History of Diabetes

Diabetes, simply put, is a condition where there is too much sugar in the blood. Today there are over 20.8 million people in the United States (approximately 7% of the population) that are affected by diabetes. Unfortunately, only an estimated 14.6 million (or approximately 70%) of those with diabetes have been diagnosed; that means that nearly 30% of those living with diabetes have not been diagnosed. Diabetes affects all races, and has been found to be more prevalent in Mexican Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, Black Americans, and Native Americans. The prevalence of diabetes increased more than 33% in the 1990s.

The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in children, teens and young adults (aged 20 and under) is approximately 176,500 in the United States as of 2005 (The latest statistics available from the Centers for Disease Control). This represents about 0.22% of all people in this age range. In other words, about 1 in every 400 children or teens have type 1 diabetes.

The name diabetes came from a Greek physician, Aretaeus, in the second century, A.D. Diabetes means to "siphon" or "pass through". Diabetes was used because a common sign of diabetes is frequent urination. The urine was quickly "passing through" Aretaeus' patients with "diabetes". Over the next several hundred years, people noticed that urine from people with "diabetes" was sweet. In fact, early ways for primitive physicians to diagnose "diabetes" including watching where patients urinated; if ants were attracted to the "sweet urine spots", the patients had "diabetes".

In the 18th Century, A.D., many physicians began to add Mellitus after Diabetes. "Mellitus" comes from the Latin term describing a sugary taste. Today, the term is Diabetes Mellitus (or DM) and we know that diabetes is a condition where the blood glucose level is elevated. The excess glucose is filtered by the kidneys into the urine; this leads to increased urine production and excessive urination.