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1-2-3 Home Made Insulin

372K views 261 replies 164 participants last post by  Arch Stanton 
#1 ·
In an effort to put this information in one place for discussion I have compiled my research across the web for this post. I will be putting links to credits as needed.

I have not tried this, so please use this as information only as a just in case.

One thing all diabetics face in a SHTF scenario is the eventual lack of meds or maybe the inability to get them, while some will be able to cope via herbal remedies, diet and exersize, some heavily insulin dependent diabetics will be looking as a very gruesome ride.

I am a type 1 diabetic diagnosed at 26, mostly weight and inactivity related (was probably type 2 for a bit) I now rely on insulin (lantis) and (humalog) to maintain a good state of health. While exercise and diet have played a large role in reducing my needs, during sickness and stress sometimes uncontrollable things can happen to your blood sugar.

As you can guess once I became more survival minded (5days in the ICU tends to do that) I saw a need to know that it was at least possible to manufacture on some scale insulin.

Here is what I have found out so far.

***************************************

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Saxl

This is a link to an old story that I first heard on another forum about a person during world war 2 that manufactured and distrubted insulin using 1920's tech to keep alive a great deal of diabetics during the war.

This was my first sign of hope should I ever or anyone ever need to attempt to make it themselves, they were after all in occupied China. Given the lack of quality of the blackmarket insulin at the time and price 1 gold ounce bar would get you a small supply, but one of her friends had died from this which inspired her husband and herself to learn how to make it.

They managed to collect a book, "Beckman's Internal Medicine" described the methods that Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best first used to extract insulin from the pancreases of dogs, calves, and cows in 1921.

From here you can guess that after great trouble they began to successfully produce useable insulin for humans that sustained what is rumored to be more than 2-3000 diabetics.

******

So it can be done, the part of all this that will be dangerous and hard is the testing of the strength of the insulin. Any diabetic can tell you what happens with to much insulin.

*******

I found this information @ http://medtech.syrene.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3442 by using google

*******

http://www.discoveryofinsulin.com/Experiments.htm

At the end of July, Banting operated on one of the duct tied dogs and found that the ligature had held and that the pancreas had shrunk to about one-third of of its normal size. The gland was removed, chopped up and ground in a mortar with saline, strained and a small amount injected into a vein of a depancreatized or diabetic dog. This animal was observed very carefully and with anxiety, for there was great concern that it may have toxic effects as earlier experimenters had discovered. For a while there seemed to be no change, then later to dog showed improvement. The animal became a much more active and more important the blood sugar levels were significantly reduced demonstrating the soundness of Banting's theory.

Although they were jubilant over the result of this experiment, there was some fear that it may have been as spurious result of no real significance. Consequently they injected the substance into other diabetic dogs with the same dramatic result and now felt confident that they had isolated the anti-diabetic factor from the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Banting's theory had been proven, but still diabetes had not been conquered even though the groundwork had been laid and there were still problems to overcome. On Dr. MacLeod’s return from Europe he was impressed, but insisted that the whole procedure be repeated to confirm this truly admirable result. The results, of course, with further experiments were confirmed. MacLeod was convinced and the announcement of discovery was presented in papers through the Physiological Journal Club in Toronto on November 14th , and the American Physiological Society shortly before the end of year in 1921. Many publications followed.

[...]

In the fall of 1922 the extract was still impure and they were experiencing considerable difficulty with deterioration, sensitization, reaction, etc., although Collip had prepared an extract which could be injected into humans and was a great improvement in the purification of the product. Collip also working with rabbits discovered the dangerous effects of too much insulin producing hypoglycemia and the basis for him believe biological assay of insulin. There were still, however, problems to be overcome come the main one of which production of the product in large enough quantities to be useful clinically. Consequently, the third stage of the development of insulin was being approached and methods were found to extract insulin from the adult beef pancreas, for the supply from the tilt calves was certainly much too small and with further work, without going into details which are contained in Stevenson's book on Sir Frederick Banting, it was possible to produce insulin from the adult beef pancreas.


And from Frederick Banting's Nobel Lecture in 1925:

http://www.discoveryofinsulin.com/FGBLecture.htm

Best and Scott who are responsible for the preparation of Insulin in the Insulin Division of the Connaught Laboratories have tested all the available methods and have appropriated certain details from many of these, several new procedures have been found advantageous have been introduced by them. The yield of Insulin obtained by Best and Scott at the Connaught Laboratories, by a preliminary extraction with dilute sulphuric acid followed by alcohol is 1,800 to 2,220 units per kg. of pancreas.



The present method of preparation is as follows. The beef or pork pancreas is finely minced in a larger grinder and the minced material is then treated with 5 c.c. of concentrated sulphuric acid, appropriately diluted, per pound of glands. The mixture is stirred for a period of three or four hours and 95% alcohol is added until the concentration of alcohol is 60% to 70%. Two extractions of the glands are made. The solid material is then partially removed by centrifuging the mixture and the solution is further clarified by filtering through paper. The filtrate is practically neutralized with NaOH. The clear filtrate is concentrated in vacuo to about 1/15 of its original volume. The concentrate is then heated to 50oC which results in the separation of lipoid and other materials, which are removed by filtration. Ammonium sulphate (37 grams. per 100 c.c.) is then added to the concentrate and a protein material containing all the Insulin floats to the top of the liquid. The precipitate is skimmed off and dissolved in hot acid alcohol. When the precipitate has completely dissolved, 10 volumes of warm alcohol are added. The solution is then neutralized with NaOH and cooled to room temperature, and kept in a refrigerator at 5oC for two days. At the end of this time the dark coloured supernatant alcohol is decanted off. The alcohol contains practically no potency. The precipitate is dried in vacuo to remove all trace of the alcohol. It is then dissolved in acid water, in which it is readily soluble. The solution is made alkaline with NaOH to PH 7.3 to 7.5. At this alkalinity a dark coloured precipitate settles out, and is immediately centrifuged off. This precipitate is washed once or twice with alkaline water of PH 9.0 and the washings are added to the main liquid. It is important that this process be carried out fairly quickly as Insulin is destroyed in alkaline solution. The acidity is adjusted to PH 5.0 and a white precipitate readily settles out. Tricresol is added to a concentration of 0.3% in order to assist in the isoelectric precipitation and to act as a preservative. After standing one week in the ice chest the supernatant liquid is decanted off and the resultant liquid is removed by centrifuging. The precipitate is then dissolved in a small quantity of acid water. A second isoelectric precipitation is carried out by adjusting the acidity to a PH of approximately 5.0. After standing over night the resultant precipitate is removed by centrifuging. The precipitate, which contains the active principle in a comparatively pure form, is dissolved in acid water and the hydrogen ion concentration adjusted to PH 2.5. The material is carefully tested to determine the potency and is then diluted to the desired strength of 10, 20, 40 or 80 units per c.c. Tricresol is added to secure a concentration of 0.1 percent. Sufficient sodium chloride is added to make the solution isotonic. The Insulin solution is passed through a Mandler filter. After passing through the filter the Insulin is retested carefully to determine its potency. There is practically no loss in berkefelding. The tested Insulin is poured into sterile glass vials with aseptic precautions and the sterility of the final product thoroughly tested by approved methods.



The method of estimating the potency of Insulin solutions is based on the effect that Insulin produces upon the blood sugar of normal animals. Rabbits serve as the test animal. They are starved for twenty four hours before the administration of Insulin. Their weight should be approximately 2 kg. Insulin is distributed in strengths of 10, 20, 40 and 80 units per c.c. The unit is one third of the amount of material required to lower the blood sugar of a 2 kg. rabbit which has fasted twenty four hours from the normal level (0.118 percent) to 0.045 percent over a period of five hours. In a moderately severe case of diabetes one unit causes about 2.5 grammes of carbohydrate to be utilized. In earlier and milder cases, as a rule, one unit has a greater effect, accounting for three to five grammes of carbohydrate.

******************

My motivation for posting this was a request in another thread especially since as far as I can tell from searching that it has not been written about on this site as of yet.

I hope that I have properly linked to the sources and I hope this provides some hope for those survivalist diabetics out there.

To be honest though this stuff will be a powerful barter item if anything bad were to happen to our supplies. I try to keep 6 months worth of my stuff on hand, but even stretching that to the max my lantis and humalog (which is synthetic) only lasts a year from manufacturing in the specified temps.

I hope this starts some discussion about the thesability of trying to make your own now. While it is completly possible, it is very serious and a dangerous undertaking.

Discuss.
 
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#7 ·
via injection after having run tests on rabbits for dosage.

**edit**

I should have not assumed that all diabetics that were preparing for an emergency had a reusable syringe or a stash of disposable.

They sell a .31 guage syringe that breaks down to be sterilized it is made of glass and stainless steel.

Hope this helps someone I figured this would be invaluable, not getting that feeling.
 
#8 ·
"Most diabetics use insulin made from bovine or beef panc anyway?"

No, not for the past couple of decades. A lot of people had problems with reactions to the insulins produced this way. Insulin is now produced by recombinant DNA technology, in which genes that produce human insulin are added to bacteria, who then produce the insulin. Because it is human insulin, the problem with reactions has been pretty much eliminated.

If you really want to try this, I strongly suggest that you get training in chemistry now- these are not simple cookbook steps, they will require a lot of skill. You'll also need to invest now in the chemistry lab equipment, and the chemical agents required. Good luck finding acid alcohol, etc after the SHTF.
 
#9 ·
Yep, what was I thinking.

You are right about the recomb versions and reactions. But it worked once and the people who used it in the story were not chemist and the SHTF quite nicely, as a matter of fact they were in a foreign country and still managed it.

If not I guess laying down and dying instead of trying is better? I mean dying from an overdose vs ketoacidosis is so much better right? Been there and done that.

Hopefully it never comes to having to manufacture insulin. I would be all alone.
 
#10 ·
Please understand, I am not attempting to hijack this thread, but I have a question relating to the first post. As a type 2 diabetic, I am looking for herbal or more-easily obtainable oral meds for the emergency situation. Can someone point me to where I can find the answer to my question? Thank you.
 
#242 ·
I don't have a lot of information on it. And I haven't read all the pages of the thread yet. I recently read about a study where they used a tea of fig leaves to keep down blood sugar. I haven't tried using it and I don't know if it works. I am just putting it here for informational purposes. My dad is type 2 and ironically he had wanted me to get a fig tree for our orchard so I had just planted one a few days before I saw the article :)

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-445/fig
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/701563/diabetes-treatment-insulin-fig-leaves-cure
 
#15 ·
In some countries including some states even in the US it does not take a prescription to get 70/30. I can not confirm this and will be calling a few pharmacies Monday.

If this were the fact I would slowly grab as much as I could keep useable and stay stocked. Odds are (hopefully) that you will not need to go loner than 6-12 months without a real fresh source.

As far as herbal remedies their are a few, for type 2's that are not insulin dependent I would suggest control through diet and exercise and eating less more often. Odds are you are already doing all of this anyway. I will grab the herbal stuff from another site and repost it later.
 
#12 ·
I think it would be tough to have the skills to pull that off. As a medical professional and someone with a year of organic chemistry behind me, I'm not sure I could pull it off.

But if my loved one was diabetic and I had no choice? I'd have to at least think about trying.

Also, diabetics are not going to be able to survive on white rice. Dietary control will become critical. Many of the things we store for cheap calories are terrible for diabetics. As you mentioned, stress alone can send a diabetics blood sugar through the roof. Now add poor diet and/or illness and you have disaster.

Hand in hand with uncontrolled diabetes you get kidney failure, poor circulation, heart disease, poor wound healing, blindness. You may not have the means to get treatment for any of this.

So I would be doing everything humanly possible now to lose the excess weight and decrease or eliminate the need for insulin..... even if that meant bariatric surgery. Whatever it takes. I'd do it now.
 
#148 ·
I've seen posts on this previously on other sites about making insulin. However, from reading this and previous posts, you'd literally have to have a chem lab available already. Doesn't seem like something the average person could do. Lot's of chemical and equipment here. I found a recipe (someone shared) for making ether if needed for immediate surgery and it's pretty basic but even there, it would still be a struggle for most.

Agree, though that people with these sorts of conditions, are at high risk when SHTF.
 
#13 ·
I don't want to take away from one's ability to make his or her own insulin nor complain that it is too much work. I control my diabetes with diet, some exercise (I know, I could do a lot more to exercise), and Glipizide Xl (5 mg twice a day). Does anyone know of herbs or natural remedies which could take the place of the Glipizide- or at least take the edge off, when it isn't available? Thank you.
 
#16 ·
I certainly have nothing against someone trying to make their own insulin, should the sources of insulin dry up. I just wanted to point out that it is not a simple procedure. There will be a certain amount of specialized equipment, and also there will be chemical supplies (Sodium hydroxide, acid alcohol, and Ammonium sulphate were a few mentioned), things that are not common household items. Also, a centrifuge was used, also something not found in most homes (I did have one for a while, when I did insurance physicals in the home, and I would have to spin down the blood to send it in). Then, you'll need a supply of beef pancreas, and unless you have your own farm to raise cattle, they would be difficult to come by after the SHTF (I doubt that the local Albertsons will be open).

Now, for those who are type II diabetics, weight loss and exercise can reduce or even eliminate the need for the diabetic meds out there. Even those who are type II, but use insulin for control, may be able to reduce the need for insulin The classification of types of diabetes is based on the underlying pathology of the disease, not the use or non use of insulin. In type I diabetics, their immune system decided that the cells of the pancreas that produce insulin are invaders, and attacked and destroyed those cells. Those people do not make insulin, so they cannot survive without it. Type II diabetics, on the other hand, have difficulty using insulin. The receptors that bind to insulin do not work properly. The drugs that are taken orally do several things. Some stimulate insulin production. Some help sensitize the receptors, so that they bind to insulin more readily. And some affect how the liver processes sugar. And many combine some or all of these actions. Some type II diabetics become secondary failures, and require insulin for control. In many cases losing weight helps to restore the receptors to a closer to normal condition, and increased exercise helps to burn the excess sugar. So, if a situation occurs, where insulin or the oral drugs are no longer available, there's not a lot a type I diabetic can do. A type II diabetic, on the other hand, would be able to reduce or eliminate the need for the meds by diet and exercise. Losing weight in a SHTF scenario probably won't be too difficult, as you will be restricting the food store in order to survive longer.
 
#17 ·
No, that sounds like a stupid idea.

Not only do you have very little idea of what they are talking about, but the process is so long that it is likely most diabetics would die in the time taken to produce it. Even then I’m not sure exactly how much insulin you would yield. From my experience in college doing similar experiments (although not all at the same time) i can say: you WILL make mistakes and having to test your insulin on other people to be sure of its effectiveness is dangerous. Testing on humans is the number one rule you do not break. Last thing you want is to inject hydrocloric acid into your friends.

I'm also pretty sure that the method the drug companies use is easiest. It may be hard to get the bacterial cells and insert the insulin producing gene. But afterwards, purification is easy and probably cheap. It also does this in steady amounts of known concentration.

If i where you i would look for some article on the preservation of insulin. That’s the sort of thing that’s already been researched. The results could prove even more valuable.
 
#18 ·
No, that sounds like a stupid idea.

Not only do you have very little idea of what they are talking about, but the process is so long that it is likely most diabetics would die in the time taken to produce it. Even then I’m not sure exactly how much insulin you would yield. From my experience in college doing similar experiments (although not all at the same time) i can say: you WILL make mistakes and having to test your insulin on other people to be sure of its effectiveness is dangerous. Testing on humans is the number one rule you do not break. Last thing you want is to inject hydrocloric acid into your friends.

I'm also pretty sure that the method the drug companies use is easiest. It may be hard to get the bacterial cells and insert the insulin producing gene. But afterwards, purification is easy and probably cheap. It also does this in steady amounts of known concentration.

If i where you i would look for some article on the preservation of insulin. That’s the sort of thing that’s already been researched. The results could prove even more valuable.
Absolutely agree about the testing on humans, hence as the original article stated, testing on rabbits.

Im out after this post, and I would love to see some insight into the methods currently in use by pharm companies to expand on, in any case none will be easy and many diabetics will probably die.

Mean time I would love to see someone make a post related to long term storage of insulin as well.

Im out.
 
#20 ·
It is not quite that simple SM. Insulin is produced in the Isles of Langerhan within the pancreas. The pancreas is also responsible for fighting infection.

It not like there is some sac you can suck fluid out of. All of these production processes are on the cellular level. Each one makes a small amount and the sum of the parts equals the whole.

Kinda like a wet sponge. You can squeeze out the water, but if you stick a needle in it, all you will get is a clogged needle.
 
#22 ·
Hi, Ben –

Your initial post was a thoughtful effort, and you deserve a definitive reply, even though the answer probably isn’t the one you were hoping for.

Would it be feasible to produce insulin by the method you cited in a post-collapse environment? The answer is: no.

Animal logistics aside (how many cattle, sheep, goats and rabbits do you plan on having on hand after TSHTF?), let’s take a look at the equipment involved in the protocol you provided. You’ll need:

A tissue grinder
A high-speed centrifuge
A vacuum distillation apparatus
An electrically controlled heating mantle
A refrigerator
Filtration funnels
Sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, ethyl alcohol, ammonium sulfate, cresylic acid and volumetric glassware for making the appropriate concentrations of each

And electricity. Lots of electricity.

And that’s just to get started. Even if you did succeed in producing a batch of the stuff, the protocol states: “The tested Insulin is poured into sterile glass vials with aseptic precautions and the sterility of the final product thoroughly tested by approved methods.” I’m sure you’ve got bacteriological media and cell culture vials stashed away in the back of your fridge, right?

Then you’ve got to standardize the stuff. You’ll need either a direct insulin assay which requires a UV spectrophotometer (not to mention some high-tech reagents), or you’ll have to resort to the primitive process described in the authors’ method, which requires measuring the blood glucose of rabbits. (Ever drawn blood from a rabbit before? It’s a hoot.) You’ll still need a spectrophotometer and glucose assay reagents, unless you want to use the last few remaining glucometer strips in the world trying to determine if your insulin works.

I think you get the picture by now. And here’s the killer: this method doesn’t produce pure insulin. It concentrates insulin along with a number of other species-specific proteins that can cause severe allergic reactions in humans after repeated administration. It doesn’t help much to lower blood glucose at the cost of producing anaphylactic shock.

Even though this particular method isn’t practical, you’ve got the right mind-set; keep looking for alternatives that hold promise for the long run.
 
#23 ·
As it I had originally thought about the proteins causing the shock and not so much the insulin I have to agree that this would be a really last ditch effort. I could aquire most everything on that list and their are several livestock farms that would cooperate in trade during a situation that would warrant such risks.

Outside that I have turned my attention to insulin storage. It seems that I have found a source with newer inventories of my 2 types of insulin that does not expire for almost 2 years. ATM I have a years worth of insulin and if needed as long as it did not go out of date or cloudy I could stretch it 2 years with lifestyle changes.

Thanks for the explanative response.
 
#25 ·
SWZ-Ben - Thanks for the post, I really appreciate it.

My plan - have at least 6 months stored up. Insulin can last up to two years when kept cool (http://www.isletsofhope.com/diabetes/care/tips_insulin_chart_1.html). So, I should be okay with rotating the stock.

If things start to look reallly bad, I'll buy a couple of extra bottles. Some insulin is available over the counter. I'll also take steps to create a cool environment without grid powered refrigeration (solar power/ice house/shade/ect.)

With Ben's information I know it is at least possible to produce insulin (and it has been done before in a bad situation). With a 6month to a year time window I'll hopefully be able to improve/perfect my skills. Maybe it won't be too dificult to trade for beef pancrease (do people eat them?).

Will the homemade insulin be a good as pharmacy grade? No, but I'll take it if the SHTF. IMO - this is a lot better solution than sitting on my but and feeling sorry for myself or giving up.
 
#26 ·
Thanks for the great effort

Hey Ben,
i wanted to thank you for the great effort. Please dont let the naysayers bother you too much, I agree that producing homemade insulin would be a risky and dangerous proposition, it is no more risky than quitting and dying of dka or another complication. The fact is this has been accomplished in the past, granted it was by the combination of the right person supplied with the proper support and motivation but they did succeed. Once again I commend you on your efforts and can only say that people with your commitment will be the ones talking about the naysayers if shtf
 
#30 ·
Type 1 diabetes here

I have had type one of over twenty years now, I am tall and thin 6'2" and 160lbs. So I dont need to loose weight. I take 4 shots a day, three short acting with meals and one long acting at night. I have been thinking a lot about storage. I used to be able to get a three months supply, but my insurance has cut me to one. At about $100 per type per month it would be expensive to store. Plus needles and syringes, testing meters, test strips and lancets. I have not figured out what to do, still building my preps and hoping for the best, a cure...
 
#31 ·
I have had type one of over twenty years now, i am tall and thin 6'2" and 160lbs. So i dont need to loose weight. I take 4 shots a day, three short acting with meals and one long acting at night. I have been thinking a lot about storage. I used to be able to get a three months supply, but my insurance has cut me to one. At about $100 per type per month it would be expensive to store. Plus needles and syringes, testing meters, test strips and lancets. I have not figured out what to do, still building my preps and hoping for the best, a cure...

I still get 3 months at a time but I am type 2 and at 6'3" 275 my insulin needs will decrease as activity goes up and weight goes down. Since my Father is an insulin Dependent Type II and uses far less then he used to he is able to fill his 3 month prescription and get about 8 months each time. Regardless if long Term conditions cut off supplies we will have to try and make some. I have been aware of the Eva's Insulin Story for about 3 months now and am looking at getting basic materials into my preps.
 
#40 ·
Im a type 1 diabetic and molecular biologist..the thought of this frightens me terribly, not only do you risk infection, but you also risk a very serious immune response from insluin gathered from another animal. although treatment was successful in the early 1900s using this method, in a SHTF situation, there is no way you could reliably and safely produce insluin that is free of contaminants. do not try this.

also someone was wondering why this would be an issue considering the fact that today's insulinis taken from dog, pig or bovine. this is in fact in correct. insulin now a day is genetically engineered and produced by e. coli in highly regulated and clean environments.

in a SHTF situation, diabetics would be better of minimizing the amount of carbs they consume and make sure they get their fair share of exercise to help lower blood glucose levels. although having a prolonged period of high blood sugar would be dangerous an uncomfortable, a worse situation would be hypolycemia or low blood sugar because you dont have access to carby foods when need be. thus the concern of T1Ds should be the storage of carby foods for emergency.

hope this helps!

id love anyones feedback who can point me to a source indicating a wild edible food with the highest carb content..crucial for diabetics, something i have been wondering for a while, to no avail..
 
#125 ·
Im a type 1 diabetic and molecular biologist..the thought of this frightens me terribly, not only do you risk infection, but you also risk a very serious immune response from insluin gathered from another animal. although treatment was successful in the early 1900s using this method, in a SHTF situation, there is no way you could reliably and safely produce insluin that is free of contaminants. do not try this.
Still good advice
 
#41 ·
In another forum I participate in, one of the givens for a long term SHTF or a TEOTWAWKI is that the 5 to 10% of the population that uses 80+% of the medical world will die fairly quickly.

The % that are drug dependent like diabetics, people who have to take thyroid meds, etc will linger somewhat but eventually will start dieing off.

The % of us who occasionally need antibiotics etc will suffer extended illnesses and some of us will die off, most will make it back.

In the end - the luckiest (not always the fittest) will be doing the best. Example of a lucky one - A diabetic who has the needed infrastructure and animals and someone who can do it to manufacture insulin like they did in 1925.

An unlucky one - a diabetic 50 miles away who doesn't. Pretty soon dead.

My definition
Long Term SHTF - something like New Madrid and California both having the "big" earthquake. Resulting in thousands dead and huge disruption to the US. Eventually returning to more or less like it was before.

TEOTWAWKI - Stuff happening that will prevent us from getting back to what it was, may be our Great Grand children will but not us.
 
#50 ·
... and I'll add one more event level to the 2 you outlined...



... the "Extinction Level" event... where it aint ever getting back to how it was. I dont care how many heirloom seeds you have in your garden... the sun blotted out for 1,000 years due to volcanoes or a comet or whatever space rock hitting.

Do I think it's likely? Empirically speaking, of course it is not as likely as my own personal SHTF (serious car crash) or a regionalized one (earthquake, katrina) like the levels the author gave...

... but sometimes I think about how as "survivalists" we come up with scenarios that are horrible but just feasibly survivable. I dont blame us though, what fun is it to gameplan for a virus that there is no escape from and attacks everyone? Or a meteroite that ends plant growth on the planet? Not much fun at all!
 
#43 ·
this is one of the scariest threads i have ever read!! how did this make a sticky? i would have thought this would be deleted so the webmaster couldn't be held accountable if someone tried this and got hurt. medicine should be left to doctors.
What makes it scary? It is a discussion - generally by diabetics or those with diabetic family members - of how to make insulin when it's not available due to some cataclysmic event.

Are you suggesting we shouldn't discuss or share knowledge about what to do and/or how to do something in a Post Apocalyptic World?

If so, why? Isn't this type of discussion what Emergency Preppers, survivalists, and other weird folks like us do in forums like this?
 
#44 ·
In an effort to put this information in one place for discussion I have compiled my research across the web for this post. I will be putting links to credits as needed.

I have not tried this, so please use this as information only as a just in case.

One thing all diabetics face in a SHTF scenario is the eventual lack of meds or maybe the inability to get them, while some will be able to cope via herbal remedies, diet and exersize, some heavily insulin dependent diabetics will be looking as a very gruesome ride.

I am a type 1 diabetic diagnosed at 26, mostly weight and inactivity related (was probably type 2 for a bit) I now rely on insulin (lantis) and (humalog) to maintain a good state of health. While exercise and diet have played a large role in reducing my needs, during sickness and stress sometimes uncontrollable things can happen to your blood sugar.

As you can guess once I became more survival minded (5days in the ICU tends to do that) I saw a need to know that it was at least possible to manufacture on some scale insulin.

Here is what I have found out so far.

***************************************

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Saxl

This is a link to an old story that I first heard on another forum about a person during world war 2 that manufactured and distrubted insulin using 1920's tech to keep alive a great deal of diabetics during the war.

This was my first sign of hope should I ever or anyone ever need to attempt to make it themselves, they were after all in occupied China. Given the lack of quality of the blackmarket insulin at the time and price 1 gold ounce bar would get you a small supply, but one of her friends had died from this which inspired her husband and herself to learn how to make it.

They managed to collect a book, "Beckman's Internal Medicine" described the methods that Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best first used to extract insulin from the pancreases of dogs, calves, and cows in 1921.

From here you can guess that after great trouble they began to successfully produce useable insulin for humans that sustained what is rumored to be more than 2-3000 diabetics.

******

So it can be done, the part of all this that will be dangerous and hard is the testing of the strength of the insulin. Any diabetic can tell you what happens with to much insulin.

*******

I found this information @ http://medtech.syrene.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3442 by using google

*******

http://www.discoveryofinsulin.com/Experiments.htm

At the end of July, Banting operated on one of the duct tied dogs and found that the ligature had held and that the pancreas had shrunk to about one-third of of its normal size. The gland was removed, chopped up and ground in a mortar with saline, strained and a small amount injected into a vein of a depancreatized or diabetic dog. This animal was observed very carefully and with anxiety, for there was great concern that it may have toxic effects as earlier experimenters had discovered. For a while there seemed to be no change, then later to dog showed improvement. The animal became a much more active and more important the blood sugar levels were significantly reduced demonstrating the soundness of Banting's theory.

Although they were jubilant over the result of this experiment, there was some fear that it may have been as spurious result of no real significance. Consequently they injected the substance into other diabetic dogs with the same dramatic result and now felt confident that they had isolated the anti-diabetic factor from the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Banting's theory had been proven, but still diabetes had not been conquered even though the groundwork had been laid and there were still problems to overcome. On Dr. MacLeod’s return from Europe he was impressed, but insisted that the whole procedure be repeated to confirm this truly admirable result. The results, of course, with further experiments were confirmed. MacLeod was convinced and the announcement of discovery was presented in papers through the Physiological Journal Club in Toronto on November 14th , and the American Physiological Society shortly before the end of year in 1921. Many publications followed.

[...]

In the fall of 1922 the extract was still impure and they were experiencing considerable difficulty with deterioration, sensitization, reaction, etc., although Collip had prepared an extract which could be injected into humans and was a great improvement in the purification of the product. Collip also working with rabbits discovered the dangerous effects of too much insulin producing hypoglycemia and the basis for him believe biological assay of insulin. There were still, however, problems to be overcome come the main one of which production of the product in large enough quantities to be useful clinically. Consequently, the third stage of the development of insulin was being approached and methods were found to extract insulin from the adult beef pancreas, for the supply from the tilt calves was certainly much too small and with further work, without going into details which are contained in Stevenson's book on Sir Frederick Banting, it was possible to produce insulin from the adult beef pancreas.


And from Frederick Banting's Nobel Lecture in 1925:

http://www.discoveryofinsulin.com/FGBLecture.htm

Best and Scott who are responsible for the preparation of Insulin in the Insulin Division of the Connaught Laboratories have tested all the available methods and have appropriated certain details from many of these, several new procedures have been found advantageous have been introduced by them. The yield of Insulin obtained by Best and Scott at the Connaught Laboratories, by a preliminary extraction with dilute sulphuric acid followed by alcohol is 1,800 to 2,220 units per kg. of pancreas.



The present method of preparation is as follows. The beef or pork pancreas is finely minced in a larger grinder and the minced material is then treated with 5 c.c. of concentrated sulphuric acid, appropriately diluted, per pound of glands. The mixture is stirred for a period of three or four hours and 95% alcohol is added until the concentration of alcohol is 60% to 70%. Two extractions of the glands are made. The solid material is then partially removed by centrifuging the mixture and the solution is further clarified by filtering through paper. The filtrate is practically neutralized with NaOH. The clear filtrate is concentrated in vacuo to about 1/15 of its original volume. The concentrate is then heated to 50oC which results in the separation of lipoid and other materials, which are removed by filtration. Ammonium sulphate (37 grams. per 100 c.c.) is then added to the concentrate and a protein material containing all the Insulin floats to the top of the liquid. The precipitate is skimmed off and dissolved in hot acid alcohol. When the precipitate has completely dissolved, 10 volumes of warm alcohol are added. The solution is then neutralized with NaOH and cooled to room temperature, and kept in a refrigerator at 5oC for two days. At the end of this time the dark coloured supernatant alcohol is decanted off. The alcohol contains practically no potency. The precipitate is dried in vacuo to remove all trace of the alcohol. It is then dissolved in acid water, in which it is readily soluble. The solution is made alkaline with NaOH to PH 7.3 to 7.5. At this alkalinity a dark coloured precipitate settles out, and is immediately centrifuged off. This precipitate is washed once or twice with alkaline water of PH 9.0 and the washings are added to the main liquid. It is important that this process be carried out fairly quickly as Insulin is destroyed in alkaline solution. The acidity is adjusted to PH 5.0 and a white precipitate readily settles out. Tricresol is added to a concentration of 0.3% in order to assist in the isoelectric precipitation and to act as a preservative. After standing one week in the ice chest the supernatant liquid is decanted off and the resultant liquid is removed by centrifuging. The precipitate is then dissolved in a small quantity of acid water. A second isoelectric precipitation is carried out by adjusting the acidity to a PH of approximately 5.0. After standing over night the resultant precipitate is removed by centrifuging. The precipitate, which contains the active principle in a comparatively pure form, is dissolved in acid water and the hydrogen ion concentration adjusted to PH 2.5. The material is carefully tested to determine the potency and is then diluted to the desired strength of 10, 20, 40 or 80 units per c.c. Tricresol is added to secure a concentration of 0.1 percent. Sufficient sodium chloride is added to make the solution isotonic. The Insulin solution is passed through a Mandler filter. After passing through the filter the Insulin is retested carefully to determine its potency. There is practically no loss in berkefelding. The tested Insulin is poured into sterile glass vials with aseptic precautions and the sterility of the final product thoroughly tested by approved methods.



The method of estimating the potency of Insulin solutions is based on the effect that Insulin produces upon the blood sugar of normal animals. Rabbits serve as the test animal. They are starved for twenty four hours before the administration of Insulin. Their weight should be approximately 2 kg. Insulin is distributed in strengths of 10, 20, 40 and 80 units per c.c. The unit is one third of the amount of material required to lower the blood sugar of a 2 kg. rabbit which has fasted twenty four hours from the normal level (0.118 percent) to 0.045 percent over a period of five hours. In a moderately severe case of diabetes one unit causes about 2.5 grammes of carbohydrate to be utilized. In earlier and milder cases, as a rule, one unit has a greater effect, accounting for three to five grammes of carbohydrate.

******************

My motivation for posting this was a request in another thread especially since as far as I can tell from searching that it has not been written about on this site as of yet.

I hope that I have properly linked to the sources and I hope this provides some hope for those survivalist diabetics out there.

To be honest though this stuff will be a powerful barter item if anything bad were to happen to our supplies. I try to keep 6 months worth of my stuff on hand, but even stretching that to the max my lantis and humalog (which is synthetic) only lasts a year from manufacturing in the specified temps.

I hope this starts some discussion about the thesability of trying to make your own now. While it is completly possible, it is very serious and a dangerous undertaking.

Discuss.
this is one of the scariest threads i have ever read!! how did this make a sticky? i would have thought this would be deleted so the webmaster couldn't be held accountable if someone tried this and got hurt. medicine should be left to doctors
I guess you should exercise the disclaimer given, and use your own common sense, it is after all the INTERNET, that being said, this was done twice during world war two and many hundreds of people were saved because of it.

It is meant as a last ditch effort instead of dying from keto acidosis or losing limbs, or death caused by blood glucose levels being off the chart in a shtf scenario. I'm not talking about the power went out for a week, or even a month.

I'm talking about the end to distributed med's, pharmacies, and basically the world. A warzone pretty much qualifies, and its possible for diabetics around the world to find themselves in similar situations.

It is better to know and not need than not know and need in my opinion, and since I am a diabetic I found this to be very informative albeit very dangerous if needed to be used. I would only try this if it were my only hope of living.

Now please, grow up.
 
#47 ·
I am a type 1 diabetic, I have 3 months of insulin and orals for when the SHTF. If it a post apocalyptic world were there is nothing left I also have a 30cc and a 60cc syringe with a 19 gage needle 1.5 inch long. One shot, into the belly, and thats it. That is the decision that I have made. I have been thure the high blood sugar and the ensuing coma that takes days to come out of and in a post apocalyptic world i don't want to linger on being a burden to my family until it is over.

Dr. FrankenMod
 
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