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| Categories: History of diabetes |
| History of diabetes | |
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Born in 1881 in Strasbourg, he took his medical exam there at the local University in 1904, and on the first of October in 1916 he was appointed director of the children’s hospital in Breslau. From 1929 onward, Stolte there developed his concept of a flexible treatment of diabetes among children under the term “free diet”. After the war the work went on in Greifswald, where he worked as director of the University hospital till the middle of 1948. His last position was at the University hospital in Rostock, which he led until his death in 1951.
With his treatment draft of giving insulin when needed to type one diabetes patients, he anticipated the ICT by 50 years. Since the medical public opinion of the endocrinology did not want to participate in this development, and the Second World War did not allow a bigger publication, his successes were restricted to Breslau and its surroundings only. In the GDR things again were not easy for this outstanding scientist and clinician. 30 years after his death one started to put into action, throughout the republic, the therapy possibilities which he had pointed out. At the 25 annual conference of the DDG in 1990 in Düsseldorf, the “Karl Stolte Award” was awarded for the first time, to two doctors.
In his description of the “free diet“ he claimed: “that it ought to be possible with the help of the insulin to see the metabolism of the children run normal. That was the reason why we soon after the introduction of the insulin, adjusted the children in the following way. We gave them the food which they had at home, while three days after the intake, we let the children independently choose the amount of each dish. […] Diabetic people must not be treated as laboratory animals that day after day get a precisely prescribed amount of food”.
As measuring criterion for this therapy, regular measurements of urine glucose were done and the distribution of the insulin in three injections was adjusted accordingly. He was the first to recognize a staggered need of insulin (Basal- insulin) which he tried to compensate for by giving a fractional dose of quickly acting insulin, in order to simulate a metabolism similar to that of a non-diabetic. In 1939 after the discovery of the Basal- insulin, when the newly found therapy should have been practised, Stolte refused to do so. “The giving of insulin that is oriented on the need is only feasible with quickly acting insulin”. In one publication he emphasises the worth of the Pancreas in a particular degree. The pancreas makes it possible that a healthy person could starve for a long time or “overeat” himself, without getting a hyperglycaemia or hypoglycaemia. He declared this dynamic trade with insulin to be the goal of his therapy. He can also be appreciated for having developed a therapy, independent of a diet, for type one diabetics against the resistance of his colleagues. (Contrast Carl von Noorden).
Towards the end of the article, the praise to an important scientist, one who had been ahead of his time and bravely defended every criticism, can only be repeated.
Textual partly source: Diabetes aktuell 4/2003 p.23-26 (Dr. Heinz Schneider)
Translated by Juliane Machado |
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