition’ prolonged the life of his patients,” who were often close to death from either acidosis or diabetes-related infection prior to his intervention (dlife). His patients were admitted to living cottage units in New England Deaconess Hospital. The School of Nursing later partnered with the hospital, leading to the “rigorous training programme that provided him with well-disciplined nurses for the measure-diet programme” (Joslin Center). Joslin had much confidence in this new treatment method; he would go on to list thousands of his findings from patients under this regimen in his book, The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus. He noted in his findings that, “the mortality of patients was

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