When Was Type 1 Diabetes Discovered

When Was Type 1 Diabetes Discovered ?

Diabetes was discovered by older civilizations as early as the first century however it was not called diabetes then. Though it has a modern name today the condition was diagnosed far beyond ages. Earliest records of diabetes were found in the papyrus scrolls in Egypt during the 3rd dynasty.

It was mentioned that frequent urination was a symptom of the disease.

During the first century AD, Arateus described it as a condition where the flesh and the limbs are melting into urine. A Greek physician called Pergamum misdiagnosed diabetes and called it a disorder related to the kidneys. Somewhere in the 11th century a profession called water tasters existed who drank the urine of the diabetics and it was commonly believed during that time that the urine tasted sweet.

Only in the early 19th century a lot of chemical tests were done to discover the presence of sugar in the urine to identify diabetes. It was a French physician called Claude Bernard who studied the role of pancreas in the body and understood the metabolism of glycogen in the body.

However, diabetes was not a condition that was discovered in a day or two. It is a condition that has been studied from several ages and perhaps is one of the most common types of disease that has been passed down several ages. Several physicians from all over the world took interest in the subject and understood why human body resisted or did not produce insulin. Until the role of insulin was discovered in the 1950s by French scientists there was no effective cure for the condition.

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When Was Type 1 Diabetes Discovered