History

Diabetes was first recorded in Egypt about 1552 B.C. Obviously, due to the technology of the time, not much was known. However, a couple thousand years later, in the first century A.D., diabetes was first described by Arateus as, “the melting down of flesh and limbs into urine.” From then on, until the Eleventh century, diabetes was tested by urine drinkers, people who were hired to drink the urine of people who were thought to have diabetes. They did this because the urine of diabetics was thought to be sweeter than normal. During the late 18^th century researchers came up with the idea of individualizing diets for diabetic patients. Many new ideas about diabetes were formed throughout the entire 19^th century though. Among which were Pavlov discovering the connections between the human nervous system and gastric secretion, the discovery that the pancreas contained two systems of cells by Paul Langerhans, and the experiment on a dog, removing it’s pancreas and recording the effects on its digestion.

In the early 1900’s many different diets and approaches were used in trying to treat diabetes. However, the most pivotal discovery during this time was that of insulin in 1921, when a de-pancreatized dog was successfully treated with it. By early 1922, insulin had its first human patient, Leonard Thompson. This treatment was considered a success. Not until the 1940s however, was the correlation between diabetes and long term physical problems realized. In 1955, the first oral drug treatments were introduced. By 1959, two different types of diabetes were recognized. There was Type One, which included insulin dependent patients, and Type Two, those patients who were not dependent on the drug. While the medicines were helping improve the quality of life for diabetics thus far, in the 1960’s insulin was made more pure, causing the drug to be that much more effective. In 1966, the first pancreatic transplant was performed.

In the past 25 years, even more diabetic research has come to fruition. Biosynthetic human insulin has been introduced, along with the insulin pen delivery system. Countless organizations have been working towards informing both diabetic patients and the public in general of past, current, and hopeful future treatments. The awareness rate is currently at the highest it has ever been.