Insulin

 

Interestingly, there are numerous innovative ideas that surfaced via accidents in the past centuries. However, one that has drastically intrigued me due to how many lives it has saved since its discovery is insulin. Before the discovery of insulin, there was only one way to effectively treat diabetes – a diet of no carbohydrate and a strict low-calorie intake (Bliss, 2013). However, this diet treatment had its own downsides – strictly executing this method of treatment meant consuming calories as low as 500 every day. Diabetics were practically starving themselves slowly, hence becoming semi-invalids due to how consistently weak they were. Moreover, it required a lot of determination and self-control for diabetics to consistently maintain such a diet treatment for a long period of time – this was a feat very few could attain.

However, Josef von Mering and Oscar Minkowski, doctors at the University of Strasbourg were curios about how the pancreas affected digestion, this prompted them in 1889 to remove a healthy dog’s pancreas (Sriram, & Yogeeswari, 2009). After the surgery was successfully executed, Josef and Oscar noticed that when the dog urinates, flies would swarm around the urine – this was unusual and unanticipated by the doctors. This led them to further investigate the issue by testing the dog’s urine; surprisingly, they discovered that it had sugar in it – they had given the dog diabetes by removing its pancreas (Karamanou, et al., 2016).

Unfortunately, both doctors were unable to comprehend what the pancreas produced that made it possible to regulate blood sugar (Loria, 2018). However, between 1920 and 1922, numerous experiments were conducted by Frederick Banting – a surgeon; Charles Best – Banting’s assistant; and James Collip – a biochemist. Under the directorship of John Macleod – a physiologist at the University of Toronto, the researchers were successfully able to isolate a pancreatic secretion which they named insulin (Sriram, & Yogeeswari, 2009).

In summary, the journey to the discovery of insulin started off with Josef and Oscar’s curiosity. Today, one can get a vial of insulin in Canada for $30 – unfortunately, this same medication under a different name cost $320 per vile in the United States (Choi, 2019). Nonetheless, the major forces responsible for the discovery of insulin were technological and societal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Bliss, M. (2013). The discovery of insulin. University of Chicago Press.

Choi, T. (2019, June 29). American caravan arrives in Canadian 'birthplace of insulin' for cheaper medicine. Retrieved September 12, 2020, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-health-insulin/american-caravan-arrives-in-canadian-birthplace-of-insulin-for-cheaper-medicine-idUSKCN1TU0T4

Karamanou, M., Protogerou, A., Tsoucalas, G., Androutsos, G., & Poulakou-Rebelakou, E. (2016). Milestones in the history of diabetes mellitus: The main contributors. World journal of diabetes, 7(1), 1.

Loria, K. (2018, April 4). These 18 Accidental and Unintended Scientific Discoveries Changed the World. Retrieved September 10, 2020, from https://www.sciencealert.com/these-eighteen-accidental-scientific-discoveries-changed-the-world

Sriram, D., & Yogeeswari, P. (2009). Medicinal chemistry. Pearson Education India.