The American Diabetes Association reports that the number of people who suffer from diabetes continues to grow each year. (1) Today, 5% of the world’s population has diabetes, a metabolic disorder that affects the control of blood glucose. Are there really more people developing the disorder or more people diagnosed? The question is difficult to answer.
Type 2 Diabetes is a lifestyle illness that is often brought on by environmental factors that trigger genetic predispositions. Nutrition, environment and genetics all play a role in the development and treatment of the disease. But diabetes is not a disease of just the 20th century. In fact, written history exists as far back as 1552 B.C. when physician Hesy-ra, an Egyptian, first wrote about polyuria as a symptom.
This history dates back to centuries before Christ and continues to play a role today. In the early days doctors did not have sophisticated methods of testing people so they employed the help of people called ‘water tasters’. Up through the 11th century these people would taste the urine of those suspected to have diabetes, or sugar in their urine, to see if there was a sweet taste to it. When the blood sugar increased sugar spilled out of the blood and into the urine. As a result the word ‘mellitus’ was added to the diagnosis (Latin word for honey, referring to the sweet taste of the urine). (2)
It was the early 19th century before scientists were able to develop the first chemical tests that would indicate if there was glucose in the urine, eliminating the need for ‘tasters’. This was an important breakthrough in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. Now doctors could more consistently diagnose and monitor a condition that causes long-term health effects for the sufferer.
Treatment at this time wasn’t focused on diet until the 1870’s when French physician Bouchardat noticed that the gycosuria (sugar in the urine) was more common in his diabetic patients and decreased significantly during food rationing. The French were forced to ration their food during a siege by Germany during the Franco-Prussian war. After discerning this difference Bouchardat theorized that it was the diet that played an important role in treatment. (3)
References:
(1) American Diabetes Associations: Diabetes Basics Statistics
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/diabetes-statistics/
(2) Saudi Medical Journal: History of Diabetes Mellitus
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11953758
(3) Google Books: Transplantation of the Pancreas
By Rainer W. G. Gruessner, David E. R. Sutherland
(4) Nobelprize.org: The Discovery of Insulin
http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/insulin/discovery-insulin.html
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