Hello Nancy,
sorry it has taken so long to get back to you.
I would suspect the reason human! insulin didn’t work is because it’s basically genetically modified pork insulin.
FIASP is a faster version of Novolog/Novorapid. You might find an analogue would work for you just as it has for me. Not to sure if FIASP is available where you live though so try the others that are available. Good luck and best wishes.
Actually all the human insulins (regular or analog) are produced in either bacteria or yeast by recombinant DNA technology. For regular human insulin, the amino acid sequence is identical to that of insulin produced in the human body (so not genetically modified pork insulin). In the analogs. the amino acid sequence has been slightly modified (e.g. in Humalog reversing the order of the penultimate Lysine and Proline residues of the B chain and in Novorapid/Novolog by substituting the Lysine with an Aspartate (hence the name Insulin Aspart). The modifications inhibit the formation of Hexamers and speed up absorption.
Fiasp is actually just Insulin Aspart with added goodies (Vitamin B3) which also seems to speed up absorption.
I donate all the time (well every 8 weeks). The rules from the US RedCross are as follows:
Insulin (Bovine)
Donors with diabetes who since 1980, ever used bovine (beef) insulin made from cattle from the United Kingdom are not eligible to donate. This requirement is related to concerns about variant CJD, or ‘mad cow’ disease. Learn more about variant CJD and blood donation.
Diabetes
Diabetics who are well controlled on insulin or oral medications are eligible to donate.
Note that the rule says that if after 1980 you used bovine insulin made from cattle from the UK that you are not eligible to donate.
In Canada, the rules are different.
Diabetes
If you have type 2 diabetes and are treated with diet or pills to lower your blood sugar, you can donate.
If you have type 2 diabetes and are treated with insulin, you may be able to donate. This depends on when you started insulin, and if your sugars are stable with no large changes in insulin dose.
Type 1 diabetics are currently deferred.
So if you are a T2 on insulin and well controlled you can donate. And Canada is stricter on the whole travel thing.
Ok, NOW I remember. I did try donating blood a good while ago–like 10+ years–and this was what I ran up against. I definitely had bovine as well as porcine back in the early days after DX in '83, and I do recall there being a checkbox about it for donating blood. I don’t recall there being the UK qualification but I have no idea whether Lilly ever bought their cow pancreases from UK suppliers back then. Maybe English offal was occasionally cheaper than American and got into some batches. How would you know? Other than the fact that so far as I can tell I’m unsymptomatic for Mad Cow (that whole thing of forgetting nouns and names, that’s just aging, right? Right???) Anyway, that was what stopped me donating.
So actually you could probably make a valid argument that your use of bovine insulin did not include any bovine insulin produced in the UK. Lilly and Novo Nordisk exited the US bovine market in 1999 and according to this article from 1999:
“CP has been the sole manufacturer of bovine [beef] insulins in the United Kingdom, and sole supplier of them to the U.K. market, for more than 25 years,” states Savage.
This suggests that neither Lilly nor Novo Nordisk manufactured bovine insulin in the UK during the questionable time and you could make a reasonable argument that you never used bovine insulin that had been produced in the UK (well unless you applied to the FDA after 1999 to have it imported for your use from the UK).
ps. Cow pancreas are highly perishable and there would be significant cost and overhead to import them to the US, so it is unlikely that either Lilly or Novo Nordisk would do that. Besides, the US produces gobs more beef than the UK.
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The UK won’t let you donate if you have diabetes - this applies to anyone taking insulin and the rationale is to protect the health of the donor (not the recipient). The UK has gone down the route of voluntary blood donation for years and although there are periodic problems, hasn’t had the problem of shortages, unsuitable paid donors etc. It’s a cultural thing, probably closely related to the sense of “ownership” of a free-at-the-point-of-care health system.
When I was a student I used to be a donor in the UK. Moved to the US on a fellowship and volunteered to donate (before I developed T1). In the UK, they asked you to donate twice a year. I was surprised to find in the US they wanted a donation every 2 months, and if you needed blood, you would still have to pay the handling fees.
The major contamination problems associated with donated blood and blood products in the UK have been due to viruses (HIV HBV, HBC etc.).