
World Diabetes Day: Google celebrates man who discovered insulin could TREAT diabetes
The search engine’s latest doodle features a picture of Sir Frederick Banting, who, with the help of Charles Best, found hormone could treat diabetes.
The second ‘O’ of the word Google is replaced by a bottle of insulin, and the doodle also features a drawing of Sir Banting.
The doodle also features the pancreas, the organ which makes insulin, a hormone which helps the body store and use glucose.
Banting's interest in diabetes first developed when he read an article about the pancreas.
He then drew upon research which found diabetes resulted from a lack of a hormone secreted by the organ.
Banting also sought advice from Professor Macleod, at the University of Toronto, who provided facilities for the scientist, and assistance of Dr Charles Best and biochemist James Collip.
Banting and Macleod were jointly awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery insulin could treat diabetes.
Diabetes occurs where there is too much glucose in the blood because the body cannot use it properly.
There are two forms of the condition - Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body cannot produce insulin.
Fri, August 19, 2016
Diabetes is a common life-long health condition. There are 3.5 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and an estimated 500,000 who are living undiagnosed with the condition.
Around one in 10 people with diabetes have Type 1 and it usually affects children or young adults.
Type 1 diabetes means the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin.
When insulin is not produced a person’s glucose levels increase
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