Devil's-Club v. Diabetes

To a doctor of Prince Rupert, remote Canadian island just south of the Alaskan border, not long ago went a patient to undergo an operation. Suddenly he showed signs of diabetes. The physician, Dr. Richard Geddes Large, promptly dosed the man with insulin and asked him what he had been taking all these years in its place. The man said it was an infusion in hot water of the root of a spiny, prickly shrub called devil's-club (Echinopanax horridus). British Columbia Indians take potions of devil's-club for whatever ails them.

To doctors who read the report which Dr. Large and a chemist colleague. Dr. H. N. Brocklesby, published in last week's Canadian Medical Association Journal, it looked as though another form of diabetes relief, this time herbal, had come out of Canada. What element in the vegetable devil's-club made it apparently do the same job as the glandular product insulin was not revealed.

Insulin must be injected hypodermically because, when swallowed, it is digested and rendered impotent to reduce sugar in the blood. But Drs. Large and Brocklesby say "there is not a great deal of difference between the results of giving extract of devil's-club by mouth or syringe." Thus they premise an easier and possibly a cheaper life for diabetics, who must forever take medication or die.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.