Insulin for Tuberculosis?

The originator of physiatric hospitals,* Dr. Frederick Madison Allen of Morristown, N. J., last week suggested (with reservations) that insulin be used to treat tuberculosis. Insulin, he observed, ''serves for more than mere carbohydrate [sugars, starches] utilization. It is the hormone of assimilation and anabolism. In this capacity it plays a well-recognized role in the resistance to infection, as is illustrated by the susceptibility of diabetic patients to infections and the restoration of resistance by insulin. Patients with uncontrolled diabetes particularly lack resistance to tuberculosis." Certain European investigators have tentatively treated tuberculosis with insulin, but not to the extent that Dr. Allen has. In his Physiatric Institute at Morris-town--a mansion once owned by Banker Otto Hermann Kahn--Dr. Allen observed that not every tuberculosis patient can endure the insulin treatment. Particularly is this so among those who run high fevers. Otherwise, declares Dr. Allen: "In the less toxic cases able to tolerate the full insulin dosage, it has been possible to build up weight, seemingly muscle as well as fat, at rates as high as a pound a day."

*For treating metabolic diseases, as diabetes, anemia, high blood pressure, obesity, nephritis (TIME, Dec. 16, 1929).

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