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Sir Frederick Banting Facts: How The Insulin Miracle Happened

By Ven Lanyon
Published on: 08:24 PST, Nov 14, 2016

When young Sir Frederick Banting woke up with a brand new idea in the middle of the night on October 31, 1920, he didn’t know his idea was going to change the world. The fact was, Banting was so immersed in the possibility of solving the problem of diabetes treatment that the idea of winning the Nobel Prize for him and fellow scientist John James Richard Macleod didn’t even occur to him. However, that’s exactly what happened.

Two years after that “miracle” morning, Sir Frederick Banting became the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The London Free Press reports that, for millions of diabetes sufferers around the world, the name Banting is synonymous with hope, and Banting’s house in the small city of London, Ontario, Canada is a pilgrimage site.

Although many scientists had thought for years that diabetes was linked to “particular protein hormone ” that they called “insulin,” the fact was that no one had figured out “how to provide insulin from the pancreas without it being destroyed first.” Banting put the facts together, and made one of those leaps of intuition that so often accompanies hard work and brilliant thinking.

Heavy.com writes that Sir Frederick Banting worked with many other scientists, in particular Sir Charles H. Best, to test his theory, and eventually to confirm that there could be a successful treatment for diabetes. Frederick always believed that Best was more deserving of the Nobel Prize than was Macleod. Banting generously shared his portion of the award money with Best, and spoke out about Best’s work on the insulin project.

Banting and Best worked together in facilities provided by McLeod, experimenting on dogs donated to the insulin project by the University of Toronto. The Telegraph reports that after carrying out various treatments on the dogs to establish the facts of Sir Frederick Banting’s idea, and confirming that it could work, Banting and Best took the next step.

The two scientists applied the facts to a final experiment and completely “removed the dog’s pancreas but ground the pancreas up and created an injection.” Without its pancreas, the dog developed diabetes, but the insulin miracle workers found that “giving the diabetic dog a few injections a day kept it healthy.”

Certain they had found a way to save the lives of millions of diabetes sufferers around the world, Banting and Best went on to offer the insulin treatment to a human patient.

“In 1922, a 14-year-old boy named Leonard Thompson became the first person with diabetes to be treated with insulin, and ended up recovering rapidly.”

The treatment spread as the facts became known, and it wasn’t long until “the medical company Eli Lilling began producing large-scale quantities of insulin.”

Today is the 125th anniversary of Banting’s birth, and the Google Doodle is celebrating that along with Sir Frederick Banting’s fact-driven, passionate commitment to diabetes sufferers everywhere. In the small town of London, Ontario, Canada, people are arriving from near and far to commemorate Banting as a miracle worker and life saver.

Guests can visit the room where the facts woke Banting at 2 a.m. and can even sit on the very bed where he slept. Many are moved to tears, and many more sent letters and emails to the Diabetes Museum to express their gratitude to Banting.

“Dr.Banting I will never be able to find words enough to thank you for saving my son’s life when he became diabetic at 2 years of age.”

Many grateful diabetics and their loved ones post comments on the Banting House National Historic Site of Canada“Dear Dr. Banting” page. Unless requested, all the letters are shared publicly, to inspire new generations with hope.

11-year-old diabetes patient Jess wanted to thank Sir Frederick and to share her excitement about being able to celebrate Banting’s birthday with birthday cake.

“We just had cake to celebrate your birthday- because we can!!! Thank you for your hard work you changed my life and the world!”

[Featured Image by Hulton Archive/Getty Images]

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