[DoreenMichele]

If they really, really want to do this, I did read something years ago about a woman trapped in a city because of political stuff and having to go get, I think, organ meats from the butcher to come up with a homemade insulin source.

The thing I read did not go into specifics and I don't recall much. I think maybe it was an American woman trapped in an Asian city with political drama interfering with supply lines for critical items like insulin.

I don't know how you would find this info, but I believe it actually exists. We just don't really bother to try to record and distribute that type thing because no one gets rich off of it.

[pankajdoharey]

Irrespective of the actual mechanism they employ, though i think genetically modified Yeast is the most cost effective way to do this, the real concern will remain safety.

[DoreenMichele]

That depends in part on exactly how this fresh meat source of insulin was used. If it was something consumed as part of the diet and not injected, then safety becomes much, much less problematic.

The story gave no details on how she handled it. Just that she did under circumstances where insulin was simply not available and she lived to tell the tale.

[code_duck]

There’s no mystery to that. Before modern bioengineered insulin the major type available was porcine insulin. It’s very similar to human insulin. It must be injected like any other insulin (as a simple protein it's broken down quickly in the digestive tract).

https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB00071#identification-header

Now and then it comes up and diabetes discussion groups, what would we do in the event of a widespread disaster without access to the pharmaceutical system? Pig pancreas. From what I recall it requires a very large amount of pancreas, perhaps several organs per dose, and a centrifuge.

[DoreenMichele]

Thanks!

[pankajdoharey]

The safety has to be guaranteed. For that the labs have to be certified where the Insulin is made or extracted, that costs money. It cannot be a ghetto lab operation like the manufacture of Illegal drugs.

[DoreenMichele]

You apparently are not understanding my comment. If the procedure the woman used is more akin to a secret family recipe -- here, eat this -- then, no, no certification would be required.

To whatever degree you can take care of your health with diet and lifestyle such that you don't require needles and other invasive equipment requiring sterilization, life is vastly simpler, better, cheaper and safer.

[paulcole]

> To whatever degree you can take care of your health with diet and lifestyle such that you don't require needles and other invasive equipment requiring sterilization, life is vastly simpler, better, cheaper and safer.

There is no degree to which this is true for people with Type 1 diabetes.

[bregma]

And likely ineffective.

If there was a secret, simple, safe, inexpensive way to treat Type I diabetes that is also effective there would have been no need for Banting and Best to have killed all those puppies. Unless, of course, you think there is a very effective conspiracy by Big Pharma to cover up that one secret that they hate. I guess they could also hire the Big Fake firm that did the moon landing campaign and the Building 7 demolition.

[DoreenMichele]

Most likely it's complicated, inconvenient and time consuming. The big thing modern medicine seems to have solved is that popping a pill or taking an injection has a lower barrier to entry in terms of skill and knowledge than other approaches.

If you care enough to learn other approaches, it's sometimes* possible to get superior results compared to the "plug and play" medical answer.

* (I actually want to say "often" but I don't really want to argue it. "Sometimes" seems less likely to get me dragged into pointless drama.)