Talk About Insulin, part 2 (1959)

we ran out of insulin too uh lost a secret for a time in some of our patients who had been treated and were well died from lack of insulin that was a hectic time particularly for me because I was supposed to make it again and uh of course we did ReDiscover how to do it and the secret can never be be lost well I think the new incidents are very good for those who only need weakness in action and they have the enormous advantage of acting buy one injection a day and obviously if you have a thing that'll act a long time it comes out terribly hard at any one moment so when you get into severe diabetic States I'm quite sure Charlie that back to the original one is what everybody does for the routine living with insulin a lot of these um one that one injection to do are very good indeed and very welcomed of course by patients but a good strong hard action in any troubles approaching tumors on infections back to the good old stuff you made first of all into Furious as long as it's aesthetic Dad yeah we we have to add back a pure impurity now to make it uh last a little a little longer and not the best any other highlights there must have been very many but can you at the moment recall any particular ly I've got a perhaps on these Ships coming over there yes yes so one time during the War I shared a cabin with uh Adrian and Dale and uh the ship's medical officer came to us one night and asked whether we knew any biochemistry we asked him why and he said there was an unconscious boy American Boy Down in the Hole of the ship well the boy had asked on his brat we thought he was in diabetic coma but we had no answer then we ran around the ship and found that the captain of the ship was a diabetic so we borrowed some of his insulin the boy recovered and got along very well you were sharing a cabin with Adrian and Dale and uh two of the greatest physiologist with Carlton physiologists or Henry Dale yes not the best is there any indication whatsoever that you will ever be able to prevent diabetes prevention is really our our ultimate goal and uh if we had an instant to be given by mouth I believe that the onset of diabetes could be postponed or prevented in in certain types of cases we've already done that in our Animals by giving insulin prophylactically and preventing the onset of of diabetes but uh if that facilitate is a great deal I'm sure if the insulin could be given by mouth the the clinicians don't like to make injections into children who are perhaps threatened with diabetes but don't actually have it so that's never been thoroughly investigated this yet I think the clinicians are right not to do that but they certainly would if we had a preparation that could be given by mouth so that your ultimate aim is prevention and there are leads to indicate that someday perhaps that may be possible I believe there are I had an aunt who had diabetes he was a nurse and she died in diabetic coma in 1918. three years before insulin came along so I had a family interest in diabetes there's nothing like that for stimulating or pushing you on yeah but batting uh watched a classmate of his a good girl of 14. die of diabetes I think he was stimulated to select diabetes as his research by that happening too yes one of his first loves at school I think yes this girl that uh of course the children went very quickly I mean more quickly than new people of your age oh yes no child lived a year after diagnosis of diabetes before insulin and today these children while they're growing up marrying and reproducing producing children of their own one of the great disadvantages are insulin therapy is of course that you have to use syringes what advances may we expect in insulin therapy in the foreseeable future well when we were created it was a range that the insulin would be delivered into a vein I've always wondered why it wasn't put in our food but it's not a vitamin it's a it's an internal secretion and perhaps someday we can make a Depo insulin that will be liberated from say under the skin in the same way that the insulin is from the the gland and non-diabetic people of course the uh you have in mind the oral yes insulin yes personally I think there are some leads that may make it possible someday to uh have a preparation which can be given by mouth I don't know uh what the clinicians would think of that is that a very important thing do you think Robin oh I think it would be a great blessing to thousands of diabetics needing insulin if they could eat it or not have to inject it you were all very clever but I think that's going to be quite a problem you suggest to make a sniper insulin that will be sensitive to your own insulin requirements but as I say you've done more difficult things in the past go ahead and do it and then we'll eat your insulin so if we'll eat your preparation and so we are syringes but we'll keep the syringes for a long time I think you better keep them for some time yes so that you'd regard oral the introduction of oil insulin as a tremendous Advantage yes an unbelievable Advance almost I see unbelievable but I'll withdraw that word it's a bit too strong but not very much too strong I think no but it's a it's a great Challenge and that's the first thing foreign