9th International DESA Conference
Toronto, Canada – July 17 to 19, 2008
We learned a great deal about managing diabetes during exercise from the outstanding presentations, breakout sessions, exhibitors, panels and workshops over the three days at the MaRS Centre in bustling downtown Toronto.
On the last afternoon of the conference, over healthy sandwiches, veggies with yogurt dip and fresh fruit, a panel of professional and elite athletes with type 1 diabetes told us about playing their sports to the extreme and winning while managing blood sugars, pumps, meters, CGM's and insulin shots.
It is remarkable how far we have come since the days prior to 1921. What was it like to be diagnosed with diabetes in the years prior to the discovery of insulin? We could only imagine as we listened to the stirring and impressive keynote address that opened the DESA International Conference in Toronto this July.
World renowned medical historian, Professor Michael Bliss, set the stage for what was to develop over the following days. Professor Bliss spoke passionately of life with diabetes before that magical hallmark year, 1921. He presented case studies of young patients literally being starved to death just to stay alive, until a team of doctors and scientists (Banting, Best, Collip and McLeod) at the University of Toronto administered a brown, impure injection of insulin cells from the pancreas of a dog into 14-year old Leonard Thompson.
History was made and the diabetes world….our world...changed forever.
Some of Dr. Bliss' case studies had happy endings of long robust lives and a few didn't make it. Hearing about how frail children tried to survive on 400 calories a day and could barely walk or enjoy any prospect of healthy life, held an emotional grip and powerful impact on the audience of DESA athletes. There were many misty eyes in the crowd of over 300. A crowd housed within the building where those first injections were given nearly a century ago.