Prior to the advent of insulin, in the 1920's, diabetes was treated with a low-carbohydrate diet. These diets were aimed at controlling sugar in the urine, a stark contrast to the current ADA suggested diet of low-fat and high-carbohydrate. In fact the diet recommended by Dr. Elliot Joslin consisted of approximately 20% protein, 75% fat and 5% from carbohydrates.

Well in the early century - this diet seemed to hold most diabetics on course just fine without the magic pills available today. It is also remarkable that the secondary complications and epidemic growth of diabetes was not a hot topic, either. Researchers decided to give Dr. Joslin's diet another go in a modern environment. The results of this low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (LCKD) improved glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes such that diabetes medications were discontinued or reduced in most participants - 17 out of 21 completing the study. The original study had 28 participants, with 8 dropouts. The LCKD can be very effective at lowering blood glucose. Participants also experienced reductions in body weight, waist circumference, and body fat.

It's funny how this study, conducted in 2005, produced results seen almost 100 years prior. LCKD appears to be a reasonable cure for type 2 diabetes. If most diabetes was adequately treated back in days of 1923 without the assistance of pills and insulin - why is it such a mess nowadays? Where did we go wrong?

Read all about it. Professor Vincent Marks, a world expert on insulin who has assisted in some high profile cases of insulin murder, has written a book - the 'Insulin Murders - True Life Crimes'.

The first recorded incident of insulin used for murder was in 1957, and since then there have been about 50 cases globally of insulin being used for murder. Although insulin can be used to kill, Professor Marks said it was actually a very poor murder weapon. Detecting its use was difficult, but not as many assumed...impossible.

It is not a very good weapon especially nowadays. More tests are available to prove the misuse of insulin. If a non-diabetic is dead on arrival without a usual suspect - I suggest the coroner check the patient's blood sugar. If that's hovering around absolute zero I'd put a request in for the insulin antibody kit!

In December 2006, The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada (SickKids) researchers found that mice injected with capsaicin -- the chemical that makes chili peppers hot -- were rapidly cured of Type 1 diabetes. Now with widespread credence following their discovery, SickKids has partnered with Approach Therapeutics to accelerate the human clinical trials for this cure.

Researchers discovered that Type 1 diabetes is caused by malfunctioning pain nerves surrounding islets. These nerves mistakenly tell the brain that the islets are inflamed and the body creates insulin autoantibodies to destroy them. The researchers injected capsaicin, also known as "substance P", to kill the pancreatic pain nerves. Researchers observed that the injected mice's islet cells began producing insulin normally almost immediately. The nerve cells secrete neuropeptides that tell the islets to release insulin. The nerves weren't secreting enough neuropeptides, causing inflammation resulting in insulin autoantibodies that caused Type 1 diabetes. The researchers also found that the treatments helped curb the insulin resistance that causes Type 2 diabetes.

Thanks to SickKids and Approach Therapeutics for the promising news. Looks like the cure for diabetes could come from a land where universal healthcare lives.

Once again Diabetes Health gets to the bottom of a breaking point question: why does insulin cost more than ever?

When Fred Banting and Charles Best first discovered insulin in 1921, they sold the patent for a dollar ($1) so that insulin could quickly become available for life-saving use. Within 2 years, Eli Lilly had sold over 60 million units of its purified extract of pig and cow pancreas. Over the next 60 years, purification and duration improvements were applied to insulin. However, each new version of insulin came with a new patent and a higher price tag. By the 80s, yeasts were being used as tiny insulin-making factories. Once the gene for human insulin was inserted into one yeast DNA, the yeast multiplied ad infinitum, and each new yeast came with a little copy of human insulin. This breakthrough, naturally, carried with it a big, profit-making patent.

In 1996, the FDA approved the first insulin analog. Newer insulins are called analogs because they're similar to human insulin-- but not quite exactly. Before being put into the yeast, the human genetic material is slightly changed, to produce slower or quicker acting insulin, for instance. Each one of these improvements comes, of course, with a patent. And all these patented insulins cost - big time. For the entire story, comments from influential diabetes advocates and the evolution of insulin price gouging - see the full article at Diabetes Health!

The discovery of insulin, in 1922, was a breakthrough in the treatment of diabetes and it produced a remarkable increase in the life expectancy of diabetic patients. Animal-derived insulins have been used to treat people with diabetes since insulin was first discovered and continuously subjected to various purification technologies. In 1973, Novo produced a purer type of insulin, called monocomponent insulin. This set a new standard in purity. In 1982, Human Monocomponent was the world's first insulin preparation identical to human insulin. It was actually pig insulin, modified by enzymes, to appear identical to human insulin.

When Novo tried to introduce monocomponent insulin into the USA, Lilly fought back with 'human' Humulin insulin. Before Humulin insulin became available, insulin had been produced from animal sources, pigs and cows. It is believed by some that the animal insulin provided the diabetic with better awareness of hypos, and it is certainly true that the long-acting animal insulin such as Ultralente are longer-acting than their 'human' equivalents. The fact that both pig and cow differ from human insulin by certain amino acids (1 in pig and 3 in cow) has lead the majority of physicians to recommend 'human' insulin. 'Animal' insulin became increasingly hard to find, particularly in the USA (see This Little Piggy Left the Market).

In the late 1990s Eli Lilly developed Lispro, brand name Humalog. This was approved for prescription use in the UK and the US by 1996. This insulin has a shorter activity curve than Regular. This means it can be injected closer to the meal time, even after it. Studies have shown that it does not improve control as measured by long-term indicators (Hba1c), but that it does decrease the number of hypos. Glargine, brand name Lantus, was approved for use in the US in 2004. It has become widely touted as better than other long-acting insulins because it has a plateau effect on glucose control that lasts for approximately 24 hours. Some people find it acts a little shorter (and some doctors don't believe that's possible!) So there you have it - the short and sweet version of the history of insulin. I strongly suggest anyone who wishes to fill the spaces between the discovery in 1922 and present day to pickup The Discovery of Insulin (Michael Bliss). I welcome all comments to fill-in the pivotal details I've failed to include.