You may have noticed a lot of stories on the TV this week about Banting and Best and their wonderful discovery - Insulin - the saviour to
countless diabetics who would otherwise die decades before their time. I am

very sure most, if not all, Canadians know a bit about this great

Canadian discovery made in 1921/22. Did you know that there were NO scientific

trials - it went from being tested on stray dogs to being injected into human

diabetics as soon as it was it was made. There was no keeping dying diabetics

waiting for years from the treatment that could save them. There was no

psychobabble about placebo effects. There was no TV so it took perhaps a week

or two for all the papers to do it justice as a topic and as soon as diabetics

and/or their families heard about it, they lined up to get it. And as fast as

it could be produced it was given. Today, almost 90 years later, it is still

the number one treatment for diabetics. And that is all it is - a

treatment. It is not a cure. Canada

still basks in the glow of that Canadian discovery and is still looking for a

cure.



But we are not as understanding to MS sufferers as our parents and grandparents

were to diabetics back in 1921. In fact we are not, as a country, even remotely

sympathetic to the 76,000 give or take MS Sufferers. Most people do not even

have a clue what some of the more widespread and most debilitating symptoms

are. Relatives know; friends sometimes

do. And part of that ignorance is our own fault - we MSers tend to keep our

misery to ourselves. My next door neighbour who has known me for 6 years thinks

I walk with a walker because I have arthritis. I stopped going to doctors about

some of my symptoms because they immediately put me on anti psychotic drugs. I

mean, when you cannot explain intermittent blindness, it must be a psychosis,

right? Blame that one on the Medical schools who put emphasis on

psychotic behaviour when they can't explain something. It's the

fashionable way to diagnose it seems. So public understanding and medical

empathy is hard to find.



But in all this turmoil, along comes a doctor - this time an Italian, Dr.

Zamboni, who discovers that clogged veins, if opened with angioplasty, make

people with MS somewhat better. There are hundreds of people who have had the

treatment and are visible, living proof that angioplasty works to some

degree or other for most who's tests prove clogged veins. If this were 1921

this would have been fast tracked and by now there would be testing sites at

least in all the major cities and people would be getting relief of some, if

not all, of their symptoms.



1921 was of course long before television and mass marketing as we know it to

be today. 1921 was also long before the drug companies became THE

ruling Party behind the ruling Party regardless of which Party was in power.

1921 was a time when doctors truly believed theirs was an honourable calling

and that calling was to give aid and comfort to the sick. Some of us are lucky

enough to stumble upon a doctor that still puts morals and ethics and patient

care above the almighty dollar but they are getting fewer and farther in

between.



Now we have doctors who demand multi million dollar research grants for

research that is questionable. It usually involves the use of drugs

manufactured by companies who do not make their financial records available to

public scrutiny. Those drug companies charge exorbitant fees for drugs that

often do more harm than good or do nothing at all. We have researchers with

tunnel vision who call anyone else's research a hoax when it does not line up

with theirs.



In 1921 there was no talk about running trials where a group of diabetics were

split in two and half given insulin while the other half were given sterile

water just to see if they exhibited a placebo effect. Try to imagine, if you will,

the mental and physical torment of those given the sterile water. It's

inhumane! It's insane! But it is ok for people with MS. At least that is

what some neurosurgeons, politicians and MS Society executives want you to

believe. Let me tell you. If it is insane to think of doing that to

diabetics, it is just as insane to do it to those of us with MS. If it would

have been inhumane to do this to diabetics in 1921 it is equally as inhumane to

want to do this to MS sufferers in 2010. More so even.



As I sit here watching a TV short about Drs. Banting and Best and their

wonderful discovery, I think it is good that they have passed away and are not

here to witness the cruel and foolish behaviour of those who have followed them

and who are turning their much esteemed calling - medical research - into

such a monumental national scandal and embarrassment.

Read more about Banting , Best and Insulin at http://www.mta.ca/about_canada/study_guide/doctors/insulin.html