Who discovered Diabetes is a matter of debate. Credit for naming the disease “Diabetes” is given to a Greek physician, Aretaeus. In Greek, Diabetes translates into the word siphon and was given this name because Aretaeus believed the symptoms of excess thirst and urination produced a siphoning effect on the body. Decades later, in 1674 a man named Thomas Willis added the term “Mellitus” meaning honey to the term Diabetes for the condition we today call Diabetes Mellitus. Little information was discovered in the following years. Even treatment options were limited, including leeches, starvation, and taking opium. None of these methods was successful.
In 1889, two German doctors are the next men who “discovered” Diabetes. As the disease and its existence had been known for centuries, they cannot take claim for the discovery of the disease, but they can be credited for another feat. They identified that the issue of Diabetes begins in the pancreas. No one person had ever ventured an etiology of the disease prior to these two men. Unfortunately, they had to enlist a dog to aid their research. They removed the dog’s pancreas and he subsequently developed Diabetes, which proved to them that their conclusions were correct. This result prompted many studies, but none were very significant.
Who First Discovered Diabetes
“Who first discovered Diabetes?” can be answered by looking back in time towards 6th Century B.C. An Indian doctor named Sushruta noticed that urine in some people had a sweet smell to it. He called the condition these people suffered from not Diabetes, but rather Madhumeha. Sushruta believed that Madhumeha was caused by being overweight and physically inactive. Other early references to Diabetes stemmed from Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Hindu origins. While none of these cultures specifically referred to “Diabetes,” they all recorded information on the sweet nature of the urine, in one manner or another.
Who Discovered Diabetes – Modern Research
Who discovered Diabetes generates a list of people. To be more precise, one might ask who made the most progress regarding the disease. In 1921, Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best (a medical student) knew of the correlation between the pancreas and Diabetes and so they focused their research on cells and enzymes in the pancreas with the assistance of Professor John Macleod at his lab in Toronto, Canada.
They, too, used dogs in their research. They would remove the dog’s pancreas and would then treat the dog with insulin to keep him healthy. Conditions noticed in the dogs allowed them to alter their medicine. One year later, they had refined the process of insulin production well enough to try it on a human boy. Initially, the impact was minimal, so they went back to the lack and made more changes. The next time, the boy saw a drastic improvement in his health that they began mass-producing the insulin for use at a clinic in Toronto.In 1923, Dr. Banting and Professor MacLeod were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their outstanding contribution to the scientific community, the discovery of insulin.
