| History of Diabetes Diabetes is one of the oldest known human diseases. Its full name is diabetes mellitus which comes from the Greek words for syphon and sugar and describes the most obvious symptom of uncontrolled diabetes - the passing of large amounts of urine that is sweet because it contains sugar (glucose). There are descriptions of the symptoms by the ancient Persians, Indians, and Egyptians, but a proper understanding of the condition has only developed over the last hundred years or so.
In the later part of the 19th century, two German doctors worked out that the pancreas - a large gland behind the stomach - must be producing some substance that stopped the level of blood glucose rising. In 1921, three Canadian scientists isolated the mystery substance, which they named insulin, from small groups of cells within the pancreas, called the islets of Langerhans. When insulin became available as a treatment for diabetes after 1922, it was seen as medical miracle, transforming the future prospects of sufferers and saving the lives of many young people who would otherwise have died after a painful wasting illness. |
