Diabetes mellitus Information

Diabetes is a chronic and complex disease, caused by having too much glucose (sugar) in the blood. This happens when there is low or no insulinproduction or improper utilization of insulin. Hormone insulin is needed to convert glucose in blood into energy. Diabetes can also be called asDiabetes mellitus, Blood sugar, Blood glucose, Diabetics and Diabets.


About Diabetes History

The term diabetes was derived from the Greek word diabainein; its derivative diabetes meant specifically as "a siphon."(Siphon is a tubular organ, by which water is taken in or expelled). The term diabetes is used as the name of the disease involving the discharge of excessive amounts of urine.
Diabetes Mellitus Information

In English the term diabetes is first recorded as diabete in the medical text around 1425. Thomas Willis included the word mellitus (a Latin word meaning “honey”) to diabetes and called as diabetes mellitus as a reference to its nature of sweet taste in the urine. Matthew Dobson in 1776 confirmed that the sweet urine was because of sugar in the urine and blood of the diabetics.

Diabetes mellitus was considered as a death sentence in the ancient era. Hippocrates makes no mention of diabetes, may be he felt the disease was incurable. Aretaeus did try to treat diabetes but could not give good chances of recovery from the disease; he added that diabetic’s life is short, terrible and painful. Sushruta (6th century BCE) identified and relate diabetes with obesity and sedentary lifestyle and he suggested exercise to help cure it.
Ancient method of diabetes diagnosis

The ancient Indians diagnose and test diabetes by observing whether ants were attracted towards a person's urine, and called it as sweet urine disease. The Chinese, Japanese and Korean terms for diabetes are also based on the same meaning "sugar urine disease".
Diabetes and its link to Pancreas and Insulin

In 1889 Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski discovered the role of pancreas in diabetes after they found that dogs whose pancreas cut removed causes diabetes symptoms and died later. In 1910 Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer confirmed that people with diabetes were have single chemical shortage that was generally produced by the pancreas, and he called this chemical as insulin – a Latin word insula means island that refers islets of Langerhans in the pancreas which produces insulin.
Insulin and World Diabetes Day

Banting, Best, and chemist Collip tried to purify the insulin hormone from bovine pancreases at the University of Toronto. And that leads to successful development of insulin injection in 1922; the first patient was effectively treated. For successful insulin development, Banting and MacLeod (laboratory director) received the Nobel Prize in 1923. Banting was also honored by World Diabetes Day which is held on his birthday, November 14.
Type 1 & Type 2 diabetes

The distinction between diabetes; type 1 and type 2 was first confirmed by Sir Harold Percival (Harry) Himsworth, and was published in 1936.
Diabetes facts

Diabetes is increasing every second and it reached 246 million people globally. 80% of people with diabetes live in low and middle income countries at an age group of 45 to 64.

Statistical fact that there is one person in the world dying of diabetes every ten seconds. Another fact that you will find worrying is the fact that there will be two new diabetic cases in the world being identified every ten seconds.

For detailed statistical information on diabetes visit the video slide show.


Video on Diabetes world statistics


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