Diabetes History

Diabetes has been with us for a long time. Heres diabetes history in a convenient timeline.
1552 BC Written on a 3rd Dynasty Egyptian papyrus, physician Hesy-Ra mentions frequent urination as a
symptom. This is the earliest known record of diabetes.
1500 BC Ancient Hindu writings note that ants are attracted to the urine of people with a mysterious
emaciating disease.
500 BC The first descriptions of sugar in the urine and its occurrence in obese individuals.
250 BC Apollonius of Memphis is credited with coining the term diabetes, meaning to go through, or
siphon, for a disease that drains patients of more fluid than they can consume.
1st Century AD The Greeks describe the disease as a melting down of the flesh and limbs into urine.
164 AD Greek physician, Galen of Pergamum, diagnoses diabetes as a kidney ailment.
Up to 11th Century Since the urine of people with diabetes is thought to be sweet tasting, diagnosis is often
made by water tasters who drink the urine of those suspected of having diabetes. Mellitus, the Latin word for
honey, is added to the term diabetes.
16th Century Paracelsus identifies diabetes as a serious general disorder.
For thousands of years, no one knows how to live with diabetes, let alone treat or cure it. Children with
diabetes often die within days of onset and older people deal with devastating complications. Remedies
range from herbs to bleeding.
1776 Dobson finds a substance like brown sugar in appearance and taste when diabetic urine evaporates. He
also notes a sweetish taste of sugar in the blood of diabetics. He observes that, for some people, diabetes is
fatal in less than five weeks and, for others, is a chronic condition. This is the first time that a distinction
between Type 1 and Type 2 has been made.
1797 Rollo applies the first significant dietary approach to the treatment of diabetes. He successfully treats a
patient using a high fat and protein diet after observing that sugar in the urine increases after eating starchy
food.
1798 Rollo documents excess sugar in the blood, as well as the urine.
Early 1800s Researchers develop the first chemical tests to indicate and measure the presence of sugar in
the urine.
1848 Bernard discovers that glycogen is formed by the liver and speculates that this is the same sugar found
in the urine of diabetics. This is the first linking of diabetes and glycogen metabolism.
Late 1850s The French physician, Priorry, advises diabetes patients to eat extra large quantities of sugar as a
treatment. Oops! This wont be the last time that strange and unhelpful treatments for diabetes will be tried.
1869 Langerhans, a German medical student, announces the pancreas contains two types of cells one set
secretes the normal pancreatic fluids, while the function of the other is unknown. Later, these cells are
identified as the islets of Langerhans, which help produce the hormone insulin.
1870s French physician, Bouchardat, notices the disappearance of sugar in the urine of his diabetes patients
during the food rationing in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and formulates the idea of individualized
diets.
1889 Minkowski and von Mering, at the University of Strasbourg, France, remove the pancreas from a dog
to determine the effect on digestion and discover that diabetes develops.
I n 1897, the average life expectancy for a 10-year-old child with diabetes is about 1 year. Diagnosis at age
30 carries a life expectancy of about 4 years. A newly diagnosed 50-year-old might live 8 more years.
1908 Zuelzer extracts a pancreatic substance and injects it into five diabetes patients. Although sugar in the
urine is reduced or disappears, the side effects of treatment are extreme and unacceptable.
1909 de Meyer of Belgium proposes the name insulin (Latin: insula, island) for the unknown pancreatic
substance.
1911 Benedict devises a new method to measure urine sugar (Benedicts Solution).
1900-1915 Diabetes treatment includes: the oat-cure (daily allowance is approximately eight ounces of
oatmeal mixed with eight ounces of butter, eaten every two hours), the milk diet, the rice cure, potato
therapy, opium, and overfeeding to compensate for the loss of fluids and weight.
1913 Allens book, Studies Concerning Glycosuria and Diabetes, stimulates a revolution in diabetes therapy.
1910-1920 Allen and Joslin are considered the two leading diabetes specialists in the United States. Joslin
believes that diabetes is the best of the chronic diseases because it was clean, seldom unsightly, not
contagious, often painless and susceptible to treatment.
1916 Allen promotes a strict diet regimen, which is soon widely adopted. Allen believes that the diabetics
body cannot use food, so he limits the amount of food allowed patients. Patients were admitted to the hospital
and given only whiskey mixed with black coffee (or clear soup for teetotalers) every two hours from 7 am to 7
pm. This diet is followed until there is no sign of sugar in the urine usually 5 days or less. A strict diet
follows. Outcomes are better than ever seen before for those with Type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, those
patients with Type 1 commonly die during the treatment, likely from starvation. A few young people do
survive and become the first insulin users.
1919 Allen publishes Total Dietary Regulation in the Treatment of Diabetes, with exhaustive case records
and observations of 76 of his 100 diabetes patients. He becomes the director of diabetes research at the
Rockefeller Institute.
1920 Banting conceives of the idea of insulin after reading Moses Barrons The Relation of the Islets of
Langerhans to Diabetes with Special Reference to Cases of Pancreatic Lithiasis in the journal: Surgery,
Gynecology and Obstetrics. With help from Best, Collip and Macleod, Banting continues experimenting with
different pancreatic extracts on de-pancreatized dogs.
1921 Paulescu, a distinguished Romanian scientist, publishes an article describing his successful isolation of
pancreine insulin.
1921 Insulin is discovered. A de-pancreatized dog is successfully treated with insulin.
1921 Banting presents The Beneficial Influences of Certain Pancreatic Extracts on Pancreatic Diabetes,
summarizing his work at a session of the American Physiological Society at Yale University.
1922 In Toronto, one of Collips insulin extracts is tested on a human being, a 14-year-old boy named
Leonard Thompson. This test is considered a success by the end of the following February.
1922 Eli Lilly and the University of Toronto strike a deal for the mass production of insulin in North
America.
1923 Banting and his colleague, Macleod, are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Banting
shares his award with Best; Macleod shares his with Collip.
While insulin can prevent early death from diabetic coma, insulin treatment does not prevent the chronic,
disabling and sometimes deadly complications of the disease.
1923 Eli Lilly begins commercial production of insulin. The Toronto group calls the substance insulin; Eli
Lilly calls their product Isletin Insulin.
1925 Home testing for sugar in the urine is introduced. Eight drops of urine is mixed in a test tube with 6 cc
of Benedicts solution provided by the doctor. The tube is put into boiling water for five minutes. The color of
the liquid indicates the presence of sugar: greenish (light sugar), yellow (moderate) or red/orange (heavy).
1930s Insulin is further refined. Protamine zinc insulin, a long acting insulin that provides greater flexibility
for diabetics, is introduced. (It actually remained on the market until several years ago.)
1936 Research by Himsworth (UK) divides diabetics into two types based on insulin sensitivity.
1940s The connection is made between diabetes and long-term complications such as kidney and eye
disease.
1944 A uniform insulin syringe is developed and diabetes management becomes more standardized.
By 1945, a newly diagnosed 10-year-old has a life expectancy of 45 years; a 30-year-old has 30.5 more
years; and a 50-year-old might have 16 more years to live.
1948 Joslin writes about the unknown diabetic in Postgraduate Medicine. Although a million people are
known to have diabetes, he speculates a million more have it but dont know it. He is the first expert to
emphasize that insulin alone cannot solve all diabetes-related issues.
Late 1940s Helen Free develops the dip-and-read urine test (Clinistix), allowing instant monitoring of
blood glucose levels.
1950s Specialists still recommend against marriage for people with hereditary diabetes.
1951 Lawrence and Bornstein measure the amount of insulin in the blood. They find that older and obese
patients with diabetes do have insulin, but those who are young have none.
1955 Oral drugs that help lower blood glucose levels are introduced.
1959 Two major types of diabetes are recognized: Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes and Type 2 (non-
insulin-dependent) diabetes.
1960s Home testing for glucose levels in the urine increases the level of control for people with diabetes.
1964 The first strips for testing blood glucose are used. A drop of blood is placed on the paper strip for 1
minute, and then washed off. Comparing the color to a color chart provides a rough indication of blood glucose
levels.
1965 Instant glucose is developed.
1966 Doctors at the University of Manitoba perform the first pancreas transplant.
1970 First blood glucose meter (Ames) is introduced. It is intended for use in doctors offices and costs
around $500.
1970 Insulin pumps are developed.
The development of testing equipment and supplies provides patients with much greater control and
flexibility in the management of their diabetes.
1970 Laser therapy is used to help slow or prevent blindness resulting from diabetes.
1973 U-100 insulin is introduced.
1976 HbA1c test is introduced.
1978 Testing of the first recombinant DNA insulin is announced.
Until this date manufacturers of insulin have had to stockpile animal pancreatic tissue. This changes
dramatically with the development of DNA technology that allows the manufacturing of a genetically
engineered human type of insulin.
1978 The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC) is established to increase knowledge and
understanding about diabetes among patients, health care professionals and the general public.
1983 The first biosynthetic human insulin is introduced.
1983 Reflolux, later known as Accu-Chek, is introduced allowing relatively easy and accurate blood
glucose self-monitoring.
1986 Insulin pen delivery system is introduced.
1990 Defeat Diabetes Foundation established to address the issue of prevention, which was not being met by
existing diabetes related organizations.
1993 The landmark clinical trial Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) publishes its report. The
study clearly demonstrates that more active self-management through nutrition, activity and monitoring of
glucose levels (and adjustments) delays the onset and progression of long-term complications in Type 1
individuals. The study results shows proper management reduces risk complications significantly for eye
disease (76%), kidney disease (50%) and nerve disease (60%).
1993 Instant Glucose tablets are introduced.
1996 The FDA approves the first recombinant DNA human insulin analogue, lispro (Humalog).
1990-1997 External insulin pumps allow closer control and freedom from multiple injections. More
sophisticated insulin analogues are introduced which offer faster action, less risk of reactions and more
flexibility for diabetes management.
More than 300 insulin analogues have been identified, including 70 animal insulins, 80 chemically modified
insulins and 150 biosynthetic insulins. These allow physicians the ability to customize treatment, reduce side
effects and have improved outcomes.
2003 The names Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM) for Type 1 and Non Insulin Dependent
Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) for Type 2 diabetes are formally dropped.
The life expectancy for people with diabetes in 2004 is still lower than that for the general population by
about 15 years.

2014 26 million Americans have diabetes and 1 in 3 of them dont know it. Another 79 million Americans
are categorized as pre-diabetic and are at risk of developing diabetes in the next ten years if they dont make
appropriate lifestyle changes.

Sources
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=45578
http://www.cygn.com/overview/history.html
http://diabetes.about.com/library/blNIHdiabetesoverview8.htm
http://www.diabetes.ca/Section_About/timeline.asp
http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/free.html
http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/1997/04_97/diabetes.htm
http//www.DefeatDiabetes.org