Karl Anders Petrén (1868–1927) was a Swedish physician who was a native of

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational urban areas of Sweden, city at the mouth of the Nissan (river), Nissan river, in the provinces of Sweden, province of Halland on the Sweden, Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat ...

. He studied medicine under

Magnus Blix Magnus Gustaf Blix (25 December 1849 – 14 February 1904) was a Swedish physiologist born in the parish Säbrå, presently located in Härnösand Municipality. He is the grandfather of UN weapons inspector Hans Blix. During his career he was a p ...

(1849-1904) in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and with

Joseph Jules Dejerine Joseph Jules Dejerine (3 August 1849 – 26 February 1917) was a French neurologist. Early life and education Dejerine was born to French parents in Geneva, Switzerland, where his father was a carriage proprietor. During the Franco-Prussian War ...

(1849-1917) in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He received his doctorate in 1896, and later served as a professor of practical medicine in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

and

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

. Petrén is remembered for his work with

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

prior to the days of readily available

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...

. He advocated a

low-carbohydrate diet Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet (nutrition), diet. Foods high in carbohydrates (e.g., sugar, bread, pasta) are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and pro ...

that was very high in

fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specif ...

to treat diabetes. He noticed that adding meat to the diet of diabetic individuals sometimes exacerbated or induced

ketosis Ketosis is a metabolic state characterized by elevated levels of ketone bodies in the blood or urine. Physiological ketosis is a normal response to low glucose availability. In physiological ketosis, ketones in the blood are elevated above bas ...

, whereas a diet with a high fat content reduced ketosis. He demonstrated that if

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

intake was limited, and the amount of fat in the diet was large enough, ketosis in diabetes could be eliminated. In 1901, Petrén published an important treatise on gait disorders titled ''Uber den Zusammenhang zwischen anatomisch bedingter und functioneller gangstorung im Greisenalter'', in which he describes a condition called "trepidant

abasia Abasia (from Greek: ''a-'', without and ''basis'', step) is the inability to walk owing to impairment in motor coordination. The term covers a spectrum of medical disorders such as: * choreic abasia: caused by chorea of the legs * paralytic abas ...

" or "trembling abasia". One of his sisters was

Louise Petrén-Overton Hedvig Louise Beata Petrén-Overton (August 12, 1880 – January 14, 1977) was a Swedish mathematician, the first woman in Sweden with a doctorate in mathematics. Early life and education Louise Petrén was one of twelve children of the vicar of ...

, the first Swedish woman with a doctorate in mathematics.

Selected publications

* ''Ueber den Zusammenhang zwischen organischen Veränderungen des Nervensystems und functionellen nervösen Symptomen im Greisenalter'', 1898 - On the relationship between organic changes in

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its behavior, actions and sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its body. Th ...

functions and nervous symptoms. * ''Lærebog i intern Medicin'', 1915 (13 total editions) - Textbook of

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

. * ''Über Eiweissbeschränkung in der Behandlung des Diabetes gravis'', 1923 - On protein restriction in the treatment of diabetes gravis. * ''Les différentes formes de l'arsenicisme et en particulier de l'arsenicisme provenant de l'habitation ou des objets domestiques'', 1926 - Different forms of

arsenic poisoning Arsenic poisoning (or arsenicosis) is a medical condition that occurs due to elevated levels of arsenic in the body. If arsenic poisoning occurs over a brief period of time, symptoms may include vomiting, abdominal pain, encephalopathy, and water ...

, etc.WorldCat Identities
(publications)

References

1868 births 1927 deaths 20th-century Swedish physicians High-fat diet advocates Low-carbohydrate diet advocates People from Halmstad Swedish diabetologists {{Sweden-med-bio-stub