Thursday, February 17, 2011

Background History

Diabetes (diabetes mellitus) is a disease that occurs when a person has high blood sugar. It was first discovered in 6th century BCE. People observed that it often occurred due to obesity and lack of exercise. The only treatment for it was to exercise more. It was referred to as the sweet urine disease. However, very little more was known about it until the late 1800s. In 1889, Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski found that by removing a dog’s pancreas, it would experience the same symptoms as a person suffering from diabetes. As such, they concluded that something wrong with the pancreas caused diabetes. In 1910, Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer identified that a deficiency of insulin in the pancreas affected diabetes. In 1922, insulin extracted from the pancreases of bovines was used to treat a patient for the first time ever.

In 1963, Harold Percival Himsworth discovered the distinction between type 1 and 2 diabetes. This major distinction has greatly helped towards cures. Previously, people were baffled when cures that worked for one diabetes patient had little effect on other diabetes patients. Type 1 diabetes occurs as a result of the body’s failure to produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the insulin faces resistance. Another type of diabetes, gestational diabetes, may occur only during a woman’s pregnancy. Gestational diabetes may later result in type 2 diabetes.

Treatments for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are currently available. Type 1 diabetes is treated with insulin injections. Insulin can be mass-produced using genetically altered bacteria. Type 2 diabetes is treated with special medication that lowers the blood sugar levels. However, neither of the treatments are permanent. For the type 1 diabetes treatment, the insulin must be provided in regular intervals. For the type 2 diabetes treatment, the medication can only help and slow down the increase of blood sugar levels. The best way to stop type 2 diabetes is still to prevent it in it early stage by having a healthy diet and exercising regularly.

Diabetes is a very unfortunate disease. When someone discovers that they have diabetes, they may need to make serious changes to their lifestyle, not just their diet. It has become more common throughout the whole world over the past few years.

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