Major Events:
1915-
Two physicians, Frederick Allen and Elliott Joslin, create the starvation diet which becomes very widely used. This treatment is practiced avidly until the discovery and use of insulin for treatment in 1922.
1916-
Elliot Joslin publishes publishes the first edition of The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus. Diabetes Mellitus is the form of diabetes caused by the failure of deficiency of the pancreas to create the insulin hormone, causing sugars to immaculate in a persons blood and urine. (Type One Diabetes)
1919-
In addition to the starvation diet, in 1919 the exclusive protein diet was introduced. The goal of the diet was to allow patients more food with the same results.
Eliot P Joslin-
Joslin was the first doctor in the United States to specialize in diabetes and was the founder of today’s Joslin Diabetes Center. He attended school at Yale University as well as Harvard Medical School.
Starvation Diet-
The Starvation Diet was introduced in the early twentieth century (1915) by Frederick Allen and Elliott Joslin. This diet's goal was to keep a patients sugars down by continually monitoring and restricting the amount of food the patient consumed. The severely calorie- restricted diets were the best known treatment for diabetes at this time, but often times still had fatal results. Prolonged undernourishment did relieve symptoms and gave the temporary maximum extension of life. This restricted diet was successful for patient who were over weight (type two diabetes), but for children and normal weight adults (type one diabetes) the diet led to a starvation death. Joslin wrote "We literally starved the child and adult with the faint hope that something new in treatment would appear...It was no fun to starve a child to let him live". The Starvation Diet was widely used up until 1922 and the discovery of insulin.
Exclusive Protein Diet-
The Exclusive Protein Diet was a side trail off of Fredrick Allen and Elliot Joslin's Starvation Diet. The protein diet allowed for diabetic patients to only eat protein; therefor allowed a larger of number of calories to be consumed by patients were able to on the Starvation Diet. Protein contains very few carbohydrates therefore it did not raise the glucose levels of patients. This diet extended the lives of numerous patients but was not a cure or an enjoyable treatment.
Data Results of Protein Diet in 1919