Thank You Sir Frederick Banting
November is Diabetes Awareness Month and this is a cause that is near and dear to me as I am a Type II diabetic. Diabetes is a slow and silent killer that slowly destroys the body if not addressed by proper diet, sufficient exercise and the correct medication which is in most cases some manifestation of insulin. Today we celebrate the birthday of Fredrick Banting, a brilliant Canadian medical scientist who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923 (along with John Macleod) for the discovery of insulin, the first effective medicine to help those who suffer from diabetes.
Diabetes is a chronic illness that caused when the body fails to produce sufficient insulin on its own to regulate the glucose levels in the body. Most people will hear diabetics say that their sugar is…too high…too low…within a certain numerical range…etc. and so on. What these individuals are really talking about are the levels of glucose in their bloodstream. In a nutshell, the pancreas is the factory where our own natural insulin is produced that helps us process the carbohydrates (sugars) we ingest. Type I diabetes is usually a lack of insulin in the body and type II is where the body fails to produce enough insulin or can use the insulin efficiently, (For the purpose of this post I am keeping things very simple…this illness is much more complex than what I am writing about here today). It is for this reason we celebrate Sir Fredrick Banting and his efforts alongside John Macleod as they are recognized as the developers of the first insulin injection used on humans to help manage diabetes.
Born in 1891 in Alliston, Canada, Fredrick Banting went on to attend the University of Toronto where he was latter a member of the faculty after serving in the army during WWI. It was while he was teaching at the University of Western Ontario when he first started to gain interest in the problems of diabetes and insulin. And it was while he was at Western Ontario where he developed his theory of extracting and using insulin for diabetes. Working with his colleague at the University of Toronto, Dr. John Macleod, together they were able to develop the first usable insulin for humans in 1921. Two years later they were both recognized as Nobel laureates winning for their work in the medical field. At the age of 32, Banting is still the youngest person to ever become a Noble laureate in the history of the award and his ground breaking work has helped millions of people all over the world live a higher quality of life. Banting was given a lifelong annuity by the Canadian government in order for him to continue his work and he was knighted by King George V of England in 1934. Sir Fredrick Banting died at the age of 49 from wounds and exposure received in a plane crash as he was flying to Europe. One of the several things that makes Banting so interesting is that he sold his patent for insulin to the University of Toronto for one dollar so that the medicine he developed would be available to everyone.
As a user of medication to help keep my type II diabetes under control, I am thankful for the efforts of forward looking people like Sir Fredrick Banting who have so much to contribute to our global health and well-being. I would like to thank you all for reading today and as you go forward in the week remember to take care of yourself and each other because we’re all in this together.
Wm Reid
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