what happened to diabetics before insulin?

[Guest guest]

Before the discovery of insulin, the average life

expectancy of a Type I person after diagnosis was

approximately one year. Because you had no ability to

metabolize glucose, you starved to death. To prevent

you from developing excessively high bg levels, your

carbohydrate intake was severely restricted, as was

total caloric intake. Read Deb Butterfield's book for

a description that is heart wrenching but true, of

persons looking more like concentration camp survivors

than hospital patients, with barely enough energy to

get out of bed and take their first insulin shots,

miraculously coming back to life with insulin

available.

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