World Diabetes Day. According to the World Health Organization, in 2000 there were 150 million diabetics on earth. This date has been celebrated annually since 1991 on the birthday of Frederick Bunting, a Canadian physiologist who discovered the hormone insulin in collaboration with Professor John McLeod.
Banting's childhood friend died of what is now called diabetes. This tragic incident served as the impetus for the search for a cure for this disease.
Diabetes mellitus was described in the 1st century. n. e. Roman doctors Celsus and Aretom, who noted in some patients profuse urination, excessive thirst and weight loss. In the XVII century. English physician Thomas Willis noticed that urine tasted sweet in patients with these symptoms. Later, in the 19th century, it was found that starch is converted into glucose in the small intestine, which then flows from the bloodstream to the liver, where it is deposited in the form of glycogen.
In January 1922, an unknown young Canadian scientist, Frederick Bunting, saved a life for the first time in history by injecting insulin into a 14-year-old boy who was suffering from severe juvenile diabetes. Instead of obtaining a patent for insulin and subsequently becoming fabulously rich, Bunting transfers all rights to the University of Toronto. Subsequently, the rights to manufacture insulin passed to the Canadian Council for Medical Research, and at the end of 1922 a new drug appeared on the drug market.
For many centuries, people did not know the means to combat this disease, and the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus did not leave the patient any hope not only for recovery, but also for life: without insulin, this hormone that ensures the absorption of glucose by tissues, a sick body cannot exist and doomed to slow extinction.
The discovery of Frederick Bunting and John McLeod saved the lives of millions. And although diabetes mellitus is incurable to this day, thanks to insulin, people have learned to keep this disease under control.
In recognition of the first great achievement of the 20th century in the field of biochemistry and medicine, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Banting and MacLeod in 1923.According to the resolution of the UN General Assembly No. A / RES / 61/225, dated December 20, 2006, the day of November 14, the date of the World Diabetes Day, is officially fixed in the UN international calendar.
