Why were "starvation diets" promoted for diabetes in the pre-insulin period?

Nutrition Journal

Review

Allan Mazur¹ 

[1] Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 435 Crouse-Hinds Hall, 13244, Syracuse, NY, USA;

关键词: Harvard Medical School;    Child Diabetic;    Prolonged Fasting;    Human Diabetes;    Rockefeller Institute;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2891-10-23

 received in 2010-12-07, accepted in 2011-03-11,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

In the decade before the discovery of insulin, the prominent American physicians Frederick Allen and Elliott Joslin advocated severe fasting and undernutrition to prolong the lives of diabetic patients. Detractors called this "starvation dieting," and some patients did indeed starve to death. Allen and Joslin promoted the therapy as a desperate application of animal experimentation to clinical treatment, and texts still describe it that way. This justification was exaggerated. The public record contains only the briefest account of relevant animal experiments, and clinical experience at the time provided little indication that severe undernutrition had better outcomes than low carbohydrate diets then in use.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Mazur; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011