Dark History - 155: Urine Beer, Insulin Comas, and Ozempic: the DH of Diabetes

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Hi friends, happy Wednesday! Diabetes is a disease that’s been around for thousands and thousands of years. Literally, since the neanderthals were walking around, painting in caves.  Recently, I went to the doctor. And something happened. I had to pee in a cup, you know, pretty routine. But my doctor came back with this look on his face and he was like… your pee is full of sugar. Turns out, this could be a sign of diabetes.  So while I was waiting for my test results… you know me. I was doom scrolling. Googling until 3am. Just preparing myself for the worst. I ended up not having diabetes, but even still… I couldn’t stop reading about it. Because this disease has an *insane* history.  Before there was insulin and Ozempic, there were starvation diets, opium cocktails, and… beer made of literal pee. Let’s get into it. I appreciate you for coming by, and tune in next week for more Dark History. Want some cool Bailey Merch? Shop Dark History Merch: https://www.baileysarian.com I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey ________ FOLLOW ME AROUND  Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail]  Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail:  Bailey Sarian  4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300  Burbank, CA 91505 ________ This podcast is Executive Produced by: Bailey Sarian & Kevin Grosch and Joey Scavuzzo from Made In Network Head Writer: Allyson Philobos Writer: Katie Burris Additional Writing: Emma Lehman Research provided by: Dr. Thomas Messersmith  Special thank you to our Historical Consultant: Stuart Bradwell Director: Brian Jaggers Additional Editing: Maria Norris, Julien Perez Post Supervisor: Kelly Hardin  Production Management: Ross Woodruff Hair: Luca Burnett Makeup: Jill Powell

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about the latest wonder drug that's been on the market, Ozempic. Oh yes, I mean everyone was talking about it, even your friend Brenda. Even though it seems like it was an overnight sensation, Ozempic was really just the latest drug developed for diabetes. Diabetes is a disease that's been around for thousands and thousands of years, literally since the Neanderthals were walking around painting in caves. Recently I went to the doctor and something happened. You know when you have to pee in a cup,

it's pretty routine. But my doctor came back and he was like, hey, your pee is full of sugar. And I was like, I don't know what that means. And he was like, this could mean that you have diabetes. And I was like, what? I could have diabetes, what? So I had to do a bunch more tests and I was waiting for the test results you know but I was like

googling like oh no what is this new life gonna look like for me? Just preparing for the worst really. Turns out like luckily I didn't have diabetes just my liver wasn't working properly or whatever it was but still you know I couldn't stop reading about it because it turns out this disease has an insane history. Before there was insulin and ozempic, there were starvation diets, opium cocktails, and beer made of literal pee. Oh yes, baby girl Lisa, listen, diabetes has such an interesting history. So let's talk about the dark history of diabetes, huh? Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today.

My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Here we believe history does not have to be boring, it might be tragic, sometimes it's happy. But either way, it's our dark history. Before we get into it, don't forget to like and subscribe because I'm here for you, always posting new content. Hi! And make sure to leave a comment down below letting me know what your favorite animal is.

Thank you so much. Before we get started into today's story, I just wanna say that diabetes is, I'm not a doctor, hi, I don't know if you know this, but I'm just a girl on the internet. It's a complicated disease, right? The two types I'm gonna be focusing on today are the two common types of diabetes, type one and type two.

So that's what we're gonna be talking about, okay? On of our episodes we get experts to weigh in and stuff so we make sure everything that we're saying is credible but I'm just saying like you know at the end of the day I'm not doctor thank you I just had to let you know so picture this you're in ancient Egypt around the year 1550 BC life was a little different especially in the medical world. Most of what doctors were working with were the herbs, spells, guesses. But even back then, doctors noticed something strange going on with some people. They had this insatiable, unquenchable thirst. And they were peeing a lot. On top of all of that, their pee was sticky

and had a certain sweet smell. So they noticed this, they were taking notes. Now they didn't know what was causing it, but they definitely saw the symptoms and thought, hmm, something is off. Do you guys remember Dr. Shoo Shroota? We talked about him in our plastic surgery episode, kind of another deep cut history throwback there, dark history deep cut.

Well, he was a Hindu doctor who basically invented the ancient version of a nose job back in the 6th century BC. Yeah, go off. Well, Dr. Sue Shrutha was a very busy guy because not only was he inventing and perfecting the rhinoplasty, but he also made some important discoveries in the world of diabetes. He wrote in his medical textbooks about this mysterious disease, which he called medumita or honey urine because there was so much sugar in the people's urine. I guess they would pop a squat somewhere, you know, pee and right afterwards ants would rush over to where the pee was at

because it was so sweet. So Dr. Sue Schutte argued that the disease was more common in people who were overweight and quote gluttonous and that it also seemed to run in the family. But he also did note that the sickness could occur in lean people and in those cases it was more severe. He didn't know it at the time but he was basically looking at the difference between type 2 and type 1 diabetes. Now fast forward a few centuries and this is when the ancient Greeks take things a step further. They start by giving diabetes its name, which in Greek means to pass through. Because people with diabetes were known to be constantly going to the bathroom with pain. And Greeks had picked up on the same red flag that Dr. Soushruta had,

that the urine of someone with diabetes was sweet. Now I know what you're thinking, Bailey, how did they know that the urine was sweet? Well, listen, look, we're not judging, but they would determine whether someone had diabetes by tasting a patient's urine. We're not judging. They had to know. It was science. But even once a doctor discovered that someone had diabetes, there was not a whole lot that

could be done to cure it. Especially in Europe in the middle ages. This was like the wild west of healthcare. The official medical approach to pretty much every illness was like, oh you're sick? Okay, time to bleed you out. Meaning they would practice something called bloodletting. We've talked about it before, but essentially doctors would cut patients in specific areas of their body thinking it would release bad blood and then like cure them.

In the 1600s diabetes became known as the pissing evil. Oh yeah, it sounds like a metal band. But it was just like a medieval slang for diabetes. It went cute from honey urine to like the pissing evil. But it got a little rebrand. Sadly, once you got the pissing evil, it was almost like a death sentence. You would just waste away. I mean, people would lose extreme amounts of weight, become weak and things went downhill fast. In the 1700s there was a patient named Peter Dickinson. He was 33 years old when he was sent

to a hospital in Liverpool, England. He had diabetic symptoms and was passing 28 pints of urine per day. That's like peeing over 56 cups a day. Think of those gallons of milk. It's almost like, it's like four of those per day. So this made Peter super weak, emaciated and thirsty. Just eight months into his diagnosis, things were not looking good for him. His doctor, Dr. Matthew Dobson,

had the idea to evaporate Peter's urine to figure out exactly what was giving it that sweet smell. And sure enough once the liquid evaporated all that was left was a white substance. And Dr. Dobson claimed that this white substance was basically the same as table sugar. He's like what? And once this pea sugar theory was public knowledge, people took it and ran with it. And they decided to run their own unique experiments with diabetic urine.

And one of those experiments led to the creation of urine beer. So by the late 1700s, Dr. Dobson had taken his patient's urine and came to the conclusion that sugar was present in it. Meanwhile, a Scottish doctor named Dr. Francis Holm was also experimenting with diabetic patients.

And maybe he had heard about the project that Dr. Dobson had done because he started to do something also a little unconventional. In 1780, Dr. Holmes started fermenting the urine of his patients with yeast to make beer. Yes, he would mix half a pint of yeast with 24 pints of one of his patients urine, just in case you're wanting the recipe at home. And Dr. Holmes wrote that, quote, it soon began to ferment an exit of vapor

like fermenting liquors. Next day it fermented strongly. On the third their fermentation seemed over. It had lost all sweetness and tasted like small beer. So should we just be turning all the urine into beer? I mean, I'm not, okay, I'm okay. Small beer just means low alcohol beer. That's what that means. Now that everyone and their mother knew that there was like literally sugar in the urine of diabetics,

doctors were determined to figure out well, where is it coming from? And most importantly, how to stop all these poor people from dying a terrible death. So all these experimental treatments start popping up. But again, they're pretty extreme. For example, doctors believe that you could get rid of diabetes by going on a diet of starvation. Yes, doctors were literally prescribing patients to starve. Yep, sometimes doctors were prescribing less than 300 calories per day.

This meant that patients would just starve to death before the diabetes could kill them. There were other diets besides the starvation ones, but they weren't very appetizing. An army surgeon named Dr. John Rollo, I think it is, published a book with a diet for diabetics that consisted of mostly animal meat and fat. You could have something called suet which is a hard white animal fat that comes from the

kidneys of cows and sheep. You could also have lard, butter, and blood pudding. Dr. Rolo also suggested eating as much rancid or rotten meat as like your stomach could handle. For best results, the book suggested patients also have a little nighttime cocktail made of opium, aloe vera, soap, and laxative wine. That's quite the mixture, right? I know. Now all this was supposed to help treat the diabetes, but none of them...

They were all, again, just trying new things. Like, hey, if you starve, will that fix the diabetes? If you eat raw meat, will that fix the diabetes? Like, it's... that's where we're at right now. None of these diets make sense to us, but again, the idea was to prevent the formation of sugar in the body. Um, especially with that last one by like pooping it out first with the laxative. Now this was actually seen as a pretty big step in the treatment of diabetes.

And even though the diet was dangerous and extreme, in some cases patients actually did recover from some diabetes symptoms. But mostly in patients with type 2 diabetes. Now if you had type 1, this diet didn't do very much. From this point on, doctors believed the most important method of treating diabetes was through diet. At this point, there was lots of theories on what was causing diabetes. My personal favorite theory was that diabetes was caused by excess of veneri, meaning too much sex. They believe that's what caused diabetes, was too much sex. In the doctor's minds, anything sinful or pleasurable

was connected to diabetes. Like for example, smoking or drinking too much. And again, sex, you know, diabetes. But that theory didn't really hold up because they were diabetic patients who claimed to be virgins. And this confused doctors, and they're like, but too much sex gives you diabetes.

You're a liar, you know? But it really debunked this wild theory. But after decades of doctors recommending sketchy diets and abstinence, there was finally a scientific breakthrough. In 1889, two German scientists, Oskar Mankowski and Josef von Mering had been experimenting in the field of diabetes. And they had a hunch that something called the pancreas

might be connected to the root cause. So they decided to perform a procedure to remove the pancreas from a dog. Now after the surgery, even though the dog was house trained, the dog started peeing everywhere. And I guess Dr. Minkowski yelled at the man who worked in their lab because it was supposed to be his job to take the dog out and make sure it went potty, you know? But the lab worker told Dr. Minkowski it didn't matter how much he took this dog on walks, he was still peeing everywhere.

Minkowski tested the dog's urine and sure enough, it was full of sugar. By removing the pancreas, Dr. Minkowski and Dr. Mering had given this dog type 1 diabetes. I know sadly though, the dog died shortly after his pancreas was removed. Um, just wanted to shout out to that dog. He really though solved the mystery to diabetes. So yeah.

In the eyes of an angel. Look though, this unlocked the key to solving diabetes. I mean the pancreas was the key. So that's in my intro I think I said liver and I think pancreas is what he said. Either way, pancreas was the key. Finally, a clue that wasn't based on drinking or making people eat rotten meat or opium, you know? Before Dr. Minkowski and Dr. Mering made this discovery, most people literally had no clue what a pancreas was or what it did. Many scientists believed it was sort of like a leftover organ that used to have a purpose, you know? But then over the course of evolution became kind of useless.

I would say like a pinky toe, but your pinky toe is actually really important for balance. So it's not like a pinky toe. But the connection between diabetes and the pancreas was undeniable. Unfortunately for the dog community, the experiment was repeated and had the same results. Without a pancreas, you would develop diabetes and then sadly die. Even though it seemed like science was getting closer to figuring out the cause, they still weren't any closer to a cure. It was this huge mystery that no one could solve. Then, after decades of experiments and tests, a miracle drug was invented.

In 1921, a Canadian scientist named Dr. Frederick Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, I know, what a great last name. Best, if your last name was Best, I'd be the best at everything. Anyways, they were experimenting with dogs. Sorry about that. Poor dogs.

RIP those dogs, you know, they really did it for us. They knew by this point that the pancreas controlled blood sugar, but how? Well, after studying on all these poor dog test subjects, scientists discovered something in the body called insulin. Insulin is what allows your body to take glucose from your food and use it for energy. And without insulin, sugar just builds up in your blood

and that's what makes diabetes so dangerous. It became clear that for people with diabetes, their pancreas wasn't making enough or any insulin. Within six months, Dr. Bantine and Best figured out how to isolate insulin, which was huge. This meant they would be able to inject it into someone who didn't have a functioning pancreas. And after some trials, they were finally ready to test it on a patient. A person, not a dog.

Leonard Thompson was a 14 year old boy who was dying of diabetes. His body just wasn't making insulin and he had all the classic signs, constant urination, weakness, and poor Leonard was just a death's door. Leonard's doctors had him on a starvation diet to try and manage his diabetes.

So for three years, he was barely eating anything and his diabetes was still unfortunately looking terminal. By 1922, Leonard weighed only 65 pounds. On January 11th, 1922, Leonard became the first ever human being to get an insulin injection from Banting and Best. But it didn't do much for him.

Now Banting and Best, they were scratching their heads, probably trying to figure out you know what went wrong, you know? When a biochemist on their team named James Collip decided to see if he could fine tune the insulin formula. Now James refined the insulin and came up with a new formula. And this was the second injection that they gave little Leonard.

This time the doctors were very hopeful. You know, they were holding their breath, watching Leonard like a hawk, just crossing their fingers. And guess what? It worked. Leonard's blood sugar levels dropped and he lived. He had to be on insulin for the rest of his life but still, I mean, he lived. Until the age of 26 when he died of pneumonia.

Yes, poor Leonard. Rest in peace, Leonard. Sorry about that, Leonard. But he got to live to 26, you know? Leonard went down in history as the first diabetic to be treated with insulin and live far beyond what any doctor would have predicted. Now this was an absolute miracle. Insulin went on to save countless lives

and Dr. Banting became a total rock star in the medical world. They even gave him a Nobel Prize in 1923. As he deserves, I mean this was major. Because insulin was seen as like again this incredible new wonder drug. Scientists were curious what it could do for non-diabetics. From the 1920s all the way through the 60s, doctors started using it on schizophrenic patients to put them in literal comas. on schizophrenic patients to put them in literal comas.

Yeah, this was new to me. Apparently this would give them a temporary feeling of relief for some. But there are also plenty of cases of institutionalized patients begging for these doctors to stop torturing them with insulin. This procedure was basically done every day and patients were held in comas for hours at a time. Sometimes it could last for months. In some cases

patients wouldn't be able to wake up from this coma. So that was a pretty big risk and if they did there sometimes would be irreversible brain damage. Okay look, you know if you watch Murder Mystery or if you're into true crime or something, you know, sometimes people use insulin to like kill people. That too, I'm just saying that. Sometimes they do that. You gotta watch out for these psychos out here. Even for diabetics, the insulin treatments were a little sketchy at first.

Early insulin was extracted from cows and pigs and it had to be injected with these huge like painful needles. Over time though, it did get better. We figured out how to produce human insulin in a lab and it became a lot more accessible and safe. Ever since then, doctors and specialists have continued to study insulin and figured out how to manufacture it so that people with diabetes can live normal, healthy lives. But whenever a miracle drug enters the chat, it's only a matter of time before the pharmaceutical industry

figures out a way to profit off of it. At least here in America, right? And at any cost. So insulin is saving lives, doctors are obsessed, and they found a way to make it in a lab instead of extracting it from animals. This was major. As soon as it was clear this medicine was a miracle drug,

the pharmaceutical industry jumped in and tried to make money off of it. But here's the crazy thing. Insulin is actually factually pretty cheap to produce. So the high cost is entirely based on pharma companies upcharging because they know people literally can't live without it. They're thinking diabetics will pay any price because they need it. One article from 2019 estimated that lab-made insulin should at most be costing a user $133 per year. But insulin manufacturers have jacked up the price in order to make more profit.

Between 2017 and 2022 alone, insulin prices increased by 24%. The rising cost has led to really dangerous situations like people rationing their insulin. In 2017, there was a 22-year-old diabetic woman who had her insulin covered by her insurance. You know how insurance goes, something changes one day and they don't really tell you. And then one day her insulin went from being free to now $500 out of pocket.

What do you do? You know, she couldn't afford it. And because this happened so abruptly, she didn't know like what to do. Well, without her insulin, she died. You know, I'm sure if you're aware, if you're diabetic or know someone who's a diabetic, like this is not the only case, okay? You know, I'm sure if you're aware, if you're diabetic or know someone who's a diabetic, like,

this is not the only case, okay? Because of the insane greed on the part of pharma companies, thousands of people are having a hard time getting the medication they need to survive, because these selfish companies just want to make a lot of money. It's sick, it's so sick. It should be illegal. I don't even know why. It's deeply upsetting. And you know, when we were reading about this, we also learned that this is something that EpiPen users are dealing with as well. You and I can agree, you shouldn't have to ration something

that you cannot live without. Like that just shouldn't be allowed, you know? That's like having a ration water. But also this is 2025 or whatever. Like we're in the future. Don't you think like we have the medicine. Why can't you just give it to the people? I get it.

You got to charge whatever, 10 bucks. Okay. Like why are we in such a selfish, like why is big pharma just a demon? I don't get it. Anywho, back to diabetes, Bailey, focus. There's this company called Type One International and a hashtag going around that's hashtag insulin for all.

It's like a campaign on social media. And they are putting pressure on big farmer companies like Eli Lilly and Nova Nordisk. Show their logo so we know. Anyways, people are really fighting hard to lower the prices. Some states like Ohio and North Dakota are even working to create a statewide cap

on insulin prices so that no one in need of insulin would have to pay more than $35. Some companies have started to comply with these price caps, but we don't know. It could also just be a publicity move and then they go right back to what they were doing. We, you know, hope for the best, but this, it's hard too when there's these big corporations involved huh? Nova Nordisk, one of the major producers of insulin, now they initially said that they would decrease their prices, you know, we're for the people, but later announced a plan to stop selling insulin altogether just before the price cut was set to take place.

Kind of weird huh? price cut was set to take place. Kind of weird, huh? People are worried that other companies will follow Novo Nordisk's lead. That's a hard name, Novo Nordisk's. Anyways, and just stop making it altogether rather than making it affordable, which is weird, right? Like you're still gonna make money off of it, right?

Like I don't whatever these people are fucking lunatics and if that happens though if people just stop producing it and selling it insulin would basically it could potentially be like really hard to find and because it'll be hard to find it could probably be more expensive but that's just like worst- scenario. We don't know. What's insane is that diabetes though, has been around essentially since the beginning of recorded history.

Yet it seems like treatment options are still not what they could or maybe should be. In 2022, California approved a budget that put $100.7 million towards domestic insulin production, research, and development. This would be a major development if it actually happens. It would dramatically reduce costs, at least in California. Which leads us to today and to a drug that you've definitely heard of, Ozempic, which also goes by the name semaglutide.

Now, Ozempic was originally approved as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, but as you've probably seen in the news on social media, it's gained most of its popularity as a weight loss drug. If we're starting with celebrities, right, then influencers and everyday people using Ozempic and not to treat diabetes, but to lose weight. To most people, Ozempic seems like a brand new thing. Back in 2022, Ozempic blew up on TikTok when people were posting under the hashtag MyOzempicJourney. And nothing will create a worldwide demand like a good old TikTok trend.

Literally within weeks of that hashtag taking off, the Therapeutic Goods Administration had to announce a shortage of Ozempic because of quote, an unexpected increase in consumer demand. Hollywood doctors started noticing a huge uptick in interest and soon enough it seemed like everyone who was anyone was either taking Ozempic or wanting to. And the list goes on. I mean, everybody was taking Ozempic. I know tons of people who've been taking Ozempic.

I mean, it's kind of like the weight loss answer that people have been wanting. If I could just take a pill and lose weight, like I'd be so happy, you know? And in a way, Ozempic was kind of that. It's a shot and you can lose weight from it. So I mean, yeah, I get it. I understand why people are doing it

and you lose the weight fast. And that's where it gets a little tricky for me personally because if someone can lose weight and they feel good about themselves and they're living a better quality of life, it's like hell yeah, if you don't have any crazy side effects or anything, do it. As long as you're not hurting anybody else, right? I think the biggest concern with Ozempic was that it wasn't taking away from people who actually needed it. Like that was the big conversation.

But the story of Ozempic began long before it came to Hollywood. It actually all started, it started way back in the 1930s with monster lizards. This story is weird, huh? Yes, you heard me right. Ozempic started because of monster lizards. You see, in the 1930s, scientists were very interested in learning more about insulin. Not just about how it worked, but how it was produced in the body. In 1932, a Belgian researcher named John Labar discovered that insulin was produced through a hormone he

called incretin. Nowadays, incretin is called GIP, which stands for a really long name that I'm not going to say. And does it matter? I don't know. They're just like studying shit, okay? In the 80s, researchers, they identified a hormone that worked with GIP, okay, to produce insulin. It was GLP-1. I know, chemistry, here we go, you know? Anywho, they find this out and they're like, wow, this is a really cool discovery.

But GLP-1 was hard to isolate and quick to metabolize, which meant it couldn't be bottled or sold. So of course, Big Pharma didn't give like a damn about it for a while until the monster lizards. I know, the best part. So in the 1980s, researchers began looking into the venom of a lizard called the Gila Monster. Gila Monsters are a rare breed from the southwestern United States whose poisonous venom

is about as potent as a rattlesnake. I know I was like new fear unlocked great so you know you would think a bite from the Gila monster is fatal right? Well I guess wrong. In fact, the interaction between Gila monster venom and human hormones turns out to have a huge breakthrough in treating diabetes. Man, science is wild, huh? I know. People find out we wild shit. So this guy Dr. John Eng, he's an endocrinologist at the Veterans Administration Center in the Bronx and he discovered something in the Gila Venom which he named Exidin-4. Exidin-4 was really similar to GLP-1, the human hormone that Big Pharma was ignoring because it wasn't marketable. And Dr. E discovered that Exodin 4 could stimulate the pancreas to create insulin. And unlike GLP-1, it was more shelf stable so it could be bottled and sold. In the 90s, Dr. E made an even crazier discovery.

Gila monsters were able to slow down their own metabolisms. Now that meant that they could go without food for long periods of time without their blood sugar dropping. So he thought there might be a connection here and one that could be super useful to the humans. Obviously it was a little bit of a challenge for Dr. E to get funding for a drug based on poisonous lizard venom. But eventually, a synthetic version of this magical lizard juice was manufactured.

In 2005, the hormone received FDA approval for diabetes treatment under the name Bayetta. Once Bayetta was in the market, or was out in the market, people started to notice something. Not only was it effective for managing diabetes, but it was causing weight loss of 5% and sometimes more in its patients. And if there's one thing our culture loves, it's weight loss, huh? Especially when it's fast and easy. Within six months, Baya was not about diabetes. It was being used as an off-label, miracle weight loss drug. The only problem was that

Bieta could only be given by injection, twice a day, every single day. And sure, it's great to slim down, you know, a little, but you know, for some, was it worth having to stab yourself twice a day? I think many people would say yes, it was worth it. And at this point, Nova Nordisk steps in. They developed the drug semiglutide, which was approved under the brand name Ozempic in 2017. Semiglutide was especially cool because unlike Bayetta,

it only required one injection a week. So you got all the weight loss benefits and less stabbing. A higher dose version of semiglutide was later approved under the name Wegovi in 2021. People tossed Bayetta to the curb once Ozempic was introduced. Ozempic was this shiny new toy, it requires less injections

and had some heart health benefits that Bayetta didn't. Ever since 2017, Ozempic has skyrocketed in popularity, leading to a lot of shortages. So in 2022 and 2024, there were such severe shortages of Ozempic that people who needed it to manage their diabetes were kind of out of luck. It was estimated that one in eight adults in the US have taken Ozempic or another GLP-1 drug

and 6% of Americans are currently on it. One of the biggest problems with diabetes, besides the cost of treating it, is that it's on the rise. According to doctors, the rates of type 2 diabetes have skyrocketed in recent decades, mostly because of modern diets and our lifestyles. I mean, think about it. Our processed foods, our sugary drinks, we don't move as much, you know? And that's not me trying to say, I sit all goddamn day.

Dr. Tara Seymour from Johns Hopkins says, for managing type two diabetes, a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains combined with regular physical activity is often the most powerful tool you have. You know doctors always say that and it's like yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I get it. But I don't know why is it so hard to do because fruits and all that stuff are expensive. The grains I get it.

It's like just tell me what to eat, just tell me what to eat, I don't know what that means. What is a grain? I don't even know. Wonder bread? Is that a grain? I don't know. It's not. I found out. Many people argue that diabetes has become an epidemic. The World Health Organization notes that the number of people with diabetes rose from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. These numbers are especially high and low and middle income countries. Now, before you get on your little soap box stand,

what's that call your little soap box? I don't understand that saying, but whatever. And people are like, oh, just stop eating processed foods and on sugar and all that stuff. Okay, first of all, sit your ass down. A lot of people throughout the world and in our country and in communities where there are things called food deserts can only afford processed foods

that are high in sugar. And lots of us have jobs that don't leave us with time to like work out, take spin class, freaking cook a meal with whole grains. And then on top of that, sure, it's like just because treatments are available doesn't mean that they're accessible to everyone. Diabetes and kidney disease due to diabetes

caused an estimated 2 million deaths. But there's some hope. Just recently, there was a stem cell treatment that was done on a 25 year old woman with type 1 diabetes and this treatment allowed the woman to start producing her own insulin in less than 3 months. Yeah. Stem cell research.

Now this patient has been cured for over a year now and has seen her diabetes completely reversed. What? Huh, what? Yeah, but this is just the first study and it was the first patient. Plus her doctors say that they really wanna see her continue to produce insulin up to five years before they consider her to be cured, you know? So it's like an ongoing study.

But I mean, if this comes through, this is major, this will be a huge step forward. And who knows, I mean, if this comes through, this is major, this will be a huge step forward. And who knows, I mean, hopefully maybe diabetes will be a thing of the past. Diabetes runs in my family, so it's like, oh, fuck. Oh, shit, you know? And I love sugar too, ugh. Anyhow, so what did we learn here today?

That diabetes has been around for a very long time, which I was like, what? That's crazy. And people need insulin and insulin should be affordable. I think we can all agree on that. And Ozempic and all that stuff. I don't know. As long as like people who need it are getting it. But if like you want to take Ozambique, I'm not judging.

Live your life. If you want to feel good, do your thing. Well, transition into next week's episode. Let me tell you, we did a dark history episode a while back on America's founding fathers. We found out some bizarre facts about their lives behind closed doors. And a lot of them had one thing in common. They were obsessed with their penis. So join us next week as we talk about the dark history of weird presidents.

Well friends, thank you for hanging out with me today. Did you know you can join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs? And while you're there you can also catch catch my murder mystery and makeup. And don't forget to subscribe because I'm here for you all the time with new content. I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's story, so make sure to leave a comment down below and it might even be featured in a future episode.

Now let's read a couple of comments you guys have left me. My favorite part, Z Sherry 11 left a comment on our ancient torture part 2 episode saying the real ancient torture technique is me clicking on this video right after I put together a delicious salad. I mean I could see where that's not a good idea. I think I'm just a sick person because I'll be eating and like what tell me more you know like know, like I don't care. I don't care. I guess I should have gave a disclaimer. Didn't I give a disclaimer? I think I gave a disclaimer,

so I think that one's on you girl. Thank you for listening. I hope you learned a lot. AbbeyCook7447 left a comment on our board games episode saying quote fun fact Lizzie is from Macomb Illinois they recently just turned the town square into a giant Monopoly board that's playable I believe it's super cool Abby thank you so much for sharing this I'm glad Lizzie is getting the recognition she deserves and I would love to see this in person do you live close by can you go and take pictures and send it to me? I'm always asking for pictures from you guys and I get nothing.

I want pictures, god damn it. So go and take a picture and let me see and then I wanna go, I wanna visit with the address. Let me know, let me know. Thank you for watching and letting me know. Betty Sullivan 3282 left us an episode suggestion saying maybe you could do a dark history on chloroform. It's been in so many videos. Betty, first of all, love your cake mix. Um, chloroform, you know, I feel like this is a safe space. I'm

not judging because obviously my mind goes to murder mystery makeup and all the times you hear about chloroform being used. But you know what, you might be onto something there. Like why was it made in the first place? And who figured out that you could like knock people out with it? There might be an interesting history behind it.

And I think I'm gonna make a note of this. Chloroform... four... you know it's one of those words that has like it's hard to spell. I'll look into this though because you might be onto something there like what is chloroform technically even for besides knocking out people? Thank you. I love to hear it. I love a recommendation. I appreciate you guys so much for watching and engaging and you know keep commenting because maybe your comment will be featured. And hey if you don't know dark history is an audio boom original. I want to give a big special thank you to our expert Stuart Bradwell author of of Insulin, A Hundred Year History. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian.

I hope you have a good day, you make good choices, and I'll be talking to you very soon. Goodbye. You