# Insulin - risks/criticism **URL:** \ **Category:** Insulin\ **Created:** [April 28, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/t/insulin-risks-criticism/651 "2017-04-28T13:32:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lh378](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forum.fudiabetes.org/lh378/32/601_2.png) [@lh378](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/u/lh378)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/t/insulin-risks-criticism/651/1 "2017-04-28T13:32:01Z")
Are any of you chemists/biochemists? I read this article:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin\_analog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_analog) The section on Carcinogenicity and Criticism are of interest to me. (For a long time, I was still under the impression that we were using animal insulin LOL.). Any scholarly papers, original sources for carcinogenicity and criticisms of insulin analog? ---
**Author:** ![Chris](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forum.fudiabetes.org/chris/32/382_2.png) [@Chris](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/u/Chris)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 8:34pm UTC](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/t/insulin-risks-criticism/651/2 "2017-04-28T20:34:09Z")
Interesting Question, I am a chemist, but defiantly not a biochemist. That said, there was a couple of interesting papers that popped up that I linked below. > **[Looking at the carcinogenicity of human insulin analogues via the intrinsic...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4794765/)** > > Therapeutic insulin, in its native and biosynthetic forms as well as several currently available insulin analogues, continues to be the protein of most interest to researchers. From the time of its discovery to the development of modern insulin... > **[Use of insulin glargine and cancer incidence in Scotland: a study from the...](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00125-009-1453-1)** > > The aim of the present study was to examine whether patients with diabetes in Scotland using insulin glargine have a greater cancer risk than patients using other types of insulin. We used a nationwide diabetes clinical database that covers the... > **[Insulin Glargine and Cancer Risk in Patients with Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0051814)** > > Aim The role of insulin glargine as a risk factor for cancer is controversial in human studies. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the relationship between insulin glargine and cancer incidence. Methods All observational studies and... What questions do you have? ---
**Author:** ![lh378](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forum.fudiabetes.org/lh378/32/601_2.png) [@lh378](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/u/lh378)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/t/insulin-risks-criticism/651/3 "2017-04-29T14:45:35Z")
Thank you for sharing the articles. I have not yet read the three articles. I was wondering about zinc. I thought that I heard that there could be concerns about zinc and possible negative health effects. Are you aware of the specific risks associated with zinc and also the more recent insulins such as Tresiba? Many of us are using Tresiba for our basal insulin. The specific mention of cancer is rather new to me. ---
**Author:** ![Chris](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forum.fudiabetes.org/chris/32/382_2.png) [@Chris](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/u/Chris)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2017, 10:04pm UTC](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/t/insulin-risks-criticism/651/4 "2017-04-29T22:04:55Z")
I will look into the zinc issues, I haven’t heard of that specifically. The studies that will yield the best benefit will be European analyses of their diabetic populations. The reason is they have the ability to include every patient in the country in a registry and collect the data. The Dutch do this, as well as the UK and some others. When you look at the Scotland paper, you see that the Lantus that was thought to have the highest cancer risks of the insulin’s, didn’t cause a measurable increase in cancer in their population. That gives me the most comfort. While that isn’t all insulin’s, it is an indicator that even though we should be vigilant, we shouldn’t over worry about this. ---
**Author:** ![Michel](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forum.fudiabetes.org/michel/32/387_2.png) [@Michel](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/u/Michel)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 11:41pm UTC](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/t/insulin-risks-criticism/651/5 "2017-05-03T23:41:54Z")
> [@Chris](#): > > When you look at the Scotland paper, you see that the Lantus that was thought to have the highest cancer risks of the insulin @Chris, I seem to have missed the mention in the article – why was Lantus considered the highest risk? ---
**Author:** ![Chris](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forum.fudiabetes.org/chris/32/382_2.png) [@Chris](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/u/Chris)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 1:07am UTC](https://forum.fudiabetes.org/t/insulin-risks-criticism/651/6 "2017-05-04T01:07:34Z")
Because of the Glargine. I speed read about 10 papers, and glargine was the most suspect of the insulins. However, in a population study (Scotland) it didn’t appear to increase the risk of cancer.