Diabetes is a very ancient disease found in the human race — it was known in the year of 1552 B.C. Many people suffered from the condition of frequent urination and some others observed that the ants grouped around near the place where such people urinated. However, the physicians had no clues for this condition. After a few years, Greek as well as French physicians made us aware about the history of diabetes and the organs that are responsible for this disease. This disease was named as diabetes mellitus because of the sweet property of the urine. Some doctors used assistants for tasting the urine samples in order to identify its sweetness and diagnosed accordingly.
The diabetes was recognized as a disease but there was no progress in its causes. More than 200 years passed in the history of diabetes without any inventions regarding it. This disease was not even known to be a life-threatening disorder.
During the 1800s, a medical test was discovered which determined the sugar level in the urine of the diabetic patients. There was a progress in the treatments for diabetes regarding the doses to control the sugar level along with the diagnosis process. The physicians also prescribed a planned diet for the diabetic patients. In 1870, one of the French physician found that diabetes is dependent on the type of the food taken. He also prepared the diabetic food plan which included milk, fibrous food items and oats. Some of the patients were also advised for starving. But all these precautions did not completely relieve the patients from diabetes.
Then after, in the year 1921, there was a discovery of insulin which created the history of diabetes. There were no significant treatments of diabetes before the discovery of insulin. Dr. Banting, Dr. Collip and Professor Macleod made it possible to discover the nature as well as functions of insulin. First the experiments with insulin were made on the animals and then after, a young man was treated with insulin. The experiment was a great success which helped in identifying as well as treating the diabetes in a right way. Many researches were going on further on this diabetes and in 1940s; it was found that there is a link between the diabetes and other parts of the body like kidneys and eyes. The research studies proved that various parts of the body like kidney, eyes and skin can be affected if you are contracted with diabetes for long duration.
In 1959, two types of diabetes — namely Type 1 which is insulin dependent and Type 2 which is non insulin dependent was determined. The progress was going on and finally, many devices were developed which could precisely measure the sugar levels of the blood of the diabetic patients sitting at their homes.
Thus, the history of diabetes has taken a long way about 3500 years to get completely identified. There had been a ray of hope to get successful in curing the diabetes completely with the help of modern treatments and medicines.