Nicolae Paulescu: The Forgotten Pioneer of Insulin Discovery

Did a Romanian Scientist Discover Insulin Before Banting and Best?

Nicolae Paulescu, a Romanian physiologist, successfully extracted pancreatic hormone that lowered blood sugar in diabetic dogs in April 1921 - months before Banting and Best’s first successful experiment in July 1921. His work, published in French medical journals, demonstrated that pancreatic extracts could treat diabetes, but World War I disruptions, language barriers, and later political controversies prevented him from receiving proper recognition for his pioneering contributions to insulin discovery.

Read more

One Hundred Years of Insulin Therapy: From Miracle to Crisis

How Has Insulin Therapy Evolved Over Its First Century?

One hundred years of insulin therapy reveals a remarkable paradox: while the medication has evolved from crude pancreatic extracts to sophisticated engineered proteins with improved safety and convenience, it has simultaneously transformed from an affordable necessity accessible to all patients into an expensive commodity that forces many to ration life-saving treatment. This century-long journey encompasses extraordinary scientific achievement alongside troubling healthcare policy failures.

Read more

Rethinking the Discovery of Insulin: Beyond the Toronto Miracle

Was Insulin Really “Discovered” by Just Two Men in Toronto?

While Frederick Banting and Charles Best are credited with discovering insulin, modern historical analysis reveals that insulin’s development involved decades of international research, multiple competing teams, and incremental advances by dozens of scientists. The traditional “eureka moment” narrative oversimplifies a complex collaborative process that began in the 1880s and involved researchers across Europe, America, and Canada working toward the same goal.

Read more

The History of the Nobel Prize for Insulin Discovery: A Controversial Decision

Why Was the 1923 Nobel Prize for Insulin Discovery So Controversial?

The 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Frederick Banting and J.J.R. MacLeod for the discovery of insulin, but the decision sparked immediate controversy because Charles Best and James Collip were excluded despite their crucial contributions. Banting was so outraged that MacLeod received recognition while Best was ignored that he publicly shared his prize money with his young research partner, creating one of the most contentious awards in Nobel history.

Read more

The Internal Secretion of the Pancreas: How Banting and Best Discovered Insulin

How Did Banting and Best First Isolate Insulin from the Pancreas?

Frederick Banting and Charles Best discovered that by tying off the pancreatic ducts in dogs, they could allow the enzyme-producing tissue to degenerate while preserving the insulin-producing islets. This breakthrough technique, first published in their landmark 1922 paper “The Internal Secretion of the Pancreas,” enabled them to extract pure insulin without the destructive digestive enzymes that had defeated previous researchers.

Read more

The Multiple Lives of Marjorie: The Dogs Who Co-Discovered Insulin

How Did a Dog Named Marjorie Help Prove Insulin Could Save Lives?

Marjorie, lab dog number 410, was a white terrier mix who became the first animal to survive long-term on insulin extracts, living 70 days after her pancreas was removed - far longer than any diabetic animal in medical history. Her survival on Banting and Best’s crude insulin preparations provided the crucial proof that their discovery could sustain life, directly leading to the first human trials that would save millions of lives.

Read more

Why Starvation Diets Were Promoted for Diabetes Before Insulin

Why Did Doctors Starve Diabetic Children Before Insulin Was Discovered?

Before insulin’s discovery in 1922, the Allen Starvation Diet was the only treatment that could temporarily slow diabetes progression. Doctors prescribed severe caloric restriction - often just 400-500 calories daily - because they observed that carbohydrates raised blood sugar levels. This cruel logic meant that reducing food intake could delay, though never prevent, the inevitable death from diabetic ketoacidosis.

Dr. Kumar’s Take

The Allen Starvation Diet represents one of medicine’s most heartbreaking chapters. Physicians knew they weren’t saving lives - they were simply choosing between rapid death from uncontrolled diabetes or slower death from malnutrition. Parents watched their children beg for food while wasting away to skeletons, all in the desperate hope of buying a few more months of life. This treatment epitomized medical helplessness in the face of an incurable disease.

Read more

A Short History of Gout: From Pharaohs to Modern Medicine

Dr. Kumar’s Take

This study gives us a fascinating look at how gout has shaped both medicine and history for thousands of years. From Egyptian papyrus records to Nobel prize-winning drug development, gout has been a constant companion of humankind. What stands out most is how lifestyle factors and diet remain central themes across centuries. Today, while we have powerful medications like allopurinol and febuxostat, the study reminds us that prevention still begins with diet, moderation, and awareness of risk factors.

Read more

The Glorification of Gout: When Pain Was Seen as Prestige

Dr. Kumar’s Take

This fascinating historical study reveals how gout was once seen not as a disease to be feared, but as something to be admired. From the 16th to 18th centuries, gout was glorified as a mark of wealth, a protector against other illnesses, and even a booster of sexual vitality. While we now know gout is a painful and dangerous form of arthritis caused by uric acid crystals, it is striking to see how culture once reframed suffering into a symbol of status and strength.

Read more

Roald Dahl’s Unlikely Medical Breakthroughs

Dr. Kumar’s Take

Roald Dahl is remembered for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda, but few know that he made lasting contributions to medicine. After his son suffered hydrocephalus from a head injury, Dahl helped design a new type of shunt valve that went on to save thousands of lives. Later, when his wife had a debilitating stroke, he organized an intensive home rehabilitation program that challenged medical norms, and it worked. And after his daughter died from measles, he became an outspoken advocate for vaccination.

Read more

The Wade–Dahl–Till Valve: How Roald Dahl Helped Redesign Brain Surgery

Dr. Kumar’s Take

In 1960, Roald Dahl’s 4-month-old son Theo suffered a devastating head injury in New York City. The resulting hydrocephalus led to repeated shunt failures - sometimes just days apart. Frustrated with existing valve technology, Dahl decided to do something extraordinary: partner with Britain’s first pediatric neurosurgeon, Kenneth Till, and retired toymaker Stanley Wade to create a better solution.

The result was the Wade–Dahl–Till (WDT) valve, a stainless steel, low-pressure, easily sterilized shunt that helped thousands of children worldwide. It was affordable, designed with global accessibility in mind, and stood as a testament to what can happen when curiosity meets determination.

Read more