History of Diabetes

History of Diabetes
Diabetes has been with us since ancient times despite the fact that in the past it was considered to be an uncommon disease; this of course is not the case today.

1500 B.C. - The papyrus Ebers of the ancient Egyptians had a number of remedies for combating the passing of too much urine. The earliest known record of diabetes is first mentioned in a 3rd Dynasty Egyptian papyrus by the physician Hesy-Ra. The document mentions polyuria (frequent urination) as a symptom of an unknown condition.

1000 B.C. - The father of East Indian medicine Susruta, was one of the first to diagnose diabetes mellitus (DM). Hindu manuscripts in the Ayur Veda recorded that insects and flies were attracted to the sweet tasting urine of some people and that this was associated with certain diseases.

1798 A.D. - John Rollo confirms that there is excess sugar in the blood. John Rollo, Surgeon-General to the Royal Artillery, treated Captain Meredith in 1796 by dietary restriction, with considerable success for the patient survived for at least a year. Rollo's next patient was a general; he was less obedient, did not follow the diet and dies shortly after. Rollo also noticed the smell of acetone on the breath of diabetics, presumably those in the advanced stage of type I diabetes. He also observed cataracts in diabetics.

1889 A.D. - Mehring and Minkowski produce DM in dogs by removing the pancreas. Another observation by Thomas Cawley one hundred years earlier was that the pancreas of a patient who had died of diabetes showed stones and tissue damage, but the significance of this vital clue of 1788 was appreciated only 101 years later, when Minkowski removed the pancreas from a dog and unexpectedly produced diabetes.