History of Diabetes

"A history of diabetes can help yo understand
its origins and its current therapy."

History of Diabetes:
Origins

The term diabetes was coined by the physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia. It was derived from the Greek verb, diabaínein, itself formed from the prefix dia-, "across, apart," and the verb bainein, "to walk, stand."

The verb diabeinein meant "to stride, walk, or stand with legs asunder"; hence, its derivative diabētēs meant "one that straddles," or specifically "a compass, siphon." The sense "siphon" gave rise to the use of diabētēs as the name for a disease involving the discharge of excessive amounts of urine.

History of Diabetes:
First Recordings

Diabetes is first recorded in English, in the form diabete, in a medical text written around 1425. In 1675, Thomas Willis added the word mellitus, from the Latin meaning "honey," a reference to the sweet taste of the urine.

This sweet taste had been noticed in urine by the ancient Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, Indians, and Persians. In 1776, Matthew Dobson confirmed that the sweet taste was because of an excess of a kind of sugar in the urine and blood of people with diabetes.

Although diabetes has been recognized since antiquity, and treatments of various efficacy have been known in various regions since the Middle Ages, and in legend for much longer, the causes of diabetes has only been understood experimentally since about 1900.

History of Diabetes:
Role of the Pancreas

The discovery of a role for the pancreas in diabetes is generally ascribed to Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski. In 1889, they found that dogs whose pancreas were removed, developed all the signs and symptoms of diabetes and died shortly afterwards.

In 1910, Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer suggested that people with diabetes were deficient in a single chemical that was normally produced by the pancreas—he proposed calling this substance insulin, from the Latin insula, meaning island, in reference to the insulin-producing islets of Langerhans in the pancreas.

History of Diabetes:
Discovery of Insulin

The endocrine role of the pancreas in metabolism, and indeed the existence of insulin, was not further clarified until 1921, when Sir Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Herbert Best repeated the work of Von Mering and Minkowski, and went further to demonstrate they could reverse induced diabetes in dogs by giving them an extract from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans of healthy dogs.

History of Diabetes:
Insulin Becomes A Therapy

Banting, Best, and colleagues (especially the chemist Collip) went on to purify the hormone insulin from bovine pancreases at the University of Toronto. This led to the availability of an effective treatment—insulin injections—and the first patient was treated in 1922. For this, Banting and laboratory director MacLeod received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923.

History of Diabetes:
Type 1 & Type 2

The distinction between what is now known as type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes was first clearly made by Sir Harold Percival (Harry) Himsworth, and published in January 1936.

History of Diabetes:
Relationship to Health

Despite the availability of treatment, diabetes has remained a major cause of death. For instance, statistics reveal that the cause-specific mortality rate during 1927 amounted to about 47.7 per 100,000 population in Malta.

Obesity has been found to contribute to approximately 55% type 2 diabetes. The increased rate of childhood obesity in between the 1960s and 2000s is believed to have lead to the increase in type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents.

Coaching

If you are interested in coaching for fitness, or weight loss you can contact me HERE ...

Metabolism Makeover

The world of weight loss has become incredibly complex and confusing for people. I have simplified it and revealed hidden sources of weight gain and a ten step program to reverse the age of your metabolism and turn it into a lean, fit and healthy metabolism. If you are interested check out Metabolism Makeover.

Question or Comment?
Ask Me Here!

Return to Diabetes Cure

Return from "History of Diabetes" to "Natural Weight Loss" Home Page

Are You a Member of Facebook?

Share this with someone you care about! Click in the link below and you can chose who on Facebook you want to share it with.

Share

You can also become a Metabolism Makeover fan here.

Pay It Forward!

There a lot of people that have become disillusioned by poor weight loss and health information. I can understand this feeling. But it does not mean that good information is NOT out there. It is.

Please help a friend or loved one by sharing this information with them. Email this link to them or submit this page to your Tweet account, or Facebook or your favorite social bookmarking or networking site. Use the links below to pay it forward.