A history of diabetes: from antiquity to discovering insulin

This article, the first of a three-part series, gives a historical account of events for diabetes, dating from antiquity and its first recording in the Ebers Papyrus--an Egyptian document circa 1500 BC. This article describes initial thoughts that diabetes was linked to an alimentary complaint, and concludes with the discovery of it being a chronic systemic disease. It highlights the discoveries and also includes details of the failed attempts to locate the cause and identify a solution to the ancient mysterious disease which became known to all as diabetes mellitus. Early remedies and treatments are included. The article tells how for many centuries individuals suffered from the debilitating complaint with very little offered in terms of treatment or relief. Eventually the pancreas was identified as the causative organ and, some time later, animal experimentation resulted in the abstraction of the substance insulin. The article concludes with Frederick Banting and John Macleod being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 for their revolutionary discovery of insulin.