It’s not easy to live with diabetes, especially when you are insulin dependent. Even now, under normal circumstances, when you have almost unlimited access to medical services and medication. Think about how radically your life will change when SHTF. In a collapsed society knowing how to make insulin can make the difference between life and death.
Type 1 diabetes is a tricky disease that requires a special diet and constant medication, i.e. insulin. In a disaster scenario, a diabetic person is very vulnerable, way more vulnerable than the regular Joe, because insulin dependency is yet another thing that must be taken care of, besides regular survival needs, such as food, water and shelter. When you have diabetes, you’re playing a perpetual chess game with your body. Type 1 diabetics, besides being insulin dependent, are prone to various diseases/infections and a multitude of metabolic problems.
Knowing how to make insulin at home is like the ultimate level when it comes to preparedness. But before getting there, let’s make a few notes about how a person with diabetes should prepare for the worst case scenario.
First thing, you should stockpile lots of testing strips and syringes. These are pretty cheap hence making a serious stockpile would present no significant problem. In case you’ll need them, you’ll see that they are more valuable than money/gold/diamonds/ammo or whatever.
Another thing to stockpile is obviously insulin. But, keep in mind that a stockpile of insulin, if stored properly (the temperature must not exceed 84F, refrigeration isn’t a must-have), has a “shelf life” of just a few months (even days). Keep in mind that expired insulin will kill you (expired insulin forms crystals that are lethal when injected).
How To Tell When The Insulin Goes Bad
Don’t use bottled insulin past the expiration date printed on the label. And no matter what the expiration date is, throw away a bottle one month after you open it. To help you keep track, write the date that you opened the bottle on the bottle’s label.
There are two ways to tell when insulin is no longer good: poor performance and unusual appearance.
If your blood sugar stays high even though you’re following your treatment plan, your insulin may have lost its effectiveness.
1. Poor performance could be due to two things:
- The insulin bottle has been open for more than 28 days.
- There are a lot of punctures in the rubber stopper because you take very small doses of insulin and you’re getting close to the end of the bottle.
2. If your insulin has an unusual appearance:
- The insulin is cloudy when it is supposed to be clear.
- The insulin is supposed to be cloudy but it has clumps, even after rolling it between your palms.
- The insulin looks stringy.
- The insulin has changed in color.
Diet
Diet is another crucial thing to consider. The human body needs insulin to break down carbohydrates. So, a low carb-protein rich diet will keep your insulin dependency a little bit under control. But of course you probably know that. If you’re on a protein-rich diet, you should drink lots of water and prevent your blood from becoming too acidic (ketones are the culprit in this case, for a diabetic in survival mode) by ingesting a solution of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, cheap and excellent for lots of uses). Baking soda alkalizes the body (the opposite of acidification).
Your diet must be very strict, just enough to maintain your weight and must consist of lots of small meals during the day, protein rich meals and as little carbs as possible. You must be moderately active given the limited caloric intake and avoid heavy-duty activities that can drain your body of energy.
You must keep an eye on the symptoms of hyper/hypoglycemia, hence monitoring your blood sugar must be high on your priority list. These symptoms include sweating, hunger, dizziness, fatigue, erratic heartbeat, confusion and in extreme cases even the loss of consciousness.
There is so much to say about this subject! A few months ago a friend of mine with type 2 diabetes succeeded in overcoming his disease with a proper program, including a very specific diet. He is writing a book together with his doctor about it. He promised the book will be posted on this website.
How To Make Insulin When SHTF
Now, let’s get back to our main problem: how to make insulin in a long-term survival scenario. I must warn you: this is not a simple task. It’s actually very complicated and you’ll need access to some equipment. Actually, I think you’ll also need a degree in Chemistry just to make sense of the “lecture” I will give you a little later.
The most important thing when SHTF is to help your body make insulin by providing it with the proper diet and with a little help from over-the-counter medication, such as Metformin/Berberine/NovoNorm (go for the highest dosage available). These are different types of oral medication for diabetics that can replace insulin by counteracting your body’s insulin resistance. They have a very long shelf life by the way so you can easily store them. In this way, even the small quantities of insulin that your body produces will have a significant impact when it comes to lowering your blood sugar levels.
Now, if you want to know how to make insulin at home, you should go back to basics, i.e. to read a lecture about how the first batch of insulin was created in the lab almost 100 years ago (actually, in 1922 and the scientists got the Nobel prize for that).
As I already told you and I must emphasize, knowing how to make insulin at home is not enough. You’ll need to have access to lots of stuff, such as pancreatic organs of cows or pigs, power (very unlikely in a SHTF scenario) in order to use centrifuges and lab equipment, not to mention very solid Chemistry knowledge. Truth be told, it is highly improbable that you’ll manage to make insulin at home, to put together all the chemicals and all the equipment in a disaster-scenario, but who knows, maybe you can do it, hence let me show you the actual transcript of a lecture from the 1920’s, given by the insulin inventors themselves, describing the process.
“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 Sodium Hydroxide. The clear filtrate is concentrated in vacuo to about 1/15 of its original volume.
The concentrate is then heated to 50o degrees Centigrade, 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.”
Good luck, have fun with that folks!
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Wow! This increases my respect for Banting and Best even greater than it already was–and makes the current method of genetically-modified E. coli bacteria that secrete bio-identical human insulin sound elegantly simple! It also reminds me of just how precarious my own survival is in the even of disaster. The longest I’ve had to “bug-in” was for 6-1/2 days, after a major storm had knocked out the electrical transmission lines and downed power lines and fallen trees blocked the roads that weren’t flooded. I’ve learned to always keep a month’s supply ahead of insulin, pens, syringes, and I always keep “blue ice” gel packs in the freezer. I have a small Igloo cooler that will fit inside a larger one, and by putting my insulin in the small one with ice packs, then surrounding it with more gel frozen gel packs inside the larger cooler, I was able to keep the insulin cool for the week;I had done the same for 5 days when we were stuck in the house after the Loma Prieta earthquake. (People were pretty civil in the aftermath of that major quake, but then San Francisco did have electric power restored to all parts of the City within 5 days; the gas lines took longer. The biggest problem was the Bay Bridge being closed for a month.) I have asked the Red Cross and other disaster agencies what should I do in case of another such event, and the response has been,”go to the nearest undamaged hospital.” That does NOT solve the problem! I can grow a garden; I’ve learned about medicinal plants; I can build a shelter from the bamboo that fences my yard; I’ve tamed the feral cats that keep the rodents controlled and love my dog who keeps racoons and vandals away; I can cook on a small fire in cast iron and a pressure cooker; I’ve sun-dried fruits and herbs and turkey-jerky. My son is an Army medic But I still haven’t figured out how to survive a long-term SHTF event with insulin-dependent diabetes! Do I have to just accept that I won’t survive?
If I were you I’d look into the diet treatments they used a long time ago and adjust my food stores to support that. This whole ketogenic fad was originally for diabetics and epileptics. You might not thrive at optimal health, but you might be able to keep functioning with diet changes.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. T1 diabetics do not have a pancreas. So diet and Metformin is of little use. Please understand that Thpe 1 and Type 2 are actually completely different diseases.
The techniques that type 2 diabetics can use should extend the type 1’s survival time. How much depends on the person. Reducing carbs as much as possible (meat, cheese, eggs, some nuts, green leafy vegetables, nothing more), turmeric and cinnamon, a stash of metformin…
The trick is to test these on yourself before you have to depend on them. I also recommend having someone there to monitor you while you experiment. As a type 2, I found 1/2 tsp of cinnamon would drop my blood sugar 10 points or so, the turmeric needed pepper and oil to make it effective, while ginger and bitter melon didn’t make any difference.
If you can get a metformin prescription, that will definitely help. It dropped my father’s insulin dose to half of what he was taking, and reduced his blood sugar spikes. It’s cheap, stores at room temperature for months, and would reduce your insulin requirements.
Finally, how about getting a small refrigerator that can use something besides 120V? They’re not cheap, but a Unique UGP-3 is a dorm sized refrigerator that can run on 120v, 12v or propane. The one in my brother-in-law’s trailer ran for over a month off of a single 25 pound bottle, or you could run it off a battery + solar panel.
Long term survival and insulin dependency don’t intersect much. Until the big brains figure out how to use stem cells to regenerate a pancreas, anyways.
I too use cinnamon to lower my blood sugar quickly if I’ve “misjudged” my food choices. I seem to be one of the lucky few that has, so far anyway, been able to avoid needing insulin. I test a half dozen times a day, and make small diet adjustments as necessary to “tweak” my numbers. The whole point of this reply, however….was to point out that several companies (Coleman is one, I think) make a small picnic-sized cooler that runs on 12 volts. I wouldn’t trust it to keep milk fresh, for example, but for keeping medication cool its perfect. Forty bucks at WalMart. Good investment, in my opinion.
Good ideas. but hope the EMP didn’t destroy your generator, frig as well. There might be a few that have this down packed. But for the most part those depended on isulan are going to die best guess 999 to 1. After all look around most people aren’t even prepared for a week if something goes down. I can tell you for sure most neighbors around me within a mile have less then 2 weeks food and most of it refrigerated.
Excuse me, Allen, but how does ANY of this rely on a generator…? Is a picnic cooler! And if youre worried about EMPs (like I am), you can keep them packed in a Faraday crate (like I do). Yes, them, cuz I have a backup. Also keep the solar panels to run them and a battery charger in a Faraday box too. This really isn’t my first disaster rodeo. Finally–yes, a lot of unprepared people are going to die. With God’s help and maybe the right pinch of luck, me and my family won’t be among them.
Did your father have Type 2? Metformin assists a working pancreas. It will do absolutely nothing for a Type 1 diabetic and in fact is very dangerous advice for T1’s. No diet or spice on this earth will make a nonfunctional pancreas start working. That’s why they used cow and pig pancreas in the first insulin formulations.
Instead of blue ice, look into FRIO cooling pouches. They work off the principle of evaporative cooling. It only takes water to charge them, do they were good for extended power outages.
Love this article does it come in video format and can you email them both to me my phone won’t crunch it! Thanks and happy holiday!
Loved this article. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Currently wondering about how long Frio bags last. They stay cool as long as they are damp, and can be resoaked as needed. They take a couple of weeks at least before they dry out.
After reading this which I think is great. Thank goodness I’m not a diabetic. But over all what I see here when SHTF to the fullest degree. Like the electric grid destroyed. There going to be a lot of diabetics that are just going to die.
Allen,
I don’t see how anything you have said is pertinent to the above post, nor helpful to the diabetics here trying to educate themselves and be prepared. Your final comment can best be summed up: “Thank god I’m not diabetic because a lot of you are going to die”. That’s akin to telling someone with stage 4 cancer: “You inspired me to get screened and, well, thank god I don’t have cancer…” That is by no means a comparison of cancer to diabetes but you’re telling the target audience of this post— diabetics– you’re glad you’re not one of them because they’re inevitably doomed. It’s insensitive. Maybe offer to help educate your neighbors instead of talking about them being idiots on a random forum. I, too, am not diabetic but I am married to one. I’ll be damned if I don’t hunt down every farm animal I can find and get really good at chemistry if it came to a real disaster situation. Please try to find some perspective and work to be helpful rather just typing to read your own words.
Reminds me of the snake bit fellows prognosis when his friend found out he had to suck the poison out. imminent death he was told by his friend who was not going to deal with the mamba bite on his scrotum.
Lol well no t1 diabetic would ever believe any of the methods in this page would work in the first place ??? no matter how unwittingly naive this writer is. We type 1 diabetics know we can’t just eat cinnamon or any of this other garbage and get out alive ffs. This entire page is absolutely fucking hilarious.
Reminds me of the snake bit fellows prognosis when his friend found out he had to suck the poison out. imminent death he was told by his friend who was not going to deal with the mamba bite on his scrotum.
In 2008 a company called SemBioSys announced it had developed a transgenic safflower plant that could produce insulin for 2500 patients per acre of the crop at a vastly lower cost of production than the current method of production- a market controlled by 3 pharma giants; Ely Lily, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi Aventis. The competing product was slated to go to market by 2010.
It never happened.
http://www.intlcorn.com/seedsiteblog/?p=505
I just wanted to let you know that this is probably the worst article I have ever read in my entire life, so awful that I thoroughly enjoyed reading every second of it. It’s very clear you have absolutely zero idea what you’re talking about at any point. This article has all the grace and coherency of a toddler trying to explain astrphysics to Stephen Hawking. Every piece of medical opinion is ill informed or completely and dangerously wrong. You have somehow managed to fit a record breaking amount of absolute mistruth into one page without even sounding the least bit aware of how far off you are. Your disregard for realistic cost, common sense, and the actual weight of your own opinion is absolutely astounding. This is by far the worst piece of writing I have EVER seen on the internet and that is an absolute achievement.
Insulin can actually last for many years. And an opened bottle certainly last more than a few weeks or days when refrigerated. I have bottles of insulin with an expectation date of four years. Do some research.
Hey don’t lose hope ya being type 1 in shtf is a bad scenario I had no idea the diffence between type 1 and 2 before my son was diagnosed and it still drives Me crazy about How ignorant people are about it like they think a ketogenic diet will save you. It will only help a little if you understand the body digesting meat will actually increase blood acidity your better off having low fat and raw juice. But did you know small amounts of calcium carbonate helps release small amounts of insulin? Also there’s new stuff coming out with a mix of metformin and harmine to regenerate b cells way faster! We have to think about fighting the virus more than just regulating sugar levels maybe the body is going acidic for a good reason, DNA needs ribose environment to make more cells if your constantly taking the sugar away your body can’t make the things it needs in situ to do what it needs and plus the Ecoli based insulin isn’t exactly like real insulin it doesn’t have c peptides which is a trigger chemical for insulin production and alot of the things that have c peptides like avocado and riboflavin type stuff make your blood higher because your turning fat into glucose I think these things are good for us so you can actually get some carbs from low carb stuff like carrots. If I had it I would test this stuff more but I can’t use my son as a guinea pig. Small amounts of harmine is in lemon balm you can make a tea with unfortunately harmine is apparently an illegal substance I guess the big pharma got that at stitched up also we have noticed interesting effects with tonic water maybe tip toe on that one it can be bad for you.
Where did you hear that expired insulin will kill you? I’ve done extensive research and I’ve never heard of such a thing. Please be aware that insulin is very expensive and many diabetics ration their supplies. This claim seems untrue and may unnecessarily cause fear.
Walmart has insulin in the pharmacy for around 25$ a bottle, all 3 kinds. In most states you don’t need a prescription, and can buy as many as you want. Syringes, on the other hand need a prescription, so ask your doctor if they would help you get a small stockpile.
As a diabetic, I accept my health will limit my survivability in a desperate SHTF situation. It will ultimately be up to me to manage with diet, but the lack of junk food should be helpful, not just for me, but for all diabetic people. It was diet that put us in this situation in the first place, to be blunt.
Oh lord. Love the comments about diet causing t1d. It’s almost like people with type 2 diabetes know absolutely nothing about what type 1 even is.
When are people (especially type II diabetics, which I am) understand that the cause of Type I diabetes has NOTHING whatsoever to do with diet. Any Type II diabetic who believes this has obviously done NOTHING to study what they have . If they had researched it they would have learned the difference between Type I and II. ALSO!!!!, it is not true that diet is what “put us in this situation” either. It IS true that type II DM can be controlled for a time by diet without the need for insulin BUT if you live long enough, you may wind up on insulin no matter how well you did on your diet. Sometimes it just gets worse no matter. So thanks for perpetuating the MYTH that diabetics brought it on themselves. Type 1 diabetics CANNOT be controlled with diet , they REQUIRE insulin because their body does not make it. Period. If they do not have it, they will die. Have ya’ll got it now? Geez———It is important when talking about diabetics that you state what type. Type I pancreas make NO insulin. Type II pancreas still makes it and either it is not enough to control or the body is resistant to what insulin is made AND then it can progress to making less and less. Ya’ll got it now? Geez—BTW, this “article” was crap, thank you for nothing.
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Diet is generally the problem that caused type 2 diabetes. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease. Although the trigger has not been definitively determined, there is a possibility that covid-19, and possibly other strains of coronavirus are triggers.
STRESS is a HUGE factor in getting Type 2 Diabetes. I know, because I didn’t eat sugar and I got it from stress at work.
Again as mentioned here by many: Type 1 diabetes is totally different from Type 2 diabetes and should NOT be confused or blended into 1 ‘remedy’.
They have now figured out there is a type 1.5 diabetes …sort of halfway between the two.
OK< so this post: WHY even write it if you can’t actually make insulin as your title states? Unless you have “the right equipment, a chemical engineering degree”…..Really, seriously lacking in reality here, VERY BAD choice of a post, Chris!!!
Diet didn’t make me or any other type one a diabetic. And you do not need a prescription for syringes. A pharmacy cannot legally ask why or what they are for, and must sell them to you. It is the clean needle act.
Type1…AUTOIMMUNE disease, not diet related!! Hard to take advice from a someone who says to stockpile on test strips because they are “cheap”. They most certainly are not cheap here on Long Island.. $100 for 50ct. Metformin is not prescribed for type1. In fact, I was taken off metformin when I was finally diagnosed with type1 instead of 2 (diagnosed with “childhood diabetes” at the ripe old age of 39).
So to the vile person who said diabetics are as good as dead-thanks fellow human for your compassion.
Good Luck and God Bless, my friends
Man Overcame His Diabetes Without Medicine, Here’s What He Consumed Juice Recipe: A young man has been diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes four years ago, so he had to take numerous oils to treat his conditions on a daily basis. However, he decided to treat himself completely naturally and started consuming raw vegetables and fruits and eventually succeeded in restoring his health. This man found out that he had diabetes completely accidentally, 4 years ago. At the beginning, he started feeling thirsty all the time, and when he went to his doctor, he had already been in a dangerous shock. It turned out that his sugar level was 29, so his doctor stated that his pancreas was no longer functioning. Namely, this actually meant that he had to take insulin regularly in order to stay alive.
He had no choice and started taking the prescribed therapy in order to cope with his illness. He regularly took insulin and became physically active by doing sports.
However, after some time, his condition became even worse, and he started suffering from other health issues as well, as he took to many medications, his triglyceride levels elevated to 16, the blood pressure was 150/100 …
Therefore, he felt that it was just too much for him. On New Year’s Eve, he decided to turn an entirely new page in life and finally solve his health problems.
Actually, he saw a show called “The Edge of Science” on TV, which interviewed Dr. John Zirdum, who consumed only raw foods for 12 years. As soon as the show finished, this young man thought about it well and decided to attempt the same approach. He purchased a blender and decided to change his life!
During the first week, he experienced certain temptations, but he overcame them, and the effects of this regime were visible soon, as his blood sugar levels fell to 5.
This was simply incredible for him, as he tried numerous medications in order to obtain the same results. As a result, he stopped taking insulin as he believed that his new diet cannot elevate the sugar levels. For any case, he intended to go back to the same insulin treatment if they increase. Yet, nothing changed, his blood sugar levels remained stable and he started losing weight.
In only 25days, this young man lost 11 kilograms, and this trend continued.
After only 4 months, he was a completely new person, he had 20 kilograms less, he took no insulin, but his blood pressure was 120/70 and the triglyceride levels were 1.4. He no longer used any pills and felt incredibly healthy, happy and satisfied.
Ingredients:
• 5 bananas
• 2 apples
• 2 kiwis
• A handful of kale
Method of preparation:
Put all the ingredients in a bowl, and pour half a liter of water over them. Blend them together.
Use:
Drink half a liter of this delicious juice in the morning, and consume the rest throughout the entire day.
Additional tips:
If you decide to follow this type of healthy diet, you should constantly eat fresh fruits, fruit salads, as well as tuna, since its use is advised due to the high amounts of vitamin B12, which is essential for the body.
Since you can constantly eat fruits or vegetables, you will not feel hungry, as the brain will know that the stomach is full. Moreover, this regime is extremely beneficial, as it will provide all the nutrients needed for your blood and brain.
LOL. You realize all these crazy crackpot “cures” with anecdotal evidence of some boy being cured because his mom did a lot of research and discovered what big pharma had been hiding for all these years are a bunch of hogwash right?
T1D is a genetic condition which causes your immune system to continually attack your eyelet cells which are responsible for producing insulin. No fruity drink, cinnamon mega doses, etc. Are going to reform your DNA to prevent this from happening. You’re talking about mRNA level type stuff from a bunch of produce found at three local supermarket. You realize how laughable you sound?
As a T1D of 38 years, I realize that in an extended SHTF or EOTWAWKI event I’m pretty well screwed. I hate to hear others, like the calloused a$$hat above, say it, but in the end I know it’s the harsh truth I’m facing as a prepper. I mainly live the prepper lifestyle in three hopes that I can leave my loved ones with the knowledge and resources to survive once everything does go south.
Don’t worry type 2 diabetics, you won’t die in the post apocalypse because you will be working hard to survive. Type 2 diabetes will disappear, hard work gets rid of type 2 and low food intake will help. Type 1 people are in extreme danger because they must have it. I’m saving my vast supply of insulin for the type 1 people in the the area where I live.
Throwing insulin out past expiration is not good advice. I am not a doctor or pharmacist but have spoken with many.
We plan to keep expired insulin until it looks different. Or if we start using it and it doesn’t work.