Tuesday, January 20, 2009

If Type 1 diabetes mellitus depend on external insulin for control, what did they do before insulin discovered

If Type 1 diabetes mellitus depend on external insulin for control, what did they do before insulin discovered?
did people just die???
Diabetes - 6 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :

1 :
Eat low amounts of sugar
2 :
Try to eat a low carb diet - if any carbs at all.. but yes eventually would die of complications, pretty quick too. Most things in your body eventually break down into glucose, what your body needs to run, but because of the lack of insulin, it stayed in the blood stream. I remember my endo telling me that w/o insulin (at the time I was diagnosed) I would have been dead in a year without the creation of insulin outside the body. Scary times.. we're pretty lucky. I'd rather be diabetic now, then back then, that's for sure!
3 :
They used to be put on a low or no carb diet. They lived as long as their body could hold out and then they died.
4 :
Those who had diabetes before synthetic insulin was developed were almost certain to have a short life span. If they were able to control it by diet, they stood a better chance, but even in 1972 my grandfather died of diabetes-related disease. It increased (and still does, if not treated) your risk of heart attack, stroke, gangrene, blindness, and many other diseases.
5 :
Check out diabetes history on line. It is very interesting. Prior to the 1920s, kids with diabetes could only eat veggies boiled and rinsed 3X. They usually starved to death. I have a first addition book on diabetes by Dr. Joslin who clearly states that medication is of no help in controlling diabetes.
6 :
Yes, in fact, they just died. The brain is one of the human organs that can only use glucose for food. Because insulin is the only way to move glucose from your blood to your cells, they basically starved to death once they stopped producing insulin.

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