Originally posted by Benz3ne I've done exactly the same here as I'm in Wales! The other bit that threw me was requiring insulin without being diabetic.
Nice! Didn't realise they were free in Whales too!
As for non-diabetic uses, I don't have my textbooks handy, but I seem to recall it could be used for pituitary disorders, and for protecting the heart in certain coronary conditions?
In faaact... wait a minute, I still have access to a few medical publishers - let me have a gander!
...
Diabetes is the biggest legitimate use, followed by diagnostics. In addition to that, there are a few random suspected uses in cancer treatment, though it hasn't been terribly successful.
It is indeed used in cardiology as a glucose-insulin-potassium solution ("GIP" or "GIK" solution) - it is actually has wider applications in the field than I thought, it's apparently given after myocardial infraction to reduce damage while the heart has reduced bloodflow - but, it is not commonly used in this application.
Parenteral nutrition (when used to "feed" patients by injecting the sugars directly into the bloodstream when other methods cannot be used) can also make use of insulin to reduce hyperglycemia and there is some evidence to suggest it reduces muscle wasting in bedridden patients.
Apparently it's even used when conventional therapy fails to treat calcium channel blocker poisoning. -EDIT-[Other sources say it is
the first line of treatment in response to CCB poisoning. Weirdly enough, both may be correct since medical practice varies by region]. It may also have use in specific wound healing in certain classes of membrane wounds - but it's a bit dodgy in whether it works or not, and can cause complications, but has proven useful in some studies - I would expect there to be upcoming research into this field.
Speaking of dodgy... it's also used AMA (against medical advice) for muscle building and as an anti-ageing agent: both carry a risk of developing type II diabetes. Oh, and it can straight up kill you.
There'll be more random uses of course (I'm turning up hundreds of thousands of papers on "insulin" (to be expected) and 18'000 on non diabetic therapies (though I did not filter that down much, so it will contain plenty of papers not actually covering the subject!)).
Those listed above are just a sampling from the first few papers I found - I don't have time to give them a proper skimming!
Anyway! Back on-topic of "things I acquired" - I just got a
lens-mug!
... and that's how I drank far too much caffeine.
WhatDoYouMeanIHadTooMuchCaffeineIHaven'tHadEnoughCoffeeYetCanIhaveANotherCoffeePleease!ThankyouThatWasAGoodCoffeeIveryMuchEnjoyedIt