Diabetes Before Insulin Was Discovered

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that impairs the production and use of insulin in the body. According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 8 percent of the United States population has some form of diabetes.

How Insulin Works

• Insulin bonds with blood glucose to provide food to the brain and energy to the body. If there is an insufficient supply of insulin in the bloodstream, blood glucose levels rise resulting in a dangerous medical condition called hyperglycemia.

Untreated Diabetes

• Symptoms of hyperglycemia include excessive thirst, sudden weight loss, blurred vision, frequent urination, lack of energy or lethargy and diminished brain function. Untreated diabetes can cause blindness, heart and circulation problems, kidney disease or failure, chronic dental problems or coma. Prolonged hyperglycemia without treatment has a 100 percent death rate from a condition known as ketoacidosis.

Life Without Insulin

• Before the discovery of insulin, a diagnosis of diabetes meant eventual coma and certain death, often with a lifespan of only one month to two years. Doctors eventually found that a near-starvation diet of a few hundred calories per day helped to extend some patients' lives by a year or two. Most diabetic patients were severely malnourished and very few weighed much more than 70 pounds towards the end of their illness.

The Discovery of Insulin

• Insulin was discovered by Dr. Frederick Banting of Toronto in 1921. Diabetics who were given the hormone had immediate results; it even brought most patients out of their diabetic comas. The Lilly pharmaceutical company continued the research and began mass production of insulin, called Ilsetin, within a year.

Insulin Today

• Insulin has evolved since its discovery. There are many types of insulin available today. Treatment is now tailored to each individual's condition. New insulin delivery systems, such as the insulin pump and insulin pens, make diabetes management easier.