Arya Keerthi Kumarasena has done society a great and invaluable service in writing his book - ‘An Engineer’s Experience of and views on Diabetes’.
Diabetes is a very serious disease due to either the pancreas not producing enough insulin or the cells of the body not responding properly to the insulin produced. There are high blood sugar levels over a prolonged period. Serious long-term complications include cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic kidney disease, foot ulcers, and damage to the eyes. Therefore it must be treated as early as possible after detection.
During the past 38 years of his life, Arya Keerthi Kumarasena says he has been a severe diabetic. However Kumarasena is an engineer of great repute. Therefore his book ‘An Engineer’s Experience of and views on Diabetes’ is one of great value, providing his key insights into this medical condition.
This prolific writer has written many books on Buddhism, including techniques of meditation, and experienced and observed a major disease – Diabetes.
He is an Old Boy of Ananda College and a Graduate from the University of Peradeniya in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He later obtained his Masters of Science Degree from the State University of New York, in the same field.
He is a chartered IT professional and a chartered engineer and holds two patents to his name for multi input fast adder and word processor for combined character languages.
Having started his professional career as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Peradeniya, he was also a Radar Engineer at the Katunayake International Airport, until he moved into engineering research at the National Engineering Research Institute.
He has served as a Director in Several Private Sector Organizations and currently he serves as Consultant Group Director of the Metropolitan Group of companies.
He has contributed to the drafting of Sinhala Unicode designed and developed the first Sinhala Word Processor, represented Sinhala Language Computing at the United Nations forum on local language computing and developed the extension of the radar range from 140 nautical miles to 180 nautical miles.
He is a disciplined practitioner of Buddhism conducting Dhamma discussions in England and Australia.
He has authored many books on Buddhist philosophies, social welfare, management practices, and values such as meditation in practice, path to happiness through merit, practicable guide to managing emotions and towards organizational improvement.
This is the author’s 60th publication.
Kumarasena has suffered from many complications of this major non- communicable disease. Complications of his diabetes have required coronary bypass surgery and various kinds of eye surgery. Calcium deposits in a major artery of a leg necessitated insertion of a stent. However he has pursued a highly productive, creative and successful professional career.
Retired Professor of Physiology, Carlo Fonsekaneeds no introduction. Fonseka who was the Chief Guest, shared his knowledge of Diabetes, relating its history and its discovery.
“I am a retired Professor of Physiology and I have a Phd in Neuroendocrinology and have a doctorate in philosophy. In this audience there are very experienced people who know more than I do about Diabetes Mellitus. I studied at the University of Edinburgh where even Charles Darwin attended. Kumarasena is of course by any reckoning a remarkable man. Apart from being gifted genetically excelling at Ananda College from his school days, I am told by his contemporaries he was really brilliant. He finally became a Chartered Engineer in electronics and a Chartered Professional in IT. In other words he turned out to be a very creative person,” said Fonseka.
Fonseka described Kumarasena as more intelligent and observant than most people who suffer from diabetes. Due to his training as an engineer he has not simply taken the doctor’s advice as the gospel truth.
“He has a critical mind of his own. He has processed the information better than what most medical people can do. He has been trained to work towards specific objectives and achieve them by precise operations. Kumarasena has to be taken seriously and having browsed through this book I find it very interesting,” stated Fonseka.
Having had the pleasure of meeting Kumarasena personally, Fonseka believes that Kumarasena is stepped in Buddhist philosophy. However he is properly cautious about his views and shows proper respect to the doctors.
“However Kumarasena is not willing to simply accept without examination when it comes to advise given to him,” added Fonseka.
Fonseka then enlightened the audience about this condition called Diabetes.
“In the 19th century a man called Oskar Minkowski removed the pancreas of a dog just to see if the animal can live without a pancreas. However he noticed the urine the dog passed attracted flies and when he tested the urine, he found that there was sugar in it. So the idea arose in his mind that the pancreas must play some role in the regulation of sugar in the body,” said Fonseka.
There was then no doubt that the pancreas has something to do with diabetes. The Pancreas produces digestive juices which help to digest proteins, carbohydrates, fats and all manner of things.
“So everyone assumed that the anti-diabetic factor must be in the pancreatic juice. But all attempts to extract that substance failed. The pancreas produces the juices they come through a tube and open out into the small intestine. What they did then was that they tied the tube. So the juices no longer reached the gut. But the dogs did not get diabetes. They did not get sugar in their urine. There is then no doubt that the pancreas has something to do with diabetes. And there is no doubt that the substance is not in the pancreatic juices. Then where is it? At this time Histologists found that apart from the cells that produce digestive juices there are other little islands of cells in the pancreas. They do not open into the tube which opens into the gut. Everyone thought the anti-diabetic factor must be in those little islands of cells,” explained Fonseka.
So what scientists then did was that they extracted the pancreas, took those cells – raw fresh cells and got a filtrate but alas no Anti-Diabetic factors.
“Then came this young man Frederick Banting who had what turned out to be a brilliant idea. He said the stuff that is preventing diabetes must be in those islands. But because we are taking the organ fresh from the dog – what is produced in those islands must be mixing with the juice and the juice must be destroying that stuff. You can’t get the real anti diabetic factor because it is being destroyed by mixing with the pancreatic juices. Then again he hit on another idea. You take the dog. Tie the pancreatic tube. In six weeks all the cells producing pancreatic juice will disappear and shrivel up. In that shriveled up stage, take the pancreas and try to extract and that worked,” elucidated Fonseka.
In 1923 Banting and John James Rickard Macleod received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for this discovery of Insulin. Banting shared the award money with his colleague Dr. Charles Best who also played a role in the discovery of Insulin. Best subsequently wrote an article in the Reader’s Digest called – ‘How we discovered Insulin’ relating everything.
Finally Fonseka commented on Kumarasena himself, saying that Kumarasena has a certain sense of serenity about him that no doubt comes from the practice of Buddhism.
In his book Kumarasena says “I felt information acquired by me will be useful to many readers and I considered publishing it. However I wish to reiterate that opinions expressed may have engineering and IT flavor and in some instances deviate from the current thinking of an average medical professional. I was diagnosed has having Type 2 Diabetes 38 years ago. Since then I faced several known complications of the disease which included retinopathy, bilateral cataract, coronary artery disease with triple vessel involvement and severe peripheral vascular disease with multiple near complete blocks with calcium deposition.”
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