The Gary Null Blog

Nutraingredients.com, 18-Jul-2011

http://www.nutraingredients.com/Consumer-Trends/Diabetes-From-ancient-Egypt-to-modern-pandemic

It has been called a pandemic and a silent killer: Diabetes is a growing specter for public health agencies across the world. In the first part of our special series on diabetes, NutraIngredients examines the underlying condition and gets a grip on how big the issue is.

The first report of diabetes dates to 1550 BC

History

Diabetes is not a new disease, being first documented in 1550BC in Egypt. Back then diabetes, or what the historians believe was diabetes, was described as a rare disease. According to an exhibition on diabetes and endocrinology by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (Scotland), an Egyptian manuscript mentions “the passing of too much urine”, which historians take as the first reference to diabetes.

We had to wait a further 1600 years for a complete clinical description and name for the condition, when the Greek physician Aretaeus used the word diabetes (from the Greek meaning ‘siphon’) and noted “the excessive amount of urine which passed through the kidneys”.