A Brief History of Diabetes

Diabetes is a disease that has plagued Americans for decades, but the history of diabetes goes back much further than that. In fact, the history of diabetes reaches back as far as Ancient Egypt! A physician there mentions a disease that has frequent urination or polyuria as a major symptom. Ancient Greek doctors thought the disease caused a melting of limbs and flesh into urine. The ancient medical diagnostic tool for determining diabetes was, strangely, for a doctor to sample a bit of the patient's urine. If the taste was sweet, diabetes was diagnosed. Clearly, malpractice suits had not been invented yet.

The history of diabetes went largely unchanged through the Middle Ages until a French doctor suggested eating large amounts of sugar as a proscription for diabetes patients during the middle of the 19th Century. Quickly following that, French and Italian doctors began to instead more about the digestive system and linked diabetes to glycogen levels in blood and finally advised individualized diets for those diagnosed with diabetes. French and German scientists also experimented on the pancreas at this time, going so far as to removing it from dogs to understand how the digestive system functions (or doesn't) without it. Clearly, the history of diabetes and the understanding of the disease still had a long way to go.

A huge turning point in the history of diabetes happened in Germany in 1908 when a scientist introduced the first injectable pancreatic extract to treat glycosuria (low blood sugar). This practice had mixed results and vicious side effects but was an important first step in the history of diabetes and treatment.

Finally, in 1921, a crucial year in the history diabetes, insulin is 'discovered'. A couple of Canadian scientists were able to keep alive a dog lacking a pancreas several months with a steady dose of insulin injections. This was a break-through as now there was substantial evidence lacking diabetes with a malfunctioning pancreas. Scientists and doctors alike began work on insulin treatment for human patients with diabetes.

Throughout the rest of the 20th century, the history of diabetes is marked with further sophistication and development of other advances. A standardized insulin delivery syringe was created in 1944. Other advances include insulin pumps, blood glucose monitors, biosynthesized human insulin, and the insulin pen delivery system. The history of diabetes continues to be written as more and more is learned about the disease.

New diabetes report adds to confusion about treatment

WASHINGTON | One week after researchers announced that pushing down blood sugar levels as close as possible to normal might be dangerous for high-risk diabetes patients, a similar study has found no such risk. The seemingly conflicting findings, released Wednesday, stoked the new uncertainty about the best strategy for treating type 2 diabetes, one of the most common health problems in the United States and elsewhere. This unfortunately just makes things more confusing,” said Richard Kahn of the American Diabetes Association. I think patients will be confused. I think doctors will be confused. So I think the message is: Don't do anything until we get this sorted out. Federal health officials said there were a variety of possible explanations for the differing findings, and they planned to meet with their counterparts at the new international study to try to explain the results. Hopefully when we sit down and look at the data we'll come up with some mutual conclusions,” said Denise Simons-Morton of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. More than 21 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, which has become more common because of the increase in obesity.

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Softball is played through rain, sleet or snow for a cause

The second annual Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Sno-ball Tournament in Mascoutah could have been more aptly called a mud ball tournament.

The tournament began Saturday at Scheve Park in Mascoutah with 42 teams participating in three divisions on four fields and is scheduled to conclude today, starting at 10 a.m.

The players came in looking sharp in sweatsuits and winter outfits, but most left as muddy messes. With the temperature hovering in the mid-30s, the fields were almost frozen but had a melted layer of mud on top.

That resulted in ground balls that often stopped before reaching the infielders. Pop-ups became adventures as fielders tried to skate beneath them and runners rounding bases often didn't make it.

All in all, it was hilarious to watch, but a little cold.

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Hypoglycemia Alert Dogs Offer Assistance to People with Diabetes

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Map) - ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Glucose monitors, test strips, and lancets: people with diabetes are all too familiar with the equipment used to test their blood glucose (sugar) levels. Now some people are adding a different kind of aid to their diabetes management regimen. The March 2008 issue of Diabetes Forecast, the consumer magazine of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), features an article about assistance dogs that are trained to sense episodes of human hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose, and sound a life-saving alert.

According to the article, these dogs seem to sense a dangerous drop in blood glucose before it begins, allowing the people they work with to prevent an episode altogether. Some dogs seem to sense high blood glucose, too.

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Safety Medical Products Announces Approval to Supply Syringes in National Diabetes Programme

Safety Medical Products announced that it has been granted approval by the Federal Department of Health and Ageing to become a supplier of syringes to the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS). Approx 12m syringes were distributed through the NDSS in the 12 months to June 2007, where total sharps consumption increased by 9.9% over the previous financial year, at a cost of more than $9m. The success in gaining approval to supply syringes to the NDSS demonstrates the Company's ability to provide world class products at competitive prices and is considered a stepping stone in gaining access to other programmes such as the Federal Government funded Clean Needle Programme.

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