Diabetes is an ancient disease. It is not a newly discovered disease. There are evidences to prove that people of ancient civilizations such as Indian, Greece and Rome were aware of this disease. People have been suffering from diabetes for a long time but we came to now about it only in 1552 B.C.Since then many researches have been conducted in this field to make the masses aware of this disease. Therefore, the people who discovered diabetes belonged to ancient civilization.
Aerates coined the word diabetes. It is derived from the Greek verb diabainein. Sushruta who was the father of Indian medicine discovered the diabetes in 6th century B.C. and named it Madhumeha.Phsysician from French who discovered diabetes linked it to the diet taken by people at that time which led to the formulation of individual diet plan.
Sushruta, the person who discovered diabetes in India observed whether ants were attracted to the urine that was sweet in taste, as the test for diabetes. The people who discovered diabetes continue with the research. However, it was only in medieval times that the research on diabetes declined. In 1675,an English physician Dr. Thomas Willis added the word “mellitus” meaning honey ,to diabetes because of its sweet taste.
The primary test of identifying diabetes during medieval times was by touching, smelling or tasting the urine of the patient. This test came to be known as Uroscopy.The medicine scientist who discovered diabetes now wanted to find whether the urines presence in the sugar can be chemically tested or not. The first such chemical experiment was conducted in 19th century. The French physician Priory advised consuming excessive sugar .Since the cause of diabetes was still unknown, the therapies proposed during medieval times proved to be failure.
In 1900, Drs. Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski conducted research on animals and discovered that pancreas played a major role in diabetes. The idea of insulin was conceived by Fredrick Banting in 1920.Dr. Banting along with his team of doctors and colleagues continued with the experiments on de –pancreatized dogs for a period of one year. Thereafter insulin was discovered as a very important hormone playing a major role in the disease of diabetes.
In 1922, Dr. Banting and his team treated the first patient of diabetes with the injection of insulin. They were honored with the noble prize for curing the person with the diabetes in 1923 in the field of Physiology .The awareness’ of the disease was spread in 20th century.
In 1936, Sir Harold Percival Himsworth distinguished Type 1 diabetes from type 2 diabetes.1970 was a turning point as personal glucose monitor was invented leading to the self-monitoring of the disease.
In 2007, it was found that the diabetic patients who were treated with stem cells from their own bone marrow needed no more insulin treatment.
The research on diabetes continues. The scientist who discovered diabetes made a very important contribution to the society.
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