http://lifescan.ie en http://lifescan.ie/knowledge/article/background <h1>Diabetes: Some background</h1> <p>The medical name for diabetes is &ldquo;diabetes mellitus&rdquo;. Diabetes means &ldquo;flowing through&rdquo; and mellitus means &ldquo;sweet as honey&rdquo;. The condition was named after the high volume of urine laden with <a href="/type-two/article/food/sugar" title="Link to Sugar">sugar</a> that is found in people with untreated diabetes. In the past, diabetes was diagnosed by tasting the urine for sugar.</p><p>The number of people with diabetes varies enormously from country to country. In Europe and the US, it is estimated that 50 million people have the condition. The number of people with Type 2 diabetes worldwide is likely to rise significantly in the future. In 2000, the World Health Organization estimated that over 177 million people had diabetes. This figure is likely to rise to at least 300 million by 2025.</p> <h2>A history of diabetes</h2> <p>Diabetes has existed since ancient times. Its symptoms were illustrated in Egyptian hieroglyphics dating back to 1550 BC. It is thought that the type of diabetes depicted was Type 2 diabetes and that Type 1 diabetes is a relatively new disease that appeared within the last two centuries.</p> <p>Before insulin therapy was discovered, Type 1 diabetes was fatal. The first human was treated with insulin in 1922. The following year, a five-year-old Swedish boy started having insulin injections and went on to live almost another 70 years with diabetes. Since then, <a href="/type-two/article/diagnosis/why-me" target="_blank">insulin therapy</a> has continued to be a lifesaver for people with diabetes.</p> Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:26:46 +0000 siteadmin 3 at http://lifescan.ie