Get The Facts

“That was so sweet it gave me diabetes…”  That was so unfunny it gave me the urge to smack you...

Ever heard that? You see, diabetes is one of those diseases that everyone thinks they understand completely.  That type I and type II are the same, except for age;  that we aren’t allowed to eat sugar (we can’t partake in the church’s ice cream social, we can’t eat the pizza everyone is having, and heaven forbid we have a slice of cake at a birthday party).  Not to mention the popular stigma that we can eat all of the “sugar free” candies our heart desires (because of course they don’t have carbohydrates in them)…good grief.

Type I and type II are different.  Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disease – which means that basically my immune system made a mistake and attacked my body tissues.  Specifically, the beta cells of the pancreas (which produce insulin).   Now, type II is generally onset by obesity, but not always.  Type II is not due to the body attacking itself.  Instead, their pancreas still produces insulin, but not enough for their body’s needs.  Did you know- In many cases, type II’s produce more insulin than they need, but the problem is their cell’s lack of sensitivity to the insulin (mostly fat and muscle cells). 

Some interesting facts about diabetes:

Early Treatment (starvation verses insulin)

• If you haven’t researched the history of diabetes, then I highly recommend you do so.  In ancient times, diabetes was detected by either a) sipping the patient’s urine, or b) pouring the urine on the ground and waiting for ants to show up.  If the urine was sweet, ants would be attracted to it.  Physicians during this time did not know how to treat diabetes except to starve the patient (which slightly prolonged their life).
• The earliest known written record that likely referred to diabetes was in 1500 B.C in the Egyptian Ebers papyrus. It referred to the symptoms of frequent urination.
• The Greek physician Aretaeus was credited with coming up with the name "diabetes" in the first century A.D. and thought a snake bite caused diabetes. 
• In the late 1850's a French physician advised his patients with diabetes to eat large quantities of sugar!!  Obviously this didn’t last long...
• Insulin in the 1920s was initially extracted from the pancreas of a cow or pig.  Nowadays insulin is created in the lab, cultured from bacteria and yeast through recombinant DNA.
• Type 1 and type 2 diabetes were officially differentiated in 1936. However, the difference had been noted in the 1700's when a physician noted that

  

  1st Insulin Pump

  some people suffered from a more chronic condition than others who died in less than five weeks after onset of symptoms.
• Portable blood glucose meters for patients were not sold in the U.S. until the 1980's!!
• The first insulin pump was developed in 1963- It delivered glucagon and insulin via an apparatus the size of an adult backpack!
• Famous type 1 diabetics: 
• Halle Berry, Mary Tyler Moore, Nick Jonas, Jay Cutler, Bret Michaels, and Gary Hall Jr.