Before insulin: the starvation diet that slowly killed diabetic children
aakashgupta · x · 2026-10-14
A century ago, the standard treatment for type 1 diabetes was starvation — 400 calories a day or less. It merely slowed the dying; parents accepted it for one extra year with their child. Elizabeth Hughes, daughter of the US Secretary of State, wasted from 75 to 45 pounds by age 14. In August 1922 she reached Toronto, where Frederick Banting's experimental insulin transformed her within four months.
Note: not AI-related; history-of-medicine content.
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