A disease in motion: diabetes history and the new paradigm of transmuted disease
Article Abstract:
Therapeutic intervention in combatting a disease may transmute an acute disease, such as type I diabetes mellitus, into a chronic one. Infectious diseases have decreased while degenerative chronic ailments have increased over the last century. Diseases such as cholera and influenza have relocated, while lung cancer and AIDS have emerged de novo. For diabetes, the discovery of insulin provided patients with the opportunity to live much longer, but it also provided physicians with further complications, such as blindness and renal problems, that needed to be treated.
Publication Name: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0031-5982
Year: 1996
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The day after: how insulin was received by the medical profession
Article Abstract:
Insulin was discovered in 1921 by physicians who were seeking for a cure to diabetes. However, its was only in 1922 when the reports on insulin as a treatment were published in medical journals. In the articles, it was indicated that an alternative to starvation had already been discovered, but stressed that insulin needs to be integrated with the diet to be effective. In 1923, Joslin recognized the relationship between insulin, surgery and hypoglycemia, which led to further studies that elucidated its function in human health.
Publication Name: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0031-5982
Year: 1995
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Cortisone therapy: a challenge to academic medicine in 1949-1952
Article Abstract:
Biochemist Edward Kendall isolated a new steroid, Compound E, from adrenal glands in 1936. Twelve years after, Charles Slocumb and Philip Hench successfully treated with Compound E a young woman suffering from acute rheumatoid arthritis. Corticosteroid therapy has several untoward side-effects but its therapeutic value remains unassailable. The cooperative effort between the pharmaceutical industry and academic medicine was a key aspect in the development of corticosteroid therapy.
Publication Name: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0031-5982
Year: 1997
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