The first reference to insulin in a Chicago newspaper was both late and maddeningly provincial.
The Chicago Daily News debuted the name of the lifesaving hormone that regulates blood sugar on the Feb. 13, 1923, editorial pages, in this embarrassing piece of whimsy mentioning the city's king of electricity and rapid transit:
"To quiet a tormenting doubt whether insulin, the new diabetes cure, was or was not named in honor of Samuel Insull, we asked a doctor about it. He tells us that insulin was named from the so-called island of the pancreas. What a delightfully-romantic ring there is to the islands of the pancreas! One might almost do a ballad about them: 'Twas off the pancreatic isles/I smoked my last cigar."
The Daily News, perhaps significantly, was studded with advertising for quack diabetes remedies like Warner's Diabetes Cure, mineral baths in Texas promising relief, and Sulferlick Mineral Water for those who couldn't make the trip.
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The Chicago Tribune at least shared the reason that the Daily News was waxing poetic on the subject: Drs. Frederick Banting and John McLeod were in town to talk to the City Club about their 1921 discovery, which, in May 1923, the Daily News finally got around to explaining in detail.
I mention all this because quackery is on the rise again and because Friday — Nov. 14 — is World Diabetes Day, the date chosen to coincide with Banting's birthday. In 1923, an estimated 1% of the American population had diabetes. Now, about 10% of adults do, with one-third prediabetic.
Diabetes is divided in Type I and Type II. The latter — 90% of cases — is where a body can't use insulin produced by the pancreas to process sugar in the blood. It's caused mainly by obesity, with help from genetics, and can be controlled by lifestyle changes and drugs like Metformin. Type I, also known as juvenile diabetes since it often presents itself in children, is when the pancreas no longer makes insulin, and it must be injected.
Regular readers know I contracted Type I a year ago — through some undetermined autoimmune disease. Diabetes is not bad, as far as chronic conditions go — no surgery, no radiation, you don't have to die early, necessarily, if you do what you're supposed to do. In my case, that means swallow four pills a day, inject long-acting insulin every night and short-acting insulin as needed, should I decide to, say, eat pizza or sushi or some other high-carbohydrate food.
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Neil, congratulations on making it one year with diabetes. It's no small feet, after-all, you say so in your piece.
ReplyDeleteRarely have I read a piece where the moment I think "my god, that sounds just like today" is followed by "I mention all this because quackery is on the rise again..." It does shock me how prevalent -- as you so eloquently put it -- quackery is.
I will also say, I am very curious how the GLP1 drugs will change what "food" looks like. In a world where people can ignore food issues, food quality, and most medical issues through a medically magical (and continuously proven) elixir what does food mean? What does diabetes mean? What does rigidity mean?
It is both exciting and slightly concerning. What is food, if it doesn't matter what's in it if the medicine we take does magic to not absorb it... what monstrosities can big food do to our... food?
Thank you, good article. Have you considered an insulin pump? (Patch on the arm or back) Also the bs monitor can be used as a patch.These work well for my grandson.
ReplyDeleteToo bad we don’t have a bullshit monitor.
Neil, your clarification has it all making more sense. I'm sure you must have mentioned having Type I Diabetes before and I missed it. I assumed (wrongly) that you have adult onset Type 2 like most of us old timers. I wondered why you needed to be so careful. Now I understand completely. (We Type 2 people get away with more than we should.)
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous November 14, 2025 9:17 AM: I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes very shortly after Neil's Type 1 diagnosis. I don't know what you mean when you say "we Type 2 people get away with more than we should". I take a fasting glucose reading daily first thing each morning with a finger prick. I also weigh daily (unclothed before eating or drinking anything per my dr.'s instructions). I count my carbs daily & log all my consumption. All of this is a bit time consuming, but so far I have been to keep my diabetes under control with only oral medication. My brother is also a Type 2. He does all of the monitoring that I do, takes the same oral medication that I do & still has to give himself insulin shots to keep his diabetes under control. Both my brother & I am thankful that our diabetes has been controllable. My next door neighbor who was diagnosed at about the same time as I was, has already had to have 2 surgeries to get toes removed. I know other people who have lost their feet and even one who eventually lost his whole leg due to Type 2 diabetes. So could you tell me exactly what I am getting away with that I shouldn't?
ReplyDeleteVery informative, Mr. S.
ReplyDelete