Diabetes is not a newly born disease, it has been with human race from long back, but we came to knew about it in 1552 B.C. During First Century A.D diabetes described by Arateus as ‘the melting down of flesh and limbs into urine. Diabetes was given its name by the Greek Physician Aretaeus (30-90CE). He recorded a disease with symptoms such as constant thirst (polydipsia), excessive urination (polyuria) and loss of weight. Nearly 5,000 years ago in India, the physician Susruta described a disease “brought on by gluttonous overindulgence in rice, flour, and sugar,” in which urine is “like an elephant’s in quantity.
Early 19th Century first chemical tests developed to indicate and measure the presence of sugar in the urine. Diabetic diet was formulated with inclusion of milk, oats and other fibre containing foods in 1900-1915. Function of insulin, its nature, along with its use had taken time from 1920 -1923, discovered by Dr Banting, Prof. Macleod and Dr.Collip, who were awarded a Noble prize. In the decade of 1940, it had been discovered that different organs like kidney and skin are also affected if diabetes is creeping from a long term. January 23, 1922 Dr. Collip’s insulin extracts first tested on a human being, a 14-year-old boy named Leonard Thompson, in Toronto; treatment considered a success by the end of the following February.
Helen Free test was invented. In the mid-1940s, Alfred Free and Helen Murray were both chemists working together in the biochemistry research group at Miles Laboratories. In the 1960’s, a muffin was a small breakfast treat, usually home baked. A homemade blueberry muffin, using a regular-sized muffin tin, is about 100 calories and 6 grams of fat, depending on the recipe. It’s about the size of a tennis ball. During 1970 Blood glucose meters and insulin pumps are developed. Laser therapy is used to help slow or prevent blindness in some people with diabetes. When 1983 came introduced first biosynthetic human insulin. 75th Anniversary of the discovery of insulin celebrated around the world in1996. 50th Anniversary of the Canadian Diabetes Association in 2003.
