TREATMENT OF DIABETES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 17, 21 January 1927, Page 7

TREATMENT OF DIABETES

THREE YEARS' USE OF INSULIN

A statement regarding the value of insulin in the treatment of diabetes was recently communicated to "The Times" in answer to a published criticism by Professor T. R. Ellott and Sir Walter Fletcher, on tehalf of the Medical Research Council. "It is true.that the general mortality rate from diabetes, in all its forms, ha 3 not been notably bettered since the introduction of insulin," they wrote. "The figures have been subjected recently to analysis by the statistician on. tho staff, of the Medical Research Council and correlated with the known sales of insulin. The conclusion drawn by them is that insulin is not used throughout England as extensively ,or as efficiently as it should be..

'' The right use of insulin, which has to be given by repeated injections beneath the skin, requires on the part of the doctor a modofu knowledge of food values, and on the part of the patient a steadfast observance of- restrictions with regard to certain pleasant foods. Given these conditions, it is a joy, to see. the miracles wrought by insulin. Necessary surgical operations on diabetes patients, which formerly were dreaded, or even refused, because they so often led straight to death from diabetic coma, are now performed .without fear in every hospital, because' insulin can protect the patient from that special danger. Diabetic patients who were emaciated, incapable of work, and borno down by the misery of unending weakness, have now for the three years since insulin was made available in England been restored tp vigorous health, so that they can take the fullest happiness in work. The records of hospitals in London show a' few of the deaths that would most emphatically have darkened the list had insulin been never used. Banting, to whom wo owe this_ remedy, in his Nobel Prize lecture at Stockholm last ■ autumn, quoted 130 children treated with insulin, of whom 120 were still living, while of 164 similar children wLp did not Toceive insulin 152 were already dead. V.. "No critic who wishes to look honestly at the facts can deny that insulin gives life and' vigour to the sufferer from diabetes, for years of which we do* not yet Jcno'w tho span."