Guenther Boden, MD (1935-2015): A Pioneer in Human Studies of Nutrition and Obesity-And the Mystery of Insulin Resistance for Handling Glucose.

Abstract

Professor Guenther Boden, MD, was drawn to the field of diabetes research through an unconventional route, but in that journey he brought a perpetually fresh set of eyes to help unravel the relationships between nutrition, obesity, and defects in insulin action. A delighted Guenther Boden in ski gear, Elk Mountain, PA, 1980 Guenther Boden was born on 8 January 1935 to Dr. Alwin Boden, an internist who practiced from a home office, and Irma Boden ( nee Godelmann), a homemaker who had trained as a medical technologist. During his early years, the family lived in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, an industrial city in southwestern Germany. The place and time would leave Guenther with vivid memories of a childhood spent during, and immediately after, World War II. Guenther once wrote that when Allied bombing of key industrial sites in Ludwigshafen began, the bombs were, from an 8-year-old child’s perspective, “more a matter of excitement than threat for me[,] and together with my friends, we would rush out of the cellar after the air raids to look for bomb shards, which we boys considered a valuable collection item. This lost much of its attraction as the air raids became more frequent… .” When his father was drafted as a medical officer in the Luftwaffe (Air Force), Guenther’s mother took him and his two sisters to the relative safety of her parents’ home in Heidelberg. Young Guenther Boden with mother Irma and two sisters, Marianne and Ilse, in Durkheim, Germany, 1950 Early life promoted an independent spirit, a healthy skepticism of authority, and remarkable resourcefulness. Rough lessons came at a personal level, from the “sadist” who taught his 3rd and 4th grade classes—using frequent corporal punishment—and from Guenther’s childhood experiences of hunger—today called food insecurity. Hard lessons also came from learning of the genocidal war criminals …