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Diabetes and History

Hundreds of years ago, going back to 1552 BC is when the very first case of what we call diabetes today, the diagnosis became a part of reality. It began in Egypt but it was only a deficit of the internal body that became noticeable over time. Years later a Greek doctor, Arateus began to take notice of certain individuals within the community at the time who were deteriorating before his eyes with no explanation. There were no studies taken and no labels added as we have pre-diabetes, type-1 diabetes, type-2 diabetes, and type-3 diabetes. Even at that what we call type-1 diabetes we once labeled juvenile diabetes and type-2 diabetes we once labeled adult diabetes.

Arateus, the Greek doctor did take notice of how the flesh of these individuals was thinning and deteriorating to the point where the individuals had open sores, but the cause was not clear. The term diabetes was at that time coined by Arateus because in Greek it refers to an open tube where water constantly runs through. The one point of interest that he took notice was the individuals he was watching were constantly urinating and could not stop.

Adding mellitus came around the year 300 AD when another scholar of the day took notice that the urine of given individuals was sweet and was from then on added to the diagnosis of diabetes. Mellitus is a Latin word meaning sweet honey, therefore diabetes mellitus has been the term used for all four forms of the diabetes diagnosis in today’s language as well.

Later well into the 1600’s an English medical physician and a French medical physician partnered together and through diabetic experiments of the day they made the connection of sugar in the human bloodstream and devised an ingenious method to extract these sugars labeled glucose because of the French medical physician. To this day we have an entire host of glucose meters to measure the glucose level in the bloodstream and diabetic medications to help control the blood sugar level from rising to high and lowering too low.

During the 1800’s another medical physician who was German finally made the discovery of a lifetime linking the islet cells in the pancreas as the cause and the effect of what we call diabetes today. Finally at this point it became more definitive how much of an influence the pancreas has on the effects of diabetes. Later during the century other Austrian medical physicians refined the link between the functions or lack of functions of the pancreas resulted in the current diagnosis of diabetes.

Purification of insulin came about in the 1950’s and 1960’s and is on a new awakening march to the present. Much has been learned and refined over the years and the individuals suffering from pre-diabetes, type-1 diabetes, type-2 diabetes, and type-3 diabetes today are the beneficiaries of hundreds of years of study. Years ago most of the individuals receiving a diagnosis of diabetes had a short life span and ultimately died within a few years, but today this is different. Today individuals are subject to the diabetes test, given a definitive diagnosis of which type of diabetes they have, and given a glucose monitor to test their blood sugar during the day.

Today there are readily available diabetes recipes, diabetes supplies, diabetic snacks and a whole host of items to help the individuals who are suffering so to have the opportunity to live out a normal, happy, healthy, lifestyle for years to come. The medical physicians today are well in verse with the disease and all the side effects such as kidney failure, blindness, and other things that can go wrong. The scientific community has come a very long way since the beginning.

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