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In the early 19th century, diabetes had been shown to be associated with elevated glucose levels, but there was no known effective treatment. In the early 1800s, saccharometers were used to measure the density of the urine, which physicians could then use to estimate how much glucose was present in the urine, allowing them to predict whether someone had diabetes or not.
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French physician Priorry suggested that his diabetic patients consume a diet extremely high in sugar as a form of treatment.
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French physician Apollinaire Bouchardat noticed that diabetic patients' symptoms improved because of war-related food rationing, so he developed individualized diets as diabetes treatments
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Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer studied the pancreas, which led to him discovering a substance (insulin) that would be produced in the pancreases of people without diabetes.
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American physicians Frederick Allen and Elliott Joslin designed a "starvation diet" as a way to treat diabetes. Patients were introduced to extreme fasting and malnutrition (and were encouraged to eat under 500 calories per day) because it was thought to be one of the only treatments for diabetes before insulin treatments were created, especially for what is known today as type 2 diabetes.
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American physicians Frederick Allen and Elliott Joslin designed a "starvation diet" as a way to treat diabetes. Patients were introduced to extreme fasting and malnutrition (and were encouraged to eat under 500 calories per day) because it was thought to be one of the only treatments for diabetes before insulin treatments were created, especially for what is known today as type 2 diabetes.
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Frederick Banting and Charles Best extracted insulin from dogs' pancreases and injected that insulin into dogs that had their pancreases removed and found that their blood glucose levels went down. This led to the idea of insulin being used as a form of treatment for people with diabetes, who needed insulin to control their blood glucose levels.
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Banting and Best furthered their research with insulin by treating the first human, Leonard Thompson, with insulin. This 14-year-old boy had previously been following the starvation diet to manage his sever diabetes, and insulin supposedly saved his life.
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Two different companies began producing insulin commercially in 1923, and in the following years, new manufacturers arose to provide more insulin options for patients, such as insulin with a slower or faster acting time.
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Hans Hogedorn discovered that the effects of injected insulin could be prolonged if protamine was added to the insulin (given the name Neutral Protamine Hogedorn insulin). This insulin can also be added to other formulations to make dosages simpler and easier.
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Previously, in order to test glucose levels in urine, Benedict's solution had to be mixed with urine and heated over boiling water, but with the creation of test strips and tablets, testing for glucose levels in urine became much easier and for available.
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Until this point, there were no believed consequences of high blood glucose levels other than if patients "felt good" or not on a day-to-day basis. However, Ernest Millard and Howard Root discovered that patients with poor glucose control were more likely to have severe retinopathy.
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Rachmiel Levine made the discovery of insulin working "like a key" in the sense that it "opens the door" to lead glucose into the cells. This pathed the way for discoveries and treatments regarding type 2 diabetes.
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The standardized insulin syringe, produced by Becton Dickinson and Company, reduced errors with dosages, minimizing episodes of hyper- and hypoglycemia.
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The palmer injector made it easier for diabetic patients to give themselves insulin injections because an insulin syringe would be placed into a gun-shaped handle so that patients didn't have to manually push the needle into themselves.
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The food exchange diet was a meal planner that divided food into 6 groups, or "exchanges", based on calories, carbs, fat, protein, etc. Meal planning to monitor glucose levels became an important way to manage diabetes.
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Sulfonylureas can be taken to stimulate insulin production in the pancreas.
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Solomon Berson and Rosalyn Yalow discovered that some diabetics still produced insulin and categorized diabetics as "insulin-dependent" (type 1) and "non-insulin-dependent".
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Testing strips could be used to test blood glucose levels by color code
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Although difficult and uncommon, pancreas transplants became a recognized form of diabetic treatment for a select few patients.
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Until this point, blood glucose levels had to be tested in a laboratory
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Caused a decrease in the frequency of dosage errors.
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significantly advanced research into diabetes
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Portable insulin pumps such as the Mill Hill infuser were made so that people could receive their insulin injections outside of their homes.
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Retinopathy, a common complication of diabetes, can be relieved with laser therapy, which burns abnormal blood vessels in the retina.
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became the standard for determining long-term diabetes control; measures glycosylated hemoglobin
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researchers induced E. coli bacteria to produce insulin identical to human insulin; before this, all insulin used was derive from animal sources
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These machines replaced the color-coded testing strip system and provided much more accurate readings.
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