It is known that diabetes is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the world, a disease that was discovered in ancient times, what is the story of the discovery of this disease and how it was discovered?
Was it discovered suddenly or was the result of several studies and steps accumulated? In order to answer these questions let us go back to the era of the pharaohs, where some symptoms of the disease were mentioned in the ancient Egyptians, and in the Ebers, the oldest scientific manuscript dealing with various medical issues, including diabetes, not far from this time period Indians They also know the symptoms of this disease, where some of them noted the attraction of ants to the urine of the patient with diabetes, as well as for the Greek civilization has been symptoms of diabetes, such as thirst and other severe, and then came the Muslims, including Abu Bakr al-Razi and Ibn Sina and gave a more accurate description of the disease and continued the case also wrapped A long time ago, some symptoms of the disease were known for centuries, until the time when scientists changed their minds to diabetes and the world began to approach a real characterization of the disease. It was the beginning with Claude Bernard, who discovered glycogen in 1855, In opening the door to further research into the disease, Claude has conducted many research on the disease in animals such as pancreatic resection and reached a hidden substance (which was discovered later) that the pancreas secretes and is responsible for lowering blood sugar.
In 1869, research began a new turning point. Paul Langerhanz discovered the existence of distinct cells in the pancreas called the Langerhans Islands, but Paul could not accurately determine the function of these cells.
In 1889, Oscar Minkowski and Joseph Mehreng stressed the strong relationship between diabetes and pancreas, where they tested some dogs and observed elevated blood sugar. Based on previous research, the two scientists confirmed that the Langerhans islands produce a substance that controls blood sugar levels.
That the crucial day in the history of this disease was the discovery of insulin on May 6, 1921 by the Canadian scientist Frederick Banting where the discovery of insulin is a major factor in the development of treatment of partial disease and then began the extraction of insulin, where the low blood sugar drugs appeared in 1955, and the world is still looking for a radical and definitive cure for the disease.