Keeping up with knowledge and highlighting what I know in many facets of my life, I occasionally peruse the local library.  As the neighborhood library is an exact mile from my house, walking there and back is an extra positive for my daily diabetes care regimen. 

While there, I came across a childrens’ book on Diabetes.  No longer a child myself and having lived with diabetes for over fifty years, I was curious to see what writings, books, were available to the newly diagnosed diabetics, especially the children.  Not much has changed, really.  All of the avialable childrens’ books pertaining to diabetes are uplifting, encouraging.  That was certainly not the case when I was a child in the 1960’s.  Oh well. 

I found one particular book entitled plainly “Diabetes,” by Gail B. Stewart, copyright 1999.   I learned something!  Chapter 1 immediately details the history of diabetes as I have never known.  I re-write this for you here:

A History of Diabetes

• 1500 B.C. – First description of diabets in the Ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian compilation of medical works containing a number of remedies for passing too much urine. 
• 400 B. C. – Susruta, a physician in India, records diabetes symptoms and classifies types of diabetes.
• A.D. 10 – Celsus, a Roman encyclopedist and author of a comprehensive medical text, develops a clinical description of diabetes.
• 2nd century A. D – Aretaeus, a Greek physician, coins the term diabetes.  (Diabetes is the Greek word meaning “to siphen” or “to pass through.” )
• 1869 – von Mering and Minkowski observe that diabetes develops when an animal’s pancreas is removed.
• 1921 – Banting and Best obtain and purify islets of Langerhans from an animal pancreas, inject the material (insulin) into a diabetic animal, and find a fall in blood sugar level.

I thought this important to share with all of you.  It is just as simple as that!

A. K. Buckroth (www.mydiabeticsoul.com).