Before 100 years ago children with diabetes did not live long. Diabetics cannot provide their cells with carbohydrate nutrition. Due to a combination of insulin deficiency and inhibited surface membrane insulin receptor ability (see God’s Human Biology-Chapter 19 “Message in a Bottle”) these patients cannot adequately transport glucose into cells. The children, with varying degrees of severity, starve. Lacking the ability to process carbohydrates, the body begins devouring its own muscles and fat supplies. Prior to 1922, children with diabetes lived under a death sentence, slowly wasting away in front of their families.
in 1921, researchers at the University of Toronto developed a method for extracting insulin from the pancreas organs of animals, in particular pigs and cattle. On January 23, 1922 a 14-year-old boy, Leonard Thompson, received his initial insulin injection which immediately began dropping his elevated sugar to manageable levels. At this point, researchers realized they had far more diabetic patients than available insulin supplies with which to treat them. Eli Lilly & Company was approached and agreed to take up the challenge. Company officials begin scouring the country in search of animal pancreas organs, focusing on slaughterhouse sources. This was a Herculean task, as up to 50,000 pigs and cattle yielded 8000 lb of usable organ tissue to produce 1 lb of purified insulin.
Even after insulin availability was sufficient for the patient population, managing these patients remained a challenge. There is no one size fits all–each patient requires individual dosing, and all too often-even today-significant low levels of sugar can result. Mildly decreased levels may simply result in mood change, mild sweating and shaking, and can be easily remedied with food. However severely low levels of sugar can cause loss of consciousness and even seizures. And here is where an unexpected consequence was observed. Following recovery from insulin induced seizures, patients who also suffered from depression found improvement in their psychiatric symptoms. Physicians began using high dose insulin to actually produce seizures in their depressed patients who were resistant to other forms of therapy. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, this practice was utilized, but carried obvious risks. There had to be a better approach.
Experiments were conducted in Milan, Italy by a neurologist (Ugo Cerletti) and a psychiatrist (Lucio Bini) employing electric voltage applied to the brain, and on April 11, 1938 they were ready to employ this technique on a human patient. Known to history only as Enrico X, this initial patient had electrodes attached to each side of his forehead and an electric current of 100 volts was administered. Enriico lost consciousness and began convulsing, but went on to complete a sequence of 11 treatments. His depression improved significantly. Thus was launched the use of Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) for patients whose major depression could not be managed by other more gentle means, and the practice is still available today.
Our bodies are bioelectric entities (God’s Human Biology – Chapter 20 “The Matrix”), and there are several locations of concentrated pulsing “sparks”-notably the pacemaker node in our heart, and the respiration center in our midbrain. These 2 locations are anatomically small. One can reasonably ask then with the enhanced degree of bioelectrical activity in the much larger brain, why are we not continuously seizing? The answer demonstrates the astonishing engineering that underlies the brain’s anatomy and function.
We have 2 opposing operating systems in the brain with competing excitation and inhibition. Glutamate is an abundant amino acid in the brain and as a neurotransmitter stimulates bio electrical activity and excitation. Unopposed, this excitation would rapidly lead to cell damage and-yes-seizures. Glutamate is cleared from synaptic junctions by special cells (astrocytes), but a redundant backup system also exists. Opposing glutamate stimulating activity, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) dampens nerve activity by being released into the synaptic junction between nerve cells and binding to receptors on the receiving nerve, instructing that nerve to quieten. This occurs by increasing the inflow of negative ions into the nerve cell, and the neuron becomes less able to propagate an electric impulse. This serves as a fail safe system, protecting us from potential runaway overload caused by the very mechanism that allows us to function in the first place.
Gods Human Biology contains numerous instances of molecular balancing acts, and this is yet one more example. These biochemical processes are incredibly fine tuned and exhibit parallel redundant safety features intentionally introduced in human engineering. As we so often find, these are design features pointing to an intelligence and Master Craftsman. Without these exquisitely detailed systems, human life does not exist.