Around 1500 BC, medical scribes in both India and Egypt described a condition of great thirst and urination. They treated this condition with high fiber wheat grain, a valid therapy which can be scientifically explained today. Over 3000 years ago, a treatment recommended for diabetes in India involved intensive exercise. Another ancient and good idea. It was the Greek Aretaeus around 1000 AD who first called the disease “diabetes” after the Greek word for “siphon”, noting all the excessive urination that diabetics experience. Some of the earlier “medical technicians” would diagnose and track the severity of the diabetes based upon how sweet the patient’s urine smelled. The more sugar in the urine, the more uncontrolled the disease and the greater the likelihood of suffering severe complications in the eyes, kidney, heart and nerves. Thomas Willis, physician to King Charles II of England in 1670 was torn between commenting on the obvious increase in diabetes among his wealthy patrons eating lots of sugar and the wealth being made in the sugar trade by his boss.
In 1898, Elliot Joslin, MD emphasized the importance of diet, exercise and lifestyle to control diabetes. Dr. Joslin’s work became the foundation for the world famous Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Canadian researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best first isolated insulin in 1921. Two years later, researchers Banting and Mcleod were awarded Nobel prizes for their work on insulin and diabetes. Demand for insulin was so high that a large pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly was required to meet the world’s need for insulin. Since 1923, insulin research has brought various refinements, with the biggest breakthrough coming in 1978 when DNA engineering allowed researchers to manufacture human insulin, which has since become the gold standard for Type 1 insulin dependent diabetics.
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