Florence Medicine History

The cells used for this experiment were beta cells; diabetes is a beta cell disease, the body’s immune system turns against these cells in Type 1 diabetes and destroys nearly all of them. Without this source of insulin, the body can’t control blood sugar levels.

Insulin for diabetes was discovered in 1921 at the University of Toronto by Sir Frederick G. Banting, Charles H. Best, and JJR Macleod. James B. Collip subsequently purified it, and one year later on January 11, it was put to use on a young 14 year old boy named Leonard Thompson; a patient at Toronto General Hospital. Once the substance was delivered, it was found that the extract was so pure that he suffered an allergic reaction, and further injections were cancelled. James Collip worked for the next 12 days on improving the ox-pancreas extract, and the second dose given to Thompson on January 23 was completely successful. Prior to this, a type 1 diabetic would be put on a starvation diet, or be limited to a calorie intake of around 450 calories per day, and would only live a few extra months. Leonard Thompson lived another 14 years, until 1935 when he died of pneumonia at the age of 28.

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

All patients with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and many patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) require insulin therapy at some point to adequately manage their disease state.5 Traditional treatment of DM therapy, which ultimately includes subcutaneous injection of insulin, is often met with apprehension among diabetic patients due to the inconvenience and discomfort of injecting oneself. Administration of insulin by methods other than injection has been investigated since the discovery of insulin in the 1920s.6One such

Over the last 100 years, the United States of America have experienced loss of human lives due to various causes. These deaths can be attributed to deficiencies in the medicines for curing the corresponding diseases. There have being changes over time as the main cause for a particular period of time does not persist forever. The most dangerous diseases during the year 1900 are not still dangerous today. This is because of the improvements that have

Diabetes is a disease that affects the body’s ability to produce or use insulin. It is a precursor to numerous other diseases, which can quickly deteriorate patient’s health if

1 January 2017. The purpose of this source is for general scientific research and understanding diabetes. This gives the view on ongoing research, equipment modifications, changes in governmental regulations and the constant flow of information relating to the use of medicines, equipment and

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.

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).

Subsequently, in the middle of May in 1921, he met Charles Herbert Best, who seemed to be the complete opposite of Fredrick Banting. Bankston says in chapters six and seven, how these two men constantly worked in the lab together; they did many pancreatectomies on different types of dogs. On page sixty-two, Bliss says that they started to experiment on many diabetic dogs. An experiment consisted of surgically ligating the pancreas and stopping nourishment flow to the pancreas. Therefore, the pancreas would degenerate. The pieces of the pancreas were then put into a water and salt substance and frozen. These were then filtered and ground up, which created a substance called isletin. Furthermore, they would take the isletin and inject it into a diabetic dog. After this, the dog seemed to be much stronger and healthier, and its blood sugar dropped.

Banting, in a letter to Albert Gooderham, a chairman of the Insulin Committee during the 1922 dispute between Banting, Best and Macleod on who discovered insulin, stated that Collip was the soul person to solve this problem. “Dr. Collip, stated Banting “...announced that he had developed a process by which he could obtain an extract which contained no protein and no lipase.” This is significant because Banting’s work and fame was carried out by other scientists, like James Collip. He was not the soul founding father of insulin, he was just part of a greater scheme of things that were being deduced in the 19th and 20th century that were vital in finding and isolating insulin. He had fix his problem by relying on someone who knew how to extract things better than him.

World War II was a historical turning point not only for the basis of political power and war tactics, but also for drugs and medical advances. Between 1939 and 1945, new medical techniques were developed as a direct response to new weaponry. One of the more profound advances was penicillin, discovered in 1928 by Scottish scientist Sir Alexander Fleming. During the war, the drug helped reduce the overall number of amputations and

There are numerous health disparities and issues worldwide affecting all different people in the United States. Some of these issues tend to affect our population. Many people lack the knowledge of how heart disease is developed. Heart Disease is the leading cause of deaths. Over 600,000 Americans die from heart disease each year. Anyone can develop heart disease, regardless of a person’s age, gender, and ethnical background. In some cases, people are born with heart disease.

The most worrying and widespread health issue in America is cardiovascular disease. Not only is it responsible for the most deaths in America every year, but its threat also is not taken seriously enough. The fact that it is so widespread in the nation and may have devastating consequences for those afflicted makes it the most concerning health crisis in American society.

Diabetes is a systemic disease caused by a decrease in the secretion of insulin or reduced sensitivity or responsiveness to insulin by target tissue. (Beale, et al., 2011) The incidence of diabetes is growing rapidly in the United States and worldwide. An estimated 347 million people around the world are afflicted with diabetes. (Whalen, et al., 2012) According to World Health Organization (WHO), Diabetes prevalence among adults over 18 years of age has risen from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2014. It is the major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and limbic amputation. World Health Organization (WHO) projects that diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death in 2030. It is a complex and costly disease that can affect nearly every organ in the body and result in devastating consequences. The leading cause of non-traumatic lower extremity amputations, renal failure, and blindness in working-age adults, diabetes is also a major cause of premature mortality, stroke, cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, congenital malformations, perinatal mortality, and disability. (Cefalu, 2000) Insulin therapy and oral hypoglycemic agents have demonstrated improvement in glycaemic control. However, Insulin therapy has some disadvantages such as ineffectiveness following oral administration, short shelf life, of the need for constant refrigeration, and fatal hypoglycaemia, in the event of excess dosage.