Diabetes has been around for thousands of years. The first known description of diabetes being a disease of ‘passing too much urine’ was found in an ancient Egyptian papyrus.
This papyrus goes back to the era of King Netjerykhet of the third Dynasty between 2630-2611 BC. This is the oldest description of diabetes on record.
For the treatment of this condition, ancient Egyptian physicians were advocating the use of wheat grain, fruit and sweet beer.
A doctor in India in 400 BC described people who urinated as much as elephant. They observed that the urine from people with diabetes attracted ants and flies. They name the condition ‘madhumeha’ or ‘honey urine’.
Doctors in ancient Asia described symptoms such as thirst, tiredness and skin boils.
Doctors in India described the terrible thirst of people with disease and noted how the patient wasted away until succumbing to death.
Doctors in ancient times did not know the cause of diabetes. They did think it had something to do with diet.
The first complete clinical description of diabetes appears to have been made by Aulus Cornelius Celsius around 30 BC – 50 AD. He concluded the description in his De medicina.
Around 100 AD, a Greek doctor named Aretaeus of Cappadocia studied the symptoms of the disease. He pre-described a diet of milk, cereal and wine and wrote about the short life span of people with diabetes.
Aretaeus coined the term ‘diabetes’. It is derived from the Greek word, diabainein that literally means ‘passing through’.
Diabetes in ancient world
